Hi everyone!
I am writing a bit of a longer post because I did some extensive testing this week and want to try and put together some thoughts on everything.
First of all, I hope everyone is a having wonderful holiday season in whatever manner/form you do where you live, etc. I have family visiting very soon but it's expensive to travel here, so it won't be too many people. But always value the important people in your life and let them know when you can
Ok first of all, I want to report my formal render count. I am now at 2,415 renders and despite testing, I still did about 130 renders or so from last week's update. This current count is about where I hoped to be right about this time.
But, I feel like I kind of lost a month overall with everything that happened during this episode cycle, but I'm now working really hard with a bit more free time! I think without the SSD crash, I would have made my original goal as losing that window of time of 10 days of work -- then taking extra time on top of that to make up that ten days I lost...made an impact.
I also have a new computer ready to get, but I am trying to avoid buying it until this update is out because I don't want to mess with anything tech/new with transferring or doing anything out of the norm until the update is out. For Episode 8, Part II, I will start using a new computer with an RTX 4090 instead of a 3090. It's much better because of a bit of speed but the cooling factor is even better because I am also tweaking a room to be overall cooler with the ambient temperate on top of massive cooling power in the computer itself. In terms of speed, the difference between a 4090 and 3090 is likely going to be between 40-50% faster for each render. It greatly depends on the assets and scene, but this is a good general rule. Plus, the loading of individual scenes (this is an underrated time sink if say you take 1 min versus say 20 seconds to load something when you do it hundreds of times, etc.) can help too. With my limited time, any change is HUGE for me. I am often squeezing in 90 minutes here and there some days when really busy...so this is big to me later.
Having said all this, I always want to be very honest. I believe I will finish all content (renders/writing) by the end of the month, but I believe I will release Episode 8, Part I during January. I say this mostly because it's also a new type of game file in that it's a "new" small download separate from Episodes 1-7, and I expect a little bit of growing pains here. Editing always takes a bit longer than I expect too because I catch a little of little stuff during this process.
I also personally feel after testing that the sub path needs a little more content. It's just a feel thing, but I have always trusted my guts and want to throw in a few more kink scenes to balance the content out. I probably did 2-3 too many dom scenes for pure balance, but I don't regret doing what I have already done because it played about right to me. I am comfortable with the dom path now and will not be doing much on it except editing and tweaks when the time comes.
I am moving everything to the sub path now, and will be testing/writing/rendering only on that path for at least the next 10 days hard.
I also want to kind of outline what I feel with be in the Test Version versus what I may not include if I am out of time (I will release this by the end of January almost no matter what unless massive tech issues) and don't want to delay a release. Here is what may NOT be in the Test Version, but for sure the Final Release. These are the scenes I hope to include with enough time, but am ok with not throwing them in the Test Release if necessary to get everything else out:
1) Two specific short Easter Egg scenes that are optional and immersion breaking -- it will be me the Dev and maybe a friend or two instead of the character in game. Just a little hello
One for dom and one for sub paths. If you see the option, it will be obvious and warned that it's optional at the end of the update. (basically right before the end save screen or so) Most will NOT see it through their choices but maybe I'm wrong. (Meaning you need very specific flags from the game to see them on each side)
2) A specific optional K1 scene that I hope to get in last, but it is the lowest priority for time just in case I am struggling with tech issues and editing. It's lower priority because...well, one can guess it might be a "dead end" ending that doesn't need to branch to anything else. I think it's likely it gets in on time, but just stating in case. I want to kind of really enjoy it too, so it's like a reward for me personally for wrapping up a lot of other stuff. Keep in mind K1 is not formally a "game show" thing for THIS update. A more formal K1 result (remember is he a
PROVISIONAL K1 right now) will require as I wrote in game before the following:
A) A hearing before five Karlsson sisters (Olivia, Juliette, Veronica, Alessandra, and Dominique)
B) A vote of THREE of five to vote yes to slot Kane to rank K1. Obviously, some prior decisions may be relevant. A K Pass CANNOT help Kane in this specific situation.
C) If that occurs, THEN this is a more formal K1 result. This rank cannot happen until after the game show ends so any K1 stuff before this point is not formally a K1 situation but something a little different. So hope this context helps, and err save here too when the time comes. You might want an alternative game save So any pro K1 saves before end of game show might not be super formal and there is likely to be more than one before end of the show too. It won't be this short below but this just made me laugh...my father is always putting some old movies on me.
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3) Two short scenes that are not kink related, but story based only. I would like to try and get them in, but I can also shift them to Part II if needed.
4) Last, I was going to do a very small preview of two future projects (just a few images) as I am always thinking long-term about the future, but this is super low priority. I won't talk too much about these until I am hitting the last two episodes of Karlsson's Gambit. (I believe you should be prepping a bit for the future as you are winding down a current game.) One game will be pure femdom, and the other my original game idea I wanted to try way backk at the start. (will have more people helping on both for these...will be very prepared and formal with a team) But this won't be for a while, I have a lot more content for KG! And as I have said on this issue before, two KG characters will move on for sure, and beyond that, I am not sure yet. It depends how popular they are and sentiment, etc. So I'll be paying close attention to that too in my own way.
I will be a bit more precise next week exactly what I am editing and formally trying to do a kind of percentage system:
An example:
Dom path 99%
Sub Path 70%
Editing
Music, etc.
Hope this helps!
Ok, I've got my trusty assistant Anais now texting me NINE times so I better answer! Thank you everyone for the support!