Dogeek

Summertime Saga
Game Developer
Apr 20, 2018
74
510
Why did you (Not specifically you, but whoever it was) decide to lock X-rays behind creampies instead of the toggle system that was in place? Its a literal downgrade in every right, and you would think with a bigger team, and insane dev cycles, the last thing you would be doing is downgrading things.
I personnally see this as an upgrade to the old system, cause I feel like the X-ray only matters at the end, but that's just my opinion. I don't know what is the exact plan for the future with those xrays. I think I remember DC talking about adding more and more variations of them, and improve them. Also, there will be a setting in the future to toggle on/off xray, from the options. I don't see the appeal in having an on/off button straight on the sex scene, as it doesn't add much, and takes up space. Having an option in the menu though is definitely doable, won't take up space on the sex scenes, and should make everyone happy.
 

Dogeek

Summertime Saga
Game Developer
Apr 20, 2018
74
510
I don't get why so many games have this problem. Renpy or not.
I went into much more details in my numerous devlogs on reddit, but I'll sum it up for you :

Saving and Loading stuff is hard. Saving stuff is relatively easy, but loading a save can be incredibly complicated, because you have to figure out a way to turn some arbitrary data back into variables, their contents, and their types. It's not trivial.

When you save a renpy game, renpy saves a snapshot of the game at that state, saves every variable, every object, everything. When it saves that data though, it also saves unnecessary stuff, stuff that is subject to change in future versions of the game.

Loading the save data used to be done directly, i.e. set each field, each attribute, each variable from the save data. But what happens when a change has been made to an object and that object is loaded that way? Well, the old version of the object is used, but some attributes that the game now expect to be there, aren't there anymore, because those attributes didn't exist when the save was created, hence, a bunch of weird glitches.

Fear not though, save compatibility is coming in 0.19. 0.18.6 saves will not be compatible though (it's too much effort to translate the old save format to the new one, and even if I did, it would be very hacky, and supporting that doesn't seem like a great choice). Theoretically, 0.19 saves will be compatible with 0.20, 0.21 etc.
 

RedPillBlues

I Want to Rock your Body (To the Break of Dawn)
Donor
Jun 5, 2017
4,991
12,205
I personnally see this as an upgrade to the old system, cause I feel like the X-ray only matters at the end, but that's just my opinion. I don't know what is the exact plan for the future with those xrays. I think I remember DC talking about adding more and more variations of them, and improve them. Also, there will be a setting in the future to toggle on/off xray, from the options. I don't see the appeal in having an on/off button straight on the sex scene, as it doesn't add much, and takes up space. Having an option in the menu though is definitely doable, won't take up space on the sex scenes, and should make everyone happy.
An option in the menu would be anywhere from perfect to terrible. Hopefully when you do add the ability toggle it from the menu it brings back the box, that would be great; If instead it just permanently toggles it until you turn it off, that would be hot garbage. Its not even like any sex scene takes up enough of the screen where this would ever be an issue, its a useful feature that doesn't compromise the scene but only improves it. I mean fuck, if getting rid of features in the pursuit of making your game look sleeker is what you want, just add a hotkey.
 

SoiCowboy

Active Member
Modder
Jun 13, 2018
989
1,162
Fear not though, save compatibility is coming in 0.19. 0.18.6 saves will not be compatible though (it's too much effort to translate the old save format to the new one, and even if I did, it would be very hacky, and supporting that doesn't seem like a great choice). Theoretically, 0.19 saves will be compatible with 0.20, 0.21 etc.
Would it be possible to include a save file for v19 as part of the game download with all the variables from v18.6 completed?
 

ComixFan

Member
Apr 15, 2019
301
491
(y)
Dogeek It's Very Cool to get input from one of the Devs here. THX! Great info on the problems with saves. As a player it's frustrating to restart every time, great to hear you all are working on a fix.

Any chance of moving the game to 16:9 and away from 4:3? It's a shame wasting all that real estate on the sides of the desktop.

Again. It's great to hear your input on these subjects. THX
 

Ungawa

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2017
1,458
2,480
That's certainly AN ending but I don't see that it needs to be THE ending. Like... Okay, bear with me here, I'm going to be a total fucking dork and compare Summertime Saga to minecraft for a second.

Minecraft has been in active development for like ten years, right? For the longest time it was just a sandbox. Build, dig, mine, collect. Then partway into development it got a boss and an ending screen. That wasn't the end of the game and it was definitely not the end of development though. You can keep playing well past that point, and a fuckload of content has been added to the game since then.

Same deal with SS, right? Yeah we could have the prom thing constitute AN ending to the game complete with a cutscene and credits and all that but there's no reason for the game to be over there. Continue on with the sandbox. Prom is over, dump that bitch and move on, keep adding new girls, new systems, new locations, etc. Just like minecraft, development on SS could theoretically continue on forever if they wanted it to. That's not, as I see it, patreon milking. That's the nature of a sandbox game.
I understand what you mean, but this is iffy because the locations and such are finite over Minecraft or Roblox or any other sandbox type deal.

