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It's the "Something, something, dark side" update...
🕑 Added 2021-01-18 14:52:38 +0000 UTCHi Hi :)
Nothing earth shattering to waffle on about this time but I'm determined to avoid my old bad habits of plunging into making the game and running silent once things get heavy, only emerging to go "Ta-da! Here it is!".
Scripty things!
Script is more or less there now. I say more or less as I'm always tweaking it all the way up to the day before release at times but certainly the bulk of it is down which is probs as best as I can get at this stage. Wordcount is roughly 67k... so, yep, we qualified as a novel. :)
CoC things!
Although the bulk of this was done last month, I'd been holding it back from testing until I'd worked on certain parts of the main script to see what elements from there I needed to incorporate. But it's now finished, tested and signed off.
Sarah pushes the boat out a little in this one with a game that contains, traps, puzzles, a variety of baddies, awful jokes, a few good jokes, magic items, the return of someone from before and booby-pokes. Play time is just over an hour which really isn't bad for a single part of the release and for those who don't fancy the idea of fighting giant spiders Sarah has an alternative idea to help you out...
VR things!
This is my focus for this week as I now tie together all the animations made over the past few months to the script and code. This one is a biggie coming in at some 3,700 renders frames and has taken up well over a quarter of the entire game production wise.
The various combat animations are made as well and I tweaked the GUI for combat over the weekend to make it feel a bit slicker and more professional. (The earlier one was a bit...meh in retrospect)
The GUI tweaks I've retrofitted to the earlier existing version as well for consistency.
I confess this will be a bit of a slog to bring in for the weekend I suspect. Partly as I ensure the gameplay balance is there for both those who want to win and those who want to lose but also to ensure it "feels" right as a game. Of course, let's not also forget ensuring that the animations run smoothly and, most importantly, are worth watching...
Oh! And I settled on Vampy's costume at last for this one. A silly thing but I kept changing my mind. She's in a bit of a playful mood this time around it seems...
Other things!
I've sketched around a few other things in between. Mainly working on some of the Bored Pilot set up for Kates, seeing what works and what doesn't. I also took a forward look at VR in respect of the completed combat mechanics once the player has everything all unlocked bonus wise to do a balance check (I also designed the GUI for that as well ofc)
Completion, progressy things...
I'm still struggling over how most accurately to reflect progress. It's not that I can't give numbers for things - I can. It's just that none of them feel right. For example:
If I go by completed, tested and signed off modules then I have two out of the 25 done. So less than 10 per cent. Now that's accurate, in a way, but with 9,000 out of 14,000 renders done and with the two completed modules only using a 1,000 of those, also not a very useful benchmark in reflecting the progress on the chapter as whole. It manages to be both right and wrong at the same time.
OK, well what using the render count? 9,000 renders is close to 65% complete (and 9,000 renders since November is pretty decent really as it comes out as well over a 100 renders made a day, each and every day) . This feels closer certainly. But also ignores the time spent on scripting, testing , coding etc. So it's a rough measure, feels closer but isn't painting a complete picture.
So I dunno tbh. I'm keeping a little running log of progress and I'll check to see which ended up being the most accurate I think. I don't want to give a number that is either over optimistic or over pessimistic. I want to give one that is reliable.
Conclusion things...
It'll be another quietish week from me media wise as I try to get VR out and signed off this week. So other than that and poking around for a second PC (THANK YOU!!!!!) I won't be doing much else other than the "Thea" level commissions or around much generally.
Oh! A couple of preview stills behind the paywall.
Take care everyone and have a lovely week.
Notty
Comments
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Nottravisgames
It does rather sum it up doesn't it! XD
SYH
"Awful jokes, a few good jokes, and booby-pokes" reads like a tagline for CoC.
Nottravisgames
*nods* I think the problem with that is I never know (and I have no idea how anyone does really) how many renders I need until the script is finished etc.
NeimadFR
What I've seen some devs do is multiple progress bars. For example, writing, renders, coding,... and one total completion. It's not always the most accurate thing but I think it gives a fair idea.
Nottravisgames
*has to buy it yet!* But thanks. :)
Huitieme
Congratz on the new hamster :D
