Rocket Launch in T Minus -

A game launch is analogous to a rocket launch. Even if something is “finalized” it isn’t truly final until the rocket launches. Once it launches or releases there is no going back, no second guessing, and no fixing mistakes that should have been fixed earlier even if they are obvious with hindsight.

The rocket can explode on the pad. It can launch and then explode in flight. It can successfully make it to space.

Meeting a deadline to the minute is far less important than preventing the rocket from exploding.

What I’ve done the past month is attempt to tie everything I’ve ever done for Tango Fiction together without wasting anything. The gains are absolutely enormous. I estimate I have increased Tango Fiction’s production efficiency by at least 1000% (if not many multiples of this), increased quality significantly, and lowered the company’s expenses while simultaneously increasing the company’s tech capabilities by massive margins in nearly all areas. This includes art production, quality control, animation, and sound production. I doubt I will ever see such gains again in my life because they seem technically impossible beyond this point. I’m probably the happiest I’ve been in years because I know with certainty Tango Fiction will now succeed because the cost structures are completely different than even thirty days ago. The stress has fallen away. I feel like I’ve won and, by extension, you all have too. I’m going to produce everything I ever wanted and now the financial repercussions have been mitigated, meaning I only have myself and fans to please.

I realize some may have taken the last post in a negative light even though it is probably the most positive news I’ve released in many years, if not ever. That’s my fault for not accurately describing what I am doing.

Here is a practical example: That 3D Hart dancing animation video I posted a while back took a full day. It took a couple hours of tweaking and then nearly a full 24 hours of rendering every single frame. The audience wants animations and I need a few to sell the game but it just wasn’t possible to have a lot of them.

The AI system has slightly less precise animation but earlier this month I could probably make something similar in a quarter of the time. In the past week I have lowered render time for the AI animations by a further 75-80%, finally unlocking the feasibility for animated materials going forward. That’s two back to back 75% reductions in less than a month! What was once a day of laggy hell is now about an hour of effortless fun. As an added bonus I managed to find a hack to get the system to run at full speed while still allowing me to work unlagged on my primary workstation. This is another major gain. 

I like 3D art but I dislike Daz compared to the new tools. To give an analogy I’d say 3D work is like me tilling a field to feed a starving village with a sharpened spoon that stabs me every time I try to work. The AI tools are the brand new nuclear powered GPS auto tractor that can till enough land to feed a city in a few days. It just rolled up onto the lot and its practically free. It is a dream to work with and I don't get tetanus. It also comes with a bunch of seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, which some people hate. Some in the village may say that the Tango the farmer has committed to the rusty spoon. Jumping into that tractor and saving everyone might be foolish… or it might be the opposite in the extreme. One, two, six months, a year down the line all starving townspeople, patrons, and audience members will benefit from a bountiful harvest.

I’ve posted AI art tidbits for about 2 years but the AI art was always below the quality of the best 3D renders. There was no possibility of switching realistically and they didn’t compete. I posted them as experiments and as bonus fanart essentially. Both of those major factors have now changed. With the work I've done the past couple years, it is now easy to switch and the quality far exceeds the detail of all but my very best renders.

But there is no “switching” per se, it’s more adding and modifying. Which is essentially an extension of what I’ve been doing all along. Transfigure has always been intended to be a visual novel. The style to me was always irrelevant as long as it looked decent. I settled on good enough and was forced into 3D as the only option but now anything what I want costs roughly the same amount of time, effort, and money as “good enough” so I’m doing the higher quality stuff in the best interests of everyone. 

Consider the examples above. Look at the upgrade process side by side.

I intend to blend many different methods together but one of the main ones is applying what is essentially a filter to the existing renders. I am keeping the characters I’ve made and am bringing them to life with even more personality. This way they are fully utilized and improved in terms of detail and average level of quality. This is also fast once I have the system dialed in. There are a couple minor details of the process I need to perfect but I know its possible and I have all the pieces to do so.

The second extension of this is actually switching or adding a more complex and stylistic art filter. I am torn here and leaning towards not doing that. I can now make really cool art of almost any style I can come up with. Artificially limiting myself at this point would be counterproductive but so would be starting over again. I am also running out of time but these recent gains will allow me to finish the project with certainty with a high degree of quality even if I redo the graphics from the start with my new tools.

Three dimensional renders are trending towards realism which I like but Daz games all look shockingly similar (I cannot tell many of them apart and recognize them at a glance). It also takes a lot of time to make a good render. Lighting and composing scenes and reshooting things takes hours. Changing the art style of the game completely is not what I intend to do because I want to make use of the assets I’ve already invested in.

The art debate has reminded me of a thought from a blog months ago: eventually VNs will let you choose the art style. I think that day is rapidly approaching. It also will end the issue and please all audiences. The top three would probably be semi realistic, anime/hentai, and a more westernized comic style. I believe selling a game with multiple art styles will become increasingly common in the future. I’m not doing that for Transfigure since it has already been in development for a long time.

I am going to cut off the game as is and I will release a build. It is probably technically worse than what I had a month ago because I took it apart again so there may be bugs. I regret not releasing it last month. I will release an updated build with the updated graphics and presentation as soon as I can. Once I pick a final style it should take only a day or two to update the build.

I want to do an art survey poll and we go from there. What I mainly want from patrons is information of what styles they prefer. This will be the mega final cutoff for art direction for Transfigure so if anyone wants to push the graphics towards 3D, anime, or realism or some alternative style this period is the time to be heard. I like many of the new Taylor and YP overlays. Taylor looks like much less of a pussy. If everyone completely hates the new art and overlays and refuses to eat the GMO tractor food then I will go back to the rusty spoon and I will do my best to finish Transfigure in the original render style. If you think the new styles look worse than 3D renders be sure to let me know.

I am producing right now at the highest rates ever so please avoid revolution for a week or two. Massive productivity gains like this must be explored or I am doing everyone a disservice. 

Here are several examples of what I have going on. I also included some animation examples of what the studio I have is capable of creating. I am excited to include content like this in Transfigure because it makes it much closer to the html version and what I initially envisioned. Now we get to have a bunch of cute and sexy faux tiktok videos on the cosplay routes!
https://youtube.com/shorts/Uh5sQEmz-_0      

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jNWG2ApYQl0
I wrote the lyrics, composed and edited a short song. I generated and refined the art and fixed the many weird AI glitches like multiple fingers, I animated the pictures, and edited it into a complete product all in a very short period of time. The newer animations should be higher quality. I can now do every single piece of artwork within the whole Transfigure saga properly which is mind blowing to me because that seemed completely impossible last year.

The dawn of the full service AI powered indie developer is here. Prepare for a lot more content going forward. Thank you for your patience and helping to get me to this point. I am Tango the Story Teller and I have many stories to tell! I am going to be around for years to come and I’m going to produce my full catalogue.