VN Ren'Py Summer's Gone [S1 Steam + DLC] [Oceanlab]

[Fortuna ღ]

Of course it isn't manageable. Not even if Ocean had a dozen people working with him. It's simply too big a cast of characters to properly develop and provide enough screentime for. Which will inevitably leave people dissatisfied because the background character, which happens to be their favorite LI, didn't get enough attention.

Ocean bit off a lot more that he could ever chew. That's one of the reasons I lost confidence this project will ever see a timely and satisfactory end. But I can't deny it's one of the upper tier AVN's. In these cases the best thing you can do is manage your expectations. That goes for LI's as well. I care about Bella, Nami and Sasha the most so as long as these 3 get enough attention (which they should considering what we've seen so far) I'm good. Honorable mention for Maja that might just be the most overall attractive girl in SG IMO, but I don't expect there to be much for her going forward.

Considering the fact that he's only a few months away from completing the writing for the entire story, I think he'll actually surprise you and everyone else that shares these views. There's never been anything like SG when it comes to AVNs, and there probably won't be anything like it in the future(unless Oceans has anything to do with it), so I don't get the point of trying to predict its future when we quite literally never saw anything like it. Oceans has been delivering consistently solid material since its release... the only thing he needs to fix is his development cycle.

Ok, so let's look at what's happened so far. Bella definitely had the most screen time, but Mila, Nami, and Victoria aren't far behind. When you consider Zara and Vanessa, that's 5 main LIs that have gotten a decent amount of attention in spite of the fact that Bella was the main focus. Bella was the main focus, and other LIs still had their time to shine. And when it was no longer Bella's time to shine, her story still progressed in the background. It's going to be like this for every main LI

Personally, I'm just not getting that vibe from Oceans... the vibe that he's overwhelmed or anything. Either he's a masochist, or he's really passionate about these stories. Either way, if he's truly only a few months away from being done with the writing(like he said on patreon), then he's absolutely doing something rightღ

 

[John972]

Considering the fact that he's only a few months away from completing the writing for the entire story, I think he'll actually surprise you and everyone else that shares these views. There's never been anything like SG when it comes to AVNs, and there probably won't be anything like it in the future(unless Oceans has anything to do with it), so I don't get the point of trying to predict its future when we quite literally never saw anything like it. Oceans has been delivering consistently solid material since its release... the only thing he needs to fix is his development cycle.

Ok, so let's look at what's happened so far. Bella definitely had the most screen time, but Mila, Nami, and Victoria aren't far behind. When you consider Zara and Vanessa, that's 5 main LIs that have gotten a decent amount of attention in spite of the fact that Bella was the main focus. Bella was the main focus, and other LIs still had their time to shine. And when it was no longer Bella's time to shine, her story still progressed in the background. It's going to be like this for every main LI

Personally, I'm just not getting that vibe from Oceans... the vibe that he's overwhelmed or anything. Either he's a masochist, or he's really passionate about these stories. Either way, if he's truly only a few months away from being done with the writing(like he said on patreon), then he's absolutely doing something rightღ

I think you have summed it up nicely.

I, for one, have an immense amount of respect for Ocean as a developer. He has his vision, seeks to present it to the world at the highest quality he can, and sticks to his guns. He is also upfront and direct about the development.

I am happy to be along for the ride. I would honestly take a few years of development and an unfinished game at it's current quality (visual and visceral) than a quickly-completed AVN similar in quality to the first couple of chapters of the original WIAB. The former can become a unique masterpiece (finished or unfinished), the latter was just another run-of-the-mill AVN within an already crowded field.

 

[Fun Shaundi]

I always have the golden rule in VNs: As long as a dev delivers and keeps their word, I keept believing in them. Don't see the point of not trusting a dev who maintains constant communication, shows their progress, is completely honest when they have to take a break or something unexpected happened that will keep them way from the VN, and aren't afraid to let their followers know when something (for example trouples) won't happen in the story.

