Dev Diary: Week #19

I will start the diary with a short reminder about these "short versions":

Actually, it is short only in terms of content as the work dedicated to each version is still 3-4 weeks. These releases work in a simple way: Instead of delaying a new release for everybody for X months, I decided to do it this way, where every month there is new content for all the patrons so they can see that I'm really working on everything I said I'm going to work on. There might be some people who prefer to wait until all this is finished, but at the very least, I think I should give the option to the patrons to see what's new for themselves and not just here.

All this allows me to keep a constant cycle of updates while I work with less pressure and stress due to not posting new content every month for Patreon.

I feel bad about not doing public releases but at the same time, my mind is more at ease as public releases are crazy and require more work than they seem. 

Not only that, but this is all aimed at making the public version from v16 onwards a stable and mature project, without the need for major changes. As you know, I don't want to deliver something that is unfinished or half finished. Example: Imagine that I decide to change the size of Maria's tits and now she will have extra mommy milkers. It sounds good, what doesn't sound so good is that during this process of change, there are scenes where she has a breast size X and in other scenes she has Y. And so on and so forth. Tired of seeing the shit quality of some scenes during the first quests of the game, things that should have been added a long time ago... etc.

That said... Let's start with the diary.

Since the last diary, a lot of things have happened, a lot of advanced work... but most of all health problems due to the unnecessary stress that managing all this caused me. Preparing the beta of v0.15.25 was the straw that broke the camel's back. So much so that I had to go to the doctor and spend almost two weeks in treatment. What problem? A contracture in the neck due to stress, bad and little sleep. Not only that, but I had to spend a few days completely away from any human contact because I was kind of "angry at the world" and anything irked me... Today I decided to gradually come out of my cave again.

Just because I have been in my cave for a few days doesn't mean that I have really stopped working. Those of you who know me already know what I'm like, don't expect me to ever take a complete rest. Should I spend a few days doing nothing and completely disconnect? Probably yes, but my "professional ethics" don't allow me to do so. Why would I be wasting my time having a personal life resting if I should be working? The same old story, as always. However, I don't rule out taking real breaks more often when summer is here and my craziness starts to rise like the temperatures.

Anyway, I'm pretty low-key right now as I'm not fully recovered. I guess I'll be fully recovered in a week or so I hope. For the time being, I don't have to be on pills anymore.

On the other hand, I don't think I've shown everything I've done so far. It's worth noting that on Discord everyone has access to the change logs of whatever version I'm working on (I've separated it into two channels again). If you think my DDs are long... you haven't seen the change log for this release (and what's left).

I'm going to summarise all the highlights I can show here (although most of the things I already explained in the last diary, it's always good to have a reminder):

- Dialogues -

I'm doing a general dialogues and scenes (renders) overhaul of the whole game. I'm doing this in order to improve the quality of the scenes but also a little bit of the quality of the dialogues. I have to say that I don't want to rephrase almost anything in case I mess up as my proof will not revise any of that until a future time when she'll make a "narrative improvement" in the whole game.

I've revised the main quests up until Mara moves in.

And more silly things I don't usually mention (some commas I left out, some full stops, etc).

- Scenes -

Patricia's animation in the bathroom (intro).

Especially the clipping of Maria's hair with her veil.

Among other things like Yuna's level 2, which is now completely redone.

- Accreditations -

I've completely rewritten the description of the accreditations to make them much more explanatory and clearer. Not only that but the code for those descriptions has been unified for better internal structure.

- Hard mode -

Now the hard mode is not available from the beginning when you start a new game. Instead, just before Mara moves in, Maria gives you the option to change accreditation (re-select difficulty) and then you can choose the hard mode. I think it's much better this way so that players don't have such a raw experience from the start, as playing in hard mode without knowing the game mechanics can be unpleasant.

It doesn't end here, but the mood has changed completely (not literally). There are no more angry girls, the gifts have a different use, the probability of getting mood points is lower (and can be increased with gifts), among other changes.

All this mood stuff resulted in having to do an internal restructuring of how the hard works, it took me almost a whole week of work and it was pretty crazy. The end result is interesting and still "grindy", so I'm happy with the final result.

There are still some things to polish in this mode but well, step by step.

