I think we are about half-way done with Chapter 4. Somewhere around 590 renders. Setting up scene 7 currently. It's a bit of a beefy one, mainly because of the fact that it's really two scenes that depend on a choice made earlier. I might do a poll for the branching moments as I will never have deep branches and from my own experience being an AVN fan, I don't much like replaying something (even when it's good) just to get to a few nuggets that were missed. I don't think the player will miss out on any lewd interaction...so maybe it's fine. I would love to branch properly, but that would take double or triple the time to put together. So I returned from my work trip...another 11.5 hrs. in the air one-way. I was set to render all day Friday, but felt a bit melancholy and unmotivated. Funny how that works. Instead I looked for music and worked on putting a couple of additional player cards into the game. So I got shit done, I think it's just the pressure to crank out images (which are the bottle neck of production) and being able to have fun with it that sometimes gets lost. I'm back to my positive self now! I found some more music, which is great. I tried to animate the main menu and failed, fucking renpy. It seemed so easy in the tutorial:-) But I haven't given up yet. As mentioned, next up is scene 7a and 7b. I'm thinking that most of the renders can be repurposed since it's the same setting and same characters...just different dialogue. I realized that I have to go back and define a lot of the choices made by the player so they can be recalled later. That will all happen before Chapter 4 release, so we can move on and have happy saves. The next few scenes will feature Gabrielle, Valerie, Camille, Amy, and Mrs Berg. If you haven't noticed, I love a name with lots of vowels.
I stumbled across some extra render time this week. I thought I wasn't going to have any time to render after Sunday, but turns out I wasn't correct. As of right now we are about a half day away from finishing scene 6 and moving on to 7. Ringo is slowly but surely becoming my favorite bad guy to torture.
We are at about 550-ish renders, but that count is a little inflated by the fact that I re-rendered some images that I didn't like. The barbershop has turned out to be a little tricky lighting wise. It's all good when looking at the mirrors, but when you turn around...yikes! I have a handle on it now and will be finishing up scene 6 on Friday and start 7. In the meantime I will be writing the rest of chapter 4.
So we are probably half way through scene 6, added the 4th wall to the Barbershop. Landed on 467 renders. Re-rendered a handful because I got lazy with the lighting. This week I'll finish up the new menu and add a few player cards. I'm traveling for work Friday-Thursday which will kill next weeks render days. I will focus entirely on writing which I need to do regardless.
I dropped my own ceiling in, using the existing textures. It's not a great location as it only has 3 walls and those walls are all connected which makes it hard to get the camera in a good position. I can always use the geometry editor, but it's work that shouldn't have to happen. ..it should already be rigged for that. Starting scene 6 now. It's a fun one...I think:-)
I changed the way too cheerful colors of the chairs and killed the overhead fluorescents. Unfortunately the light banks were built into the set a little too well, but I'm sure I can fix that with some spackle and paint:-). I think it's now a Pecker PI environment.
So I put a few items in that I thought worked nicely with the environment, but didn't really feel like it was a Pecker PI environment. So I changed some things...
Currently working on renders for scene 5. I think I'll finish that today and at least set up scene 6, which only has familiar characters but new environment. The image is of the bartender Rebecca, who works at The Devil's Toboggan. Pecker's visit is obviously entirely professional. I'm guessing that I'll land at 400+ renders at the end of the day. The main menu is being revamped (new graphics, not new code...I suck at coding, have I said that before?). I'm very happy with the new design that was voted for by the members. I didn't exactly agree with the vote, but I was happy with either of the 3 options. A little deeper song playlist will be introduced in chapter 4. So good things are happening. As I have told the membership, I will work on improving and fixing smaller issues as we go. The plan is to fix all between chapter 9 and chapter 10, chapter 10 will be the finale of season/case 1. All that are here for free: Awesome! I'd like to grow this if I can. All that are members: You ROCK and I am humbled that you support the endeavor.
I'm working on renders and the menu design and was thinking about losing the About section all together. However, if anyone reads that page, I will happily revamp it. The main menu is nearly done, along with the save menu. I decided to use the most popular version for the main menu. Appreciate everyone who voted. I'll find ways to repurpose the other graphics .
Got 353 renders total as of today. Got a poll for preferred menu. I will obviously make the decision in the end, but if I'm not sure...the poll will have an out sized influence.
I started the coding. I will patch in the menu graphics as soon as possible, so I know it works.
I like this one. It kind of ties the new elements with the old. I'll keep tinkering and see if there are another couple of options that we can vote on.
I have 2 other variations on the same thing. I think it's really just the image that goes over the menu (in this case the art deco city) that will change. I'm going to attempt to animate a flicker of one or two of the letters in the Pecker PI neon sign (which in theory should be super easy). I'll post all versions and then we'll do a poll to see what you guys think.
