Dev Update! 9/23/24

Hey, folks! Hope you're all doing well this week! The weather's changing here in my part of the midwest, and with that comes the return of my regular sinus issues. I've currently got so much pressure behind my left eye that it's just constantly watering. Which is most un-cool. But, nothing that a hot compress, a neti pot, and some mentholatum ointment can't solve!

Annoying health issues aside, work on Chapter 10 continues. At present, I'm done with the first 1/3 of Mason's shopping scene, which sees the player returning to The Posh Pit, introducing Mason and Viola, and taking a phone call of some importance. This section got a little annoying, because I was kind of clumsy with some of Viola's variables the last time we saw her.

So, I had to clean up some of that code at the start of this chapter, and then assign and re-assign some variables, to more accurately and simply track her disposition towards the player, and the actions the player's taken to that point. To make things worse, I forgot the clothing store set is weirdly slow to render. Despite my best efforts to optimize it, most of the renders took between 25-30 minutes, and a few even stretched to 60. Madness! It's exceedingly rare that any of mine take even 20 minutes, and I like to keep them closer to 10.

Those long render times contributed to a little rendering hiccup last night, where my PC went to sleep while RenderQueue was actively processing images. So, instead of waking up to 30 fancy new renders, I woke up to.. 2. Hence why I only have one image to share, today. I have more, but I'm trying to keep certain things a surprise for this chapter. All that said, I changed my PC's sleep settings and re-started the queue before going to work this morning. So, I'll hopefully return home to find some fresh renders waiting for me. And after that, we'll likely never return to The Posh Pit again. :'D

With that first 1/3 of Mason's shopping scene done, I'm now moving into the next bit, where the player helps select some fashionable new duds for his ward. These dress-up scenes are always fun, since they're relatively low-effort, but high reward. I mean, who doesn't like to see a character cycle through an assortment of sometimes sexy, sometimes comical new clothes? Plus, it's a nice way to have a fun, dynamic conversation scene, while one of the characters is in a state of undress. I'm already into the renders for this section, and so far, so good! Kinda hoping to finish it up tomorrow, honestly.

Once that second section is done, I'll be doing the small wrap-up to that scene, where the player will have another opportunity to hire Viola as his maid, pay for the clothes, and drop off/pick Mason up from the optometrist. Then, I just need to do Mason's ero scene, and I'll be done with Mason's content for the chapter. With that, 90% of the update will be in the bag, with only Gabby's content remaining, and a pending release date for mid-October.

I'll leave you with that, for today! But as always, take care of yourselves, and thank you for your support!