Content complete, so what happens how?

With chapter 7 all but content complete, it's time to talk a little about what comes next.

As you can see from the infographic I've been publishing, there's a few things on the bottom line that need to be filled out as well before we can release.

They are, from left to right, QA and fixes, a few rounds (probably 3) of beta releases and processing feedback, getting the android version prepared, some finetuning image compression, and finally shipping. Apart from the shipping part, the other parts will be be running in parallel to others (although they won't all start or finish at the same time).

So, what do all those parts mean? Below is a little summary, feel free to skim over and go to the questions bit if you're not interested in details.

Quality Assurance and fixes is a big one. Basically, it's me going over the game a few times, focusing on chapter 7, and fixing anything is broken, address continuity issues, tonal issues, anything that is not up to snuff, really. 

Note that the scope of work for this part is quite uncertain at this moment in time. For instance, if, in going through it, I find that a scene just doesn't work in the completed context anymore, or a dialog just doesn't work as intended within the bigger picture, that might mean some major overhauling. 

At the same time, I'll be addressing some of the technical debt I mentioned earlier, which is all the bits I intentionally ignored, to polish up in rushing through to get it completed end to end. That might range from fixes and improvement on images to overhauling transform scripts to adding missing content on paths less often trodden (although that's stretching the definition a bit, but it is stuff that needs to get done). 

One special mention of something that will also take place during this period: overhauling the gallery function. If successful, will mean much less work for me this time round in creating gallery entries (which usually happened in parallel to the beta). 

Beta testing. When I'm happy enough with the game to hand it over to whoever's signed up for the beta, we'll go through a few cycles of beta versions and fixes. 

In spite of my best efforts, quite large number of issues will still come out of that, and I'm really grateful to anyone willing to wade through the mess I make to help clean it up. Note that the beta's not the finished product, so if you're looking for the best experience, I urge you to wait for the official release, which usually follows about a week or two after the beta testing stared. 

Getting the android version prepared. As usual, the Android version takes a bit of extra TLC due to hard 2GB limit for APKs, as well as its tendency to throw unsuspected wobblers when running a build after adding a ton of content. 

Given the number of images added to the game, that size limit's gonna be a challenge (again). But on the up side, I'm also going to be looking into a way to allow you to manually upgrade graphics on your android device, so it matches the desktop quality, at the cost of taking the same amount of storage as the desktop version does. If it pans out, it should really make a difference for all the people streaming it to the tv from their tablets and phones, or those on bigger tablets.

Note that it with the compression rates I'm expecting to have to apply, it is unlikely the standard APK version will be without some noticeable compression artifacts on bigger screens.

Finetuning image compression. This one is a bit out of place positioned all the way to the right where it is in the graph, but it entails doing the standard compression for the desktop version, and making sure there are no noticeable compression artifacts there. I try to tailor that to the scene for the best result and check if looks alright, so some time is involved in that as well.

Shipping is the last part, and it involves getting builds ready, applying any of a number of last minute fixes, updating readmes and version numbers, and writing up release notes, announcements, and such, and then distributing all that to the different sites and mirrors out there. It's pretty straight forward.

So as you can tell, we're not done yet, but we are starting our descent. About time too. 

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I'm sure there's still a ton of questions, but let me try to tackle a few I imagine are common:

So no release next week?

Er... no?

Aww... so when release?

When the stuff I mentioned above is done. Keep checking the progress infographic, and I'll be posting progress updates as well as I'm ticking off milestones and announcing stuff. At some point, I'll start naming dates, but not until I've had a good look at how it plays, and identified any major areas that require rework.

How do I sign up for the beta? Also, when beta?

I'll put up a poll for the people in the eligible tier, and you can respond if you wanna participate or not there. I'll also give some timeframe at that time. If you're late to the party, no worries, that means it'll be released soon.

What about Steam?

The Steam release takes additional work to integrate with the platform, create achievements, do some testing, etc. I'll get working on that the moment chapter 7 is released, but I don't want to hold up the general release for that. So, it'll come a little after.

Wait, you said it's all but content complete. What's that?

Content complete is when all the content the game requires is in there. So, every image made, every dialog produced. They might still require fixing, but they're in there.

And what's the all but bit?

Oh, yeah, at the moment of writing this, it's almost there. 

I find I have about a dozen or so more images to prepare. Mostly they're easy ones, some are variants to ones already made for this scene, some are some fun happening in the background, and one or two specials, but they aren't that complex either. 

But in the light of many thousands of images added this chapter, they're hardly a blip on the radar now.

How are you feeling about the release getting close?

NGL, Its... weird. It feels like I'm heading full throttle to the edge of a cliff, and any moment now I'm gonna run out of road, and that's scary. But at the same time, it's also what I've been gunning for for a year and a half now, which is an effing long time, and I'm excited to finally jump over that edge, and to see where it all lands. 

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Alright, that's all I managed to come up with. Hope that answered some of your questions, and if not, you know where to find me.