bobbo69

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Sounds interesting Motkeys, but the question here is, when are we going to see an update? You do have some promises to fulfill you know? lol...:p;)
 
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Motkeyz

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Sounds interesting Motkeys, but the question here is, when are we going to see an update? You do have some promises to fulfill you know? lol...:p;)
Of course! I'm not doing nothing you know ;) It could be ready around march 22 for the current engine version, nothing can be confirm for the new engine release, advancement are pretty fast but i will let Aesouh talking about that part!
 

Ennoch

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These are the kinda tricky scenes where you are busted, get you chewed on a bit but in the end mom will just start to realize that his boy has actually an interest in her and finds her hot as a woman which excites her and things start to escalate from there on! Wishful thinking? We'll see :)
 

Aesouh

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advancement are pretty fast but i will let Aesouh talking about that part!
Sure I'll give a bit of an update and some information on the new engine. So first of all it's great to see the hype about it, it adds to the fun of building it for you all, so thanks for that! :) I will try to keep it as little techy as possible. While I can't really go into the details of the progress, as it constantly pushes forward, I have mentioned before VNGINE is made from the ground up in Unity using the C# language. I am not using any pre-done or purchased code assets as of now to ensure compatibility, flexibility and stability. This gives me a lot more understanding and control over how the whole engine works in every minor detail, and gives me the ability to much easier add new cool features as well as avoid frustration in the future.

Since the collaboration with the Timestamps team the pace of the development has really gone up massively.

As you may have seen some of, already, Timestamps in its current form contains some not so common graphical special effects that I've been working hard on adding to the engine in the best way possible. For example the game intro, and and the zooms and the shakes. This has lead to the building of a flexible and easily usable special effects library that I will continuously expand on in the future. With that I am happy to say that the special effects core was completed successfully. That means all the effects from timestamps today is in there.

I am working hard on adding and improving some highly asked for core functionality to the platform, that has been missing in the current game. This includes going back in dialogue, and better saving/loading (Including using older saves in the future from the VNGINE version of the game, which I know is something a lot of people have been wanting, including me!). I also want the players to have more advanced game options in terms of re-binding keys to your own liking, for example to show/hide UI, quicksave, quickload, save, load, skip, go back. Making the game more flexible in terms of screen resolutions and different aspect ratios. More flexibility in the way dialogue text is displayed, like speed,e font, style (typewriter style or fade, or nothing) This is also going faster than first expected.

I'm focusing on making the game a lot more "sandboxy" giving people more freedom to do things in the order they want, to make it a lot less linear that it may feel like today. This is something that of course will be re-visited several times through the development of the game and I'm not sure how much will be available yet on day one, as we add in more features like jobs, shops and other places of interest in the future. This will also include later adding scheduled events (time of day, weekday), repeatable events, time-skipping. Improvements is being made to the money system. Also the possibility of adding some cooler and more advanced mini-games that you don't see in other VN's today.

There's a lot of cool things in the pipeline for this project, both content wise with the story, animations and all the amazing renders but also with the engine. I hope you are all as hyped as I am with the game. Your support, enthusiasm and feedback is always great to see! Thank you all for being involved and making this so much fun to work with. I know it's hard but be patient as well, greatness is coming in due time :)

/Aesouh over and out, back into the code :)
 

El bacca Del Chew

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Apr 3, 2017
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I know it's hard but be patient as well, greatness is coming in due time
Ambitious, confident and sure of his own skills, Such a great plan.
No desire to be uncle grumpy here, but you know when you set the scale high you better have to succeed at your first jump ! I'm a fan of the game, i wish nothing less than your success but over the past few months i saw so many thread with ambitious dev/coder/writer who failed to deliver what they promised , it always end in a massive shit-strom.
I beleive in the project but guys you are (motkeyz and you) creating a massive hype, or perhaps i'm just the one who felt it like that because i'm anxious to see the future results...might be it indeed.

Anyway, @Motkeyz je veux pas faire le chieur grogon, qui tempere l'ambiance mais les attentes sont grandes et tu cree de l'envie donc un certain degree de deception chez d'éventuels supporters serai dommage (en france le syndrome PSG, si tu comprends la reference, hehe)...tu promets un peu et tu donnes bcp est la voie sure de la reussite. Et je m'engage a ne plus aborder le sujet avant la prochaine sortie.

