digiB

Artemis DevLog CH6

Happy New Week!

This week was another uneventful one as I inserted more renders that are done so far into the code. Trying my best to stay on top of this now, instead of waiting until later. Because last time (and pretty much every time) this process is always a pain in the ass. Especially since CH5 introduced Artemis into the story and because she had nearly zero dialogue, I wrote the introduction of her character to have a lot of gestures, miming some interactions she had with the characters. As you all already know, I love doing the micro-animations. Especially when characters are having a conversation over dinner. The drawback is...keeping track of the images used, and the other is some have so many images to insert for one emote. Beta can be fun since these are often buggy because my brain short-circuits, and I throw a typo or six in there. This should make things easier when it comes to transitioning to Beta when that time comes.

That wraps it up for last week. For those who caught the eclipse, hope you enjoyed it! (I missed it :( )

• digi.B

Artemis DevLog CH6

Happy New Week!

Right off the bat, I want to inform everyone that Koko is finally being added to the Dataleak roster for special renders. Many of you have been spamming my DMs about it since CH1. So, here she is.

Sorry. Just kidding. It's April 1st, as most of you know :)

Last week has been an uneventful week with mostly posing and rendering. Alongside some coding. Testing a couple of things with the code last week as well. One of them is a feature I hope to implement, aiming to make more use of the wallpaper feature when unlocking them. Another is story-related that I hope I can pull off because it would really elevate the scene I need it for a lot. Granted the scene itself is impactful by itself. It's not a minigame or anything like that, but if I can dial it in just right. I think it'd be really cool.

I do have some unfortunate news about the translation. I've decided I won't be working on it any further. I've got enough on my plate as I'm trying to focus most of my time on getting CH6 out the door. The translation just required too much of my attention, and I just had to shut it down for now. I can't say when I'll start it up again, as every development cycle, there's a lot to do. Same reason why I haven't done an official walkthrough. There's a lot to juggle each cycle Some of the extra things like translation, walkthrough often I rely on others to complete but end up falling short. Primarily why I work solo as its difficult to have like minds align.

That wraps it up for this week. Also, it's rare we get a devlog on the first of the month. So, I wanted to share this preview

Artificial life, exploring natural life.

Have yourselves a wonderful week.

• digi.B

Artemis DevLog CH6

Happy New Week!

Last week was the anniversary of me releasing Artemis to the wild back in 2021. The amount of support and love from you guys has been amazing, and something I never had expected when putting my story out there. Now that Artemis, the character, has been brought to life in the story. I can't wait to take you on her journey as she tries to navigate the world she was dropped in.

One question that I see get asked every now and again is why are later chapters taking longer than when the game dropped its first update?

Simply put, the amount of content has evolved. In CH1, everything in the game I used only what was available in the DAZ stores. It made things easy but, at the same time, very difficult. Because I often had to change some of the scenes because what I needed (an environment, a prop, etc.) didn't exist in the DAZ store. Limitations of the DAZ software pushed me to work with other software to get what I needed done and then re-import it. Artemis herself has also been customized from her base model in CH1. When I found the model I wanted, I didn't like her model's neck, shoulder, and shin parts. But didn't know how to manipulate HD meshes in DAZ until CH2, when I spent time learning how to. Now, I've made many versions of the model as the android bits slowly evolve into her human form.

This is why I share technical details, so everyone can see the behind-the-scenes of what I do for Artemis to create set pieces, props, and even clothing. But I'm still making it my goal to reduce development time without compromising content. Chapter 5 was all about Artemis, naturally. Katy's content got pushed to this chapter, and so did Reina's. However, the other characters planned for CH6 still remain. So, on top of more story progression. We'll also have moments with more characters as well.

All that said, it was another technical week. And I'm having a lot of fun and getting better at creating outdoor environments much quicker. Here's one I made for a scene in this chapter. I need to adjust some minor details. For example, I made the rocks lying in the river wet, but the rocks resting on the water's edge still look dry. I will tweak this, but I love how it came out overall.

I also saw a number of you posting that you received your shirts, and it's awesome to see how much you guys pushed for this and got one. It was a fun side-project and if things go well, I plan on making the shirt that Artemis wears throughout Book 1 (black shirt with the DJ Kink visor stenciled on). But that won't get worked on until this chapter is out.

That wraps it up for this week.

Again, thank you all for your support. It's something I don't take for granted.

Stay safe and hydrated!

• digi.B

  PS - 4K version of Artemis' render above is attached to this post.

Artemis DevLog CH6

Happy New Week!

Last week flew by pretty quickly. Aside from more posing and rendering, it was also a technical week. Which means more learning and skill building. There's a scene set in this chapter, and I wanted a particular dress for it, but nothing caught my eye in the Daz store, so I had to outsource it and found one that I liked

The issue with this dress was that the model was tall. Kindra is a runt. This model has a smaller bust. Kindra is well-endowed. So, it needed some adjustment. And the first few attempts weren't great...

First, trying to conform to the dress was hard. Kindra was not having it and burst out of it. Then, some seams ripped, so I had to stitch them back. But after lots of trial and error, I finally got it going. Then, the next hard part was rigging the dress so it followed whatever pose I put Kindra in.

Again, a lot of trial and error. But in the end, I got the dress I wanted and most importantly, learned a valuable new skill.

For those who know DAZ, know you're often limited to what's available either by the official store or by someone who either ported or created something. But you're still limited to what's available. Learning this skill allows me to expand on the wardrobe when something calls for it. Touching on the MC's past was something I wanted to do for a long time, but the lack of Marine dress blues (for Ava) gave me pause. After this training exercise with this dress, doing it myself makes it possible now.

That wraps it up for last week.

Now for the shirts. Again, I apologize it took so long for this one to be finally done. I think it was two years ago that a fan suggested it, and many of you encouraged it.

