DriftyGames
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Dev Diary, 12th of May, 2023
🕑 Added 2023-05-12 11:17:51 +0000 UTCFirst of all, I hope you enjoyed the release of u4ia. I was very nervous about it as the last few weeks of rendering and testing were very stressful sleep-and-work weeks, and I didn't get to do as much testing as I would have wanted. But that's a lesson learned for future releases.
As you might have seen, the first episode was much about world-building, so there was less one-on-one time with the girls than I would have liked, but on the other hand, it's too early to go all in on the romance. But the main idea is to give you a choice between some girls in every episode with who you want to spend your time.
Free-roams
I hope you enjoyed the free-roams, which was a lot of fun to make. I don't intend to make the game roam-heavy, but for the first episode, it was mostly about introducing the feature. If you don't like them, three of them are completely skippable (both trailer cleanups can be skipped by going to the docks/dresser, and the second part of Cloud Nine can be skipped by talking to the girls directly without doing anything else).
Perks-selector
So for the bad part; which was the perks selector. It will be replaced with a more intuitive way of selecting perks from episode 2!
Feedback
If you have any comments about the release (both positive and negative), feel free to comment below and I'll of course have a look at it.
Progress
This week I've been mostly catching up on both custom renders and some much-needed r&r after some stressful weeks, which fit well with May being very birthday-heavy in our family - and for once I can actually attend these birthday parties without my head being elsewhere.
I'll be back to work Monday, where I'll be doing scene setups for the episode, go bikini shopping with the girls, and hopefully get started on a render queue.
Design one of the love-interests
In the following weeks you'll also be able to help me design/shape a new love interest, who you already 'met' if you did the Anita lewd scene (if you didn't, look at the bottom of this post for a guide). After that, we'll design Lars' girlfriend together, so it's all in your hands in the upcoming weeks.
Long-time $1 and $5 tier patrons should now have got the download links for u4ia in a private message.
Remember: the bugfix version is out. v1.03c can be accessed from the downloads page.
Have yourself a nice weekend. Enjoy the season, and stay safe out there.
// Drifty
GUIDES
How to initiate Teagan route:
Help Freddy at the docks, talk to Teagan after, and the option to "leave with Teagan" should open at the end of Cloud Nine.
How to initiate Gina/Paige route:
Help Freddy at the docks, inspect the yacht after, then left-arrow to talk to them while they are sunbathing, and the option to "leave with Gina" should open at the end of Cloud Nine.
How to initiate Anita route:
Follow Teagan route (above). At the second Cloud Nine roam, after the strip tease, immediately turning around to see Anita in trouble at the bar. Help her. Leave Cloud Nine with Teagan, and Anita will appear after saying goodbye to Teagan.
How to initiate Geneva route:
At the first trailer cleanup, go all the way outside and click on the second entrance door (left on the trailer). Clean up the main bedroom (including the bed sheets). Stay in the queue when entering Cloud Nine. Leave Cloud Nine alone, and accept her offer outside.
Opening the galleries:
Gallery 1. When helping Freddy with the boxes, after Gina/Paige is looking at him, there should be a 'womanizer magazine' on the small boat with the boxes. Click on it to open the gallery.
Gallery 2. When there's a notification on your phone (the bell), hover it with your mouse (without clicking) so the 'mug id' animation starts. Keep hovering for 2 minutes until the phone says 'gallery unlocked'. (you might have to move the mouse away from the phone and back to restart the 'mug id' animation, but the timer still runs, and it will unlock eventually).
Gallery 3. At Cloud Nine, drink four drinks containing alcohol. After the strip-tease, head to the toilet and inspect it. This will make you 'relieve yourself', and you can see the 'womanizer magazine' on the floor. Click on it to unlock the gallery.
Gallery 4. At Cloud Nine, after the strip tease, talk to the guy showing you the Electra calendar. Click on the calendar to open the gallery.
