VN Ren'Py Matrix Hearts [v0.3.4] [Blue Otter Games]

[Old Man Al]

Little update from today (very) early morning:

You must be registered to see the links

Ello Otter!
It's been months of hard work, learning, and swimming up lakes we hadn't traversed yet, but the new update is almost here!
These are the release times for the update (adjusted for bring fair to everyone who has waited so patiently).
Playtesters - 17th or 18th
Early Access - The next night
Public - The next night after Early Access (If no bugs were found that need fixed)
We know you want a bigger update than this one is going to be, but that comes with Chapter 3. With this update you can expect the following goodies:
+3 explorable Point and Click Spheres from Chapter 2
+140 new renders
+A full grammical edit of Chapters 1-2
+2 new animations
Please keep in mind we changed rendering engines to Daz! The characters might look a little different, but not that much. We are working on making them 100% identical as they were before. It's mainly adjusting for the graphical design between Cinema 4D and Daz. We mostly have to fix hair color.
Keep a weathered eye on the horizon... the Otters are bringing you the game!

-The Otter Team

 

[portgasdluigi]

Oh my God!!! That ginger girl is the absolute doppleganger of my lady!! How come you know her ????? Gorgeous and sweet, hope your ginger is the same ; ) Thx for the game, i'll give it a try.

Rylee is a top tier LI for sure, so treat her well

 

[SomeGuyWithNoImagination]

Ello Otters!

As the renders for Ch. 2.2 have been completed and the update has just released to testers as well, I have been spending approximately the last week on and off working on improving and fixing up all of our favorite characters.

In the process of us changing rendering engines from Cinema 4D/Corona to Daz/iRay, there have been some imperfect copies. Most of it was pretty minor (weird skin settings on many characters, MC's knee being broken, etc), but overall, most characters have gone through with little more than a few settings needing to be tweaked.

Unfortunately, our dearest Rylee did not fare as well as the rest.

In many renders, she simply does not look like the Rylee we all know and love. (Look at the anniversary render in a post above). It seems that her facial structure is wildly different from how she appeared before, and I have been working away at trying to figure out exactly what details changed and how to fix them. Below are some nice bonus renders for you that also happen to show off where we're at so far.

The goal up until this point has mostly been to fix up her facial structure to get it as close as possible to the original Rylee. Although it is not perfect at this time, I would like input from all of you to see if I am on the right track or not, and what features do and don't need work. (After so many hours of staring at Rylees side-by-side, you just stop noticing the differences.)

Finally, to help, here is a very rough recreation of one of the scenes from the game. The goal is to tell where my fixes still deviate from the original Rylee.

Spoiler: Render Recreation

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

 

[Old Man Al]

You must be registered to see the links

A happy swim in the lake, Otters!
This is going to be a quicker update on the v0.2.2 release. Our playtesters went through and found all the issues in the game. Aside from a few quirky fixes, we had to render about 9 images with different backgrounds to match the marina.
The only other big thing that needs fixed are our animations. They weren't working at all! We are in the process of fixing those now, and as soon as they are ready, so too is the update for early access!
Otterly Important! It looks as if Discord was not assigning Patreon roles for a few weeks. We have fixed the issue, we think, but we don't know if it's going to retroactively fix the roles of those already signed in.
Please swim on over to the channel called Patreon Roles if you don't have your correct tier color, and we can slap a piece of seaweed on it!
Thanks for being the best whiskers in the pool!

-The Otter Team

 

[satirious]

Happy New Year from the Otter Team!

View attachment 1574684

Chapter 2 is coming this week. We can't wait for you all to play!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted January 1st and then it took a month for it to get released
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

View attachment 1867012
Happy Otter-versary!

Matrix Hearts is officially a year old!

We have come a long way and have much, much further to swim yet. It's incredible that its already been a year, and although we wanted to have at least released 3 chapters already, we have made incredible progress regardless of setbacks, and we are now looking otterly better than before!

Even though we are only a year(ish) into development, we have gained incredible support from you, our fans and Patrons, and it is with that continued trust that we can accomplish more! And yes, more butts and boobs included.

Here is a special render from us celebrating our Otter-versary. Also, early access for v.0.2.2 is officially coming this week, with development in the renders for Chapter 3 now in full production.

Thank you, Otters, and keep those whiskers playing!

-The Otter Team

Posted June 12th and well...
There appears to be a communication error between those doing the work and whomever handles posts. False and misleading hype is becoming a pattern.