The shirt features DJ Kink and her World Tour, AKA her farewell tour. The cities featured on the back are the cities you guys suggested. Whether they're your actual city or a place dear to you. It's as if she toured your area. If all goes well, and by that I mean the vendor handles everything without my involvement. I plan to do one of DJ Kink's other shirt that was featured in CH2. And of course a very limited edition of the shirt Artemis wears throughout Book One. Mainly because it will be a gold foil shirt, and I'm sure that will require a minimum order to put in.

Anyway, here it is!

For 25% off the shirt, the coupon code is "nobadwords" without quotation marks.

DJ Kink World Tour | digi.B (fourthwall.com)

Thank you, everyone, and have a great week!

• digi.B

Artemis DevLog CH6

Happy new week!

Last week was uneventful. Mostly posing and rendering. I did a bit more asset importing, and setting up a new environment. Someone had a goth phase growing up.

I had question brought up earlier this week on Discord about Artemis' discernment protocol points. They asked if having higher firm points is required for romancing her later in the story. Answer was no, the discernment points are separate from her romance points and only alter  specific events in the story. Though, I will say some romance scenes may play out differently depending on those points. Nothing negative at all, but Artemis may suggest things to you when on her path.

I also wanted to remind everyone that I considered your feedback regarding the discernment protocol choices from CH5. I'm crafting better scenarios so the choices won't make you feel like you're punishing her too hard or coming off too mean when interacting with Artemis and her discernment protocol.

That wraps it up for last week. Thank you everyone and please be safe!

- digi.B

ps - I'll have the links for shirts ready next week.

Artemis DevLog CH6

Happy new week!

A semi-technical week. I was working on a scene and was trying work in a hologram into the it. It just...wasn't great looking. Especially when you've compared it to how great the scene looks, then you've got this eyesore of an 80's era special effect slap center in frame...

There was a hologram effect back in CH4 I believe. Where Kindra was reviewing Koko's frame. That looked great, but it was done in post, not actually done in Daz. That process takes time. I've got to render the scenes out. Then, bring them into another program. Import Koko's mesh into there, apply the effects and frame it so it doesn't look like it was composited. That takes a lot of time. Fortunately, I was able to find a way to do it and loved the results.

I also rigged up a new model, as well as textured it. This is VIVI.

Productive week overall, leaning more on the technical side.

That wraps it up for last week.

Have a great week and stay safe!

- digi.B

Artemis DevLog CH6

Happy new week!

First off, translations has been something requested by many since CH1. I really hesitated on this for a while because one: I've never implemented one. And two: I figured it was something that would be pretty involving. So when I was approached, I finally broke and decided to let someone do a translation. Chapter 1 will be translated as a trial; if the translation quality is great, I'll move forward with the rest of the chapters. The person wanting to translate is Russian, so the first translation will be Russian. Chinese is another language I get asked about and that'll probably be the next translation. Then I'll refer to either Steam or analytics to see which language/country Artemis gets downloaded. I'm excited to be able to offer this finally, so we'll see how it goes.

Here's a little behind-the-scenes from yesterday's preview render. Every now and then, I'll be hanging out in Discord with other developers, and we'll just shoot the shit while working on a scene. Often expressing frustrations when DAZ decides to be DAZ. When we look at a final render, more often than not most won't know what it took to get the render to its final state.

Those grey blocks you see, I had to edit the hair mesh to partially remove the skull cap. Reason being was for some reason the light coming from the phone did some wonky stuff to her skullcap. I tried a few things, and none fixed the issue. It's frustrating to see people on forums say, "That's just DAZ. Issue has been that way for years.". Removing the skullcap made her hair look like it was thinning, so that was a no-go.

So, I just modified the mesh to remove the forehead part so it doesn't have that odd color displacement. But kept the top part since it's not looking like she's balding at age 23. Rebuilt the mesh and saved it. Then there's the blue sheets clipping into her. This one was trickier since I wanted to clean up the clipping and also give the impression she was lying on the bed and pillow. So, I had to export the mesh into blender, re-apply the cloth physics, modify the subdivision and then start applying her impression where she's laying on the bed and pillow, then export back into DAZ. Honestly, I should have done this whole scene in Blender. It would have been more fun to work in, lol.

Not all developer's workflows are the same. This is just mine I wanted to share, so we can see the process of hurdling over issues. Here's another one. Boob sock is a common thing we all try to fix and have different methods to fix it. From dforce tricks to other methods. My go-to is usually marvelous designer. It's simple and the cloth physics are pretty good. But there are some shirts that make it difficult because there's loose meshes. So when you try to settle the cloth to rest over the breasts nicely. Gravity does its thing and the whole thing literally just falls apart lol.

Long story short, I threw that bitch in Blender and fixed it there.

This is a propaganda devlog. Blender over DAZ, fight me. Just kidding, but in all seriousness, I'm pretty confident in shifting over to Blender by Book 3. A lot of the special renders done lately were in Blender and no one seems to really notice the difference.

Anyways, despite my gripes outlined above. This week was still productive. I love exploring solutions to problems. Good way to exercise the ol' think noodle.

Thanks again, everyone, and be safe out there!

- digi.B

Artemis DevLog CH6

Happy New Week!

This week I did more code and dialogue edits. I also did more mockups for Artemis' discernment protocol. The icons being used in particular. I wanted to avoid using colors that some might associate as bad/good (red, blue or black,white, etc.). For those new, I didn't want anyone to get the impression that making firm decisions with Artemis will make her evil/bad. Having a high firm stat just means she'll make the 'tougher' choice when confronted in key situations. And vice versa. I want to give the icons and the note that pops up in CH5 a review, so the mechanic is clear. I'm also taking feedback from CH5 and crafting better scenarios that would raise Artemis' firm protocol. 

I'm happy you guys enjoyed the Valentine's render of Artemis. It was a fun one to do learning more with Blender. Adjustments need to be made with textures, but once you dial it in. You wouldn't know the difference. However, her eye scar and arm didn't have her trademark appearance because HD meshes were giving me issues on the import, and didn't want to spend more time trying to fix it. Since this was a special render. Appearance changes can be a big deal and her exposed parts were always going to be patched up bit by bit as the story continues. First was her neck and shoulder, and next will be her jaw. But for the remainder of the story, until the epilogue. She'll continue to have her blue arm and the scar on her eye (the digital marking).

