I'm going to do something silly and respond here before the dust settles, despite everyone warning me months ahead of time to avoid my thread when ending a game.
When I started this game, I had zero artistic or writing ability. My thought process was that I need to learn the technical ability first before working on a meaningful story. To those that have been here since the beginning, you'll remember the clusterfuck that were the first few versions. Unfortunately, stories are limited by technical ability. There's a reason why so many Daz games have similar stories and settings
(i.e available assets). PT started off as a full on sandbox with stats, money and store to purchase items and the writing was an afterthought. I quickly removed all that before releasing the first version. That perfectly summarizes PT, a learning project for both tangible skills as well as understanding my own preferences. There's a reason why I now recommend every new dev to make their first project a short story instead of their dream game. You learn so much in the first 3-6 months.
To those that feel disappointed or unfulfilled, you have a right to be. There is no argument that can change someone's dissatisfaction. I'm a big boy and can handle seeing this. The only thing that bothers me are the few people claiming
"Dom obviously doesn't care about his players and just decided to end the game". I've had no joy working on this game for well over a year. PT had accomplished it's original goal for me by that point. Some of the devs know just how many times I joked about North Korea launching a surprise nuke at MC's city. The only thing that made me extend another year was specifically to resolve the
main conflicts and bring some closure for the fans. It's a bit frustrating to be accused of the complete opposite as it makes me feel like I put myself through the meat grinder for no purpose. The choice to learn Blender was crucial to continuing the game. Even though I was not emotionally invested any longer, it was at least exciting to use that time to learn new skills and put them to practice. Reflecting back I can confidently say it was the right decision.
I won't be here to argue or defend the
quality or satisfaction of the endings but I will argue that it's indeed finished. These open world games never end. All I could do was was resolve the
immediate conflicts that were presented from the start of the game. What happens after is up to you. I could spend another 6 months developing the after, but I'm certain I would return to this thread to see people asking "What happens after
after"? Only Mayan's story is unresolved as I cut her original ending because frankly, it was too insane. I'm talking Jack the Ripper levels of insane.
What's Coming Up Next?
I haven't been this excited to work in 3D for a long time. I honestly believe the next game will blow everyone away which is a huge contrast considering I always poked fun of PT. I'll release more details later in a public Patreon post, but this will be my baby. I've learned a lot from making PT not only in technical terms but also personal preferences. For this reason, the next game will be a VN with a tight and well defined scope. I've discovered that I would much rather focus on a small cast of characters and carefully explore and develop their character in depth rather than spreading thin on many.
Here are some of the things taken into consideration for the next project.
- The story in its entirety is being planned and outlined from start to finish, including breaking up into logical episode segments
- Each character is having a fully fleshed out character reference sheet being developed, which takes into consideration things like personality, appearance, right down to their posture and how they sit.
- Studying figure drawing to improve posing (I've had to pose everything from scratch since switching to Blender, rather than using Daz pose libraries)
- Custom sculpting to make poses more natural and believable
- Custom sculpting unique details for the characters (and no more identical vaginas on everyone)
- Studying cinematography to understand what makes a shot interesting
- Lighting and color theory
These are some of the things I've been actively working on for the past year on the side. Some of it made it into PT, others were just an ongoing development on the side. Moving to Blender has opened up a lot of options with the ease of integration with other software. This initial planning process is insanely important. I had another project I wanted to do for a long time but once I sat down to sketch everything out I quickly realized that it's way too ambitious and completely outside of my current ability. I've actually found myself intentionally limiting what I want to accomplish next in order to not stretch myself thin. I feel confident in saying that Personal Trainer will look like Big Blue's skid mark in comparison when the first episode of the next game is released.
To those that were defending me in the thread, thank you. I love you too,
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. Don't worry, I'm not getting discouraged or hurt in the least bit. To those that expressed their displeasure, no worries. Fair criticism and feedback is always welcomed. To those who sent me hateful private messages, just know that I read them while grinning and rubbing my nipples. Two nipples, two hands.
To everyone, thanks for playing PT and I hope you'll be looking forward to the next project as much as I'm looking forward to making it. Be on the lookout for the monthly renders I'm posting to
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. These are renders that I'm actively taking time to apply what I've been learning.
Hugs & Tugs
