#8 Patreon Post - Chonker

Hi!

This is probably going to be a long one. We're closing in the 2-month post release of version 0.01. And the reception of it was something I never expected. Even today I receive positive feedback from people just finding out about the game, for me this is really humbling.

There were so many things that I look back and think I could've done better, but it was a learning experience, and I'm glad people are finding it entertaining.

I started this project exactly in 12/25/2022, it took me roughly 2 whole years to get a version out. I had to learn to write, code, use Daz, and everything needed in that timeframe, but when I was doing it, I felt no rush, because the only person I could let down was myself. I mean, it was not 2 years of constant development, I had many breaks, months long, life finds a way of getting in your way. I tried to be always looking for ideas, plot beats, good examples to follow. But a releasable thing was so far into the future that I couldn't even get stressed over it. 2024 was a bit different, I had most of the idea for the plot down to paper, and needed to fill the gaps, and also, make it presentable. With the wife pregnant I think it helped with the routine, she goes to sleep very early and I'm a bit of night owl, so I kept grinding little by little. Remade the start a couple of times, rewrote this, rewrote that. The plan was to have a standard "flashback prologue" where their backstory is explained but I've played a lot of VNs, and... not that there's anything wrong with that, but one of the first thoughts I had was to make something different. To go against what's safe, common or expected, that's why you don't see thoughts on my story. That came with its own caveats, how do you know what the character is thinking, without reading his thoughts? I had to pay extra attention on what expressions I show, and I have to trust you will pick up on what I'm trying to say, with just subtle things.

That's another thing. Trust your audience. I think most of mainstream media lost this, I don't really know why, but everything is overexplained and writers don't trust their readers to fill in the gaps. Where the best pieces of fiction we have to this day, always leave a lot for the reader imagination. So, I took the conscious step to not insult your intelligence and just tell a story I came up, to the best of my ability, and trust you will get what I'm trying to say, and if I leave something in the air, I'll ask you to trust me that there will be a payoff, and if I miss any, I'll trust you to call me out so I can fix it.

Anyway, that's a tangent. What I'm trying to say is that I was never really prepared for any of this. I know I can sound like a broken record, but I think that's just in my character. I often say what's on my mind, and being an overthinker, I often keep thinking about the same thing over and over. This development cycle is a lot different. Now I have a pretty defined workflow. I said I was trying to get 2 scenes a week done, yeah... that's not happening. And not for the lack of trying, it's just that. I have 7 scenes completely done and rendered in 4k, scripted, just waiting for post work and the implementation of the choice system (just the tracking to know what you've been choosing, I'll do that at the end because it's going to be the same system. So, 7 scenes in 7 weeks, I don't really know if it's bad or good pace. The problem for me is that I fixate a lot, and I often refuse to let go of bad ideas, or too-hard ideas. There's a clothing asset that ALWAYS gave me trouble and I kept using it, losing HOURS to try and fix it but couldn't, and now I'll just have to post correct the renders in PS later because it's too much trouble to render everything again with a different one. It's still a learning experience. Other times I need to create assets. Working alone I noticed I start doing a scene, and check if I need new assets (I don't mean store bought assets, more like custom textures), so I whip something up and start tinkering with it, and then I think "Woo, it would be nice to have this on this scene as well, oh but for that I need to learn how to use Substance 3D Painter, and that's another R$200 a month on a subscription, but it will look so much better", and then it goes on and on, and I spend 6h on trial and error with the racing suit for a character will have a minor appearance... And also, have 87 unread emails from work and have to catchup.

Don't get me wrong. I love this shit. I really do. I don't know how to draw to save my life, but man, when I learn a new thing and can apply it, I feel good about myself. But unfortunately, it takes time.

Another thing that happens is... I'm working on a scene, I have a file with like 60 scenes planned out, it's just like 5-6 lines, just to give me an idea, and organize it in a way, I've seen people use post-its, etc, it's like a storyboard. And then I go "Right, let's work on scene 24, it's just a small scene, a little montage, not much dialogue, 30-35 renders would be enough so I can move on."

SIKE

Now I'm 70 renders deep, there's a massive dialogue, character development happening, and a player dialogue choice. Also, it's indoor and renders take 15-20 minutes. But that is where the scene took me, the plan was X, but to feel right, it had to be X+Y.

Anyway, this week was bizarre. Last week I told you guys that I had 2 scenes ready to render. Well, I took Wednesday off my other jobs, and full blasted rendered a whole scene in 1 afternoon. The next one, I read and re-read, re-wrote a bunch of parts and NOW I feel like it's good enough to render, the problem is, it's a bit bigger, 2 locations (so 2 daz files), a bunch of posing. I'll be realistic and say that I will probably finish it by Sunday, maybe. Last Sunday a friend called us to his house for the afternoon and it was like 40°C so we all jumped in the pool and had a massive bbq and then I got like 4 wine bottles deep and woke up on the couch at my own house the next morning. It was fun.

Well, I'll stop for now, this one is a chonker.

Thanks to everyone that joined the discord. As development goes forward there will be more stuff to talk about.

Also, 4 days to F1 pre-season testing.

Cheers, hope you all have a great weekend, don't drink. (too much)

C.