Beach series: An enforcer, and an agent of chaos.
smgvn posts
My animation journey, new Patreon tiers, animation workshop, supporter artwork.
Do you know what's cool? Finishing an animation. Do you know what's not cool? Looking at that same animation a while later.
I often finish them thinking I made the hardest-hitting shit to ever exist in 3D, only to catch myself wanting to rework it all three days after release.
But... this time, this hasn't happened. I'm pretty damn happy with where my animations are going. I'm pretty satisfied with how every one of my skills has developed but -- this post is specifically about animations, so we'll talk about that.
My animation journey.
Warning: Very in-depth nerdy stuff. I hope it's concise. You might want to jump to the next topic.
In 2022, I got pretty burned out from working on MW not once, not twice, but several times. I swear -- you underestimate what getting "burned out" means until it happens to you. I didn't even want to stop working, I just didn't want to look at MW anymore. Yes, I am completely ashamed of the previous statement.
To prevent myself from doing nothing in 3D or AVNs in general, I went to work a little bit on side projects I have laying around. I have maybe three or four well-developed game ideas to pick from, so I worked on them. I wrote some stuff, made some animations, and I can say for sure that taking that time to work on different stuff really helped in honing my skills as an animator.
For anyone here who played the very first version of Mad World, you may remember how my "animations" first came to be. To sum it up, it was two frames that, while connected, simulated a thrusting motion. They hardly qualified as an animation, but that's what I knew, was equipped, and was willing to do.
Then, those two-frame animations became seven. They still didn't look so good, but it was a start. I think at that stage, I peaked at Tori's scene. After that, those seven frames weren't doing it for me anymore, and I decided to double it and go with fifteen from then on, which basically, is what I was doing up until the end of 4.0.0.
With all the knowledge and experience I gained while working on lots and lots of animations, I believe I reached the limit of everything I can do with 15 frames.
>To illustrate some of what I've learned while animating, let's observe this animation right here.
̶T̶h̶e̶s̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶v̶i̶e̶w̶ ̶a̶n̶i̶m̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶d̶o̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶p̶r̶e̶s̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶v̶e̶r̶s̶i̶o̶n̶.̶ ̶Y̶o̶u̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶t̶e̶l̶l̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶y̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶g̶l̶i̶t̶c̶h̶e̶s̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶l̶e̶t̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶m̶i̶s̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶k̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶c̶o̶h̶e̶r̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶b̶a̶c̶k̶g̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶/̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶i̶n̶g. They're both WIP.
I don't remember how in-depth I was on the deleted scenes/animations I made for 4.0.0., but to refresh everyone's memories, I completely scrapped a lot of scenes and made completely new ones at the last minute. This Eva animation right here was one of the scrapped bunch. This one, although not very good, is a pretty special animation for two reasons: One, this animation featured an anal variant, which would be the first anal scene featured in-game. Two, this animation completely changed how I go about animating this kind of motion.
The way I used to animate usually went like this;
In the first frame, pose the two participating characters with their bodies all the way back; Jump to the halfway point of the animation (which for 15-frame animations, means frame 7) and close in the gap, fully connecting both; Copy the first frame to the last frame, creating the basic motion; Adding details in between like hip movements and facial expressions; Profit.
What I failed to account for in these loops, was the movement that happens AFTER the last frame of the animation ends. There's this little thing called inertia that was thoroughly missing in my animations. Actors would just stop between loops and return to their basic poses like there was no gravity to their bodies at all -- it just felt stiff and lacked the actual power of two bodies bumping each other and throwing their weight around. While making this scene for Eva, I perfected something I had only practiced before.
So, doing this sitting motion, I did it how I would do any other motion, only this time, I added a little something on the fourth frame.
The first frame is the basic pose (with both actors apart), but instead of letting that frame flow uninterrupted into frame seven (the loop's halfway point), I instead pushed the bodies even farther away in frame 4. What that does, is create a quicker, more sudden motion when frame 4 goes into frame 7 (because the fewer frames you use, the quicker the motion), generating a better thrusting effect. Not only that, but that one small change adds to the inertia of the (in the example below) male's body backing away from the female and thrusting forward again.
>In this animation, you can see how I used the experience I gained from its deleted counterpart.
I am 150% sure that if you put this animation against any of my older ones, the difference will be clear as water. This one actually seems like it has impact. Sure, it's nothing professional, but it looks good and has all the personality its 15 frames allow it to have.
Now, for every animation I make, I always account for the inertia: the flowing movement of the last few frames, but in the first few frames.
