morexis
patreon
Demo & Update: Pony Coinflip Voice Acting and other Plans
🕑 Added 2021-01-12 16:56:45 +0000 UTCHey everyone! Sorry for not posting in the last weeks, I was very busy both with the upcoming games and other things. But I have some interesting news and updates about my plans for you today! π
(As always with these longer posts, there's a summary with the most important information at the bottom.)
Voice Acting - The Decision
As I already told you in my last update post, I was thinking about using the amazing text-to-speech software 15.ai for Pony Coinflip. At the time, this was just an idea and I hadn't made a final decision yet, mainly because 15. ai was still under maintenance and I didn't know when it would be available again. Just over a week ago, 15. ai went online again and I finally made a decision: Pony Coinflip will have voice acting!
To understand why this decision was so difficult and important, you need to understand its implications which are both negative and positive. On the plus side, this is an unprecedented feature. Sure, there are masturbation games and even webteases with voice acting, but not in that amount, with those characters and using this special and new technology. Regardless of how well it works out in the end, this is a milestone for webteases which fits the innovative nature of the original XXL MLP JOIP, which was the first JOI game with MLP characters in existence. And of course, even if the voice acting isn't perfect, it still creates a very special and more immersive experience for you. π
But as with any difficult decision, there are also some downsides to it. The voice acting requires are more rigid game structure, meaning you won't be able to skip text anymore. Also, timers have to be a fixed length now (I always like to use randomized timers to increase replay value). The biggest downside of adding voice acting however, is the fairly complex and very tedious and time consuming process behind it. That means, although the game is already finished (and playable for patrons), the public full release with voice acting will take another few months. This demo includes three rooms and took me over a week to finish. There are 25 rooms total, so you can imagine how long finishing the remaining rooms will take, particularly if it's not my highest priority anymore.
Voice Acting - The Creation Process
But why is it taking that long? I want to use this paragraph to illustrate the creation process of the voice acting.
Initially, I had hoped that all I had to do was copy the dialogue, paste it into the artificial intelligence, let it generate the voice, and then sync it up with the game. Sadly, it's not that easy. Instead of just copy-pasting the text and letting the AI do all the work, I am more like a director at a movie set who gives the actors instuctions, lets them play the scene over and over and then picks the best scene for the movie - for each individual line of dialogue.
For this demo, I generated 111 audio files. Some lines take more attempts than others but I would say that a single voice line takes about five "takes", varying the instuctions for the AI until it's good enough. Once I have all the audio files, I go into the game and note all the timestamps of the dialogue. As the last step, I then go into an audio editing software and sync each individual line of dialogue to the timestamps (which includes more trial and error than you might assume). I think you get the picture of how much time this takes... π₯΄
Other plans - Hentai FapJack
So does this mean that you won't get a new game from me for the next six months? Of course not. π
My current plan is to have the voice acting for PCF as a constant side project while I work on other games. This will of course increase the time required to finish PCF but I think that's the best compromise. During this time, the already published version of PCF without voice acting will be available to patrons in this undefined state between Patreon exclusive game and early access. π
And now I have some very good news for you: the first game I will be working on next is Hentai FapJack, which I know a lot of you are looking forward to with a lot of excitement. This is an extremely complex game, so, although I've already been working on it for over four months now, it won't be finished this month and probably not next month either. And that brings us to our last point for today.
Waiting and Inactivity
I know playing games is much more fun than waiting for them to be finished, so I completely understand all those patrons leaving because "Morexis wasnβt as active as I expected". However, I have always and will always follow my philosophy of quality over quantity; And good things take time to create. There are some weeks and even months where I've put huge amounts of time into new games but I simply don't have anything new to show you yet. So please don't take my inactivity in communication as inactivity with the games.
As most of you know, my metaphorical door is always open, so don't hesitate to send me a message if you want to know what I'm working on and how the projects are coming along. π
Okay that was a lot of text but, with everything that's going on, this might be my only post this month. For now, I hope you like this little demo of a promising new technology. What do you think about the voice acting?
Also, I invite everyone to go to 15.ai and try it out for yourself. It's a lot of fun to play around with this incredible software. If you enjoy it and figure out how to generate good voice lines and want to help me out, please let me know. Currently, I'm working on the project by myself but the more help I get with this, the faster Pony Coinflip will be finished. ^^
I will post more updates and information about Hentai FapJack soon.
Thank you, I appreciate all of you so very much! π
Summary: Pony Coinflip will have voice acting but because it's so time intensive to create, the finished game will take another few months. Until then PCF without voice acting is still availble to play for patrons. While I continue PCF as a side project, I will work on Hentai FapJack which will be finished and released fairly soon. Good things take time to create, so I hope you understand that this waiting time is not due to me not working on the games - I do work on them, a lot. Thanks for your support. ^^
