Development Update (very light spoilers)

In addition to the images of some new characters I've been working on, I wanted to give everyone a quick development update as well. If you're on Discord and follow the #Developer_Rants channel (access is limited to Patrons as a benefit to you!), you may know I've been working on a lot of renders beyond just those for Paolo and another upcoming character. So, what's going on, and what's the status on the next release?

First, you've seen the images of Paolo, one of the patron-sponsored characters. Next up will be Riley. We've put a lot of attention and care into these guys and I hope you're enjoying the preview images and how they'll be fitting into the story.

Second, as I've mentioned a few times, I'm working on a BBN-related side project and have been cranking out a TON of images/renders for it the last couple weeks. Other than some clean-up in QC, part one of this side project is now largely done. I have a second part I need to work on, though the script for it is largely written and the sets have been staged. 

In the meantime, I've been doing a lot of the mental work for plotting out the next part of Chapter 11 as well as Chapter 12 (translation:  waking up at 4am with my brain churning on dialogue and choices). As I've been chewing on them, I've realized there are some potentially complicated issues with long-term character and story arcs, so I've been trying to think through those and how they'll need to be handled in terms of choices, dialogue and coding. 

LIGHT SPOILERS BEGIN

For example, with Nick and Ronan, Alex is going to have some choices coming up in terms of whether he wants to pursue a romance with either of them, or try to reunite them. I've been trying to think not only of how all of those options might relate to Alex's relationship scores and Dom/sub score accumulated so far, but also how that might affect branching dialogues and story-arcs in the future.

LIGHT SPOILERS END

But, starting this week (maybe even today), I'm going to write out the first draft of the next release and putting these thoughts into something more concrete.

In addition to all of that, I was talking with a patron who has some background in audio, and he was giving me some advice on leveling the audio in BBN. To a layman such as myself, that roughly translates into ensuring all of the audio is at the same volume so there aren't unexpectedly quiet and then deafeningly loud portions. I think this has been relatively okay as I've tried to adjust the volume in Ren'Py, but this will be a more accurate and reliable method. Unfortunately, it requires going through all of the audio files and tinkering with them until they're adjusted.

So, while I'm up against a deadline for this side-project making that a bit of a priority, work on BBN itself is definitely continuing.

OH! I almost forgot... Body hair! The revised Santino got a lot of rave reviews and positive feedback. It wasn't unanimous, which I understand, but I like the idea of a little variety in BBN and I feel like it fits Santino as a bit of the "daddy character." It may be a while before I go back to update Santino's explicit scene, but the new model will be used for his future appearances. If you're not wild about the body hair, I hope you won't be too worried as most of the characters are going to stay exactly as they are.

That's all for now! Questions? Comments? Let me know below!

Best,

BBN