v0.04 Progress Update (December)

As you can see, I'm getting pretty close to the end of the update.

I've learned a lot about how to estimate render counts, but unfortunately it took me a few failed attempts to get an actually accurate number. I knew what the path through this chapter was going to be, but I highly underestimated how many renders it would take to get there. Before I started, I was pretty sure I could do it in ~350 renders. By mid-November, that number was closer to 430. But once I started working on the latter part of the chapter, I realized I was way off the mark. I took a different approach at estimating the renders, which then put me at ~600. This number ended up being pretty spot on.

- I'm currently at 535 renders. There are approximately 22 "beats" to the chapter, and I have just 4 left to complete.

- The prologue had a little over 6000 words. Chapter 1 is clocking in at nearly 20,000 words.

- All of the complicated programming is done. Lots had to be rewritten or written from scratch.

- All the supporting content, like puzzles, journal entries, UI/UX elements, are basically complete. All that remains there is some formatting.

- All the music and sound effects for the first 18 "beats" of the chapter are done and implemented.

- One of three planned animations is complete. Thank you for giving me feedback in the poll the other day; I wanted to get to 4 animations, but I will shoot for 3. If the second one takes too long, I'll settle for 2.

So what's really remaining: (1) Finish the last 75-80 renders, (2) Animate 1 or 2 more sequences, (3) Implement sound and music for those sequences, (4) Polish the dialogue and finish formatting journal entries, (5) Final testing.

When will it release: In a few weeks. I'm still shooting for the end of the month, but I will give a definitive date once I finish rendering and I'm in the polish phase.

Some closing thoughts: This chapter ended up far longer than anticipated, which ended up requiring me to basically go full throttle for the last 2 months. I'd like to be able to release more quickly in the future, so I'm considering splitting future chapters into two releases. This would also help me prevent getting burnt out (which I'm currently not, to be clear). This chapter ended up being particularly not well-suited to being split in two, but I'm thinking about ways to do that for future content that doesn't detract from the narrative or presentation.

Thank you for your support, and I hope to have a concrete release date very soon!