dateariane

Hopepunk City Case File: The Marketplace

Every week you go to the marketplace to buy something.  Hopepunk City has a simple economic system, and it does not keep track of "moolas" or have prices.  The system is based on what you can afford, and what you can afford is based on how much you have earned. Higher wages gives you access to pricier things to buy.

The limit is set at one purchase per week, and access to the...

Hopepunk City 0.90 (final beta)

Here is what I am calling the final beta.  Basically it means I am done adding new content to the game, so whatever is in the game will be what is in the final release.  I suspect there are still bugs and grammar errors left to be found, and I am updating new Patreon names (Welcome new Exec. Producer Liam Gilmour) at least to the end of the month.  The epilogue was written to include r...

Hopepunk City Case File: Max Points Dialog choices

These are the best choices to make in the dialogs you are likely to get in the game. Dialog choices are based on points earned.  Choices that get you achievements will be marked as well.  Of course you can choose what you want and live with the choices, this list is for people struggling to get enough points at various checkpoints.  Points and achievements are based on version 0.84 of the game

Rachel Introduction

"Yes, I like dogs." Rachel ...

Hopepunk City Demo 1.0 (Android updated)

Here is the link to the "Free Demo" version of Hopepunk City.  It basically contains the first month of the game including sound and 24 achievements.  The only thing in the demo that is not in the full game is a trailer that plays at the end at completing of the first month.

htt...

Hopepunk City Case File: The Underground Path

A couple of months ago, while thinking about the game balance, I developed a problem that needed my attention.  There is an employment path that does not require training of any sort, just exercise.  It goes table busser > restaurant server > diner server, and that is where you are stuck until you train in something. If your interest is "outdoors" it is shorter: Delivery driver > B...

Pic 28: Maya's Office

One of the last things I did graphically before releasing the beta was revamp the pictures in Maya's office.  Before this, it was represented by basically a single picture.

Maya's T-shirt is dynamic, which is computer simulated draped cloth. Setting up dynamic clothing is annoyingly complicated in Poser.  It is easier in Daz Studio with dForce, but dynamic cloth in Poser looks a lot b...

Hopepunk City Case File: The End Game

Having shared most of the first two months of content already, I'd like to share tricks of the third month and how to get the best ending.

Some of this gets political, I understand that is odd for a game of this nature to get political.  This portion of the game was written and illustrated in November 2020 after a crazy US election that was still ongoing because of a particular stubborn ca...

Hopepunk City Beta Patch 0.81

Based on feedback, I made some changes to the game, and since these only affect the game files it is easy to patch.

Changes:

• Nudged the difficulty down a little, the old "normal" is now "hard" and the new normal is halfway between old and "easy".  11 is now the level everyone must like you to get past meeting 1, and 27 is minimum someone has to be to get past meeting 2.  Romance and sex scenes are affected by this as well, and should be easier to unlock.
• M...
  2021-09-07 17:00:35 +0000 UTC View Post

Hopepunk City Case File: Dating Ariane (edited for 0.9)

Hopepunk City does not really work in a way that can be covered in traditional step by step walkthroughs, so I decided to create advanced tips and tricks and call them "Case Files", for no other reason that it sounds fun.  I'm starting off with the very last section of the game I created where you go on a date with Ariane.

How do you get here

There are two w...

Hopepunk City Beta 0.8 Available

I've done enough tinkering, I need to stop!  Time to finally release a beta!

A lot has changed since the alpha version back in July.  I was supposed to finish the story, release a 3 month alpha, then work on audio and achievements, and release a beta.  Well I did things out of order and now there is a beta, complete with audio and achievements ready to go!

Is there stuff st...

Pic 27: More date pics

I mentioned in my last post that the last section I need to do is a date with Ariane, and I featured one choice for dinner.  Here's the other choice: the Drive-N-Dine. 

I updated the interior lighting, the overhead lights actually work now, and it makes the place look and feel real.  Also another spoiler, in the Hopepunk City universe, the servers really are topless, but in this ...

September Status: Beta is coming!

I am writing and illustrating the last scene there is to do on Hopepunk City.  It is set in Lizzard's Nightclub, so I am using pics from Date Ariane as placeholders  while I write it, and then the illustrating can be done.

After that, I just need to add achievements, and the "beta" will be ready to go.  A lot has changed since the alpha release in late July. &nb...

Pic 26: Dinner at the Blue Azul

I'm literally in the home stretch of finishing Hopepunk City, at least the story part.  The scenes where you date Ariane, which I have surprisingly struggled with, is literally the last scenes I have to write and illustrate.

I knew an option to romance Ariane and FINALLY make her your girlfriend had to be a part of this game from the original concept I came up with back in January...

Pic 25: Nude in Strange Places

Another week where most of my game images are uninteresting out of context, or spoilery, so here are some new HDR renders.

I had a need to bring back the hair style used in Rachel Meets Ariane, where Ariane posed for Rachel, and forgot which one I used.  Had to reload an old file to find it was the same hairstyle used by Rachel herself throughout Ariane in Paradise.  ...

Pic 24: Unisex Showers

A couple of posts ago, I said my goal was to finish 12 Hopepunk City scenes by the end of august.  I've done 3 so far, and it's AUG 12?!!  Dang, this is taking longer than I thought.  What's worse is that the 3 scenes I completed were 3 I considered optional back in June and decided to do them anyways.

