Stolen Rose

Dev Log 30-Mar-2025

Hello!

Finally, I managed to get to a point with the writing where I can go and focus on the visuals and gameplay, so that's what I've been doing. I'll give specific stats later, but, after hitting the 75% mark with the writing, I started on animations. I finished posing eight of them and the last one is going to finish rendering tonight. Apart from that, I've also set up a few static renders, but not a huge amount. Next, I'll be focusing on static renders since those are a bit behind now. There's about 8 animations left to do, but I'll be getting to those later. For now, there's enough writing, so I'll take a break from that and give myself some time to structure the finale as best I can.

Current stats:

- word count: ~34k words

- static renders: 1679 rendered + 120 in queue waiting for the animations to be done

- animations: 15 animations totaling 61 seconds

- scripting: done up to the current text content (this is what I decided to call adding menus, music, stats, checks, etc.)

It's actually going pretty well. The word count is around Day 4 right now and it's likely to get significantly higher. I think it'll be worth it, though.

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

--SR

Special Render -- Extra

I was working on a scene and I really liked this shot, but it didn't really fit anywhere, so here it is.

Dev Log 17-Mar-2025

Hello!

I'm back! It's been a bit more than a month since I quit my day job and I've started feeling the effects of this. I'm way less stressed, my brain functions seem to have returned, and, importantly, I'm working on Zero End at a healthy rate. Since last time, I've worked mostly on writing because I wanted to hit the 75% mark, after which will come the release finale. This finale, specifically, will be pretty long. Things that I've hinted at since Day 1 will be coming to a head here, plus there will be at least 2 if not 3 endings. There's 2 scenes left until I get to the 75% mark, so I'll probably finish in a few days, and it'll be somewhere near 32k words by that point, meaning this release may be heading for 40-45k words. I... tried to trim down as much as I could, but there's just too much that needs to happen and it's very important that it's executed well.

That being said, I also got around 300 renders done and two animations. I'll give a full spread next time.

Now, I wanna finish the two scenes and get to the 75% mark, then I'll shift focus to renders and animations while I give my brain some time to piece the ending together. I have everything that needs to go in, just need to assemble it for the largest impact.

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

--SR

Dev Log 02-Mar-2025

Hello!

I'm back with some news. It's now been three weeks of going full time on the project (while still learning and applying to jobs on the side) and I feel it's going really well. I'm feeling a lot better myself, for one. That's definitely a thing I'm happy about. It's been going really well on the project too, though, so let's get to it.

I figured I'd give some numbers periodically, so here we go:

For the writing, we're currently at around 23k words for this release. It's a bit hard to calculate the exact number, but it should be close.

For static renders, we're at 1478.

Since I've focused a lot on getting as much writing as possible done, the increase in render count hasn't been dramatic, but we're still at around Day 3 values in terms of release size. I estimate that we're about 60-70% of the way done, but it's going much faster now than it used to. I've got some romance scenes to wrap up and a plot scene, then I can start on the final scenes. How long that will be, I'm not yet sure, but there's a lot of stuff coming to a head so it's probably not going to be short. Either way, I'm really happy to say that it's going better than it has in a long time and I'm really excited to finally show you what I've got cooking.

Hope you're having an amazing day!

--SR

Dev Log 18-Feb-2025

Hello!

I'm back with an update, but I'm not sure how coherent it'll be since I've been writing all day today. I don't have a lot to update, but there's been progress made, so let's go through it. I've wanted to focus on writing and I did, so now I'm quite a bit ahead with the writing, meaning I can go back to a balanced approach. Which I would, but I got very caught up in the last scenes I've worked on, so I think I'll keep the writing focus for a few more days.

Now, that's not to say I haven't done any work on images, I have, just not as much as I'd normally do. Still, I did manage to get some really cool shots and tried to do more visual storytelling. I really like what came out and I'll share some.

Going forward, I wanna, like I mentioned, focus on writing for 3-4 more days and then go back to doing both writing and renders. I wanna ride the wave for now.

Oh, and I also made a gameplay system. Nothing major, just a random scene selector to make things more interesting for multiple playthroughs.

That being said, I'm breaking to get something to eat right now, so I'll see you later!

Hope you're having an amazing day!

--SR

Dev Log 02-Feb-2025

Hello!

I have returned with news. It's not a whole lot of stuff, but there's some stuff I wanna talk about. It probably won't turn into a 500 word essay, but I've been writing today and I'm still in the flow, so who knows.

Since I already mentioned that, I got some writing done today. It wasn't really necessary until now as I was quite ahead, but I've finally caught up and I'm about 3 scenes behind with the visuals, so I started writing again and finished a scene that I had hanging for a while. Also started a new one.

