Progress Report

Greetings, everyone!

I'm still not entirely well after my fight with covid, but I'm getting there. In fact, I've regained enough of my strength that I've been able to put in some serious work on the renders for one of the most complicated (if not the most complicated) chapters in the first version, and they look great! You can see one of the images from this scene at the top of this post, which should go a long way to demonstrating just how much the image and environment detail have improved since Long Live the Princess. Not only does everything look way more realistic with much more detail, but the image resolution is also improved. LLtP was 720p, while Supermodel is 1080p. It really does make a difference, even though my approach to the new renders is to give them a slightly soft, cinematic look. And speaking of cinematic, it's a lot of fun playing with the camera in these shots. LLtP forced me to stick with a first-person perspective for the vast majority of the game, but Supermodel has no such restriction. This gives me a lot of flexibility for visual storytelling and gives me a better idea of what the environments actually look like.

This chapter is technically the second Michael Sharpe chapter in the game, but it's the first one where we get to actually meet Michael. The above shot is how we first see him, in the middle of an unpleasant phone call. What is he talking about, and with whom? You'll have to wait to find out. Suffice it to say, this scene gets really, really intense.

The above image also demonstrates another concept that we should hopefully see more of in the full game: the fact that the characters aren't stuck in one costume for the entire game. Due to the open nature of LLtP, I was forced to keep the characters in the same costume for almost the entire game. In Supermodel, I have much more control over when and how people will appear, so I can easily swap costumes to fit the scenes better.

My plan right now is to finish making the necessary renders for this scene and then immediately bring them into the code, along with music, ambient sounds, and sound effects. I want this scene to be my first real test where everything comes together. Seeing all of this come together at last is exciting, and I can't wait to get the complete picture shortly.

Until next time!