Progress Report - 2nd Semester 2024
Information on development progress during the 2nd half of 2024.
What's up, guys!
It's been a while since the last news published here regarding the progress in the development of Episode 4.
We're completely focused on the development itself, as we want to deliver the next update to you as soon as possible, and we're very close to that, but while the update does not come, we decided to bring you one more piece of news.
Despite the apparent hiatus, we've been actively developing the project, so we'll take advantage of this news to update you on everything we've progressed so far.
There has been progress in several areas of the game, so to make it easier to understand, we'll separate them by topic.
The first update after the latest news
It's nothing extraordinary, it's just some renders that are part of a small dialogue that ends the interaction with Sakura, right after her masturbation scene.
In this dialogue, you give her the TV remote, fulfilling her request, as she needs to replace the TV remote in Beatrice's room with the new one you just bought at the shop, as the one in Beatrice's room is defective.
This has a context in the events that happen on the 5th day, you'll understand better when you play.
With these renders and the dialogue that has also been written and inserted into the game, we have definitively completed the interaction with Sakura.
Interaction with Julia - First Part
We have the first part of the dialogue with Julia!
As mentioned at the end of episode 3, the main focus of episode 4 is Julia, and now we can say that we're finally getting into that.
The entire dialogue between Julia and MC has already been written and the renders are also done. These renders attached to the topic make up the first part of the dialogue.
The second part will involve Beatrice, Julia and MC, and we'll see it in the next topic.
As you can see in the first image (cover) attached to this topic, we'll be able to visit the gym again.
Starting in Episode 4, the player will be able to access other parts of the city by exiting through the bar's entrance door, the one where you hang the sign in Episode 1.
At first, the only accessible place will be the gym, but in the future, a menu will be added that will allow access to new locations in the city that will appear as the story progresses.
The Pole Dancer Scene Completed
This was the most laborious scene, due to it being the scene related to Exploration Mode in this episode.
Let's talk a little more about the context of the images attached to this topic:
The first image (cover) was attached to the topic to show the 3 scenes we already have done, among them, the "The Pole Dancer" scene, which is the one we mentioned in this topic.
The other 2 refer to the sex scenes that we have already published in previous news.
In fact, this will be a pro of this version, it'll be full of sex scenes, with characters not yet explored in previous versions.
As for the other images, they make up the second (and final) part of the interactions with Julia, which is when she goes to Beatrice to talk to her and agrees to become one of the girls in the brothel.
We won't give any more details about this so as not to give spoilers, but you can see some images that make up the scene, including some expressions.
In our opinion, Julia looked really cute in some expressions like smiling and thinking.
Philip, The First Customer of the 5th Day
After we complete The Pole Dancer scene, we finally started working on the bar scene for episode 4.
As usual, every episode you can play the "Being the Bartender" minigame and each day you have different customers who order different drinks.
The first customer of day 5 is Philip, the character shown in the preview images attached to this topic.
As you can see, there are different emotions for this character present in the images that will make up the dialogue between him and the MC.
Luna can also be seen in the background of the scene serving customers wearing her famous purple lingerie.
All the dialogue has already been completely written and the renders that make up this scene are also done.
Loen, The Second Customer of the 5th Day
This topic is about the second customer of day 5: Loen.
Unlike the customer shown in the previous topic, this one will have an impact on the main story, as he'll be responsible for helping to promote the brothel and make it more popular.
Starting from the next episode, the brothel will be more crowded than usual.
With that, we've completed the entire customers part of Day 5.
Loen's part is totally done, both the renders and the dialogue.
There's also a small part where Luna will come to tell the main character that he's being called to one of the 2nd floor rooms, which we'll not reveal for now so as not to give spoilers.
As for this small part, it's also done, so we can consider that the entire dialogue part is finished.
As for the preview images attached to this topic, let's go step by step:
In images 1 (cover) to 5, we have several expressions from Loen that make up the dialogue between him and the main character.
