Weekly news
Added 2018-11-13 09:55:57 +0000 UTCHi everybody!
It's been a while since I talked about how things are going with the projects so I thought I'd correct this.
First, you might have noticed the latest versions of Glassix have had a bit less content than usual. There has been a small drop in support those last few months which could be linked to that but also to other factors :
- The reduced amount of content as said
- Even though there is still much to develop for the game to be completed, the fact that the last versions focus on the endings might lead players to think the game might not bring much more to the table
- The fact that I do not give much news, mainly just new versions post
- Christmas is coming next month and we all need to save some money :p
Well, about the reduce content in Glassix, the main reason is because I was a bit more focused on Lust Complex those last 2 months. I've been talking about creating a new game in parallel with Glassix since I started this Patreon campaign and it's been almost about 3 years without anything to really show off. The first project I had, Vampire Revenge Rebirth, was cancelled due to not being able to find a reliable 2D artist after several tries. Then came Lust Complex which is going quite slow since 3D was a new start for me and I spent more time on Glassix at first anyway. With Glassix features being completed and the endings on the way, I thought it was time to rebalance my work time and push harder on Lust Complex to release an alpha version asap. Some of you might remember I suggested a poll to have patrons opinion about my work time but seeing the drop in support lately, I thought having a 3rd game to show off, 3D at that, should help me get your trust back so I decided to go for it. Having a little kick in the back can sometimes help creators push themselves harder.
As for not giving much news lately, sorry about that. When I check other creators page, I can see them posting a pic or 2 of how they advance on their game, sometimes too many posts though. Since my games are all custom made, I spend most of my time on the engine meaning there's not much to show off. Moreover, I often work on the CG last so even less chances to share any pic.
But since I stumbled on a new hassle in the engine development for Lust Complex, I thought I'd share it to show you how things are going. I'm referring to the main pic above showing two pair of shoes. Those of you who tried the (quite old) demo might remember how the character customization work with the ability to colorize parts of the clothing. The idea is for it to be similar to other big games but as I went to add more clothing to the characters, I noticed my method of colorization sucked for some of them, like the shoes shown above. Since only 1 color option was available for the shoes, all its sub part were colorized. Being new to this, it took me a while to figure out the solution but I finally found it and thought I'd share this to keep you updated and let you know the game is properly worked on. It makes the stuff a bit more complicated to code than originally planned but it'll give more options for clothing and since the game is about having many different girls with a set amount a clothing, this change was mandatory. I know it's a basic feature on other 3D game but again, I'm learning by myself and I just discover basic things as I go.
In any case, I was hoping to release a playable demo this month but with this change in colorization, I'm not so sure now. Worst case will be next month anyway since I'm really focused on it now. That means that this month content for Glassix should be the same as the last two months, basically 4 bad endings, 1 level for Fujiko and a few extra minor scenes.
The current plan for my campaign is to release a playable demo with basic content for Lust Complex before the end of the year (I'll release a proper roadmap about what planned inside asap) while working on Glassix endings at the same time but with reduced content.
I hope this new planning will suit you. I know working on different games at the same time can be looked down however in this case, it's a bit different since the games are totally different, one being 3D with simple gameplay while the other is 2D with mainly content only developments remaining. Plus once the first version of Lust Complex is out, it'll be easier to update it with new content compared to Glassix from what I have experienced so far. I hope you'll understand.
Thanks for your time reading this and thank you for your continued support, all this would not be possible without you.
Comments
I think I get your meaning. There are currently 39 girls in the game moving around town. Out of those 39, there are 21 girls (if I counted well) already available at level 4. The 18 left are only level 0. When we start a new poll, the poll is about voting for one of those 18 girls left to be completed. I think your worries come from the fact that a few months ago, there were only about 35 or 36 girls and we added 3 or 4 more girls. Which indeed extend the development time. However, such case should not occur anymore until all girls are completed.# like you said. Those new girls were actually just added because the town expanded in size and needed a few more inhabitants but since we reached the end of the game, I'm not planning to expand the town. The only thing which could happen would be the appearance of Ayumi's little sister or Aiko's aunt, two characters I thought about but not included in the game at the moment. However, since I'm busy with Lust Complex and the endings, I'm not sure I'll work on them that soon. I was planning to release a poll for the patrons once the good endings are completed so patrons can decide how I should spend my time for Glassix after that, such as those 2 new characters, new commands for the slave mode, doll mode or girlfriend mode or such extra things until we feel all features in the game have enough H content on their own and we can consider Glassix completed. But as for the current 18 girls, CarpeNoctem is working on them on his side and we do plan to complete them as soon as possible.
