DriftyGames

Dev Diary, October 7th, 2022

I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I'm having with the u4ia so far. In fact, I'm enjoying it so much that I forgot today was dev diary day, which is why this is a little later than normal for the update.

Though, as the new art style is hugely improved, it also takes longer to render. Animations take 4 times as long, and story renders take 15 times longer than they did for LoF. So it was easy to build up a queue, and I'm now rendering 24/7. 

I don't expect this to be ...

Dev Diary, September 30th, 2022

Ready, set, test!

The first week of u4ia work, and I'm very happy with the progress.

Some weeks I can't really reference numbers, as it's mostly prep work, and that goes for this week.

I've done a lot of test-renders to determine the art style of u4ia, been fiddling with the UI, game elements, taken some Python classes over at Udemy, and upgraded the models to fit the new art style.

It took me two full days to look into model improvements and test them...

Dev Diary, September 23rd, 2022

This week I've been working on the Walkthrough/DLC and finished it up yesterday.

It's available on both Steam and here on Patreon for the $10 tier and upwards.

I've also started working on u4ia, but for now, it's mostly tweaking the basic Ren'Py menus to v...

Dev Diary, September 16h, 2022

I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter of Leap of Faith!

It was a very stressful release with the save game problems a lot experienced. We were a total of 9 people testing the game more heavily than ever in the week before the release, and none of us had a single problem with saves. So it came as a huge surprise when the release was out.

I'm really sorry about that, but there's really nothing I can do about it that won't ruin the newly created saves, made after the last update. 2022-09-16 12:33:52 +0000 UTC View Post

Leap of Faith - V1.0 released

It was a tough chapter to make, but I'm very proud and happy to be able to finally give you the 8th and last chapter of Leap of Faith.

Have fun playing it.

Click here for download links. 

Leap of Faith v1.0 - Changelog:

• Added 2,535 story renders
• Added more than 30,000 animated frames
• Added 13,400 lines of script/dialogue
• Added 62 licensed songs (new and ...
  2022-09-09 16:00:45 +0000 UTC View Post

Leap of Faith 1.0.3 + Walkthrough - Download Links

Changelog 0.7 to 1.0:

• Added 2,535 story renders

• Added more than 30,000 animated frames

• Added 13,400 lines of script/dialogue

• Added 62 licensed songs (new and old songs), and two Creative Commons

• Updated to Ren'Py 8.0.2

• Added scene gallery

• Added the main menu sliding screens for all characters

Changelog: 1.01:

• Misc fixes (Steam only)

Changelog: 1...

Dev Diary, September 2nd, 2022

Leap of Faith v1.0 release dates

Steam: 9th of September

I'll make an announcement on Steam when it's out, although these announcements are sometimes delayed by up to an hour, due to needing to be approved.

Patreon: 9th of September - $10 tier and upwards.

I will also send a private message with download links to anybody that has held a $5 tier for two months this year, or $1 tier for all of the year. You should get a ...

Dev Diary, August 26th, 2022

We're getting there!

Two weeks until release. But that also means one week until beta testing.

I'm on track, but just barely. There's nothing major to be done, just a zillion small things here and there, and about 20 seconds remaining of the concert animation, which needs two versions due to Steph sometimes not being present (you monsters!).

I always try to sit down and do a relaxed playthrough when it's getting closer to finished. This time I played through Lexis' path, and...

u4ia by DriftyGames - Teaser

Following Leap of Faith's conclusion, I'm jumping right into my next project. Hope to see you there too.

edit: sorry for the double ping.

Dev Diary, August 19th, 2022

Nothing too important to report this week, and that's always a good thing. It means things have been running smoothly.

There's progress on all fronts, stills, animations, music, and scripting and I'm crossing out things on my bullet list one after another.

I mentioned last week I wanted to complete most parts except the concert, and I'm almost there. I still have lots to do on the concert scene but I had to do some tinkering with a Daz script that was no longer working. It was a r...

