Friday/Saturday Update (Patreon)

I wanted to let everyone know that I will likely not have 0.5 out on Saturday, contra my earlier assertion that I would have it out by the end of the month.

It will be out within the next few days; large swaths of it are done. This update is very writing-heavy, and this is something I didn't fully appreciate when I was figuring out how long it would take. This bit of writing is pretty important too, since it introduces a number of characters you'll probably be seeing a lot of for the next several updates. Basically, I want to take a little bit longer and make sure I'm happy with it, because I can't retcon it once it's out the door.

This release is also sorta render heavy. Not as much as the last update, but I expect it will have around 35 of them. Not only that, but this is also the first cycle for which I've started using the new cloth sim engine. There's a little bit of a learning curve for it - particularly when using it on things that weren't designed for it - but it lets me achieve some neat effects (like Ana's 'tentpole' above). And dresses look simply fabulous, if you can keep the simulation from sharting the bed. Unfortunately, it also increases the time I have to spend on each render. I don't use it on every image, but when I do, it can increase the amount of time I spend by quite a lot.

I haven't fully worked through the implications of these ideas I'm about to share, and I'm really tired (I stayed up all night last night trying to get stuff done lol), but I think I'm going to implement the following, starting with 0.6:

Slightly smaller releases on a monthly schedule. I know a past poll said many of you guys were willing to wait 6 weeks or so, but I recognize that's a lot to ask. Shorter release cycles will get you new content more frequently, and will help keep me more accountable. 

There may be times when it simply takes longer to get out a release that makes sense within the context of the story and fits the experience I'm trying to create - and in those cases I'm always going to stay true to the game. But I think those situations will be rare. I've discovered that there's usually a completely logical and appropriate place to end a release somewhere short of where you originally intended to do so.

Fewer, but better images. I really do like the storytelling value you can get out of a large number of images, and to be honest, I'm having quite a lot of fun thinking cinematographically. The thing is, though, that if you're putting out a huge number of them, you can't afford to spend a large amount of time on any particular one. There are a number of different rendering and postwork techniques I've been reading about, and that I think could help make my work look really good, but I can't use them because they're rather time consuming, particularly if you're new at them.

One reason people are drawn to the game is because of the art, and I think I can eventually take it to a whole other level of quality if I concentrate on carefully crafting a smaller number of images. (To be clear, I'm talking ~7 per H-scene.)

So, yeah, that's the update. Soon, but not Blizzard soon or Duke Nukem soon. Best guess: somewhere Sunday - Wednesday. Also, I won't be doing a dev journal on Sunday since this post tells you everything there is to tell until the release.

I'm off to bed! As always, thank you for your support!