nottravisgames

Of Pride and Prejudice...

Added 2019-06-30 11:33:19 +0000 UTC

TL;DR

Chapter is out for final bug testing
June patronage to be refunded
Release date confirmed for 6 July
Animations removed from chapter

Long version!

Hi Hi,

So what's all this then?

Well the bullet points above sum it up rather nicely but if you're still reading then I guess you want a more detailed explanation? :)

Oh and, sorry I've been a bit quiet. Work started ramping up something frightful of late following my return and, of course, I've been trying to get the chapter out at the same time. Speaking of the chapter...

The chapter is finished (totes) and is under final play and bug testing. Due to the size of the chapter I very much doubt she'll finish it today (possibly but unlikely) so I may as well bite the bullet and hand the cash back. You know my feelings on that particular subject.

So that gives me a week to tidy up anything she finds and then we're golden. I've said before this is a -big- chapter. Very. So it will also allow me to see if I can compress it down a bit more than it's current size (3Gb plus at the mo - I told you it was bigger than One and Two combined...). I confess I went to town a tad in adding and expanding material in June (for example Sarah's book is 40 odd pages of smuttiness alone - which is bigger than some of the rendered comics they sell on renderotica, so make of that what you will...) but it's all the better for it.

So, how come I waaaay missed my deadline then? Well part of it was wanting to improve the renders and art that I already had done in March. I think I've probably re-rendered about 60 - 70 per cent of what was originally done, which has taken some time but, again, it looks a lot better for it so there's that.

But really I had most of that done over a week ago and I almost pressed the release button last Saturday - but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Because of animations.

No, not the old chestnut of size that we had in March. I received some excellent advice and tips from a variety of quarters when I hit this block before getting ill so that dragon has been slain. I'm talking more of non-constructive criticism.

Allow me to digress slightly.

So, constructive criticism I love. I'll happily take any of that, sprinkle it on my cornflakes and consider it all part of a dev's balanced diet. Constructive criticism, even if I don't agree with the point being made, is a valuable health and sense check. It provides a dev with feedback, ideas and solutions; it raises points they not have even considered and is a totes good thing.

Turning now to non-constructive criticism, well by and large it just washes off me. If someone feels my writing or plotting isn't very good well I think that says more about their tastes than my abilities. For I know that actually in both of these elements I'm top tier in this genre. Perhaps not the best, but certainly up there. False modesty is no friend when it comes to critics.

On art, if someone had an issue with my renders, well I can see their point. I'm not bad. Better than average perhaps but nowhere near some of the other developers who can turn out some truely stunning work (although I do like to think mine have a certain unique charm at times). I know I can do better renders myself (and oft have) but with my potato rig I have to balance output vs quality. So what takes a dev with a rig that would make NASA envious, say, twenty minutes would take me four hours plus - which is just unfeasible for me given the number of renders I need/use per scene so I simply have to compromise. Although where possible I push the boat out a little. Sarah's VR game this Chapter is a nice example of the renders I'd love to turn out equally across each release. But, alas, I don't have the type of rig that would permit it. So, I'll settle for the best I can do and give ground gracefully to the NASA rig devs whilst telling the render hamster they're doing a jolly good job and shrug my shoulders at those who wish to denigrate my artwork.

And now we come to the point of this ramble - or the Shark of doubt as my playtesting friend calls it.

So following a bash at animations in Chapter Two, back in March I did another. Bigger, longer, more frames etc. And...it was OK. Again, not great perhaps but better than some I've seen and added a nice bit of variety I thought. Then of course we had the whole size reduction problem and to add to the fun, I fell ill. So far, so known.

On my return to civilisation and well-being I started popping in to other places (you guys know where I mean) to catch up, pick up the shave and generally let people know I was still alive. Which is where I saw a walkthrough had been done.

It's obviously taken the chap a lot of time. Colour coded with switches labelled etc. A fine piece of work, if one ignores the suppositions he/she makes with regards to future content which are just incorrect (would I really drop forced gay content on you? Me? I mean...c'mon). Anyhoo. No doubt with the work done being so comprehensive it carries some weight with people. And I'm telling you all this why?

