WIP - Lazy, Creative, or Efficient?

This week I've been working on finishing out v0.2.1 for release, and have been working on finishing up Madison's sex scene. And it made me think of something that I struggle with a lot.

What is the difference between being lazy, being creative, and being efficient?

This is something I struggle with a lot, because there is no clear answer here. I have my own take, but you can argue that coming up with a creative way to do something quicker is both being creative and efficient, but you could also say that they were just being lazy and didn't want to do all of the work. You can come up with an extremely efficient approach that gets work done fast, but it could come off as uncreative and lazy. You can come up with a really creative idea that you like, but it's easier than other ways, and can come across as being lazy. You can even actually be lazy and have it come across as incredibly creative or efficient.

This ties into how I'm doing Madison's scene. This is a kind of scene that I like doing, but I'm always worried it comes across as lazy, so this is only the second time I've done it in Waifu Wonderland so far. Which is the split scene.

 Instead of doing a single zoomed out scene with everything showing, we've got two side-by-side close-ups. I think that scenes like this create a sense of time and make the scene a bit more dynamic. I can also show the same positions in new ways by having close-ups like this. There's only so many ways you can do the same few positions, and with a game like Waifu Wonderland where there's a lot of scenes, I'm always worried about scenes being too similar or repetitive. Which is another reasons why I really like the idea of split scenes. These split scenes also give two perspectives on a scene, making it so it's like two scenes in one. In this case, it shows off the best part of it being from the front by being able to see Madison sucking on the finger, but also still showing her being penetrated and her thicc ass. Having a split scene like this can even make more people happy, since people who like to focus on penetration get that and people who like to focus on the face get that.

However, being close-ups, there's usually less to really do, especially when it comes to rendering, and so split scenes generally take less time. This is also why things like full body commissions are a lot more than something like a portrait commission. Even if they're the same size, a more close-up shot usually takes less time. Anyway, because they tend to take less time, I'm always worried about it coming off as lazy, and have kept these kinds of split scenes to a minimum so far.

Ultimately, I think that whether something is lazy, creative, or efficient, is all about the intent. If you come up with a creative way to do something because you don't want to do it, then it's lazy. If you do something you like in a creative way, but it happens to take less time, then that's just being creative. And if you do something because it takes less time and you have a lot of other work to do, then it's being efficient.

As I develop Waifu Wonderland I've been trying to balance being efficient and creative and keep the perception of being lazy to a minimum. As I enter what will possibly be the final phase of development though, I'm just going to do things more the way that I think will make the best product. If a split scene makes sense, then I'll do a split scene. If I want to use the symmetry tool and do a perfectly symmetrical character looking directly at the camera, I'm going to. With the launch of v0.2.1 there will be roughly 2/3 of the content in the game for the currently planned end. Even if I end up doing most of them with split scenes and using other techniques that could be viewed as lazy, there's already plenty of other stuff to balance it out. Besides, people may like these split scenes and want more.

That's something all creatives struggle with though. We never really know if people are going to like what we make until it's out in the wild. Even then, it can be extremely hard to tell why people like it. I've made Waifu Wonderland with three major guiding principles behind it that I just don't see in other adult games. Those things being variety, gameplay, and minimal waiting for scenes. Most adult games are very standard VNs with only a few characters and only a handful of scenes for each of them. These characters tend to be the same couple of types you see everywhere too. 2D games especially tend to basically have the same character wearing different clothes (no hate to other artists who do this, I like games like this, just saying that it happens). So since most games are VNs, I made WW an exploration based RPG maker game. I also included seduction mode to further make it more of a game. Then for the characters I've done my best to have different body and face types, along with different types of personalities. And finally, I've designed the game to make sure that you basically always have access to a scene and can be seeing some action within minutes. Since these are the things that set Waifu Wonderland apart from other games, I've been having to work under the assumption that that's why people are playing and enjoying it. I honestly have no real way of knowing though. I just have to keep working to put out the best experience possible.