The good news is that I did over 200 new renders for those scenes. &n...

Pic 23: Crazy Sci-Fi Lab

I'm spending the month busily trying to finish the missing Hopepunk City scenes of the game, so new pics showcased this month are going to be new scenes.  These are some "end game" scenes that I am doing, so I want to avoid spoilers.

Many of my games had sci-fi elements, like the weather control in SITA, and the Dodo sanctuary in AiP, but if you played the demo or alpha, you might have not...

Status Report on Hopepunk City

Since it is the beginning of a new month, thought I'd give you a status report of what I am working on.  By my calculations, I have about 12 scenes left to write/illustrate, some I have figured out in my head, some I have no idea what is supposed to happen.  

6 of those scenes involve a date with Ariane: Romantic and Wild versions of dinner, dancing, and after party.  The idea is...

Strip Crazy Eights Free for Patrons

My free game week is over with about a 1000 free downloads.  Price is now $2.00 at my store fronts.  But all Patrons $1 and above can download this game free right here.

Also available on itch.io with a free account
https://arianeb.itch.io/strip-crazy-eights/patreon-access

Pic 22: New SC8 Title Art

Been busy this week getting Strip Crazy Eights ready.  I released version 1.0 to Patreons already (se my original post for updated downloads including Android), so I haven't had time to work on any other images.  So here is the "title" picture as the picture of the week.

Also attached are a couple of rare 4 person "group nudes" in the two alternative backgrounds. The male ava...

Strip Crazy Eights! (Updated to Release Version)

After finishing up the latest graphic updates for Hopepunk City, I looked at the latest sales figures and saw they were down.  Most likely a July slump common among game developers, which is why Steam and others have big sales in July.  I decided I need to have a sale, too.

But I decided what I REALLY need is a new game to sell, and FAST!  The problem is that Hopepunk City has a...

Demo version 0.5 with updated graphics

I released a demo version 0.4 in June and then changed 95% of the graphics. This is that same demo but with the new graphics, a major bug fix (the game ends properly after the trailer plays), and some spelling fixes.  

The latest alpha release includes more changes to the first month content, but I did not want to introduce any more bugs to try to port those changes.  If you are a dat...

Hopepunk City 0.5 for Android (fixed)

Here is the Android release of the alpha version 0.5 of Hopepunk City.  See the release notes in the last post.

This alpha test is not optimized for android, uses a lot of memory.  It is just a port of the PC version, but it plays fine on my cheap android phone, so it should work fine on more expensive models.

Hopepunk City Alpha 0.5 for PC and Mac (fixed)

So here it is in less than a month after 0.4, with none of the things I promised, but I guarantee you will like it anyways.

The good stuff:
* At least 95% of the pictures re-rendered in Poser 12 Superfly which are vast improvements over previous renders, making the game look a lot more modern and artistic.
* Updated scoring system.  More points available after week 1, game is better ...

Pic 21: Couples in IBL, but who are they?

I decided to continue the IBL fun I started last week, but this time I am using two figures in couple's poses.

So who are these people?  They are the new player avatars in Hopepunk City.  The idea is to have the two Ariane in Paradise avatars and two new avatars I posted about before.

B...

Pic 20: Birthday Suit Fun With IBL

Today happens to be my birthday, another trip around the sun, and I thought some "Birthday suit" pics would be appropriate.

This week I played with a script called EZDome that uses IBL files (360 degree photos) to create accurate background and lighting for putting your CGI model in the photo.  Hollywood does this all the time for green screen work.

2021-07-16 00:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Pic 19: Fun with Minor Characters

I've spent a second week updating images in Hopepunk City from Poser 11 Firefly renders to Poser 12 Superfly, which I will release as an alpha update later this month.

But as I work on these new pics, I cannot help throw in some fun stuff in the background.  In the game's opening scene, you meet a couple of fellow refugees, then when you get your first job (table busser or delivery driver ...

Pic 18: Major update already in the works

After releasing the latest alpha version of Hopepunk City, I got a couple of comments about how graphically it is not an improvement on Ariane in Paradise and it is true.  Hopepunk City was made in isolation using the tools I had to work with at the time, which is Poser 11 Firefly for indoor pics and Superfly for outdoor pics.  Hopepunk City might be a st...

Hopepunk City Demo (first month only)

This is a test version of the first month demo that includes a teaser trailer.  If you are a $5 or more level patron, you should stick to the Alpha version I released yesterday, as it contains a lot more content.  This is primarily for first tier patrons so they can see what the game is about.

This is a pre-release "Playable Demo" that won't get further updated until the full release ...

Hopepunk City Alpha with Month 2

Here is the latest "Alpha" release.  What I released back in April was the first month of the game, this is month 2.  New stuff:

* 9 additional careers, for a total of 16.  In month 1, you could "train" for a career (tech = robot repair, cooking = bartender, security = camera monitor), three other careers open up if you train in two, and once trained in two, there are four "advan...

Hopepunk City Alpha for Android

Here is the android version of the alpha release I posted earlier.  Because of file sizes I have to do a separate post.

This is a direct port of the PC version to android.  It has not been optimized, so as a result some of the buttons are hard to press on small screens, though I played through the entire game twice on my Samsung A10E which has a small screen.  Also it takes a lot of memory, around 200MB (hint: If you have a microSD card, use that).