Hello everyone! I want to apologize for the delay with this update. I woke up this morning and thought, "Damn, I totally forgot the update." Shifting from the usual 3D work to post-processing must have thrown me off a bit.
Anyway, let's dive into the latest on Law School! Post-processing is going well so far. I've finished polishing all the images for the second episode, and coded them in the game files from Day 1 to Day 5. I'll start on Day 6 as soon as this update goes live, and be done by the end of the day hopefully. Day 7 only has five animations, which are already fully rendered, so tomorrow, I'll be working on Facegram. It’s great that I’ve managed to stay mostly on schedule despite a few setbacks.
Out of the six post-production phases I've done, this seventh one for Law School Episode 2 has been the most chaotic by far! This past week, anything that could go wrong did: missing renders, lost animations, deleted files, software issues, Windows Explorer glitches, crashes—you name it. Somehow, I fixed most of the issues, recreated the missing files, and brought things back on track. I'm also glad I prioritized sleep over diving into a "hell week"; otherwise, I might have crashed from exhaustion, stress, and frustration. Now, I'm back on schedule!
I also resolved the menu button issue I was facing. I'll go back to Episode 1 to apply this fix, which won't impact the player experience but will make things easier for me down the line with translations and future post-work. Fixing this menu issue even helped me solve one I had with Facegram, so that’s a double win!
One small regret: I forgot to add a variable in the first episode, so one event with Lana wasn't recorded. For players who went through the event with Lana on Day 7 of Episode 1, it won't be recognized later in the game, meaning Lana may act like it didn’t happen. I've fixed it for new players, but for you "OGs," you'll either have to replay that scene or, if you want, just select an option in-game to confirm if it happened. It’s a bummer because it affects immersion a bit to have the game ask, “Did you play doctor with Lana in Episode One?” But hey, that's why we’re still in development, right? Hopefully, I won’t make that mistake again.
Tomorrow, the game moves to testing. My first tester, who also helps with other games, will get this update as soon as possible so he can take his time with it. This early version won’t have all the functionality yet; as I mentioned, I’ll start on Facegram tomorrow, and some animations are still rendering. But when you’re working with over 2300 4K renders and 70+ animations in just five months, a few missing pieces are almost expected! Hopefully, most of the animations will be ready by the time the first testing round wraps up. I very much doubt it, but a man can dream, can't he?
The good news: we're still on track for an early December release!
Lastly, I'll be receiving the final animations from my animator early next week, so my machines will stay busy without downtime.
Lots of good things in the works! I’m committed to delivering a fantastic Episode 2, so thank you for your patience!
See you soon,
MisterMaya
P.S. If there’s no update next Monday, I probably forgot again—sorry!