Weekly Update 2019-02-11

Teaser Scene

This week’s teaser once again isn’t from a scene of the game, but is the new main menu for v1.1.X. While the old menu imagery has served us well, we decided it was time for an upgrade and a more professional look. So there they are, all your lovely ladies in one place. Kinda brings a tear to the eye doesn’t it?

Progress

So the first question is probably, “where the hell have you been?” I know we went through a small black out there and missed a weekly update, that’s because we were driving strong trying to wrap up Amanda’s update.

Every time we thought we were almost done, we’d run into a little snag that needed sorting out and we’d get pushed back 24 hours. Working with the layered images has been a learning experience, but it’s really just been a matter of designing the new post production process for the images. And of course sorting out some of Photoshop’s more obscure quirks (like the fact that copy and cutting leave different side-effects on the image).

Even so, we got Amanda’s small update out and we’re moving ahead with Nanami.

Updated Tiers

We’ve had a couple of generous souls decide they want to contribute more to the project than the general $5 contribution. In the past, we had multiple tiers set up and included different rewards for each of those tiers and at the end of the day maintaining all of that was a colossal pain in the ass.

So we’ve been asking ourselves, what can we offer $10+ patrons that won’t require additional work that would steal away from time on project. Then my man Xanatos said, just give them what we got. And it clicked.

So now, we’re offering some behind the scenes access to our $10+ super fans. Really it’s just some sneak peeks at upcoming material and a chance to test, debug, peruse, and potentially spoil for yourself upcoming releases.

We make progress every week. Whether it’s writing scripts or generating renders and assets, but you don’t get to see them until they are incorporated into the game. Well, for those top dollar super fans, you can now spoil yourself silly.

For $10 Patrons we’re offering access to our first draft scripts. Our story writing process goes through three stages, the first draft, the second draft (where we rewrite and add code) and finally the third draft which is minor tweaking and editing that occurs during the generation of visuals.

So now, for $10 you can read the 1st draft of whatever script we’re working on. While the content of the script will under go a rewrite, it’s a chance to see how a scene develops from a concept and evolves into the final product.

For $15 Patrons we’re offering access to the new gui build. This build does not replace the current patron version. In fact, this build doesn’t even have a version number yet. We’re calling it the W.I.P. (Work in Progress) version. It’s glitchy, got a few bugs, assets are incomplete, and is missing large chunks of the story.

But it is a chance to play around with some of the new features, like the planner and the new journal. Eventually this build will grow and become the patron version, but for now it remains a framework for what’s to come. If you’re impatient and want to check it out, here’s your chance.

Finally, for $20 patrons you have access to the WIP version as well, but can also sample and test out some of the new game modes we intend to introduce into the game in the future. Right now there is only one, nudist mode, in which the characters are all…ahem…well you know…nekkid. But still, it’s a feature we intend to expand upon and eventually offer up once the new infrastructure is complete.

So that’s it really. If you are curious and want to help us get where we’re going a little faster, here’s your chance to peek behind the curtain and see all the stuff we’ve been talking about in action.

We figure at the very least it will help validate the work we’ve been doing and stand as testament that we haven’t been blowing smoke up your asses with all this talk of an improved UI. =D

What’s Next?

We get back into the regular groove of things. We haven’t posted up a wallpaper in awhile, so we’re going to make good on those again soon. We have to update the walkthrough for the just released Amanda chapter all the while continuing to work on Nanami’s next release and Jane, Emily, Lupita and Monica.

It appears we’ve got post production worked out and tuned a bit. As we continue working with the new methodology it’s only natural we’ll get faster at it. Consolidating the red path and blue path into a single scene also means longer, more robust scenes. So that’s also something to look forward to. Amanda’s scene was the first one in which we did this and it totaled out almost three times larger than any scene we’d done prior.

We’re also going to start working on some new polls. Now that we have layers to handle things like character customization and attributes, we need to start thinking outside the box on what elements of the game we can quiz you up on. If anyone has any suggestions or a particular poll they’d like to see, let us know.

But I do know we have some side characters coming up that need casting, so we’ll definitely get some community feedback on those.

Anyway, that’s all I have for the moment. Time to start jamming again.

Thank you all for your patience and support!

We Salute You!