My only fucking worry now is managing to stay alive to see the end of SG, damn Ocean making me work extra hard on my own safety and wellbeing

 

[den_tiger]

Considering the fact that he's only a few months away from completing the writing for the entire story, I think he'll actually surprise you and everyone else that shares these views. There's never been anything like SG when it comes to AVNs, and there probably won't be anything like it in the future(unless Oceans has anything to do with it), so I don't get the point of trying to predict its future when we quite literally never saw anything like it. Oceans has been delivering consistently solid material since its release... the only thing he needs to fix is his development cycle.

Ok, so let's look at what's happened so far. Bella definitely had the most screen time, but Mila, Nami, and Victoria aren't far behind. When you consider Zara and Vanessa, that's 5 main LIs that have gotten a decent amount of attention in spite of the fact that Bella was the main focus. Bella was the main focus, and other LIs still had their time to shine. And when it was no longer Bella's time to shine, her story still progressed in the background. It's going to be like this for every main LI

Personally, I'm just not getting that vibe from Oceans... the vibe that he's overwhelmed or anything. Either he's a masochist, or he's really passionate about these stories. Either way, if he's truly only a few months away from being done with the writing(like he said on patreon), then he's absolutely doing something rightღ

From my original post, there are about 12 main LIs, plus possible throuples. My concern is the amount coding required for all routes and endings.

 

[idontdreamwhenisleep69]

From my original post, there are about 12 main LIs, plus possible throuples. My concern is the amount coding required for all routes and endings.

I think you're envisioning the coding as being a lot more complicated than it is (for a seasoned dev). The real test is going to be how the conclusion of reworking chapters effects the development cycle. Can time in between updates be reduced to ~4 months per? I guess we will find out.

 

[yossa999]

From my original post, there are about 12 main LIs, plus possible throuples. My concern is the amount coding required for all routes and endings.

I'm more concerned with renderings, there were statistics for this game somewhere here, it clearly showed that the average rendering speed is 8-12 static renders per day. And in the fourth chapter there were about 2000+ renders (not counting ch4.5 of course). So at best it would take ~166 days to render one chapter with 2000 renders. But there are also cinematic videos that need to be rendered too, and a bunch of other stuff. I don't think coding is the bottleneck here.

 

[John972]

I'm more concerned with renderings, there were statistics for this game somewhere here, it clearly showed that the average rendering speed is 8-12 static renders per day. And in the fourth chapter there were about 2000+ renders (not counting ch4.5 of course). So at best it would take ~166 days to render one chapter with 2000 renders. But there are also cinematic videos that need to be rendered too, and a bunch of other stuff. I don't think coding is the bottleneck here.

The Stats are here (under the SG Table spoiler):

Stats in Off-Topic SG Thread

The development time between chapters includes ALL new static renders, animation renders, and reworked renders released in the new chapter.

Here are the changelog stats for all of Chapter 4 (Beta & FULL), which took roughly 338 days to complete:

Changelog Chapter 4 FULL

This shows circa 16,880 static, animation, and reworked renders - 50 per day as a very rough indication.

I don't think there will be any bottleneck, especially once the major rework is completed.

 

[yossa999]

The Stats are here (under the SG Table spoiler):

Stats in Off-Topic SG Thread

The development time between chapters includes ALL new static renders, animation renders, and reworked renders released in the new chapter.

Here are the changelog stats for all of Chapter 4 (Beta & FULL), which took roughly 338 days to complete:

Changelog Chapter 4 FULL

This shows circa 16,880 static, animation, and reworked renders - 50 per day as a very rough indication.

I don't think there will be any bottleneck, especially once the major rework is completed.

Yep, that's where exactly I saw it, thanks for the links. And there are this numbers:

Ch4 Beta had 2300 renders, produced over a span of 284 days (8 renders/day)
Ch4.5 Beta had 1520 renders, produced over a span of 124 days (12 renders /day).

Hence, there is a 50% growth in the production of Ch4.5 Beta wrt to Ch4 Beta.

I don't think animation frames can be equated with static renders, but maybe someone familiar with the process can explain. Anyway, I still think that graphics and animation are the most time-consuming part of the job compared to the coding of the script, so the number of renders will determine the total amount of work and the time it takes to complete it.