I'll save showing scene changes for the end of the diary in case there's anyone who prefers to wait to see it in-game.

But let's move on to something more interesting: The changes in v15.50.

The boring part... fixing bugs, changing some things so that in easy mode doesn't show RPG stuff, etc.

Something a bit more interesting: interface stuff.

I've finally decided to experiment with how right-click works in Renpy (buttons, images, etc). Thanks to this, I've finally been able to add something that I think will make it much easier for you to choose a favourite girl and quickly see all the info about her:

From now on, when you have a favourite girl selected, if you right-click on the icon, you will be able to quickly switch to another girl.

It's one of those things that when I tried it for the first time... I can't live without that feature anymore. The same thing happened to me when I just added that with one click you can go and visit your favourite girl.

On the other hand, something more silly: I decided to add a small pop-up to the icons on the left side of the general interface (works in the same way as with the icons on the right but in a simpler way).

It's a silly thing but I'm sure it will help new players.

And the highlight of this update in terms of interface... The Adventurer's Guide:

This is something that should have existed since... always? A long time ago I saw that Black Dessert (I think ArcheAge had something similar) had this feature and I liked it, so I made a note to add this "in the future". That day should have been many versions ago but no need to wait any longer.

Sorry, it's not translated, it's just to give you an idea.

In this guide, you will find explanations about the interface.

General tips.

A reminder of how the Moonstar mini-game works.

A detailed explanation of the hard mode.

And of course, Lisapi's tips (finally).

This last feature always existed as something exclusive for patrons but it was a bit tedious as the tips were on Discord and in a post here at the same time. That's over now. Much more comfortable and visual this way. These tips will become part of the Patreon exclusive version.

The tips have always been focused on explaining the exact location and requirement for each achievement. My idea is to add more things beyond that to make it more useful.

And last but not least: a slightly more "immersive" and visually descriptive map.

First, small changes according to the time of day.

Second, the main materials you can get in each location are now shown.

Third, the place where you have a pending quest is now marked (main only) and a distinctive icon is also shown if a girl has a pending task (trust only).

The images are perhaps a bit too small, Refuge and Anna's icon in this case.

Fourth, if you don't like this change, you can disable it using the icons at the top right.

I've just remembered something also quite interesting but subtle... From now on, from the Journal you can disable/enable a pop-up that appears by hovering the mouse over the Journal icon. This pop-up shows a summary of all currently active quests. For those who want to save a couple of clicks.

And... that's all for the moment.

I still want to include the gallery but for the moment I want to focus on (re)doing everything I have pending as I would like to revise the levels of the classic girls (main and secondary) and I know that this is going to give me a lot of work even if I have some quite days ahead of me.

I have to say that just today I finished revising the main quests just before Alina/Myra's move. I've done a dialogue revision but I still have to redo renders (fucking clipping of Maria and her veil) + Yuna's levels 3-5. There are quite a few things that can be improved.

I didn't think there would be so much to improve/redo, but considering that all that belongs to the first versions... there's no justification. Ok, yes, I didn't have the same experience/knowledge as nowadays in terms of renders, etc. and of course, I was much less demanding than now. Still, I think it needs to be redone regardless of excuses or justifications.

In any case, I think I've gone on too long, as usual... I've got a tough week ahead of me, but I'm going to try to take it easy so that I can finish recovering.

I'd like to finish all this as soon as possible so I can finally focus on the last internal changes to do the "base game + updates" thing.

Anyway, I'll say goodbye thanking all the people who have been worrying about me these days, I really appreciate it.

See you soon!

For those who want to see some scene changes... join me.

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The most remarkable thing so far is to have completely redone the whole scene when you meet Anna.

Now that "anti-pervert light" not only has a better texture but also makes sense.

Say goodbye to weird lighting, and hello to appreciating the size of Anna's ass.

Here is a bit more of the current style of "silly" expressions when I want to give it a touch of silly humour.

We go straight to Yuna's level 2. It will be short because half of the work was already done.

Now with a better camera angle that doesn't make it look like the kitchen is x3 bigger vs. them.

Yuna has a short skirt to be more comfortable, yes... for that.

And that's not all but for the moment. See you soon!