Development Update #9 - Chapter 3

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May marks the start of the third month of development, and this weekend I reached 934 total renders. Everything is going really well so far, no major issues. We're getting close to the halfway point of the planned render count.

I'm happy with how Chapter 3 is turning out.

On the technical side, things have improved a lot. Every render in Chapter 3 is being made in 4K, lighting is better, character skin looks better, overall, everything has leveled up. Of course, I'm still very critical of my own work, and there are some early renders I'd like to redo.

But I'm actively fighting that urge 😂 I think it's a trap. The renders are already good, and chasing "perfect" lighting or tiny details can easily turn into an endless loop of redoing things over and over again. I made that mistake back in Chapter 1 (I kept reworking renders constantly because I was learning as I went, discovering new tricks, and wanting to apply them everywhere).

At the time it made sense. Now not so much. At this point I feel like I have a solid level, and redoing renders just to chase perfection isn't a smart use of time. So I'm sticking with progress. I'm very happy with the technical side of Chapter 3.

Story-wise, I'm also feeling good, but I won't lie...2000 renders is quite limiting. Trying to balance character development, NSFW content, and overall story progression within that limit has been challenging. Some cuts have already been made, and more will probably happen.

But that's part of the process, and I think I'm doing a good job balancing everything.

Looking ahead to Season 2, I'm considering going beyond the 2000 render mark. It really depends on whether I can upgrade my PC. I'm trying to save every penny I can so Season 2 can be longer while still keeping development time reasonable.

Now, on another topic, translations.

I've been asked a lot for translations into different languages, you know, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, German etc. And hmm... look, I don't know if I'm gonna do it.

I was looking yesterday at ways of translating. There are programs and tools that do the job, but I'm not really convinced.

First, it takes a lot of time. Managing different languages is very time consuming. And also, the translations from these tools feel very robotic, they just don't do a good job. I like to keep control of what is being told and how it's being told, and these tools are not good for that.

For now at least, the only language that will be available is English. I'm sorry if that's disappointing, but I'm just not really happy with the translation methods right now.

I promise I will look into translations in the future, but in a more professional way.

Hope you all have a great week.

—pixelend 🧟