Dev Update! 3/18/24

Hey, friends! How's everyone doing this week?

First, a quick state-of-things update: Current render count for Chapter 9 stands around 650. Of those, roughly 600 are in the script, with the remaining 50 or so being setup/test renders for scenes occurring later in the chapter. I'd planned to put out a new test build for $15 supporters yesterday, but realized I needed some renders to finish up a scene. As is typical for me, I thought, "Hey, this won't take too long!" Six hours later, I'd posed just over 50 new renders. As of this morning, they were still processing. Being that I'm stuck at my day job all day today, I'll have to get the new build done tomorrow. I've already got all the code checked, and the vast majority of the images in place. So, it shouldn't be too much of an ordeal.

As you can see above, I also started working on some early test renders for a scene featuring the one and only Viola Pavlischeva! These were done mostly just to test lighting, costumes, poses, etc. You can see Viola's got a little skin poke-through in her shoulder, which has been an issue before. So, I'll address that before moving forward.

It's also been fun to return to a set I've used before, and see how much I'd borked the lighting, etc. back then. This time around, the dressing room is way brighter, the lights have a soft pink tint for warmth, and I think it just generally looks better, while really changing nothing but the lighting. I also plan to address that corner of the wall, where the textures don't line up. See, Neon's learning! ;D

Now, for a slight bummer, I want to address the future of Friends Indeed, and its continued existence on Patreon. If you're a $5 supporter you can skip this bit, as I've already talked about it.

Basically, Patreon recently updated their terms of service/content policy with some new restrictions. To wit, "It is paramount that Adult/18+ creators demonstrate consent in all works  (real or animated; photo, video, written, audio) between adult  participants or characters; specifically, a freely given, specific,  informed and unambiguous indication of consent by a statement or by a  clear affirmative action. Additionally, participants and characters must  be able to give consent (i.e. not be under the influence of alcohol,  drugs, hypnosis, blackmail)."

Longtime supporters will likely remember that I made the decision many, many months ago to basically develop two games in tandem -- Friends Indeed, which is vanilla in terms of content, and designed for Patreon, and my unnamed game, which has content that's a bit more risque, and is supported by another subscription platform better suited for its subject matter.

I felt confident that Friends Indeed would comply with all of Patreon's rules, and developed future content/storylines with that in mind. But, the new restrictions have kind of thrown a wrench into my plans. For one thing, people drink and do drugs in my universe, and sometimes that leads to erotic acts. So, do I need to omit Ashe's date scene, where she had some wine and a cocktail? Do I need to remove Risa's office scene, as she'd smoked weed and taken a study drug beforehand?

Then there's a villainous character like the newly-introduced Lucien, who clearly has a thing for exploiting women -- which is a bit hard to effectively portray, if every sexual action needs to show "freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous consent." I mean, I do my best to frame it off-camera and non-explicitly as possible. But, is that enough? Who knows. At one time, it was enough just not to glamorize or portray those acts in a positive light. So, I planned the chapters with that restriction in mind -- but now there's a new restriction.

As a result, I feel a bit stuck at the moment, and I'm trying to figure out the best way forward. It's a little dispiriting, to be honest. For now, I'm just going to move ahead as planned with the next update. But, once it's completed and I've paused pledges to take my planned hiatus, I'm going to do a bit of soul-searching and see if it makes sense for me to keep Friends Indeed on this platform. Patreon's been very good to me, and I really love the community I've built here. But, at some point it might just make more sense to divorce Guy's story from this site entirely, and use this spot for something else, which might be a better fit for Patreon.

Okay $5+ supporters, you can come back now.

So, that's where things stand at the moment. I'm going to continue working on the chapter as planned, and deal with what comes next once I go on hiatus. 

In terms of the actual content of Chapter 9, I'm very excited! We get to see a ton of the love interests in this one, there's a big cliffhanger, a lot of dramatic developments.. It's going to be fun! I'm thinking the total render count will end up around 1200+, which means I need to get my butt in gear a bit. But, even if I find the deadline slipping, I'm going to resist the urge to push this one out early. I feel like it really deserves to be played in one installment, without being broken up into chunks. Plus, people get mad at me when I put out small updates, anyway.. :'D But rest assured, I'll be here every week to keep you in the loop.

I'll leave you all that to chew on. As always, take care of yourselves, and thank you for your support!