In my personal and very ignorant opinion, I despise overly realistic graphics and high-frame animations in visual novels. Nine times out of ten, they just look uncanny to me. I feel like if I want to go high-frame (which for the equipment I work with, would be pretty stupid), I need to have the expertise, detail, and purpose to back it up. I feel like making a bad animation a high-frame one for no other purpose other than to look "good" would just highlight everything that makes it unrealistic, making it the definition of uncanny. So, unless I feel like a certain frame range won't cut it for me anymore, I won't ever try to go "higher" and "better". That counts for my still renders, too.
In this case, I feel like whatever new technique I decide to use, 15 frames won't do. So, I'll slowly transition into 30-frame animations, which takes us to the Elena scene that kicked off this post. That's a 30-frame animation that will be among the ones I use for some scene reworks. Is there anything special about it that justifies it having thirty frames? Not really... but I gotta transition somehow. I peaked at fifteen, now I need some room to grow. A testament to that is how this Elena animation was the quickest one I've ever done, taking me less than two hours on a good morning to iron out its motion. I used to spend two days making something that looked nowhere near this good.
New Patreon tiers.
If you take a look at my page, you'll see I've finished up with some long-due restructuring of my tiers. I added a new one and removed another. The benefits system has always felt a bit janky to me, but I think they'll look a little better going forward. If I'm not mistaken, I think that the whole system exists to dictate how much sales tax any potential supporters might pay. I would love to hear from you guys on this -- did the restructure make it better? Worse? Do let me know. I'm not the government, I'm really not out to make anyone pay more taxes than they should.
Also, all supporters may be getting a little more bang for their buck going forward. So, read below and consider some options.
Animation workshop.
Again, I don't remember how in-depth I was last time I talked about this, but I'm gonna be taking some of the animations I made in 2022 out of the vault. I'm also going to be posting previews of new animations I make for the game or the gallery in "Animation Workshops". A series of posts focused on my complete animations.
Exclusive supporter artwork.
In the next few days, you'll see some new exclusive artwork here on Patreon. They're part of the special gallery section that will be featured on the supporter build of Mad World. Those are some of my best renders that have a little extra care put into them. Yes, most of them are very NSFW.
However, since those are meant for the Itch.io build, they'll likely be available only for the new "Warlock" tier and above. An alternative way to access them would be to own a copy of MW on Itch.io.
I might post some "canon artwork" too. Some one-shots of stuff that happens in-between scenes/chapters that you don't see, and also some of the gallery's one-shots. That's a lot of artwork that will be seen here first way before anywhere else. Not all of them are locked behind the Warlock tier, but a lot of them will. Anyway, stay tuned!
I'm still here, and thanks to you all, I'm still happily at it.
It's been 84 years... (Battling the process, Itch.io keys, some cool stuff)
Olá! It's been a while since I stopped by with news, and I'm glad to see the locks haven't changed. Let's have a seat.
I usually write one of these every time I release a new chapter but I was so incredibly burned out then I don't think I'd have been capable of stringing together more than two cohesive sentences here.
The release of 4.0.0 and how I battled the process.
Against what some of you might think, in 2022, I wasn't working on MW just as a little side thing while focusing all of my efforts on my other, more... "profitable endeavors". Sometime in the first half of the year, I realized Chapter 4 would be no ordinary chapter, and it'd take a lot more work than I anticipated. I worked hard through those 18 months, and in the last four, I worked full time (sometimes 16 hours a day) just DREAMING to complete my vision. I'm pretty sure you folks are smarter than me, so I'll let you all do the math. If I worked hard for 18 months and four of those full-time, how much work really had to be done? How much did I have to battle the process to push 4.0.0 out?
On top of family issues and hardware/software problems, I amassed violent amounts of debt, got burned out to the point even my ashes were no longer material and neglected several vital aspects of my life just to satiate the hunger for making something I was proud of, all in four months. Those four months felt like eons as I struggled with my mind playing tricks on me whispering how it was never going to end, and that was now what my life was going to be -- forever. The payoff to all that work? Well...
In the two and a half years since I released MW, generally speaking, this is by far my best month/phase. I have money in the bank and no unpaid bills, two computers to work on, and a stack of scripts written by a more versed iteration of me. To top it all off, I have enough money for a Steam release!
Not only that, but because I had to push myself so much, I feel like I now see every process differently. Things that were hard for me last year now feel like a cakewalk. Things that were unfeasible before now feel... feasible? This whole thing seems like it was my anime training arc. Do you guys remember me saying I wasn't going to rework earlier chapters because they amounted to more than a thousand renders? Guess what, while working on 4.0.0, I threw 1/4 of that away because I just didn't like the end result (some fully rendered animations, too). No joke, I can rework those thousand renders in my sleep now. It's so amazing for me to be able to look back and see how much I'm learning and adapting.
