Game Update #32 (Patreon)

We're over halfway through May, so I'm back with a game status update!

Script

I'm currently writing the hookup scenes in tandem with creating the CGs, which will be the last bit of writing for this update. Typically I'll write a sequence and then do art, but for these scenes I'm letting the art inspire what I write and vice versa, going back and forth as inspiration strikes. It's proving a good way to keep momentum going.

Right now I have one hookup scene entirely scripted—the one I shared the flowchart for in the last game update—and have a few more left to write before putting  cap on the Day 2 script at long last. These scenes are pretty straight forward, so I don't expect the remainder to take too much time.

Art

I've been cranking out CGs lately, and I'm happy with how they're coming along. I shared a few in the most recent Sneak Peek, which you can see here if you're a Junior patron or above. I'm also fitting in time to complete the remaining sprites, which involved some last minute character redesigns.

One snag I had was the render queue plug-in I use for Daz decided to not end renders when I set them to. How it should work is I set a large number of renders to go while I'm sleeping, and they're then done by the time I'm back to work the next day. For some reason this plug-in decided to spend 7 hours each on a few images; the max time they're supposed to render is 30 minutes. This set back the rendering schedule by a couple days, but I think the issue is resolved now.

Something else I'm doing—with the new Connor model done, I've started using his model when figuring out the poses, composition, and lighting of each scene. When that looks good, I slot in current Connor and do all the detail work. This is to save me time when I need to re-render these scenes with the new model. OG Connor still looks good in these CGs, though—I'm not going to shortchange him in his final outing!

I've also added in an additional post-processing step when needed, using a separate program to denoise images that have too much grain in them. I'm a little concerned that this program can remove too much of the detail from the character models, but some scenes are just so grainy that I'd rather lose a little detail than have an image that seems unpolished. 

The most recent Guy Gallery had a few images I used the denoiser on, so here's a comparison to show what an image looks like before and after the AI gets its hands on it:

There's a little more smoothness to Jordi's face than I'm used to, but I do think the bottom is preferable to the top. (No, not like that. Mind out of the gutter!)

Coding

Nothing much going on here. I've done some clean-up work, but currently most of my time is spent on art and writing.

Looking Ahead

So where are we at as far as releases go?

We're frustratingly near the finish line, which I say because it feels so close but there's still more track ahead than I'd like. Realistically, getting absolutely everything done prior to the end of May isn't feasible. Which, considering it's been 6 months since the last release, is disappointing. 

I think the safest thing to aim for this month is one last in-development build that will be available to Senior & Graduate patrons that adds in one of the hookup scenarios and the Asher storyline. This isn't very helpful to lower tier patrons who've been waiting so patiently, but it will at the very least mark the final corner around which the full release awaits for everyone to finally play.

It's wild looking back at my new year update in January because I was estimating mid-February to be done with this. Oh, past Danny, you sweet summer child. A combination of the scope of the work and some mental health struggles have extended the timeline for this by a lot, so I appreciate everyone's patience while I get through these final steps.

That January post talks a bit about my roadmap for the next portion of the game and the steps I'm taking to lessen the time between releases. If you haven't seen that, check out that update for more details. Between small content drops like Grind'm and chunking the story out into smaller portions, I think we'll be able to get back to the storylines of everyone's personal favorite guys much sooner than later.

Anyway! Thank you all again for following along and supporting me during this part of development. As a creator, I'm very frustrated by the slow progress, but progress is being made all the same. I hope to be able to share that with everyone as soon as I'm able.