The shirts were brought up on Discord earlier this week. I apologize for the lack of news on that. I've set it aside these last few weeks. The storefront is barebones and I'm pretty deep in development, so I don't have much free time to make it pretty. But March is the anniversary for Artemis, so I plan on making the link live then. A handful of you have been asking for these for more than a year and I apologize for the wait.

Thanks again, everyone, and I wish you a great week!

- digi.B

beep. boop. you put me in on state.

Be Artemis' Valentine.

4K version attached to the post.

Artemis DevLog CH6

Happy New Week!

Nothing much to report this week. Mostly posing and some dialogue rework. As well as some coding. 

I considered providing a preview for Artemis' 'cooing' sound, but thought I'd leave it a surprise. I'm slowly chipping away at that and the addition will be released alongside the next update. When I worked with the VA on it, I had her give me different variations of the mood so that there's little repetition.  I mentioned this in a previous log and wanted to touch on it again. 

With all the assets and environments I've been converting/creating for this chapter, there won't be any scenes from Chapter 1 being remastered. The community seems split on that. A lot ask if CH1 is ever going to get remastered. While the other side would rather, I focus on the update. It's kind of a lose/lose in my case, lol. But like I've said before. If I've got the time to remaster a scene, I'll do one. We just won't be seeing one done this update.

Have yourselves a great week and stay safe out there!

- digi.B

Artemis DevLog CH6

Happy New Week!

Mostly uneventful week. Just posing and rendering.  

I also realize I've pretty much been working on several parts that are making up CH6. I hadn't shared anything outside of the technical stuff. So here's a teaser for everyone. 

VR + Android = ...?

In the last chapter, choosing what to share with previews was difficult. I wanted Artemis herself to be a surprise in terms of the scenes she was involved in. But you can expect to see more teases for this chapter. 

Have yourselves a great week, and stay safe!

- digi.B

Artemis DevLog CH6

Happy New Week!

I'll try and keep this one short. This was a very technical week and by that I mean modifying, building, learning, etc. I was working on DK's model for her hiking scene and her hair had clipping through the visor. There are tools in DAZ to fix this. Tools like Mesh Grabber and one other that escapes me at the moment. Results can vary and neither did the job cleanly. So, I decided to take the model in Zbrush, clean the hair, and create a new asset. The results were nice.

The biggest venture this week was creating a whole environment. There are a lot of outdoor/nature scenes for this chapter and while I could kitbash or use different angles for an existing setpiece, I'm still limited by the layout of the setpiece. So, I decided to learn how to create environments, specifically ones with many trees and, more importantly, the mountains and hills. Much like the mall scene and populating it. I had to sit down and decide how am I going to accomplish this. After some learning, trial and error, etc. I'm able to create some real nice environments for the various scenes in this chapter. And not only this chapter, but good knowledge to have for future chapters and projects.

The light posts and outdoor restrooms were imported in. But the hills and mountains were created and populated with trees. I also made sure to give the trees that transition from summer to autumn since Book 2 takes place in November. Something I try to keep in mind when creating environments lol

The above image is ground level, and you can't really see the scale of the environment. Here's another shot with more of the environment.

There's 4 days left for the poll, but safe to say which outfit we'll be seeing this chapter. I also mentioned we'd be seeing the other outfits for the other events planned as well. Number 5 was the runner up, so that will be seen during the birthday party in Chapter 8 and Number 2 during Thanksgiving in Chapter 7.

I've been asked about translations and walkthroughs. It's something that I have plans for but each chapter I'm just so focused on the update, it always gets put on the backburner.  For the walkthrough, there is an unofficial one on Discord in the spoilers and walkthrough channel. An official, in-game walkthrough is planned but we won't see that for a while. Likely once Artemis concludes.

That wraps it up for last week. Thanks again, everyone, for your support and feedback.

Stay safe and cozy!

- digi.B

Artemis Devlog - CH6

Hey everyone!

So, off the bat. I want to mention the poll that just went up. I had a scene planned for Reina for CH5, but with everything going on in that chapter, this upcoming update felt much better to push it to. For context, it's a non-business outfit. So, it's not something she's wearing at the office but while enjoying some personal time. I had a difficult time choosing which one and felt you guys could help Reina decide on her outfit.  I'm still going through some drafts with Paige's date for this chapter, so she'll also have a poll soon.

Additionally, the other outfits won't go to waste. In Book Two, there are a few major events coming up. The Autumn Festival, Thanksgiving, and the big party that will close Book Two is the birthday party. I plan to review the outfits that didn't win in CH6 and pick the runner-ups, based on the next event (Reina's pink dress might not be the best to wear at a Thanksgiving dinner, but suited more for the BDay party.)

McCreed Expo will be kicking off Book Three, in case some might have been baffled as to why it wasn't mentioned above as a major event. That is going to be a big one, building the expo itself, two major cameos, and the start of the next major arc.

I was asked about the Spotify soundtrack being updated. I can see if CH5's songs are available and I'll create a new playlist for the new songs. The reason being...back in the days of yore...we AVN devs used to have many widely available music libraries to choose from. When suddenly there was a mass exodus of these companies switching their TOS to prohibit using their libraries in adult content. 

- fin

This meant a lot of us had to change out our music. Especially those of us who planned to distribute to Steam. Artemis chapter 1 had a lot of good tracks. So I found as many as I could on Spotify and made the playlist. I don't think I'll find many of the new tracks from Chapters 1-4 as they're generic tracks. Chapter 5 I went into a contract with a music distributor. So, Ch5's music I should be able to track down. But I haven't confirmed that yet.

