Illustrated Dev Diary, December 10th, 2021

These are hectic weeks before the release and Christmas, but I've been pushing hard all week, and I'm en route for the release.

I wont give any render numbers from now until release, but I can say that Leap of Faith has rounded another milestone, surpassed the 10k render mark which is todays preview image above (and 60k animation frames) for all chapters. Hopefully your choices won't lead you to see that image in the game though.

Instead of the normal dev diary I thought I'd give you a little insight about how the pre release days are.

I try to give the testers 7 days of testing, due to the pathing, proof reading and of course this is pre Christmas so they might not be available at all times due to irl business. That means they need the release around 15th, or 5 days from now. Normally I give myself a week of testing before that, but there's absolutely no time for it for this release.

Before handing out the Beta, I also have to post process and compress all the images and animations, and insert the beta menu which gives the testers a somewhat easier time testing, before lastly run the current script through a spell checker to remove the most obvious Driftys-after-midnight-typing-freak-accidents.

From testing starts until the day before release it's all about correcting feedback, playing through the release, insert new art where needed, and making sure the game works well and the flow is good, in addition to making the 'cover art' - or the release images.

On the day before the release I compile the different versions of the game (full game pc/linux/max, and the patch version pc/linux/mac), and re-package the distribution package with better compression.

I always have the day off from my normal job on release day itself, so I sit down with a good cup of coffee in the morning and play through the chapter one last time to see if there's anything obvious I've missed.

Then I move on to uploading, which is one full version pc/linux/mac and one patch version pc/linux/mac. All of those 4 versions are uploaded to duplicate Gdrive and Mega accounts (around 90gb total) so I can change links quickly if a site is taken down due to traffic overload.

While uploading is in process I compose the release post with all changelog information and download links.

And that's pretty much it. It's a hectic few weeks, but I wouldn't want it any other way. After the release post I just sit down and relax while Discord turns silent, because I know that means you're playing through the game, and (hopefully) enjoying yourself. It's what makes it all worth while.

Lastly, if you're in the $20 or above tier, look out for the credits post where you can add your name to the credits if you haven't already done so.

Cheers everyone, have a nice weekend, and stay safe out there.

// Drifty