Taz423

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Mar 27, 2021
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Long post incoming. TLDR if you don't want to read about the polishing process is that I'm currently playing and polishing Episode 10, and animations are rendering. Skip to the last section of the text if you want to read about bug fixes from v0.9.1.

My polishing process
Today, I figured I would describe my workflow during the polishing phase a little more in-depth than before. And I'll also exemplify how I've worked this past week. I've spent the better part of this week playing the game and taking detailed notes of what must be polished.

Until now, while I have worked with every part of the episode and completed all scenes, I haven't played more than a few playthroughs. There are several scenes I haven't even seen in-game yet.

In this phase of the development - the polishing phase - I play the episode and sometimes prior episodes repeatedly to improve the new content in as many areas as possible.

I play and polish in many different ways, focusing on different things each time. In some playthroughs, I focus solely on the visuals, inspecting every render and animation - spotting if something needs to be changed/fixed/improved/removed/added. I write notes in my code and then go back to fix it after I have racked up a decent list of to-dos.

In other playthroughs, I focus on the story, dialogue, grammar, and continuity and stop caring about other aspects of the game. Similar playthroughs happen for sound/music/mini-games/features/phone content, and more.

And when I'm near the end of this process, I play, trying to take it all in at once and absorb the entire experience.

My first week of polishing Episode 10
This week, I started polishing by playing some branches and looking at them with no particular focus. I tried to enjoy the episode and spot things to fix. My first playthrough was on the Jill branch with mini-games enabled. It took me roughly 15 hours to get through episode 10 while playing in a particularly meticulous way.

While playing, I actively made notes and fixed minor things, but I never rolled back to test fixes and always moved forward in the episode.

As a whole, her branch and content felt very good. Things I found that needed to be fixed after this first pass were:

  • Mini-games and their tutorials
  • Music and SFX
  • Choices
  • Details in renders
  • Dialogue
  • Some canon content
This is an example of a render to fix, and errors I find can be as small as this or something bigger.



This is just a reflection error on a bottle that caught my eye.

My second run clocked in at ~13 hours. It was an Others branch game where I saw many exclusive scenes yet missed some of them.

In this playthrough, I got to test a couple of lewd scenes for the first time - scenes that I posed back in January/February but had yet to play. On this pass, I found more things to fix:

  • More mini-game bugs
  • Bad dialogue
  • DIK affinity sections that were off
  • Missing music
  • A missing animation
  • Code that crashed a lewd scene
I made a few more playthroughs, and the to-do list grew longer with each of them. I started fixing the issues I found so I could create a new build. It's easier to spot mistakes in a build where it's a clean slate with no known issues. And that's what I'm working on right now.

The to-do list was pretty long, with minor to major things that must be fixed. After I have fixed everything, I will continue playing more with other types of branches and combinations. Rinse and repeat the process in different ways.

My thoughts on this process
And this is what my polishing process is all about and how I've done it for years. At first, the episode will feel very rough, but with each pass, it improves.

The funny and sad part about this is that even though I do this phase countless times for different branches and combinations, I will still miss things. Eventually, my brain grows accustomed to errors, and I can't spot what's wrong within a scene until it gets pointed out to me by someone else. Even something you would say is a glaring issue/error might slip through. But at some point, I will feel I've done what I could to polish the episode. And when I reach that point, and all art has been rendered, I use my team of testers and proofreader for the extra polishing step.

Even after all of that, the release will still have bugs, typos, and occasional errors, but it will be in a state where it's good enough to be released to Patrons and have considerably fewer bugs than it would have if I skipped the polishing phase.

I carry out this meticulous polishing process because I don't want players to be the game's beta testers. I don't think it's fair to put out an episode that hasn't been properly tested after all this time and causes big game-breaking bugs.

It might still happen, and I will kick myself for every single bug that slips through, but at least I can rest well knowing I and my team of testers did the best we could.

This is what I'll do in the upcoming weeks, and I'll try my best to report how it's coming along and what areas I've been working on.

List of fixed bugs
If there is a bug in the Interlude or Episode 9 (v0.9.1) that you are aware of but don't see on the list below, please report it on my Discord server in the bug-reports room, and I'll fix it for this upcoming release.