Thanks for keeping us update and can i borow the time machine to jump 15 days in the future?
 
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Aesouh

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over the past few months i saw so many thread with ambitous dev/coder/writer who failed to deliver what they promised that, it all end in a massive shit-strom.
I beleive in the project but guys you are (motkeyz and you) creating a massive hype, or perhaps i'm just the one who felt it like that because i'm anxious to see the future results...might be it indeed.
Probably because we're super hyped as well, That confidence comes backed by experience with previous projects really. We've both delivered well in our own fields previously. I've had my own projects that had a completely different depth to it already many years ago in Unity and outside, both with hobby projects and for employed work, things like dedicated servers, multiplayer online games, FPS, 3rd person shooters, online mobile games, things working towards database servers, authentication servers. I have over 15 years of programming experience, 12 of those with C#. Online is a lot messier than making a single player game, many more points of failure. Single player is not. So while I am fully confident that I will deliver on everything, the question is always down to time. And seeing people engage with the project, is a massive motivator to keep going. I can't make exact promises on when which feature will come out, because it needs to also make sense with the actual game itself, but i have a set of core features that i will guarantee being in the first release. And many of these core features are completed way ahead of schedule right now. My job is to make sure that the Timestamps team have the features they need, when they need it without having to wait too long. I have seen people spend weeks or months just trying to patch together something that will work with other frameworks. Painfully evident for example when looking at inventory systems in ren'py projects.

I also wish to have a time machine! ;)

/Aesouh
 

Ennoch

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VNGINE is made from the ground up in Unity
to ensure compatibility, flexibility and stability
Building something from scratch and mentioning stability is nice but reminds me of windows developement over the last 25 years. It is stable now. After that 25 years. So i wish you the best of luck with it and hoping for he best but expecting something... less sparkly of a result. On the other hand the game as of now seems very stable so i do have my hopes up, it never crashed on me albeit the it is short so i guess will see how it will preform when it is expanded expontentially.

Making the game more flexible in terms of screen resolutions and different aspect ratios.
Something that can indeed plague Unity engine. Those pesky ratios. So if you can evade the issue and prevent it altogether with changable ratios, i kinda wonder if you wouldn't be interested contacting the Unity team and give them a few much needed advise :) I'd mention the memory leak issues as well which i hope won't pop up in this project of yours. So i'd think this is quite big of a log you choped your hatchet into. Of course it has been proven several times that a dedicated coder and modder can easily do a far better job in these kinda things than the official ones. Again, my hopes are up.

I'm focusing on making the game a lot more "sandboxy" giving people more freedom
Sounds superawesome. I alwas fear i'm missing out something and i know that timetravel is a nice way to deal with this in-gameish but thats one thing that we talk about time travel but we haven't seen it that much in action. The game isn't that big to see how this would work out with several important characters that the player can pursue. A sandboxy approach would allow us not to get puzzled and lost too much in time management if we'd know that we can focus on someone and take it nice and easy.

Also the possibility of adding some cooler and more advanced mini-games that you don't see in other VN's today.
Minigames most often work like this. They sound supercool when the only thing you do is talk about it. Not so much when you have to play them dozens of times each to get some sort of consumable in the game. It can be fun but the line between being fun or just a bane on our existance is a fine one indeed.

I hope you are all as hyped as I am with the game
Yes! Its just that the attic is full with promising games that somehow end up not delivering those promises so i tend to take the less hyped approach after all :) I think this one has a huge potential (and i don't throw that kinda cliche remarks left and right) and already has a nice script, interesting characters. The nerdy friend of ours turning out to be not that much of a coward after all ,just not ment for fighting, is something of a pleasant suprise for example. Time travel itself carries a great deal of options to toy with and the unique potential to redo scenes and alter the storyline for good. This is something we don't see often if at all. Just choices to be pure or kinky but this something different. I wonder if for example we could see in the future possible routes where certain NPC's end up entirelly different! Not just indifferent or sexpets, but with an entirelly different personality. Gaz as a chatolic pure girl? Mom as a pornactress? Dad dying in a different timeline? Sister a prim CEO? Timetravel not only into the past but into the future? Our best body star athlete? Possibilities are really endless. Of course not everything can end up being in a game but this really offers a chance to think outside the box and shape entirelly different stories around the main character here. Which is alone worthy of a hype... but means a hellova big shoes for you to step into. I dare say that lots of us around here are already commited on the long term to watch how this will grow under your hands. I can only wish the best of luck, unwavering dedication and a bottomless fountain of insipration for you guys. I'm hoping for the best :)
 

