Development Update 67 (Patreon)

What have I been up to since the last development update?

Time does fly sometimes, I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last dev update already. So, what have I been up to since then? Well, I spent a few more days working on Debbie’s content, updating her post punishment options and recording an animation for her and the headmaster. I spent a little more time working on the script for the staff training storyline and adding that into the game’s code. I spent a few days working on boring technical and admin stuff. I made a little progress with the new Android build, although I have put that work to one side for the time being as we are in crunch time and I need to focus on the new update. I spent a few days working on the volleyball scenes, expanding the beach environment (to make space for some exciting future content) as well as trying to solve some long standing technical issues with the water surface (which I did and it looks great!).

Most of the rest of my time was spent capturing renders and animations for the twins storyline. Quite often I’ll do the first few scenes of the update near the end, that way I can make sure I am keeping the themes consistent and I am properly foreshadowing any twists or surprises later in the story. We are at the point now where I’ve started to fill in some of these gaps from the beginning and I needed a scene for the twins to get in trouble to kick off their punishment system in earnest. What was just a single line in my to-do list a couple of weeks ago saying “the twins get in trouble” is now a 5000 word and 100 render (and counting) scene. Which also happens to be one of the funniest I’ve written. I don’t think I’ve chuckled away to myself quite so much since Emily’s “nudist” scene in the headmaster’s office. Although I am very happy with the new scene and it is a fantastic addition to the update, it definitely hasn’t brought me any closer to getting to any of the endings I had in mind. In fact it’s probably moved my goal posts back a little bit.

Which I think neatly illustrates the difficulty I have with estimating release schedules. Firstly, I have no idea how long a scene is going to be until I’ve written it, and things often end up being way longer and more involved than I initially planned. Secondly, the amount of time and effort I put into making content is in no way proportional to the amount produced. I can spend a whole week agonising over a relatively short section of dialogue, or I can produce a whole lengthy scene (writing, renders and all) in the same amount of time. Which can be more than a little frustrating, especially with a deadline looming in the near future. Unfortunately, creativity is not something that can be turned on and off when needed. Inspiration comes when it comes and I find it’s usually best to just go along with it.

When is the next update going to be released?

We are approaching my initial estimated release time of mid to late October. I am sure you are all wondering; how close am I to having the update ready? The answer to that is a little complicated.

Currently I have somewhere around 50,000 words of dialogue, about 700 final renders complete and around 120 videos recorded. For comparison version 0.16 on release had a total of about 68,000 words, 1000 renders and 53 videos. So, on that basis, I am a little behind with my rendering and writing but I am already way ahead with the video recording. That said, these numbers are quite misleading. I generally do everything in draft form to begin with and capture most of the final renders at the end of the update cycle. Currently I have an absolute ton of stuff in draft form ready to record. Therefore, my expectation is that by the time I’m finished version 0.17 will be significantly bigger than version 0.16 (at least in terms of images and videos). The question I have to ask myself now is; how much of the content that is in draft form do I need to capture before I feel like the update feels “ready”? And the answer to that question is… It’s difficult to say. 

I’ve taken a scatter gun approach to version 0.17 trying to take on a lot of work at the same time (Faye & Nina, the Twins, Debbie, Claire, plus the girls volleyball). So, although I have spent many weeks on each of these characters/storylines, I feel like more is needed for each before I would be happy showing them to everyone. Until I’ve filled in the gaps and played it all through in order, it’s very hard to get a feel for these things. I am hoping to be at a point where I can start Alpha testing within the next few weeks. Once I am at that stage I can figure out how much more content is needed, then I will set a firm release date.

At the moment, I would say that getting the update out by the end of October seems pretty unlikely. The end of November seems much more plausible, but if I’m honest it could be a little longer than that. We are definitely in the final stretch at this point though. I have more than enough content in the works for a huge update. Plus, what I have so far is really high quality and should make up for the long wait.

I will update you all again just as soon as I am feeling confident enough to set a release date. I should also have enough renders ready for a third and final batch of images previews (for patrons in the $10 and above tiers) in the next couple of weeks.