YL2 - Where we are (public text!) (Patreon)

Several months have passed since we started working full-time on YL2, so we thought it might be a good idea to make a public post summing up what we're doing, where we're heading, and essentially what our vision with YL2 is.

So let's jump straight into it!

What are you doing?

We are developing YL2 - the successor to Yiffalicous. In YL2 we're building the app from the ground up to offer more comprehensive animation and interaction systems than existed in Yiffalicious. This includes a timeline and keyframing system, support for scene and pose changes throughout the interaction, more sex behaviors, a dialogue system, in addition to a vast amount of general improvements in interface, efficiency and performance.

We are also building a character creation system that will allow you to create custom characters that can be used inside the animations and that can be shared in the cloud. With this system, we're trying to push the boundary of what is currently possible to create in a furry character editor. Anything from a small rabbit to a huge hyper muscular bull - from a tall, slender beauty to a chubby shortstack - all of them, everything in between and more will be possible to create in this editor.

How is YL2 different from other projects?

We are developing YL2 as a comprehensive tool for artists to create procedural animations, characters and stories. YL2 is not a game - it is a creation tool, simulator and content browser. As such the requisites for it are completely different than that of a game, and something that really sets it apart from other projects. This also comes with a whole other set of development challenges, as we cannot rely on existing tools to the same extent as we would if we were making a game, since YL2 needs to be a tool itself that enables our users to create content.

Why is it taking time?

The first Yiffalicious was pretty much developed organically, i.e. as a prototype that we kept adding more and more things to, until it eventually started to crack in its very foundations due to the sheer weight of its own size. This time around we're approaching our development from a more "proper", traditional software modelling perspective, so the systems have been designed with much care and thought to get a more robust and dynamic structure. This means we can't take shortcuts to get results fast, we can't cheat, and everything has to be defined in a more abstract and modular fashion.

In the end, this method will pay off, and the results will be much closer to what you'd expected from a professional 3D editing tool, but it does take longer to develop.

We are also developing our app in such a way that every user action can be un-done, which means that for each action we define, we will also have to create its reverse equivalent. Naturally, this essentially doubles the amount of code we have to write for certain parts (in addition to the extra headache of just designing the app in such a way that actions can be reversed in the first place).

A lot of time has also been poured into research - especially regarding the character creator. There are so many things we want to do with it, so many different type of characters we want it to be able to create, but realizing all those intentions into workable ideas and eventually tangible results is difficult. Still, we have been unwilling to compromise our intents. When we say we want to do the furry community justice, we mean it. There are so many times where we could have taken an easier, shorter and generally safer route to get something out quicker, but where we instead chose to walk down a different and uncharted path. With the character creator in YL2, we're trying to do something completely different than what you've seen so far in other character creators. I think this is an absolute necessity if we are to push character creation in a new exciting direction, offering something truly new and unique that will live on for a long time. Otherwise we would just propagate old ideas and become yet another generic character creator.

How far have you come?

Right now we are focusing our development efforts on getting the character creator out. While we will continue to add new content and more features to it for a long time, its foundations are starting to shape up nicely. I would say that around 75% of these foundations are done, so we are getting close to an alpha release of the character creator.

Once we have this character creator in a state we are happy with, we will resume working on the interaction and animation systems. We have already done a lot of the core stuff for the animation engine, but the code for intimacy interactions is still missing. This time around we also want to define more sex behaviors than simple thrust-hump, things like hand jobs and oral, among others (although the first release of the interaction systems will probably only have thrust-hump, for starters).

To give you an idea of the amount of work we've put into YL2, Yiffalicious was around 41,000 lines of our own code (not including shaders or backend). Currently, YL2 is around 39,000 lines of [our own] code, and we haven't even begun with any of the sex interactions yet! (Proof 1, Proof 2) So things are definitely happening and have been happening fast (writing those 41,000 lines of code took several years for Yiffalicious, and here we are at 39,000 lines after a couple of months), it's just that the development technique we're using is meticulous.

When will we see an alpha?

We are hoping we'll have an early alpha of the character creator out sometime this spring, and an early alpha of the interaction systems later this year.

How hard will YL2 be to use?

I like to think of YL2 as being made for two different moods - either you're using it as a creator, or you're using as a consumer. If you're a consumer, YL2 will be very easy to use, as you mostly browse through and watch other people's content that have been uploaded to the cloud. However, if you're a creator, a bit more will be required from you. There are many new concepts introduced in YL2 compared to Yiffalicious, but in general these terms should be familiar to you if you have some digital content creation experience. Things like timelines, keyframes, references, layers, masking, blend modes, coordinates, textures and channels. YL2 will be much easier to use than 3D modelling and animation tools though, and for the interaction systems we're thinking of offering two different modes - an "easy" mode that is similar to how Yiffalicious works right now, and a more "hardcore" mode that offers more depth.

As for the character creator, it will be something in-between of a character creator you find in games, and 3D object manipulation software. We think striking this balance was necessary to offer something that has depth and will on for a long time, even though it means it comes with artistic responsibility. (But that can be said with any character creator, really.)

Naturally, tutorials will be made closer to release to quickly get you going, so even if you don't have that much 3D experience you should be able to create something interesting.

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Alright! So that's what we wanted to say.

We hope this gave you some answers and hopefully a better insight of what exactly it is we're trying to do.

We also want to take the opportunity to thank all of our patrons for the amazing support you guys provide in this development endeavor. Thank you guys so much! We recognize this is a unique opportunity, and we will try our best to live up to your expectations.

Enjoy your weekend!

- Yiff crew

P.S.

Uncensored version of the character in the image above can be found here.