To quote me, "I started this whole thing by just throwing stuff together hastily without any prior knowledge of how it's supposed to be or any definitive direction. After working tirelessly for years, I feel like I've finally matured as a writer and my head is exactly where it needs to be, creatively. I feel more than ready to bring some really next-level stuff to the table. My work loop has been completely refined, and I have a deep process for every step of building a chapter update." (You can find this on my "information hub" on F95Zone, or, very soon, on my Devlog/FAQ on Itch.io)
This month I finally took a breather, went back to playing the guitar, tried beating Devil May Cry 5's bloody palace, wrote new stuff, and tomorrow, February 1st, I'm coming back stronger than ever.
This month wasn't all about goofing around, though. I've already begun writing Chapter 5, and I've finished writing the new short story, which I'm gonna be unveiling soon, so stay tuned!
Special thanks.
At the release of 4.0.0. I thought about giving every one of my patrons a key for the Itch.io version of Mad World. I wanted to do this sneakily as a way of thanking everyone who's been supporting me and to make sure everybody got a key to that version before I upped the game's price from $1 to $14,99 forever. I realized I was about to miss an opportunity for some real businessman -- pro gamer marketing strat.
So, if you're interested in getting access to Mad World on Itch.io, make sure you're subbed to my Patreon before February 5th. You can opt for the slickity slick approach and just be subbed on February 5th (UTC-3), get your key at a discount, and unsub right after to make sure I don't charge you the next month. That'll work, too (though I'm really hoping you won't).
The Itch.io version means all-access to every bit of special stuff I release for MW... forever. Permanent access. All included. Cool, right?
Make no mistake, though. Right now, there is no difference between the free version and the Itch.io version, yet. Still, considering it's a one-time payment to get everything I put in that version forever, it's a bargain if you ask me (although I might be slightly biased).
Next steps.
Those cut animations I mentioned? You didn't seriously believe I threw them away, did you? Heh.
I have a lot of animations I made in 2022 that I'll be sharing with you guys in my little "Animation Workshop" very soon. Really cool ones that I'm sure to use in-game someday... still, if you'd like to see those sooner, make sure you're subbed.
Tomorrow, I'll be officially starting my work on 4.1.0 and, soon after, Chapter 5. Expect more reworks, too.
Despite my fears and concerns, all my effort was not in vain. If February is at least half as good as January was, we're looking at a very bright future for this project and all future ones.
Thanks to your kind support, I'm still at it.
Soul Relic User: Glare of the Lords.
How far do you think you can see?
Game updated to 4.0.0.
Download links on Discord.gg/RcrAdam2zH.
2022-12-24 22:32:13 +0000 UTC View PostNews: The mildly annoying and the highly satisfactory.
In the last three posts, I often caught myself thinking "damn - I'm really nailing this Patreon thing! I'm already posting again even though my last post was last week!", and every time, I'm met with the harsh truth. My last post was last month. Time is slipping through my fingers like boiling noodles.
I digress.
The mildly annoying...
Hey, folks. I hope you're all good, at least better than I am, 'cause - I haven't told you this - but I've actually been sick twice in the past three months. The last time, which I've only healed recently was the fiercest one. It got me coughing for two whole weeks, which might not seem like a big deal, but I'm really not used to being sick (at all). I think it's related to the new place since I'm very allergic to house dust and pretty much anything with a perceptible smell that's not edible. I spent a lot of my sick time playing Kenshi (btw, great game, go play) and fiddling with my stress-relief projects (might be posting some animations soon).
Needless to say...I haven't touched MW all that much. I'm really sorry.
Seeing as it's been one year since I've updated MW, it really got me thinking...and reading...and air-punching...
Something that's taken as the canon among players and developers is that indie games getting completed are not the rule, but the exception.
I refuse that truth. It's pretty well-established that in order to release something, you must navigate in-between the original concept and ambition of your idea and what you can actually make. But the way I see it, if I cannot bear the reality of not releasing anything new for a year, how am I supposed to say no the moment some publisher offers to take my soul for money? I've told you guys before that I intend to follow a game dev career, and MW won't be my last game. I need to be able to do wonders out of scraps if I'm gonna be anything like the guy I wanna be in a few years, and that means rejecting the very pleasing idea of releasing the game half-baked and getting some easy money. I mean, how would anyone even know? You don't have the original material to compare it to, you won't know how much I actually cut so I can push an update. You can't see inside of my head.
I understand that if I had done all the previous chapters exactly how I wanted to make them we would still be talking about Chapter 0...but that doesn't make me regret it less, because I can still see inside of my head. I'll see what it is knowing what it could've been...and that stings, man.