 

[PaxHadrian17]

Considering the fact that he's only a few months away from completing the writing for the entire story, I think he'll actually surprise you and everyone else that shares these views. There's never been anything like SG when it comes to AVNs, and there probably won't be anything like it in the future(unless Oceans has anything to do with it), so I don't get the point of trying to predict its future when we quite literally never saw anything like it. Oceans has been delivering consistently solid material since its release... the only thing he needs to fix is his development cycle.

Ok, so let's look at what's happened so far. Bella definitely had the most screen time, but Mila, Nami, and Victoria aren't far behind. When you consider Zara and Vanessa, that's 5 main LIs that have gotten a decent amount of attention in spite of the fact that Bella was the main focus. Bella was the main focus, and other LIs still had their time to shine. And when it was no longer Bella's time to shine, her story still progressed in the background. It's going to be like this for every main LI

Personally, I'm just not getting that vibe from Oceans... the vibe that he's overwhelmed or anything. Either he's a masochist, or he's really passionate about these stories. Either way, if he's truly only a few months away from being done with the writing(like he said on patreon), then he's absolutely doing something rightღ

First - I am an unrepentant Bella Fan!

I thought it would be hard to leave Bella cold turkey after she freed the MC in the girls locker room and told him where the library was (beginning of CH 4)

I enjoyed the SyFy RPG session with Nadia, Nancy, Nami and Sonya (and I am looking forward to the session(s) when Cindy and/or other professors join in - some good lewd possibilities coming).

I had a great time at the lake with Nami.

The evening with Zara ended up including Bella, by phone, and the end of CH 4 saw an emotional Bella driving back (I was hoping this was to see her guy - the MC).

CH 4 had great early Bella content, great Nami and Zara content as well as some good relationship building with Nadia, Sonya and Nancy but it was definitely Not Bella-centric.

Spoiler: CH 4.5 for those who have yet to play through the end of current content

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I think Ocean has shown that he can 'keep the fires burning' for an LI while continuing to expand the world of Summers Gone and advance this great story.

Yes - I Am looking forward to more Bella time but I am also looking forward to building the friendships and advancing the story in Summers Gone (all with great music that I will add to one of my playlists).

Cheers to Bella and Summers Gone!

 

[Ali ibn Hassan]

First - I am an unrepentant Bella Fan!

I thought it would be hard to leave Bella cold turkey after she freed the MC in the girls locker room and told him where the library was (beginning of CH 4)

I enjoyed the SyFy RPG session with Nadia, Nancy, Nami and Sonya (and I am looking forward to the session(s) when Cindy and/or other professors join in - some good lewd possibilities coming).

I had a great time at the lake with Nami.

The evening with Zara ended up including Bella, by phone, and the end of CH 4 saw an emotional Bella driving back (I was hoping this was to see her guy - the MC).

CH 4 had great early Bella content, great Nami and Zara content as well as some good relationship building with Nadia, Sonya and Nancy but it was definitely Not Bella-centric.

With CH 4.5, we got a BiBi story about a younger Bella and it was, honestly, vicious. It was hard to watch her get brutalized by Melanie Ceril when she was perhaps 12/13 years old.

CH 4.5 had a great focus on Victoria, Mila and Nami with some additional relationship building with Maja who is definitely Not a vanilla girl.

At the end of the CH 4.5, the MC hears a familiar rumble from a car and (I literally gave a fist pump into the air) - Bella is here and she missed the MC.

View attachment 2545187

It was a sweet, vulnerable moment where Bella showed by her actions that she missed her guy and she returned early to be with him. This is Bella who is taking a risk and letting down her guard; she's been hurt before but Maybe the MC is worth it and she is risking her heart because she wants to see what could be.

View attachment 2545188

It was a brief moment relative to all the time spent with other women in CH 4.5. This chapter was definitely about building the relationships with other women But... Ocean gave us a perfect Bella moment at the end of the CH.

I think Ocean has shown that he can 'keep the fires burning' for an LI while continuing to expand the world of Summers Gone and advance this great story.

Yes - I Am looking forward to more Bella time but I am also looking forward to building the friendships and advancing the story in Summers Gone (all with great music that I will add to one of my playlists).

Cheers to Bella and Summers Gone!

Thanks for the very un-SPOILER account!
Now I really have to wait for the next update to see for myself.

In future posts could you at least consider for a moment to hide the essential scenario!