Dev Diary, August 12th, 2022

Image caption: ...there's an ending for everyone.

Ok, time needs to go just a bit slower. I feel the release is right around the corner, and there's still lots of work to be done.

Visuals
This week I've been continuing doing story renders, surpassing both the 2,200 and 2,300 mark. I've almost finished all of the endings from the mc's perspective. After that, I'm going to do the endings from the girls' perspective, which is far fewer, but sti...

Leap of Faith - Chapter 8 release date.

Almost there now. Looking forward to showing you the result of all these months.

Dev Diary, August 5th, 2022

First of all, thank you for your nice comments and messages after last week's post. You certainly know how to put a smile on my face.

I sat down a few weeks ago, thought about the progress, and decided things are going too slowly. So I've only been rendering the end scenes since then. I can't remember the last time I could do a scene that doesn't have several alternative versions, and it's very refreshing.

That also means I'm holding off on the concert scene animations because rig...

Dev Diary, July 29th, 2022

Always when I do these dev updates, I have fresh coffee prepared and put my feet on the side of the desk. My coffee cup is old and has seen an enormous amount of coffee over the years. It's even started to fade a little bit, but I don't care. It's still my favorite. It's one of those 5-dollar "world's greatest dad" cups, and it always puts a smile on my face.

So, In this dev diary, I thought I'd share a story.

Many years ago, when my daughter was about 8 years old, she came runnin...

Dev Diary, July 22nd, 2022

This has been one of those weeks where you work extremely hard but have almost nothing to show for it.

I know some count the increase in renders as the only progress worth measuring, and for that, I've done only about 30 story renders and completed this month's custom renders for the top tier.

Well, in addition to that I've finished the script, even the parts that do not have visuals yet. I still need to tweak a few things like the "sliding screens" tempo and movement, some more u...

Dev Diary, July 15th, 2022

As promised, most of this week I've been spending on the dialogue and getting the script up to speed.

I've been working my way through some heavy pathing, and I'm very satisfied with how it turned out. I did however encounter one problem that I couldn't solve exactly the way I wanted it. I'll give you the rundown.

Steph's private scene and Holly's private scene are acting as placeholders for each other. If Steph's your girl, of course, you get her scene. If Holly's your girl, you ...

Dev Diary, July 8th, 2022

Caption: 'Oh, there's someone else here?'

Progress

As promised, I've been working on animations the whole week. I had one animation for the main event that I was not looking forward to doing, so I decided to do that one first.

The reason it was a bit annoying is that I'm doing something that's not meant to be done in Daz, so I had to use an external script to do it. That also meant the viewport had to be visible at all times, prohibiting me from using the pc...

Dev Diary, July 1st, 2022

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter 8 trailer from last week. If you did, then it should be no surprise what the main event of the chapter is. If you haven't seen it, you can see it here.

I mentioned in the last dev update that I was going to focus on animations this week. Unfortunately, we got hit with a bit of a heatwave where I live, and that means a bit higher indoor temperature as well, which again res...

Leap of Faith - Chapter 8 Trailer

Enjoy, and as always thank you for the support!

Dev Diary, June 24th, 2022

You know it's been a busy week when it feels like the last dev update was yesterday.

I've been going at it in Daz and by the looks of it, it's been productive. I don't even know the numbers before I look at my work folders for these updates - which is now at 1,462 story renders and 19,082 frames of animation.

Sadly, one thing I did notice is that every render for the main event needs twice the number of iterations, effectively taking twice the amount of time to render. This is pro...

Dev Diary, June 17th, 2022

I've been closing up Holly's part of the game this week. It's a bit odd making some of these renders, as I suspect it's renders almost nobody will see unless they try to find these specific endings. But at least it's done, and if just one person playing the game has this as the main route, it's all worth it.

Current numbers are at 1,349 story renders, and 18,116 frames of animation.

While working with Holly, I accidentally discovered a continuity error that should have been addres...