The more interesting part is the visuals: I got a lot of renders done since last I gave an update and we're about halfway done (as well I can tell without having the text finished). I actually have some really cool shots I wanna share with you.

On a more personal note, I'm still working at my job, but next week is my last at the company. I can't explain how excited I am. It's gonna be scary, not gonna lie, it's quite a risky step, but it's pretty thrilling too.

Now, before I go, I wanna share some stats with you. I've been hesitant to share details about where the release is at, exactly, because I was ashamed with myself. But I think it's best I be specific as I feel it may do more harm than good being evasive about it. So, here it is:

- Word Count ~14k (this one's harder to estimate)

- Static renders: 1174

- Animations: 5 animations of about 26 seconds total

Overall, we're about halfway done. I hope that helps in clarifying where we're currently at with the release.

Hope you're having an amazing day!

--SR

Dev Log 18-Jan-2025

Hello and Happy New Year!

It's been a bit, hope everyone's doing well! The winter holidays are done and gone, the rest is at an end and I've started work on the game. Well, I started about a week ago, but I wanted to wait with the update so I can deliver some news after it's been confirmed. I've mentioned working a day job and working on Zero End at the same time has been very difficult for me and I was thinking of a solution. So I've come up with one. I've quit my job. Now, can I afford to do this? No. I'll have a few months to work on Zero End full time and settle things, but I'll need to find another place to work eventually. I have some money saved and it'll hold until... June, maybe? In the meantime, I realized that game designer positions require knowledge of Unity or Unreal. I haven't used these because the project I was on used some proprietary stuff. As I don't like Unity very much after that very funny prank, I've decided to go for Unreal. So now I'm learning Unreal, working on the game, and still working at my job because I'm only off starting mid-February. But hey, more time for Zero End for a few months. I hope I can wrap the second chapter up with the new available time.

Apart from that, I'm fairly ahead with the writing now so I can focus on renders the following week. I've been loving what I managed to do with the most recent ones (I'll post a preview shortly). I'm off to a birthday party now, but I'll be back with updates soon (not taking a month this time, I promise).

May the little light available this month give you plenty of D vitamin!

--SR

Happy Holidays

I don't much celebrate, but to everyone who does, Happy Holidays. I hope you have a wonderful time. I'll be back with an update soon, but for now: Alice and Odette

Content preview #63

I wanted to feature Keira for the preview, but then I remembered how much more popular Lily is, so here's both.

Dev Log 15-Dec-2024

Hello!

It's been some time and I feel like I've had the best couple of weeks in quite some time. Getting some rest and my mind off things has been very helpful.

Since the last update, I've managed a lot of what I intended to do. I'm again quite a bit ahead with the writing, enough that I'm not worried about it anymore. I was inspired to write a significant part of this chapter's special ending and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I don't want to spoil anything, but it was really cool to write.

As for static renders, it's going at a steady pace of around 20-25 per day, excluding weekends. I've gone up to 60 in the past, so it's nothing stellar, but I feel like it's a good balance where I get stuff done without straining myself. I also got a short animation posed and rendered, but it might need some touching up.

For my next trick, I wanna wrap up this part of the story and start designing the second part. With static renders, I intend to keep the same pace. I will have quite a few animations to do next, and I'm hoping I'll get a chance to really get them feeling more natural.

Anyway, that's all I've got for now! I hope you have a wonderful day!

--SR

Content preview #62

She's been a lot of fun this release. More than usual

Dev Log --I'm back--

Hello!

It's been a while, but I'm finally back. After what feels like forever, I've allowed myself some time off to relax and clear my head. It was a very good thing and I feel much better now--I've been more productive and I feel like what I'm producing now is of better quality.

More than that, though, I think I realized just how stressed and miserable I was. I'm sure you've noticed this release has been going at a much slower pace, but that's not something I intended. I just wasn't capable of keeping up with it any more. I think I pushed as hard as I could with having two jobs (basically) and it was going to give at some point.

Now, after having rested and cleared my head, I'm back to where I was before and going at a steady pace with the development of the game. But I'm not sure how long it'll last this time. Maybe I can do another 3-4 months at this pace, I get Chapter 2 out... and then what? Unfortunately, while a break was definitely needed, it doesn't address the source of the problem.

I'm not sure what the solution is quite yet. I have a few ideas, but I need more time to plan and figure out a way forward. The ideal scenario would be that I go full time on Zero End, but that's not possible, so I'll need to compromise somewhere. I just want to clarify that not a single one of the options I'm considering involves abandoning the game. I know it's fairly common that happens and I understand why, but that's not what this is and I just wanted to make that clear.

Anyway, now that that's been said, since I got back I wrote one of my favorite scenes (so far) and almost caught up to the writing with the renders. Next week, I wanna pose and animate an erotic scene and finish the writing for the first part of the release.