 

[Defenestrator.for.traitor]

Thanks for the very un-SPOILER account!
Now I really have to wait for the next update to see for myself.

In future posts could you at least consider for a moment to hide the essential scenario!

Dude, even posted the cliffhanger last scene without spoiler tag.

 

[John972]

Yep, that's where exactly I saw it, thanks for the links. And there are this numbers:

I don't think animation frames can be equated with static renders, but maybe someone familiar with the process can explain. Anyway, I still think that graphics and animation are the most time-consuming part of the job compared to the coding of the script, so the number of renders will determine the total amount of work and the time it takes to complete it.

Someone can confirm this, but I thought Ocean was doing all rendering for SG on one rig and all rendering for WIAB on a separate rig.

Thus, the reason I mentioned animation frames is because they are composed, rendered, and composited on the same rig as the static frames.

This becomes relevant when analyzing the static render count versus development time in, say, Chapter 4, without considering the wider context. Ocean rendered at least double the number of animation frames for that chapter compared to other chapters.

Ironically, it's also why I usually stay away from discussions on rendering times, 'cause they tend to be overly simplistic. Besides, the developer is the only person that truly knows the score in that regard...

Looking at the data, I simply see that the development time between chapters should speed up for various reasons going forward, so I am not fretting there.

Spoiler: Apples versus Oranges

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[codex35]

First - I am an unrepentant Bella Fan!

I thought it would be hard to leave Bella cold turkey after she freed the MC in the girls locker room and told him where the library was (beginning of CH 4)

I enjoyed the SyFy RPG session with Nadia, Nancy, Nami and Sonya (and I am looking forward to the session(s) when Cindy and/or other professors join in - some good lewd possibilities coming).

I had a great time at the lake with Nami.

The evening with Zara ended up including Bella, by phone, and the end of CH 4 saw an emotional Bella driving back (I was hoping this was to see her guy - the MC).

CH 4 had great early Bella content, great Nami and Zara content as well as some good relationship building with Nadia, Sonya and Nancy but it was definitely Not Bella-centric.

With CH 4.5, we got a BiBi story about a younger Bella and it was, honestly, vicious. It was hard to watch her get brutalized by Melanie Ceril when she was perhaps 12/13 years old.

CH 4.5 had a great focus on Victoria, Mila and Nami with some additional relationship building with Maja who is definitely Not a vanilla girl.

At the end of the CH 4.5, the MC hears a familiar rumble from a car and (I literally gave a fist pump into the air) - Bella is here and she missed the MC.

View attachment 2545187

It was a sweet, vulnerable moment where Bella showed by her actions that she missed her guy and she returned early to be with him. This is Bella who is taking a risk and letting down her guard; she's been hurt before but Maybe the MC is worth it and she is risking her heart because she wants to see what could be.

View attachment 2545188

It was a brief moment relative to all the time spent with other women in CH 4.5. This chapter was definitely about building the relationships with other women But... Ocean gave us a perfect Bella moment at the end of the CH.

I think Ocean has shown that he can 'keep the fires burning' for an LI while continuing to expand the world of Summers Gone and advance this great story.

Yes - I Am looking forward to more Bella time but I am also looking forward to building the friendships and advancing the story in Summers Gone (all with great music that I will add to one of my playlists).

Cheers to Bella and Summers Gone!

another banger post from PaxHadrian !

 

[Uriel ☁]

Someone can confirm this, but I thought Ocean was doing all rendering for SG on one rig and all rendering for WIAB on a separate rig.

Thus, the reason I mentioned animation frames is because they are composed, rendered, and composited on the same rig as the static frames.

This becomes relevant when analyzing the static render count versus development time in, say, Chapter 4, without considering the wider context. Ocean rendered at least double the number of animation frames for that chapter compared to other chapters.

Ironically, it's also why I usually stay away from discussions on rendering times, 'cause they tend to be overly simplistic. Besides, the developer is the only person that truly knows the score in that regard...

Looking at the data, I simply see that the development time between chapters should speed up for various reasons going forward, so I am not fretting there.