Gaweb Studio
2019-01-07 14:20:27 +0000 UTCWanted to clarify one thing. It seemed like Simon's concern (which is also my concern) is that existing girls are not being completed, in favor of adding new incomplete girls. My preference would be to not get a single new girl until every existing girl is at level 4-especially since favor now "degrades," meaning we need to hunt girls down and keep favor up. I don't want to worry about chasing down a character to keep favor up, grinding corruption, and learning the hard way that "oops, this character is capped at level 2" and then see a new character who I haven't seen before, knowing they are capped at level 1, so they are not worth my time...
Aaror
2019-01-07 06:17:26 +0000 UTCOooh, I actually forgot it's SBPR and not even Honey Select one. It is outdated indeed, not to mention the game wasn't the most stable to begin with. And yeah, considering that even importing the girls from one game to another works... well... to put it lightly, not perfectly, switching would indeed be a pain.
Simon.cleric
2018-11-22 17:12:37 +0000 UTCI'd just like to add that CarpeNoctem is NOT a full time worker on the game and he actually delivers much more content that what I can pay him for. As for the image generations, it does seem simple copy/paste however we're really slowed down by the outdated SBPR studio which is much more limited compared to the latest Illusion studios. For example, 1 girl can only have two outfits at the same time, one being a swimsuit kind. We can't change the outfits inside the studio and we need to proper different models for the same girl in advance. Since each girl has 4 main outfits not being swimsuit kind, this means we need to duplicate the girl model 4 times in the same scene to get the proper screenshot. (And I'm not including the models for the doll mode but that makes things even messier) We considered switching to a newer studio but due to the number of images to redo at the time (it was at least 1 year worth of work to redo at that time), we decided to just keep going at the current pace. I know you're not blaming us and the case was closed, but I just wanted to explain a bit more in depth so that if other patrons wonder the same thing as you, the have a proper answer :p This is actually one of the reasons I want to switch to 3D, handling outfits will be MUCH easier plus it'll have animations. Maybe in the future, a full 3D Glassix game could be possible too :p
Gaweb Studio
2018-11-22 15:17:52 +0000 UTCI don't blame you at all. You know what's best for you and work at your own pace. And like I said, I still find it to be one of the best projects out there, especially considering it actually has a finished story and quite a lot of side content. So I honestly wish you the best and hope that my words didn't discourage you in any way. You guys are awesome, keep it up.
Simon.cleric
2018-11-15 22:07:42 +0000 UTCI won’t argue about the cost or if it earns it or not: as everybody, you have your own opinion and it’s a fair one. I can just say that we work as fast as possible. Indeed, there is some copy/paste possibilities that allows us to gain some time (even if it’s not as simple as it seems because there is adjustment work and sometime Photoshop correction). But there is also new models regularly added and some scene that aren’t copy/pasted. (in v0.30, 7 picture settings are copy/pasted on an amount of 95. From v0.27 to v0.30, 108 are copy/pasted on a amount of 439: most of the production is clearly new stuff!) You can find frustrating that new characters aren’t added faster than that. I actually feel the same thing: we have a lot many other scenes / situations to add after that, so many ideas to materialize. I would like to be able to give you all this. We all would like that those things go faster. But unfortunately we just can’t, as hard as we try. :(
CarpeNoctem
2018-11-15 21:43:22 +0000 UTC"one month is technically necessary for each additionnal level" See, that's where my issue is. Like, forget for a second the 1>2>3>4 events. Sure, they are unique and would take some time to make (although I still can't see it as a month per event). But the general sex stuff could pretty much be added in a matter of a week. It's all reused stuff. You just load an existing model in an existing costume to an existing studio scene and hit print screen. Granted, I am oversimplifying it a fair bit, you still need to put it in a game, put UI in place, test it, adjust the poses for different backgrounds and models, but still. You are using the same poses, same dialogue, a lot of the same code. Definitely not 4 months worth of work per girl. Now again, unique level up events are a very different story, but why not put placeholders in their stead for now, so that the girls don't feel like a complete waste of space? Right now I actually wish I didn't see them on a map and in game at all, since there's absolutely nothing to do with them. And just to put it into perspective, what you are talking, about 3 girls in 12 months, is actually 3 girls for 60$. The price of an AAA title for 3 girls with 90% copy-pasted scenes. And mind you, I love this game, and the scenes themselves are not an issue for me. But it is what it is. And again, I'm not telling you how to do your job. If that's what you are comfortable with - that's your prerogative. I'm just trying to explain why I, personally, am not ready to pay for this. If some people are - good for them. But I'm not. And yes, you are right, I'll give you Kristina (who I simply forgot) and Emiri (who is always the last girl for me and I simply don't play to that point often). You are correct in that regard.
