0.6 Development Update 18 - Mini State of The Game Edition
Hey, folks.
This update will be public, sort of a mini state-of-the-game post.
The last three weeks were very frantic with life stuff, but I’ve been thinking a lot about v0.6.3. It’s a big update if we go by the numbers. It has 16000 new words (most updates are 10k words or fewer), it has a whopping 450 new renders (usually it’s closer to 200), a main story event, a new group event and a sex scene.
And I’m really, really not happy with it. The two biggest events turned into dreary exposition dumps. There are bright spots here and there, but overall the scenes are too long even after all the editing, the visuals are very dry, and it all feels wrong to me. I’ve been feeling that way for a while now, but the last update made me sit down and think real hard about the direction of the game.
I’ve been unhappy with the pace of the main story for a long time, and now and then some rough spots come up in the personal stories, but lately I feel like there’s a more general issue with the atmosphere and the very soul of the game. I don’t know if it’s the general stress getting to me, or if there’s something else, but there is a slump, and I want it to end.
I want to stop pushing for something, anything happening at the expense of everything else for a moment, take a deep breath and focus on the good vibes. The next update will be the first step towards this. It won’t be the biggest of updates, but it will add a lot of warmth to the game. The little things, the feel-good events, nothing groundbreaking, but I am certain they will make you smile. And I want to add more life to the House after that. Maybe not in the very next update, but I will try to slip in a small event or a minor activity now and then. Just something to make me and hopefully you smile.
And please, don’t get me wrong, the cozy updates won’t stop the rest of the game from happening. We’re making a lot of progress with the background chars for the future scenes. Another month or two and Naomi’s story will take a big step forward. Yona’s story is due for a big advance. Then Rae’s story, Cait’s story, etc. Furthermore, I have the main story plan drafted out and if we’ll be able to pull it off visually, it would have some pretty epic stuff in it. And even if we won’t be, it’ll still have this epic stuff in, it’ll just look janky. But believe me, good things are coming!
Speaking of good things, I’d like to mention one particular thing I’m really proud of. It is the graphics quality we manage to put out. Credit where credit’s due, both 3D artists working with me are doing amazing work, and I had a lot of mentoring from another person on the light setups. I do believe the game made another large leap forward in the last few months. By now we’re pushing the limits of the suite and the legacy models. We will keep on pushing said limits as far as they can go, but I don’t know if there’s another solid visual upgrade left in the tools that we have right now. Still, I really like how most things look now.
Finally, I’d like to hear from you. How do you feel about the game? Are you happy with the development? Is there something in particular I should focus more on? Please leave your thoughts and questions and I’ll try to answer as many of those as I can.
And see you soon!
Comments (42)
Do what you need, the girls would be lost without you, so take your time to them, the story and yourself justice. Don't drive yourself to the point where you dread working on this project!
Thank you! I sure hope I'll be able to avoid this fate, because I really want to see this project to completion.
First like the others I love this game it is excellent in a lot of ways. I've had games that were actually work to play having to remember keystrokes and how to move things etc. This is simple yet complex it makes one think how to respond to this or that situation and yet the person is totally in charge of it. I do have a few questions and excuse me if they don't seem to make sense but I'll try to keep it simple. The gallery where you unlock pictures is a neat feature of the game I truly enjoy. However are the items you have to find event driven solely so that if you miss that event you can't unlock that particular picture or are they sort of random and the game give you multiple chances to unlock the pictures? I love this game because I play it for an escape from the troubles of things today. Too much hateful and wrong things in the world and the game give me a place to enjoy something that is free of those things. Yet, the game also shows that not all the characters get along well but there is a feeling that there is hope that they will eventually find a way to live in the house peacefully without the hard feelings some of them currently have. That being said a while back you mentioned eventually the game will have some kind of end. I'm not asking for it to end until your done with it and there are a lot of questions I'd like to find answers for like does Naomie ever find out it the ship survived with her crew? Rae has been teaching Naomie how to basically guide MC to a place and I'd like to find out how the girls and the ship made out. Hopefully they survived and Naomie gets to visit as Cati gets to visit once in a while with her friends. I like the way Rae seems to be interested in what life would be if she stayed with the MC and lived on his world. What would be a very sad day in fact for me would probably wreck the game is whenever it ends that Rae and MC go separate ways I think they should become a really permanent thing and live as they say happily ever after as the rest of the characters hopefully will. I know I ran across a part of the game where Rae told MC that some in her home world would not be friendly or nice to MC so she steered him away from a visit but perhaps that could change and we find out exactly who "the lady is Rae talks about" I'll stop here as I could go on for hours and I'm sure you have some kind of game plan for the game and you've done so well so far it is a pleasure to play it. Again if it ends badly for Rae and MC relationship that will probably discourage me from playing it over. Great Game and keep up the work I'm sure there is a host of people that love this game as I do.
