Development Progress Update #68

Hello Patrons!

I hope you're all doing well. I'm doing alright myself. It's been really snowy here in the midwestern part of the US. Besides today, it has snowed every day for about a week. We got so much freaking snow! I shoveled about twice a day on average to keep up with it. It was nice at first, but I'm over the winter and ready for spring and warmer weather. I want to start taking my doggo for walks every morning again.

This might be longer than the usual progress update, but I have several things I want to talk about. I also want to add some behind-the-scenes stuff at the end. Some people on Discord suggested I should share that with all patrons.

First, I'll start with the progress of episode 8. You might be wondering why the progress percentage on the image hasn't really changed. That's because I've added more parts to episode 8, and it will take longer to finish now. So, the art percentage was pulled back even though I had done a lot of renders and animations since my last post. The decision to add more to the update did not come lightly. I have thought about it for a while, and I think it will be worth it in the end. In fact, I think it might save me an episode later down the line if I can add the things I want this time around. It's hard to explain without spoilers, but by adding things I had for later episodes and fleshing out this episode, I think I can make up an episode. As much as some of you like Ripples, I doubt you want to be waiting forever for the story to wrap up. So, for many reasons, I decided to add more than I originally had planned for episode 8, but you guys will get a more significant update.

Currently, I have a little over 1500+ renders and 66 animations finished. So, I've got a lot done since the last post. For the last few days, I've been working on modding in assets and maps, which will bring me to my next topic of discussion: sharing some of the behind-the-scenes stuff.

I have a behind-the-scenes channel on my Discord for patrons, and I share screenshots once in a while. I know not everyone uses Discord, so I'll also share it here, but this time, I will add a paragraph about my development routine. So before I even started episode one, I had a rough story script of Ripples already written. Not every line of dialogue, but most of the story plots for every episode. So the whole story was written, and I knew how it was going to end before I even started creating episode 1. I also have charts and documents of characters bios and different stuff like that. The episode cycle begins with me looking at those story scripts and charts and writing all the dialogue in code in the VS Code app. I write the whole episode before I start working on renders. I often pause halfway through to start working on the scenes and then go back to writing after a couple of days because typing all day long for days on end is not fun. So after the writing is done, I start getting the scenes ready. And the first thing I do is make sure I have all the assets and maps I need for the episode. If I can't find a quality version that's already made, I explore 3d modeling sites and purchase my own. They often come in FBX files, and I open those files in Unity and start putting them together and adding textures, and then I have to export them into Unity3d files that are compatible with Honey Select. Then, finally, I can open them up in Honey Select Studio Neo, where I make the renders. Then, I put the scenes together and set up all the lighting. Then I set up the characters and their outfits and get them ready. Once that's all finished and the scene and characters are all ready, I can finally start doing renders and animations. Some renders require some photoshop work, but most are just resized and saved in webp format. Same with the animations.

Next, I am going to show you some screenshots of some of the behind-the-scenes stuff. Some before and after images. You can see where I start with an asset/map and what the finished render looks like.

Here are some before and after images of maps and items in episode 8:

Master Bedroom - Before:

Master Bedroom - After:
 

Walk-in Closet - Before:
 

Walk-in Closet - After:

 Media Room - Before:
 

 Media Room - After:
 
 Play Room - Before:

  Play Room - After:
 

I recently worked on a dancing montage, or maybe you could call it a little music video, and I stitched together a bunch of animations and added some special effects to it all. Here is the timeline in Adobe Premiere Pro:

 

Well, that's about all I have to share in this post. I will probably post some more previews soon for people in Queen tier and above. I hope you all have a lovely evening!
-Jestur