Chapter 4 is coming out exactly how I want it to be, regardless of how sick, poor, or stressed out I get.
Might sound too extreme and I know a lot of people don't care about this as much as I do...but I do. My games might never be among the best or even the decent ones, but I still love doing it so much.
Oh, I'm rambling again. I almost forgot to tell you about...
...the highly satisfactory.
I'm rich.
Well, not really, but...compared to where I was a week and a half ago, yeah.
Not getting too much into it, but I've recently managed to get my hands on a nice sum of cash™ - meaning - I'll no longer be worrying about money for a while, which puts me in a place where I can work more on MW and worry less about everything else.
With some of the money, I decided to acquire this bad boy right here for work purposes:
-Intel Core i5 10300h
-8 gb ram
-256 ssd
-NVidia Geforce 1650 4gb
8 gigs of ram are pretty much nothing and its storage doesn't have enough space for a fart in it, but it's good enough.
I'll be able to divide the work load between computers quite nicely, which is great, considering it wasn't cheap. The CPU also has a faster clock speed than my desktop. Let that sink in.
This is where it's sitting right now:
Disregard the complete mess...
This is where I hide from the su- *ahem* work.
I spent the last 48 hours running logistics between the two computers and listening to my favorite podcasts. The little guy has access to my assets and scene files and is ready to kick gum and chew ass. No longer will I fear getting shut out of my computer every time I'm doing rendering work. Now I can render stuff on my laptop while working from my desktop and vice versa. I'm really enjoying the upgrade.
Another win for the one-man studio.
Here hoping to have you guys witnessing the next ones.
Still at it - still winning.
Almost done (90-90 rule, Itch.io version, last steps).
Hey there, fellas - I hope you're all safe. I bring news.
(Before we start, if this post is barely readable, it's because I'm sleepy as hell.)
90-90 rule.
Roughly two months ago, I got done with the majority of the content for Chapter 4, including a lot of its code. When asked, I replied that there was only "ten percent" left before the full release. Two months later, now that I'm in the assembling phase (putting renders together, writing code, doing sound, etc) I realize how much I missed. I've put more work in this last 10% than all of the previous 10 months combined.
I had relationships I needed to develop in this chapter that I didn't even write before the assembling phase, so I had to make two extra scenes at the last minute, which means two more paths to write in the code and two extra batches of rendering to do, meaning waaaay extra work. But that's done, now.
The thing that's got me really frustrated lately is that I had the next release sitting at 90%, and just like every other release I've put out in the past two years, I got really hyped to finally be done with this chapter and start working on the next. So I did what I always do and went full steam to finish the last mile...and I kept going...and going...and I can't seem to finish. At every corner, I find stuff that needs doing, and every time I get one thing done, two more take its place. It's easy to get demotivated to keep going at it full-time like I've been doing in the past two months. It's one thing to fight against my hardware, but now I gotta fight against myself, too? Stuff got difficult.
One thing that really brightened everything for me was coming across something called the "90-90" rule. I don't remember how exactly I stumbled across this (I think I was watching some Unreal Engine videos), but it dictates the following:
"The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 90 percent of the development time. The remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other 90 percent of development time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety%E2%80%93ninety_rule
It really reassured me to know that even though the task at hand is difficult, it has nothing to do with a lack of ability or effort. It's something rather common that could happen to anyone. It really got rid of some of the stress I've been building up and it's refreshing to see I'm not as bad of a developer as I thought.
Chapter 4 makes up for 35% of the whole game. Even though it's been the most difficult chapter to work on and it has undoubtedly taken its toll on me, I am certain that I'll come out of this as a beast, and I see myself having a much easier time raising the bar in the future. In the words of the mighty Fiona Westley, "Iron is forged in fire, and shaped by beating the shit out of it".
Itch.io version.
I don't think I mentioned this before, but I put my game up on Itch.io to bring my story to a broader audience. Mad World is freeware, it's intended as such, and its "standard edition" will likely always stay as freeware. Lately, though, I've been having money issues. I've been neglecting my yearly check-up for years now and I was getting really paranoid, so I went to the doctor and he asked for a lot of exams. In the past two weeks, I've done an echocardiogram, taken a few x-rays, and did the Holter monitor thing where I had a small device taped to me measuring my heartbeat in a 24-hour cycle (the tape itches like hell).
I have one last appointment Friday and boy am I happy to finally be done with it. What I'm not happy with is the gaping hole these exams left in my bank account. Since I'm kinda desperate, I changed my game from "free or donate" to "$1" at Itch.io. To my surprise, it already sold ten copies (half of it overnight). Not bad for a first week, but let's see if it'll last. I decided I'll keep the Itch.io version as a paid one, but I'll make exclusive content for that version down the road so I don't feel like I'm scamming people (which right now, I kinda am). So if you by any chance bought the Itch.io version, rest assured, there will be some cool stuff for that version soon.
