Dev Log 3.10: Circle Backwards

Hello!

I've decided that I'm going to put every 4th dev log out as a free post, so that people who are here as free members still get a dev log once a month to replicate what I'd do back when the game was only on itch. Hope that's cool with y'all!

You might be noticing a lack of something on this dev log, though, so let's address that right away: no previews this week. Simply put, I've not got anything to preview. The current scene I'm working through is a NSFW/lewd scene, whatever you wanna call them, and they're not ones I've previewed in the past. Before now when I'd do monthly-ish dev logs I'd naturally have enough of other scenes to be able to preview, but now that I'm doing weekly ones there's gonna probably be a few weeks here and there where I'm just working on a NSFW scene, so there'll be no previews. I'm over halfway through this scene, so I should be done with this scene and be on to the next one by next week's dev log, meaning previews should return next week! (although generally speaking the lewd scenes are the ones that take the longest to make because of the increased amount of and complexity of posing. thankfully this one at least is rendering quickly once posed, but the overall process is still quite slow)

So as you can assume I'm still 6/17 for scenes for the next update, with the render count sitting at 498. Not much else to report on there, aside from I think I've fixed the crashing issue I was having while rendering. The fix adds ~1 minute onto each render, but means a) that I don't have to keep attentive watch on my computer as it renders and be able to do other things and b) that I don't have to restart any renders because of the program crashing, and with how frequently that had suddenly been happening it's a worthwhile sacrifice.

I've also been working on some behind the scenes stuff for the future of the game. I debated on whether or not to talk about this in a dev log or not, or wait until later to do it, but I figured it's worth outlining some potential plans so you've got an idea of what I've been working on.

Earlier this year I signed up to the Steam developer page and paid the app fee to get started on eventually putting Not Going Back there. Now, as you may or may not be aware, there's been a fair amount of controversy and general issues with Steam and AVNs over the past god knows how long. I've been loosely keeping up with it all, and have a vague understanding of things, but it seems like it's something that very temperamental, and things could change really at any moment with regard to what is and isn't allowed etc.

After talking to some people, and seeing the land the way it currently lays, my current plan is to (hopefully) release Not Going Back on Steam alongside the Chapter 5 release (so in three updates time - the ch4 Prelude, ch4, then ch5) as 'Part 1' (I don't know if it'll be called that or not but you get the point). This is because, as things stand, Steam doesn't allow adult games to launch in early access, which is how basically all AVNs release. (though steam dispute this point, calling it a 'case-by-case basis', so idk). Salient point, Steam is naturally a huge market that it'd be beneficial to explore. My original plan was to release there once I'd completed the game, but again after talking to some people I came to the conclusion that it'd be better to put it up sooner than later, for the sake of (hopefully) drawing more eyes to the game. And having a 'Part 1' end after Chapter 5 also narratively makes sense - but you'll see what I mean when the time comes.

Any Patreon versions won't be split into a part 1 and 2, it's just to circumvent the Steam rules as they stand, but as I say who knows what changes could be coming, seeing as any prospective Steam release is over a year away anyway.

Also don't worry, I'm not going to do any reworking or remakes. My number one priority is always the next update, and generally getting the game finished. I'm not going to be wasting time going back to re-render the first few chapters or anything like that (even though they do look so considerably worse than what I'm currently making, in my opinion. but i just take that as good indication that i've definitely improved as time has passed)

All this is speculative, of course. The game may never make it to Steam, but that's the plan as things stand. For now, I'm focusing on getting the next update out, but I'm hoping that when the full ch4 releases I'll also be able to launch the Steam page for the game. We will see!

This turned into rather a long dev log, huh? Hopefully you found at least some of it interesting!

Thank you all for the support as always, it's much appreciated