Sure, we can get a few new girls and monster girls or whathaveyou. But would it be better after this first game to move on to the next, especially with DC pointing out that they're 40% complete? I certainly ain't on the dev team. So either is plausible. But just like mangaka have stories in their head, they do have a beginning, middle, and an end, even if it can take years to accomplish.
 

srksrk 68

Forum Fanatic
Modder
Sep 17, 2018
4,362
5,567
I personnally see this as an upgrade to the old system, cause I feel like the X-ray only matters at the end, but that's just my opinion. I don't know what is the exact plan for the future with those xrays. I think I remember DC talking about adding more and more variations of them, and improve them. Also, there will be a setting in the future to toggle on/off xray, from the options. I don't see the appeal in having an on/off button straight on the sex scene, as it doesn't add much, and takes up space. Having an option in the menu though is definitely doable, won't take up space on the sex scenes, and should make everyone happy.
What you did not mention is that the current x-ray system is much easier to implement for any new scene than the old one. Basically what you now have is one animated x-ray sequence, available in (if I count right) four different angles. This same sequence can be easily integrated as overlay into any still frame (with minimal size and rotation adaptions).

This is way easier than drawing one specific x-ray overlay for each frame in an animated scene, like it was done in earlier scenes. Especially now when there are more than three frames per animation. I guess this is also the main reason we don't have preggo sex in the game.
 

Tristrix

Member
Jun 30, 2019
208
427
I understand what you mean, but this is iffy because the locations and such are finite over Minecraft or Roblox or any other sandbox type deal.

Sure, we can get a few new girls and monster girls or whathaveyou. But would it be better after this first game to move on to the next, especially with DC pointing out that they're 40% complete? I certainly ain't on the dev team. So either is plausible. But just like mangaka have stories in their head, they do have a beginning, middle, and an end, even if it can take years to accomplish.
I dunno man, the way I see it, he's already got a huge support base on patreon for this game. If that was my livelihood, I think I'd keep making content for the known quantity rather than risk starting a new venture and just hoping people throw their support over to it. Maybe that's cynical but hell, you do what you have to do. Maybe even start the second project and divide your time between them ? Idk
 

Dogeek

Summertime Saga
Game Developer
Apr 20, 2018
74
510
Any chance of moving the game to 16:9 and away from 4:3? It's a shame wasting all that real estate on the sides of the desktop.
No. It would be too big of a change, every asset is currently drawn with 1024x768 in mind, every button, every background, every character pose would have to be redrawn from basically scratch, and it's just not feasible if we want to release the game someday.

This is way easier than drawing one specific x-ray overlay for each frame in an animated scene, like it was done in earlier scenes. Especially now when there are more than three frames per animation. I guess this is also the main reason we don't have preggo sex in the game.
True. The current xray is pretty easy to just plug in the sex scenes. As for preggo sex, it'll come at some point, it's just that DC needs to draw and animate new sex scenes just for the pregnancy stuff and as I said before, on an update cycle, drawing and animating the sex scenes is what takes the longest (about half of the update cycle is just that)
 

Ungawa

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2017
1,458
2,480
I dunno man, the way I see it, he's already got a huge support base on patreon for this game. If that was my livelihood, I think I'd keep making content for the known quantity rather than risk starting a new venture and just hoping people throw their support over to it. Maybe that's cynical but hell, you do what you have to do. Maybe even start the second project and divide your time between them ? Idk
I tell ya what... A few examples of completed game go a LOOOONG way on reputation. Sexums had a few before he quit and Nerghal is remembered very positively for his completed stuff (until he burnt out) and Icstor still did well(ish) until things got out of control.

There's probably more, but that's MY experience talking. I've fapped to a lot more than this and overall, any game that gets completed (HELLLLOOOOOOO Lab Rats) garners more favorability because you've done what few others really have in regards to this new market.
 

Alteni

Engaged Member
Jan 23, 2018
2,564
5,514
Damn with out the mod its impossible to play it with fun :D but its was fun :ROFLMAO:

Looking for the next update (y):coffee:
 

j4yj4m

Forum Fanatic
Jun 19, 2017
4,031
5,847
Maybe that's cynical but hell, you do what you have to do. Maybe even start the second project and divide your time between them ? Idk
I'm fairly certain we'll see a smooth transition. At some point SS will be close to what DC considers finished, we'll probably see an announcement and a date. Then the patreonpage will change to the new game, SS will be taken off patreon and hopefully get that last "incest update" which DC promised and then work will continue on that new project.

Until now SS is successfull because it's unique, it's good quality, it's pretty much timeless and because DC delivers on a constant level. I don't see why DC's next game shouldn't do "well", too.
 
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