Hey all,
I know it's been quiet around here but as always, that usually translates into productivity. It's no secret that I can't multitask so sometimes I get a ton of stuff finished but then forget to actually tell people about it.
So hi.
Let's talk v0.07.
Overall Status
So right now, things are going well on v0.07. Yesterday, I got my test copy to boot for the first time after coding placeholder images in. As a complete upset, the damn thing booted first try-- which has never happened before so I've been skeptical that something bad would happen to restore proper balance.
Today, my prayers were answered and all of the video animations in the entire game broke. lol. I'm still not sure what caused it. I usually don't update Renpy while actively working on a project but I did a few days ago as well as moving my entire game project folder to being cloud-based now rather than local. So something happened. However, good news is that the movies are working again now and all it required was for me to give more detailed descriptions of their location. Weird bug but it got fixed within a few hours.
*shrug*
But I'm moving on to the testing phase as well as my own personal review of things for the first time now.
Writing
So the writing is mostly done for this update. The one thing that needs attention is a "transitional" scene. The beginning of the game usually starts with the morning wakeup and sorta goes through the morning, afternoon, and evening events. Right now, I have a few scenes from the original script that I'm trying to preserve in the revamp but I'm not sure how to implement things yet. The way it is right now, there's a gap from an evening event back to the next evening event and I'm not sure how I want to handle that yet.
Nothing came to mind so my next plan was to just get everything else working then boot the game up and play it and see if I get some inspiration that way. That's worked before. That being said, that "fix" could be easy or could be a little more detailed. I'm not gonna know until I know what I'm actually doing with it.
CGs/Animations
So CGs are mostly done except for that one transitional scene (may or may not need pics for it). Lot of nighttime shots in this update and I'm gonna try and get a few more teasers out to you guys because I really changed some stuff up visually for the end of this chapter. I'm really happy with the changes from the original to how they'll appear in the revamp.
The last 2 days have been rendering hundreds of images for an animation. Upping things to 60fps doubles the workload but it looks better.
[Spoilers] Since this is the revamp, I'm including more spoilers on what we'll be seeing so avoid this section if you haven't played the game at all. Chapter 3 ends with the two massage scenes so I've really tried to put a new spin on those scenes with more dynamic camera angles and the typical nighttime lighting in the dorm room that makes things a little more sensual. I'll also state, without giving an overt spoiler, but if you remember how Chapter 3 ends originally, that will be the same... only this time it's animated and I think it's pretty hot in a frustratingly teasing but more realistic way than we saw in the original. [End Spoilers]
I've actually done two new animations for v0.07 and they're a little more detailed than what we've seen before. Most of the previous animations have been moving one single part of the picture. This time, I'm trying to simultaneously animate a few different parts of the image. It's still slightly robotic but I'm still learning and it's waaaaay better than just having the static images.
Business Side Stuff
So I mentioned earlier about a few changes on the business side of stuff. I have officially moved away from Vimeo and moved to Youtube for all the Behind-the-Scenes videos. Some members have asked for more NSFW scenes and how those work. Unfortunately, I think that is against TOS on Youtube but I'm gonna try and work on that. I also mentioned the cloud-based operation. Before, all of my stuff was local so I had to remember to run backups and stuff like that. A few years ago, I had a pretty bad scare and almost lost an entire update right before launch. That prompted some drastic early backup changes but this most recent move has been the next phase of that journey.
This also led to be purchasing a 2-in 1 laptop. Since I'm using a cloud-based development now, I can go mobile with things that I couldn't go mobile with before. Obviously guarding against burnout and keeping myself positive in the head are important things for projects like this. I do pretty good but sometimes sitting in the same room every day can drive ya a little crazy. While I can't do CGs or rendering mobile, the laptop should allow me to pull up the script/writing/testing remotely. Which means I can take the project outside, a lot easier than I used to and change up my surroundings.
So right now, I'm finishing things up and moving towards the last part of the next update. It shouldn't be too much longer. While I don't have an exact release date, getting it out in August may be tough but we'll see. If I do, it'll be close. If not, it'll probably be early September unless I add something crazy.
Thanks again, all. I know I say it every time but i do appreciate it. Thank you for sticking with me on this journey
-Aaryn