Hope you're having a wonderful day. It feels good to be back (though the vacation was really fun too).

--SR

Halloween -- Swansong

B̷͎̮̀̀͒͐̃̑̌̿͝Ę̵̡̡͚͕̟̤͉͚̓̿̃̀͌̈́͊͘ ̵͚͉͂͒N̷̛͈̱̜̦̝̋̂̐͊Ọ̴͐͂̆̃͠T̶̨̺͈̺͓̣̮̊̉́͠ ̵̡͖̘̟̙̒Ą̶̽̚ͅͅF̶͖̆̉̎̑̄̓̀͠Ŕ̶̤̳̙̦̣̜̀̇͝ͅḀ̴̗̱͕̗̼̫̇̈́̂͗̐̂̐͜Ȋ̶̧̟̭̞͑̂̐̽̈̎͝Ḋ̴̩̌̏

Sorry, a bit late for the celebration. Didn't have access to the PC the last 2 days.

Content preview #61

I'll take what's mine before I bleed

Dev Log 02-Nov-2024

Hello!

Before I start with the update, I wanna let everyone know that I'll be on vacation for the next two weeks and I wanna completely disconnect, so I'll probably be back with an update in 3-4 weeks. The reason I need to disconnect completely is because I'm just not doing great overall and I feel like I need this.

It's been about two years since the first release of Zero End, and more than two years of working after work and during the weekends. Even when I took vacation time in the past, I'd take it as an opportunity to write, outline, plan the next part of the game. The result is that I'm very burnt out. I have been ever since Day 4 came out. You've probably noticed that updates don't happen as often and progress isn't as fast as with the other releases. It's because this self-imposed rhythm has been affecting my physical and mental health, causing problems at work, and pushing me towards substance abuse to cope, which just made it worse.

This isn't me abandoning the game, just in case anyone's worried. This is me saying I need to slow down. The first step to that is a two-week vacation. When I get back, I'll set a more workable schedule and take the needed time to deliver the best experience. I still love the story, I'm still excited about it--maybe even more than I was at the start, since a lot of things are coming to a head in the finale for chapter 2--I'm just mentally and physically exhausted, so it'll take a bit longer. But it is coming.

And that's probably a good time to segue into where we're at. I'm very nearly done with the first phase of the release and ready to move on to the next phase. Because this release is structured differently and can be approached non-linearly, I can't really give more details, but what's done is good and playing through it feels nice. There's still some improvements and polish needed before I can consider the first phase complete, but it's close.

I hope you're having a wonderful day and I'll see you after my vacation!

--SR

Content preview #60

"We keep looking back, trying to figure out why we are the way we are, why we are in the situation we're in, and it just seems to make no sense. But it's not one pivotal moment, not a single massive decision that led us here--it's a million small, seemingly insignificant choices. We are exactly where we chose to be, over and over, day after day. "

Dev Log 14-Oct-2024

Hello!

And we're back with another update. Things have been going well overall. There's steady progress with both the writing and images. I managed to fix some issues with the navigation, changed the minimap(it used to be that you could navigate through clicking on rooms there, but that just made the navigation system pointless, so now it only highlights to show the room you're currently in), and linked some scenes together in the exploration so I can test. Also, I saw a new character in the store and she is perfect for what I need(she'll make an appearance near the end of the release, but I already have a few renders of her that I'm excited to share). She doesn't have a huge role, don't worry, I'm not doing that thing, but it is important that she does appear.

Next, I wanna try to wrap up the scenes I'm currently at with both writing and rendering since they're quite long and I've been on them for a while now. After those are done, I'll start writing the romance scenes for each path and maybe start on animation again. I'm really excited about that, and I think you will be too.

Hope you're having a great week!

--SR

Content preview #59

The absurdity of going out for a smoke with Lilith is why I love writing modern fantasy

Dev Log 29-Sep-2024

Hello!

I'm back with an update, though it might be a bit underwhelming. I've been going steady with writing and rendering, but there's nothing significant I can report on. Something significant did happen, I had a massive breakthrough in a writing issue I had that was stalling me and now I know how to resolve a huge bit that's supposed to happen near the end of the release, bringing the finale to Chapter 2, but... it's obviously a spoiler, so I can't tell you about it. I have also outlined the early ending we'll have this chapter, which is tied to the breakthrough above. Honestly, I think this might have been what I needed. For a while now, I was dreading having to write for Zero End because it was just frustrating and it seemed like it would never click for me, but the last time I sat down to write, I was actually excited. I really missed that feeling.

More of the same next week. I'm finally hopeful.

--SR

Content preview #58

I will not elaborate

Dev Log 09-Sep-2024

Hello!

