Status Update #81

Hey, everyone! I have a long overdue status report for you today.

Today's cover image is from this year's Pride gallery. I mentioned last time I didn't want making it to cause delays in releasing the next game update, so I temporarily set it aside. That gallery is still on its way, but in the meantime, I wanted to share one of my favs from what will be an 8-image set.

In this CG, Alex and his newly announced costar, Gavin, are out on a wilderness adventure, just the two of them. Roughing it can be, well, rough, but luckily the boys have CampTrail™ gear to make trekking through the woods have all of the fun without any of the frustration. Be sure to check back on Alex and Gavin's socials to see just how much fun these two get up to!

(Pay no attention to the crew just off screen. It's just the two of them on their own. Promise.)

Anyway, to the game! Here's what I've been up to:

Writing

Planning for the next story update continues, and I've also been doing a lot of writing. Generally, you can't really wait for inspiration to strike when writing for a project like this, otherwise nothing gets done. But when inspiration does hit, I don't let it go to waste. If I'm able, I set aside what else I'm working on to get the words down on digital paper.

One new scene I wrote involves a text convo with Connor's "ex-girlfriend," Lacy. Matt inevitably gets pulled into a group chat with them when Lacy demands proof he's actually all buff now—which is a convenient excuse to add an extra Matt selfie or two to the game 😉

Some of you may recall this convo already happened in the game after Will's class on Day 2, but entirely off screen and only mentioned in a brief summary. I actually completely forgot about that until after I was done writing, but I liked the new scenes enough to do what I usually try to avoid, which is edit out content from earlier in the game. That little mention is now gone in favor of this bigger, much more fun scene.

When making the Morning After Update, I spent a lot of time trying to find ways to avoid breaking saves, which included touching older content as little as possible. Now I've kind of thrown up my hands because I also need to change things with the code in the earlier parts of the story, and there's no way to do that without requiring starting a new game. Sorry in advance for that 😕

On the planning side, I've been putting together something I should have done long ago, which is making checklists of each character's key choices. I started working on this after writing the scene above. The scene leads into all sorts of variant dialogue with Matt when you discuss your plans for the next day, and I found myself scouring through code to find all the variables that should be addressed.

These checklists will basically just be something I can scan through after writing scenes to make sure I didn't miss referencing anything that I should have. It's also been a good reminder to try and narrow the scope of some of these choice branches where I went just a tad overboard.

Coding

The code changes I mentioned above mostly refers to changing how sprites are displayed. I talked about this in more detail a year ago in Status Update #60, but basically, I used to assign every single sprite its own unique name when instead I can just use one standardized name for every variation of an expression along with one line of code saying what outfit (or lack of outfit) should be shown.

All the content in the Morning After Update uses this new, simplified format, and I've been gradually going back and changing it in the older stuff. It's something monotonous to pick at while waiting for CG previews to render, which I often have to do so I can check for things like how lighting will look in the final render.

I've updated the sprite display code for several characters now. Connor is the latest project, starting with his shirtless sprites. The game files currently have two copies of each sprite to account for how they need to be stored, so being able to remove the duplicates will help lower the size of the file you need to download to play the game.

But this will more likely than not lead to you seeing people wearing the wrong clothes on Day 1 & Day 2 unless you start a new game. So again, sorry in advance!

Art

Most of my work on the art side of things has been finishing up the next game update, which will be Trevor's Grind'm scenario. I also made tweaks to some characters when creating the Pride gallery to adjust skin materials and proportions.

Proportions in particular are my nemesis—if I change the size of a base model, the limbs and especially the neck get all out of whack. Neck length drive me nuts, as does head size. Like, you definitely see people with smaller or larger heads in real life, and people with longer or shorter necks. But when I adjust those on a character model, it often just doesn't look right to me.

I recently found a tool that helps with that on a site called Anatomy for Sculptors. I can input the height of a character, and then use the measurements it gives along with Measure Metrics in Daz to adjust a model to have more realistic proportions. This was what I used most for the tweaks I made, along with 1-Click PBR Skin to update older textures.

One character I took another pass at is Matt. I talked about updating him in Status Update 77, but after looking at him in the game itself, I realized his proportions weren't looking right next to other characters, and there were a few texture issues I didn't like.

