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Only Music and Video, no Microphone today.
But I have a few hours to work on renders, figure you might like to peek over my shoulder.
I'll fire it off shortly.
Salute!
Only Music and Video, no Microphone today.
But I have a few hours to work on renders, figure you might like to peek over my shoulder.
I'll fire it off shortly.
Salute!
- Jan 20, 2020
- 2,873
- 4,266
- Feb 16, 2020
- 1,106
- 1,058
The dev just left an update 3 posts above yours, so I am sure it's dead...
- Jun 24, 2017
- 1,092
- 1,318
Pretty sure I read something a while back saying that, at least at the time, pregnancy content only existed if you had trans content disabled - is this still the case?
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2020-08-02 News
Looks like it's time for a another round of news. So let's do this!
Game Progress
Still operating in full creative mode. I've got over 60 renders ready for the next chapter, and that's just one scene! I should have the first scene ready for play testing later this week. My hope is that this marks the kick off of regular content play tests that will snowball into regular releases.
So for you $10+ patrons, look for some small content coming out soon for you to try and break.
Renders
Previously my scenes were complex, had a lot of moving parts and angles, and render time was maxed at 30 minutes. Sometimes this left darker scenes a bit grainy and reflective surfaces suffered considerably.
I was trying to cut corners by rendering at a high resolution and then downsizing to remove some of the grain, but that only goes so far.
But now I'm being realistic and working around the fact that my abnormally dynamic art wasn't necessary to tell my story. Previously I mentioned a shift to simpler art of higher quality and that's what you see attached to this post.
By rendering out at the required resolution and allowing the render to processes as close to 95% conversion as possible, we end up with a much better image. This has however added significantly to the render time for each image, but the reward is worth it.
But the extended render time has created a bottleneck in the process and I'm creating scenes a lot faster than I can render them (Currently I have over 120 images in the queue) at forty-five minutes to an hour per render, and only rendering for about eight hours a night, it's going to take me two weeks to get it rendered, and that's only for two scenes of a 10 scene chapter.
No worries though, help is on the way.
I'm about 50% complete with acquiring the parts for a second high end rig to do just renders. That will help cut our time in half. Once that one built and up and running, my goal is to have a third machine built April 2021 for a total of three machines dedicated to rendering out the art for this game.
Without having to code and just writing and rendering, three machines should be sufficient to keep up with the workload and allow me to work on multiple characters simultaneously. Then we can finally realize the goal of putting multiple character updates in each new release.
Exciting stuff!!!
Thinking about the Future
I've made no secret about the fact I'd like to quite my full time job and just work on the game forever and always. But recent events have really had me questioning the best way to go about this.
For a long time creators like myself have relied on platforms like Patreon and others to provide a method of funding for their projects. It's a simple turn-key solution that can get a new developer off and running very quickly and without little hassle.
But with pending lawsuits, changing policies and random bans, there is a large degree of uncertainty about the future. The idea that if I were working on this game full time, and Patreon suddenly decided to not allow my content, or ban me for a month, that's a heavy blow and a huge burden on my family.
And to be fair, it's not just Patreon, it's any platform that I might use as a source of revenue for this game. This has put me on the path of thinking long and hard about the future of the project and the organization of the business in the long term.
If I'm going to do this full time and without fear of random pitfalls and obstacles, I need to retain more control of the whole process from creation, distribution and most notably, billing.
So over the next few months I'm going to start working on putting together a private platform to host my content and bill my patrons. By having my own site from which people can subscribe and donate money to the project while receiving all kinds of rewards and benefits will help us out in a number of ways.
The upsides are:
1. No one can shut me down without a lawsuit or a court order.
2. I won't have to abide by anyone's absurd terms and conditions. This means I can include whatever content I want as long as it's legal, no more silly restrictions.
3. I can safely work on transitioning to full time development without fear of being shit canned over someone's complaint.
4. I can offer additional incentives and promotions inside of my own site.
The Downsides are:
1. Higher fees for payment processing (I'd be looking at about 15% as opposed to Patreon's approximate 10%)
2. Higher setup cost. (Average set up for a "High Risk Billing" platform is $500 to $1,000)
3. Have to set up an LLC. (This isn't a real downside, it just requires more paperwork than I currently have to do.)
Since I'm not in any immediate danger of closure, this is something I'll work on slowly over the next six months or so. It won't detract from the current content creation or delay any releases.
But Noah was smart enough to build the ark before the storm, and that's the mindset I need to adopt right now.
I want this to be a viable business going forward, so I need to start thinking long term and laying the groundwork to avoid potential interruptions.
