Dev Log Week 6: At the Mercy of the Story

This week, I’ve been diving into research and testing to help shape the flow of Chapter 2 and refine the overall player experience. And by research… I mean I finally caught up on a few AVNs I’ve been meaning to play.

It’s a strange paradox—you start making games because you love AVNs and have a story to tell, but once development begins, there’s barely any time left to actually play games. So I took a bit of time to reconnect with what I enjoy as a player, but with the eye of a dev. That helped spark a few new ideas, especially around how I want to approach lewd scenes this chapter.

I’ve also been experimenting with Blender more. I built a new environment for a render with Max, and imported a Land Rover model for some scenes with Evelyn. Bringing Blender elements into my workflow is finally starting to click, and I’m seeing more success (and fewer headaches) with getting them into DAZ.

On top of that, a huge shoutout to Terminal Resistor (Termz) for reworking Zoe’s skin—he breathed new life into the character, and it’s going to pay off big time in this and future episodes.

Scene 3 is now mostly prepped for the render queue. As I got deeper into the sequence, I found myself layering in more nuance to really capture the emotional weight of what’s happening. For fans of Ben and Jack: they’re back, and their awkward, chaotic energy is still very much alive. Jack having someone to bounce his nonsense off is always fun to write.

I also created a few new characters this week, and I’m especially looking forward to introducing the character LeEclipse kindly loaned me for this chapter. You’ll be seeing a sneak peek of her in next week’s update.

And despite all the research, testing, and Blender fiddling—I still managed to crank out 113 renders this week, powered entirely by the grace of our lord and savior: Monster Energy.

In short: I’m in the groove, the story’s rolling, and I’m excited to keep building this chapter and sharing more with you soon.

Thanks for sticking with me,
—Bat