DomJOI Witch Bi-Weekly Status Report
Howdy,
EDIT: Due to Patreon rules, some of the wording has been changed or censored, as publicly available pages cannot contain explicit "work intended to sexually gratify."
In a few hours, the first version of the game will be released! But before that, I wanted to give you a quick update on the progress from the last couple of weeks.
TLDR
First public release – hooray! (But no voice acting just yet).
Lots of squashed bugs.
Android builds were a bit of a time sink.
We're rocking with Vulkan as our main graphics API.
The game has a main theme song! Custom music is a bit pricey, so we're holding off on that for now.
New face animation system is all set.
Basic face animations are in the game. They might be a bit spooky, especially those smiles!
Long
Everything was chugging along nicely when we whipped up a super cool and easy-to-use new system for facial animations. As always, a different model and engine version caused a tiny hiccup, but it was mostly smooth sailing.
Then came the epic saga of Android builds. Unreal Engine 5.5 decided to be a bit of a diva, creating huge APKs and demanding full rebuilds every time. We also ran into some issues with OpenGL, like a material that thought it was a spotlight, causing totally white screens on Android. Once that was sorted, another problem popped up: the main character's super fancy material (texture) used more than 15 textures/samplers, and OpenGL just couldn't handle it.
I had a tough choice: go with Vulkan and ditch OpenGL, or stick with OpenGL and sign up for a maintenance nightmare. I even tried making separate materials just for OpenGL, but in the end, I wasn't happy with the results. That meant about two weeks of my hard work went poof! It might not sound like much, but building a single APK for Android takes about 20 minutes (thanks to those full rebuilds and other quirks), plus another 10 minutes to set up tests.
I also dabbled with various game engine settings, which led to a cascade of errors, problems, and pure nightmare fuel.
My absolute favorite moment was discovering that Unreal wasn't setting the correct target hardware for Android builds. My project's default was desktop and maximum quality, so all Android builds had unresponsive UI. Changing the target hardware to mobile and maximum quality finally fixed that head-scratcher after a few days!
After tinkering with about 50 different settings, rendering pipelines, materials, targets, and minimal SDK versions, I finally decided to scrap the whole build and go full Vulkan. That includes desktop builds for Windows and Linux too. Vulkan tamed the materials and most of the rendering woes, though there are still some quirks with lighting and shadows. Since we're pretty wiped out from the Android build process, we're holding off on tackling those until the 1.2 release.
A lot of Android hardware isn't supported, so please check if the game works on your device before supporting the project. I won't be able to offer refunds for this.
In the meantime, we've implemented a whole new UI for the game! It's not quite finished, but it looks much better than the old one. We also made sure it's responsive and looks great on all devices, from Android phones and tablets to desktops.
Lastly, because we spent so much time battling those Android builds, we're a bit behind schedule, and Voice Acting isn't ready yet.
Still, we promised to deliver the game on May 25th, and we're sticking to it, even without voice acting for now.
The version we released today is v0.9.
The following Trello cards were completed:
[BUG] Workout with "***" (EDIT) reaction (might need a tweak there!)
UI] "Is waiting to hear from you..." -> menu string change.
[Programming][Enhancement] Add new positions to TD/GD.
[Music] Find a new main theme.
[UI][Programming] Create sliders for sound.
[UI][Programming] Default values for music sliders + save values.
[UI] Apply settings for sound sliders.
[UI] Add main theme music to credits.
[UI] Set zero fade-in time for music - level.
[Music] Set sounds in main level - play current music ATM.
[UI] Better support for game resolution - Note: This isn't working as we changed the RHI to Vulkan, and Vulkan doesn't provide a method to get screen resolutions.
[Music] Write to artist for a quote - we don't have money for custom music ;.; ATM.
[UI] Support for game window mode - not working because of the RHI change... Will fix it in the future.
[Level] Add ASMR sounds.