 

[Abhai]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted January 1st and then it took a month for it to get released
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted June 12th and well...
There appears to be a communication error between those doing the work and whomever handles posts. False and misleading hype is becoming a pattern.

the thing i dont agree here would be "hype" thing - not sure "hype" would be a proper term for no an actual update yet a kinda patch for the previous one

we are still far away from the proper 0.3 update (end of the year, id say - perhaps some haloween mini "special" or so)
the game is very good, yet 8-12 months updates schedule is a bit less "good".
at the end, it is irrelevant - as long as patrons are happy/hooked, nothing else matters much, particularly "complains" of filthy pirates

 

[Blue Otter Games]

the thing i dont agree here would be "hype" thing - not sure "hype" would be a proper term for no an actual update yet a kinda patch for the previous one

we are still far away from the proper 0.3 update (end of the year, id say - perhaps some haloween mini "special" or so)
the game is very good, yet 8-12 months updates schedule is a bit less "good".
at the end, it is irrelevant - as long as patrons are happy/hooked, nothing else matters much, particularly "complains" of filthy pirates

Thanks, Abhai!

Interesting that this is what he put his time into, but we understand. Perhaps if people are so interested, they should instead look at our other posts on Patreon to see why these games were delayed unexpectedly.

Chapter 2 was delayed because our artist had real life obligations that kept putting us behind when we thought things were on track.

Chapter 2 v0.2.2 was delayed because that same artist couldn't work on the game anymore and our Main Otter had to learn Daz and Animations from scratch with help from other people. You can ask any of our playtesters that have been playing versions of this that it has been a steep learning curve.

Even when things do get delayed, we are very transparent as to exactly why, and usually it's been because of a newbie error on rendering or animations which have now been fixed and learned from.

Developing a visual novel is not an exact science, and it's even more so when one Otter goes from writing and programming... to literally doing everything.

These little hitches are a huge boost in production later on though, as we have learned and now won't make those mistakes again, meaning we get into smoother production.

As for Chapter 3, you are right on the money, it's probably going to come out between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Oh, and the new 0.2.2 update is already in early access, so we are releasing that on the 28th! Thanks to our players and Patrons who have understood and stuck by us! The game is going to play, sound, and feel the same because of the hard work from the Otters, only with slightly upgraded graphics!

It's that game production life!

 

[satirious]

the thing i dont agree here would be "hype" thing - not sure "hype" would be a proper term for no an actual update yet a kinda patch for the previous one

we are still far away from the proper 0.3 update (end of the year, id say - perhaps some haloween mini "special" or so)
the game is very good, yet 8-12 months updates schedule is a bit less "good".
at the end, it is irrelevant - as long as patrons are happy/hooked, nothing else matters much, particularly "complains" of filthy pirates

It's a marketing strategy. Most devs experience an increase with a release. Announce a release is imminent at the beginning of the month causing subs to go up. Wait a week or two and announce small insignificant delay. Wait until the next month to release. Now those who only sub for a single month when releases drop just stuck around for two. Hence the early and seemingly false hype. Not a smart long term strategy for a fairly new dev team unless they don't intend to see this project to completion and change to a different name after the pattern is more widely recognized and subs start dropping.

Or maybe the person responsible for posting public information is being lied to be the other devs and they are being played for a sucker. That is possible as well. Neither situation bodes well for this project seeing the finish line.

 

[satirious]

Thanks, Abhai!

Interesting that this is what he put his time into, but we understand. Perhaps if people are so interested, they should instead look at our other posts on Patreon to see why these games were delayed unexpectedly.

Chapter 2 was delayed because our artist had real life obligations that kept putting us behind when we thought things were on track.

Chapter 2 v0.2.2 was delayed because that same artist couldn't work on the game anymore and our Main Otter had to learn Daz and Animations from scratch with help from other people. You can ask any of our playtesters that have been playing versions of this that it has been a steep learning curve.

Even when things do get delayed, we are very transparent as to exactly why, and usually it's been because of a newbie error on rendering or animations which have now been fixed and learned from.

Developing a visual novel is not an exact science, and it's even more so when one Otter goes from writing and programming... to literally doing everything.

These little hitches are a huge boost in production later on though, as we have learned and now won't make those mistakes again, meaning we get into smoother production.