Last steps.
Being that I'm no longer cooking, but already assembling the next update, I'm expecting the next week and a half to be the only thing standing between me and my long-awaited update day. I'm putting together writing and rendering. The code for the journal system and gallery is already done. After that, I'll only have music and the UI revamp left. Oh, I didn't really say much about that, did I? It's probably for the best.
I'm still at it. But soon - very soon, I won't be at it anymore!
Thank you for your kind support.
Surprisingly not abandoned.
First of all, I can't stress this enough, but MW is NEVER going to be abandoned.
Being a game dev is my lifelong dream. I've got the opportunity to set foot in a more welcoming territory/genre and make a story I'm invested in and deeply in love with. The only way I'd stop working on Mad World would be if I died, or a terrible life experience took me away from it. Sure, development may get slow at times, but I'm probably dealing with something else that requires my dev time.
Seeing that my game got the "abandoned" tag really bummed me out, but I can't really blame anyone but myself for it. F95 staff can't check every single Discord for every game on the site, and I'm not that great at making update posts.
Truth is, I'm in a tough spot right now and my mood is in the gutter. I couldn't bring myself to make yet another post saying words and showing nothing concrete, so I shut myself out for a moment until I got something I could show you guys - which I now do.
Working on the game was hard enough back when I wasn't making a 1400-render update with new systems and wasn't borrowing money to keep the lights on, but now, I've been met with new issues.
If you're a developer in F95, you're probably familiar with F95's render farm, which they made freely available for developers with poor hardware (like me). Thing is, the complexity and quantity of the scenes have made me highly dependent on the render farm to finish this update.
There's only one small problem - the render farm won't work with DAZ Studio 4.15 (my render software, and current version), only with DAZ 4.20. Remember when I said I was working with all-new lighting methods? Yeah, they use kilocandela, or kc/d for luminance units, which won't work in DAZ Studio 4.20.
What happens is, I've been relighting roughly around 800 scenes so I can upload them to the render server, because my hardware is simply not equipped to handle anything fancier.
Here's the punchline: My computer even CRASHED a few times while uploading scenes to the render farm. I've done this process over 400 times, and it's still faster than rendering all of them locally on my own computer, can you believe that? That's how i̶n̶f̶u̶r̶i̶a̶t̶i̶n̶g precarious things are.
Ironically enough, even with all the frustration, working on the game has been doing wonders for my mood. I like making characters, creating the rules and scenarios, and letting them act on it. I love writing, and I'm pouring my heart into this game.
Render count
A noteworthy thing is that the render count has tripled compared to the last update. Attached, you can see the comparison between Chapter 3.3 and Chapter 4 scene files. The scene complexity and quantity™ have caused the file size to be almost 15 times larger than Chapter 3.3, since there are more animations, more people on-screen, etcetera.
Keep in mind that these are only the scene files (which are one scene, and one thumbnail), not the renders. Render count should be roughly around 1400, and nowhere near 44 gigs.
Chapter preview
In the images attached, you can see some chapter previews. They are not final and may be either cut or undergo some processing before release. You can see some of the new lighting and environment-building techniques I'm using.
The delay
The main factor delaying this update for so long is that I'm putting all my chips on it to give my game some more attention. Compared to other similar games released in the same year as mine, Mad World hasn't really done much to earn people's love. I know it's self-sabotage to compare myself to others, but I can't help but feel like I'm doing something wrong. That's why I'm putting extra work on pretty much soft-relaunching the game. Seeing as many people will be replaying the game from the start, it could use a little work. More supporters mean I could start saving for new hardware and leave all of this rendering hassle behind (a man can dream, right?).
Last, but not least, I'm striving for a May 4th release. I know - I KNOW I said I wouldn't create ass-pulled release windows anymore, so I'll ask that you please don't get your hopes up. May 4th is merely the date I'm crunching towards, and it does not represent an actual release date.
I am, without a doubt, still at it.
2022-04-26 02:38:57 +0000 UTC View PostClosing this chapter...in more ways than one (reworks and additions, starting my Blender journey, moving to a new place).
Boy, do I love my life. I hope you're all loving yours, too! It's been a while since I've done a proper status update. Let's get to it (I'll give you some context on these images, I promise).
Tier-locked content poll.
"No" won against "yes" 37 to 28. Almost ten more people agree that tier-locked content is a bad move right now - so it's settled. It doesn't mean I won't do it in the future, though (or that I'll stop doing extras) but I'll focus on other things right now.
