2020-02-15 News

It’s that time again where I figure I owe you all a bit of news.

As most of you know by now, I spent much of my week fighting a touch of a chest cold. Fortunately the only thing that interfered with was streaming (as I had no voice and was tired as hell). But the render work continued unabated.

This week saw the completion of over 150 new renders for the chapter which brings us within sight of the end. Since the scenes were particularly dark, that’s about 20 minutes a render. So for at least 50 hours this week my system has been tied up churning out pretty images like the ones above. And I have to say, I’m very pleased with the final results.

I still have about fifty or so images left to go, but then the rendering is done and we can move on to post production work on Monday.

New Artist Update

So, remember when I was all excited to tell you that I had hired on four new artists to help with the game?! Turns out, I bit off a lot more than I could chew. Besides having to take development time away from building the infrastructure to manage this new crew, I also had to take some time away from development to reformat my scripts and generate production notes to help steer the artists towards the vision. This has caused a bit of a delay.

However, these guys have proven to be incredibly fast!!!!! Already I’ve got over 200 submitted new images that I need to finalize and render. And every time they turn in work, I have to stop work on Amanda and quickly prep the next round of images for them to work on!

So yeah, I bit off more than I could chew, but, I insist on choking down every bite! The upside is that we are seeing production gains across four chapter simultaneously. So while it may be delaying the current chapter somewhat, we will see new story for Jane, Lupita, Monica and Emily much sooner than originally anticipated!

Much like when I began doing renders all by myself, I think as I get into the groove and adapt to this new workflow, there will be less interruption in the future. Splitting my days between writing and rendering I think will make a big difference.

What’s next?

My goal (not deadline! I don’t do deadlines), my GOAL, is to have Amanda’s chapter finished and released this week. I’m already anticipating the disappointment between development time and the amount of content. It has taken several months to get this out but I hope I can count on some understanding.

Two holidays, a new job, and setting up four new artists to work on the game have all contributed to the delays of this production. But I hope that the quality of the content, the images, the writing and the opportunities present will help contribute a little slack in criticism. (If not, lay it on me, I can take it!)

Next week I want to do a stream of post production and then start in on streaming the work I’m doing on Cassie’s chapter. With many of the challenges out of the way, I’m eager to see how fast we can start cranking out new material going forward.

Again, thank you for your patience, and we’ll talk soon.

As always, I salute you!