In images 6 to 8, we have him drinking the drink that you'll have to serve him in this episode.
In images 9 and 10, we see him taking a drag during his dialogue with the MC.
Although Loen is the main focus of these images, you'll notice that Veronika is also seen serving drinks in the background.
There is a specific order to these images that "tell the story" of her serving drinks and collecting the empty glasses that customers have already consumed.
This order was not respected in the preview images posted here, but they'll be properly sequenced ingame.
This was a small detail that we made sure to have in this part of the development, as we wanted both Luna and Veronika to appear parading in lingerie in the background, as we had not explored this outfit on the characters in this context previously.
Julia Pole Dance Scene - Animation
This news highlight surely is the preview video attached to this topic, which shows the final result of this animation.
This is the most complex animation we've worked on so far, with 588 different frames in a single animation. It's a lot of work, but we decided to go all out on this animation because it's the main theme of this episode, so we want it to be really well done.
We had to pose frame by frame, adjusting every detail of the character's body, such as posing each limb, each finger, etc. In addition, we had to make the pose so that there is continuity compared to the previous frames, so that the animation is fluid.
It's quite an achievement, so we hope you enjoy the final result, which you can see in the preview video attached to this topic.
This animation will also have a nude variant that will be part of the same scene. Initially, she was going to dance just wearing the bikini, but we thought players would want to see Julia dancing completely naked, so we decided to include this second version as an extension of the scene.
The nude variant has also had its posing process completed.
This animation is currently in the rendering process.
It'll be posted here at the next opportunity, as it should be finished by then.
We created a script for what will happen during this scene:
- She'll walk down the catwalk wearing the bikini.
- She'll do the Pole Dance wearing the bikini.
- There'll be a pause and she'll take off her clothes, throwing it into the audience. (It'll just disappear completely)
- She'll do the Pole Dance again, but this time without clothes.
- She'll walk out to the dressing room, completely nude.
We decided to start with the Pole Dance animation itself, as it's the hardest.
Now that it's done, step 4 of the script will automatically be done as well, since it's the same animation, being just a variation.
Some extra facts about this scene: Unlike the looping animations we usually do, this is an animation that goes from beginning to end once and then ends, which is what makes it so laborious, as it takes more unique frames for the animation to be better utilized.
On the other hand, the final result of the animation is superior, as it presents new movements from beginning to end and, in our opinion, this increases the quality of the animation, as there's always the novelty factor when watching it for the first time.
We also decided to include the backwards version in it, as we realized that this creates an interesting result, so we can increase the duration of the animation and make it loopable, even though we only plan to play it once.
The Julia Pole Dance Scene is not complete yet, as we still have the animations of Julia entering and exiting the catwalk to do, but these animations are extremely easier to do than the pole dance one, so it won't be long until they are done and we can consider this scene finished.
We'll probably bring the conclusion of this scene, along with the missing animations, in the next post.
Conclusion
We know you like to have regular news on the project's development, but there is a reason why we decided to postpone publishing news.
As you can see, most of the progress we've made is related to dialogue between characters or progress in gameplay-related parts.
Although they're also important parts of the game and add to the final product, they don't have the same appeal to the audience as the sex scenes.
For this reason, we decided to wait to accumulate more content and complete at least one erotic scene before posting news here, as we understand that news that only contained dialogue between characters would not be fun.
We apologize for the inconvenience to those eagerly awaiting the next update, and we understand your desire to play and see the content that will arrive in the next version.
We appreciate your interest in following our work and eagerly awaiting each update, because without it, we would have no reason to continue working on the development of this project.
Despite the setbacks, we assure you that we're continuing to actively work on this project and we're really excited to release the next update.
We've never been closer to the release of episode 4, with just one sex scene left to do after we finish the current one, so it's time to get hyped!
We hope you're enjoying what you're seeing in the previews so far.
Cheers!