The changes I made are pretty subtle, but here's the original revision on the left next to the final on the right:

The limb lengths were a little off, his head was a little too small, and the skin materials had an odd sheen to them, among a few other issues. I also realized I had him positioned in front of the sprite camera wrong, so he looked shorter next to other characters than he should.

Here's a closer look at his head:

The head size and shape is now closer to how Matt looks in the version of the game you all have played. I found the settings to adjust what was causing the over-shininess and some odd shadows. I also edited the textures to slightly lessen the prominence of the bags under his eyes. That's absolutely a part of his look, but in converting his textures originally, I didn't know it'd make them so prominent that, in my opinion, he ended up looking high as well as older than his actual age.

I was already planning to update a few of Matt's sprites before the next release to change two expressions I didn't like, but I wasn't planning to do another sprite overhaul. I have all his poses saved, however, so it didn't take too long to have new ones rendered, edited, and put in the game. I wouldn't necessarily go through this much effort for most characters, but Matt is the most popular character in the game, so I want him looking his best.

The Trevor Grind'm Update

Now, to the main event! I mentioned last time I felt very close to having this release ready to go into early access, and I do still feel that way. But this is a great example of why I no longer guess at release dates until I'm 100% certain I'll have it ready to go—in the past, I probably would have said it'd come out before the end of June. Which obviously didn't happen.

So again, I'm not providing a release date but rather a list of what's done and what remains. It is absolutely close to complete, though. I have nightmares about having another year long gap between updates, and then only coming out with a Grind'm scenario rather than a story update. I will continue to do everything in my power to make sure that nightmare doesn't become a reality!

Anything in the list below that has been added or updated is marked with an asterisk:

Completed Components

🟢 GENERAL 🟢

Revised Models

• Alex, full revision

• * Asher, tweaks

• David, full revision

• * Evan, tweaks

• * Griffin, tweaks

• Isaiah, revision

• Julian, tweaks

• Marco, tweaks

• * Matt, tweaks

• NC17, tweaks

• Owen, tweaks

• Parker, revision

• Trevor, tweaks

• * Will, tweaks

New Models

• Gavin Grenier (Connor's celebrity crush)

• Henri (Matt's former roommate)

• Patrick (music teacher)

Revised CGs

• Dominic/Isaiah Day 2 showers

• Isaiah intro

• Isaiah Day 1 tease

• Isaiah Day 2 tease

• Isaiah shower teases (4 of 4 completed)

• Julian Week 1 tease 4

• Marco Day 1 tease 1

• Matt & Leo Day 1 tease

New CGs

• David Week 1 tease 1

• Gavin Day 1 tease 1

• Gavin Day 1 tease 2

• Gavin Week 1 tease 1

• Gavin Week 1 tease 2

• Isaiah Week 1 tease 1

• Isaiah Week 1 tease 2

• Parker Week 1 tease 1

• Wes Week 1 tease 1

Revised Sprites 

• Connor's Grind'm clothes for Jordi's scenario (8 of 8 completed)

• David Day 2 (8 of 8 completed)

• Isaiah Day 1, Day 2 afternoon, Day 2 evening, underwear, & towel (41 of 41 completed)

• Jordi's Grind'm clothes (5 of 5 completed)

• Jordi naked erect (5 of 5 completed)

• Julian Day 1, Day 2, underwear, underwear erect, naked flaccid, & naked erect (47 of 47 completed)

• * Matt Day 1, Day 2, Day 2 shirtless, Day 2 drunk, underwear, underwear semi, underwear erect, & naked erect (103 of 103 updated)

• Owen Day 1, Day 2, naked flaccid, & naked erect (41 of 41 completed)

• Parker Day 2, naked flaccid, & naked erect (37 of 37 completed)

Writing

• Isaiah Morning After Update pre-shower scene

• Evan Morning After Update pondering scene

• Evan Getting to Know You Update, Part 3 scene

• Matt Getting to Know You Update, Part 1 scene (sneak peek)

