Development Update Preview #10

*日本のサポーターの皆様には、あらかじめお詫び申し上げます。この記事はそのままでは本当に長く、多くの技術的な詳細を含んでおり、(DeepL)で正しく機械翻訳されていませんでした。この記事では、イントロと最後の2つのセクションのみが機械翻訳されました。

Introduction

OK! この投稿の前に、この開発アップデートは、私が過去2～4週間取り組んできた新しい「インタラクティブ・スパンキング」システムを中心に展開されていることをお伝えしたいと思います。これは間違いなく、私がこのゲームで取り組んだものの中で最も挑戦的なものの1つなので、私の興奮とこの長い投稿をお許しください

この開発アップデートは、これまでのものと比べてもユニークなものなので、年末の最後のプレゼントとして、すべてのサポーターに提供することにしました。

また、各セクションの横に難易度を表示し、私がどのように作業したかを記載しています。長文が苦手な方も大丈夫です。この記事の下にあるプレビュービデオでは、これらの新機能のほとんどが実際に動作している様子を見ることができます。(注意: 録画中はミュートしていたため、動画には音声がありません)

Okay! So to preface this post, I just want to say that this development update revolves entirely around the new "interactive spanking" system I have been working on for the past 2-4 weeks. This was arguably, one of the most challenging things I have worked on for the game, so please excuse my excitement and this lengthy post!

Because this development update is unique compared to prior ones, I decided to make it available to all supporters as one final end of year gift.

And just for fun, I included a difficulty rating next to each section as well as my thought process as I worked through each of them. If lengthy articles are not your thing that's okay! At the bottom of this post you can view the preview video which shows most of these new features in action. (Note: Video does not have any sound since I had it muted during recording.)

1) New Icons (Easy)

To begin, I decided to do a complete overhaul of the icons being used in the interactive spanking system. While I didn't necessarily hate the old icons, the old ones were made rather hastily, didn't have a common theme, and some were just really ugly looking lol. (I'm still pretty bad at graphic design to be honest haha, but I feel that these are an improvement over the prior ones.)

2) BGM Mute/Unmute (Easy)

Alright, so this one was just a "Quality of Life" improvement that was widely requested from many of you. Basically, you now have the option of muting/unmuting the BGM (Background Music) that is played during the spanking scenes and only keep the voice and spanking sound effects active.

In [Day 2], I unintentionally programmed some of the spanking sound effects to play in the same "audio channel" as the BGM music. So if you muted the music volume in the Preferences menu, some of the spanking animations would appear as if there was no sound at all. From [Day 3] and onward, this option will now be available for all spanking scenes.

3) Camera Change + Persistent Red Butt Effect (Hard)

Up next, we finally have a return of the Camera Change mechanic for interactive spanking scenes! Yataa! 🎉 (⁀ᗢ⁀) 🎈

I first attempted developing this mechanic back in [Day 1] for Yui's interactive spanking scene. But as most of you experienced, it was a clunky system that was prone to so many issues such as the camera locking up, animations being played out of sync, red butt effect not being consistent, and the audio/voice was hardcoded so it didn't offer much variety or replay value. The code I developed for the Yui interactive spanking scene was so messy and inconsistent I started feeling as if the countless hours I spent trying to perfect it was a futile effort. While I did manage to make the interactive animation playback more smoother in [Day 2], and I figured out a way to randomize the order of the audio for the interactive scenes. I didn't even bother trying to add the camera changing mechanic to any of the interactive spanking scenes in [Day 2] because of my prior failed attempts...

Butt! I was determined to make a working camera changing system for [Day 3], and I can say with great euphoria and excitement that I think I finally did it! Not only is cycling between 3 different angles during the interactive spanking scene now possible again, but the system will also reliably track 10 different different shades of the "red butt" effect as you switch between the different angles. And with a smoother transition between angles as well. (See video at bottom of post for a demonstration.)

To achieve this, I had to record 52 separate videos with each video being around 2-3 seconds long. While that alone in itself was a very time consuming task, it goes without saying that I was determined to make it happen, no matter what.

4) Automatic Mode (Medium)

When people play video games, sometimes both of their hands may not be "freely available." At first, I was not sure why this would be the case... But fortunately some of you have explained to me that this is due to the various multi-tasking activities you guys take part in while playing videos games. Tasks such as drinking tea, knitting a sweater, writing a master thesis, texting friends, and so on.

