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Status Update: S2E2 Beta 40 Progress, HD characters and Voice Acting
Hello, my dear FreshMen!
We're wrapping up another great week of work, and I'd like to take a moment to share our progress with you, and ask you an important question.
Over the past few weeks we've been training our new artists and a new lookdev, and invested a lot of time into that. We believe that the only way to create a great future for the studio is to develop great people. This means training they thoroughly, showing them all the steps, and making sure they got everything they need to do the best work they can. Next week they embark on full on production, without training wheels, and I can't wait to see what they're capable of. Building an amazing company is a fusion of many things. In order to have the impact we want, we need very talented people, excellent (and ever evolving) processes, attention to detail and flawless training. These are the things I'm focused on perfecting.
On another note, S2E2 Beta 40 is almost here! All of our renders are basically done, with a few animations still in the oven. Small corrections, adjustments and some renders, and our visuals will be done. I'm gonna share an Alpha version with a few selected testers next week, even without final animations, and get feedbacks. Then we'll bugfix, make sure everything is in order, wait for animations to finish rendering, then we will be (almost) ready to deliver it.
Which takes me to the next topic: We're facing a bit of a hiccup with Voice Acting.
Exactly 44 days ago, one of our actresses sent us a message informing us she joined SAG AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and unless Freshwomen joined too, she would be unable to continue working with us (as per SAG AFTRA rules). We absolutely want to continue working with her, as she's very talented and professional. So we talked to the other actors and to a SAG AFTRA representative, and got the ball rolling on the process. We sent all the necessary paperwork, and... we're still waiting for it to be processed. We were informed that the WGA Strike is impacting this timeline, as a lot of creatives are (justifiably) on strike right now. Without signing the contract, the actress can't record her lines and we can't put them in the game.
So we're left with two choices:
1 - Launch Beta 40 with a few voice lines missing and patch them in later;
2 - Wait for the paperwork, record the voice lines, and then launch Beta 40 (we don't know how much time this would take);
I'd like to know which of these options you prefer.
Do you want to play S2E2 Beta 40 sooner, even without a few voice lines? Or would you rather wait until everything is done?
Please let us know below!
In other news, one of our lookdevs implemented a new system (which we're calling HD Textures), and we're putting them into the game. These textures add lots of finer detail, such as muscle volume, veins, skin cracks, etc, and the results are stunning. We're already rendering with them, and will be asking your opinion on a few characters over the next few days, to make sure everything is perfect!
These HD upgrades will be present at Beta 40, as well as sexy sounds! So Gabby's sex scene will be SPECTACULAR!
Wheew! What a great week!
I love to see our processes and artists evolve. Perfecting a pipeline has been quite a challenge, but when everything fits my heart feels full of joy and excitement. We have an amazing team, full of talent and desire, a great game and the best community we could ask for! So thank you, for your support, feedbacks, comments, for leading us on the right path and for loving our games as much as we do!
Season 2 Episode 2 is INCREDIBLE! I can't wait to share it with you!
Great things are coming,
f1r3