Pics 52: The Scenic View

The new update that includes these pictures is already out, but since the scenic view has been historically one of the most discussed and liked, I needed to dedicate a post to it.

The above picture is the iconic "artistic" picture that makes cameos in at lest two other games and has been around since the 2007 release of the HTML.  This version doesn't actually appear in the game, I made two version, one with a blurry background and one without, and used the blurry background in the game, so here is the rare "without".

Over the past year I have experimented with IBL domes which are 360 degree wrap around images.  I decided to make my own. The background picture of the city is a picture of Phoenix Arizona where I used to live, taken from Dobbins Lookout which is in South Mountain Park -- an actual city park covering a large mountain range and one of the largest parks in the world.  The picture which I found online and was listed as under the CC license  covered nearly 120 degrees of panorama.

When I made the HD game, I carved out sections of the panorama to use as a background depending on the viewing angle used.  For this game I took the entire image, mirrored it, and turned it into a 360 degree panorama that I set up as an IBL dome, that would be correctly visible at any angle, and also give me better ambient light,

For Ariane's "funny face", I was inspired by an old Calvin and Hobbes strip.  Thanks Bill!

Here is an image you only see if you play as a female, there is no male equivalent.  I usually don't deviate with gender avatars, the game you get with male is the same game you get with female.

But the scenic view car sex scene created a problem.  It was written with heterosexual sex in mind and had three achievements attached to it.  I needed to create a lesbian version for those achievements, and one doesn't have an equivalent. So I did what I could, but the female avatar version was simplistic in comparison with fewer choices.  My solution was to add and additional photo op for the female avatar to even things out, and here it is.