VN Ren'Py Jury [Ep.2] [Nickle3DArt]

[UncleFredo]

On my second play through and obviously will require a third.

First thanks for the VN/game - always good to see a quality entry. Compliments on the quality of the renders, technical proficiency, music, attractive LIs. Huge amount of work.

Under normal circumstances I'd be singing your praises and waiting impatiently for your next update. However, I'm not.

You've created a VN where seemingly minor choices lockout possibilities with various LIs (in some cases an hour or more of playing time down the road). In specific cases at least one of those choices occur BEFORE your big warning message. It's also absurd that you stop rollback in certain choice progressions. WHY? To force even more replays?

This kind of structure ultimately becomes tedious not enjoyable. It's untenable because an hour or more of play may be required to determine the player has yet again made the wrong choice. Not enjoyable.

You've created a very high quality product, which if you persist in this puzzle palace of seemingly random path lockouts is doomed to mediocrity. Perhaps if you're unwilling to loosen the paths one of the excellent modders here will bail you out.

The quality in undeniable and this VN could be among the top ten on this site, it's entirely up to you.

 

[mamciacipka]

Please, modders, have mercy!

 

[Bloodguard]

Dev has no Patreon?
Also, needs a walkthrough or WT mod in a bad way.

 

[jak1165]

Hopefully we get an update soon.

 

[fifo5310]

this is the latest news from october (i know its been month and something but no one posted this so here it is)

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An update of where we are regarding Episode 2

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while again since I put out an official update on Episode 2.

The short of it is, we’re still not there. It is certainly taking far longer than I anticipated.

Below are the steps I am taking to try and speed up the delivery and get a better idea for a release date.

1. I have increased my privileges on the rented render farm – As it’s a shared farm, I would often have my jobs stuck behind others (who I think are new with DAZ and set single images to render for an hour each (using the power of 4x3090’s!).) I’m now paying more so I can have a higher priority on the farm, meaning I can render my shots out quicker without getting stuck in a queue.

2. I have completed all the script (content) for the entire episode. I still need to transcribe a few scenes (plan what images will be used for each line of text), but this should give me an idea of how many images I have left to render.

3. I’ve come to an agreement with the render farm owner for him to render all my animations for a flat fee. This means that I can just get all the animations rendered in one go when the base game is complete. The animations would have taken around 2-3 weeks to render if I was to do them locally. Episode 2 has more animations than the first episode with a wider variety of characters as the relationships have had a little more time to develop at this stage of the game.

4. I’ve got myself an 'employee' who will be testing the content, checking for continuity errors, and also ensuring that I'm following up in Episode 2 on variables that were triggered in Episode 1. Not only that, I’ve built some really nice relationships in the discord, so will be hoping that some of those members will assist me with the testing too, when the base for episode 2 is done.

Realistically, we’re not looking at a release THIS YEAR. I do sincerely apologize for anticipating it would be ready before year end, but there is no way I am going to just ‘rush’ out an episode to try and get it to everyone faster. I do not want to deliver a sub-par product and essentially ruin a game/brand that I have worked hard on for almost 2 years now.

What I can assure you is that I am almost constantly working on Jury: Episode 2 (when I am not doing my 9-5-day job). I may not be on the steam comments section all the time, but I’m generally in the discord every day in the evenings (UK time) and happy to talk to players, take suggestions, and receive feedback (both good and bad).

I’m doing everything I can to get the next episode to you, in the best state it can be, and not compromise quality. It takes time, and I was probably a little ambitious to say Q4 of this year.

To give you an idea, in the first episode, the average scene had about 30 or so renders. Episode 2, we're up to more like 70-100.

I hope you can all understand my position on this, and I know it will come as a disappointment to some.

Here are a few images from the new episode:



Thank you for your continued support.

Nickle3DArt

 

[Rendan]

Latest news from december. We have to wait...


Fr., 15. December

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Season’s greetings to you all!

Dropping in with a little progress update on Episode 2.

Before I start this, I have to say my apologies for not pushing one of these out earlier. I said I’d do better with Steam progress updates, and I’ve left it a little too long. New year’s resolution – at least monthly!

Onto the progress update:

I’ve almost rendered the whole of the main story (excluding the courtroom – honestly, because it’s so resource heavy and tough to work on with so many characters in one scene!). This is a real milestone because essentially, I’ve almost got Episode 2 to an end-to-end playable state, barring a few scenes.

So, what’s left to do? I still need to render the court room scenes (as mentioned above), then create the remaining animations, add sound, add RS points, some GUI bits and pieces, testing and then we’re pretty much there.

I’m aiming for a Q1 release, and I think that’s entirely do-able. I’ve a lot of time booked off as holiday from my day job over the festive period, so hoping to get a good chunk done then, and I’ll have a fresh set of holiday ready to use in the new year, of which a few weeks will be going straight into Jury.