Ohhh... First of all, thank you. But I'm sorry, I just can't spoil so much of the story. Let's just say that most of your story concerns will be addressed. As for the image gallery, the pictures unlock after certain events, true, but there aren't many missable events in the game at all, and I don't think there's even a single picture tied to a missable event.
I've enjoyed everything that you've done for this game so far. Out of all the adult VNs I've played (which admittedly isn't many), this one has the best animation quality I've seen. I've even got my wife playing it now too. We both very much enjoy this game and the direction you're taking it, we trust you to fulfill the vision you have for it. If there were any complaints I could make, they would be very minor. For example, the continuity for repeatable scenes, i.e. in Lyriel's dishwashing bj scene, her being disgusted at the idea of having sex, despite the fact we've boned multiple times now. Love this game, always look forward to every update, no matter how big or small.
Thank you! And it's so great to hear that your wife is enjoying the game as well. Truly a family-friendly experience 😏 And yes, the repeatable scenes need a lot of work. I'm trying to fit in small edits when I can, but so far my efforts have been woefully inadequate. I'll try to do better!
I don't speak English very well, but I'll try to tell you my opinion about the game. I've been playing this wonderful game since the moment when there were only 3 characters in it (Not so long ago, but still). The game has quite convenient controls, the game has always expanded and is expanding (and I hope it will continue to expand). Good locations, well-developed characters and there is a pretty good plot. Well, what is important in this game is very good scenes of "love". Dear game developer, develop your project further and everything will be fine) Russian Russian is not very comfortable to play, and the Russian language in the game is made very wooden (like my text, made with the help of a translator). But there is one request, as a Russian person who does not speak English well, it is not very comfortable to play, and the Russian language in the game is made very wooden (like my text, made with the help of a translator).
Thank you! The thing is, the Russian translation is fan-made, and the person doing it did just the hugest amount of work to get all the 400 000 words translated. I just don't have the time to even check his translation and offer feedback, much less do a translation of my own.
Not sure how much it means to you but I usually don't like VN's sure to the large amounts of text with nothing much happening, but that is NOT the case with this game. I just got this game on the Hentai VR promo and was instantly hooked (though tbh I thought it was a VR game in a brief moment of confusion). Don't worry about the game being boring I guess it's my point, it's my favorite VN to date.
Thank you! That's the thing, I'm pretty sure we've been able to avoid text dumps in the past, it's just the last few updates that are suffering. So I wanted to be transparent about that, voice my concerns and share my plans on how to deal with this slump.
I trust your vision for the game man and appreciate the transparency. Keeping some of the focus on the good vibes seems like a great idea though. It's part of what made me so invested in the story in the first place.
Thank you! Hope you'll like the next update, then! 😀
"nother large leap forward" in regards to graphic quality? You already have the most amazing graphics and anymations... Really looking forward to it!
Well, the last one already happened with enabling subsurface scattering and blurred point light shadows, and I'm not sure that we'll be able to push things much further. At some point the limits of rasterization and legacy models just server as a hard barrier.
honestly i loved the cozy, home feeling the game gives off when it doesnt delve too too deep into the story/exposition side of things. not to say that the story/exposition isnt good of course, but i think you should take a step back and breath a lil. this is your baby, you take care of it how you think you should, man. i love the game regardless, and im sure others feel the same
Thank you! Well, I hope a breather update will add even more of that cozy feeling. And I'll try my best to add similar bits more regularly.
Going to level with you chief, getting to know how the house works was a great update and kinda of refreshing. Expositions dumps work as long it ties into whatever the main story is and it did. The update of the girls stories with the girls are going to be great, it'll be good to see those advance. And as one of my esteemed colleagues mentioned early, the small cozy events are going to give even more depth and life to the game. All in all, 10/10, does recommended to other people.
Thank you! I'm not even against exposition dumps in principle, I just really don't like how they turned out this time. I'll try to dump with more style in future updates. And yes, I hope the cozy events will turn out good.
I love this game, and basically always have. That said though, this game is yours, your "baby" if you will. You handcrafted most of the early development and a lot of the current development on it, so it's understandable if you don't like a decent bit of the game. Don't push yourself to get updates out just for our enjoyment. We may seem happy when an update comes out but ultimately our happiness lies with you and how you think the game is doing. If you think some is amiss then we probably feel something is off too. You've done a wonderful job at keeping up with what you want the game's update schedule despite what you're going through. Just do what you think is best for the game, not us. We can wait. Thank you.
No, thank you. And yes, I get what you're saying, and I'm grateful for that. But even though I sometimes do see the game as something personal, I know it is not, not really. It exists in a context, and the players are the most important part of that context for any game.