Comments
Touhara Kiminonawa
Hey Drifty, I finished the first run! Congrats again on the game :D. There are a lot of easter eggs from LoF and I love all of them. The new girls are fantastic, Sea really caught my eyes though, ready to see more of her! It's really great to be back playing your game. There are a few bugs here and there during free roam, but I'm sure you'll get through it easily. The new story really bends toward mystery which I'm already loving. Keep up the awesome work <3 I'll be trying many runs to see through this new game of yours.
Maerd
Very nice first chapter. The only "negative" is that it is rather short, but then it means the chapters will appear more often, right? Regarding the perk selector, I think you can easily make it better by making the perks cost 2 and removing the need to "learn" the arrows. All unspent points should carry over to the next selection. It would be great if you patch episode 1 more. Think about it, because there are few things you can modify to make it better. For example, the MC sleeps on the couch even if he cleans his bedroom completely after the first cleaning free roam. It would be neat detail if he sleeps in his bed if he already cleaned it. On my first and only so far run I ended up with Gina. The scene is nice but Gina's bare skin against concrete barrier looks painful... Can you make the MC a gentleman and put his clothes on the barrier for Gina? Regarding the plot mystery, maybe, it was revealed too early? Because right now we can figure out what the MC is (I guess the bad ending will be a blast :D), the purpose of the nursery rhyme, and what are the "strange dreams" and the "mom". There are questions remain such as if the MC is on a mission or just accidentally went rogue.
Ville Topi
pretty sure i'll end up regretting many of my decisions on this game again... LoF made me hate myself multiple times
Éama
It's still early but I enjoyed the first release. Keep up the good work. :)
dan
you did an amazing job, I think everyone had very high expectations after finishing Leap of faith and this was as good as we expected. I appreciate your work and can't wait for the next update.
Blacklabyrinth
I really enjoyed it. The perk selection was a little buggy, but seems like that won't be an issue for long. I will have to go back for the Anita path, Didn't realize you needed to be on Teagan's path for that. Just another reason to give it another playthrough! Great start.
Steele76
Great first chapter as usual :P Many girls piqued my interest like Teagan in your header ;)
Paladin93230
I enjoyed the first chapter. Looking forward to more. Need to spend some time with the blonde that was talking to the bouncer. She's interesting to say the least.
Don Deverald
For those confused about the perks "not working" (I was too), you need to unlock the arrows linking the perks first before selecting the perk itself.
Drifty
A quick note about selecting a LI this early, at this point you're merely deciding who to spend time with at this point, and aren't locking yourself to anyone. :)
JCodePeace
I really liked the first chapter. Though I have encountered some problems with free-roam in cleaning. When you go to the second door outside and click on the first pile, it sometimes shows the dialogue somewhere at the bottom. It is not like all the time, but at least most of the time. In regard of perks, It would have been nice to have more description at the menu of choosing them. I mean the first example, it is unclear which in-game options are opened by Sweet Talker or Loved. But other then that, I like the free roam rewards, like the one you can get going outside the bathroom at a specific time, that one is fun. Though, I didn't understand the story with Synne, I more preferred Teagan line. But overall, great work, it looks marvellous
Jay Masters
Ok sweet I didn’t know if a bug fix. I assuming knowing if Gina/Paige will be a trouple situation be spoilers heh. I have saves for both in case
Matthew Griffin
I'm happy the perks will be changed. I spent WAY too much time clicking on damn near everything in the perk screen before I figured out the mechanic. While conceptually interesting, I'm still in a 'wait and see' mode for RPG elements in a RenPy AVN. It also feels a bit jarring to have to select a LI so early in a PT. Unless you are planning for some other way to change your mind later as you learn more about the various characters.
Drifty
I'll try to include more hints into the game if you're using the perception trait. Other than that, thanks for letting me know. :)
Drifty
A few remarks about the mc, he's got some weird expressions, especially close up with shock/normal face, but now that I've gotten used to it, I'll keep myself from doing those face-shots. :) The hack-a-tron should be working fully in the e1.03c bugfix version. See Sergei's patch notes on the download page for more info on why it's shutting down. :p
Bobo Bobo
Congrats on the release, I thought it was a very strong first chapter. The renders and animations were great, and you’ve created some very interesting characters, that I want to know more about. Minor comment: I really enjoy branching, however, I suck at navigating free roams, so it took me 3-4 attempts to realise, how to access (and clean) the bedroom in the trailer for the Geneva route. While this is obviously my own problem, guides such as the one you just provided will be very helpful.
