Belated Big'ol Update!: New UI Preview, Animation Progress (Hiring), Dev Progress (Cloth Sim!)

Hello everyone sorry I'm late! 

Before we get started please note there is a second post coming or already posted that will contain Gifs of some of the animations made last month. I simply can't post them publicly here cause of patron rules (Naomi is nude in the previews). If you want to see those images and aren't currently supporting please check on Subscribe Star!

Sorry for the delay!

(This part has little to do with dev updates it's just me rambling)

Like I said in a previous post I got a double whammy of both my Desktop and laptop being out of commission at the same time. But at the same time that kind of compounded with my disappointment with progress last month. I didn't produce near as many animations as I wanted to, but I'll explain more in a bit on that.

The good news is everything is back up and running and also running better than before cause the full reinstallation of windows on my desktop allowed me to fix some configuration issues I've long needed to fix and planned to months from now. For example I no longer need to unplug my second monitor to boot my PC, yes it was that bad. It got like that thanks to transferring the OS a bunch of times across hard drives while also doing things like changing mother boards.

My laptop is also better since the issues I originally intended to RMA it for (Weird touch screen issues) is fixed as well. I also installed Windows 11 on it. Not doing that on my desktop for a while but I like the new touch screen and desktop stuff.

This past week I've been trying to get back in the swing of things. And now I'm making steady progress. The reason for this instead of immediately making a post, is that making a post like this usually marks a "break" period for me, but I'll be skipping that this time. And I wanted some momentum before I make this post for that behavioral reason.

All that rambling done...

Animations

(Gifs will be posted in a separate supporter only post, or on Subscribe Star)

Last month I had some difficulty building momentum to get animations done at the pace I wanted. Generally I think I can produce maybe 3 animations a day, and while I could do that some days, others it was basically zero. As a result I only produced around 20 animations last month which is WAY off mark for my needs.

For me doing so many things, it's often hard to shift gears and focus on a completely different task than my usual. Going from dev, to writing, to animation, to modeling, etc, it often feels like I hit a wall unless I feel fully satisfied with a previous task which is rare. But I think I finally built some momentum and as a result I should continue to focus on animation to get the most out of it.

So this month will be an animation month as well.

BUT!

I have to face the music, I need to hire an animator to help keep things on pace. Thankfully I've significantly improved my animation workflow before starting this new batch. So hiring an animator shouldn't be much trouble, and should be fairly user friendly.

If you're reading this and you're an animator, hit me up! I already have some people in mind I intend to ask but more options is more options. Feel free to DM me here, twitter, discord,  or email (jobs@momoirosoft.moe). I will need samples, needs range from dialogue animations to lewd animations. Must work in Blender, I don't intend to modify my workflow. 

New UI!

Our Apartment is getting a new UI! Finally the generic UI I've had so far will be replaced! This has been in the works for the past couple months or so, and has been paid for by my publisher Critical Bliss!

Implementation will be it's own challenge, but should start soon! As you can see some aspects of the UI will need some additional features added. Also while the UI may appear to take up a lot of space it is still designed to scale with resolution. These previews are based on a 720p scale which I generally consider the minimum resolution.

Behind the Scenes: Cloth!

Like I said last month Kaitou is also doing some dev work, and his job was a rewrite of the outfit system. Now I know I'm trying to be done with the rewrite shit but this was a barrier to getting cloth sim in the game. The options were figure out the code of the asset I was using for binding clothing, or use the binding process that comes with Magica Cloth. And we opted for the latter.

So far the system is working and we're utilizing some of the former code to avoid having to remake some stuff. The next task would be adding cloth to the current outfit items which will be a big job on it's own. Hopefully this will make some of the more difficult outfit items like Oversized Shirt, and Baby Doll top have more viability. And also make stuff like skirts move with animation. Magica Cloth specifically is critical cause of how performant it is, in theory it should even be viable for use on android. 

We'll see. 

Behind the Scenes: Writing!

Last month I realized pace on writing has been lacking too. I had already taken steps to resolve that, but more needed to be done. I talked with the person (Cala) I hired to direct writing, and we hired two additional writers to help with dedicated aspects. So at the moment there's three writers, under one director who just over sees things. 

One for writing the main story

One for writing extra event dialogue, and daily dialogue.

One for writing Sex Sim and other lewd dialogue.

This might sound like a lot, but one thing I've notice working on this project is the head space for these different tasks is very different. I want the story to be the best it can be, so that needs focus on continuity and purpose. I want the extra events (Dates, watching TV, etc) and daily dialogue to be engaging with a large pool to avoid repetition, a focus on character presentation and variety. The sex sim dialogue drives Naomi's expressions, and is HIGHLY conditional compared to everything else, that alone makes it a complicated job even if the relative  volume of words is lower.

The main concern is things feeling too different, but I think the way it's separated will mitigate that and like I said I have some one directing the writing and later hiring someone for a final editing pass will ensure cohesion. My role in the writing is mostly dealing with the direction and I'm extremely confident he understands my goals and intentions. 

Progress has been made on all these fronts, and things look promising. A supporter only update will come in due time as a preview for this content. As an FYI the majority of writing you've seen in builds so far has been by me or heavily edited by me ( 3 weeks, the missonary scene, and some sex sim dialogue were done by old writers and I edited those). I'm trying to distance myself from directly handling writing until I final pass is done.

This Month

Like I said this month is an animation month again, sorry. I do not know if there will be a build release this month. It depends on the progress Kaitou makes, cause I know he wants to release builds but I don't know if his tasks make that possible. One of their tasks is basically becoming as familiar with the project and scene structure as I am, and making it easier for others to do the same. While that is HIGHLY beneficial to future development, it doesn't help make a release. It might be viable if I hired them full time, but I simply can't for now.

At the very least though expect the next update to be BIG. Lots of new content, probably new dialogue, functional improvements.  And maybe if the animator works out well, I can push the new outfits sooner before summer is over. 

As always thanks for your support and patience! After this post goes live I will be streaming animation work on Picarto!

~sacb0y