DevLog Update (Patreon)

Yo Supporter Peeps,

Sooo.... just checking in for the typical wassup with the game development. This post isn't as long but hopefully it's succinct enough to get the point across on where things are. I'm actually getting some stuff done right now so I don't want to spend too long on the post...

Writing Status

Some members of the Discord may have heard the Devs talk about the next update in terms of "scenes" as a way to track our progress this time around. Basically, this began with the outlining changes we made that were suggested by my mildly attractive co-writer, Blayke. So while it may not sound like a lot, v0.16 has 5 major "scenes" in it, all of which are fairly lengthy. Scene 3 is the hardest and included the new zone that was teased in the most recent CG preview. Scene 3 was the bane of my writing existence and is by far, the hardest scene I've ever had to write/code/organize/anything. There's just a lot going on here that I can't even explain in a DevLog. While Blayke's outlining suggestions really helped improve the game organization here, it was still intimidating to write and just plain fucking hard for me do personally. The progress was slow and just....grrrr...Scene 3 was a bitch, folks. 

But, imma draw your attention to the was in that previous paragraph there because the rough draft of Scene 3 is now in the rearview and behind us. So basically, that means Scenes 1 through 3 are done in the rough draft, leaving only 2 left to write. The final 2 are more linear and should be a bit easier/faster to write. Blayke and I are continuing to work on them, bouncing ideas and we'll start to polish some of that before long together. However, the next order of business is to catch up the graphics.

CG Stuff

So right now there's over 100 new CGs completed and already coded into the game. While this doesn't sound like a lot in comparison to most of them, Scene 3 is very image heavy and I'm working on that now. There's just a lot at the early stages of the scene that are slowing me way down. Good news is that some of the longer conversations coming up can reuse the same pictures like we normally do. So once we get to that point, I can blow through images and finish the scene quickly. It's just the early parts that are really slowing it down that are necessary to setup that narrative. We'll also be showcasing a CG this coming week as a teaser to show off some of what's going on and what the hold-up is. More on that later but I think it checks a box most of you have been wanting. 

Note on New Location #2

Ok, so for the $5 folks, you already saw the concept art for one of the new locations coming up in v0.16. There is also another new location dropping in this update. However, in contrast to previous updates and location art, we won't be sharing this one in teasers or identifying what it is. While I wouldn't overtly consider it a "spoiler," to know what it is; it will ruin the scene transition and I'd rather you guys just experienced it along with the characters this time around. However, as we  progress, we will show other teasers, we're just going to skip that section for previews.

Other New Stuff

Visually, we're also trying to showcase some of the stuff that Lazy-Jayke has been working on including more shots of the dorm building that he built from scratch.  This, however, has proven difficult because of incompatibilities between the 2 programs we use. Essentially, our early work has been difficult, causing me to have to pose things in one program and then upload them so he can download them then put the figure into the scene then render. Really time consuming for us to do. Plus, he had increases in RL work responsibility so that pushed us apart for the past week. We'll be working out the issues with this in the next week or so. But the good news is that we'll have our characters appearing more within the custom-built exterior dorm shots in v0.16. Our focus with this update is to expand the gaming world a bit and give it more of a lived-in feel to it. While the majority of this will not get updated until we completely finish the game and do the revamp, remember that we're still trying to learn how to do things to practice for that revamp. Right now, we would be trying to merge the two programs together that we both use, this will be vital for v0.17.

Future Stuff

Also keep an eye on the Patreon for more upcoming material. We still have the selfie series running the rest of the month--right up to the last day. We also have another poll coming out to Patreon supporters to see what y'all wanna see for the next selfie stuff. 

Plus, another super secret project that we want to include the community in. That will probably post in the next week or so.

As always, if you got questions, comments, concerns, gripes, complaints, etc., hit us up.

-Aaryn 'n the boyz