Dev Diary #1 - "Can't Go Back" Arc

Hey everyone!

First dev diary for the new arc.

Arc Progress:

• Outline: Complete ✅

• Script: Early draft stage (0-15%)

• CGs: 0 (intentionally - see workflow changes below)

Workflow:

Last update taught me some lessons. While the outline stayed solid, I was trying to lock down polished writing too early while doing simultaneous writing/CGs. This led to wasted artwork and probably too many revisions.

Now I will try to draft the entire arc before touching visuals and doing the final writing polish pass.

This does present some challenges as I will have less preview material. Might selectively create a few scenes just for previews/marketing/diaries.

Speaking of wasted work: Remember those early remastered CGs? A lot of time went into those, but many simply don't fit any more... Lots of work, but that's development.

Animation:

I've been working on animation tech/workflows in the background, and frame interpolation is finally working! (among some other neat features) This is huge for me.

What this means:
• Consistent details (like Ayumi's moles) that used to disappear - due to how I can now handle covered body parts and details the original frame hasn't seen.
• Better output control over AI-generated animations
• Higher resolution output (reducing the jarring low-quality against 1080p CGs)

Requires prepared keyframes, which is actually a lot of work so possibly expect fewer animations but significantly better quality. I'm also renting very powerful (very expensive) machines to do this.

This sample animation is just a test (lacks additional movement/polish) but while it might seem simple it demonstrates something the previous approach would fail - showing something 'hidden away' on first frame. (ignore GIF artifacts, check attachment for raw high-quality)

Other stuff:

Working on gallery implementation. Due to branching complexity, building something more sophisticated than a simple scene viewer to handle route variations properly.

Still early stage, but this smaller arc should have faster turnaround. Really looking forward to this one - it'll feel very different from the OG with some surprises I don't want to spoil yet.

Next Sunday: More progress details.

Thanks for the support!

Cheers,
Tori