These are the bugs that have been reported and fixed for v0.10.0 so far, any other bugs you know of, I am unaware of:

  • Fixed a bug where the CHICK response on Elena's cluck would subtract one from the total number of CHICK actions instead of adding one.
  • Fixed a bug with the Below Budget perk, which increased the starting budget of the Halloween party by $5.
  • Fixed an issue with Sarah's and Melanie's optional event in the final free-roam event.
  • Fixed an issue with Sarah's optional event in the second free-roam event.
  • Fixed an issue with the timer hampering performance during the drawing mini-game in the Interlude.
  • Fixed an issue where a scene with Becky could happen after the first party activity. Now, it only triggers before this activity as intended.
  • Fixed a bug where save names sometimes reverted to old save file names.
  • Fixed a bug with the Wallpaper setting in the Settings app during the end of the Interlude that caused a crash.
  • Fixed an issue where Maya's lewd scene was stored incorrectly.
  • Fixed a bug with the truth or dare game that caused an omission of truth when asked how many you've slept with.
  • Fixed an issue with Lily's gallery scene, causing an emote to misalign the text chat.
  • Fixed an issue with Lily's lewd scene where her tattoos were missing.
  • Updated the description of the Multiplier Madness perk. It worked as intended, but its description was off.
  • Corrected typos
Have a nice weekend

Dr PinkCake
2024, here we come.
 

Ottoeight

Forum Fanatic
Mar 13, 2021
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He said he's polishing in the upcoming weeks, guys. "In the upcoming weeks". :rolleyes::rolleyes:

After that, betatesting for a couple of weeks at least, as he's already said. :whistle::whistle:

But people HERE cried for joy when he wrote that he was upgrading his hardware... "Episode 10 will come out faster than episode 9, you'll see", the huge morons said.

Why should he, when his patrons' number grows and grows? why shouldn't he go for the yearly update cycle?

Enjoy the ride, dear "everything a dev does is right" worshippers.
 

Geralt From Rivia

Forum Fanatic
Jun 15, 2022
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I know Josy has doubts about choosing Maya if they reject you, but does that mean they will break up unless the MC is with them? It seems Josy is a bit like the MC in some ways. Not knowing what she wants and having multiple relationships, so the throuple is great for her since she doesn't have to decide (unlike poor MC in episode 8).

It's a shame if their relationship will be ruined just because the MC doesn't bang them
That's why I can't trust Josy completely, she's unsure of what she wants.
 

KaiserST

Member
Apr 5, 2017
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I did I write up on this topic earlier today. I was hoping to update it with more accurate estimates with the status update today.
Hope it helps you!
It was a great post @EletronicRoberts, however you made a small mistake. The total number of animations will be lower than 337 because some of the animations of the queue will be merged together.

Thats also implies the duration of those animations to be merged is smaller than the average, perharps even shorter than 4s each.

Hopefully that means that late november is still a possibility.

i'm hardly on this thread. Any word on next season/update?
Come back in december if you just want to play when its released. Maybe late november.


2024, here we come.
I still have a bit of hope for november, but mostly for december.


Also, a shame that DPC hasnt shared the current render queue, it is the only way to know for sure how much longer we have to wait.
 

NebulousShooter

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Oct 24, 2018
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It was a great post @EletronicRoberts, however you made a small mistake. The total number of animations will be lower than 337 because some of the animations of the queue will be merged together.

Thats also implies the duration of those animations to be merged is smaller than the average, perharps even shorter than 4s each.

Hopefully that means that late november is still a possibility.



Come back in december if you just want to play when its released. Maybe late november.



I still have a bit of hope for november, but mostly for december.


Also, a shame that DPC hasnt shared the current render queue, it is the only way to know for sure how much longer we have to wait.
The way I read it was that he will merge animations and others will take their place, kinda a shaddy way to make more animations, but keep the count low, so people don't jump on his case. I might be wrong.
 
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soprano31

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Nov 12, 2021
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That's why I can't trust Josy completely, she's unsure of what she wants.
Insecurity can be remedied,
but having daddy Weinstein,a crazy nymphomaniac mother in-law,
and a mentally retarded brother-in-law is even worse and more crazy..

