(Production week 7) Release in September

Hey guys! This time last week I was part way through editing and improving the main scene in 1.13. I finished this a few days later, on Wednesday evening.

Campbell wrote with great toil; poetry came from him drop by drop
I’m no poet, but nailing this scene was a real challenge for me. It’s hard to explain without spoilers, but basically: a scene that seemed like it should be sexy kept feeling “meh” and flat when I played it.

I pushed it out to some testers, who were able to help me understand what was wrong (thanks guys). The root problem, in the end, was weak characterisation: an NPC was basically just there to be in a sex scene with the heroine, and it showed.  The characters were doing it because it’s in the script, not because there was any real desire or chemistry (on either end).

In real life this would lead to bland, mechanical sex.  In the game it led to a bland, mechanical sex scene.

This was a difficult problem to solve, but I pushed myself to do better and – drop by drop – the real scene emerged from the ashes of the scripted one. The key was letting the characters be the characters.  (It almost felt like stories you hear about actors changing their lines.  Although of course there were no actors, just my imaginary friends.  🤪)

Next steps
The new version is now done and working in the engine. I pushed it back out to the same testers – the feedback generally is that it’s much, much hotter. I feel good about it now, it fits into the pantheon of “Hot Female Agent Scenes”. I hope you enjoy it, it was a lot of work. 😅

All my energy recently was poured into this, but now it’s done I’ll switch focus to working with Victoria, Hyneman and Jeff on implementation tasks.  This won’t be completed by Aug 31st, but 1.13 Welcome to Bangkok will definitely be released some time in September.

Okay, that’s all for this week’s report. It was challenging, but I'm sure it was worth it, and I look forward to getting 1.13 out to you Soon™️. Have a great Sunday evening, everyone, and I’ll report on progress next week.