06/11/2021 Patreon Devlog

06/11/2021

This Week's Summary:

• Completed 3 Ari CGs/CG sets
• Completed 1 Caleb CG set
• Completed 1 Caleb mini-CG
• Partially completed 1 additional Caleb CG
• Completed 1 Magnus CG set
• Completed 1 Jack CG
• Imported and coded most of these CGs
• Wrote the Guides for Jack and Lance
• FINALLY coded the ending screens in
• Made corrections to Caissa's route
• Pushed out Jack and Lance's routes for beta testing
• Planning for Quill's route

The Ramble:

So this was a pretty busy week in terms of game stuff. The start of the week was heavily CG focused, then more writing focused toward the end.

I completed quite a few CGs this week and also coded them. (Huzzah!)

I know importing and coding CGs probably doesn't seem that noteworthy but in the case of most CGs that show Morgan, it actually sometimes takes an hour or two for this to be completed.

Usually when I render a CG I colour Morgan in her default colours only (hair 7, eye 4, brow 5, skin 4). I don't actually do the recolours until it's time to import the files into the game.

It sounds weird but sometimes it's not until this point that I realise I've set up my PS files in a way that isn't conducive to coding a layered image. A lot of times I don't notice this until I start getting ready to save them. When I'm drawing the images I'm usually not planning that far ahead because I'm more focused on, well, drawing.

So when I go to save and set up the files, it does often involve tweaking and re-drawing a bit. But it also just involves the recolouring process which isn't as easy as moving a colour slider or using the paint bucket. I won't bore you with the details on that but it is an hour or so of work a lot of the time - recolouring, saving, coding, then testing.

It's also a learning process and with every CG I'm figuring out ways to fine tune, streamline, and make the process faster.

I will say that I don't want to set an expectation of completing 7-8 CGs per week and finishing all the CGs there are in the next five weeks.

The reality is that all CGs vary in terms of difficulty (of both creating, recolouring, and coding.) Some of these CGs were already in progress so I didn't have to spend as much time to complete them. Others were just simple CGs.

One CG was in progress. I'd already put about 3 days into it. And I spent another two days on it. And I'm still not really happy with it.

All CGs are different. Some come together easily while others just will not work out no matter how many times I tweak and try to fix them. (And sometimes CGs I think will be tricky turn out to be easy while those I think will be easy are a struggle).

Funnily, as I was working on CGs and variations I was thinking a lot about something that happened when Changeling released. And that is people complaining that some routes have way more CGs than others - despite that it's not. . .actually true.

It really came down an issue of CG sets vs single CGs.

Sometimes in a VN you want to do a CG of a moment but there's some kind of shift in the moment - a person moves their arm in an important way or their eyes open/shut to reflect a specific mood.  Sometimes I want to start a scene cropped in, then zoom out (or vice versa.)

Sometimes the shift is bigger - there's a more significant pose shift but I keep some (or even most) of the original lines and shading, just making some edits to it.

I do not personally count these "sets" of CGs that occupy a single moment in the game to each be a unique CG.

They will occupy multiple gallery slots - one for each variation - but I count them as *one* CG against the total. So if I'm doing 5 CGs per route and one of Ari's CGs has three variations, that set doesn't count as 3 CGs, leaving only 2 CGs for the route. It counts as 1 CG (with 3 variations).

Not all CGs get these kinds of variations. There are a lot of contributing factors:

• Does the moment NEED a variation. Not all of the CG moments have shifts in movement that warrant a variation.
• Does the CG stay on screen for a long period of time? In this case, I may choose to do a zoom of some kind just to avoid having a static image on the screen for an extended period.
• Do I want to do a variation for that CG. Some CGs are complex and I really don't want to re-draw it.

But as I've been working on CGs again and doing some variations, it's made me question how to advertise the CGs in a way that is honest and informative. LoL These are the things I think about when I draw.

Anyway, I was able to complete quite a few CGs this week but it's not really an amount I'll be able to keep up. First of all, my hand really can't handle it (I've been experiencing some hand pain the last couple of days but I really think it's the weather, not overwork).

But this week I did get a good start on the CGs, so I'm pleased with that.

I did shift to focusing on writing the last couple of days to give myself a break from drawing. I still have three routes to fully plan out and write. Quill's is the least planned out so I've been working on some brainstorming, mind maps, and synopsis writing.

Quill's route is looking like it will overlap slightly with Reuben's route (which is something I suspected would be the case) but I'm still trying to work out the flow of events later in his route. Like Reuben's route it's sort of in the realm of 'thriller'??? I guess?? But more low-key? A low-key thriller? Is that a thing?

LoL

There is sort of a coup plot going on and the characters have to stop it.

ANYWAY.

That was kind of my week. CGs and some writing to take a break from CGs and rest my hands.

Sneak Peeks and Previews:
CG teasers! 8D

Upcoming Week:

So. . .

CGs.

Yeah.

I'm not really tackling them in any specific order. I'm not focusing on any one route (though Ari currently has more done than anyone else) and I'm not getting the easy ones out of the way first though it's tempting.

But I kind of want to alternate between ones I think will be easy and ones I think will be tough (though - trust me, I'm not always right about which ones will be easy or difficult) because I feel like if I get the easy ones done and only have difficult ones left, that'll just end up being disheartening.

I did sit down and really go through the routes and plan out the CGs because I wanted to make sure they were relatively spaced out through each route. This is not always possible. The bulk of the CGs really are later in the route and some routes kind of don't have a lot of CGs in the first half. Particularly characters like Ari because there are just no opportunities for good CGs unless we want several of Ari just sort of...standing there.

But I did make a spreadsheet (of course) where I can visualise better the CG distribution and reconsider what scenes I'll be illustrating.

I've said it before that I have certain scenes I want to illustrate (first kiss, first love scene, etc) but it's not always possible. For instance there are characters whose first kiss is like...five minutes before they boink. So...I don't want to illustrate both. First kiss, therefore, does not get a CG.

Meanwhile I realised that if I illustrate both love scenes I will have to cut a CG from another place and have two CGs in the last chapter. Which...doesn't really make sense. But I don't want to lock two CGs behind the "steamy content" variable because it means people who play with the love scenes off will miss out on two CGs including the CG of the "best ending" - which a lot of people view as kind of the pay off for the route. So I want to make sure that the "best ending" CG is actually not in the love scene so it's accessible to everyone who plays.

These kinds of things are what I've been planning and working out.

CGs right now are around 40% done. This coming week I will do as many as I can and will probably continue to solidify the synopses for Quill, Reuben, and Yuu when I need a break. I may also do corrections and stuff. Basically just writer-y stuff when I need to give my hand a break.

Yeah. That's it for now. Enjoy your sneak peeks and see you next week!