There are only a handful of games that I follow religiously and can't wait to go down to the comic store to see the next months edition on the stand. This game is one of them. I've said it before that I really like this story. I see no problem with putting the girls backstory's on hold for a while if it means advancing the main story. I would like to see some more of the intimacy between the MC and Rae. I wouldn't mind seeing more group activities (suppers, story nights, drunken confessions, etc). A lot of the foreign artists and game designers have had to deal with the fallout of the Ukraine/Russia situation (as we all have, I'm sure). In north america we tend to be insulated from some of the problems the world has encountered. We've all had personal issues that have made us take a step back from work, gather our thoughts and then get back at it. you guys are no different and we understand this.
Thank you! Yes, the last few months had been rough, but not nearly as rough as some folks still have it. Ideally, I'd like to do both main story and personal stories in parallel, but it's no happening just yet. Still hopeful!
I enjoy the game immensely, always have, and have been impressed with the changes/improvements as the game has aged and grown. If you feel that some things are amiss, do what you feel you need to to help temper things down. I know that you have been dealing with a lot, and some of what you may be feeling is an offshoot of it, and maybe some of what you created was in a desire to show some form of control over things while dealing with a lack of in things, so I can completely understand. Looking forwards to what comes for the future as you move forward and things, hopefully, become more stable for you and your team!
Thank you! And yes, you may be right about the reasons. I'm not sure about this myself, I just know that I want the game to be better, and I'll try to make this happen.
Having followed this game for years you've earned a lot of trust in your vision and the quality of your work. If you aren't happy with how something is turning out then I'll trust that and would prefer you take the time you need to make something you're happy with, even if it differs from your update schedule. Putting more small, atmospheric events and other "good vibes" things is right on target and worth doing. It's something I've wanted for a year. Completing the main cast, expanding the dev team, and keeping progress going despite changing countries have been big accomplishments.
Thank you! I'll try my best to keep at least a resemblance of normal schedule since, well, it's a sort of a promise of this Patreon. But you're right, I should do what feels right for the story, and I hope it'll improve the game in general.
I am satisfied with the updates, a small wish is there. Lyriel finally swallows my charge after helping her thanks for the updates BTW ^^ I love this game I even got once a dream from Azraesha. And for ending and stuff... Or for some reason temporarily ending the house implode and we get all in there own world magicaly and the MC still have his powers so he eatherwalks into another girl's places for wholesome cuddling and more for so much time you want.
Still a bit too early to talk about ending, but there would be a number of those for sure. And yes, the lewd events will eventually get updates with more ending options and updated lines.
My main critique is there are a lot of scenes that play out as though it's the first time you've done them. Very little variety in how a scene plays out and what is said. Aside from that, can't really think of anything that really bugs me. Overall, it's still a really good game.
That's true. Revisiting and editing older scenes to fit newer developments is a constant issue, at some point it becomes too much work to keep everything up to date, but I can do a better job for the time being.
I haven't felt anything awry or down about recent parts of the game; its still tons of fun to play.
Thank you, it could be just me, but as I said, I just really don't like how some of the latest content turned out.
I enjoy the story a lot, I haven't felt like it's suffering the last few updates but if you didn't like the direction you were going I'm cool with it. So far this has been one of the best communicated games as far as development goes, and I followed this game in the beginning because I thought it had some of the best written characters in OELVNs. Do you, man.
Thank you! I'll try to keep the development as transparent as I can.
We don't want big updates we want you to be happy.
this; a thousand times, this.
Yo I could give a rats ass about the story tbh. As long as the MC keeps living in the house and doing fun, (and *fun*) things with the girls I'll keep supporting! There's no deadline on this so you do you homie. Everything you've put out has been fire so stick with what feels right!
>keeps living in the house and doing fun I thought that was the story - I like that story.
My personal wish list is the heart warming small talk stuff, because for me, it's what makes this game so awesome and worth supporting. Just the small home life interactions. And of course all of the Rea I can handle. I think the rest of my list is pretty predictable. Rae's backstory, more magic lessons. Maybe a chance to be a magical badass. Fun stuff. Keep up the good work!
I agree with this, making everyone feel more like a family, having the MC grow their intimacy with each of the girls and learning to relate to them in their own unique ways in order to better grow the girls comfort in the house would go a long way towards strengthening everyone's relationships - at the moment it does feel like the MC is quite oblivious to the differences between everyone, and perhaps that is a result of the blank canvas so we can project onto the MC, but it would be nice if they were a tiny bit more socially adept.
I'm glad that Yona will be getting an update. I like the new Beta story. I am happy about your pace for updates. You do good work.
Thank you!