Crimson High v0.43 - Dev Log #1

Hey there, everyone!

Gonna make this a quick one, cause I'm a bit drowsy from the summer heat, work, and working out.

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As you can see, the upcoming update is gonna be one of the more serious ones, with little to no silliness and very heavy topics.

All jokes aside, though, the update is coming along just fine. At this point, I'm about halfway through the rendering process, with only a manageable amount of scenes left to do. Go, me!

Estimated changelog for v0.43.0:
- 18,850 words
- 260 renders
- 2 Space Hamsters

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As far as predictions for a potential release date go, I can't give you much yet. In fact, this time around, I'll likely make the release schedule post only very shortly before the actual release, too.

Why? Well, because.

Last update brought a significantly improved version of the self-voicing feature, what with most, if not all, buttons now being able to get voiced, as well as most menus now being aligned with the feature.

However, the self-voicing tends to pronounce some words (especially names) rather weirdly.

After looking into possible solutions, I learned that RenPy has something called text-to-speech substitutions, which is basically a list of word pairs where one can provide the self-voicing feature with alternate ways of pronouncing certain words.

Sounds great, right? I'd agree, if it wasn't for the fact that said feature was added in a RenPy version later than the one I am using for Crimson High.

Now, at this point, you might think to yourself "Why not just update your RenPy, Verti-bro?"

Well, updating RenPy during active development of a project is rarely a good idea, because it can have nasty side effects, such as:
- Save files no longer working (i.e. everyone needs to start the game anew)
- Other things (that probably aren't too interesting for anyone)
(non-exhaustive list)

And that's pretty much why. I want to make sure that I have ample time to test the update before sending it out, so that there won't be any annoying issues for you guys. Since I can't accurately predict how long I'll have to play around with this, to make it work (could be just a couple hours, or a couple days), I'll leave the release date open until I know for sure that the update is working, then let y'all know about it.

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And that's pretty much it for this Dev Log again. As usual, chuck your comments/feedback into the comment section below, or onto the Discord. Also, if there's anything you want me to add to future Dev Logs, toss that in there, too. I feel like there's potential for growth here, but I honestly don't know what else I could add - so if you have any ideas for things that could be worthwhile additions, let me know.

Next post I'll make on here will be the release schedule in X (placeholder, not Roman numeral) days.

Until then, and with my utmost appreciation for all your support, my beloved patron, I bid you farewell.

Cheers!