Trembling Essence: ⚠️🛠️My old laptop crashed: Mini Update 🛠️⚠️

Helloooo guys, since we're a little more than halfway through August here's a little update into how things are going behind the scenes since my old laptop crashed on July 24th and I want to keep this situation transparent.

Were you able to fix it?:

Sadly not yet. Since the crash I've been troubleshooting as much as I can and learning new ways to make sure this never happens again. With that being said, after a lot of trial and error the SSD I was temporarily given is finally working and I was able to boot windows back up, the only downside is that my operating system isn't detecting my actual hard drive at all now so I'm still trying to figure out how to recover my data from it or at least make it detectable again.

Any good news?:

Well... I do have a little bit of good news but I CAN'T guarantee anything right now. I'm going to try out what I've learned through all of this and apply it towards the external hard drive instead since it didn't crash but "glitched out". I still have certain drawing files, pictures, screenshots, sfx's, music from the game etc. that are still accessible but I didn't transfer anything/reset it just yet which might've been a very good thing from what I've discovered so far.

What might be recoverable???:

1. All game development progress from March up until the July 24th
2. The "guide-mark" + other things I had written in my notes
3. Day 4
4. The new user interface for the game + resources
5. Some of Noah's Voice lines
6. Certain folders etc. / Anything I had saved on the laptop and not on the back up hard drive.
7. My drawing tablet program

For the next couple of days I'm going to try my best at testing this out and seeing what'll happen so I don't have too much else to say.

Anywho this is all I have to share until the next devlog at the end of the month but thank you guys so much for all the continued support while I've been trying to figure this out and being extremely quiet. Again, please remember to:

• Back everything up to a external hard drive, USB, etc. and not just to the laptop itself.
• Make sure you're not overwhelming storage on your laptop. etc.
• Take pictures of certain things you might need to come back to.
• Try to stay organized and don't give up!

To those that joined my ->[Patreon], You guys will get first dibs on the celebration once I'm able to recover stuff from my "old laptop" and when I'm able to finish the previous drawing winner.

If anyone has any advice or guide into fixing the issue regarding the crash/hard drive not being detected I'd really appreciate the help! :,,]

Trembling Essence Devlog 20: ⚠️🛠️Recovering my old laptop🛠️⚠️

Hi hellooo guys hope all is going well through the month of August, here's another transparent update on how things are going behind the scenes since my old laptop crashed on July 24th.

*There's been a small recent influx of support towards the game and newcomers while I've been very quiet so I'd just like to let you know, I post small sneak peeks giving basic updates about game development on here now so if you're interested in seeing the full in-depth progress update and/or even be in the credits of the full game, join my ->[Patreon!] It serves as a monthly-tip jar / game credit perk for those that would like to support the development of the game! This helps me greatly behind the scenes!🌻💛

Were you able to fix it now?:

I still haven't yet unfortunately. Windows is working on the "old laptop" through the SSD I was temporarily given which means it's still functionable but my operating system isn't detecting my actual hard drive at all.

After so much troubleshooting and trying different ways to recover my data/make it detectable again I went ahead and tried reaching out a bit further to get outside help again. After some back and forth it ended up turning into something where I'll have no choice but to take it to a shop which is a genuine last resort.

I found around 1~3 shops that I'm really hoping are affordable and trustworthy enough to help:

1. The first one is very reputable and are willing to troubleshoot it for free but they are very far away and if I do go with them it'll take them an extra 1~2 months to fix. :,,/
2. The second one looks promising and also does troubleshooting for free BUT I am unsure of the price or if they'll be able to fix what's specifically wrong with my "old laptop".
3. The third one seems decently reputable enough to fix the issues however the ratings are lower and I couldn't find too much information about how much things would be.

External hard drive testing:

In between all of this I tried what I've learned since the crash and applied it towards the external hard drive instead since it didn't crash but "glitched out" to see if anything would be recoverable.

Did it work?:

It did but everything that got recovered was in numbers and not organized by date so I'm still looking through all of it which includes several zipped files and a bunch of miscellaneous stuff mixed in.

Sadly I haven't found:

1. All game development progress from March up until July 24th
2. The "guide-mark" + other things I had written in my notes
3. Day 4
4. The new user interface for the game + resources
5. Some of Noah's Voice lines
6. Certain folders etc. / Anything I had saved on the laptop and not on the back up hard drive.
7. My drawing tablet program

With all of this being said, I'll give an update on how things turn out after getting my "old laptop" checked out at the shop and I am praying for a miracle that I'll be able to get everything back.