It's been a bit. I haven't updated because for the past week and a half I kept hoping I'd have a less maddening day at work, but no such luck. I've been in overtime a lot lately and haven't gotten much work in for the game. I'm really hoping this won't keep going for much longer, but I figured I'd update because I do have some stuff to talk about anyway.

As I get further into the story, I realize that the way things would make most sense is for Day 5 to be the finale to Chapter 2, so that's what I'll be doing. That does mean it's going to have to be longer, but it's also what's best for the story. It also helps keep it at a good pace so it doesn't drag on. Overall, this choice is going to improve the story and I'll be happy to reach the middle of the story, at last.

Apart from that, I've been writing and it's going steady, but I just can't seem to write a lot. Like I'm writing often, but something just isn't clicking to get me into a flow state. Not much I can do about that except keep going and wait for it to work itself out. At least the writer's block got better.

Anyway, hope you're having a wonderful day!

--SR

Special Render

Today is my birthday, so I decided to make something fun to share with you.

Swansong, back when she was known as Lady E.

Happy birthday to me.

Thank you for being here with me for another year.

Content preview #57

Normally, I drop characters, but I thought it might be interesting to see a new location this time

Dev Log 18-Aug-2024

Hello!

Bad news first, writing is still incredibly difficult. I've made progress and the quality of it is on point, but something just isn't clicking with me. Now, the good news is that there were a lot of stuff that needed to be done that weren't writing anyway, so I've been doing that. The exploration segment is completely finished and I managed to implement a minimap feature as well, which should make navigation a lot simpler. The map is also designed to be a lot more intuitive. So vast improvements on that front. The images are done for that as well. Apart from that, I've spent time settling on outfits for the ball and creating the location. There's still some work that needs to be done there, but a lot of the next release will be tied to that event, so I really want to get it right.

Next, I want to finish up with the ball location and outfits for the remaining characters and, hopefully, actually manage to get a larger quantity of text written.

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

--SR

Content preview #56

I hear a lot of people like her, so here she is: Lilith, the lone rose in a garden of thorns

Dev Log 04-Aug-2024

Hello!

I'm back with updates again. For some reason, I've been having massive issues with writing and I have no idea what could be going wrong. I managed to get some done yesterday, but there's still something that isn't clicking. I'm sure it will, eventually, and when it does I'll probably get a lot done, but I'm struggling with it for now. To be fair, though, it's a very complex release (writing-wise). So, instead of writing, I focused on getting the exploration working, designing the maps, renders and animations. Speaking of animations, this release is very likely to have a lot of them. I'd like to start using them a lot more just for creating atmosphere and stuff.

Next up: I'll try to keep going as I am now, finish the exploration segment and maybe write another scene if I can. I don't wanna force it if it doesn't feel right, but I also need to push myself a bit to get out of the writer's block. There needs to be a good balance of doing a little, but not despairing over it.

Anyway, hope you're having a wonderful day!

--SR

Content preview #55

We were younger then...

Dev Log 22-Jul-2024

Hello!

It's been a while. Sorry for the late update. There were some things happening in my personal life and it was pretty difficult to get some cognitive energy together. Things have settled down now, though, so I'm back.

I've been writing and making renders as much as I could. The first few scenes are written and the first one is covered by renders and it's looking pretty good (preview incoming). As this release is a bit non-standard, I need to get into an exploration segment before I continue writing. Fortunately, there's enough to render that I can finish that next week and start writing again.

Looking at the outline, this is going to be a very interesting release. I'll do my best to keep the exploration unobtrusive.

Anyway, hope you're doing well!

--SR

Content preview?

Probably not, but I don't have previews right now, so here: genderbent Caleb. I am very confused right now.

Dev log 01-Jul-2024

Hello!

It's been a while, but I'm back with renewed strength and feeling a lot more relaxed. Mostly, I've been taking it easy and actually being happy for a change. It was kinda weird, but I got the hang of it eventually. What I've been cooking in the meantime is that the outline is done and I've decided on an interesting structure for this release. I think it's gonna be fun. And there's gonna be a few exploration sequences where I'll apply all the feedback I got from the previous one and get them to be engaging and fun without dragging out too long. My plan is to make them short and easy to go through, but with a bunch of hidden optional stuff for people who enjoy exploration. Also, a map navigation system.

But that's for later. For now, I started writing the story and I'll keep writing until I get to something like 3-4k words so I have some text prepared before I get into rendering scenes. While that's going on, I started a cinematography course (it's for unreal, but most of the stuff should apply) and got a book on animation. I think it's about time I started learning these things in a structured way, rather than trial and error like I did up to this point.

Anyway, break's over, we're going into full production now.

Hope you're having an amazing day!

--SR