Next release.
I've finished 214 renders, which is 35% of an update. "B-but, Capella, it's been three months since the last release!" Yeah, I know! Do consider I now write loose scene ideas and keep them nice and ready for whenever I need them, though. No more making renders when I have a new idea, preparing to write the game, and realizing I have a lot of renders and no context.
Two of the reasons this chapter is taking a little bit more time is that I'm approaching my finals and I'm in the middle of moving to a new place. I've been studying, buying new stuff for my new apartment - I mean, look at this mug I got! My phone doesn't do this mug justice at all. It looks sick. I'm pretty happy with it. Yes, it's a skull. No, I'm not five.
I get excited about the most random shit, I swear.
Additions.
Centered text: I've added a new option for players to change the dialogue alignment between left and center. Click on Fiona, see for yourself how it's looking. Doing that was way harder than I thought it was, so I̶ ̶h̶a̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶s̶u̶l̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶l̶d̶e̶r̶s I opened a thread in the Lemmasoft forums. Here it is if you're interested:
https://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=63561
I managed to do it, but it only works if you restart the game. I think centered looks better but, well, it's up to you!
Journal system: Unfinished. I ended up scrapping the whole thing, but it's gonna look nice when it's ready, trust me. I learned a lot from the first attempt.
Gallery system: I haven't even touched the gallery system, yet. It's still on my mind, though. I'll get to it eventually.
Reworks.
I've been reworking some stuff for the next release.
As you can see, the menu is different. I might change it, perhaps, but it's looking pretty damn good to me. Nothing final, though.
I also have a new splash art. I made it myself. Along with the new disclaimer, I think the game will look more like a proper game and less like something someone put together in a hurry.
The NVidia AI Denoiser I mentioned on Discord (join if you haven't already) works by batches, which means I can put 4000 images in the same folder the denoiser is located, go to sleep and it will denoise all of it automatically. I also wrote a .bat script that removes the prefix left by it on all images.
(Check Robbie's image, it was put through the AI)
In theory, it's a pretty quick process, but...well, I'm actually re-rendering some stuff in different angles (the old ones make me uncomfortable, lol) and putting the rest through Photoshop. To sum it up, I'm putting the whole thing in the blender again.
I'm learning 3D modeling.
Speaking of blending...I've been spending a lot of time training some 3D modeling in Blender.
Some stuff I need simply doesn't exist and I figured that, eventually, I'll need to make my own stuff (or limit my creativity forever). The image above is a Colt 1911 I've yet to finish. I know it looks lame right now, but everybody gotta start somewhere, right? The thing got redone a hundred times, so there's that.
I'll show you guys when it's finished.
To conclude...
I predict the next chapter won't be ready until January, but when it does, it will be worth the wait. With my studies out of the way, me getting my driver's license, and not having to worry about a LOT of stuff, I'm hoping I'll have more free time to dedicate to my projects.
2022 is looking bright from here...
Thank you for your kind support.
Poll for tier-locked content.
In the previous post, I detailed how and why I tried to make extra content as accessible as possible, how that backfired, and how I felt about that.
So, I need help to decide...
Should I start putting out tier-locked content? That means a lot more NSFW stuff, with more quality, but they'll be behind paywalls. This Patreon page is my platform of choice more than anything else and I'd appreciate the traffic in the near future. I'm willing to "up my game" regarding the extra content if it means I'll get more people to see said content.
What do you think?
Outlook #1 - Android port, what I'm working on, next games
Hi, everyone - I hope you're doing great!
This is a new post tag I'll be using from now on every time I have something to share that's not extra content or status updates.
In this post:
☛ Android port;
☛ Next games (and their systems);
☛ Tier-locked content;
Android Port
Bad news, probably. I won't commit to an official Android port.
This is something that's always being asked for, and as much as I wanted to, I just can't. The features coming to Mad World are PC exclusive and giving support to something that has an expiration date seems like a waste of time. I won't make Android distributions just to toss them aside eventually along with its player base. Sorry.
Next games (and their systems)
So, I've shared with you before that I'm gonna work on other games while I release Mad World. I'll be keeping things interesting on my end by writing two completely different storylines and dynamics, and I'll have a chance to test and perfect systems intended for Mad World. Two birds with one stone.
So, I wanted to tell you guys a bit about my upcoming games and the systems I'll be testing on them. Again, all of which will be present in Mad World.
Next 2-10 months:
- Shards.
(Systems I'll be testing: Sandbox, random events, story selector)
"Shards of broken families join together to form what you know as your own. The love, care, and trust shared among you will be tested as you reach for help to face your traumas."
