You must be registered to see the links
You must be registered to see the links
Unlocked
You must be registered to see the links
This is super late for me, just into Sunday but some of you may be wide awake already!
Please read the following FIRST:
I am going to shut off billing for the month of April. So this means anyone pledged right now will not be billed next month as I am keeping my promise not to charge any of you. I will note why I feel this is the right thing to do. However, please also note that I am not 100% sure what happens if someone stops a pledge in March and then tries again next month. You may get charged if you count as a "new" Patron perhaps -- so I am kind of trying to give a heads up for people to not worry about next month being charged.
I made this decision because I have always felt there is a certain cadence/speed that I feel is about right for a release based on 1) my very busy life/work outside of the game 2) realistic workload/renders per month and 3) size of update factoring in a timeline.
So in a sense, I feel like roughly a 2000 render update should take about 5ish months based on my own sense of speed. 5 months is about March 24th from my original start, which is why I picked that date as a target in the first place as a hope as I predicted the update would end up about 2000. (which is going to be about right) I do not think it is realistic for me to go much faster than this rate without harming my real life/income, but I also feel I should not go a lot slower either. I also like not getting paid for April because it really "forces" me to feel the pressure, and I'm actually one of those women that respond well to this kind of reality. It's already harsh for me per hour to make the game in relation to other work even with income, but getting zero is an entirely different level of pain...and it does help believe it or not...I respond well in life and in general this way.
My very first update of 0.1 -- it was about 457 renders I think -- it took me about 3 months to finish it, and now I feel like that should take 6 weeks tops. So I feel like I have sped up a LOT from my first days doing this stuff. 0.2 took me about I think 2.5 to 3 months (April to July roughly from 0.1 to 0.2) and it was about 650 renders.
But here's why I think I can finish a rough draft of the game by the end of this month, but likely will push it back into April because I simply need more time to test/edit and basically get it polished. Also, what factors led me to this place, because I want to be 100% transparent about the game.
1) Losing my artist hurt more than I said publicly -- mostly because I took two months to find a replacement, and Anais is way more slammed than before for our clients, which I have to prioritize for that over the game. (for her in particular)
2) I have now learned the utility of time/effort to results with some animation attempts. I wanted to learn how to do it, and one scene in 0.6 actually has 13 animations in the scene, but in the end...I have largely now abandoned further work of this nature to focus on the story/renders to finish up. I am not convinced moving forward it's all that great, but I will let Patrons playing the game later provide some feedback (I hope!) on how it impacted things. I think this effort cost me about 1-2 weeks personally, but I still hope people enjoy what I have done. I will probably release the Test Version with all animations and ask for feedback -- I have static renders of all of the animations too if I want to switch them out. (I am planning even now only to use about 2/3rd of the animations I actually created given how I think they work with dialogue)
3 ) I have a little family drama occurring right now I did not expect -- it has mostly impacted my communication with my highest tiers more than anything, and they are being super awesome about it. I have had to sacrifice some time there. It has not heavily impacted my time to the game, but I do think it has impacted my speed a little.
It is extremely important to me that I maintain a sense of honor/integrity in how I communicate and charge for this game. I rarely talk about what parts of myself are in this game (they are truly in there with different characters) but in terms of my work personality towards the game development process, I am absolutely the character of Kiyomi (want to act with a sense of honor).
As I have always said, I am a Patron myself of other games and have seen both the great and horrible with how game devs have treated me as a paying customer. I like games too (when I have time haha!) and have experienced negative things too. Those memories/feelings drive me to try and do my best. I also refunded a new very high tier for March simply because I could not dedicate the time fairly to him for what we talked about doing, and I want to thank him (not calling him out by name but he knows) personally for being understanding, etc.
So here is where I am right NOW:
I have just hit 1499 renders as of this sentence.
I am now moving solely to the sub path. I do like to save it for last because I have found it easier with the context of what dom Kane knows/experiences. I also admit I enjoy thinking about these scenes, etc.
I have been VERY reluctant to share certain Olivia images (especially with Kane) but I will share a few of her upcoming images for 0.6 -- as seen above. Remember that for her character, there are clearly two shades of her right now -- one who helped Seth, and one who decided basically fuck him. (the literal flags are helpseth and fuckseth)
I am actually a little closer to finishing than I appear with renders because a lot of the assets/rooms are kind of all picked out. I am also taking off about 5 full days at the end of March to basically try and cram out 250+ renders that week.
Side warning: Please be careful with the K1 area in 0.6. Might be a dark path/scene in there that's not for everyone. (likely to have a warning, depending if I keep it or pull it back some) Not everyone will even see that room based on prior choices too.
I'm really, really tired so forgive the post if it's got a few errors/issues. But I am sincerely grateful that I get any support from even 1 person...it means people are having fun with the game. I don't take that lightly.
I will update next week with more specifics and percentages with where I am with everything. The script is good, the music is ugh...needs more...renders are getting pretty far along, I'd say that might be done by end of March or very close. I am hoping I can get a rough draft finished and then test, test, and test...add music last. (the more updates the harder it gets because there are more saves I need to test with prior choices...)
Ok, I've rambled long enough, have a great week!
