Posted October 15, 2023 by Alboe Interactive
#Progress Update
This post was supposed to have come out at the end of last month as usual, but I had a busy couple of weeks due to my personal life. To keep this post from becoming too long-winded, I'll be as brief as I can covering the main topics in this post.
A couple of weeks ago, I became aware that the 4k build of Ménage à Moi has a resolution scaling issue. When initially deciding to release a 4k build, I did not know that Ren'Py can easily scale up without any manual adjustments by me, but that is not the case for scaling down. Both the 1080 and 4k renders in the 4k build display incorrectly regardless of monitor resolution.
Ultimately, the solution is to have all images be the same resolution size, meaning rerendering the intro section (the entire demo section). Until fixed, the next version of the 4k build will only contain renders and essentially become a 4k image pack. For anyone with a key to this build, please download and use the 1080 version for now. I apologize for the inconvenience, I honestly thought Ren'Py would automatically handle all aspects of resolution scaling.
“Note that not everything is being redone. Carey is the only one whose appearance was completely reworked from the ground up, the rest of this overhaul is mainly related to writing. I'll try to reuse as many renders as I can to try to reduce the wait until the next release, but some will need to be remade.”
The above quote from my previous progress update post is no longer accurate. To see why, compare the below image with the header image.
Quickly clicking between these two images easily shows the scaling of some characters has been off since the inception of this project. Even after I rebuilt several characters (as mentioned in the post Maintenance Month), I didn't notice the substantial discrepancy for quite some time. This means all the previous renders I was going to try and reuse are no longer worth the effort to bother saving. In all honesty, that's not really a bad thing because most of what was released so far is being entirely redone as explained below.
The overhaul of Ménage à Moi heavily alters several areas I feel I missed the mark in: The depressing tone that never lets up, the very brief introduction of the love interests, the antagonist's awkward spoken lines, the missing context of characters’ backgrounds, and more. The main plot points are still roughly the same, but the overhauled version should be a more cohesive experience. Along with redoing the original intro section, several scenes will be slipped into the existing narrative which provides a better pace and eases the player into the story. Rather than explain exactly what that entails, I’ll show you an example instead.
The largest change I’ve made is to the first erotic scene and I’m sure you’ll agree this version pictured is preferable to having one of the redhead love interests shown in less than a dozen shots before disappearing until the end of the chapter. Also, note that Kiersten’s hairstyle has changed in both of the new images shown in this post. Her original hairpiece was very difficult to work with and had to be replaced to save me time (and headaches) during posing.
As it stands the current plan is:
Again, there is no time frame for the next release, but I’m working as quickly as I can given my limitations. In short, it would have been impossible if I had tried to start making a visual novel this year because I wouldn’t have had the time to build any of the necessary skills. This past year has not been an easy one for me and I appreciate your continued patience.