Update - Mika on the couch (Patreon)

tl;dr - There's now three animations in the game and I think I can make them somewhat regularly; I've cut the game's file size down quite a lot; and I've been promoting the game a little bit - make sure to upvote or share it wherever you can! It helps me a lot!

This week's image

Mika lies in wait...

Similar to last week's Shizu image, this is just one that I had an idea for and made to see if it works. What do you think? Is this a good one? If so, I may use this concept for a scene I've got half-planned. ;)

Animations

First things first, the part that's probably the most interesting to you guys: I now have three short animations in PAT! There's one each of Nobuko, Emi and Shizu, and I'll be on the lookout for where I can add some more. I've also got a little plan to start posting higher quality versions of these for $3+ patrons as an additional reward.

I'm quite proud of this feature, and even though I haven't got the hardware upgrade yet that I really need, I've managed to come up with other techniques (and use certain programs) that really speed up the process a lot. With some advice, I was able to find a way to make test renders of the animated movements that are very quick, so I don't have to render the full version over and over just to see if it works. Then with Topaz Gigapixel AI, a program for enlarging images (like saying "enhance!" in a movie) I'm able to render them a lot smaller and quicker than doing the full versions, before enhancing them.

This is absolutely necessary, because rendering a single frame at full quality takes me 2-5 hours and an animation that I make usually has around 30-45 frames. I have to be able to cut the quality an awful lot and render them in (preferably) no more than about 6-7 minutes per frame. With these software options and practical techniques I've managed to make it far more feasible to make these going forward. The hardware upgrade would still be great and would speed up my work a lot, but at least I can proceed with making some animations.

Optimisation

I've been through the game files and found I was able to optimise the file size quite a lot, meaning it's smaller to download (and smaller for me to upload!) now. Even after adding new content, the latest builds are nevertheless 70mb lower than the previous builds, which is pretty great. It's also important for when I start to put up web browser versions, which I should probably do this month.

If you're interested, there was a little bit of junk in there - test files I'd added and forgot to delete or default VNM assets that I'm not planning on using - but most of it was down to me compressing the music more. I found that I was able to put the audio into a much smaller .ogg format with literally no audible difference. I know music aficionados hate that kind of thing, but I honestly defy you to tell any difference between the files before and after compression.

Self promotion isn't my bag, baby

I've spent some of this week, unfortunately, having to try and promote PAT across new forums and get people to see it that hadn't known about it before. Sometimes this is fine - there are one or two places where people are active and it's fun to seen their reactions, as well as to talk with them about the game. That's different. Where it's really unpleasant is having to trawl through all sorts of forums and subreddits looking for places I can post the game even though I've never been to the place before, and coming up with posts that pitch the game in a way that might get people interested. I find it really stressful and very dispiriting when a post gets no response, as it often does.

By the way, thanks to anyone who upvoted my Reddit posts or even commented in a thread or anything like that recently! It actually helps me a huge amount - literally Patreon estimates it's worth a dollar to me every time I get a retweet, which is probably similar to how bumping threads or upvoting Reddit links works too.

Anyway, honestly I didn't wind up posting in all that many places, so there's still more work to do. Gamejolt and itch.io are apparently worthwhile, so I'll put it up there, although ultimately I think the most important thing to put up is the web version so you can play it on places like Newgrounds and other online sites. That's where having a button on the menu that takes you to my Patreon becomes super important.

Oh, and I might mention, as part of this process I decided I'm going to start posting about the game under the name "Timelapse" because I think that's just easier for everyone. It's still going to be "Pervert Action: Timelapse" on the posters and in game, but there's no particular reason to use the "pervert action" part in thread titles and stuff. I'm also a little concerned that people might think that it's the same game as "Pervert Action: Legacy" and not realise that this is in a new, more accessible engine.

Do you think the picture works? And are you pleased about the animations? Any suggestions about my marketing strategy? Let me know in the comments!