The Restaurant Dev Log #7 (I've Been Dealing with Some Problems)

Hello everyone! How are you guys doing?

First, I wanna say you guys are freaking awesome. I'm really happy to have such an amazing community here and on my Discord server as well. I genuinely love every single one of you because we all share the same taste in women, and you're here because you want something high quality. That's exactly what I want to create.

This project has always been a hobby for me. I genuinely enjoy making it, and I have no intention of making money for myself from it, at least not until the Steam release. Trust me, if making money was my goal, I could've easily turned this into a generic harem game and printed money while sitting at the top of the rankings. But I never wanted to make a game with no soul. I wanted to create something bigger. Something you play, think about long after you've finished it, and never forget.

When I ask if you liked the game, I don't want the answer to be, "It's good." I want you to be overwhelmed by the story, the visuals, the music, and everything else. I want you to be so impressed that you can't even find the words to describe how you feel.

Now I want to tell you guys about a few problems I've been dealing with. You deserve to know what's been going on. But before I do, I also want to say that I always have backup plans. I always prepare for the worst case scenario, so don't worry. Development isn't in danger. I just don't want to go down that path because my original plan is already a really good one.

Here are my problems. I'll make a list to make it easier to read:
1)Animation
2)Animation SFX
3)Money

Now, the problem is that I still owe my animator quite a bit of money. I'm not really comfortable sharing the exact numbers here, but he charges me $25 per animation. He made 128 animations for the last update, which came to about $3,200 in total. I've already paid most of it, and there's only $550 left.

Of course, he doesn't want to start working again until the remaining debt is paid, which I completely understand. I had a lot of expenses over the last 3 months, and unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to pay him yet.

That's why no new animations have been made so far, and I really need the animation work to start as soon as possible because there are still a lot of animations that need to be made. I don't want this to delay the game's development.

Because of that, I moved on to my second plan, which is working with another animator. I actually started that backup plan a few days ago. I'm still not completely sure about the quality of his work, but from what I've seen so far, he looks promising. Hopefully, he'll be able to deliver work that's on the same level as my original animator.

If things don't work out, I'll eventually pay my original animator, and he'll start working again right away. The problem is timing. I need someone working on the animations now, not one or two months from now. That's why I decided to contact another animator instead of waiting.

The third solution is to make the animations myself. But that would add a huge amount of extra work to my shoulders and would most likely delay the release even further.

As you guys know, I stopped making the animations myself and decided to outsource them instead. Animations simply take way too much time, and I'd have to spend countless hours learning and practicing just to reach the level of quality I want. I'd rather spend that time creating renders, writing the story, and programming the game instead.

The second problem is that the person who handled all of my animation sound effects recently told me he can no longer do it because he's dealing with some real life issues. Now I'm trying to find someone who can do this job. If you know someone who's good at it, please let me know. Animations without sound effects usually aren't very good, and my goal is to give you guys something high quality, not half baked.

These 3 problems have been on my mind for quite a while, putting a lot of extra pressure on me. But as always, I'll keep moving forward and make it work one way or another. My goal has always been to give you guys the best game I possibly can.

Right now, I can't give you a release date since none of the animations have been made yet, and I'm still about halfway through Valeria's 80s mission. That said, I'm making a lot of progress every single day, so development is moving forward nicely.

I also want to give a special thanks to Mishel_kolichuck for brainstorming with me. He's a hardcore fan of the game, and I've shared a huge part of the story with him. He now knows just how epic this story is going to become, and he's just as hyped about it as I am. He watches my streams almost every day, and we spend hours discussing the game's lore, characters, and future events. Those conversations help me a lot, and I always enjoy hearing his thoughts. I always like to surround myself with people who genuinely want to see this game become the best it can be.

Lastly, creating a good game isn't an easy job. I don't mind the hard work at all. After all, spending all night looking at Valeria and my other characters is something I genuinely enjoy. But there are also a lot of discouraging things along the way. Even so, I keep my head up, and I'll continue this journey with the people who believe in me, like you guys.

Sorry for the long post, and take care of yourselves.

I'll also properly introduce the "Side B" song soon. It's honestly kind of epic, and I think you guys are going to love it. I'm still busy working on the game, so I haven't had the time to make the trailer yet. I'll get to it as soon as I have some free time.

Anyway, see you guys!
And congratulations to Spain on winning the World Cup!
EDIT:
Total renders:1793
Zoey's mission: 1109
Valeria's mission:632
Secrets :52