As for Chapter 3, you are right on the money, it's probably going to come out between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Oh, and the new 0.2.2 update is already in early access, so we are releasing that on the 28th! Thanks to our players and Patrons who have understood and stuck by us! The game is going to play, sound, and feel the same because of the hard work from the Otters, only with slightly upgraded graphics!

It's that game production life!

View attachment 1587248
Being an Otter means learning as you go, and now we've learned quite a bit!
We were supposed to get Chapter 2 out weeks ago, and then it was early this week.
Weeeeell, we had all the renders complete, and then as we were looking over the images, we noticed these weird blemishes on about 200 of the renders. We think it's because of the specific lighting we were using, and we managed to fix it after a few goes of it. The new renders are pumping now as our little paws type. We aren't going to give an exact date because every time we do, we run into a beaver dam. Those damn beavers.
Trust us, it won't be that much longer! We appreciate your patience as we continue to learn and grow as whisker developers. We have played through it ourselves though, and we don't mean to brag, but we were smiling! This is going to be awesome!

- The Otter Team

This is your post saying chapter two was delayed because 200 renders were bad and nobody noticed it until the last moment not because someone had IRL p problems.

 

[Blue Otter Games]

This is your post saying chapter two was delayed because 200 renders were bad and nobody noticed it until the last moment not because someone had IRL health problems.

Read our posts from earlier. Not one post.

 

[satirious]

Read our posts from earlier. Not one post.

I have read all of your posts. That is why the pattern is so obvious. Either your people are putting you in a position to look disingenuous or it's an agreed upon situation by you as well. Do what you like. It's your reputation on the line.

 

[SomeGuyWithNoImagination]

I have read all of your posts. That is why the pattern is so obvious. Either your people are putting you in a position to look disingenuous or it's an agreed upon situation by you as well. Do what you like. It's your reputation on the line.

Reading this, please allow me to give my input from my experience working with Blue Otter Games. Although I was not there, assisting development in January when the post was made, both statements are true.

Blue Otter Games and I started discussing my joining the team in late March. At that time, the previous artist otter had almost completely left the team and was already, at best, extremely difficult to get a hold of due to real life obligations. and even before then, their obligations were steadily increasing.

When you're under a significant amount of stress in your real life, compounded by a need for high render throughput, you will be forced to skimp on quality. There is a middle ground between how much of a delay is necessary and how much you skimp on quality, and the decision was made somewhere in the middle. You lose some quality in favor of a high number of renders. Unfortunately, this does result in some renders simply not coming out right.

Here is an example of one of the earliest renders I put out for CH2.2. (Please know that all renders from this scene were later replaced). Notice how the haircap is clipping through the skull and causing black lines. This is a very common issue with Daz, and one which is easy to fix in Daz, but very hard to notice before the final render. The only alternative to a rerender is Photoshop, which, depending on experience level, may not have any time savings compared to the insane load times of Daz.




For Ch 2.2 to happen, a lot of people have had to step up. The writing Otter, who has previously never used Daz (or any 3D software whatsoever), has learned how to pose on it, I learned Daz's rendering system (I have never rendered in Daz and instead rendered with outside programs), and further outside help has been needed to fill in gaps in either of our knowledge. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved, despite the delays, and the fact we have gotten this far with the incredible amount of shit that has gone wrong is amazing. (We've had everything from time crunch to hardware failures).

Chapter 3 will be a rough update to get out. The issues which have impacted CH 2.2 continue to exist and we have further issues which will cause us a great deal of trouble. We pledge to do everything in our power to get CH 3 as we can but it isn't going to be easy.

 

[satirious]

Reading this, please allow me to give my input from my experience working with Blue Otter Games. Although I was not there, assisting development in January when the post was made, both statements are true.

Blue Otter Games and I started discussing my joining the team in late March. At that time, the previous artist otter had almost completely left the team and was already, at best, extremely difficult to get a hold of due to real life obligations. and even before then, their obligations were steadily increasing.

When you're under a significant amount of stress in your real life, compounded by a need for high render throughput, you will be forced to skimp on quality. There is a middle ground between how much of a delay is necessary and how much you skimp on quality, and the decision was made somewhere in the middle. You lose some quality in favor of a high number of renders. Unfortunately, this does result in some renders simply not coming out right.

Here is an example of one of the earliest renders I put out for CH2.2. (Please know that all renders from this scene were later replaced). Notice how the haircap is clipping through the skull and causing black lines. This is a very common issue with Daz, and one which is easy to fix in Daz, but very hard to notice before the final render. The only alternative to a rerender is Photoshop, which, depending on experience level, may not have any time savings compared to the insane load times of Daz.