CH1 used to have a player that would let you pull up your phone and see the name of the song that's currently playing. But when the mass exodus occurred, I changed the entire code so that I could, later in development, swap out the temp tracks with music from actual musicians. Or a composer who I'm still on the hunt for. Same goes for the red DJ Kink Studio button on the main menu. These changes all occurred around CH4's development and I've been working bit by bit to reinstate these features back into the game. Development takes precedence, so these extra features get placed on the back burner until I can pick them back up again. I mean the shirts were brought up around end of CH3. I've been chiseling away at them and put it aside, then bring them back again to work on. After releasing CH5, I resumed back to the shirts for a few days, mostly just ordering proofs and checking quality. So I apologize the extra stuff is taking a bit longer to complete. But they'll get done.

Here's a link to the original Artemis soundtrack on Spotify 

That wraps it up for this week!

Stay safe and cozy out there!

- digi.B

Artemis DevLog - CH6

Happy New Week!

No update on the shirts this week. I need to set up the storefront and was busy last week working on assets for ch6. At the moment, it looks like someone's xanga page (yes, i'm that many years old). We'll see how it goes this week to have them up.

I went back and made some adjustments to MC's car. In CH5, I had to position the camera due to the car being one whole obj and not rigged. So things like the car door, trunk etc. could not be opened. Now everything is fully rigged. Doors open, turning the steering wheel not only orients the steering wheel but also turns the wheels, trunk opens and even the windows roll down now. I also did all the material presets for quick settings. Things like turn signaling, break and reverse lights, and headlights. It's a lot of work now but saves time for when I need them changed for a scene. The whole thing in general takes time, but it's worth the effort in the end.

And speaking of custom assets. Slightly disappointed that the asset I purchased came in pieces, so I had to reassemble this set piece manually. Much like the shooting range asset in CH3 with Naomi. This one had to be pieced together, UV mapped and textured. But it's just one of those things I complain about now but appreciate when actually using the asset.

While these custom assets do take time to import and set up for DAZ. It is nice to not limit myself to what is only available on the DAZ store. Sure, it does add to development time depending on the complexity of the asset. Or sometimes I need to take a step back and think about "how am I going to accomplish this?". Like the mall scene for example. I had a bunch of DMs about it. Thinking back on it, I'm pretty sure every asset there was custom, aside from the characters. From the mall itself, parking garage, the clothing store and even the freezie stand. The exception was that the dressing room was a native DAZ asset.

The point of all this is I've been asked a few times why has development time increased compared to CH1. A small part is learning new methods, tools, etc. The other part is working with different assets that add to the quality of the game. But I don't want anyone to think this is foreshadowing CH6 development time. With Steam out of the way until Book 2 is completed, I'm able to stay focused on CH6. There also aren't any mini-games or free-roam planned for CH6. I try to weave them into the story so they feel natural to the flow of the narrative. Though I feel I went a little too hard on Veronica's mini games in CH5. Particularly her word-hack game. Since I had to code and render the outcomes depending on what stage of the game and how much she undressed. It was fun, but also hell to work on.

Anyway, I try to shed a bit of light on the BTS (behind the scenes) of development. There's a lot that goes on that many don't see. One of these days I'd like to just record the process for these chapters. I think it'll not only be fun but educational for anyone interested in knowing how things work.

I've taken enough of your time today. Progress continues to go well.

Stay safe and cozy out there!

- digi.B

Artemis DevLog - CH6

Happy New Week!

Few nice updates to chat about. First, I got the final recordings for Artemis' 'cooing'. I had the VA record a few variations of the different emotions I requested. This way it doesn't sound repetitive after a while. I outlined some different emotions for the actress. I put a lot of work into the various emotions for shots in general, so I certainly want the sound to match as closely as possible as well. I'll be working these in over the next couple of weeks before releasing the patch. I also want to remind everyone that this will be a setting, so you can mute it if you wish to.

The latest proofs of the shirts arrived and look great with the new font layout. In the coming weeks, I'll be setting things up for them to go up. I also want to point out their price which is going to be $26.70, this is the lowest the website will allow me to price them.

But after some browsing around, I am able to create a promo code. So when these go up, I'll share the code which will take 30% off the order. I've been asked if other designs will be made and it depends on how well this goes. And by that I mean if there's little to no intervention on my part, hoping the platform deals with all the stuff like returns, etc. Questions about other merch get asked now and then and I don't mind doing more. I just don't want to take away from development time setting things like this up. So if this goes well, I'll do more designs like the shirt that Kindra gives you in CH2. As well as the one that Artemis wears throughout Book 1. I'll also do a smaller version of the poster Kindra has in her loft. 

Chapter 6 continues at a steady pace. Two scenes in this chapter are on the level of the mall scene in CH5. A few custom locations mixed in several background people. I'm not at that scene yet on my docket, but I'm going to start working on those set pieces this week. 

Have yourselves a warm rest of your week! Stay safe and cozy!

- digi.B

Artemis DevLog - CH6

Happy New Year!

No updates on the shirts. Still waiting for the sample order to come in.

Good news about the voice actress. We've been working on dialing in Artemis' cooing sound. So those curious about the sound can look forward to that small patch.  This feature will be toggleable in the settings menu, so if it's too distracting. You're not forced to have it on. 

This week, I'll be working on some dialogue edits. The thing about having a large cast is all the personalities you need to track. I often go back and review the dialogue and make sure it matches the personality. Having a large cast like in Artemis is really nice, but my next project will be smaller (about 5). A lot of my inspiration is drawn from games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect (and now Baldur's Gate 3...finally got to play after releasing CH5 :) ). The romance options in those games are nice and tight. Makes for cleaner variable tracking, chunky main plot with nice side-arcs weaved in. That's future talk, though. Chapter 6 will continue progressing the main story, with opportunities to interact with LIs should you be on their path. 

I have attached the full-sized render of this week's image to this post. I also noticed the Holiday renders didn't post last week, so I added the link to the Mega folder below. You can download the full 4K render of the character you want (or all of them heh).

https://mega.nz/folder/A01ElQrD#IEYCi_R1YqMOE0YEFggJ8Q 

Thank you all again for an amazing 2023. Here's to 2024!