Well, just know that I heard you loud and clear and I'm happy to say that "Automatic Mode" will now be a new feature added to interactive spanking scenes. (｡•̀ᴗ-) (‿ˠ‿)

Now, while I plan to include this new feature in Day 3, just know that this is the first iteration of the system. When I get to the Beta Testing phase, I plan to refine it even further based on the feedback received. For now, to keep things simple, I programmed it so that it will play through most of the animations in a predetermined order. On the last animation loop, the camera button is re-enabled which allows you to cycle between different angles.

"Automatic Mode" also acts as a "reset button" as well. So when you go from (Interactive Mode) --> (Automatic Mode) and vice versa, the red butt will reset allowing you play through either version again without having to exit/re-enter the scene. At first, I was going to include a separate button for that, but I didn't want to clutter the screen anymore than needed.

5) Animation Calibration Sync Settings (Hard)

Last but not least, we have another new mechanic being introduced to interactive spanking scenes. This being the "Animation Calibration Sync Settings." What does it do you ask? Well Kana Sensei will be more than happy to explain!

So another concern that some of you have brought to my attention is that on some computers, the animation playback in interactive spanking scenes appear to be "out of sync" when it transitions in between the (slap animation) --> (idle animation) and vice versa. (I show an example of this in the video at the bottom of this post.)

I will admit, that at first I had absolutely no idea how I could even address this issue to begin with lol. Based on the reports from players who experienced this issue, it seems that this mainly affected players who played the game on their laptops and/or older computers. I ended up going down quite the rabbit hole trying find a comprehensive "one-size-fits-all" solution, but sometimes the simplest solution ends up being the best answer (or so I like to think haha).

With that, the Calibration Settings was born! A small drop-down menu tray will now be available for certain scenes, from which you can now manually select different transitions speeds to find the one that works best for your PC/Laptop setup.

Summary

As mentioned at the beginning of this article. This was probably the most challenging development work I have done for [Day 3], but with the heavy lifting out of the way, I think that I now have a good framework that I can use for future interactive spanking scenes.

The last item I still want to tackle in regards to this new system is figuring out a way to remove the "half-second" black fade that occurs when you go from (slap animation) --> (idle animation). The game engine I am using "Ren'Py," was never designed for the kind of instantaneous real-time, player-input game-play I set out to achieve. But I'm already heavily committed to this game engine and switching to something like Unity at this point I think would be a poor decision.

I have tried so many different methods to address this, but each method I've tried thus far compromises on one important feature for another. It has been a challenge I've faced ever since the beginning, up to the point where I could honestly write another whole article on this topic alone. But let's save that for another time.

Regardless of the limitations I face in Ren'Py I still plan to see this project through until the end.

Estimated Release Date

今のペースだと、2月下旬から3月にかけて、ベータテスト用に「Day 3」を準備するのがベストだと思います。私の時間配分はまだ半々で、2週間をアニメーション制作に、2週間をゲーム開発に充てています。これは現時点でのベストな見積もりであり、もちろん変更される可能性があります。

とはいえ、数週間以内に、サポーターの皆さんに、オリジナルの一発芸アニメーションの制作とゲーム開発の進捗に、どれだけの時間を割くべきかというアンケートを実施する予定です。Day2]のリリース以来、多くの新しいサポーターが参加してくれているので、今が何を優先して欲しいかを測る良い機会だと思っています。

At my current pace, my best estimate is that I will have [Day 3] ready for Beta Testing either in late February/March. Since my time allocation is still evenly split 50/50 with 2 weeks dedicated to animation making, and 2 weeks dedicated to game development. This is the best estimate I can give at this time and is of course subject to change.

That being said, in the next couple of weeks, I plan to have another poll for all supporters with the main question being how much of my time should I spend towards making original one-off animations vs game development progress. With so many new supporters ever since the release of [Day 2], I feel that now is the right time to gauge what all of you want me to prioritize.

Next Up

次の2週間は、ヨル・フォージャーのアニメーションに取り組む予定です。でも、この難題を乗り越えたことで、新たなエネルギーが湧いてきたので、ちょっとした休憩の間に、またこっそりゲーム開発の仕事をする予定です（笑）。というわけで、今回はブログ的な開発報告でしたが、次回もお楽しみに。

For the next 2 weeks I will be working on the Yor Forger animation since she was the winner in the prior poll. But in-between my little breaks, I plan to sneak in some more game development work since surpassing this difficult task has given me a newfound surge of energy haha. Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed this blog-like development update post and look forward to the next one.

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Ju!cyButtIch!ka357