**In the case things don't work out the only thing I can do is start everything that I'm missing over from scratch which will take a good chunk of my time to go through AND I DO NOT want to accidently give myself another episode of "burn out" like I did earlier this year. If anything, I feel more tired than I do "burnt out" from all of this but at least I can recover from that quicker. :,P

Going into September I'd like to call it "Recovery month". Depending on how things continue to go I'll be doing a lot of cleaning up behind the scenes for a smoother transition into Day 4 etc. again so I'll try not to be extremely quiet this time around. :,]

Overall, thank you guys for all the patience and helpful messages while I try to sort this out because even though I haven't found what I've been looking for through the recovery files, this whole situation could've been SO MUCH WORSE had I not kept most of everything backed up on the external hard drive.

If anyone has any advice or guide into fixing the issue regarding the crash I'd really appreciate the help! :,,]

Trembling Essence: ⚠️🛠️My old laptop crashed: Final Update🛠️⚠️

Hii helloo guys, since we're halfway through September here's a final update about my old laptop that crashed on July 24th!

To those that recently joined my ->[Patreon], I'm still in the process of finishing the previous drawing winner but welcome! :,D

How'd things turn out?:

**To sum it up, my hard drive might be "dead" and it seems like I'm better off just starting over for now.

I ended up taking it to shop number #2. and #3. but I'd like to happily talk about #2. more. I went there expecting help from one person but everyone there went above and beyond to help troubleshoot my "old laptop" when I explained to them what happened. It was a fun learning experience watching everyone brainstorm different ideas on how to fix it and they even taught me new skills while I was there. In the end they basically told me that it seems as though the hard drive might be "dead" and even though it's possible to do Data recovery from it, there's a HUGE chance nothing will be salvageable and that it would be a waste of money if it doesn't work. They also said that the SSD being readable from the motherboard is a very good thing versus the whole laptop being useless. I actually ended up leaving the shop feeling a lot better and I just have to accept it and move on now. :[]

** For shop #1. I MIGHT try it out in the future depending on how everything goes with the SSD but they are very far away, it'll take them an extra 1~2 months to fix it, and with what I know now, I get the feeling they might tell me the same thing about it being a waste of money to attempt.

What happens now?:

Starting over basically! I don't feel as defeated about the situation like I did back when it first happened and all this means is I'll have to move differently from now on and take this as a VERY BIG LEARNING LESSON. It sucks that this crash delayed a lot of what I had planned towards the middle/end of the summer but at least the stuff I've lost are things I can mostly relearn/rewrite etc. and my external hard drive saved me from losing everything. I'm trying not to be too quiet but I've been focusing on staying on top of things and I can happily say I'm getting stuff done! >:D

I'm still in the process of getting things set back up and I was able to recover my drawing tablet program! My art style will be wonky for a little while since I wasn't able to draw since the crash. :[]

I also want it to be known that once I get everything back on track, Trembling Essence [New Update] will be receiving a small 🧰🛠️⚙️quality of life hotfix update🧰🛠️⚙️ sometime in the future! I'll post more about the details towards the end of the month! :,D

✨This is all I have to say right now but thank you guys for all the continued support, I really appreciate it!✨

Trembling Essence Devlog 21:☕️Recovery month!☕️

Hiiii hellooo guys, hope the month of September has treated you all well and 🍁🍂HAPPY FALL SEASON🍁🍂! I tried my best to condense things but here's a fairly long(?) transparent update on how things are going behind the scenes.

After getting the results from shop #2 saying that my hard drive is most likely "dead" I went straight into "Recovery mode" to get things back to how things used to be BUT with a new approach after everything I've learned since then.

As a small recap here's everything that's most likely gone:

1. All game development progress from March up until July 24th
2. The "guide-mark" + other things I had written in my notes
3. Day 4
4. The new user interface for the game + resources
5. Certain folders etc. / Anything I had saved on the laptop and not on the back up hard drive.

It sucks but the only thing I can do is start everything that I'm missing over from scratch which again, will take a good chunk of my time to go through AND I DO NOT want to accidently give myself another episode of "burn out" like I did earlier this year.

With that being said, there was some stuff I did recover:

The first thing I did was redownload Renpy and adjusted things back to my liking and then I took time out to recover my drawing tablet program. By sheer luck I never threw the box away and found the instructions that came with it and I was able to recover most of it! I'm very happy to be doodling again but my art style will be wonky for a while because I haven't been able to draw anything since the crash. Not too long after this I ended up finding some of Noah's Voice lines from an old draft folder but sadly, it's not all of them so I'll have to keep looking. :,,D

After all of this I began backing everything up and keeping tabs by using a big calendar I ordered some time ago. I don't think I talked much about it but the old one I was using was too tiny and I didn't have enough room to write everything down so I upgraded to a bigger one! I was also given some cute stickers to decorate it so I use them as little "check-marks" when I complete something, reminders, etc. I still have a lot to go as far as backing everything up/going through recovered files but I'm making progress even if it's a little slow here and there. :D

Once I felt comfortable enough I booted Trembling Essence back up and this is where things started to slow down a bit.