View attachment 1893168


For Ch 2.2 to happen, a lot of people have had to step up. The writing Otter, who has previously never used Daz (or any 3D software whatsoever), has learned how to pose on it, I learned Daz's rendering system (I have never rendered in Daz and instead rendered with outside programs), and further outside help has been needed to fill in gaps in either of our knowledge. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved, despite the delays, and the fact we have gotten this far with the incredible amount of shit that has gone wrong is amazing. (We've had everything from time crunch to hardware failures).

Chapter 3 will be a rough update to get out. The issues which have impacted CH 2.2 continue to exist and we have further issues which will cause us a great deal of trouble. We pledge to do everything in our power to get CH 3 as we can but it isn't going to be easy.

Then allow me to put this as simply as I can. Your reputation (what I know of it from reading many of the threads here) is virtually pristine. I don't think I have ever read a single thing that would suggest you are anything but helpful and professional. The team you are now working with has an issue. The mouthpiece speaking before he has all the info he needs or team members being dishonest with him about what is and isn't done. That isn't a non-issue when it's already becoming a pattern. Not if the brand means anything long term.

 

[SomeGuyWithNoImagination]

Then allow me to put this as simply as I can. Your reputation (what I know of it from reading many of the threads here) is virtually pristine. I don't think I have ever read a single thing that would suggest you are anything but helpful and professional. The team you are now working with has an issue. The mouthpiece speaking before he has all the info he needs or team members being dishonest with him about what is and isn't done. That isn't a non-issue when it's already becoming a pattern. Not if the brand means anything long term.

Out of this conversation, there is one point which I do agree with you on. Blue Otter Games is incredibly optimistic on deadlines. For this Chapter 2.2 update, some of it is my own fault, however. I believed I could achieve a rate of renders that I simply could not, and that reflected in the projected release dates. However, that is something that I will personally ensure does not happen again.

I have made posts (1, 2) describing why things are how they are, and I do not blame Blue Otter Games for not fully understanding the exact issues we face. Almost all the issues we face simply don't appear, or otherwise are almost impossible to notice, with the Texture Shaded or Smooth Shaded views of Daz, which is what they're restricted to (no nvidia gpu to render, and cpu rendering is one of Dante's circles of hell).

Take the hair clipping for example, that bug can almost invalidate an entire day of work since most of the time is not spent fixing up the scene to render, but instead just loading the scene in the first place. (Depending on the scene and number of characters, it can easily take >10 minutes each. Even rendering itself only takes 8 minutes after it loads.). Fixing the hair bug itself can take as little as a few seconds afterwards.

As I was working through those early renders, I first thought I was capable of a certain rate, but due to not only Daz making my life unnnecessarily difficult, but also real life, I found I was not able to maintain such speed, causing the update to be forced to delay as a result.

 

[satirious]

Out of this conversation, there is one point which I do agree with you on. Blue Otter Games is incredibly optimistic on deadlines. For this Chapter 2.2 update, some of it is my own fault, however. I believed I could achieve a rate of renders that I simply could not, and that reflected in the projected release dates. However, that is something that I will personally ensure does not happen again.

I have made posts (1, 2) describing why things are how they are, and I do not blame Blue Otter Games for not fully understanding the exact issues we face. Almost all the issues we face simply don't appear, or otherwise are almost impossible to notice, with the Texture Shaded or Smooth Shaded views of Daz, which is what they're restricted to (no nvidia gpu to render, and cpu rendering is one of Dante's circles of hell).

Take the hair clipping for example, that bug can almost invalidate an entire day of work since most of the time is not spent fixing up the scene to render, but instead just loading the scene in the first place. (Depending on the scene and number of characters, it can easily take >10 minutes each. Even rendering itself only takes 8 minutes after it loads.). Fixing the hair bug itself can take as little as a few seconds afterwards.

As I was working through those early renders, I first thought I was capable of a certain rate, but due to not only Daz making my life unnnecessarily difficult, but also real life, I found I was not able to maintain such speed, causing the update to be forced to delay as a result.

And issues will always come and go. You're doing the best with what you have. Simply put, there really isn't a reason to beat a dead horse. It's now a subject for you and your team to discuss or not discuss.

