Straight!? Revamp v15 Teasers 2 Slideshow

Hey folks, happy new year. Hope everyone is safe and beginning the process of rehydrating after any new years partying.

We're starting off the new year with a lengthy list of teasers here today for the upcoming v15 update. Image-wise, this post will have some minor spoilers and I'm going to try to word things in the post to prevent any further spoilers. Originally, when I started these dev log teasers, I sorta had it in my mind that people had already read the story and were just here for the glow-up. But lately, I've been increasingly surprised here, on the Discord, and on itch.io to realize how many people are just playing the Revamp for the first time. So with that in mind, I'm gonna try and change my tone a bit to avoid spoilers.

But at this point, it shouldn't be a surprise that the majority of this update will take place in new environments outside the campus.

Also, if you want to see another teaser, you can check out my Bluesky account where I posted one more exclusive Before/After over there. 

So let's jump in because there's a ton of pics here. As always, if you want the directors cut of this-- you can check out the video post that clocks in around an hour with a much more expanded discussion around the images.

Pic 1: So this is a shot from the original game and shows the intro into the dressing room event. It's also a good place to start the discussion and set the tone for some of the changes we'll be seeing. Like most of these original shots, there's not a lot of life in the poses here and the facial expressions are pretty meh and overexaggerated. The lighting in here was way too consistent. To the point that it almost looks like there's no shadows. And the last point here is that the room is completely empty.

Pic 2: So this isn't a direct replacement of the previous shot but it's going to be on shot after  the replacement. One of the biggest changes we'll see in the Revamp here is the addition of clutter around the room. There's clothes and a ton of coat hangers just lying around. I felt like this was an easy way to show a world that includes other characters without having to actually put them on-screen. The second big change is the addition of shopping clothes. In this shot, you can see the characters carry a selection of outfits into the dressing room. The goal here is to not be the lazy dev who makes characters pull items out of thin air. I kinda go off on a tanget with this in the video log because large-budget AAA game studios do it all the time but i did feel like it can break immersion. Throughout the update, we'll be seeing clothing being tried on, discarded, lying on the floor and just showing a process of various outfit changes without having items magically disappear like they did in the original.

Pic 3: This shot shows a conversation element outside the actual dressing booth thingies (I still don't know what to call them so I've been calling them cubbies). In the original scene there's more banter and conversation between the characters here but they sorta just stand outside the dressing cubby and it's aesthetically boring.

Pic 4: While not a direct replacement, this shot should give you an idea of how the conversation elements will play out in the Revamp. Now they'll just directly go into their cubbies while the conversation still plays out. We'll see various items hitting the floor as they talk, giving us something else to look at while things play out. This shot also shows another angle of random shit lying around on the floor as well as an example of Braden halfway through undressing. Note the one shoe off-- things like that just feel like they really help show a character was interrupted in the process of changing clothes. The Revamp will also have drastic body language differences between these two guys-- but more on that later.

Pic 5: This shot is from the original and shows an interior cubby shot. Note how empty the cubby is. Additionally, this is a really small enclosure to do shots in. Think of a movie set like this but you have to squeeze the camera guy in here with them. It's a tight fit so the originally had very limited camera angles. This shot also shows a partially dressed Zack where items just magically disappeared off the characters (quite literally just faded off them in some scenes).

Pic 6: Here's an example of the Revamp approach to this. There are a TON of interior shots in this update. This original event was around 60 images and the Revamp has already cleared 230 in this scene alone. This shot shows a transition of the characters getting dressed or undressed. I wanted conversation to take place here like it does in the dorm room. I wanted to capture the characters still talking while they took things off or on because that felt more casual and realistic to me. The Revamp will exploit the shit out of this. Here we see Zack tossing something off screen while Braden pulls up his jock. Expect to see a lot of clothing transition shots here that will hopefully scratch that teasing element that i wanted the original to have but didn't quite get there. We also see various clothes hanging up here on the hooks. Those will hopefully change throughout the event if i don't fuck up the continuity :p You can also expect there to be more adult shots in the Revamp than we saw in the original. I turned up the heat a bit and I think it works better here.

