VN Ren'Py Where the Heart Is [S1 Rev1] [CheekyGimp]

4.30 star(s) 338 Votes
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acewinz

acewinz

Developer of "The Call of Darkness"
Game Developer
Oct 15, 2018
2,596
7,633
Conklingc said:
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Hi All,
Just wanted to share a status update on episode 20.
Beach house / morning after: Artwork & script complete (just needs some testing)
Jenna / Jolina scenes: Script 70% complete, artwork complete (with the exceptions of a few anims)
Dogboy / Roger / Natasha scenes: 100% complete (artwork, anims and script) and it's been fully tested.
Elaine scene - just getting started.
So overall, I would say we are approx. 65% done. BUT we expect progress over the next couple of weeks to speed up so still very much on course for a March release.
Over the past two months, we were practically a man down from our 3 man-team (due to some real life stuff) AND we've been putting a LOT of work into expanding the team and have auditioned over 40 people. After this exhaustive process, we are delighted to welcome a new artist to the team: Maple. Maple brings a lot of image and animation experience to the team (plus some game design / coding experience) so we are delighted to have them.
And I hope to introduce a new writer very soon too (he has been identified, just waiting to finalize a few things before announcing).
So the team of 3 is hopefully expanding to a team of 5. This will really help us lessen the blow of any one person being unable to work on the game due to real life stuff (1 in 5 impact, rather than 1 in 3) or if the unthinkable happens and we lose one of the team, it means we won't grind to a halt. But thankfully no plans for anyone to leave (Ace and Cell are still securely locked up in my basement). This expansion of the team should also help us get our production time down to 2 months instead of the current cycle of 3 months.

On that note, it is just not possible to get our cycle down to 1 month due to the amount of dialog, choices, branches, variables and the amount of art we squeeze into every episode. The rendering (PC/GPU) time alone for episode 19 was over 600 hours. If we release every month, we just wouldn't have a decent playable episode, so our target for the rest of 2021 is two months. I'm not guaranteeing we can/will hit this but it is what we are aiming for.
We have also expanded our proof-reader / branch testing / QC team and are going to release each scene to them as soon as we finish the individual scene. This should cut down on the amount of testing time needed before release once the episode is complete.
One other point to note is that no matter how much we expand the team, there will always be somewhat of a bottleneck because I don't like to release any piece of script or art without me personally analyzing, scrutinizing, tweaking (and generally pissing of the other artist / writer by constantly asking for edits / re-dos). It would probably make things go quicker if I just concentrated on the art/writing for my specific scenes but on the other hand, I also feel we could end up diverging too much from scene to scene if we don't have a common thread tying everything together. So in summary my control-freak nature will always add some time to the development regardless of team size.
Also (for anyone interested) - Just to give you some insight into WTHI and what makes it different from almost all other games out there is the amount of branching, variables, options that we give. Even though the morning/after beach house scene for episode 20 is a relatively small scene, it was an absolute nightmare to write. For example (and this doesn't include all variables checked/tracked in this scene)....
For the beach-house sequence in episode 19, there were 8 possible ending scenarios, there were at least 5 different relationship status' with Katie and 4 each with Debbie and Lily plus different options for the Lily / Debbie relationship.
And for anyone that knows anything about probability, that is 19x8x.....(you get the idea) differences.
So trying to tie off a lot of those path options in episode 20 AND give another 5 after-the fact options, I hope you can understand why it's not just a matter of sitting down and typing out a few lines of dialog.
Yes, this is a monster of our own making but it's also one of the things that makes our game unique.

Finally: I just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who is currently supporting this game or anyone who has supported it previously.
Thanks,

CG
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To elaborate on Cheeky's post above. I was the one busy with RL last month, sorry. :p Wife had a minor operation and I spent more time than normal looking after her and the boy.

Bright side though, her new tits look great!
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She's fine btw in any event and I'm back in the basement writing.
 
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HornyyPussy

HornyyPussy

Board Buff
Apr 26, 2020
16,169
37,879
acewinz said:
To elaborate on Cheeky's post above. I was the one busy with RL last month, sorry. :p Wife had a minor operation and I spent more time than normal looking after her and the boy.

