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Game Update #33
🕑 Added 2023-06-02 19:56:35 +0000 UTCJune is here, and if it's happening where you live, happy Pride! It's time for the first of this month's status updates.
In brief, I'm very close to a third dev build, after which it's a straight shot to the finish line. Let's get into the specifics.
Script
The last part of the Club Update is now fully outlined. Last month I shared the flowcharts for the first hookup scenario that'll be in this update, and now I've got the rest to talk about.
Anyone who played Alex's storyline probably knows that one of the hookups is with him. His scenario is more straightforward than the one in the first flowchart. Expect this one to be similar to Marco or Leo's respective encounters as far as flow goes.
Like Leo's hookup, this one has two divergent ways to experience the scene. I'll leave the specifics of the alternate paths vague, but I'll say that one lets you go a little beyond the already wild situation of having your first time in public.
This scenario is planned to have 31 CGs, the same number as Marco's hookup.
Rounding out the hookup scenarios are these two. Unlike how I usually "obscure" these flowcharts, these ones I'm actually going to keep hidden until you play.
The first here is similar in length to the Julian/Owen encounters, coming in at 16 CGs. It's already stretching credibility when it comes to how far Connor is willing to go for his first time, but this one especially so—in a fun way! It's brief but definitely impactful.
The second scenario is hookup-adjacent rather than a full encounter. For those of you who played the most recent dev build, think of the situation you can end up in if you follow someone back to 21CA. This scene is planned to be 7 CGs.
Also for those of you who played the dev build, you probably already stumbled across the beginning of this one. Making the choice that leads to this scene is impactful in a similar way to the first gray hookup. Making either choice will strongly affect one character's opinion of you for the rest of the game.
A few days ago I also wrote something that won't occur in the game for a little while. See, sometimes I find myself overcome with a flurry of ideas for a particular scene. Usually when that happens I leave myself detailed notes for when I get to that point in the story. But sometimes I feel like I have to write it right now.
An example is Marco's hookup, which was scripted well before the rest of the frat party. This time it's the first hookup you will be able to have with our favorite curly-haired classmate, Evan.
It's way too early to give more details, but I'll say what I was conjuring up in my head was too cute and hot and fun to risk not remembering in the future. I think Evan fans will really enjoy it. And a bonus—unlike some future hookups, there are no real prerequisites to unlock it. Once it's in the game, you'll be able to dive right in without having to go through any hoops.
Buuut I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the Club Update.
Art
I mentioned last time that I was having some tech issues with my render queue that I thought I'd figured out. Turns out I hadn't.
Basically, what should happen is I create images during the day then schedule them to render overnight. It used to work perfectly. Sometimes it still does.
...And sometimes it spends 7 hours rendering a single image that should have only run for 30 minutes max.
This really delays getting the art done. I currently have to babysit Daz to make sure I don't get too far behind. It's really not ideal, but I'm managing for now.
But the good news is I still managed to get most of the art for the forthcoming dev build done. So that's one major hurdle mostly passed.
One thing I am still kind of experimenting with—very last minute, I know—is the presentation of the Skinema performance that marks the midpoint of the club sequence. I'm going to try adding some imagery that's more stylistic than the rest of the game has been so far. I think it'll be cool once it's all put together. We'll find out together!
The hookups in the flowcharts above have a lot of art to make, but these scenes contain a decent number of what I refer to as transitional CGs—sequential images that have the same framing with a few differences between them. Think how I show cumshots. It means the number of images I need to make isn't quite as big a task as it may seem.
Coding
Now that I'm getting near the end of the Club Update, all the pieces are slotting together in a very satisfying way for me. I can remove all the "coming soon"s from menus and see how all the various branching points interact with each other. It's gratifying to see that the spots I had pre-coded are linking together as they should. It means I'm getting better at this.
Looking Ahead
The delayed Asher & Hookup #1 dev build is pretty close. I wasn't sure if I'd do another one, but I think there's a good amount of new in-development content ready to be shared with Senior & Graduate patrons. I'm looking at next week sometime to get this build out.
From there, it feels like a straight shot towards the end. There's some minor writing to do—sex scene aren't super hard for me to get down!—and a fair amount of art. There also needs to be a polish pass to add some dialogue affected by choices I hadn't anticipated and similar stuff, then a bug hunt.
I can't give a specific date for the full, final release of the Club Update yet, but like I said—it feels like a straight shot. I'm more than ready to be done with this part of the game, so I've got plenty of drive to carry me through the next four weeks.
Patreon Content Feedback
Lastly, I had an idea for some new Patreon-exclusive content but am curious how many people would be interested before I add it to the schedule.
I'm occasionally asked for more details on my writing and art creation, and I've been thinking about doing a series of behind-the-scenes posts to go more in-depth about how I make the game. For instance, zooming in on those flowcharts and discussing how I handle scripting the choices, or showing how I make a CG beginning to end.
This is something I wouldn't lock behind a patron tier, so any patron from Freshman to Graduate would be able to read it. I'd probably do one a month starting next month—if that's actually content some of you would like to see. Let me know in the comments or via DM.
That's what I've got for you today! I hope you all have a good weekend 🙂
Comments
Danny Nym
All the flowcharts I've shared so far are purposefully made too small to read. For a behind-the-scenes post, I'd share some higher res images so you can follow along with what I wrote 🙂
Norman Gugliotta
Can't wait - It would be awesome if you could do a collaboration with Bound by Night and have Mayhew as a patron of 21CA giving Uriel a crash course in vampire and werewolf!
Kaiden Cearley
I would absolutely love to know how you created this game! I'm really excited for the release! Keep up the great work! 😁
Joshua Vasquez
I would say I like the flowcharts but they are too hard to see what each one is showing.
Andy Lau
Thanks for the update, and happy Pride! I think it'd definitely be cool to see your process of making CGs, and get that peek behind the curtain
