Ren'Py World's Crossing Academy [v1.4.0.3] [TeamEmberWings]

[TigerWolfe]

So, if I'm reading everything correctly, the Counselor and Ambassador arcs have been canceled? That is disappointing.

Your quoted text does not say that at all.

 

[VictorSeven]

So, if I'm reading everything correctly, the Counselor and Ambassador arcs have been canceled? That is disappointing.

I wouldn't say outright canceled. The current description on F95 does not match the description on Itch. The original description was written years ago, before I realized just how massive that undertaking would be. It's taken me 4 years to get to the point where I'm 4 episodes away from getting 2 story arcs done. Given that we end up with releases every 2 to 4 months, and we alternate Side Story releases with Main Story releases, it could easily be another year before Season 2 (Security arc) is complete.

I made some really bad design choices in the beginning, and in the name of consistency, I didn't change them. Namely, doing fully rendered scenes shot-by-shot, rather than using sprites for some of the less important dialogue and mixing in full renders at key points. I feel it would be jarring to swap to that all of the sudden in the middle of the game, so I kept going the way I started.

Bearing that in mind, 2 story arcs will mean nearly 5 years of dev time. To do another 2 story arcs on top of that... that's another 5 years. And I didn't know that when I planned those arcs. I want to finish this story and start other projects. I want to get to the point where we have complete Side Stories with chapter selects at the end of them for each girl.

Now, that's not to say the Counselor or Ambassador arcs can't happen. Counselor may not, as I think that would be better for a separate project, but the team has dreamed up a possibility for the Ambassador arc as a collection of expansions, one world at a time. The Goblin world, the Orc world, the Elven world, etc. We're gonna keep our ears open after the Security arc is complete to see if there's demand for more WCA beyond the finishing of each girl's Side Story. If there is, and we do expansions, that's when the stylistic change will hit, mixing in sprites with full renders. Because as it stands now, painstakingly shooting every scene's renders, 30 to 60 renders per single scene... I'm burning out. Hard. At this point, I'm just trying to hold on until I can finish the Security arc. June will be 4 years WCA has been available to the public. And as much as I adore it, I want to finish it and move on to more story ideas I've had. I want to take what I've learned from the creation of WCA and apply it to a new project for a smoother, potentially better experience.

I'm sorry if that's disappointing, but that's how I feel. It's a first project, and first projects aren't the greatest, mostly because you really see the hiccups and the missteps in the beginning as the creator is learning their craft. I think back to the first 4 books I wrote, before I even came up with the idea for The Riftkey Chronicles series. They were hot garbage. And even the first book of The Riftkey Chronicles got 7 rewrites before I was really happy with it. I can't really do that with WCA. On one hand, ya get hate for the obvious missteps. On the other hand, ya get hate when you go back and fix your mistakes. And it really wears ya down. I refuse to abandon the project, though. I want to see it through and give the story a good ending, then work on filling out all the Side Stories and DLCs. From there, I want to start a much shorter project like Goblin Roommates that I can finish within a year or two. Something much more manageable. And once I have that new style down, that's when I'll be open to potentially doing endgame expansions where Aurum becomes an ambassador at the Nexus Academy in WCA and visits other worlds.

Anyways, that was long-winded as hell. But that's where I'm at. I hope that makes sense.

 

[Alex5280]

I wouldn't say outright canceled. The current description on F95 does not match the description on Itch. The original description was written years ago, before I realized just how massive that undertaking would be. It's taken me 4 years to get to the point where I'm 4 episodes away from getting 2 story arcs done. Given that we end up with releases every 2 to 4 months, and we alternate Side Story releases with Main Story releases, it could easily be another year before Season 2 (Security arc) is complete.

I made some really bad design choices in the beginning, and in the name of consistency, I didn't change them. Namely, doing fully rendered scenes shot-by-shot, rather than using sprites for some of the less important dialogue and mixing in full renders at key points. I feel it would be jarring to swap to that all of the sudden in the middle of the game, so I kept going the way I started.

Bearing that in mind, 2 story arcs will mean nearly 5 years of dev time. To do another 2 story arcs on top of that... that's another 5 years. And I didn't know that when I planned those arcs. I want to finish this story and start other projects. I want to get to the point where we have complete Side Stories with chapter selects at the end of them for each girl.

Now, that's not to say the Counselor or Ambassador arcs can't happen. Counselor may not, as I think that would be better for a separate project, but the team has dreamed up a possibility for the Ambassador arc as a collection of expansions, one world at a time. The Goblin world, the Orc world, the Elven world, etc. We're gonna keep our ears open after the Security arc is complete to see if there's demand for more WCA beyond the finishing of each girl's Side Story. If there is, and we do expansions, that's when the stylistic change will hit, mixing in sprites with full renders. Because as it stands now, painstakingly shooting every scene's renders, 30 to 60 renders per single scene... I'm burning out. Hard. At this point, I'm just trying to hold on until I can finish the Security arc. June will be 4 years WCA has been available to the public. And as much as I adore it, I want to finish it and move on to more story ideas I've had. I want to take what I've learned from the creation of WCA and apply it to a new project for a smoother, potentially better experience.

I'm sorry if that's disappointing, but that's how I feel. It's a first project, and first projects aren't the greatest, mostly because you really see the hiccups and the missteps in the beginning as the creator is learning their craft. I think back to the first 4 books I wrote, before I even came up with the idea for The Riftkey Chronicles series. They were hot garbage. And even the first book of The Riftkey Chronicles got 7 rewrites before I was really happy with it. I can't really do that with WCA. On one hand, ya get hate for the obvious missteps. On the other hand, ya get hate when you go back and fix your mistakes. And it really wears ya down. I refuse to abandon the project, though. I want to see it through and give the story a good ending, then work on filling out all the Side Stories and DLCs. From there, I want to start a much shorter project like Goblin Roommates that I can finish within a year or two. Something much more manageable. And once I have that new style down, that's when I'll be open to potentially doing endgame expansions where Aurum becomes an ambassador at the Nexus Academy in WCA and visits other worlds.

Anyways, that was long-winded as hell. But that's where I'm at. I hope that makes sense.

Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for the detailed response.

 

[VictorSeven]

[PROGRESS REPORT/PINUP PACK] Easter Mini Pinup Pack by Necro​

Hey, all! Bit of a dual post here. First, progress report on 1.4.5.0:



Slow but steady. We've had some adjustments in the team as well. Ischwhit has left the team, and we wish him luck, as he's taken over the main development of Stray Incubus. We've got a couple of other people interested in learning the posing and shooting process, so we're exploring those avenues as we work.

On the subject of WCA, though, this patch is nearly done. Unfortunately, the hardest part is yet to come. There are at least 2 H-scenes to shoot, potentially 3, and each of those typically takes me around 4 hours on the low end. Couple that with how much trouble Blossom's story has been giving us, and this stretch of the road has been bumpy, to say the least. Still, we'll be happy to finally have this next content drop out.

"BUT WAIT THE TITLE SAYS PINUP PACK TOO"

Ah, yes. So you know how that last "Sexy Spring" pack ended up containing 5 April Fools shots? Well, Necro wanted to make up for my trolling, so he put out a 5-shot Easter Mini pack with 10 of the girls in dual poses. That'll be attached at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!

That's it for now. Back to the grindstone for me.

- Vic