I really appreciate your patience. I know it’s frustrating. I’ve been on the other end of waiting for the next episode also, but hopefully it’s going to be worth it for everyone involved. It seems like every scene I do ends up being my favourite, which I’m taking myself as the scenes get better and better!

I’ve created some simple but festive backgrounds for you all. I’m certainly no whizz at making things like this, but hopefully you’ll enjoy seeing some of your favourite characters dressed up!

(edit: Just realised you can't download the wallpapers on steam. Feel free to join the discord if you want them. They are all in there

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I’ll check in with you all again later in December!

Nickle3Dart

 

[Takkertje]

Well?

 

[fifo5310]

REGULAR UPDATE
POSTED
Wed, January 17

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Happy New Year - Update on Ep2 Progress

Happy New Year!

Dropping in another progress update.

You’ll be pleased to hear, I have completed ALL the renders for Episode 2. All 5768 of them! I've been through the script checker and it’s clean (other than the missing animations of course!).

Obviously, when I play through in testing, should I feel there needs to be more content for certain things, then I may add in more images, but I’m pretty thrilled to have hit this milestone. Anyone who’s used DAZ studio before will be able to relate to creating/posing/rendering that many images on you own!

Next up is the animations (already created a bunch, and rendered mini versions to check them before their full render). I’ve been in discussions with my Render Farm provider over the past few days to arrange a month’s rental on a personal box so I can get these rendered and edited as quickly as possible.

Still on the to do list:
- Sound pass (Add in music and sound effects)
- GUI related items (Sort out the in-game notebook (already developed, but content not coded in), the ending screens (where you can see the points with each character).
- Gallery items (Potentially may leave this to a patch/update post-release if the rest of the project takes longer than expected. Code in the persistent variables ready for the gallery, but actually create the gallery items after the main release).
- Testing (Beta testers lined up already)

Phew! We're getting there and I can’t wait to share with you all! Thank you for your patience. I appreciate not feeling too rushed with it all. I don’t want to spoil my game, and all of your experiences as a result of being rushed.

Still aiming for that Q1 release!

Catch up soon!

Nickle3DArt

(Apologies for the re-use of the Steam Announcement art! My computer is currently rendering a pre-animation).

 

[marspig]

Is the CG creator of this game the same as the CG creator of "College Kings" ?

Although the models have been changed, the expressions and movements of the characters are still the same style .

Especially the MC's "walking posture" .

 

[Bloodguard]

Is the CG creator of this game the same as the CG creator of "College Kings" ?

Although the models have been changed, the expressions and movements of the characters are still the same style .

Especially the MC's "walking posture" .

Can't tell if you're joking, trolling, or being serious, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Renders are made with Daz3D. Like a lot of adult games. It has limited models, poses, and assets, so you will see similarities across many games.
This game is much better than College Kings but uses some of the same assets.

 

[marspig]

Can't tell if you're joking, trolling, or being serious, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Renders are made with Daz3D. Like a lot of adult games. It has limited models, poses, and assets, so you will see similarities across many games.
This game is much better than College Kings but uses some of the same assets.

If you don’t know, don’t give random answers. Of course I know the models are all from Daz.

In addition to using relatively new 3D models and textures, this game feels almost exactly the same as "College Kings".

 

[Bloodguard]

If you don’t know, don’t give random answers. Of course I know the models are all from Daz.

In addition to using relatively new 3D models and textures, this game feels almost exactly the same as "College Kings".

OK, trolling it is then. Don't see how jury duty and college are remotely the same, but sure, you do you.

 

[anonnyscouse]

If you don’t know, don’t give random answers. Of course I know the models are all from Daz.

In addition to using relatively new 3D models and textures, this game feels almost exactly the same as "College Kings".

College Kings is made by a studio rather than an individual dev. There were some issues within that studio though and I think the dev who took over the main production of season 2 of CK after the original dev wanted to lead a new project may have left the studio after the second season was a complete shitshow and they had to completely rework the season. I guess this game could be from the dev who left the studio.

That would probably not be good news for this game to be honest given how S2 of CK went. But it would also be an explanation as to why a totally new dev with no track record for producing games, or even updates to games, is comfortable with a 12 month wait for a 6K render update rather than release shorter updates with shorter wait times.

 

[katabasi]

its march

 

[Nickle3DArt]

its march

I'm almost there...

 

[Nickle3DArt]

Is the CG creator of this game the same as the CG creator of "College Kings" ?

Although the models have been changed, the expressions and movements of the characters are still the same style .

Especially the MC's "walking posture" .

Funny you should say that... College Kings is a fantastic project with an amazing team, but I wanted to try and put my own ideas into a game, so... Jury was born.

Dev has no Patreon?
Also, needs a walkthrough or WT mod in a bad way.

Re Patreon: I'm thinking about setting one up. The reason I've not yet done so is that I wanted to get Episode 2 out there before I thought about that kind of thing. I'd like to be able to prove that I can deliver consistent quality (both to myself and to the players of Jury) before anyone starts financially supporting a project in that way.

