Dev log - January 2024

Hey everyone, it's time for another dev log to give you all some information on how things are going and what to expect in the near future.

2023 was a great year for me. I learned to use Daz and Renpy early in the year and fell in love with making visual novels. My first effort was Senior Year which some of you may have played. It was a simple kinetic novel and was the perfect vessel for me to learn how to do all this stuff. I had to shelve that project for a few reasons which I won't get into here, but needless to say The East Block is my current project and will be for the foreseeable future. 

I launched the first chapter in early November to a much bigger reception than I could have imagined and the interest has just kept growing. I'm really happy that I was able to make something that has connected with so many of you and the fact that a lot of you guys care enough to support me means so much so thanks so much to all of you.

I've been hard at work on chapter three since Christmas and I'm making great progress. I have improved and refined things a bit here and there based on feedback mostly from you guys so thank you for your help with that. I made the decision to remove the zoom effect that was used quite a lot in the game. When it works as intended it is a nice effect and enhances the scenes but when it doesn't work, it can be jarring and annoying. Unfortunately I only tested the game on higher end computers that support hardware video decoding and it seems that without that, the zoom does not work well. I have done a playthrough without the zoom effect and I don't think much is sacrificed not having it there. I have also improved Kathryn's nipples and gave them a bit more realistic detail which looks great in my opinion. I have also taken some of the renders that had a bit more noise than I'd like and put them through Topaz AI software to clean them up and it looks so much better. Most people probably won't notice a difference with all these changes, but for those that have a much higher appreciation for detail should notice an improvement. 

The release for chapter three is on track for early February barring any setbacks or unexpected life issues that take up my time. I'm really excited for this chapter and for all of you to enjoy it. Feel free to message me if anyone has any questions or comments. I reply to everyone and love hearing from you guys.

I'll check in again once we're closer to release.

Cheers,

Bobbyboy