Dev Diary, June 10th, 2022

Remember last week I said things were progressing fine and no hiccups? I probably jinxed it by saying that.

On Sunday I picked up a bit of a cold but decided to keep chipping on the renders. It worked fine for a while, but by Tuesday the fever got really bad. So, since then I've mostly been sleeping and watching documentaries on serial killers, which is what seems to be trending on Netflix these days. So now everybody is giving me weird looks whenever I'm close to a knife.

I still...

Dev Diary, June 3rd, 2022

Nothing too exciting to report this week, and that's always a good thing. It means I've spent most of the week rendering, and there have been no hiccups.

My work folders show 1,226 story renders, and 16,908 animated frames. I know it might be hard to see the amount of content by image numbers alone, but those numbers translate to (so far) more than 30 different scene locations, 44 animations, and 50 different variation endings. The current update size is 2,6GB with visuals alone.

...

Dev Diary, May 27th, 2022

First of all for you who didn't know, as of Monday this week, Leap of Faith was reinstated on the Steam Store. Thank you for the encouragement, and kind words while it was removed. Do note that it is still the silent version, and the soundtrack you know from earlier will not be used anymore. 

My main job in the weeks ahead (other than rendering) is to secure a decent soundtrack for the 8th and final chapter, but I am also contacting every one of the artists used in the old soundtra...

Dev Diary, May 20th, 2022

I've been hit with a bit of extra inspiration lately, and am progressing nicely with the story renders and animation for LoF, chapter 8.

Story renders are now at 1,069, and the animation frame counter at 15,034.

I've finished Cece's path this week, and that means there's only one girl to go and that's Lexi. Of course, Lexi's path is a bit more detailed due to Lexi's red-haired friend, but I'm working myself through the original route for now.

Speaking of red-haired girls, th...

Ask Me Anything; LoF, music, and what comes after LoF.

Thank you for the questions. I've tried answering them to the best of my abilities, but if I botched something, just nod and smile like I'm doing great. :)

I've skipped a few questions, as they were similar to other questions where I've included the answer to both when answering.

What is the scene you're most proud of..and is there one you would redo?
- tonymack21

Looking at LoF as a whole, I can't really pinpoint a single scene I'm th...

Dev Diary, May 6th, 2022

Steam situation

First of all, there's no news concerning the Steam situation. I haven't heard anything from Valve's 'DMCA department' since the game got removed. And with all the reviews also being removed from the game earlier this week, I'm lowering my expectations on if it will be reinstated. That doesn't mean I've given up. I've prepared a decent size document I will be sending them next week. Everything concerning Artlist is sorted, so it boils down to what Valve d...

Dev Diary, April 29th, 2022

Cece figurine

First of all, everyone who ordered a Cece figurine should have gotten a PM from me with the postal tracking information. I believe some of you have already received the figurine by now. If you haven't got the tracking code, please send me a message.

Unfortunately, for those ordering from Australia, they didn't offer express shipping, so delivery might take a bit of time. But keep checking the tracking link and let me know if things take too long.

Statement concerning Leap of Faith being removed from the Steam store

Well, this is by far the hardest post I've ever had to write to you guys, so I better get into it before I change my mind.

As you might have seen on other creators' Patreon posts or noticed otherwise - on Friday evening CET time, Leap of Faith was removed from the Steam store listing. The game is still available for you who bought the game.

The reason for the removal was a DMCA copyright claim concerning one of the songs used in the game, which means Steam/Valve has to remove it f...

Dev Diary, April 22nd, 2022

This time I thought I'd give you a little insight into developing Leap of Faith as opposed to the usual 'I did this many renders'-update.

I've mentioned many times before that I try to set up huge scenes so the characters (and story) can progress nicely through them. So when you see the render numbers for last week it's not me just having put two people in a pre-bought scene and them having a conversation.

For this scene, I needed something by the sea, with a full house asset that...