It is truly a pleasure to sit at the table with them during the holidays :rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
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Meushi

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Aug 4, 2017
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The way I read it was that he will merge animations and others will take their place, kinda a shaddy way to make more animations, but keep the count low, so people don't jump on his case. I might be wrong.
It's more that the animations are created as separate sequences, then merged together to create one long animation.

In a similar vein to how films are made, they do several takes (different angles etc.) then edit it together.
 
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Acsuka

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Mar 25, 2023
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Insecurity can be remedied,
but having daddy Weinstein,a crazy nymphomaniac mother in-law,
and a mentally retarded brother-in-law is even worse and more crazy..

It is truly a pleasure to sit at the table with them during the holidays :rolleyes::rolleyes:
Properly armed, you can eat the turkey...
 

NebulousShooter

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Oct 24, 2018
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It's more that the animations are created as separate sequences, then merged together to create one long animation.

In a similar vein to how films are made, they do several takes (different angles etc.) then edit it together.
I am only talking of the total number of animations he was aiming for the ep and then when He decided to merge them into a cinematic he didn't mention that his goal number is now smaller to account for that, hence my supposition that he will make other animations 'to replace' those.
 

chuck69

Member
Apr 9, 2023
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Really? He knew some shit that Maya was going to pull on us and didn't say shit. Yes, she's his sister and I get that. But nope. Fuck him.
yeah, fuck that guy for not betraying his twin, hes been friends with MC for an entire week! :cautious:
cant say i agree you, but i will give you points for reaching a level of immersion that i have not, this reaction was very trem.
question....... did you shed tears on a park bench, or in bellas lap during this over reaction?

I would cry too if I lost a Zoey :cautious: :Kappa:
i would cry twice, once when i lost her, and again when she came back with that ugly grandma tribute plastered across her chest. its not a complete deal breaker, but from this point on, im only fucking her from behind

and all the other Pink Rose girl are student at B&R, Right ? :cautious::LOL:
ive been in this debate before, NO dealer asks or cares what a customer does with product after the sale. quinn sold to a sorority sister therefore did nothing wrong.

That's why I can't trust Josy completely, she's unsure of what she wants.
nah, shes sure, she just has a hard time saying " i want MC dick, and all the pussy i can eat." drop her off at the rose for a weekend, and lily returns a perfect josy to you on monday
 
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Takkatakka

Engaged Member
Nov 11, 2022
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Derek is okay as a friend, but sorry Derek, Zoey is better and she can provide some benefits that you can't give.:sneaky::devilish:
Zoey left the MC behind to follow her stupid dream as a surfer girl. Derek took all kinds of bullets potentially including fucking a granny to win Hell Week with his Maggot brother.

And as of now there are no "benefits" to be had with Zoey anyway.
 
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Dark Silence

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Jul 17, 2021
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yeah, fuck that guy for not betraying his twin, hes been friends with MC for an entire week! :cautious:
cant say i agree you, but i will give you points for reaching a level of immersion that i have not, this reaction was very trem.
question....... did you shed tears on a park bench, or in bellas lap during this over reaction?
My point exactly. Fuck that guy. :ROFLMAO: But seriously. He's annoying af. He's NOT Liam. Liam is and was the best as a best friend in any game and I judge all others by him. If they can't live up to that standard, they can all fuck off. Just how it is for me. But as I stated before, I get that she's his sister.
 

chuck69

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Zoey left the MC behind to follow her stupid dream as a surfer girl. Derreck took all kinds of bullets potentially including fucking a granny to win Hell Week with his Maggot brother.

And as of now there are no "benefits" to be had with Zoey anyway.
i have defended derek before, hes a damn good bro! gerralt has a point though, zoey comes with a really nice incentive package that youre not getting with derek, unless youre into soaking your junk in vodka and pretending its a tampon.
 

Takkatakka

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Nov 11, 2022
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i have defended derek before, hes a damn good bro! gerralt has a point though, zoey comes with a really nice incentive package that youre not getting with derek, unless youre into soaking your junk in vodka and pretending its a tampon.
So what...Zoey becomes girl...No. 4 with her own path on the "Others path" after Quinn, Lily and Nicole? That is only interesting if you aren't on any other path or if you're okay with ruining that path. Apart from the fact, that Zoey and Derek aren't (or at least most likely won't be) mutual exclusive anyway...
 
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