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The Naughty Captain
Dec 12, 2025 07:46 pm
Public post
Dev Update #328
This week flew fast.
I didn't really find a "good" solution to my image quality issues on scene 34. I had several leads, but none of them ended up giving satisfying results. In the end, as the problem was due to compression, I opted for brute force and simply used a slightly less intense compression. I usually compress into JPG 98. I compressed scene 34 into JPG 99. That didn't solve the issue, but made it bearable and kept the file size in check. Of course, a solution would be to not use any compression at all. And I would if I could, but the game would then be around 20 GB, and I don't think most of you would enjoy downloading a game that size.
Anyway. I'd say the problem is solved for now. Of course, if Ren'Py were so kind as to support JPGxl, that would pretty much solve the issue in a much more satisfying way. But let's move on.
I think we need to talk about the music.
I think I've been pretty vocal about my distaste for AI-generated stuff, including AI-generated music. And that is very shameful that I have to inform you that I am now using AI for Summer Scent's music.
Last time I checked, AI Music felt soulless and janky, but it has since then evolved, and a friend managed to talk a still reluctant captain into trying some new AI tools. And the captain was amazed by the results.
I played with that new tool for a while, was frustrated with the randomness of it, and amazed by the average quality it was capable of producing. But it wasn't for me until I discovered I could basically feed my guitar into the AI and give it the lines I wanted it to play. So, of course, it's way more time-consuming than just writing a prompt, but the results are way less random, much more satisfying, and I managed to get something pretty close to the ideal tracks I had in my mind for a while now. Writing the lyrics also took some time, as it's a very different exercise from writing pure prose, but the songs tell exactly the story I want them to. That is very satisfying.
Of course, I would have preferred hiring a band and booking a studio, but that would have been dozens of thousands of dollars in investment. In the meantime, my guitar and I, and a $30 subscription, managed to produce something that sounds decent. (Well, actually, it took me two months, so, $60).
So v0.6.7 comes with two songs and three instrumentals that you won't be hearing anywhere else. I hope you'll like them.
Beta test has started!
The plan is to run it over the weekend, and if possible, release it on Subscribe Star starting Monday evening, European time. If everything goes as planned :
- The game will be available for download to **Sailing masters and up on December 15th**.
- The update files will be available for download to **Gunners on December 22th**.
- The update will be available on **Steam and Itch on December 29th**.
What's new?
- Three new scenes. Two on the Moronic Hero path. One on Kelly's path.
- About 17000 words and 530 images of new content. One new short animation loop.
- New music. Songs for both the Title Screen and the Credits Screen, and instrumentals for the new scenes.
- As always, plenty of corrected typos.
- Some retcon action.
I'll give you a more complete and detailed change log on release.
Wishlist, subscribe and buy:
htt://store.steampowered.com/app/2994790/Summer_Scent/
htt://subscribestar.adult/thenaughtycaptain
Thank you for your support!
The Naughty Captain
