Actually made a bit of progress!!

I've finally made a little bit of progress toward a version of this game with images! I've been struggling a bit with finding an engine I can use well, since the free VN softwares like Ren'Py have a lot of features I don't really like, and the software I ideally want to use is around $60 (the only comfortable software I've used is Visual Novel Maker, but it's so expensive T-T). I've been working on changing around the layout of RPG Maker MV, since I already had it on my Steam account and I can use Parallax backgrounds to basically display a simple VN, the only issue being I can't figure out a way to display animated character portraits with dialogue. I'd already made basic character sprites of two characters before discovering that I couldn't use animation, but on the bright side it'll make drawing the other sprites much easier going forward!

I'm hoping to actually have a working version of this up by the end of this year, hopefully sooner but I have incredibly bad executive dysfunction so I don't want to over-promise and then fall off for two years again.

I also have absolutely no ability to draw backgrounds, so I've been experimenting with open source stock photos and Photoshop filters to get across a good vibe that isn't just using other people's photos unedited. When I post this version, I'm going to upload a list of all of the images I've used with links to the Pexels page of the artists so that they can be properly credited--Pexels is free for commercial works, but it's still professional and polite to source the photos. If I make any profit off of the new version, I'm going to send some their way as thanks.

If anyone knows any good VN software that doesn't cost a small mortgage (or of reliable ways to obtain the expensive ones, if you catch my drift) I would appreciate it a lot.