Stay safe out there.

- digi.B

Artemis DevLog - CH6

Happy New Week!

To my surprise, the revised shirts arrived today. The charcoal color was more black than I had expected and came out nice. The whites especially popped, which is great as I want the cities on the back to be legible. The red was also nice and the blue is pretty cool too. I chose a different shirt material as well, and this too feels really nice.  Breathable and not too thin. Feels real comfortable. Overall I'm pretty satisfied. I just ran them through the wash and they held up well. However, over time, they will begin to fade.

There's a final revision coming. I redesigned "DJ Kink" on the front of the shirt. I'll also order a few in different colors just to see what they look like and ensure the colors hold up. The website has these "preview" renders of what the design will look like. But I'll have actual pictures of the shirts so you can see how the design appears on the shirts when it comes time to put them up for sale finally.

Below is the final revision of the font and arrangement. 

I did more writing and coding last week. I also purchased more assets over the weekend. Some of these are custom assets, and I'll be spending this week getting those assets DAZ ready and doing more writing. 

There will most likely be no Monday devlog next week, as it's Christmas day, and I will be out of town visiting family. With that, I want to thank you all for a fantastic year.  It was probably my most stressful having to prepare Steam alongside CH5 development. All while trying not to rush development but at the same time providing a timely release. Your excitement and messages about how much you enjoy Artemis are great reminders of why I push myself every release.

Again, thank you all. I greatly appreciate you guys!

Happy Holidays, and stay warm, everyone!

- digi.B

Artemis DevLog - CH6

Happy New Week!

Sorry for the late posting. I was working on the script earlier this afternoon and the DJ Kink shirt arrived and was pretty dissatisfied with the quality. So, I fell into a rabbit hole, looking at other options. The shirt itself feels really nice, but the method used (DTFx) made the shirt look very shotty. And as much as I prefer the black shirt, I may have to go with a lighter color like a charcoal grey. I just finished submitting another order, tweaking the font size for the cities on the back. This should help make them pop out more. I'm also testing three colors: red wine, charcoal black, and grey. 

I apologize this is taking so long to for me to approve. I want to ensure the quality is excellent before giving the golden seal. Once I narrow down the print method and quality, I'll make an announcement.

Here's the latest version sent to me. The DTGx method doesn't do gradients well.

Here's the next sample shirt I ordered. Hopefully, the grey version helps the design pop out more. Also, the DTG method blends into the fabric. So, I'm hoping this doesn't give this tackey look the image above method has.

Hopefully, this version will come out better!

I pushed a small hotfix, 0.5.1b, which addresses a typo for a variable. There's no need to go back and replay. The variable in the database is correct, I just made a typo when Kindra references the bear back in CH3. A few lines of dialogue are exchanged, and the scene moves on. All links were updated already, and I added a separate hotfix link so you don't have to download the entire patch again.

Things are going well with CH6 development. Lots of great scenes I'm looking forward to posing and rendering (and animating :) ).  Like I mentioned previously, it feels great to finally unravel topics and side stories as the main story picks up now that a certain someone is awake. There were a lot of great things said about Artemis (the character) and one of the notable notes was her 'cooing'. At some point between August and October, I had  been speaking with a voice actress who can bring that part of Artemis alive. Because Artemis' tone would change depending on what she's interacting with, I had to send the actress some scenes to help her convey the tone. Unfortunately, the last two months leading up to the release were pretty stressful for me and her email got lost in my inbox. The idea had gotten left on the cutting room floor. But I'm getting back in touch with her and hopefully she'll still be interested in lending her voice. Of course there are others I could approach, but I loved the energy she brought to the various projects in her reel. So we'll see what she says. And to be clear, this is only for the "cooing" bits and not full on voice acting. There will also be an option to turn it off should you not want it.

That wraps it up for this week! Have yourselves a great week and stay warm!

- digi.B

Artemis DevLog - CH6

Happy New Week!

Things continue to be productive on my end, as usual. I'm still in the writing segment of development, and last week, I spent a lot of time catching up on technology in the real world When I conceptualized Artemis, which was back in 2020. AI was barely scratching the surface. Fast forward to today, things have exploded in various ways. From art to how we go about our daily lives. And while Artemis is a sci-fi story, I still like to research and adapt a bit of reality into the narrative. While, of course, taking some of that sci-fi liberty to elevate things. Like Artemis' endoskeleton, for example. Graphene is an actual material but couldn't make up an entire skeleton with today's methods and technology. The same goes for space-based solar power, which isn't as farfetched as you might think. And also for one last bit of technology that has yet to be revealed but has been a motif throughout all releases of Artemis—especially this latest update.

I also did some Blender training and am very excited to hone my skills there. I eventually plan to move away from DAZ. DAZ is a great program, but for the work I do, it's become a bottleneck. When working in a scene, I sometimes need to either fix something or modify a mesh or whatever. DAZ has tools for some cases, but they are mostly hacks rather than actual solutions. For example, MC's shirt has a single button that was a pain in the ass. In Blender, I can edit the geometry and delete it altogether with no middleman. In DAZ, editing the geometry just caused more issues than before. Same for Kindra's hair. There's a morph to set her hair behind her ears. But it still clipped through her ears, so I had to export the hair to Blender, mold the hair to fit, then export back and create a new morph. And when it comes to posing, things move that really shouldn't move. Blender just takes away a lot of the exporting/importing, which allows me to just focus on the scene and edit things on the fly. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I'm also happy to say I finally made more progress on the shirts. I ordered another sample from a different company, and it should be here next week for me to review. If the quality is excellent, I'll move forward with this company. This would be nice because if I had gone the screen printing route, the shirts would have been really limited as I would have to ship these out myself, and I'm trying not to add more on my plate right now with development. For those new, I commissioned a design of DJ Kink and created a World Tour shirt. All the cities listed on the shirt are cities that you guys had requested. So it's as if DJ Kink toured your hometown.

That wraps it up! Thank you everyone! Stay safe and cozy!

