Drito Detectives Devlog - 6/30/25

This journal is for the release of Drito Detectives!!! A visual novel I helped make with my friends. Can I call it a "devlog" if it's already done...? I just liked the alliteration, OKAY??

It was made for the Decker VN Jam. I was honestly sort of hoping that this journal would be a sort of double feature, 'cuz I was working on my own solo project for the jam too, but it's not looking like I'm gonna be done with that before the final jam deadline... It's almost like...working on two visual novels the same month as two Deltarune chapter releases... was a little too much? Or something? 8D

Anyway, I figured I might as well talk about this one while it's still fresh in my head (and before ArtFight, when there will be absolutely nothing in my head).

This was my first time being in a collab with others. I've been wanting to get my feet wet with this sort of thing for years... I'm so used to having full creative freedom in projects though so I was a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to like, "play well with others" and make concessions, but I think that turned out okay.

Ahm set the project up narratively in really smart ways (we basically just responded to interview questions and then formatted them like a story). The whole thing came together in a little under a month (still kind of incredible to me).

I contributed my characters Aster (he is all over this website. You know him) and Holly (World's Worst Guy)...two little guys on complete opposite ends of The Little Guy Spectrum. I was already working on Holly's sprites for my solo VN; I figured I might as well get as much mileage out of them as physically possible. I did the writing for Holly's scenes, but the majority of Aster's dialogue was written by other people (because of the way we had things set up).

...That is honestly fine though 'cuz I was too busy DRAWING him!!!! Oh my god.

There was a point where I was still working on my own VN and Drito Detectives at the same time but like... around the '2 weeks before deadline' mark I had to be real with myself and shuffle priorities. Would have been a problem if everyone else finished their stuff but Aster didn't have enough expressions.......would have been a problem.......

It was really fun matching Aster's expressions to Phinxel's... They are Pals. T_T

Two different people said Holly was their favorite and...I will cherish that. His segment of the story is so short, I was a little surprised...he apparently makes an impression?? I hope people like him in the actual VN he is supposed to be in HAHA...

Going to be thinking about the fact that Ahm had to draw a rock just for him...Going to be thinking about it for a long time...