Last Human Ep4 (Devlog 3)

My friends... I skipped last week's devlog. To be honest, I didn't have a lot to report at the time. In my last devlog, I was well into writing scene 5. Today, I am on scene 12. So, what happened? I should have been further along than that after 2 weeks. Writer's block happened. Basically, I had written a cool situation then found some errors in the continuity. After going back over my story notes, I decided to rewrite the scene. Same situation, with errors corrected. Sometimes, this happens. My 'block' came during that rewrite. So, I went several days without writing anything at all. Four days ago, I woke up at 3am from a dead sleep, with an idea - my 'block' was cured. I wrote the entire series of scenes from 3am until around 8am when it was time for me to work my full-time job. The end result is... well it's definitely much better and I am continuing on. The problem is that when this happens, I can't go on and write ahead because I write the story in order from beginning to end. If I get stuck, I am just stuck until I get it figured out.

Now that the block is gone and the veil is lifted, I am able to move forward again. Following that situation in the story, the Aurora and its crew will be returning to Sol. I won't say more than that for now. A lot is happening in this episode as the crew travel to several locations. At this time, I am literally a few lines from the halfway point in the coding process. And if I don't run into any more of those damn blocks, I should knock out the rest of the coding within a few short weeks. Even after this little delay, that would put me slightly ahead of schedule in getting started on the graphics, so this is a good thing. But you need to know in advance... it is going to be a lot more images than I have done in any previous update to either of my games. So bear with me and be patient. I am going for quality here, not speed. Keep in mind also that I am adding some graphics to episode 1 that were missing and editing the dialogue slightly there. As for adding in the episode guide, I'll do that during a shorter episode. There is just too much to get done right now to tackle that too. I'll probably work on that a little bit between releases.

I know, I'm a long-winded fucker... stick with me here. I wanted to comment on porn AVN issues and where I stand on that. I have seen a lot of posts here and there about Patreon dropping creators because of certain content. People ask why I won't let you have sex with MC's sister in Serenity. That very thing is one reason. The other is that this kind of content does nothing for me. Pretty much every other AVN out there is that "landlord/landlady" or "childhood friend" crap. That content, plus stuff that borders on the 'R' word, or characters that look too much like children... I've always made sure my games don't break any of these rules. With that said, what I am seeing is that line slowly moving backwards. It's hard to find music sites that will allow you to use their music if your game is 'porn' in nature at all. That little aspect right there hurts me because it is an important part of how I tell a story... the right music choice in a scene can make the difference between a scene that brings tears to your eyes, or a scene that is completely emotionless. I want you to see that emotion on the faces of the characters, and the music should coexist with that, strengthen what you feel when you read through it. I spend as much time choosing music as I do writing the code for an update... it is that important to me. I've written scenes totally based on a track I found (the scene where Trixy tricks MC into reliving those terrible memories of his mother was written when I found that song that plays during the scene). If I lose the selection of songs I have to choose from, that will hurt my process in a huge way.

If the line keeps moving backwards until porn is completely unacceptable by all of the online resources we currently have that help us to make a little side money, then you will see me switching to a more R-rated system. I know that would probably lose about half of my subscribers - but that won't even matter if I can't even use the site that supports subscriptions to start with. So, either way, I know I will lose some fans, and I know a few of you would stick around. This is not something I am planning right now. I just wanted to mention it. Right now, I think Serenity and especially Last Human are fine and aren't breaking any TOS rules on Patreon. As long as that is true, then nothing will change. But if that line begins to touch me, and push me backwards, I'll make a change. Let's hope that never happens, at least until I complete Serenity. It would be easier to remove X-rated content in LH than Serenity if this were to happen. From what I've seen, it doesn't matter how big of a creator you are... some pretty big names have been hit. Of course, their games did have content that was pushing the boundaries. Keep it wholesome people... the AVN community can survive if we do that.

Well, that's all I have this week. Now I must get back to coding. I'll be plugged in all weekend... I have my snacks and drinks, a great playlist of new music I'll be listening to (in search of new songs to use), and the wife is away all weekend. If I don't answer DM's, you know why. By the way, a shout out to Caribdis (Eternum). His recent update was great and Eternum is becoming a standard for the rest of us HS2 devs to live up to. I hope my stuff looks as good as yours one day my friend. Outstanding work.

Love you all, ...Fire