- digi.B

Artemis DevLog - CH6

Happy New Week!

Great first week of development. I've updated the links to version 0.5.1a. I want to first touch on what versions mean, as some might be confused about whether it's a content update or not. Versions followed by a letter (#.#.#A) generally mean a hotfix or patch with minimal corrections. The number just before a letter means either a major bug fix or major corrections. It could be fixes for renders, animation corrections, and other fixes. On very rare occasions, they could also contain additional content. For example, I added a few extra renders to a scene. But never to be taken as new content. The first two numbers in the game's version are indicators of new content. We're currently on Chapter 5, so version 0.5.0 represents this. The next update to feature new content is version 0.6.0, and so on. I've seen people confused about versioning and what version #.#.1x has. 

All that said, 0.5.1a is just typo corrections, and I added a missing variable if you decided to hang out with Veronica after you chatted about AI with her.

Speaking of versioning, I finally got Artemis set up on GitHub to help me with version control. As Artemis gets bigger and bigger, I need to keep better track of versions than my previous system. So, it was fun setting things up and learning how to keep track, update, create version branches, merge. I also got my MacBook and did some coding on my main PC, then fired up my coding app on the MacBook and great to see it pull the repo from Git and pick up where I left off. Didn't have to VPN to my NAS or setup anything complex like that. Real straightforward and hassle free. I was also able to see how things work on the Mac side of things for Mac builds. Specifically when updating versions. So, I'm compiling things differently now. It'll still be the same for everyone as far as updating and playing goes. And very few steps on my end. All links will work regardless of platform (PC, Mac, Linux only). And trust me when I saw its a far better process for me. Updating two different sets of links, three times gets confusing. So One Link to rule them all is better. For PC, here's what it will look like

Mac looks like this. Same download and plays on all platforms. 

Coding on the MacBook has been a nice experience. Though I think my favorite part is compiling the game. It takes maybe 45 minutes to compile Artemis on my PC (13900k CPU). On my Mac it takes about 8 minutes. Not a big deal now, but on release days, those precious minutes count as I try to get it ready and uploaded for everyone. And especially if there's a bug I need to fix. Comes in handy to compile it quickly. Of course, my daily driver will always be PCMR :)

So all links are updated now for version 0.5.1a. Typos and a variable added for those who want to start Veronica's path. Patching is the same as before for PC and Linux. I'll be keeping a closer look on Mac builds and seeing how this process goes.

Nice kick-off week getting started with CH6. Two major events for Book Two I'm planning for is the Thanksgiving gathering. And for those who recall from CH1, Katy mentioned the Autumn Festival. Getting a headstart on the festival now because it's supposed to be a lot bigger than the Halloween party, and I want to take what I learned from the party to avoid issues I ran into then. I do intend to get an ADA A6000 for this as I am almost certain I'll be hitting the 24GB vram limit, which is what caused me issues with the Halloween party—also optimizing more as well planning how I'll ultimately render the event. Because it's a city-wide which means more people in the background. But between the Halloween event, the mall scene in CH5, I've got a few ideas on pulling it off.

That wraps it up for this week!

Be safe everyone, and stay warm out there!

- digi.B

Chapter 6 development officially begins!

Happy new week!

It feels good to be back in the hot seat again, with all my attention being on CH6 this cycle.

This weekend, I did a bit of relaxing as well as priming things to help streamline development. I've set things up so I can work remotely on the go regarding coding and writing. Writing especially since I enjoy a change in scenery as it does affect my writing.

I noticed that some who patched the game experienced an issue with the scene that involved Ava, Mc's mom, in Chapter 1. When I was working on the Steam release earlier this year, I remastered this scene because it was probably the worst of the chapter. The backdrop was just horrible, so after releasing Steam back in April. I updated the links to version 0.4.2, which included the remaster of this scene. I'll drop the file needed to restore this scene in the release post, which will be available to everyone since Ch1 was released as a demo (This file will include the other remastered scenes as I complete them for Chapter 1. So it will be updated as they're done.)

I've had questions about earlier chapters being remastered. It's not high on my priority list right now. Working on a full-blown remaster will consume a lot of development time, and a lot already goes on as it is with each chapter. If I have time during a dev cycle, I will remaster at most one scene for chapter 1.

I've also had questions regarding Steam's next update. The releases are in Books, and Book One contains chapters 1-4. Chapters 5-8 will make up Book Two; Book Two will be available on Steam when those chapters are completed. And so on.

T-Shirts! - So earlier this year, I was working on having DJ World Tour shirts made. I got the design commissioned and received. I began my hunt on finding a good source for them to be easily printed and shipped out. The colors didn't pop, especially the back of the shirt with all the cities. Instead of white, it was a dull grey as I continued searching for another candidate for digital printing. I was nearing month 5 of the dev cycle and decided to put the project aside so I could focus on development.  But I'll work on getting them done and available for purchase as soon as I can find a good source. These t-shirt printing companies seemed to have had good streaks until recently, and the quality has tanked from what I have read. So, I will continue to seek a good one. I did get the drawing converted to CYMK, so if all else fails. I'll settle with screen printing. 

Someone asked the question about Artemis coming to GoG. I believe they are a curated platform, meaning you have to receive a request from them to add your game to GoG. I'm unsure how that comes to be. My guess would be how well the title is received on other platforms, so if you own a copy already on Steam. Leaving a positive review will likely boost visibility to get their attention and receive an invitation to GoG.

Another question was whether I played other adult games before making Artemis and my favorites. 

I didn't have much exposure to AVNs before starting Artemis. I didn't even know how big a community there was until after releasing Artemis. The very first one I was exposed to is called "Getting to know Christine".

Last question asks if every update will take a year to develop.

I don't intend for them to take 12 months to develop. CH4 was going fine until I hit the Halloween party. There were a lot of characters in the scene and I had to rethink how I was going to execute it. Because of how big the scenes were, they took upwards of 20 minutes to load. I actually had to cut extra content because things got so bad. There were supposed to be mini games, the INK mansion was supposed to have a haunted maze, I was going to add so you could invite one of the girls to dance on the dancefloor.

