Update 44

tl;dr - The testing is still ongoing and I'm improving the game while doing it, mostly by making images. I've also worked a little on future projects.

This week's image:

I just made this one this morning, from the start of the Ai sex scene. You'll be seeing this scene soon, I hope, if you've got alpha and beta access. I have all this other cool stuff I'd like to show off, but I can't right now because it would involve spoilers.

I'll try to show off something a little more explicit next week. I don't want to just tease you all the time!

Why is my testing taking so long?

This is a question I've been asking myself. Normally testing doesn't take this much time. The answer, put simply, is that every time I load up the game I quickly find something I want to add or fix. My testing process is still progressing and I'm adding more to the game through this method, but I'm sorry if it's frustrating waiting for the next update. I still can't be sure it's playable!

I guess this is a kind of perfectionist approach, which is something I generally try to avoid because it makes things take so much longer. :) I think I'm feeling a little bit of pressure that this game be good; there's more attention on my games now than there was when I released PAF, Super PAC or even LMI, and more release platforms for me to think about, so I want to make sure they really leave a good impression.

Image rendering:

Mostly what I'm doing when I stall the testing this way is adding images (not always, but mostly). That means I've been able to add a number more images than I had expected to be adding by now, and also I've been making some for scenes that I haven't yet implemented. The latter is good because it speeds things up later in the process, but it doesn't speed up the next alpha release.

EDIT: Just one extra thought - the picture above was actually one I whipped up this morning because I tried playing the Ai sex scene and I felt that stage 1 of the sex scene needed this image as a kind of framing device, to show what it's all about. I spent quite a while trying to position things and getting the lighting right.

Future design work:

It's not very comforting if what you want is to be able to play something soon, but I also did a little bit of design work for some future game projects. I do need to do some of this stuff from time to time - after all I will need to have game projects ready to announce and start once PAL is complete. What I was doing was a bit of character development work (I'm happy with the girls I've got stored up for the future!) and looking a little at some other engines I might work in at some point in the future; I'm not necessarily going to work exclusively in ADRIFT.

Time frame:

I don't have one right now, but next week I'll try to plot out a time frame for PAL's development again, just to let you know where things are and my best guesses at how much work I still have to do. I think it's probably about time I give you another update on that.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Questions? Leave them in the comments below and I'll respond!