Bright side though, her new tits look great!
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She's fine btw in any event and I'm back in the basement writing.
Click to expand...
Cool! (about the cyborg part, not the "she needed a operation part :) )

I've had this convo in several threads lately about the devs being away for a while. Real life happens, nothing to apologize for and nothing that needs explaining. We are all human (well, apart from your wife...). People that complain about it goes straight to the ignore list...
 
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Skeltom

Skeltom

Engaged Member
Oct 9, 2017
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So what's the deal with episode 9, exactly how many exclamation points are they trying to fit into that one episode? I realty hope it get dialed back. Its like everyone should be bouncing off the walls.

The conversation in the car with Jenna that exclamation point shows up 22 times, in just that scene.
 
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Benares

Member
May 12, 2017
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Conklingc said:
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...But thankfully no plans for anyone to leave (Ace and Cell are still securely locked up in my basement)......
CG
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Poor Ace, it doesn't matter if it's Cheeky's or Ava's, he's always in a basement. Does the librarian have a basement too?
 
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Sille

Newbie
Jan 5, 2021
46
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By extracting the files an error occurred: "CRC failed .." .. (in pc / game / E14 / E14S4_40.jpg) ... and the extraction is not completed .. I simply close and install the game as it is, or what needs to be done ?! Thanks!

UPDATE: I installed it as it is... it´s started, but has no sound at all..


2021-03-05 17_51_56-100% Extracting G__...........DOWN ... eartIs-Ep19-pc.zip.jpg
 
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Abhai

Abhai

Devoted Member
Sep 12, 2018
9,482
38,577
Sille said:
By extracting the files an error occurred: "CRC failed .." .. (in pc / game / E14 / E14S4_40.jpg) ... and the extraction is not completed .. I simply close and install the game as it is, or what needs to be done ?! Thanks!

View attachment 1068902
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You need to make use of the "search button" in the upper-right corner, by searching this thread for that extracting error, or for missing images "E14S4_40.jpg"...You will find few dozens of similar posts, and more than few posts solving that issue by providing missing images.
Daastaan007 said:
Any walkthrough for episode 19?
Click to expand...
the same answer here - the "search button" is your friend.
 
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Sille

Newbie
Jan 5, 2021
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Abhai said:
You need to make use of the "search button" in the upper-right corner, by searching this thread for that extracting error, or for missing images "E14S4_40.jpg"...You will find few dozens of similar posts, and more than few posts solving that issue by providing missing images.

the same answer here - the "search button" is your friend.
Click to expand...
I solved .. thank you!
 
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YogSothoth1982

YogSothoth1982

Devoted Member
Jun 26, 2018
8,680
12,181
Abhai said:
So far no consequences.
And if you search for the dev post here, in the one of it, he has explained that he considers adding, apart some mini-harems, an actual harem ending for this game.
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First, it seems that he's not sure if he will finally do it.

Second, it will be more of something to please fans of harem games, but you will still have to deal with the canon endings; because this one is "complete fantasy". This two simple words makes that I haven't any interest in this harem epilogue.

Personally, I never see more than one ending, and with multiple LIs that interest me (and there being no harem ending, even if the epilogue is done), I guess I'll proceed to continue ignoring the game.

CheekyGimp said:
And just in case you anyone thinks that I was being awkward, I've seen many different interpretations of harem being used, e.g. people asking me about a Monica, Jenna, Katie harem. Or a Katie, Debbie, Lily harem....
So, in the context of a FULL Harem where MC ends up in an open relationship with ALL females and all of them know about each other and willingly share....Then I do not foresee that happening! It just wouldn't make sense even in the non-realistic world of WTHI.
However, that's as far as "canon" goes. I did mention in the past that I would consider adding in a "Complete fantasy" epilogue for those that would like to end on a harem note. It won't have a natural progression from the normal ending(s). After the game ends, this Harem alternate ending would need to come with a silly reality jump / disclaimer lead-in like "Eventually, all parties forgive MC and/or each other and end up accepting his philandering ways, etc... and they all live happily ever after...." and then some imagery to back it up. There won't be a natural (stats/decisions/dialog) way to smoothly transition to this ending (if we even decide to add it). Hopefully that makes sense? (He says as he slips on his coat and sneakily edges towards the back door...)
Click to expand...
In any case, as I have said in previous post, Thanks for the game and good luck.
 
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4.30 star(s) 338 Votes