I had a few minutes today to work on this menu image. The original concept was much more involved, but I might keep it simple and clean. Still going to work on another couple of pieces, but I'm very happy with this and I don't want to clutter the menu. Feel free to comment if you see any issues. Some reviewer claimed that the current menu is "ugly as hell" and seemed to focus nearly all their "review" on what the menu looks like...which is pretty lazy reviewing in my view. I always try to listen to reasonable critique, but that seems like the reviewer should focus on writing shopping lists instead of reviews. This is obviously a work in progress...how do you know? Because it's not finished! Anyhow, that's my rant and I stand by it:-) Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are render days. Case Log will probably be Monday, or Tuesday so I can give you the most up to date info possible.
Finally scene 4! The image above is 10 different renders as my PC had real issues staying awake for this one. I thought it was worth it to have a render that shows us that the world isn't just Pecker and his entourage. Today we have landed on 294 renders. Probably about a 3rd of the chapter renders, but that depends on if the scenes that are yet to be written bulk up for some reason. My PC was particularly sensitive yesterday and really wanted me to share the pain. So I did, and we are both satisfied. Like I've mentioned before, I'm going to keep trucking until chapter 9, at which point I will clean up all issues with renders (they mostly exist in chapter 1 and it's not a lot. Maybe 15-20 renders to fix the issues. Before then I hope to have worked out the gallery and I still would like to add the jukebox...but not sure about coding. Also any issues that occurs in the Steam process will be fixed before chapter 10 release. So by the time this case wraps up in chapter 10, I will have a complete AVN that can continue into the next episode/case seamlessly.
At least that is what I'm thinking right now. We all know that I get in trouble for thinking out loud.
Back from my work trip, and today is the first of 3 render days. 3-4 renders before starting on scene 4, which is also substantial, and it leads directly into a split 5 or 6 path. Should be fun. 3 new locations involved. 1 exterior which is much less work to set up, because most of the exteriors I own are pretty timeless and require little lighting or rearranging. Interiors generally requires a fair deal of lighting, and at least some prop work.
While I was away, I mostly cleaned up some coding stuff. I had a couple of spots where I wanted a little zoom in. Caught one background missing and fixed some spelling. The one thing I'm very happy with was the fact that I added 6 new pieces of music. 2 specific to environment and 4 that gets looped in with the excising songs. I really wanted a Paint it Black (Rolling Stones) type song for the war flashbacks, but that doesn't look like it will happen. I found another song that might work. I'm also looking to add some sound effects. Mostly for sex scenes, and especially for speakeasy, where the audio is a que for the visuals. I'm also looking to create some depth for the war flashbacks in general terms (sound wise). I don't know that there will ever be a proper sound effects track. But used correctly I think it can add dimension to the story telling.
I always like to post a sample image from my big render days, but I will wait until I get to the next scene, since I've already posted a couple from scene 3. At which point I will mention render count as well. I know most of you don't care about that...but it makes me feel good:-)
Today I landed on a total of 244 renders, which is a little shy of my goal. I'm heading out the door in 15 min for my work trip, but wanted to give a brief summary of what is happening. I think my intent was pretty well formulated in the mid-week update/poll. Funny because I'm writing the scene that will lead to the first private interaction with Gabrielle now (well, not now but it's the next one to go.) I was a little surprised to see that Victoria got no love, sure she is salty but she'll come around:-) Funny thing is that Gabrielle and Victoria were the very first LIs that were created in the story as I was kind of feeling it out. Officer Johnson, who happened to be a character with one purpose: to support a joke, turns in 4 votes in the poll. I guess we are going back to the police station soon. I'm happy with the writing so far for chapter 4. About half way now, starting scene 7, so we should be good after my upcoming 12hr flight. When I get back scene 3 will be done in short order and scene 4 (which is substantial as well, will commence. I have 3 full days of rendering (Sun,Mon,Tue) when I get back.
So I already wrote 3 paragraphs of this and erased it, so this time it will be a little briefer. Vote for as many as you like (I like them all). A couple have been left off the list as they probably won't make a meaningful appearance until next Case/Episode.
I have mulled over what actually matters to me, and that is the pace of releases. Would I like to have the slickest interface? Sure. Will that ever be the case? Not likely;-) There will be additions to the in-game character list as we go. The menu will be updated soon. But all my effort will be put toward having a somewhat reasonable update schedule.
This week has been good for writing and Sunday and Monday will be rendering days. I'm traveling for work after that. Long flights might result in good things for the script. I am currently starting scene 7 of Chapter 4, and as long as I can stay ahead of the rendering pace, we should be good.
