Hey everyone! We've got a
big update today, so get ready!
To start off, I want to talk about something that's been on my mind lately. Last week, I mentioned some
changes in the story, and while I’m excited about them, I realize now that some were a bit rushed. They're still in the works, but I didn’t take enough time to seamlessly integrate them into the story. Because of this, parts of the game felt like
they didn’t quite fit. So, I've decided to go back and rewrite the whole first chapter to better incorporate these changes. I didn't write it from scratch of course, I already had the mapping I had previously wrote, but I started again with the new ideas in mind.
Previously, there were too many scenes that felt like a series of events just happening one after another instead of having a logical
cause-and-effect flow. Before, there were too many scenes that felt like "Well this happens, and now this happens, and then this happens" instead of "This happens,
therefore this happens, and it
leads to this happening". Reading it aloud, I realized it felt almost dull. A compelling story needs to have clear reasons why one event leads to another. That’s when I knew I had to make some changes.
To address this, I've created a detailed outline for
Chapter One, mapping out every event involving the love interests, story-related moments, and regular scenes. It took a lot of effort—three days, in fact—but now the story feels solid, and I’m really happy with it.
I'll need to revisit
Episode 1 to make some adjustments, but nothing too drastic. Just adding a few scenes, creating more dialogue, and so on. It’s a bothersome task, but I’m glad I took the time to align the story with the new changes. Now, I have a clearer direction for how to tell this story in the
best way possible.
I believe there’s always room for improvement with the game, and I'm constantly learning new things. Speaking of which, I recently figured out how to create
god rays in the 3D software I use, which took me ages to learn.
The render isn’t fully done or edited, but I wanted to give you an idea of where I’m heading. I enjoy creating
cinematic shots, especially during transitions between day and night or before a big scene. These shots, combined with my "transition animations", help immerse the player in the story. There’s still a lot of room for improvement, but I think it's a good start.
I also revisited a scene I had previously rendered because the initial result was... well,
pretty bad. I’ll let you see the difference between the before and after.
Before:
And after modifying the lighting of the scenes:
I’m also getting more comfortable with Lightroom and how to use it to enhance my images, so here's what it looks like after Lightroom:
As you can see, there's a
significant improvement. Like, night and day improvement. Night scenes have always been a
challenge for me—finding the right balance between realistic lighting and highlighting key elements isn’t easy. But I feel like I've made good progress recently.
The only downside to Lightroom is that for some reason,
I can't export in PNGs, or decide what bit depth I want to use, and instead I have to export in JPGs. This is a bit weird, and it bothers me because I lose quality, but I guess I'll find a way to work around that.
This leads me to my plans for
Episode 1. I plan to revisit and improve the lighting for four night scenes:
Aurora's insomnia scene outside,
Mike in the auditorium, the library scene with Taylor, and the one with Caroline and Selena. Plus, there are a few other night renders here and there that I can tweak.
It’s a bit of work, but it’s something I’ve been meaning to do. There’s no point in releasing
Episode 2 without fixing the things that bother me in
Episode 1. It might sound like a lot, but I should be done within a couple of days—the scenes are already created; it’s mainly about adjusting the lighting and applying it across other scenes.
So, yeah, these changes have slowed down the number of new renders I’ve been able to create last week. But I wanted to make sure I didn’t leave these tweaks until the last minute, only to forget and delay the release due to “unforeseen events.”
That pretty much sums up last week:
reworking the story and refining existing scenes.
Unfortunately, this did come at a cost—the number of 3D scenes I produced. I was thrilled with my progress last week, but today, I feel a bit embarrassed.
Now, let's talk numbers:
- 1,198 story statics
- 47 animations
- 26 scenes fully written
As you can see, I didn’t even hit
80 new renders this week. I met my quota for the first two days, then focused on the script and tweaking the lighting for already completed scenes. I managed to write one scene, but that was about it. No new animations were created since I already have plenty queued, and the rendering time is a bit daunting.
Still, I think it was a
productive week. I plan to keep working on these scene modifications through Wednesday, or maybe even finish by tomorrow if all goes well.
In the meantime, I'll get back to work. Wishing you all a fantastic week ahead!
P.S. Yes, I know I was supposed to work on the event, but I'm swamped. I promise I’m trying my best to get to it this week!
See you soon,
MisterMaya
