Dev Log : Achievements

The next few days before release are going to be about 2 things:

1 - Testing. Testing. Testing.

2 - Finishing a few achievement renders.

So what are these? Well, call them what you want : Achievements. Trophies. Gallery Images. Unlockables. Or whatever fancy name you want to call them.

When playing in Ironman Mode the choices you make as you work your way through the VN can sometimes unlock an achiev ... ahh you know the score .. insert whatever name you want.

Some of them are unlocked when you "go against the grain". Some are unlocked for fun. Some are unlocked to celebrate a game moment.

The images are a playful take on the moment in the VN that unlocked it by representing the characters involved in some historical / fantasy setting where they portray what happened at that moment.

They'll be about 15 to unlock by the end of Chapter 2.

I've chosen to do it this way for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it allows me to release the brake somewhat and open up the throttle from an arty sense. Doing a VN requires a different approach to rendering. It can take me 4-6 hours at times to set up a scene (not including rendering time) when I'm doing my own individual renders to post on Deviant Art, for instance - but of course, that's impossible in a VN when there are 100s or 1000s of renders involved so you have to go with a more general lighting set up.

So doing these images allow me to put my feet up, relax and do what I enjoy doing most - knocking up fun and well set up scenes and then rendering them out.

Secondly, doing them in this quirky way might give you the encouragement to get them all unlocked. Instead of a gallery made up of already seen images from the VN or extra little scenes which are more of the same - hopefully, in the way I'm doing it will be appreciated and will give those completionists among you reasons for multiple playthroughs.

And the reason for that is that you're not going to unlock them all in a single play through. Some choices in the VN unlock different images depending on what you choose .. so it would be impossible to do in a single play through.

And remember - they are ONLY unlocked in Ironman Mode which is how Behind the Curtain is recommended to be played (certainly the first play through). Going through the VN NOT in Ironman Mode won't unlock the achievements.

I've got a couple of more to add .. finish the testing (and hopefully not finding any game-breaking bugs at this stage!).

And then we'll be ready to go!