Spoiler: Apples versus Oranges

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If I recall correctly he has

• 1 dedicated machine for SG still renders
• 1 dedicated machine for WiAB still renders
• 1 shared machine for animations and cinematics

But he wanted to move towards a single work machine for setting up renders and several machines to consume the render queue. I don't remember if he already switched or not.

 

[PaxHadrian17]

Thanks for the very un-SPOILER account!
Now I really have to wait for the next update to see for myself.

In future posts could you at least consider for a moment to hide the essential scenario!

My bad - it's been > 4.5 months since this was released (Nov 25th release) so I did not think of it as a spoiler.

I amended my post to hide the CH 4.5 content for those who have not played the latest content or have not played the Bella path).

Cheers!

 

[John972]

If I recall correctly he has

• 1 dedicated machine for SG still renders
• 1 dedicated machine for WiAB still renders
• 1 shared machine for animations and cinematics

But he wanted to move towards a single work machine for setting up renders and several machines to consume the render queue. I don't remember if he already switched or not.

Cool, thanks for the clarification.

 

[Ali ibn Hassan]

My bad - it's been > 4.5 months since this was released (Nov 25th release) so I did not think of it as a spoiler.

I amended my post to hide the CH 4.5 content for those who have not played the latest content or have not played the Bella path).

Cheers!

OK by me. I had to stop reading at the 1st paragraph.
Since 4.5 came out and the arguing about all the bugs, nonworking patches and whatnots I busied myself with other smutty stories.

Took up the "old" WIAB again but found it even more awkward than when I started it in 2019.
Now when clues from WIAB are popping up in "new" SG I've chucked the "old" and hopped on the "new" WIAB train.
I find it more fluent in story.
One objection though to a theory of Miru's offspring.
She (Miru) would, at least to me, look like a 2nd or 3rd generation of mixed ethnicity.
Looking at my own kids who are southeast asian/nordic I wouldn't guess Ayua sprung from the womb of Miru unless she got knocked up by some 1st generation east asian.

 

[Deleted member 327695]

If I recall correctly he has

• 1 dedicated machine for SG still renders
• 1 dedicated machine for WiAB still renders
• 1 shared machine for animations and cinematics

But he wanted to move towards a single work machine for setting up renders and several machines to consume the render queue. I don't remember if he already switched or not.

The shared machine for the animations and cinematics hasn't been used since Chapter 4 Beta. The PC can't handle a 3090 & the 2080Ti doesn't have enough VRAM.

So it's only two PCs atm.


I haven't made the switch to one strong main PC with several Slave PCs yet.
I need to acquire at least one A6000 Ada for each of the main static render PCs. (But they cost ~10K€ each here in Germany). So there won't be any hardware upgrades for quite a while.

And it needs to be A6000 Ada, otherwise the cards will be obsolete when I make the switch to Blender.

While WiAB currently uses an A6000 (older 3000 series), it's way too slow. (Like 70% of a 3090.) and costs 4.5x as much as a single 3090.
Especially on WiAB, a big bunch of animations can lock the PC down for weeks.
Slave PCs are absolutely necessary for the future.

Maybe I can make the upgrades after the

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release.

 

[captcha69]

i give this game 1 more update for dev to start reworking the game again

 

[John972]

The shared machine for the animations and cinematics hasn't been used since Chapter 4 Beta. The PC can't handle a 3090 & the 2080Ti doesn't have enough VRAM.

So it's only two PCs atm.


I haven't made the switch to one strong main PC with several Slave PCs yet.
I need to acquire at least one A6000 Ada for each of the main static render PCs. (But they cost ~10K€ each here in Germany). So there won't be any hardware upgrades for quite a while.

And it needs to be A6000 Ada, otherwise the cards will be obsolete when I make the switch to Blender.

While WiAB currently uses an A6000 (older 3000 series), it's way too slow. (Like 70% of a 3090.) and costs 4.5x as much as a single 3090.
Especially on WiAB, a big bunch of animations can lock the PC down for weeks.
Slave PCs are absolutely necessary for the future.

Maybe I can make the upgrades after the

You must be registered to see the links

release.

Thanks for taking the time to set things straight. Yes, we do often muse and talk crap here. Thus, it's always good to get the correct info "straight from the horse's mouth."

...and, all the best for the Steam release.