With Chapter 5, there was the remastering of the CH1 scene, rewriting the code so controllers and Steam Deck place nice, getting assets ready for Steam. That took about 3-4 months on top of trying to focus on development. After releasing on Steam, I had switched gears and immediately continued with CH5 development. 

Chapter 5 had a lot of custom assets. One of the drawbacks of so many AVNs using DAZ is a lot of the assets will get recycled and there is so much kit-bashing can do before you start to notice again. The entire mall was custom: the clothing store, the freezie stand, the underground parking lot. And that's just the mall scene alone. Importing these assets and correcting the mesh, retexturing them, etc. It adds to the time.

Take this car for example. 

This is Stefano's ride. This is a non-DAZ asset and came as an OBJ. So I had to label each moving part (doors, trunk, steering wheel, etc.). Then I reverse-engineered a vehicle from the DAZ store so I could rig this car to steer appropriately and other cool functions that will help when posing scenes. I actually had to stop with just the door and steering wheel because it was all I needed for the scene, and had to move on. But I still need to complete the rigging as it will be featured in more scenes. The same must be done with MC's new car, as that too is a custom asset.

So, it's not my intention for development cycles to take long. I do my best to get as much as I can done each week. But there is a lot that goes into crafting the scenes. I admit sometimes I let my creativity get the best of me when writing scenes. Then when I go shopping in the DAZ store, I'm like "Crap...that doesn't exist in the store...". But instead of changing the scene or finding something similar to make it work, I like to go hunting to get precisely what I need.

But this isn't an excuse of saying, these chapters will take a year because of what I said above. Not every chapter will have lots of new locations or complex assets like vehicles. I look forward to taking on this next dev cycle and refining my workflow for better release times.

I've tortured you guys enough with this wall of text (sorry, haha). But Chapter 6 development has officially started, and I'm looking forward to getting this out to you!

For those state-side, I hope you have a safe Thanksgiving! Everyone else, stay safe and keep warm!

- digi.B

Artemis Post-Release DevLog

Afternoon, everyone!

Hectic last week trying to catch up on things I had put aside for the last several months. Also doing some house cleaning with my workspace and my databases as I start archiving things from Chapter 5 and prepping things for Chapter 6. Still, a few things left to do. I ordered a bunch of watercooling parts to convert my main render box to watercooling. And that has been sitting on my workbench since around June. Currently, I'm taking actual time off now. Spending it away from my main workstation while out of town. Over the weekend, I plan on working on the server as I get things ready for Chapter 6 development.

There weren't many reports regarding the Mac builds. I believe I was notified about two reports with the patch not working. Unfortunately, it's difficult for me to troubleshoot Mac builds as I don't own one. So I decided to buy one so I could properly compile Mac builds and also troubleshoot, provide better patching steps, etc. My main Intel PC is still going to be my main workstation. But will be using the Macbook for on the go development, light 3D work, etc. Hopefully, utilize it more to leave the house more and work. Because CH5 gave me a bad case of cabin fever. It won't be here until next week. So I will look into patching builds and create new instructions for Mac builds. As well as re-create a build on the Mac. Certainly overkill, but it will help to troubleshoot Mac specific issues.

That's all for this week! See you all next Monday as I officially begin development for Chapter 6!

Continue dropping questions here and I will have responses in next Monday's post.

Have a great week and stay safe!

Artemis CH5 - v0.5.1b Release Page

New Renders - 5618

New Songs - 71

New SFX - 75

New phone app - "Artemis"

New mechanic - Artemis' "Discernment Protocol"

New font - Hopefully, this makes it a lot easier on the eyes. The font size increased a bit.

I added a recap for this chapter - I hope to get better at arranging them in future updates.

Minor bug fixes from the previous release

Typo corrections from the previous release

Version 0.5.1b - Corrected "ch3_kinsavattempt" variable.

TARS Release Page - LINK

T-800 Release Page - LINK

If you're getting "Missing image" during the scene with MC's mom in CH1. Download the attached file from this post.

Chapter 05 - v0.5.1a - T-800

Patch only. Requires Book 1 (Chapters 1-4) from TARS tier before patching. After obtaining your copy, you can continue patching future updates via T-800 tier. Just be sure to keep your copy and not delete it.

Changelog:

New Renders - 5618

New Songs - 71

New SFX - 75

New phone app - "Artemis"

New mechanic - Artemis' "Discernment Protocol"

New font - Hopefully this makes it a lot easier on the eyes. The font size increased a bit.

I added a recap for this chapter - I hope to get better at arranging them in future updates.

Minor bug fixes from the previous release

Typo corrections from the previous release

Please be sure to drag and drop everything from the PATCH folder into the Artemis CH4 folder. Click "Yes" to overwrite everything when prompted. I included a video in case you need a visual guide.

Version 0.5.1b - Corrected variable "ch3_kinsavattempt".

WINDOWS/MAC/Linux:

Patch only (4GB): WeTransfer | MEGA | GDrive

Hotfix only (11MB): WeTransfer | Only download if you already had CH5 downloaded prior to DEC 8th

Artemis Post-Release DevLog

Good morning!

Firstly, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone. Seriously, the reception for this latest chapter was overwhelmingly positive. Very happy to finally be at the point of the story kicking off. A lot of side-arcs I'm excited to start exploring.

Also, I apologize for the two bugs found. Before release, I was reviewing variables and in my infinite wisdom....decided to update those two to be more descriptive for tracking purposes. Bug has since been resolved last Monday with patch 0.5.0b.

Later today, I'll be dropping 0.5.1 patch for both TARS and T-800. On top of the bug fixes mentioned above, it'll include some logic fixes, Naomi's date fix (if you opted for the name wager), typo fixes, and will also include the revised DataLeak menu that will include an "Extras" section. So those who collected Cassie's and Zoe's SDCards, they will be present there. Along with future SDCards that don't involve the main love interests. Additionally, this will also include the SDCard hunt for CH5 and two new wallpapers for Zelda and Veronica for your phone.