Anyway, that's all I've got for now.
I have a few more topics to touch on, but I'll dig into that just as soon as I get this testable content out to you all!
Cheers!
Aye, but the wake will be fan-fucking-tastic! Can't wait!
Now, if only the dev would come and tell us himself!
At least as he isn't going to go off and make one-shots like some people I won't mention.
- Apr 3, 2020
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I need more Emily, Cassie and the best, Amandaaaa <3 hope the update comes soon <3
- Sep 28, 2018
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Sadly, Dr.Amana isn't a medical doctor or she could've saved it. RIP.
- Jun 24, 2017
- 1,092
- 1,318
- Nov 11, 2017
- 2,313
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4. Your game won't be part of a well-supported site which is familiar to potential supporters.
Maybe try a step before designing for a future leap? Luxee offers on both Patreon and Subscribestar, with the fuller content on the latter. MrDots is much the same, except fuller content for them = an entire game that Patreon would not allow.
No offense, but as much as I am positive about supporting your effort, I felt that it took someone with the following of a MrDots to have DMD followed on two other payment platforms before they settled on it being supported through Subscribestar. Meanwhile, they never let their Patreon-hosted work really wane, because it was the central cash cow for awhile. Having options might make sense to consider.
Yeah but let's not kid ourselves, most of us, developer and patron alike are doing business with Patreon because we lack alternatives, not because we like them. Being familiar doesn't make them preferred.
I have never liked having all my eggs in that basket. Especially after the first time we got locked out and it took two weeks to even get a response. Ultimately we never did learn what about our project offended the gate keepers and to get unbanned we finally just deleted all of the images we had on our Patreon account.
I'm still working on putting together the Subscribestar Account but that's taken a back seat at the moment as I'm working on the next update. But if I'm going to do this for a living in the long term, I have to make sure my operations and income aren't contingent on the whims and attitudes of a third party.
The service would still be the same , different levels of support for different rewards, etc. News, releases, blogs. We'd just be cutting Patreon out of the picture.
It's not really a matter of project size. Building a subscription site is easy enough. I just have to decide which processor is offering the level of service I require at the best price. And that's just a matter of negotiation.
I still plan offer support services through Patreon and Subscribestar, but I'd promote the bulk of the effort through my own site. This way if either of the other two platforms ever decides to lock me down, I don't have to stop production and play stupid games to get back up and running.
- Nov 11, 2017
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This is the part of my feedback to you which I hoped to emphasize: many people will go with what is familiar or a known quantity, especially for payment options. The reason I mentioned MrDots is because they kind of struggled to find a steady flow for DMD until they hit upon Subscribestar ... and even that wasn't ideal because a number of prior Patreon supporters said that giving a direct credit card was something they did not want to do. So, having an alternative payment processing option could be OK with time and recognition of its worth, but keeping with the other venues + processing seems smart as a starting point.
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I think a lot of times you and I are already on the same page. I just do a poor job of conveying my complete thoughts when I sit down to write my "stream of consciousness" style news posts.
I never meant to imply the private site would be the only way to support the project. Just that if I can get a large portion of the revenue generated from there, I would never have to worry about any of the alternatives shutting me out and closing me down out the blue.
Some of the processors I'm looking at also provide ACH and they accept gift cards from places like Amazon or Target. So hopefully that too will give supporters some additional options.
Diversification is really the end goal of this push. Diversification for my own peace of mind.
- Apr 5, 2019
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A test render from last nights queue. Too good not to share. I have to say, letting the image burn till 95% is reached has a dramatic impact on the final result. This image is just straight from the output. There is little no post processing required which saves even more time.
Now that I don't have to code and I'm working only on content creation, I realized last night that I have more than enough art in the queue to keep even two computers running hard overnight. I took some time this morning to start putting together the parts list for the third. My goal is that with enough support and a few more releases under the belt, five or six months from now I should have three computers handling over night renders while I build multiple character story lines during the day.
I can't tell you how excited I am to be bringing you a fresh steady stream of new material in the coming months!
Now that I don't have to code and I'm working only on content creation, I realized last night that I have more than enough art in the queue to keep even two computers running hard overnight. I took some time this morning to start putting together the parts list for the third. My goal is that with enough support and a few more releases under the belt, five or six months from now I should have three computers handling over night renders while I build multiple character story lines during the day.
I can't tell you how excited I am to be bringing you a fresh steady stream of new material in the coming months!
look out for your electricity bill with 3 pc rendering
they could start thinking you are running a weed plantation in your attic .
they could start thinking you are running a weed plantation in your attic .