I want to give my personal touch on a trope that has been done to oblivion. Guessing what the story is gonna deal with is not hard, trust me. It's a type of content I enjoy and I want to give it a shot. Expect to see some familiar faces, since this game is set on the same island as Mad World.
I decided this will be my first secondary VN project since the systems I'll be bringing are something I'm familiar with. It's Ren'Py Screen Language and variables. Not something hard to code. - High School Fight Club
(Systems I'll be testing: Fighting system)
"Colter was the stereotypical bullied geek before he snapped. His newfound talent for violence earned him a reputation in his former school. As he tries to graduate at the only place that would accept someone like him, he'll soon find out not everything is what it seems."
I've teased some of the characters of this game before in the strip club scene in MW. This is the game I'm most eager to start, but the fighting system is by far the hardest thing I'll be working on. I'm not a programmer, so believe me when I say it's gonna be TOUGH to bring an input-based fighting minigame to life. Not something I can start yet.
Undeveloped concepts:
- I am: Fade/Omega
(System concepts: Turn-based space combat and trading)
Sci-fi game heavily based on space exploration and alien lore. Follow an engineer as he enlists into an off-world suicide mission to bring a better life for his hometown. If I have another primary project after Mad World, that's it. - I am: Berserk
(System concepts: Party system, siege system, and clothing system.)
Same timeline as Fade/Omega, but on the other side of its world. Post-apocalyptic game based on conquering the wastelands and the people of the desert. Play as a man or woman suffering from memory loss trying to piece together who they are, and why everyone refers to them as the "Berserker of Hacksaw City".
Once those systems are done, I'll simply copy, paste, and adapt the code into Mad World. If companies like From Software or R* can do it, why wouldn't I? Right now, I'm finishing the journal system featured in the next build.
Tier-locked content
So, I think you guys know by now I don't do tier-locked content. It's a well-known marketing maneuver to encourage people to become Patrons. It's something I chose to not do, and while I don't particularly regret that, I've come to realize that this will have the opposite effect of what I intended.
Patreon doesn't allow for public NSFW posts. If I didn't need to put those behind a paywall, I wouldn't have. I want people to see them. I don't wanna pose as a "better content creator". The plan was to make extra content for the sake of it. Casual stuff I'd do when I felt like it.
By not trying to encourage people to become patrons, guess what? That's less traffic to my Patreon page. That's fewer people consuming that extra content. Ironically, putting stuff behind tiers and paywalls will bring more people to it. The bright side is that I'll have more eyes on my stuff. The downside is that I'll be doing something I didn't want to do in the first place and that I specifically said I wasn't going to.
So, I'll be making a poll in the next 48 hours and you guys can help me decide if I should make all of the extra renders as accessible as possible (keeping them casual) or lock them behind tiers (making more and better renders).
That'll be it for this post. I never know how to end these - so, thanks for reading, I guess?
And, as always...
Thank you for your kind support.
Achieve mastery. Game updated to 3.3.0.0.
Download links on Discord.gg/RcrAdam2zH.
Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you're doing fine. It is finally here. We're closing this chapter, and moving to a new exciting one with lots of new features.
As requested, updates will now be delivered on separate packages. It took me quite a while to figure out how to get it working, but I've managed. It will be easier to address issues and upload hotfixes from now on without having to upload the whole thing again.
Since it's my first time building distributions like this, I highly recommend downloading the whole game this time, to avoid issues (even though it should be working properly).
Remember when I said this was only gonna take a month? Well...
Believe it or not, this chapter was the one that made me start writing scripts BEFORE working on the game. Yeah, I wouldn't do that before. That content I had planned faded away quickly, and I was left with 500+ renders with a lot of gaps to fill in the story. So yeah, four months in an update that shouldn't have taken more than two. It feels good to know I'm "perfecting" my methods as I go along and thinking of more efficient ways to do this.
As I mentioned before, links are now stored in the Discord server.
Patreon still bugs the hell out of my links, so please join the server to keep your game updated if you haven't already. Also, Patreon is just one of the two platforms I use. I give status updates there as much as I do here.
It's nice to know I'll finally be able to finish that journal system I've been talking about for months. I can't wait to bring the next chapter to you guys.
As always, thanks for sticking around. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter.
"New guy" (4/4)
"Hey, uh...I know you're a busy man so I'll try to make this quick. I don't know who the new guy is or how the fuck he's able to sweat that much but give him a raise. Like - really. The guy got to all of my nephews in one day. They said he was extremely nice and even SMILED. I mean, I'm not trying to throw shade at your runners, I know how rough shit gets...but that guy really seems like a kind soul and we both know how rare that gets. I feel like you'll wanna keep that one. Thanks again for the amazing service."
