DevLog: Before/After Tai Chi and Tryouts (Patreon)

Hey all,

So the silence lately around here has actually been pretty productive from a development standpoint. I just did a Before/After video for the $20 tier here if you're interested but today, we'll be looking at those same images but you won't get to hear the sweet melody of my hyperactive voice :p

Standard format today with the Before and After, specifically looking at the differences with the Tai Chi changes for the upcoming v0.06 and the first part of swim tryouts.

Let's jump in:

Pic 1: This first picture is from the original game and is the standard side shot of Braden doing tai chi. We see a lot of head-on shots or just generic side shots in the original game because I didn't really know what to do with the camera. A lot of VNs use sprites and straight-forward shots and I really wanted to move away from this style for the revamp and try to capture more depth to the environment. I also pointed out in the video DevLog that this is still one of those old school shots where you can see that bigass lightswitch back there, lol. But let's jump into the replacement shots for the revamp.

Pic 2: Here's a shot of Tai Chi from the revamp. We're gonna see a lot more dynamic shots here. I know the actual Tai Chi scenes aren't that exciting but from a development standpoint, these are a goldmine to harvest experience for other projects such as combat, fights, or stuff like that. I still don't know what I'm doing but I have a lot more confidence in the revamp and I think that's really going to play into the game more. The original had feelings and honesty in it; I'm keeping that; but the revamp is going to have more visual confidence and I'm excited to see how that plays out long-term. I like a lot of martial arts stuff. It's visually appealing and it's fun to shoot with the camera. This scene is also expanded a lot more from the original: at least double the pics to make it a little more involved-- I probably went overboard like usual :p  Hell, if nothing else, it's an excuse to see Braden move around in his underwear, right?

Pic 3: This is a shot from the original game swim tryouts. Really the only thing to note here is how bleached out these early pool scenes were. They were either dark as fuck or they were blinding. I just really couldn't make up my mind and had no experience with the actual light values that were going to help light the scene more consistently. This is really obvious when you look at Zack's skin; it really ranges from dark to light all on the same model-- which is weird and makes him look shiny.

Pic 4: In the revamp, we're gonna see some darker lighting changes as well as some HDRI maps that are included in the background to 1) give Jordyn less post work to do, but 2) also make the depth of field blur more consistent so that he doesn't have to eyeball that all the time. Coach is also going to have a little more movement to his character. This is super minor but even a couple eye changes or expressions will make this exchange a little more realistic. In the original, they looked like statues.

Pic 5: Here's the first time we actually meet Mikhail, despite seeing him in the background at the doc office for his internship interview. Overall, I wanted to share this image because it gives you an idea how limited those early shots were with my potato computer. Very standard poses here and, of course, the shitty lighting that's somehow both bright and dark at the same time. It's also pretty empty even though there's 3 characters in it (which was a big deal for me back then).

Pic 6: Mikhail first dialogue appearance in the revamp. This shot has a very different tone than the original. Much more dynamic lighting and we'll casually see some other students in the background in the pool, each doing their own thing for the tryouts. Mikhail will have a slightly longer interaction with Zack during the tryout scenes than before. He's one of my favorite characters and I really wanted to give a hint to his warmth earlier than I did before but without giving too much. I really wanted to keep that balance that made a lot of you paranoid about him and fueled hatred and angry DMs to me about him being a threat. Being wrong about first impressions in stories like this is fun. I talk more about Mikhail at length in the video log and some of the changes i'll be pointing out in the normal devlog in the near future. But specifically, his hair in this scene is corrected and will remain corrected throughout the revamp. During the original, we could see a strange crescent shaped reflection on his skullcap that I could never get to go away. Well, it's fixed in the revamp and he actually has hair now rather than it being painted on.

So that's it for today's Before/After. Stay tuned for more. I'm still fleshing out the scenes after this one and v0.06 will also feature some early dialogue and scenes before we get here. It's coming along nicely and it's a huge visual improvement to what we saw before. Hope you enjoy and thanks again for the support.

-Aaryn