SummersGone

Chapter 3.5 Postlog & Final info.

Added 2021-08-10 20:22:13 +0000 UTC

Hello,

It's been almost two weeks since the Chapter 3.5 Beta was released and I want to thank everyone who kept and started supporting me!

You guys are the reason this game can expand more and more!
I can't thank you enough!

The final version is as good as done and will be released in the next few days.

With Chapter 3, I did rework the Intro with Summer and a small part with Summer in the class.

The final version of Chapter 3.5 includes part 2 of the Chapter 1 rework.

The plan is to do a steam release with Chapter 4.5 or Chapter 5 and until then, Chapter 1 will be completely reworked.

I don't want to use any actual development time to do any sort of rework ever again. This is why I do it part for part while working on the final version.
I spent the last week rendering "new old" scenes and I'm as good as done.

Let me show you some comparisons:

(All new renders as high res 4k in the attachments.)

The Old low-quality Nojiko from Chapter 1.

New Nojiko

MC returns from the accident. (Old)

MC returns from the accident.

The biggest changes were done to the scene with Victoria.
Back in the day, Regium wasn't even able to render the city and so I had to do it. It was frying my 1060. The city was empty and there was no immersion whatsoever.

I now customized the entire city completely while still keeping most of the original assets.

I value immersion a lot and before you ask... Yes, my 3090 was crying.
Just imagine what an A6000 with 48GB could do... Or two of them with 96GB...

I also got rid of the rain and added distant fog instead. (The rain asset doesn't fulfill my minimum quality requirements anymore.)

And of course... The faithful meeting with cutie Vic.

To me, this is one of the most important parts of the introduction and it always fell flat. (Chapter 1 in general falls flat against the last chapters.)

It is planned to have Vic's accident in a cinematic version at some point. But not until all stills are done and the Steam version releases.

From when I first started developing, I increased my visual level by quite a bit but also evolved as a writer. (So did my vision with the games. See WiAB rework .)

I did do some more or less minor dialogue changes to the reworked Chapter 1.

I also added a few new renders to Chapter 3.5.

If you guys remember... In a prior Dev log, I mentioned that the entire gym scene was supposed to be outside with many courts and different teams training.

But my 3090 wasn't enough to even finish designing it but a part of the gigantic place I build still made it into the game

Lots of customized houses, courts, bleachers, etc.

I don't think I will be able to use it with an A6000 either. I'll need two of them and link them to 96GB of VRAM.
I just hope I'll be able to use it someday.

Also, I really wanted to add the cinematic I had planned for Chapter 3.5 but DAZ sucks ass. The indoor GYM is way too big to properly render.
Test renders that should just take 1-2min per frame take up to 10min due to Daz having to load in ALL objects for every single frame.

I have to forget about this cinematic and I can't wait to switch to Blender because it offers a setting to keep all objects/materials loaded in.

I also bought another licensed music track for Chapter 1.

Tomorrow a poll will go online about a switch to the new Renpy version. (More about this tomorrow.)

We're really close to the next goal, which would probably elevate the game to a point I can't even fathom right now.
The future looks exciting and improvements in all aspects will be made regardless.

- Ocean
(: