Dev Diary, 11th of September, 2020 (Patreon)

First of all I thought I'd adress some rumors which seems to have popped up and caught hold.

1. Drifty stole DPC's phone system.
Although it's no secret that Acting Lessons was a big inspiration for me taking the jump to actually get my story on the renpy platform - there was no phone in Acting Lessons. I did not get a chance to play Being A Dik (then currently being 3 episodes long, with a different phone than now) until the last few weeks before I released Chapter 1 of my own story. I did like his idea of his Character Bios app, and borrowed that - nothing else or the mechanics behind the phone. Funnily enough, it's probably the least used app on the in game phone in LoF, and I would like to replace it with a much more visual representation of which 'path' you're on instead. And, am I the only one that keeps hitting 'b' in BaDik - to no avail? :p I did not steal his phone idea!

2. Drifty copied the 'multi layer moving screens' idea from DPC.
*sigh* Same as above. I call them 'hello screens' as I wanted to use them to say 'hello' to the different girls as you meet them for the first time - as opposed to the normal huge render that moves across the screen. They came to be by accident, as I had to render huge screens in several layers because my gfx card at the time (1060, 3gb) could not handle big renders. Instead of putting them together in photoshop, I put them together in the game instead, moving them at different speeds. Just compare the code, and you'll see they are done completely different. Also, I use all kinds of visuals to give you a break from all the reading in addition to this. Ea. entering the plane, or seeing Lexi live. They all use the same scripting.

3. Drifty hate modders and walkthrough makers.
I don't. Period. In fact I'm flattered by them taking an interrest in improving LoF for the players. However, I don't give modders early releases so that they can have the mod ready for day 1 when a new chapter is out, as I like to have players explore a bit of the game before a mod gives all the answers.

4. 'Drifty' is a whole team of people working on Leap of Faith, where as <insert name here> is only one guy.
No it's not a whole team of people working on Leap of Faith. It's just little old me that wanted to tell a story. A norwegian guy, with a family, kids, supporting woman, normal job and a computer with Daz, Renpy, Photoshop and Premiere pro installed.

5. Anybody can use the songs in LoF in their own game.
No. They are all licensed. That cost money. And even if other Devs would like to license them, there's a big chance they still would not be able to. Most music artists have reservations of where they would like their work to be presented, effectively excluding all the 'most appreciated' kinks out there. Which is also the answer to why LoF has such a high focus on the story and romance - not the adult part of it.

Hopefully that explains a bit without me sounding like someone who takes himself a bit too seriously. :p

Other than that, I hope you enjoyed the release date video. I tried pushing 27th of September, but had to settle on October 2nd instead. On the bright side, the more I can put into this first part of Chapter 4, the less I have to put into the second part, which should shorten the development phase for that.

The render count for this week is 708 stills and 3826 animated frames. Unfortunately most of them will need some kind of post-render treatment in Photoshop before release which will set me back at least a few days.

But that's why we have weekends. :) Stay safe and Covid-free out there.

// Drifty