Honestly, I was pretty thrilled to see a Canadian based team pop up and with a fairly unique concept so far. If all of this ends up a distant memory, then that is good news for all involved. Not saying something wasn't going to help see that happen though. If I knew you were on team Otter, I probably would have shot you a PM yesterday instead of posting today because your reputation speaks for itself.

 

[SomeGuyWithNoImagination]

And issues will always come and go. You're doing the best with what you have. Simply put, there really isn't a reason to beat a dead horse. It's now a subject for you and your team to discuss or not discuss.

Honestly, I was pretty thrilled to see a Canadian based team pop up and with a fairly unique concept so far. If all of this ends up a distant memory, then that is good news for all involved. Not saying something wasn't going to help see that happen though. If I knew you were on team Otter, I probably would have shot you a PM yesterday instead of posting today because your reputation speaks for itself.

If you wish, you are welcome to contact me through any means appropriate regarding the game. I can not tell you anything I won't say publicly, but I can answer questions and take in criticisms.

 

[Blue Otter Games]

Out of this conversation, there is one point which I do agree with you on. Blue Otter Games is incredibly optimistic on deadlines. For this Chapter 2.2 update, some of it is my own fault, however. I believed I could achieve a rate of renders that I simply could not, and that reflected in the projected release dates. However, that is something that I will personally ensure does not happen again.

I have made posts (1, 2) describing why things are how they are, and I do not blame Blue Otter Games for not fully understanding the exact issues we face. Almost all the issues we face simply don't appear, or otherwise are almost impossible to notice, with the Texture Shaded or Smooth Shaded views of Daz, which is what they're restricted to (no nvidia gpu to render, and cpu rendering is one of Dante's circles of hell).

Take the hair clipping for example, that bug can almost invalidate an entire day of work since most of the time is not spent fixing up the scene to render, but instead just loading the scene in the first place. (Depending on the scene and number of characters, it can easily take >10 minutes each. Even rendering itself only takes 8 minutes after it loads.). Fixing the hair bug itself can take as little as a few seconds afterwards.

As I was working through those early renders, I first thought I was capable of a certain rate, but due to not only Daz making my life unnnecessarily difficult, but also real life, I found I was not able to maintain such speed, causing the update to be forced to delay as a result.

Thank you for the input!

We always try to be as transparent as we can as developers. There has been a point that has been made here, and that is that yes, we can be overly optimistic about deadlines without thinking that things can pop up at any moment. That's on us. Please understand that no game has ever developed without hitches. It's never easy, but the more we learn, the better we can do to account for them.

We appreciate our supporters and do apologize to those who may feel that they have been lied to about release dates. We are sorry for these delays.

As for the game completing, we have already promised the completion of our game, and we have been supplying updates, previews, playtester builds, and we have even already shared our Chapter 3 storyboards. We promise you this game is going to be completed no matter what.

To everyone, both our Patrons and anyone who has ever played our game, we thank you for your patience, especially as we rebuilt our new team for the future of the game. We are passionate about what we do, and we have bathed in the praise of those who love our game. That's enough for us.

The new v0.2.2 update is coming on the 28th (CST). It is finished, we are letting early access have their perks. Splish-splash, Otters!

 

[het2000]

Do we have to replay Chapter 2 to see the new renders?

 

[FAP369ZONE]

[VN] [Ren'Py] Matrix Hearts [v0.2.2] [Blue Otter Games] [HQ, MyRepack-YAC]

Original size: 4.12GB
Repack size: 628MB

Spoiler: MyRepack-YAC info

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Updated repack to v0.3.2 here.

PC =

You must be registered to see the links

/

You must be registered to see the links

/

You must be registered to see the links

MacOS (EngineFilesOnly) =

You must be registered to see the links

(Tutorial on how to create PC/MacOS build.)

Spoiler: Enjoy!

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Click LIKE if you find my post useful

 

[UncleFredo]

[VN] [Ren'Py] Matrix Hearts [v0.2.2] [Blue Otter Games] [HQ, MyRepack-YAC]

Original size: 4.12GB
Repack size: 628MB

Spoiler: MyRepack-YAC info

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

PC =

You must be registered to see the links

/ WorkUpload / PixelDrain
MacOS (EngineFilesOnly) = WorkUpload
(Tutorial on how to create PC/MacOS build.)

Spoiler: Enjoy!

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Click LIKE if you find my post useful

Thanks for the EngineFiles for MacOS. Really makes it easy to move the PC release to the Mac.
Really appreciated.