Post E5 Dev Update #2 (LONG!)
Hi all, there's a number things I want to tell you about in regards to what I'm working on and what I'm planning so I'll try to keep things concise (Some E5 spoilers below!)
(99% of my dev updates are available to free members but this is the rare exception for a few reasons including that if you scroll down you'll see Ella in a bikini 😮)
Contents:
1) Post E5 Survey
2) "Sex Survey"
3) Minor Body Adjustments
4) BOOBS!
5) Love & Lust
6) E6 Development
7) 1,000 Patreon Subs!
1) Post E5 Survey
Firstly, thank you to everyone who's already filled out the survey! For those of you that haven't you can do so here: SURVEY
The survey will close this Sunday and I'm excited to see the final results and show you some interesting bits from it. There's a lot of very useful feedback I've already read and I'm always grateful for those of you that give me thoughtful suggestions on how to make Elmwood even better.
2) "Sex Survey"
When I was making the E5 survey, I actually cut out a lot of questions I wanted to ask because it was getting way too big and I think it might've got boring. So I actually decided to cut the extra sex scene related questions and put them into their own survey. Elmwood's sex scenes are obviously very important to the game and it's the area I probably try my hardest to find new ways to improve and make even better so I wanted a short and focused survey specific to sex and foreplay.
So there's going to be a lot of random questions regarding specific sex positions, POV cameras vs zoomed out cameras, anal content, kissing during sex, threesome/group questions, interest in certain kinks etc etc. I will be launching this in a couple of weeks after we've gone through the E5 survey results.
3) Minor Body Adjustments
I feel like this title may scare some of you but don't worry - no one is being changed in any significant way.
In the past, before I've started rendering the next episode I've always taken a moment to look at all the 18 main girls and see if any of them could be improved while keeping their identity and vibes unchanged. Selina had a small makeover before E3, Jordan had a moderate makeover going into E4 and at the same time Naomi had a pretty big makeover. All of their ratings improved in the following survey but no girl is ever going to have that level of makeover again. I'm very happy with all 18 girls' faces and there won't be any changes to that besides maybe some hairstyle changes going into season 2 (episode 8).
No one's face is being changed so what am I looking at? The answer is hips and thighs. When I originally created all the girls I spent so much time on their faces and upper bodies but I think I really didn't spend enough time shaping hips and thighs like I should've. So there's a few girls who are going to have some very minor tweaks in E6 and I think they're looking great. Definitely easier to just show you an example and Ella is probably the most noticeable.
There wasn't really anything wrong with Ella's legs but they just weren't as 'Ella' as they should be. Her lower body didn't really look like it belonged to the athletic gymnast who sleeps under her gold trophies. She's got the strongest legs out of all the main characters and yet hers looked identical to everyone else's. As you can see - I'm not trying to make her look super muscular but I just wanted to add some much needed tone and shape to her thighs. I think the right is a very minor but really great improvement but tell me if you agree or disagree!
So there's a few characters who are going to be ever-so-slightly different in E6 but they're all very small tweaks and you really wouldn't notice if I didn't tell you.
4) BOOBS!
Besides the survey and the hips and legs adjustments, the other thing I've been obsessing over is boobs and jiggle physics. In E1-4 all boob movement was done manually and was very hit or miss. In some E5 animations I simulated jiggle physics (particularly for side view doggy sex with Selina and Jordan&Chloe) and I think it worked well. I've been looking at new techniques and strategies to make this even better for future animations and also for future still renders. Whenever our mc has held boobs so far it's always been the boobs in their default spherical shape, and I'm looking at ways to squish them within our mc's hands in a way that actually looks realistic and I've already learnt a lot.
5) Love & Lust
Not going to waffle on too much about this right now but something that I've been conscious of for a while is the very inconsistent nature of Elmwood's love and lust systems. I'm going to give these stats some much needed attention while I develop E6 and try to make things more consistent and meaningful. I think I've done well at making the wacky/fun perks work great but I've really neglected the core love&lust system in recent episodes and done scene requirements based off vibes way too much. Sometimes you guys will look at your stats for each girl and see something weird like "Hmm... Lydia's love is way less than Paris' love even though I'm getting all their scenes - did I make a bad choice with Lydia?" Nope - WickedWare has just been inconsistent and needs to rebalance balance the stats. There's a lot of room to improve here and it's something I'm thinking about a lot. This also relates to my plans to adjust the dark talent tree and make it more impactful.
6) E6 Development
So what's happening with E6? Well, I haven't started rendering E6 because I'm still planning all the scenes I want to include. In fact, I'm not just planning E6 right now, I'm also planning E7. And there's an important reason for that - these are the last two episodes in the season and they need to be planned in unison. E7 will be the largest episode yet and E6 is the episode that bridges everything so far to the season finale. So all the content I have planned for the rest of the season needs to either go in E6 or E7 and there's quite a lot of decision making about what I'm going to put where so that E7 is enabled by E6 and the season is cohesive with the appropriate amount of content in each.
So currently still a lot of planning going on. I've planned the core events of E6 (lewd scenes, dates, etc) but I want to have a pretty thought out plan for E7 before I start writing the E6 script. Looking forward to designing the E6 outfits and a couple of new environments but just need a little more time to plan the rest of the season in a bit more detail before I dive headfirst into E6.
7) 1,000 Patreon Subs!
Lastly, we've hit 1,000 paid members on Patreon and that is so fucking awesome! Nothing is more motivational to me than seeing our community grow and having more and more Elmwood players. Thanks to you guys, I'm actually doing ok now. I really hate talking about financial struggle in my posts which is why I never do but I feel like I need to quickly say how grateful I am. When I was developing E1-4 I was so fucking broke lol. I really struggled to get through that period but it's thanks to you guys that I did - especially those of you that support me all year round. It's thanks to your support and awesome feedback that I had the confidence to endure that period and invest what little money I had into more powerful rendering pcs and give Elmwood my everything. I remember when I was working on E2 as an unknown developer with just 50 subs and to now be at 1,000 is just so surreal. I'm really lucky to have such a kind and generous community and I'm so lucky to have such a wicked job.
Thank you all so much.
Hope you all have an awesome Friday and weekend!