Developer Update #100

Well, we made it to 100. Arguably update 100 was several weeks ago, since some of those early posts could be classed as updates, however I digress.

Update 100 is here and I've a lot of info to share with you all.

Holiday:

In last weeks post I stated that I was on holiday. So, nothing much was done over last week - of course the British summer being what it is (rain, wind, disappointment) I ended up working on an animation anyway!

Progress report:

Updated progress sheet is below, there are 2 animations sitting in the render queue which will be done over the comming week. I also plan to finish off the remaining scenes for "Melissa 1". Currently I have no further plans for any more animations in her scenes, but that may change.

I've also made a couple of tentative steps in creating scenes for the 'peepo' and 'bonus' section - the bonus is for $20+ supporters, anyone that has previously supported at or above this level after the first part of chapter four released will have access to this bonus content in the game. (Anyone who subbed but doesn't have the codes can message me and I will provide them).

I have also completed the writing for the Jacob scenes, though they need a heavy edit pass before I am happy with them.

For the comming week I want to get some of the music and sound effects in place, as well as complete rendering the Melissa scenes.

Polls, Polls and more Polls:

Firstly the results of the Kimiko 'Morning' outfit, there was a clear winner, but I did promise to throw the top 2 out to a public vote which I will be doing so in the forthcoming week.

Kimiko's 'evening' outfit also had a clear winner, and this will be seen in game - Thank you to those that voted, you made the right choice ^^.

And finally the public vote for her hair. Split even at 50% for each option. Honestly I'm not sure how to interpret this. I was under the impression the original style would be more popular as that is the hair she had to begin with. 

In an ideal world I would use both versions and give players a choice in game. But, of course, this doubles the amount of renders I would need to do for her scenes, on top of an already bloated amount of alternative images needed for every choice I have in the game currently.

Honestly, I'd love to do this, this kind of dynamism within the game is something I relish - but unfortunately it would add so much additional development time it's just not workable.

I decided to leave the casting vote to Elfthryth, as the editor of Dreams of Reality I feel she has as much right as anyone in how this story is shaped. She doesn't have a patreon account so did not vote already, thus she is perfect to break the dead-lock.

I won't spoil what she chose, It can be a nice Easter egg for you all to discover in game.

Patreon Updates:

I've been looking at the frequency that I update Patreon, currently I aim for an update of some kind every week, the development updates alternate between supporters only and public ones. the supporters only tends to be a little more in-depth than the public ones for obvious reasons. (todays post is a good example).

Interspersed with these would be the occasional deep-dive or development log where I go into more detail about something - these are intended for those who like to see the nitty-gritty of development, at least from my point of view.

However, as time has moved on, writing updates each week other than "I did more renders" is, well, repetitive and honestly, not much fun for all of you reading. So, with that in mind I'm going to be adjusting the update schedule to the below:

• There will be two development updates each month
• The development updates will be separated by two weeks
• One update will be supporter only, the other public
• I will post 1 set of images each month taken directly from the game as teasers
• Each month there will be 1 longform post with a detailed look at either a character or event from Dreams of Reality, A development log or perhaps a look at The Mystery of Grimhurst Lodge.
• Polls and any exciting news I may have will continue to be posted randomly

That may not sound much different from what I do now, but this should allow me more time to focus on good content for you to read, as well as helping me focus on the development of DoR, rather than what the next patron update should be.

100... so that video?

I've started working on it, Depending on how I feel I might get some time to continue this next week, but it's comming! No Q&A as there are not enough questions to fill out a full video - I'm considering adding a bit of VO to the video as editing together the text on screen on the previous video (lets render 11, part 2) took a silly amount of time.

That's all for this week, If you've made it this far then perhaps you need a reward... A sneaky peak at an image from the game?

Stay safe all,

Cenc