User interface + game resources:

Since I lost the new user-interface from the crash, it became fairly troublesome trying do re-do everything so I took my time with breaks in between until I got certain parts back up and running again. Thankfully I still have the screenshots from back then so I used them as a reference.

Original version:

(*Please know that the Credit support names in the "Original version" are not real and were just place holders while I tested things out. :P)

New version:

One of the things I wanted to make priority was redoing the "Credits" tab. This is dedicated to those on the "Sweet honey jar" tier on my ->[Patreon] and my play testers that have been here since the very beginning!(Thank you!) From now on this will continue to get updated at the end of each month so I can keep track of the months of support! :D

Unfortunately I lost the different font sets I used in the "Original version" from the crash so for right now, I'll leave it alone until I come across different fonts that might make me change them again. Overall I cleaned up some minor spelling errors, spacing, etc. until I got it fairly close to what I like!

User interface: Gallery....

After I got done with that I went on to redo.... the "Gallery" tab.... Trying to figure all of this out back in early spring was one of several things that lead to my "burn out" so I'm trying to be extra careful to not do that again. Redoing the "Credits" tab gave me a decent guideline on how to do certain things but because of how long it's been, trying to remember all of what I did for each tab is very difficult. One thing I ended up doing is picking apart my old "Endings" gallery and taking what I needed and going on from there. Surprisingly enough this made things easier for me and helped in areas where I was struggling.

Achievements tab:

Once I got situated I started with the "Achievements tab". THANKFULLY I still have the old image file because I only remembered 3 of the Achievements you could earn so I filled it back out. It took a few hours but I eventually figured it out decently enough to get it back together.

Art collection:

Next is the "Art collection"..... After spending some time trying to get this one right, I now believe this part is what took up so much time back then. I won't go too far into talking about it because this would take up a lot of space but there was too much on/off trouble shooting before I was finally able to stabilize it. There's more work to be done so I don't feel comfortable enough saying it's 100% complete but I will take a break from messing with it since I've gotten to a part I can easily return back to.

As for the "Concept Art", "Character Bio", and "Endings" I haven't gotten there yet.

Recovering/backing up everything amongst other things is going to continue taking a good chunk of my time going into 🎃 🦇🍬 👻Spooky month🎃 🦇🍬 👻 but I do want to put time aside to do Noahween polls especially since I can draw again!

Once I'm done with my surprise poll art for Patreon first, I'll do one if I have enough time! :,]

**I'd also like to say this for those that are new here, close to the end of each year I tend to get very busy and this usually starts around 🎃 👻Spooky month🎃 👻 but because of everything that has happened since July a lot of what I had planned got delayed so I can't 100% guarantee how things will go into the end of this year but I'm hoping for the best!

Trembling Essence[New Update]-⚙️Quality of life hotfix⚙️:

I talked a little bit about this ->[Here!] but I do plan on doing a future update to the game! This mainly includes fixing/adding things to the demo I've seen floating around that were suggestions. I don't have a planned date on when this update will arrive but it is something I want to let it be known once I get more grounded. :[]

For right now this is all I can share otherwise, thank you guys so much for all of the continued support while I continue recovering/redoing everything that's most likely gone from the crash. :,D

🍬🦇Surprise event!: It's Noahween!🍬🦇

Helloooo hi guys hope you all are enjoying the second week of 🎃spooky month!!!🎃 As a yearly event I want to bring back Noahween since I really enjoy doing this and Halloween is one of Noah's favorite holidays! :P

🧡Here's an old post about Noah's Halloween fun facts: [Here!]🧡

This time I let my play testers choose the characters they wanted to see Noah dressed up as! :D

All you have to do is pick which character you'd like to see Noah dressed up as and I'll draw it!

Round 1 theme: Jujutsu Kaisen

If you would like to vote it's up on my Tumblr:

[Here!]

There will only be 3 days to vote, good luck!

💜Surprise event!: Noahween Results!🧡

Thank you to everyone that participated in the poll!

👨🏻‍⚖️Overall, Hiromi Higuruma won for Noah to dress up as!👨🏻‍⚖️

With that being said though, I accidently made the poll last 1 day instead of 3 sooooooooo to make up for those that didn't get a chance to vote I'll also draw Noah dressed up as Choso as well!

The doodle is just for the post itself and not the final art piece!

💜Noahween part 1: Finished!🧡

All finished! Here's Noah dressed up as 👨🏻‍⚖️🏛️⚖️Hiromi Higuruma👨🏻‍⚖️🏛️⚖️ from the Noahween poll ->[here!]

Next up will be Choso since I accidently made the poll last 1 day instead of 3 and some people didn't get a chance to vote.

