It's the "7,000 renders!" update...

Seven thousand renders. In ten weeks. On one machine. Crikey...that's a lot!  But that's what I've made. I know I may not be all that good at this "being a dev" lark, especially when it comes to PR and marketing but let no one say I'm not putting the effort in. :) 

Alrighties, so my moment of glory out of the way, where are we?

Well it's done. Finished. That's where. *grins*. All that's left at this stage is the remaining quality checks and bug testing. Large parts of the game have already been through this process but there are still a few areas to be signed off and, in particular, the game as a whole needs walking through by the guys.

I was hoping to miss the end of the month release rush and get it out this week (most games get updated at the month end and so a tiny dev likes me gets lost in the noise) but some of the earlier quality checks took longer than expected so it'll be at least another week I'm afraid.

I should explain at this stage that the QC work isn't just bug testing, although that does play a large part of it. For example, if I use Sarah's VR module as a case in point. It was finished, done and it was...fine. It was fun and did what it had to do. In testing the guys found a few bugs (my fault here in that I added all the new complexities on top of the old code when I really should have just re-wrote it from scratch...) but on looking it again with fresh eyes, I felt it wasn't good enough. The introduction of the content gate was functional but...not very interesting. So I added some more content, made some more renders and suddenly that aspect of the module came to life. 

Another example would be the lewd animation in this module. It was fine. More than fine in fact but in retrospect I felt it started too suddenly and the middle section was a bit short. Out goes a 250 render section, replaced by a new 400 render one and a further 400 renders were added at the start. Trust me when I say it is now very much more than fine... :).

 But all of this did take some time. The planned day or so for QC stretched out to almost five on this section alone and something similar happened on the RPS bonus piece where an extra level was added, more results paths were thrown in (it's me - ofc we have more than one path ;) ) and Becca now desperately tries to wriggle out of having to poledance naked even to the extent of being willing to throw Jane under the proverbial bus...ofc it's up to you whether you let her get away with it or not...

Did  any of this have to be done? No. Of course it didn't. But these adjustments have ended up making these modules significantly better so....y'know. I have to try and give you my best, right?

Other stuff

In my last update I mentioned three things I wasn't that happy about. The repairs database, one of Chris` paths and the "glam" dress up game. On the first two I'm happy now (although I do have my fingers crossed that the database will behave itself during testing and I might throw in some more renders on Chadwicks section during the QC) but the "glam" game...urgh.

I said before it wasn't working for me but I didn't know why. Mechanically it was fine, and graphically it was smooth enough and yet there seemed something missing. In short, it was dull which isn't something I either expected or wanted. But I couldn't work out what was wrong.

Finally it dawned on me. It was the gameplay itself. With no clues as to what would constitute success it was purely a guessing game, and with little choice in wardrobe there was no challenge either. So the whole thing was dull and, worse, lent itself to being grindy. What it needs is some form of clue basis and more wardrobe choice. Indeed getting the extra wardrobe choice unlocked needs to be part of that gameplay I think. So I've decided to write around this section, set up the additional unlocks and kick it back to the next Chapter instead where it should actually be fun as opposed to a grind. Pointless having content in that just isn't fun to play.

I've been doing a few other minor tweaks as I've been going along as well. Nothing major but things like changes to the map. So from this...

...to this.

Again it just looks a bit slicker and more professional for you when you're playing, plus the better graphics allowed me to dress the command and control room a little bit and use it there too in the background.

Annnnddddd that's about it. I'll just slog on and get it wrapped up asap because I think you guys are -really- going to like this one. Again, as always at this stage, I will be a bit quiet purely because of a limitation in time in which to get everything done and polished and out of the door. So my apologies in advance for not responding to comments or messages whilst I get everything wrapped up.