Aesouh

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Thank you Ennoch!

I think the aspect ratio problems that you may relate to unity, is not actually a unity problem but more the project that was done in unity. Canvas, which is used today in unity to make UI offers a lot of great scaling features, however of course it also needs to look nice. I don't want to deform the images in any way, so obviously if someone plays on 5:4 when all the images are rendered in 16:9, either the sides get cut off or you'll end up with some black bars. At least we're aiming for a native "Best played in" 1080p.

I understand your concern for mini-games. Of course it needs to feel rewarding and have its place too. Needless to say, there will be multiple ways to for example earn money in the future, and some of it may be tied to mini-games, that are more skill based and gives higher reward for your efforts, or those more simple time-skip and here's your money type of things. Not going to go more into details about the mini-games, but there will be other stats in the game that will be affected by some activities, we have some pretty cool ideas about this, however that's for later ;)

/A
 

Ennoch

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Of course it needs to feel rewarding and have its place too.
The best in my humble opinion is to implement games not exactly/solely to earn money. But through in-game tournaments. Final Fantasy had this. Iccreations's Incest Adventure had this: Fighting video game challenge with the neighbour girl, anyone? ;) So these kinda card or genuine games within games can be huge fun. They don't have to be solely games. Can earn money through them. My point is that these minigames are often just chores.
 
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Aesouh

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My old-ass computer can't handle this :( Any chance of getting a Ren'Py port?
Could you share what specs you have and what problems you are having? We're not going to port it to ren'py but working on making it in Unity. I have made 3d Games before run on really potato cheap laptops 5-6 years ago on windows vista without any problems, however the animation clips could be the heaviest part of the game in terms of performance

The best in my humble opinion to implement games are not exactly/solely to earn money. But through in-game tournaments. Final Fantasy had this. Iccreations's Incest Adventure had this: Fighting video game challenge with the neighbour girl, anyone? ;) So these kinda card or genuine games within games can be huge fun. They don't have to be solely games. Can earn money through them. My point is that these minigames are often just chores.
Indeed, we have already thoughts of many good ways to implement mini-games down the line, that aren't chores. I really don't like the chory-type of grind in these games, some of them also take it to the absolute extreme, but we can't really say much about them right now because people then starting to expect it to happen "soon".
 
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Could you share what specs you have and what problems you are having? We're not going to port it to ren'py but working on making it in Unity. I have made 3d Games before run on really potato cheap laptops 5-6 years ago on windows vista without any problems, however the animation clips could be the heaviest part of the game in terms of performance



Indeed, we have already thoughts of many good ways to implement mini-games down the line, that aren't chores. I really don't like the chory-type of grind in these games, some of them also take it to the absolute extreme, but we can't really say much about them right now because people then starting to expect it to happen "soon".
Intel i5 4gb RAM 500gb HDD integrated graphics, currently about halfway through its 7th year. It is a POS. When I start up the game it just runs super slowly, freezes and goes unresponsive, probably takes about 20 minutes to get past the intro. Unity works but some games have terrible memory leaks that crash my computer.
 

Aesouh

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Intel i5 4gb RAM 500gb HDD integrated graphics, currently about halfway through its 7th year. It is a POS. When I start up the game it just runs super slowly, freezes and goes unresponsive, probably takes about 20 minutes to get past the intro. Unity works but some games have terrible memory leaks that crash my computer.
I don’t have anything with similar specs but I will test it on an atom CPU setup before the release. I do also have an old netbook from 2010 that I can test it on potentially. We shall see.

Thanks for the info!
/A
 
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