[Programming] Add ASMR to the scene director.
[UI][Sound] Change default button sound - previous one was too loud and annoying in the long run.
[UI] Add whip sound to the credits.
[BUG] Default values when resetting or running first time -> they should be set with names. The ones that should be set are SubNamePos, SubNameNeg, DomNames.
[Documentation] Sound documentation - easier to write documentation than to reinvent the whole system :).
[Programming] Add texts for ending scenes.
[Programming] Tests Fix and Write new tests.
[Programming] Prepare for ending scene.
[Level][Programming] Post-reaction tasks - PE ending.
[Level][Programming] Post-reaction tasks - normal ending (good mood and bad mood).
[Bug] " template strings ending.
[Animations] Face Animation recording level.
[Level][UI][Animations] Face Animation minimal blueprint for recording.
[Animations] Angry-1 good for testing - first baked face animation.
[Animations] Face animations bases - Anim-1 to Anim-10.
[Programming][Animations] Base face animations depending on the mood.
[Milestone] FACE Animations - Base.
[Mood] Mood Indicator Icons.
[Bug] Sitting leg crossed in Main Level? -> Where and remove it.
[UI][Programming] Mood indicator.
[Documentation] Face Animations documentation.
[GamePlay][VA] Contact different artists and ask about their rates/opinion, etc. - we have everything ready, but we have to record animations first... It's about 50 animations that we need to record, so it will take some time...
[Alpha Release] - First position - standing instead of kneeling or whatever default idle position is.
[Alpha Release] First fade-out/fade-in.
[Programming] Refactor function names (e.g., AddXXXTaskClusters vs. AddXXXInsertableClusters -> remove the Task).
[Bug] Mood Text is not styled.
[Menu] Work on UI - understand 9 slices.
[UI] Add fonts to the credits.
[UI] Replace fonts.
[UI] Background animation on first menu.
[UI] Make proper background in all widgets.
[Update] Toolchain update.
[Programming] Disable NNE Runtime ORT.
[Bug] Cannot pack on Android.
[BUG] Game looks bad on mobile... - 40 HOURS debugging...
[UI] First Test On Mobile.
[UI] Create Header primitive.
[UI] Menu Final Pass Through All Menu Widgets.
[UI] Normal Button Smaller Margins.
[UI] Options menu/better buttons.
[UI] UI <-> Visual Editor.
[Programming] HairNaomi as default.
[Android] Disable mobile joystick.
[BUG] FACE PROBLEM - mobile rendering.
[BUG] Fix startup on Android 13.
[BUG] None as name?
[Milestone] Final UI work with Artist.
[UI] Work on first version of new UI.
[UI] Android Fixes on the scaling.
[BUG][Animations] ANDROID - FIX look.
[Marketing] Discord.
[Marketing] Setup SubscribeStar Tiers.
[Marketing] Setup Patreon Tiers.
[UI] Fixes on first run.
[Programming] Set timing.
[Programming] Disable not available options -> Session Types.
[Programming] Demo version -> make simple mechanism so there is demo and full version.
[Marketing] Start page on itch.io.
[Bug] Strip not working.
[Bug] Sessions too short.
[Bug] <info>XXX</info> in banner.
Setup Itch.io.
Compile Linux - v0.9.
Compile Android - v0.9.
Compile Windows - v0.9.
Plan for the Next Two Weeks
Here's a peek at what we'll be conjuring up in the coming fortnight:
Gathering your wonderful feedback: We're eager to hear all your thoughts and impressions on the game! Your insights are like magic spells for us, helping us make things even better.
Prepping for voice acting recordings: We're getting everything spick and span for when our amazing voice actors step into the booth. Get ready for some delightful auditory enhancements in the future!
Tackling those pesky small fixes: We'll be zapping away any little bugs or kinks that pop up, ensuring a smoother and more enchanting experience for everyone.
I really appreciate your support! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
DomJOI Dev