Nanoreno 2026 #5: Disaster!! ...Oh, And Character List

This is the worst day ever. Disaster struck me. I have a Parblo tablet and it's pen died without warning today. I took it apart and tried everything I could but it just wouldn't work. The tablet is fine but none of my other tablet pens would work with it. I don't know what to do...

I wanted to order a replacement but for some reason their site doesn't let you order anything from it. I emailed the customer support but I'm sure it's gonna take ages... I don't know what to do, man. I don't have any money so there's no way I can order a whole new tablet. God, I'm stressed out.

Anyway, saying all this... I think I'm going to have to abandon my Nanoreno efforts this year. I even whipped out my ANCIENT 2011 Wacom Bamboo just to see if it was still working and while it is, it basically has no pressure sensitivity at all and I tried some Wacom and third-party drivers but nothing worked. 

It's a shame because I actually got some neat sketches in, I was kinda happy with myself. Maybe this is karma for being an avoidant and lazy ass for so long. I don't believe in karma though. I think while I'm figuring out what to do about the situation I'll just stick to writing beyond the first chapter. I wanted to make a character list via a blog post to introduce the characters to any readers here but I think I'll just keep that for when I have a working tablet again.

I'm pretty sad over all this but I'll live. Just needed to make this post as an announcement that I'm abandoning my Nanoreno efforts sadly. Okay, that's about all.

☆ Finny ★  

 

Nanoreno 2026 #4: Check-In #1

Hey! So I've given a shot to writing directly in Renpy and after some trial and error I had it pretty figured out. I've also spent a lot of time thinking about characters and the art style (specifically the lineart) I'm gonna finally chose. 

Most things are pretty on track though I'm sure I won't be able to finish every single sprite and background and make it look not-rough. I'll probably be putting some pretty unfinished work into this thing by the end. But I'm pretty okay with that. Don't forget, it's like a demo but worse. 

I'm gonna be busy on Monday but hopefully I'll have a complete list of characters by Tuesday and I'll start planning art from there on out. Less worried about backgrounds because I've already decided I'd use placeholders for those that I won't be able to finish.

☆ Finny ★  

 

Nanoreno 2026 #3: New Day, New Tools

Hey friends. I've spent most of the week making final tweaks to a pretty poorly written draft but I'm happy to say there's some kind of cohesion between scenes and between the few but still present choices. I've tried importing my latest draft into Twine and I totally get the appeal of the software but I realized that not only was it too time-consuming for a demo but that it had way to many mechanisms that cut into my flow of writing. I've birefly tried Twine before but this was the first time I gave it a real go with a real project.

So I'd recommend it for anyone who wants to see where very, very important choices take the story... however, my visual novel is much more linear with the biggest choices being which character you interact with more. So, it felt like writing every little choice really cut into the actual process of writing and made me too slow. I'm much more of a dump-every-single-thing-onto-one-page type of writer. 

I'll probably come back to Twine when I'm writing parts that are more consequential and also to test run the game in general but I felt like it was okay to just jump right into Renpy this time. 

☆ Finny ★   

Nanoreno 2026 #2: Draft 2

Hello again. So, I've made a second draft of the script I wrote on Monday. It's not perfect but I think it's pretty close to what I want which will suffice for now. I need to remember that it's a demo. But that it still needs to be fun. I think it's got a pretty great hook, not too shabby character introductions, and not like a lot of choice but there's one major decision to make.

The draft honestly looks very weird. I have one column for the actual 'story' and then two columns for the player choices. Some of them are just for characterization and others have an impact on events. One has a more neutral, or maybe less confrontational tone, while the other is significantly bitchier. You know, so there's options.

Currently it's at 9541 words, but there's a little more to write and some to take out. No final word count as of now. I know the 238 words a minute estimate is not a great measure for visual novels but if we're being very crude that's around 40 minutes. Not bad.

Writing's hard. And I haven't written for so long at once in a while so I was really feeling the burnout by the evening. Still, good that it's done because I just realized the sprite work will probably kill me. Or they'll come close and the backgrounds definitely will.

☆ Finny ★  

Nanoreno 2026 #1: Details, details, details...

Hey friends. Look at the development blog being used for... actual development. I tried to last year but really couldn't find it in myself to partake in Nanoreno despite really wanting to. Well, this year I have an idea and some adequate pre-planning to make a very small scale project.

But first! What is Nanoreno? Well here's the explanation straight from the horse's mouth:

NaNoRenO is a online game jam in which developers are challenged to make a visual novel from scratch. It runs from the start of March 1st to the end of March 31st, and has been run every year since 2005. NaNoRenO has no judging or prizes - the only rewards are those that come from the challenge and camaraderie with others. 

I will hopefully upload my demo somewhere on itch.io. If you're only interested in the end product you can just stalk my page there.

The Schedule

Week 1 [02-08] Script in Twine

3rd - Announcement Post (You Are Here!)

4th - Check In #1 

6th - "Play" the game in Twine

8th - Check In #2 

Week 2 [09-15] Sprites

10th - Character List

11th - Kye, Lyle, Isaac

12th - Nicky, Marie-Claire, Uncle Nate

14th - Extras

15th - Check In #3 

Week 3 [16-22] Backgrounds

16th - Locations List 

18th - Bedroom, Video Rental

19th - School

20th - Town 

21st - Extras

22nd - Check In #4 

Week 4 [23-29] Putting It All Together

24th - Compile in Renpy

26th - SFX & Ambience

27th - Music 

28th - Check In #5

31st - Final Check In 

Now what? 

Things are subject to change throughout the month but I hope to stick to this schedule as much as I can. I'm sure the final product will be pretty rough. I don't have a programmer or composer to help with anything and I'm doing most if not all the art (my brother might help with backgrounds though). Wish me luck.

☆ Finny ★