FreshmenVN

Game Update #28

Added 2023-03-17 12:47:02 +0000 UTC

Mid-March has arrived, and I'm back with another status update!

I've been pretty quiet the past few weeks because I've been nose-to-the-grindstone-ing on the game. I'm nearing in on the next dev build but am not finished just yet. I've got the details below, plus some screenshots to share. Let's get into it!

Art

I've been pumping out renders every day and am really pleased with the CGs I've completed, some of which I shared in recent sneak peeks. There's an unexpected situation you can walk in on that might be one of my fav CGs ever.

Most CGs for the dev build are done, but the remainder have been taking longer to make simply due to the complexity of the scenes. Basically, graphics cards are limited by how much memory they have, and that determines just how many people can be in a render at once - which for me is usually three at most.

For scenes at a club, that means I need to do multiple renders of the same scene and then composite them together. This increases the creation time for individual CGs quite a bit, and many of the CGs in this update are big crowd scenes. But they're coming along, slowly but surely.

Beyond that, I've been creating the backgrounds that were placeholders in the last build and cranking out tons and tons of sprites to make the side characters as expressive as the main characters. You'll see some of this in the screenshots below or by clicking through the attached gallery!

Script

The script for this dev build is mostly done, but I'm still filling in the blanks, as it were. This involves me replaying the game and making sure different combinations of events are leading to correct scenes later on. And every time I think I found all the connections, I discover a few more!

As an example, while hanging out with Isaiah in the afternoon you can reveal Will said that hooking up with professors is allowed. That slipped my mind when writing some later club scenes where Isaiah is depicted as learning it for the first time... which means I needed to write a scene variant. There are also additions to scenes you've already played that are connected to club storylines, which is some tricky editing.

All that to say, the choice variants continue to expand the writing task even when I think I'm done. But hey, I said choices matter, and I'm gonna make them matter! Beyond this, my final focus will be fully scripting the hookup scenes that will be in the final update, which I do alongside making the CGs so they can each inform each other.

Code

I mentioned before that I started using a shortkey program which lets me type a few keystrokes and insert whole lines of code. Having been coding in earnest the past few weeks, I finally put that program to the test, and it has made the task so much easier. One of the best parts - I don't have to worry about typos in the code that break the game, since everything is pre-written as it should be!

This is still something I'd like to hire someone to do for me at some point, but for the time being this has cut back on coding time quite a bit.

I've primarily got Isaiah's story coded and am working on Asher's and the solo content. The Asher stuff is tricky because it also includes a Skinema performance - and I've expressed before that I had ideas of how I wanted it to look, but didn't know if I could make it work. Especially without having music, I wanted it to still seem dynamic.

I had to do a bunch of trial runs to figure out how to code it to look semi-close to what I wanted. I think it's coming together pretty well, though I definitely want to find a way to add music sooner than later to fully bring the scene fully to life.

Looking Ahead

Many months back, I remember thinking - and saying - that this club update would be less complicated than the frat party, if only because it features fewer main character storylines and I changed up how I did some connective tissue between the scenes.

As is more and more apparent, I forgot to account for the huge number of new side characters I'd be introducing, the complexity of the CGs, the new background sets I'd need to make, and the extra writing needed to connect all three evening options - Matt, party, and club - to bring the Day Two sequence to its end.

All that means is that purely by the time left in the month, and needing to take time some breaks so as not to burn myself out, I probably won't have the full release done this month. The CG count for the hookup scenes will probably prevent that, because I'm very nitpicky about how those need to look.

But the next dev build will for sure be coming very soon. I've just got to finish up some renders, code nonstop, and then do lots of testing first. I'll make sure to a do an all-patrons post once I release that build to Seniors & Graduates. I think and hope it'll be worth the wait.

I also haven't forgotten about this month's Guy Gallery! It's coming very soon as well, and will serve as even more of a peek at the new content coming in the final Club Update release...

Now, let's finish up with some screenshots! Juniors, Seniors, & Graduates have already seen some sneak peeks of the new content, but I want to show off the upcoming update to all patrons today so you can anticipate what's next - and to reassure you that I've been working all this time 🙂

These screenshots show off some newly finished scenes, new backgrounds, and new sprites. Click through the attached gallery to see bigger versions!

Another shower scene calls for not just new showering CGs, but some sexy new sprites as well.

In some sequences, you have to enter Atelier 54 through the brightly-lit front entrance - which could involve trying to charm an intimidating bouncer if you don't want to wait in the cold.

Isaiah and his crew - classmates Skye & Magdalena, plus professor Bastien - are going to spend a lot of time on the dancefloor. This called for a new dancefloor set, which adds an ostentatious DJ booth to the full club set.