Re Walkthrough: A walkthrough is in the works. Currently I'm aware that the game has quite a few avenues (sometimes I kick myself for putting in so many choices and variables), and for me personally, I like to try and find them. However, I'm also aware that it can get tedious to run through again and again, and still not find what you're looking for. That isn't lost on me. Luckily, I have some awesome people in the Discord currently testing E2 and one of them is writing the walkthrough. The intention is to have the walkthrough both as a .pdf and an 'in game' feature. I/We'll get there, but the main focus for the past year is for me to get Episode 2 done and released.

 

[fifo5310]

REGULAR UPDATE
POSTED
Sun, March 10

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Beta Testing

Hi all!

This update is to keep you all in the loop as to where we are with Episode 2.

I took the entire week off from my day job to get Episode 2 ready for beta testing which commenced on Wednesday this week.

I have provided the full episode to a small team who have been diligently working through all possible routes for Episode 2. One has even clocked up over 12 hours in a single day! (You crazy guy!) Another is playing through the less commonly chosen routes, to ensure that everyone can have a positive experience from the Episode, regardless how you wish to play it.

I am seriously blown away by how brilliantly they have worked as a team, and how patient they have been with me (those of you who have been here for a while and saw the state of Episode 1 when it released will know, my spelling is absolute ass, and my punctuation is worse...).

They have collectively flagged 6 game breaking defects (which are all resolved), 500+ spelling/grammar issues (which are all resolved), 200+ small graphical issues (still being resolved), and also pointed out a few continuity errors which might have had you scratching your heads a little bit.

It’s thanks to this team that Episode 2 will be released in a far better state than Episode 1 was and I feel genuinely blessed to have this small, but growing community around me.

I would anticipate that general beta testing will be complete within the next few days.

A few of the beta testers with coding backgrounds also helped me resolve the annoying relationship points popup which froze on screen when using the skipping function. Thank you to both the tester who provided the initial code, and the tester who sat with me in discord and patiently helped me thumb it in! You both know who you are.

Outstanding items:
- Steam Achievements (To be coded in and images generated)
- Gallery variables (I will code in the variables to unlock the new gallery items, in case I don’t get them posed and rendered in time for release. This way, if you’ve hit the variable, when I upload the patch for the gallery content, you will get them if you’ve unlocked them previously, you shouldn't need to replay the scene).
- Trailer
- Any further defects raised by the beta testing team


Release date:
I am planning on releasing Episode 2 before the end of the month, that's pretty certain. Right now, I have the
29th March
in mind.

Steam has a process for new releases, which I didn't realise also applied to DLC. There is a 2-week review process. Essentially, where they review the code and content before allowing the it to be live. I've already prepared the Steam page, done the artwork, description, rating surveys etc, but I believe there is a requirement for a trailer. I have started creating the trailer, but obviously the game and its content/bugs takes priority over creating a trailer, so it's not finished.

With that in mind, I'll be releasing a short 'Teaser' trailer to meet the Steam Store requirements. I'll then be uploading a longer trailer later in the month after the rest of the work on the episode is complete (that takes priority).

Coding issue:
Along with the beta testing, I also hired a professional developer to review my code. Generally, it was fine, but he did point out that I should have been using 'default' where I had previously used 'define' for some of the variables, so those are now rectified.

I'll update again later this month before the release, once the package has been approved by Steam.

Thanks once again,

Nickle3DArt

 

[Samken]

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[BaasB]

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is this with the patch

6,500 new images, roughly 150 new animations

SMALL UPDATE / PATCH NOTES
POSTED
Sat, March 30
Fixed exception items in notebook relating to Lily, Mia, Beth, Katie and Willow
Fixed exception item on Alice's path
Fixed exception item for Katie stats screen
Added in a couple of missing images
Updated a few images for continuity issues
Tweaked some dialogue
Corrected a few spelling/grammar items


Monitor Episode 2 release - check for bug reports etc.

• Create the gallery content
• Add in a scene replay feature
• Guides are being developed for Ep1 and 2
• Re-invest into the game (Upgrade to a whole new rig to work from and potentially start my own render farm)
• Start working on Episode 3!

 

[Samken]

is this with the patch

SMALL UPDATE / PATCH NOTES
POSTED
Sat, March 30
- Fixed exception items in notebook relating to Lily, Mia, Beth, Katie and Willow
- Fixed exception item on Alice's path
- Fixed exception item for Katie stats screen
- Added in a couple of missing images
- Updated a few images for continuity issues
- Tweaked some dialogue
- Corrected a few spelling/grammar items

• Monitor Episode 2 release - check for bug reports etc.
• Create the gallery content
• Add in a scene replay feature
• Guides are being developed for Ep1 and 2
• Re-invest into the game (Upgrade to a whole new rig to work from and potentially start my own render farm)
• Start working on Episode 3!

Yes, it has these bugfixes.