Pic 7: Mirror shot. This is one of the things that I wanted to preserve from the original. The use of the dressing room mirror here to help bounce the conversation between the guys worked. It was nice to see characters on opposite sides of the room in the same shot. We're keeping that. But everything else in this image is pretty flat. Braden is shy here but it's a pretty rigid pose without much life in it. Also, I never realized but when I was doing the video recording, I realized his damn shirt has somehow wrapped itself around his arm and looks insane.

Pic 8: Now before we get into this shot, I'm going to be looking at the lighting here. It's been an obstacle that's unresolved but I do want to take a look so take this shot with a grain of salt because I know it's a bit blown out on the white section. But I'm also not gonna shy away from showing off the process here. But let's leave that for now. This shot is the Revamp approach. Way more relatable posing. The mirror still allows us to see both characters and it's just way more immersive than the previous one. I also worked with the clothing morphs more to help the characters just interact with the clothing. The result should be more immersive and honestly a bit naughtier in some parts.

Pic 9: Ok... this shot drives me crazy but we're gonna quickly gloss over it because the pose is bad and Braden isn't even facing Zack. The only reason I'm posting this here is because I showed a shot of Braden so I'm balancing it with a Zack shot.

Pic 10: Revamp approach. Remember the body language I talked about earlier? Here's another example of how they step outside the cubby differently. Zack peeks out first to make sure they're alone and the shot just adds a much-needed layer of realism here. Braden's body language is much better too but more on that in the next shot. Zack's skin is also darker so it doesn't get blown out as easily with that pesky light that's giving me problems.

Pic 11: Alright, this shot is a good excuse to talk about more body language here with the guys. I wanted to do more character development here but do it visually versus depending on the narrative all the time. This was an original shot with the guys waiting outside. But the problem is that they have very different attitudes about this but somehow sat very similar with no real life to them.

Pic 12: Here's what we can expect in the Revamp. Having different attitudes means they just carry themselves differently while they wait. In this shot, Braden is bored and entertaining himself while arguing with Zack, who's taking forever and being a diva. The way the characters will behave just adds another layer of humor into this scene that needed to be there in the original but I don't think came across clearly. Plus, playful/smartass Braden is just fun anyway.

Pic 13: Alright... last set of shots. Here's the original shopping store which was the bane of my existence back in the day. It was a pain in the ass to make and there's very limited clothing here-- in fact, both the racks have the same fucking shirts on them. I hated these shots and the only reason they're in the game is to show some type of transition and that they shopped. I ultimately had a bad attitude about these few shots and I think it showed. They looked lazy because I was taking as many shortcuts as I could. Not a great approach tbh and these suffered.

Pic 14: Ok, the shopping environment is one of the few Revamp environments that was completely bulldozed and rebuilt from scratch. These shots will be unrecognizable in the Revamp but honestly, based on how I felt about pic 13, it was needed. These were challenging shots and they really slowed me down because of the detail here but there's easily twice as many shopping shots here than the original and you should expect to see shots that will flesh out the store a bit but also still focus solely on the characters and the interactions they're having here. In this particular shot, Zack is browsing and testing Braden's patience-- ya know, like he does in pretty much every scene in the game. Braden's approach in these scene is way more fun than the original. I took a very different camera approach with him that breathes new life into this and I think just really captures him better.

Ok, well that's all for today. Stay tuned. We'll have a lot more to share. This update has a TON of pics in it so it's slowing me down but I promise: if you liked the original shopping event: this will blow you out of the water. If you were kinda indifferent to the shopping event (I honestly was. I wanted this scene to be so much better than it originally turned out) I think you'll be surprised at how much better it is now. This one checks a lot of boxes. It should be pretty, fun, it's funny, lot of interesting camera shots that really feel cinematic, it's way sexier than the original, and it fleshes out the world and characters more.

Don't forget, if you wanna see one more teaser, check out my Bluesky account for an exclusive over there. I'm increasingly taking that account more serious and if you want to help support the project, following, liking, and reposting stuff over there helps me a ton.

Anyway, best wishes in the new year. Stay safe and I thank you, as always, for the support and caring about this project :)

-Aaryn