UPDATE: Nearing the Game Release & Health Status – April 9, 2023
(As sort of posted on our Patreon Page)
Hi everyone, I hope that this finds you all doing well and want to take a moment to wish those of you who celebrate it a very wonderful, safe and
Happy Easter and a special
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my friend and co-worker,
Sierra3!!!
Now, for the reason you are all gathered here and reading this… the
GAME! I apologize in advance as this will be a
LOT of reading for all of you, but it covers everything you need to know about the releases that will be coming out and status of things!!!
Right now, there is still a bit more work that needs to be done, but we are nearing our first release since we switched over from our old software (Poser) and 3D character meshes (Michael & Victoria 4) to learning and using the new software (Daz Studio) and recreating/designing all of the character to the new 3D character meshes (Genesis 8 Male & Female).
This has been, without a doubt, a major challenge for us (me in particular), not just on a learning curve of having to teach an “Old Dog New Tricks”, but also financially as well… as I’ve had to spend lots in buying new content to use for the game (character morphs, skin textures, clothing, props, sets and locations) and rebuild a library of workable content in Daz Studio…
…but I
BELIEVE that it has been
WORTH IT and have seen this as an
INVESTMENT for the future of our small game company and the future of our games.
GAME PLAN CHANGES:
Also, some things have slightly changed with this upcoming release that you’ve all been patiently waiting for… originally, it was just going to be “
Wicked Choices: Michelle & Claire – A Day at the Pond”, but it has now changed from just being a small little release of two girls exploring each other to being the actual
PROLOGUE to “
Wicked Choices: Bed Chambers” and will have
THREE (3) important scenes that will take place in it.
Not only will you get to see Claire and Michelle entertaining each other, just before Claire goes on to awaken the Antichrist (which you witnessed in “
Wicked Choices: Book One”, but you will also get to meet and be introduced to the Main Antagonist for “
Wicked Choices: Bed Chambers”, “
Wicked Choices: Agents of Karma” and “
Wicked Choices: Book Two” and that would be…
…Daryl Crawford Jr. (the Antichrist’s brother-in-law) who is insanely upset that he lost control of his family and family fortune… and he has major plans to get that control back which is going to take a lot of people to put a stop to it!
The other scene will be of Karma as she is gathering her “Agents”, that includes the characters from “
Wicked Choices: Bed Chambers”, “
Wicked Choices: Agents of Karma” and “
Wicked Choices: Book Two”, as she works to try to repair the “Tapestry of Time” and also try to protect and provide support to the Antichrist.
This prologue release will tie together the events that took place at the end of “
Wicked Choices: Book One” and set into motion all of the things that you (as the player of our game series) must do to help the Antichrist survive and have the support that the Antichrist needs for the upcoming war!
GAME RELEASE & STATUS:
As it currently stands, there are still some odds and ends that need to be completed before the Prologue release comes out to all of you… right now, the majority of the main storyline renders are all done for the
PROLOGUE and I am working on the game character’s Profile Menus.
Because the artwork that we are doing now, since the change in the 3D software and 3D meshes, has changed so radically, we felt that the game’s menu should reflect that change some as well… particularly when it comes to viewing all of the profiles for the characters that you will encounter in the game.
Unlike in the previous game “
Wicked Choices: Book One” and the, now on hiatus, “
Wicked Choices: Agents of Karma” that utilized just still images when viewing character profiles, stats and background information, this area will now feature an animated 3D representation of the character that you wish to learn more about or view their stats… like in this demonstration with Claire and of Michelle:
View attachment claire_a_24.webm
View attachment michelle_a_24.webm
In the game menu, the animation will be on an infinite loop and above the console there will be a floating menu system that will provide you with the character’s stats, profile information and a summary of their backstory.
Additionally, depending on where you are at in the game and what you’ve unlocked of that character, you’ll also be able to change their outfits, their state of dress or view the character nude.
Although simple in design and looks for you the player, these are honestly taking a bit of time to accomplish for each character (9 of them) that you will encounter in the Prologue release, as they are 100 frames of animation and each of these took around 8 or more hours to render (no less than 5 minutes per image at 100 images).
Furthermore, I have also discovered that I can’t do much of anything else while these render out, as it bogs even my
MONSTER of a system down, if I change Daz Studio’s affinity level in my task manager to cut down the CPU cores being used (to free up resources to do other things) it slows down the rendering time from 5 minutes or more per render to 7-10 minutes per render… making the animation take longer than 7 or 8 hour per animation to render out.