• Will Getting to Know You Update, Part 3 scene

• * Various Getting to Know You Update, Part 1 Opening scenes

Coding

• Content preference menu toggles

• * Content adjustments in-game to account for toggles

• Jordi's Grind'm scenario CG unlocks

• * Connor's sprite display code update (shirtless only)

• Julian's sprite display code update

• Matt's sprite display code update

• Owen's sprite display code update

• Parker's sprite display code update

• Bug fixes (ongoing)

🟢 TREVOR GRIND'M UPDATE 🟢

Art - Menu

• New main menu screen

• Revised Grind'm menu screen

• Trevor profile pics (5 of 5 completed)

• Trevor profile text (2 of 2 completed)

•  Grind'm gallery screens (4 of 4 completed)

• Jordi's Grind'm gallery thumbnails (39 of 39 completed)

• * Trevor's Grind'm gallery thumbnails (100 of 103 completed)

Art - Sprites

• Cell phone (10 of 10 completed)

• Connor Grind'm clothes (24 of 24 completed)

• Trevor Grind'm clothes (5 of 5 completed)

• Trevor naked erect (8 of 8 completed)

• * Additional character(s) (11 of ? completed)

• Unlock pop-up notification sprite

Art - CGs

• Scenario intro CGs (2 of 2 completed)

• * Scenario foreplay CGs (31 of 31 completed / 1 revised for lighting issues)

• Scenario side CGs (28 of 28 completed)

• * Scenario bottom CGs (30 of 30 completed / 2 revised for lighting issues)

• Scenario top CGs (27 of 27 completed)

• Scenario versatile CGs (3 of 3 completed)

• * Scenario cumming CGs (62 of 69 completed)

• Scenario afterglow CGs (4 of 4 completed)

• Scenario ending CGs (2 of 2 completed)

• Scenario end screen CGs (3 of 3 completed)

Art - Backgrounds

• City (1 of 1 completed)

• Hotel (7 of 7 completed)

Art - Character Models

• Hotel Clerk

• Valet

Writing

• Trevor profile text (2 of 2 variations completed)

• Scenario introduction

• Scenario foreplay

• Scenario side/oral, part 1

• Scenario side/oral, part 2 (3 of 3 variations completed)

• Scenario bottom, part 1

• Scenario bottom, part 2 (3 of 3 variations completed)

• Scenario top, part 1

• Scenario top, part 2 (3 of 3 variations completed)

• Scenario versatile

• Scenario cumming (10 of 10 variations completed)

• Scenario afterglow (2 of 2 variations completed)

• Scenario ending (2 of 2 variations completed)

• Scenario end screen (3 of 3 variations completed)

Coding

• * Trevor scenario unlocks (additional unlock points added)

• Revised Grind'm menu screen

• Grind'm gallery screens (2 of 2 completed)

• Scenario introduction

• Scenario foreplay (5 of 5 segments completed)

• Scenario side/oral, part 1 (4 of 4 segments completed)

• Scenario bottom, part 1 (4 of 4 segments completed)

• Scenario top, part 1 (4 of 4 segments completed)

• Scenario versatile 

• * Scenario afterglow

• Scenario end screens

Needed Components

🟡 TREVOR GRIND'M UPDATE 🟡

Art - Menu

• * Trevor's Grind'm gallery thumbnails (3 of 103 needed)

Art - Sprites

• Additional character(s) (total unknown)

Art - CGs

• Revised cumming CGs (7 of 69 needed)

Coding

• Scenario ending

An aside about all those cumming CGs: Jordi's scenario had a total of 20, but this scenario has 69. The climax of any scenario is my favorite part, if you haven't guessed 😉

But this means I need so, so many different versions of props for the shooting and the aftermath, and there aren't that many available. When it comes to the "aftermath" in particular, most of the props that do exist are for female models, and converting them to work on male models can lead to lots of weird issues.

So I need to get creative when I make these both when setting up the renders and editing the final CGs. It's a lot of extra work when I could probably get away with cycling through the same three cumshot props over and over, but I like variety!

Anyway, as you can see, there's not much left! I will say that I am handling some house moving stuff this month, too, amongst other annoying real world things. So it's gonna be a very busy July for me, but this game is definitely at the top of the list!