I had a lot of fun drawing this one and I have about 2-3 sketches left over that I might go back to if I have the time. I really wanted to have Noah's hair braided etc. but I couldn't get it to look the way I wanted due to inconsistent mistakes so I left his hair down. :[]

To those that joined my -> [Patreon] the ✨Noahween surprise event✨ will be up for abouttt a few more hours more day so don't forget to vote! 🧡🕯️

🧟🎃HAPPY SPOOKY MONTH🧟🎃

💜Noahween part 2: Finished!🧡

Hellooo hiii, only ~4 more days until 🎃🧡Halloween🧡🎃YAYA!! >:D

Anywho, here's Noah dressed up as 🩸Choso🩸 from the Noahween poll ->[here!] (To make up for accidently make the poll 1 day instead of 3. :,,,D)

There were several sketches left over once I finally completed this which is why it took longer to complete but I'm happy that I got his two-braids right and I'm getting the hang of shading/rending again, woohoo! The drawing on the left stayed as a rough sketch because I liked it more and I couldn't decide on which version of 🩸Choso's🩸 outfit I wanted to go with. Since Noah is more of a defensive fighter I wanted include a pose based off of his basic boxing/Jeet Kune Do style. Given how this turned out I plan on throwing the sketches I didn't like in the trash. :D 🎃

To those on my -> [Patreon] the poll will be up for abbbouuouttt less than a few more hours or so because I have some very very veryyyyyy 🎃🍬spooky shenanigans🎃🍬to take care of, so DON'T FORGET TO VOTE hehe! :P If you would like to participate feel free to join!👻:D

👻🧟HAPPY SPOOKY MONTH🧟👻

👻🏚️🍬🎃Happy Halloween!🏚️🍬🎃👻

With less than 2 hours left of 👻🧟Spooky month👻🧟I hope you all had a lot of fun and got a bunch of candy! :D

I had a really great time overall and I think the best costumes I came across was a super huge dinosaur and someone dressed up as Cap'n Clark in stilts, it really made my day! I even had a small dance off with a Michael Jackson impersonator and I won a candy bar which was pretty cool. XD

I definitely made some memories for 🧡👻Halloween🧡🎃 this year, it was so much fun!! :,,,]

👻**To those here and on my ->[Patreon] the next Trembling Essence Devlog will be posted in a few hours to avoid posting too fast. 👻

Speaking of Patreon, I'm still in the process of finishing up the "🍬Event poll: Old Noahween sketches!🍬" winner so thank you to everyone for all the patience!

🍬🦇🧡HAPPY HALLOWEEN!🧡🍬🎃

Trembling Essence Devlog 22:🍂Game progression🍂

Hellooo guys, hope you all had a safe and a👻🎃🍬HAPPY HALLOWEEN 👻🎃🍬Now that we're getting even closer to the end of the year, here's a small but transparent update on how things are going behind the scenes.

I was extremely busy for more than half of 🧡👻spooky month👻🧡 so I wasn't able to do too much when it came to working on the game outside of future ideas/concepts I had planned. I tried to stay organized using the big calendar but it was difficult with so much going on while also trying to avoid "burn out". All of this to say things have slowed down significantly enough for 🍁🍂November🍁🍂 that it really feels like a big breath of fresh air. I still have things outside of game development I need to take care of but I have more free time. :,D

**Again for those that are new here or don't know, close to the end of each year I tend to get very busy especially around 🎃 👻Spooky month🎃 👻 and my computer crashing back in July delayed a lot of what I had planned around this time so I'm still in the process of getting used to things/recovering. (You can read about it ->[here].) I can't 100% guarantee how things will go towards the end of this year but I'm hoping for the best!

With that being said, one of the several things that I was happy to do was get back into drawing again after not being able to since the crash. Because of all the Noahween drawings on here and Patreon, I feel a lot more confident when it comes to working on future CG's for the game! >;]

Speaking of Patreon, here's a monthly update to the Credits" tab. This is dedicated to those on the "Sweet honey jar" tier on my -> [Patreon] and my play testers that have been here since the very beginning!(Thank you!) *From now on this will continue to get updated at the end of each month so I can keep track of the months of support! 🍬🦇:D

User interface:

I'm still using old screenshots as a reference towards the game so I do plan on getting back into finishing the "Art collection", "Concept Art", "Character Bio", and "Endings" it's just that I'm trying to be extra careful to avoid "burn out" again so I will continue pacing myself.

Day 4:

So in good news I've had some new concepts/ideas added onto the ones I initially had earlier this year for Day 4. Before I can go forward with this again I need to re-do my "guide-mark" which helps me with routing especially since the game has 3* routes. There are certain choices that can sometimes considerably "change" how the story/path will play out and I want to make sure I'm keeping track of certain details to stay organized. I'll probablyyy need a couple of days to finish this because I did it a very specific way.

I still have some more recovering/backing up I need to do so as well so this is all I can share. Thank you guys so much for all of the continued support while I continue recovering/redoing everything that's most likely gone from the crash. :,D