So, I am definitely going to have to get a second system eventually to just use as a rendering machine to speed up production time in the future… I’m not rich, so that is going to have to wait till we’ve once again start making more money.
One other thing to note that is different from our previous game(s)… I am pleased to announce that will have a completely unique theme songs (and possibly soundtrack) for our game composed by our good friend Frank Schröter!
Frank is an
EXTREMELY talented friend and creator and many of you may be familiar with some of his stuff through his previous work in such movies as: Mortal Kombat, Aliens VS Predator, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Savage Love, the upcoming movie God Forsaken.
Without further ado, you can listen to the main theme for “
Wicked Choices: Bed Chambers” and this theme will be used in the trailer that we will be designing for our game and for our game’s eventual release on Steam! You can listen to it (currently using our game's animated banner with some of the characters you will meet in the game as an image placeholder) here:
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I can’t thank Frank enough for all of his time and effort in helping to capture the essence that we hope to create and stimulate all of you with while playing our game and, please, if you’d like to listen to more of his work, want to hire him or just support him for his efforts with us, you can visit his Patreon Page here:
You must be registered to see the links
PROLOGUE RELEASE SCHEDULE:
We have been working our butts off over here and even more-so now that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
As it stands, it is looking like the “
Wicked Choices: Bed Chambers”
PROLOGUE release will be out for all of you and in your hands by the end of this month or the very beginning of May with the first chapter release of “
Wicked Choices: Bed Chambers” following not long after!
Once the
PROLOGUE release is out to all of you, I will finish up my work on
CHAPTER ONE’S release and then start work on
CHAPTER TWO… this is shaping up to be a
VERY EXCITING SUMMER for all of you!!
I can’t give specifics on when the release of
CHAPTER ONE will occur, as there is still some small pieces that still need to be done for it such as (Main and Dialogue Sprites and Backgrounds and Character Menu Animation) but all of the Events and Main Artwork is finished for it… I am not sure how long it will take to get the stuff done that needs to be done, finished as I am still kind of in a holding pattern health-wise.
CURRENT HEALTH:
As many of you know, things have been a sort of clusterf*ck over here for some time in the
HEALTH DEPARTMENT!
First about our business partner, friend, Birthday Boy and game editor and SFX artist,
SIERRA3: I am very pleased to report that his major open-heart surgery was a
SUCCESS and he is currently back home, resting and now doing Physical and Occupational Therapy! I ask that you please continue to hold him in your thoughts and prayers and send good vibes and wishes his way.
In my case, I am doing as well as I can… after needing major back surgery in 2020/2021 and again in 2022, I am still currently dealing with this left shoulder of mine after having my legs go out from under me due to my back and poor signals to the legs from my (overworked) brain and falling down the stairs.
As of March 31st, I have completed my 6 weeks of Physical Therapy (more like torture) and, as suspected, the therapist has sent a recommendation for a complete left shoulder replacement!
Prior to that last therapy lesson (and kind of knowing what the therapist would recommend) I visited my doctor on March 27th to see if there was any way that we could try and avoid that if possible and set up an MRI to take place on April 19th to see the level of damage in my shoulder that the ultrasound might not have found in February.
Personally, I don’t want to have to have major freaking surgery for the third year straight and certainly don’t want to guess at what I will be looking at for recovery time if they have to replace this entire shoulder, so I am doing everything I can to manage the pain as best I can (yeah, with drugs *sigh*) and trying not to overuse the shoulder and piss the wife off, or my business partners or any of you, too much.
My hope that if there is any surgery that really needs to be done, that it might be able to be don arthroscopically, where the healing time is much quicker than what I’d be looking at with a complete shoulder replacement…
…either way, I have until April 19th to worry about any of that BS and will keep plugging away so I can get this release out and will let you know further about the shoulder as I learn it.
Well, I am sorry that this was so much to read for all of you, I wasn’t expecting such a wall of text, but wanted to get all of you as current as possible and let you know that you will have something in your hands by the end of this month or beginning of May at the latest.
Thank you all so much for your continued support, for all of your kind thoughts, messages and thoughts in regard to the health crap we’ve been dealing with, and I will be talking to all of you again soon!!
Take care and talk soon,
~Jack