Status update Episode 10

This week I started playing the episode and felt inspired to polish every scene along the way - to the extent that it became my main focus all week. I ended up doing lots of work that I had postponed for later, but the end result of many scenes is starting to show.

I worked on SFX/Music. Many sound effects were missing but have now been added. New songs and a healthy mix of re-used songs have been used.

I both trimmed and fleshed out the writing in different parts of the episode.

I ensured that the non-minigame route flows well in the parts where there usually are mini-games and got the optional needed code.

The non-minigame route can be tricky since a mini-game can add context to the story, and cutting it completely would feel lackluster for those who play without them. Making an alternative feature for this route, for example, the choice-based party planning in episode 9 and forward, is sometimes needed. But there's always this careful deliberation if it's acceptable to add something since the main purpose of the non-minigame route is that it should be focused on the story with few distractions.

Furthermore, I worked on a couple of clucks. One was demanding due to branching content and plenty of NPC interaction.

While polishing some phone content code, I decided to add something that's been in the back of my mind for a long time that I know many of you want. From start to finish, it took me roughly 8 hours to complete, which is way less than I had expected. And I think this preview of the feature can speak for itself.

Note that the Gallery is another new feature of Episode 10 and that it's not the Special Renders in the Rewards app you can use this way, but any image put in this new gallery. It will make sense when you play the game.

I'm trying to get my new PC up and running today. All parts are finally here for one of the upgrades, which will be a priority this weekend. 

Whenever I swap PCs, they have to be brought up to a certain standard with software and files - so that they don't throw errors when rendering. This usually takes me 1-2 days to set up if everything goes smoothly. I'm still waiting for parts to build another PC to push things up yet another notch. But I have no news regarding this one yet.

My animation queue has 31 animations in it, and I will push on working with a mix of everything next week.

I played some episode 10 scenes for the first time this week, and they turned out so good that I can't wait to show you and see your reactions. Overall, I'm very pleased with the amount of branching this episode allows.

It's been a long wait, and there is still some time to go, but I am doing my best to make the wait worthwhile.

Have a nice weekend.

Dr PinkCake