Last Human Ep.2 Devlog 6 (Patrons) (Patreon)

Hey everyone!

Bit of a long post here, so bless you if you read it all LOL...

Another week of work, more stuff accomplished. Episode 2 will introduce several new (side) characters. These are not main love interests, but of course, the captain will have some fun with them at some point. Pictured here are Mary (short cutie) and Chef Amanda. Pantherians are perfectionists. They love their food. Chef Amanda runs a tight ship and lives up to her reputation as the best chef in Pantheria. Hmm, the Aurora could use a good chef, no? Would definitely be a huge improvement over the synthetic food! There will be 2 other characters introduced, although one is not human or neko. More on that in the next patron-only devlog.

Although I've been working hard and getting a lot done, it's still a bit slow going. The last scene I just finished had 4 animations. Since I am not completely efficient in building animations yet, they take me a lot of time. But now that those are done, I should be able to breeze through the next several scenes since I have the base maps ready, and it will mostly be posing through conversations and the banter between characters. A single conversation in my VN's can have anywhere from 20 to 50 renders versus many others where you stare at a static image through most of it. Right now, I'm predicting the image count on episode 2 alone to be around 1300. Plus, there should be a total of about 8 animations. Actually, maybe more because I've decided to bring in a sex scene. I mentioned this in a previous devlog I think and honestly, I wasn't 100% sure at the time. But it's written in now. So, you have that to look forward to. 

As for a release date, the end of Feb is still looking doable. I won't know for sure until I see where I end up in the coming weeks. I still have a lot of new maps to create, houses, ship interior sections, and some city stuff - not to forget Chef Amanda's restaurant. Speaking of that, I managed to find a nice one to import into HS2 (pictured in the scene above). I love finding those because some of the lighting work is done for me. All I have to do is place and pose characters, and my own lighting.

I wanted to clear up a few things about the "Re:Serenity" stuff I brought up recently. Of course, the poll indicated enough to me that it isn't the right time to do it. But IT WILL HAPPEN. We'll have "Serenity", and it will be the original version with Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. But then, we're going to have Re:Serenity. And it will have a lot of differences from the original. Serenity is a pretty good idea story-wise, and there is so much I wish I'd done differently. I heavily regret having any 'related' characters. And also having so many. It made character development a complete nightmare to manage. Re:Serenity will have fewer characters, a much longer beginning, and a better plot. We'll see more of what happened before that first day in Trina's office. Trina isn't going to flash her boobs at you either - in hindsight, that was way out of place. Trina also will not go to Serenity (she actually wasn't meant to). Camilla won't be your sister. As for Mom, after thinking about it, she'll still end up in Serenity, but it will be done a bit differently. When I play through the first game myself, one thing that really stands out to me is that I never really gave a good enough impression of Mike and what he went through - the bullying, his mom getting sick, and how things were between himself and Kat. He goes through severe depression before all the magic stuff begins. The alternate version will be much closer to my original script but start earlier. Anyway, that's it in a nutshell. It will happen. But I won't start working on it until Serenity Chapter 2 is complete - and that could be a while.

Well, anyway... all that stuff is a long way off yet. But the more I do this, and the more I check out other VN's, the more I find ways to improve how I tell a story and how I portray my characters. Speaking of other VN's... I just played this one recently and although it is done in DAZ, I must recommend. This story is on the same level as Drifty's Leap of Faith (A brilliant VN, although also made with Daz). Some of you have probably played this already, but for those who haven't, check it out:

Summer's Gone by Ocean - SG 

The MC in Summer's Gone has to be one of the best written I've seen yet. Unstable at first but trying to be better. He has potential love interests all around him. But is stuck on one from his past. This story is so good. You know when you play a really good VN... one that's so good that when the update ends, you're like "NOOO!!!!! I NEED MORE!!!!!". That's what this one is for me. Anyway, check it out. The kind of writing Ocean has done here is a very good example of where I'd like to be later on in my games.

That's all I have for this week boys and girls. Last Human episode 2 is shaping up to be a great update that I think you will enjoy. Now back to work. See you all soon!

...Fire