This week lands us at 192 total renders. Still working on scene 3. I'm so happy I didn't open my mouth about when scene 3 would probably be done. I was sure it would be done on Friday, with time to begin rendering s4. Did that happen, you ask in honest curiosity. Fuck no! I was, per usual, quite wrong about the amount of time I spend on rendering images. I also made a proper mistake and had to redo maybe 12-15 renders (which sucks). I'm a little worried about the writing. I have to knock out a bunch of pages this week to stay ahead of the rendering. I don't think it's a real problem, but I like to take my time with the writing so we shall see. Nothing like a small fire to get you going, huh? I think I'll throw in a poll to gauge who we want to see more of in this episode or maybe next. I've realized that I do the LI interactions as it flows with the story, not so much to get all of them equal time and that could be a bit of an issue. I'll probably get the poll up sooner rather than later.
So I had a few minutes to set up a render and decided that I would start the process on the new menu. It will be one or two pieces of the banner (still working out the exact design, but this render of Turis will be part of it for sure.
First few days of rendering this chapter. Total of 115 renders takes us past the middle of scene 3. I think I have also located some more music, same genre, but a little more variety. Next week will be very similar to this week, with the addition of starting the image post and coding while writing until Thursday then 3 days of rendering. There are 4 new locations this chapter that will need to be set up at some point. That's pretty much it. The community is slowly growing which is great.
Also thank you to the subscribers who have endured the long road to the chapter 3 release. The support from all of you, be it a small gathering, means everything. The coding portion of this project is really the part what makes me question why I bother with it...it's proper ulcer forming bs. However, knowing that there are individuals that enjoy the project helps in the moments of Ren'py despair (unfortunately not much of an exaggeration.) I enjoy the creative outlet afforded by this niche environment, but coding blows. Again, you all inspire me when things aren't exactly wrinkle free.
Above is the original Gabrielle, I personally think where I landed was a vast improvement. What made me change the character was ultimately the expressions (which may have been partly due my inexperience in daz).
Today is the first in earnest render day for chapter 4. I've been writing quite a bit and have most of the chapter mapped out. Featured will be Valerie, Amy and Camille and to a lesser degree Victoria, Josephine & Mrs. Berg.
Case Log with progress will be posted either Saturday or Sunday.
Today I will put the animations into their slots and the chapter will be officially done. I will circle back around and replace the animations once I get closer to the end of the episode. In the last few days I've learned quite a bit about animating in Daz and I think I can do better. I rendered 6 animations for this chapter, but decided to only use 4. It's incredibly hard to see what is going on (clipping and motion wise) until you actually render the scene. It's just a matter of taking the time to finesse the scene. Simple things like hair movement can't be put in without thought to physics (which I did and felt like an idiot when I saw the result). Details like muscles straining and sweat is also something that I would like to look at. I'll post a link for all tiers once the animations are in place and public release will be sometime Sunday.
I decided to rename the case logs as I made the mistake early on to name it after the current chapter in development...which I realized quickly made no sense. But when I commit to a stupidity, I stick with it. Since we are turning a new leaf, I decided that this stupidity had run it's course. So this is sort of a mixed log. I am working on the animations for chapter 3 (2 of 5 are done), and script for chapter 4. I found a script that works similarly to limbstick (which never worked on my PC), so I am currently figuring it out with more success than failure. I think the animations will becoming progressively better as we go and I learn. Thursday should finish up the animations and in that case Friday and Saturday are the first render days for chapter 4. As I mentioned, I will be working on the player cards as a side project and also the main menu to match thematically with the banner and the player cards. This however is low priority as the focus will be on the next chapter and to perhaps speed the process up a touch (no promises).
No I didn't erase all my code...although, writing that sent shivers down my spine. I should back up my code asap. I uploaded the latest version of the game. The difference is the player cards are now functional (in no small part due to the excellent help from The Red Myst (New Antioch dev.) The mistake I made was to edit the download post instead of posting a new one...no notices go out when you edit a post. All Bizzy ($5 Tier) can now access the download link.
So, while I am away from the PC, I've been working on the Player Cards and it's functionality. Funny not funny that it took me a week working on the code and it was still not doing what I wanted it to do. The Red Myst (New Antioch developer) took a look at it, made me feel better by saying I almost had it, then fixed it in a matter of 15 min...and believe me, I wasn't that close. I'll replace the current v.29 with v.295 once I've changed a graphic element and the Player cards will be fully functional at that point. Still have additions to make in the list of characters available, so that will trickle in as I work on chapter 4. I've also gotten some writing done for chapter 4, about 1/3 done. Probably pass the 50% mark early next week. I probably won't work on the promised gallery and music functionality until next update...because if I see more renpy code that is broken anytime soon, I will require a padded cell.
