Happy to announce that after two weeks of grinding and simultaneously teaching myself how to do pixel art, all character sprites are done! I made some random NPCs and then added the drama club kids (pictured above. Ignore sprite on top right.) 

Some random NPCs you'll find in the neighborhood: 

Now I'm hard at work on maps. Remember how you could walk on the ceiling in the demo? PROBLEM FIXED. Also in general I think things look less ugly. I'm posting some screenshots below. 

Auditorium:

Copper Junction Neighborhood (this is pretty massive)

Redone School Area

Rather than just an awkward little box, I wanted it look like the floor of an ACTUAL school. I plan to also connect the maps so that players can go from area to area without needing to click on sparks to be transferred. That's going to take some time to set up though. 

After finishing up maps, here's what else I have to work on: 

• Battler image sprites 
• Character expressions (Right now, I'm planning that everyone w/ a name gets at least eight. Random NPCs get two.) 
• Script 
• Fixing up the battle system so it's not so stupid 
• Stills! There's going to be more than just the stills in between chapters. Have to figure those out and get 'em added 
• Fix the stupid mini game and then add 2 more