Simon.cleric
2018-11-15 13:39:06 +0000 UTCActually, the game development has passed through several phases. When the town has been largely expanded, it was quite empty with the existing girls. Gaweb asked me to create a lot of girls to give a population and a utility to all these places. Writing the script was quite easy, but it wasn't possible to create all development for all of them. So, we chose to offer all these girls at level 0 for the player instead of keeping them just in dev' boxes. After that, Gaweb decided to finish all games essential fonctionnalities. Work time had to be shared between this aspect and new girls development. We are ending this phase now. Despite all this, we did a lot of work to still add new girls. I work with Gaweb since two years now. In these 24 monthes, 13 girls have been added: it's a bit more than one girl for each two monthes! As Gaweb has explained, one month is technically necessary for each additionnal level (with all the added suits, etc.)... and we made the double: we made quite a hard work to keep this level of production! As long as people want new girls, I will be happy to develop them... but it still requests time to do it. (just in the last 12 monthes, three more girls have been developped: Kristina, Emiri and Fujiko. I think you're wrong when you say "Fujiko is the only one to get some since ")
CarpeNoctem
2018-11-15 12:34:34 +0000 UTCI may be wrong about timelines, and I only used Fujiko as an example, maybe a bad one. You started adding characters with no content some time ago is what I meant. And Fujuko is the only one to get some since then. While the rest are there with 0 purpose at all. Eimi, Atsuko, Yue and about a dozen more that are there... why? And then there's the whole magic system that's basically just transferring cheats into grinding. You did finish the story though which is way more than I can say about all the other projects out there. But again, it's not my place to tell you what to add or not add into the game. It's just that from my perspective I see more placeholders added, instead of more content, and I don't really like it. But then again, like I've mentioned, I still consider you to be one of the most honest patreon developers out there. I'm not accusing you of anything at all. Just saying that personally I'll rather come and check once every few months for meaningful content than stay subscribed, hoping for it. But whatever the case may be, it's just one persons opinions and I still wish you all the best. You did manage to create one of the best projects on the eroge scene, so keep up the good work =)
Simon.cleric
2018-11-14 02:26:51 +0000 UTCI totally understand your concerns. This post was also meant for patrons to consider if they still want to pledge during those few next months where Glassix content will be reduced. Actually, I should have posted about this when I switched my work time but didn't think it was that big of a deal but seeing your reply, I realize that was a mistake. I don't want patrons to feel cheated so I'll be more careful in the future about communicating on the work time on my games. So in your case, you might want to cancel your pledge until things are back to normal on Glassix. As for Fujiko, I'm a bit surprised by your comment. She has been added 2 versions ago in v0.29 released at the end of September. However you are right that 0.27 and 0.28 did not add any new girl level when they should have. It was mainly due to CarpeNoctem being busy during the summer and working on other task for the game. But this should be an exception and the current plan is to have at least 1 girl level per version.
Gaweb Studio
2018-11-14 02:13:20 +0000 UTCThis one should be fairly easy to add. I'll check with Carpe if we can add it for 0.31.
Gaweb Studio
2018-11-14 01:48:02 +0000 UTCNo offense, but I for once am only here for Glassix, and see no reason to pay for minor updates. So I just check it once in a while to see if the tons of unfinished characters are... well... more finished. And they aren't. Like, there's maybe one Fujiko level added since I last checked, and it was around 5 versions ago? Yikes. And with all that you still are one of the better content creators on patreon, just... these updates are hardly worth a monthly subscription, sorry. At least not for me. Still better than almost everybody else here though. You and Mity are probably the only ones who don't explicitly milk their patrons and actually provide content instead of excuses.
Simon.cleric
2018-11-13 20:37:08 +0000 UTCWhen are the girl/location specific events going to start to be made repeatable in Glassix?
Doc Odd
2018-11-13 18:13:53 +0000 UTC