I also wanted to mention the new core feature for Artemis that was introduced in this chapter. I'll be re-wording the introduction for this feature to be more specific. But I wanted to mention that it's not a morality system per se. Originally, I was going to call it the "balance system", but that just felt too generic. Discernment Protocol fits the bill far more accurately because that is what this system is. Artemis' ability to judge situations and handle them based on the values she has at that moment. Of course, you can pump all points into one area. But keep in mind, not all situations will go well if you try to be empathetic. Some situations require a firm stance to prevent certain repercussions. The same goes for being too firm. Hence the original name "balance system". But again, you're free to guide Artemis how you please, the story will continue to play out. But her actions in critical situations will be tallied. Again, I plan on re-writing the notification as I felt it was a little too quick and wasn't clear enough for me.

After I push this next patch later today, I'll be officially taking my vacation and returning on the 20th. I will still drop a devlog next Monday to address anything. I'll also start my Blender training this week, so an intermittent vacation these next two weeks, haha. 

Again, thank you all so much. This was a rocky dev cycle, but as always, Very much worth it. Looking forward to jumping into CH6 development.

Feel free to start dropping questions about Artemis, myself, my methods of development, etc. I'll collect them and write up my responses on the 20th.

Stay safe everyone and hope you all have a wonderful week!

- digi.B

Artemis Chapter 0.5.1b Available now!

Links have been updated for patch 0.5.1a

Changelog:

New Renders - 5618

New Songs - 71

New SFX - 75

New phone app - "Artemis"

New mechanic - Artemis' "Discernment Protocol"

New font - Hopefully, this makes it a lot easier on the eyes. The font size increased a bit.

I added a recap for this chapter - I hope to get better at arranging them in future updates.

Minor bug fixes from the previous release

Typo corrections from the previous release

If you're downloading the patch, please be sure to drag and drop everything from the PATCH folder into the Artemis CH4 folder. Click "Yes" to overwrite everything when prompted. I included a video in case you need a visual guide.

Version 0.5.1b - Corrected variable "ch3_kinsavattempt".

WINDOWS/MAC/Linux:

Full Version (13GB): WeTransfer | MEGA | GDrive

Patch only (4GB): WeTransfer | MEGA | GDrive

Hotfix only (11MB): WeTransfer | Only download if you already had CH5 downloaded prior to DEC 8th

Artemis DevLog - CH5

Happy new week!

I'm on track for October 30th release date! I'll give a proper change log on the release date but here's a few numbers

renders - 5,203 (this number may go up or down just by a few as I clean things up)

69 new tracks

33,506 words - This number felt low at first. But it'll make sense why once you've gone through this chapter.

The update will be about 3.5GB

I also feel I need to mention this chapter features only one lewd scene. I remember one guy being furious when ch3 dropped and there were only two and his tantrum gave me a chuckle. At this point though, it's safe to say Artemis is more story focused and lewds will come naturally. Depending on the character and how much has been invested in them thus far.

That said, this is a story heavy chapter. Book One ended an arc and Book Two continues the story and introduces another major arc. I was originally going to make CH5 shorter due to the amount of work I did recoding Book One to be controller and SteamDeck friendly for the Steam release, amongst other things. But even with so much fat trimmed, I can only trim so much for sake of story beat. Each chapter is laid out to bring each book to a conclusion and sets a foundation for the next book. But I am so relieved to finally be at this point. This has truly been development hell and I am looking forward to starting fresh with Chapter 6, once 5 has been released. But enough of that, we're 7 days away and I am really excited to release this next chapter!

In the next couple of weeks, I'll collect questions from anyone wanting to know more about Artemis, myself or future projects and answer them around the end of November.

Thank you again for your patience and support. I look forward to a nice break and hanging out with everyone again in Discord voice chats.

See you all next week and have yourselves a safe one!

- digi.B

Artemis DevLog - CH5

Happy New Week!

Will be updating the beta build later today.  And while that is happening, continuing to sort the small list of things I need to tweak. Nothing major, just mostly tightening bolts and making sure nothing slipped. Short post today, I just wanted to pop in and keep everyone in the loop that things are still on track!

Friendly reminder again that if you were in the Kira tiers and above before to send me your name for the credits. I'll still go through the list manually to make sure I got everyone.

Have yourselves a great week!

-digi.B

Artemis DevLog - CH5

Happy new week!

This week I'll be laying down the new tracks and sound effects into the code. The way things are looking, I want to say that CH5 will be released on Oct 30th. The week leading up to the 30th is more of a buffer to address anything that may have popped up, so should things look good before the 30th, I'll release sooner.

ALSO, I keep forgetting to mention this and almost forgot as I was about to hit the post button.

If you had signed up for the tiers that places your names in the credits, please do so ASAP. Deadline for this will be OCT 20th. Either send me a message here or in the Patreon channel in the discord. I will still sift through the history as I've done before, but dropping your names for me will speed things up for me on that front.

Following this release, I'll be doing another Q&A here on Patreon. So if you have questions about Artemis, future projects, myself. Feel free to ask and I'll start jotting the questions down and post answers next month.

Back into the basement I go! Have yourselves a safe week!

- digi.B

Artemis DevLog - CH5

Happy new week!

Another busy week but the list has shrunk significantly. This week I'll be wrapping up renders that need to be cleaned up or corrected that remain as well as finalize some special effects, aka scenes that are through Artemis' POV. Next week will be laying down the tracks and sound effects and testing of the final build before releasing.

Big relief to finally be at this point. The SD cards won't be in the release build because those aren't finished and since they're just bonus content, I figured it's best to just do those during release week. Before I take my 1-2 weeks off, I'll be working on the SD card renders and address any bugs that may have slipped by. Then include the SD card renders with the patch. Again, since those renders are considered bonus content, I figured this would be a good route.

Thanks everyone and I hope the weather has finally cooled in your area. I'm certainly enjoying the change.

- digi.B