2021-06-21 05:46:58 +0000 UTC View Post
"New guy" (2/4)
... "This fucking sun...tough day ahead, it seems."
2021-06-21 05:45:47 +0000 UTC View Post"New guy" (1/4)
... "Wachacha...Wachako...Wachowicz? Ha, It'll be fun trying to pronounce that one."
2021-06-21 05:45:30 +0000 UTC View PostIf this is everything you have...I am unimpressed.
S "Again."
2021-06-13 23:58:52 +0000 UTC View Post"87 sibling photography ideas"
C "That's gonna kill you someday, you know..."
L "I'm hoping it does before you do."
SMG Development Roadmap (Goals as an Adult Game Dev).
I'm sure everyone saw what the goals on this Patreon page are. 50 patrons to stretch development for another year, and 100 to make it permanent. Contrary to what some might think, money does not change the fate of the project. What I consider "development" is actively working towards improvement. Funding changes how much time I can spare to do that and still call myself a "developer".
In this post, I'm gonna tell you guys what I want to "actively work" on.
Solidify Mad World as a polished and immersive experience.
I'm a player before I'm a developer. I played many AVNs and I'm aware I started with below-average quality. I'm the sole developer of MW working on all ends of the project - sound, visual, writing, testing while trying to follow a personal deadline of "no more than three months" between releases. While ambition is clearly not enough, I aim for MW to excel on the aforementioned. I want every aspect of the game to be visceral, be it the interaction of two horny people behind closed doors, or two people fighting for their lives.
Release of secondary projects.
The huge scope of MW creates a gap I can fill with other releases. The first of them, titled "Shards" (subject to change) will incorporate some elements of the sandbox planned for MW.
Secondary projects will mostly consist of shorter stories created from my urge to write that require less attention but appeal to larger audiences. They'll also be where I'll test systems intended for MW.
Create a dynamic sandbox, seamlessly combining storytelling with RPG elements.
I've played many great sandbox AVNs before. The sexy part of it was great, but the "sandbox" didn't do it for me. I aim to give a level of attention to the interactive part that no one ever cared to touch on this kind of game before.
Combat systems, random events based on probability, grind that expands the story, interesting places to visit, interaction with the environment, and sexual encounters on the mold of games like Honey Select are some of the things I'm working on. I want both aspects to fit nicely together and complement each other. That means story choices should affect your sandbox, and vice-versa.
Example:
-Choosing to go to therapy unlocks Dr. Whitfield's clinic in the sandbox. It becomes a place you can go to trade money for "blue points" and lose some..."undesirable" traits you may have developed in your character.
-Repeatedly screwing factions over in sandbox activities will change the outcome of some events in the story, should you ever meet them.
Yeah, I know it sucks that I'm trying to sell something to you, but I'm way too invested in this to not be able to work on it as much as I need. I want to make games I'd like to play. If you, like me, want to play a game like this, I could use your help.
Giving your feedback, reporting errors, and sharing on forums are a few examples of actions you can take to support the project. Of course, you're welcome to go the extra mile and donate here on Patreon.
Doesn't matter how you show your support - any help goes a long way.
I think I might have conquered the noise in my images... (also, Chapter 3.3 sneak peek)
As you can see in this image, no noise.
Alright, how do I put it...I think I might have 500+ images in my game with insane amounts of noise for no reason at all.
Let me explain...
Back when I was rendering using my CPU, noise was a problem I couldn't avoid. I checked the denoising options in DAZ studio thousands of times, and they did not work (for some reason). Even after hours of rendering, I'd still have some noise in it I couldn't take care of. When I got my hands on the GTX 1660 I'm using now, something strange started to happen...
Some images activated some type of "auto denoising", but some didn't. Naturally, since I checked the denoising options lots of times I never bothered to check it again. So imagine my surprise when I was fiddling with lighting in my free time yesterday and...boom!
I tick the option and the (what I thought was) magic random denoise activates.
What happened is that some environment assets I use come with a script that activates that option when I load it into a scene. It was not my hardware's fault. In the end, it was my own unfiltered stupidity.
So now, I have 1900+ renders in my game and more than half of them are tainted with noise. I thought about doing a remaster after I finished the first part of the game but ONE THOUSAND IMAGES.
I could barely sleep last night.
But well, that's great news! Although I can't really hope to render the old images again, especially in Chapter 0 (which I don't have the scene files), there won't be images with noise from now on. Let's just hope I'm right with this conclusion and that same option doesn't stop working again.
So, I was testing some lighting today...
...and I decided I wanted to make some extra artwork.
Today's spotlight belongs to Fiona.
