Last time, we took an in-depth look at some of the inner workings of VNgen and the challenges presented by adding very non-standard finishing touches on very standardized elements. It's an ongoing challenge, and one that will remain until VNgen's completion. For the past two weeks, however, that hasn't really been the priority. The problem with standard design is that it often leaves a few gaps behind, and the problem with non-standard design is that it often leaves a mess behind. This weekend, we'll be taking a look at how VNgen is cleaning up both, and how automation can make these and other tasks more convenient for the end user. Let's dive right in! Don't touch that dial! While a big draw for visual novels is undoubtedly the addictive little mechanic of clicking through text, there comes a time when some users may wish to have text proceed for them. When first designing text, the challenge was to prevent events from progressing until the user clicked to c...

It has now been four weeks since text was first introduced in VNgen, and two weeks since the debut of X1, the site that will serve as the home for documentation for all my work, moving forward. That site is now live, by the way , and includes an official issue tracker to publicly manage bug reports and feature requests. Needless to say, it's been a productive month all around. But as I said before, more often than not it's baby steps as opposed to huge leaps now that so much of the groundwork has been laid on my current projects. As a result, this weekend we have the opportunity to take a bit closer look than usual at what's happening in VNgen. Find out more after the jump. As I've mentioned in the past, VNgen operates on a set of standardized functions for all major elements. These include things like: vngen_thing_create vngen_thing_destroy vngen_thing_modify vngen_thing_replace vngen_thing_animate vngen_thing_deform Fitting text into this scheme proved far more dif...