Dev Log Week 17: How Do You Like Dem Apples

Lots to cover this week, so let's kick things off with the numbers. I've been juggling a bunch of different dev tasks over the past few days, so renders weren’t the main focus. That said, I jumped into a Bum Dev Render Contest with Maya and Tako. I lost. They came out swinging this time. But even though I didn’t win, it pushed me to render more than I would have otherwise, so I’m genuinely grateful for the motivation. Nothing like some good old unfriendly competition to keep you sharp.

Last night I realised I was just shy of hitting the 1,000 render milestone for this chapter, so I locked in and pushed through. Big shoutout to Rann on Discord for keeping me company while I powered through. The chats and the support really helped me break that wall, and it ended up being a lot of fun. These moments remind me how lucky I am to have this community here on Patreon and Discord. Your support means the world. I’ve said it before, but solo dev work can be isolating, and having people to connect with makes all the difference.

Alright, enough glazing you like a Krispy Kreme donut. Let’s talk about what I’ve actually been up to.

Writing-wise, I hit a challenge with the Max date night scene. I’ve said many times how important it is to me that the characters feel real, and this was one of those moments where I had to slow down and think about the journey Max and the MC have been on. I couldn’t just brush past that history, and figuring out how they move forward took some serious thought. It was tough to write, but in the end I loved how the scene turned out.

Now that all the date night sequences are written, I’ve only got a few scenes left to go before reaching what feels like a natural endpoint for this part of the chapter. I’m still considering the idea of splitting the chapter into two releases. It would give me the breathing room to keep the quality high without rushing or cutting content. I’ll be weighing the pros and cons of that over the next few weeks and will keep you updated.

Akari at the Dentist

When I started work on Akari’s date night renders, something felt off and it was driving me nuts. Then it hit me. Her teeth looked ridiculous. Most players probably wouldn’t notice, but once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it. So I spent a whole evening fixing her teeth and building out a library of facial expressions that’ll help with future renders. Totally worth it.

Up Next

This week, my focus is on finishing the last few scenes in the script. After that, I’m going all in on renders to keep the momentum going. My render rig gave me some grief this week with unexpected crashes, costing me about 15 hours of productivity. Nuii and I couldn’t track down the exact cause, so the workaround was to have Daz restart itself after every five renders. It’s been working well since, and I’m about to throw a fresh queue of over 200 renders on it today. That’ll keep the machine busy while I wrap up writing and prep the next batch.

Thanks again for all the support. It means the absolute world to me.

Cheers,
Bat