Straight!? Revamp v16: Teasers 2 Slideshow

Hey all,

So today we're going to be looking at 4 sets of teasers for the upcoming v16 update. Like usual, the majority of this discussion will be from a Before/After framework-- comparing how things may have looked or been written in the original game versus how we'll see them in the upgraded Revamp version.

Today's discussion will differ slightly given that many of the "before" pictures from the Revamp may be pics we've seen before or an example of the type of image we saw in the original. The old version reused a lot of pictures and I've talked at length about wanting some variation in the Revamp-- particularly in the dorm room where much of the story takes place. I'm gonna jump right in and hopefully it'll make more sense as we go.

Pic 1: This is from the original and picks up right where our last discussion left off: Zack (actually) studying and working on his paper solo in the room. The quality on these original shots wasn't bad honestly but the biggest flaw here was the camera angles were terrible. Basically, positioning a laptop on someone's legs and trying to get individual fingers placed to look like they're typing was pretty advanced for my skill at the time-- so i hid them behind the big ass screen. I did like many of the lazy poses from these shots and I really wanted to keep them in the Revamp (but I ended up using many of these earlier in the game if you recall when Braden came back into the room and got changed behind Zack while he was sitting at the desk). I'll also briefly mention here-- as I always do-- that many of these shots were very very light when it was actually evening.

Pic 2: Here's a completely different take on this paper-writing scene that we'll see in the Revamp. I've had this idea for a long time but I borked an animation in the very early game so I scrapped it. I finally came back to it here and I think this overhead shot is an interesting and new way to show time passing while Zack works. Much like the original, we'll see him sorta fade in and fade out to different locations in the room. Once Braden comes back and the conversation is more intimate, then we'll see the camera drop back down with the guys again. I'll also, somewhat comically, mention the ceiling light in the middle of the room not being centered. I know someone's is gonna lose their mind, lol. I actually did that on purpose based on some random construction stuff I was doing on my house. Some things aren't centered and the builders cut some corners-- I sorta wanted to capture some small little things like that here.

Pic 3: Original game. Yes, we've seen this shot a dozen times before and the only change here was Zack's new hair style. We'll be seeing some similar reusing of past CGs just like this but let's jump to Pic 4 to show you some additions to some of these reused shots.

Pic 4: Alright, here's some additional sorta Director's Cut stuff we'll be seeing in the Revamp. At the time these original scenes appeared in the first draft of the game, my hand-me-down computer was around 12 years old and you could damn near boil water on top the case when I was rendering. That old rig just couldn't handle 3D renders and I wasn't able to put more people into a lot of those early/mid-game shots. In the Revamp, we've already seen things like this-- students on campus and we see the swim team students much earlier in the Revamp than we did in the original. We'll continue to see that but the idea here is to sprinkle in some additional environmental shots that help accent what Zack and Mikhail are talking about. It also goes with that theme I've mentioned before about world-building and filling things out more--aaaaand it's new stuff to look at during longer dialogue scenes (which is like half the friggen game).

Pic 5: Alright, now back to the original game. This massage shot we've seen before and it was used again for a follow-up conversation with Zack and Braden in the dorm room. Based on the tone of this scene, I really felt that the intimacy of them touching here, just didn't feel right. The dialogue is sorta tense here and I wanted to show that in the Revamp more.

Pic 6: Here's the Revamp approach here. Instead of having them together, I wanted them separated. Sure, it's a metaphor but it's also a good excuse to show how different they are. In the Revamp, we'll see a very sarcastic and stubborn Braden pulling a filibuster on Zack, who's hiding some feelings and stuff. In this shot, Braden just kicks back on Zack's bed and flips the TV on. The original almost never showed the TV for the primary reason of it requiring more work. If I put an image on the TV screen, I have to make that image first then import it into the environment to render the final shot. It's just an extra step and sometimes that can get complicated. But additionally, I didn't want the camera on the TV a lot. I wanted the shots on the characters because that's what mattered. This scene is also obviously much darker. I think the darkness of the room and the light accents here just felt real to me and it's a fresh look for the conversation so that we can save the massage shots for an actual massage and not just lazily reuse them just to save time.

Pic 7: Original shot. Now for those of you that played the original, this scene may have stood out and was pretty iconic for early fans. This scene has both Zack and Braden watching TV together and turns into a comical event where they make fun of the cheesy porn names on the TV guide. While this position was new at the time, I really wanted to turn the volume up on this scene in the Revamp because people liked this scene way more than I anticipated.

Pic 8: So here's the Revamp look at this scene. I've moved the characters and cut the lighting down. We'll also be seeing some light changes from the TV depending on what they're watching (this is pretty minor though because honestly, it's really hard for me to juggle multiple colors in the shots so I went with two and I hope that's enough). The biggest upgrade here is facial expressions. There's some pretty stupid things that happen in this scene as well as stupid things that are said as they tease each other. The Revamp will hopefully capture more of this as well as have the guys wrestle around with the remote and just dumb horseplay stuff like that. So expect the quality of this to get turned up along with the humor, the cringe, the horseplay, the jokes, and the sarcasm. If you were one of the fans of this in the original, I'm hoping you enjoy the upgraded take on this 'cause it looks fun.

Alright, that's all for today. I'll be publishing a DevLog in the next few days. I got like 2 scenes left so wish me luck. This update is turning out to be way longer than I remembered so I'm glad I split it where I did.

Thanks all, and stay tuned <3