Date Ariane 2 test version 0.2 released

I've decided I'm at a good stopping place for Date Ariane 2 to post an updated alpha version 0.2.

Here's the second alpha test of Date Ariane 2. You can download it from: https://arianeb.itch.io/date-ariane-2/patreon-access

The primary focus on this update are two things: Stuff that happens before dinner, and what are called "sprites".

Sprites are PNG files that display in front of backgrounds, early Date Ariane versions didn't use sprites, and that required numerous redundant pictures.

When I made Date Ariane Remastered, I started experimenting with Sprites. Not only could I use them in the house, I found I could use the same sprites in other locations if I adjusted the brightness and contrast of the sprites to match other backgrounds. How brightness and contrast is handled in Renpy 8.3 has changed recently, plus I can't use the same settings as before as the new renders have different contrasts.

For this update I made 150 different sprites, plus 450 animation frames for the rock and hip hop dances. The "rock" dance animations have an odd shift every 32 frames, a bug I plan to fix at some point, but the "hip hop" works great.

I also had to change all the music from Epidemic Sounds to Tune Pocket, which doesn't care how their music is used commercially, but sadly it's not as good as Epidemic.

I made the sprites bigger than they needed to be which makes them more versatile, but it means I have to align and resize them all when they are used, and they are used everywhere.

I found as many of the incorrectly sized and positioned sprites as I could find while testing, but I'm sure there are dozens more. At least these bugs just look weird.

With so many new pictures there are likely to be many "cannot find X" errors, occasionally popping up. If you find any I'd appreciate it.

What I've Done So Far

Besides new sprites, I focused on making new pictures for stuff that happens before dinner, either in the house, or on the patio except 1. The Park, and 2. The Pool. These two require new sets I haven't gotten around to building yet. I also did all the pictures for the Romantic Steak dinner and Pizza dinner. Other dinners will come later.

In my testing, I went through all the walk-throughs that started with either the Pizza or Steak dinners, so I haven't debugged all the walk-throughs, yet. Haven't got through a path that hasn't required a fix of some sort, so I know there's a lot of work still to do.

The game will keep switching between Remastered Ariane and DA2 Ariane on every path, which I know can be annoying as you play. That's why this is an "alpha" build.

What's coming next

I want to try making some progress on Dating in a World on Fire. This takes longer as I have to write the scenes, and build the sets but I want to see what I need to do there to finish "Chapter 2". My goal is to release an update of one of these games each month, but with all the chaos here in the US, I can't make guarantees. At the very least, I'll do the "keep you informed" thing.