Insights on Extended - Previews + Info

Hello everyone!

It’s been quite a while since the last update, and I really wish I could make this post available to everyone eagerly waiting for new content.
However, due to Patreon's ToS, this one has to remain exclusive to paying members since it includes some explicit in-game images.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way...

🥭Erika

Without a doubt, the biggest change in the extended version, and the main reason it’s taken so long, has been Erika. Originally, only her first scene was meant to be completely redone, but it didn’t make sense to keep the same tone and dynamics in her other appearances. So... the “worst” happened.

Her character and scenes were practically rewritten from scratch, resulting in hundreds of new renders and lines of dialogue.

Until now, my workflow was fully based in DazStudio, which offered a certain comfort despite the program’s usual instability.
Now I have to bounce between Blender and DazStudio using a plugin, exporting, reimporting, and just crossing my fingers nothing breaks.

The downside?
That transition cost me time. Time I couldn’t dedicate to other areas of development.

The upside?
In my opinion, it was time well spent. I see Blender as the future of this project, even if that future is still a long way off.

Well, we were talking about Erika, right?

There are a few key points regarding the changes in her scenes

• She’s now much more aware of her own decisions.

• You, the MC, act on the opportunities that come your way.

• It’s clear that both of you are playing with fire here.

As a result, her first scene was softened. There are no animations here.

Here are some previews:

The scene where you give Val the gift. That one was remade as well. Erika’s interaction is different from here, so the change was necessary.

Erika’s route is now quite strict. You need to successfully get comfortable with her in the first scene, or you’ll lose your chances. The same applies to her last scene in Ch.2 Part B.

Her second scene used to have two animations, now it has eight.

Let’s just leave the rest to the imagination... for now.

🥭Intimacies & Chapter Report

These two systems are the other major additions, which might seem minor at first.

The thing is... if I did everything right, they’re already set up for the entire game. They’ve been implemented in a way that lets me create new instances without having to worry about anything else.

The problem is, there aren’t more chapters out yet, so I don’t really know how these systems will behave once the code gets updated, for example, when adding new characters to the Intimacies DB.

That’s why I’ll release any required bugfixes after each main update. Hopefully, this won't be needed...

There are also unlock conditions for certain characters. This was necessary to implement because, once again, future content may include situations where you’d normally never meet a character.

Another thing I wanted to add, but it’s just been impossible for now, is a way to link the Chapter Report and Intimacies. Right below the textbox, I wanted to include buttons for each chapter. In these new tabs, you’d then have all the information related to that character within that specific chapter.

In other words, you’d be able to access the entire log from that chapter’s report. It seemed like a good way to expand the usefulness of Intimacies and make all reports easier to access.

That’s just way too much to invest my time in right now. I’ll leave this idea for the future, once the game is closer to a full release.

Chapter Report was really satisfying to make, though it was quite a complex process.

It works in a rather peculiar way. I created my own custom variables inside Ren’Py.

Nothing groundbreaking, really. I’ve got variables like 'bool', which are pretty standard in programming.

These variables let me specify under which conditions certain messages appear in the report.

For example, I’ve got one called 'combined', which lets me tell the program that a specific log should only appear when var1 is False and var2 is True, or vice versa, or even when both are False or both are True.

I also have 'stopblock', which prevents any further logs from being displayed. It’s needed in cases where you don’t meet a certain character again, but their variables are still set to False in the code, which would otherwise trigger an incorrect log during a playthrough.

In the future, I’d like to add a tab for the MC, so you can see his moral map more clearly. I decided not to include it in Ch.1 because it’s still unclear where he stands at that point.

Of course, Part C will bring a new Chapter Report, much to my own joy!

I won’t go into the rest of the changes, since tomorrow’s the day. You’ll get a detailed changelog covering everything (actually I've already talked about it in past devlogs), along with the download link for the Extended version.

I made this post partly to give you some insight into what I’ve been doing, and dealing with, to bring these new features to life. I’m thinking about keeping this format for future releases (without NSFW), like Part C, but I’d love to know what you think.

One of the two versions is finally done! Remember that Part C has been in development for over five months now, so it’s not starting from scratch. I’d say it’s around 60% complete at this point.

I'll do my best to bring it before closing the year. Thank you all for your patience and your support! 🧡

See you soon

Mango