Because it also has the critique that I "shouldn't bother" with animations in it. That's why. Plain as brass. Just that.

For some reason, this really got under my skin. Perhaps because it's so widely distributed or that the rest of it is so professional? Perhaps because of the sheer bloody time and effort it takes for me and my set up to even try animations? Who knows. But look, I know I don't have the rig to make the same sort of ani's as NASA devs can. But I gave it a go, creating handcrafted frame by frame poses as opposed to buying one off the shelf - and Trisha's was more of the same. I dare say, I would have got over this with a little grumble if a few days later I hadn't had a DM from some chap who had seen I was back, who liked the idea of the game, had read the reviews but had read the walkthrough (Why? Why do that before even playing the game?) and since the animations were so bad wondered if he could skip them?

My pride was well and truly stung - and being only human decided that I would bloody show what I could do. So, a big chunk of the past two weeks has also been spent adding yet -more- frames etc etc to the scene in question. (I'd lost my sense of perspective here as you may tell...) Every time I thought I was finished with it tho, I just had the Shark of doubt come snapping around for another bite with "shouldn't bother" ringing in my mind. (this was even with the squishy sound effects which, although I may not have the equipment to make superfast renders, I certainly have the equipment to make those...*wiggles eyebrows*).

It was, finally, pretty good. Large, but good. It took me hours to compose and tens of hours to render (probably well over a hundred, if not closer to two, if I count all the time in March).

And I was utterly miserable about it too. Because despite all that time and effort, I knew - just knew, it would get pulled apart (whether it would or not, is besides the point) and so where usually I'm super-excited about releasing a chapter - this time I was dreading it. Which given what's in this chapter is absurd. Now don't get me wrong. People are free to like or dislike whatever they like. I don't, for example, like the walkthrough. In fact I'd go so far and say I wish he/she hadn't bothered making it... ;P

My playtesting friend took me to task in the end. I got a verbal bitchslapping of some intensity as she talked some sense into me.

She reminded me that this is meant to be fun; that I'm meant to enjoy it and bring enjoyment to those who like my work - and shouldn't be wasting hours trying to prove a point especially when it was making me a miserable gloomy cow. She also made the rather quotable point that in trying to match NASA devs on animations's was like me trying to make a Roll-Royce with a Ford Escort and a gift voucher from Halfords*.

So I've pulled the animation entirely, tweaked the scene accordingly etc. I won't be doing animations again for this game at all - I had to promise that amongst other things best left unsaid.

Do I feel foolish? A little. Certainly foolish in ending up delaying the release, losing the cash and pissing you fine fellows off all to prove a point.

I'll concede I failed on animations. What else can I say. But... I don't regret trying oddly enough despite the wasted time.

We only ever achieve anything by trying after all.**

Now you may feel that this was a venture doomed to failure and so was pretty stupid of me to even try of course. It's a not unreasonable viewpoint. But twelve months ago I had no idea on how to code or render and the concept of making a truely complex game of this size with no existing skills whatsoever sounds an awful lot more foolish in comparision, no?

Anyhoo. There we are. As always you guys haven't (or won't) end up paying for nothing and it'll come out next weekend for certain.

As to the animation, I'm not sure what to do with it. I'm minded to probs stick it up here as a separate post (although without the sound effects! It was one thing me secretly knowing that you were listening to me - quite another now the cat is out of the bag of course).

Messages and comments I'll deal with next weekend post the release and I'll issue the refunds for June at the same time.

On the plus side of course, and there is a plus - there always is if you look hard enough, in not going down the animation route it does allow me more render time generally. So, either bigger or better Chapters. We'll see how carried away I get on writing each one, I suppose?

As always, stay lucky.

*not sure what your local equivalent would be. A Honda Civic and a gift voucher from Walmart perhaps? Anyhoo, you get the idea I'm sure.

** and I did get a rather fun couple of sessions making the sound effects of course - and that most certainly wasn't time wasted!