Before starting on Madison's new scene I also went back and made some adjustments to her BJ scene. I didn't think it would need a lot of adjustments, but I wanted to double check it to make sure it didn't need some changes to the nose or if I needed to add fingernails into it to create some more stylistic consistency. And wow this scene is a mess. I mean, it's fine as it's own thing, but it doesn't look like Madison. It looks way too similar to the reference in terms of overall proportions. It really needs to be remade, but since I don't really have time for that, I did what I could to make it better. I made the eyes a bit bigger and made the head a bit bigger too. I made her eyes a lot bigger and redid the shading around them. For some odd reason I left in the lines for the lips and full nose, so I removed those and removed some shading on the nose to better match the current style. Then the hair was also just the wrong hair style. It was too long and flat, so I shortened it and made it a little more like her actual hairstyle. The base file was also 9600x5400 for some reason, which is waaaay too big. Normally I do 5400x3038 when working. I don't know what I was thinking with this one. It was kind of a mess.

Anyway, for comparison, here's one part of the old scene.

And here's the new.

It's far from perfect, but I do think it's a bit better. It would need a lot more work to look completely right, but it looks a little bit more like Madison at least. I'd do more, but I'd need to start making much bigger adjustments and there's not really an easy way to do that. It already took up a lot of time I hadn't budgeted, so it's good enough, at least for now.

That's all for this WIP post. I'm doing my best to make sure v0.2.1 is out into Early Access on Saturday. I can't give much of an update on progress though. I'm actually writing this from the distant past of like 5 days ago. I wanted to get the artwork done first, and started with Madison's scene, since it was the last full piece of artwork I needed to do. It would be weird to do a WIP post about something that's already done, and I assume most people want to see scenes for these, so I stopped once the flat colors were done and made this post. Once she's all done, I'll be doing Alicia's pregnant variation and then moving on to finishing up the sprites. I'm still really far from 100% and still have a lot of pain, so I don't want to be doing things like implementing scenes yet. Which is a lot of what I have to do. I have a basic draft done for the scenes, but I tend to make changes when implementing them. Things like changing a line or two to make more sense, or adding or changing things that I decide don't like anymore. Which is a lot easier when I'm in the mood. I'm hoping in another couple of days it'll calm down enough that I can properly implement them. If not, I'll probably just use the drafts.

Anyway, if you haven't already, be sure to vote in the poll! It ends pretty soon and so far only 2 things have passed. If there's anything you'd really like to see, then be sure to vote! I hope you look forward to the launch of v0.2.1!

Edit from the past -
I don't think I've done many collections of multiple WIP shots from the various stages of making a scene. So here's some more WIP shots from various stages of Madison's scene.

 Base Scene CG Done w/o texture overlay Base Scene CG Done
 Cum variation done
 Pregnant version done
 And lastly I do the black guy version.
 

I hope that was interesting to see! I'll probably do a full tutorial on the full process and release the custom brushes I use and everything towards the end of development. I don't want to reveal all of my secrets quite yet though. I hope you look forward to seeing Madison's new scene in game!

Edit from the present -

Wanted to give a quick update on progress. This WIP post was made a few days before it was posted, but this edit is right before the post goes live. Here's what I still need to do.

Programming stuff -
Finish Implementing Shizuka's Storyline (it's implemented, but still needs to be tested)
Finish implementing scenes for Skadi and Hitomi (battle balancing is done, they just need to be put in)

Art -

Hitomi's Scene - I went to export the scene to the proper size for the game and it turns out the file was corrupted. Which is fun. I'm going to do my best to redo it in time for release on Saturday, but if it's not done, Hitomi wont be included until v0.2.2. Since I need to be able to release on a Saturday, because that's the day that the game gets the most hits. So if it's not done by Friday night, I'll have to release without it. I hate to push her back like that, especially since she's basically done, but I can't push the release of v0.2.1 back.

I got the really time intensive stuff done with the random schoolgirl and cheerleader both implemented. Shizuka's storyline is in the game, it just needs to be tested. So I'm hoping to be done programming everything by the end of Wednesday. It all just depends on how much trouble implementing the rest of the content goes (especially Shizuka's storyline, if there's bugs when I test, it could take a while to fix) and how much trouble I have remaking the scene. With any luck, everything will go smoothly and implementing Hitomi in time wont be a problem. But I wanted to mention it, just in case I can't get it done in time.

Edit from the future -

Just wanted to let everyone know that v0.2.1 is content complete! I was able to get Hitomi's scene in. I did initial testing while implementing and everything went smoothly. All that's left to do is doing an export and testing from a new file. Which I'm just about to start. As soon as it's been tested, I'll be uploading it for Waifu Early Access supporters!