It's...*drum roll*...a weekly update!

So! Let's start with what I said I'd do last week which was expanding the script for Two, setting the long animations running and  getting the feedback from C&C. How did I do?

Well I nailed the script expansion. Good God it felt good to write again! On this I can't really say that much for spoiler purposes but it's over twice the size of the original Two in respect to dialogue. When I start the rendering I dare say I'll tweak it (I often do) either by adding or shuffling scenes around but I'm going to call this one done. For those who played the earlier Two it has the main plot beats but (especially now with the free roaming) is a -very- different game.

The long animations. Ah, bless the old render hamster for it still exists and now serves as my animation machine. Basically what I do is set the animations up on the new machine, then transfer them over to the old one and set them running. Although it's (at least) four times as slow it allows me to produce the ani's without tying up the main machine. So although in some ways it's restrictive, it's a method that works and makes the most of what I currently have resource wise. Animations so far are looking...good. I have to be careful in not being too aggressive when it comes to compressing them however. Given the number of animations I want I have to be mindful of file size but equally I have to be careful not to introduce grain. It's all well and good me compressing a 140 frames into a single megabyte but not at the expense of quality. I'm still finding the balance here but that's a small side issue. 

The key animation for Two currently sits at thirty seconds. It's completely fresh and isn't an "off the shelf" set up. By that I mean I tailored and designed the animation from scratch. It's a good animation - and that's perhaps where I'm slightly unhappy with it. In that I look at it and go "That's a good animation!" whereas I don't want to be noticing it's an animation at all if I can help it... I'm going to play around with the frame rate a little and see if I can get some more immersion. Oh! Don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Nothing. I just want it to be better if I can. So I'm going to say it's done but I'll probably keep tweaking it when the old render hamster isn't busy.

And so on to C&C...

I was late getting this out largely due to getting my knickers in a twist over the gameplay mechanics (I also got utterly stumped for a day over the name of soft drinks...) but out it went in the end. Overall the testers enjoyed it. Certainly it made them laugh which is the point of this less ....*coughs*....explicit route with Sarah. Opinion on the combat was divided. Some felt it hit the mark, others less so and was, for example, a bit on the hard size. Of course I'm replicating a dice rpg here so we'll always be at the whims of the gods of randomness (we actually throw dice!) but I've listened and tweaked it a bit to make it slightly easier. 

And that's that. So for this week what's on?

This week is all about setting up the clickables in the various room locations. There are now a lot of locations and so a lot to explore. Basically think of the exploring you did on the Vanguard but on a much bigger scale. Much bigger. You don't, of course, have to do all of it. Indeed you don't have to do any of it. One of the golden threads in H5 is that you will never get stuck. The game won't come to a halt because you didn't find a red fish and stand outside someone's room with it at a precise time. But they are there if you choose to explore them - and that's what this game is about. What you choose to do.

Anyhoo! This is the bit I've been looking forward to as it allows me to add all sorts of side bits and bobs in, throw in some silly jokes and set up the triggers for optional conversation paths with the characters (think the beer with Annie in One for example).

This is also the last part of the build that really needs doing before "the time of renders". Once this bit is out of the way I should be able to give you a rough date of release for Two.

Anyhoo! That's it from me for now. Stay lucky.