DevLog Update

Heya folks,

So I wanted to check in with the community on the progress for the next update. We recently saw some of the Before/After teasers in the typical slideshow and video format and I haven't quite decided if we'll see any further teasers before the next update or not-- honestly it's gonna depend on how it goes or if I feel like I really have stuff to show off without doing spoilers for the newer folks.

But let's jump right into the status of where things are:

I think I stated before, but I'm going to reiterate: this update is a lot more work than I remember the first time around. I'm really glad I split the last update where I did. It was a good breather and really gave me a chance to catch my breath-- particularly coming off the number of CGs in all the newer environments that v15 required.

Writing:

So the writing is pretty much done on this one. The original script wasn't terrible but there were a couple sections that were pretty rough. I have gone through and made a few changes from the original for the sake of adding more world building or just showing more consistency in the writing, but they're not game changing by any stretch. At this point in the original game, I was starting to go in my own direction and the community had already gotten far bigger than I ever anticipated and that really helped build some confidence in the story so I felt like this section had some better bones to work with. So as of right now, I have very minimal stuff to do with writing. Odds are, once I get the update working and booting, I'll go back through and polish more-- I always do. But for now, you can pretty much mark this section as "done."

CGs:

So ton of CG work on this one. The last update had a ton of new CG environments that were the bulk of the work. But because of the outfit changes and Zack's haircut, many of the familiar environments are going to need new pics as well. For those of you that saw the teasers, rather than reusing all previous shots and just changing the outfit/hair, I've decided to redo a couple sections to freshen them up. This obviously created more work but it's way better and doesn't feel tired, like I thought reusing shots would feel. Right now I have 556 shots completed and sitting in the folder. That number is likely still going to grow quite a bit because the last scenes in this update did have some pretty heavy visual requirements but also have some places where I can reuse some shots. So I'm still in that unsure stage of how long that's going to take.

What's Left?

So right now I'm near the end. I'm in a lengthy scene right now that's a pretty big mix of action shots and dialogue. The bulk of the dialogue shots are done and I'm currently working on the first of two action scenes. The number of shots shouldn't really be that many buuuuut I started to make the first one complicated already and ended up walking away for the day because I wasn't sure if I wanted to go that direction or not. Honestly, I'm still not sure so I may be skipping that part and coming back to it. But once I get a clear idea on what I'm gonna do for that scene, I'm hoping it will go fairly quick. The second action scene may require some clothing adjustments and stuff-- think back to the dressing room in v15. Clothing slows me way down because it's tedious as hell but I'm hoping it won't be too bad and that I could possibly reuse some of the clothing shots from v15 to get me close to what I need much quicker than having to make it from scratch. So cross your fingers.

I do have a couple animations scheduled for this update. One is done and it's ridiculous and I can't believe I actually made this thing but apparently I tapped into some old locker room humor and made it. The second one involves a fan favorite scene from the TV event. I have the bones of it done but since it was such a fun scene before, I'm taking it slow and putting it through several revisions. I really wanted to capture some facial expressions and mannerisms here so it's coming along but I haven't started rendering it yet.

Now, originally I was thinking that after this scene I'm working on now, I had two short scenes but once I started looking at the script, I couldn't believe how long one of them was. Soooo, it may require some more work than I anticipated. The last scene will require some work but it shouldn't be anything too crazy and I should be able to burn through it in a few days hopefully.

After that, then I just have to put it all together and start editing, testing, and looking at music.

So I have about 3 scenes left. I'm halfway through the first one. The second one is kinda long and the last one is fairly short.

What to Expect

Alright, so I feel like I've left this section off more recently and I wanted to jump back into this and sorta set the tone. Last update was all new because of the environments and this one will take us back to the dorm, class, and pool. But we're coming off of the shopping experience so characters got a glow-up and we get to see some reactions to that. We're going to see fresh takes on longer dialogue scenes than we saw in the original. There's also some pretty goofy shit in this one. Braden is off the rails being a smart ass and the banter is probably higher than it's ever been. There's also apparently a lot of skin in this one. I was thinking this part was fairly chill but I was surprised at the amount of skin-- plus, I added some more in because it just felt right so we'll be seeing a fair amount of eye candy-- more than last update, more than what the original offered, and more than we've seen in one single update in a long time. This update will also end Chapter 7 so we can expect somewhat of a breather and a little bit of closure. Especially, if you read the original-- because I think this is the last breather we'll get right up until the end of the story. Chapter 8 starts that emotional rollercoaster.

Thanks as always. I've felt really blessed this week to have a community behind this thing and I'm going to be forever grateful. It means the world to me to have all of you on this journey. Thanks for everything and stay tuned

-Aaryn