Jay Masters
Oh will Gina/Paige be a trouple path or are we able to branch that too? I liked the perks that it felt more of a role playing game. The only feedback I had of the perks was no indication you could not advance to the next row, and it kept making it sound like you should, but I mentioned that before. MC’s face I eventually got used to. I like how he isn’t a perfect Chad model face this time. Maybe this will allows more true romance where it’s not about being the perfect man. As far as branching, I will be surprised how it will be managed. The first episode looks like it will be insane with the amount of LIs that is there. And all of them look viable (not mains or side girls). Looking forward on the next one! Edit: Also the hacking function doesn’t seem to ever work. It keeps turning off after each free-roam.
Drifty
Choosing the perception trait can help you a bit with the things that are not immediately obvious (like it will give you a visual pointer to turn around to check on Anita), but you're right, there's still room for improvement on that part. Perks are... very wonky right now. I'll remake the way you select them.
MasterSav
I like the story, the characters and the game overall. I like a bit less that there is too many variations, and I think they're too much out of our control. For instance you have to see Anita right after the striptease or she already left. Not sure about the perks, first it's a bit wonky (we have to unlock 2 tier 1 to have access to tier 2?) and I don't see much use. Maybe the unknown ones upstairs will be more interesting.
RMZ
Ah I didn't think of the perception trait like that but it makes sense. Thanks!
Drifty
The perk selection screen was mostly a result of me trying to learn some more advanced scripting, but also a nice lesson for me that it doesn't have to be advanced when I can keep it simple instead. Will be completely overhauled for the second episode.
Drifty
I do agree with Anita being pushed into Teagan path is not ideal, and I may even do some extra renders to set her on the solo path as well. Though choosing the perception trait will give you more hints on not losing out on content, for example when Anita needs help at Cloud Nine, you will get a visual pointer. I will add further pointers when you have the perception trait, as it's meant to be overpowered. Free-roams are meant to be something you can spend time going through, do some scene hunting, trying to meet other people - game elements to break up a purely visual novel experience. As these are my first ones, I'd say they are far from how good they can be, but I learned a lot from doing them, and I will work on improving them for both those who like them and those who don't. Magazines/Posters are mostly meant for those who a looking for a little challenge in trying to unlock them all. They are of course not needed for anything in the story or girl progression. I very much appreciate the comment, and will have it in the back of my mind going forward.
Drifty
Thank you! Yes, me fiddling with the load/save screen four hours before release was not a good idea. :p
Blue
Enjoyed it. The perks system was very confusing though. I don’t even know if it was your intention to have some of the tiers inaccessible at this point.
RMZ
First of all, I love what you have created with LoF, one of my all time favorite stories with some of my favorite characters in this niche. I see great potential in u4ia. Really like the bump in visual quality, animations are good, story starts slow but got intriguing in the end and I definitely want to see more. Girls look great, personalities are interesting and it seems there's someone for everybody's tastes. But I also have some things I disliked, some of them things from LoF being repeated and I thought I'd share them. Free roams: Honestly, I'm not a fan of them. Not because they are free roams or there is now a limited amount of actions you can perform, that's actually a nice idea, but because there is basically no guidance or hints on what can or could happen in them. Having to do things in specific orders at specific times is basically impossible to do unless you randomly stumble upon them, like having to click the right button at the right time to even have a chance of being on Anita's route, having 3 girls being locked behind helping a dude we have just met or having to clean a bedroom and decide to stand in line. Right now I fear you will need a walkthrough to not end up on an incel PT. Magazines: Same thing as the free roams. Some of them have very obscure requirements that I know I would never get without a guide. Perks: I see the potential for different dialogue options or even routes, the connectors were a bad idea though, but you know that already :) Phone: One of the biggest pain points of LoF for me, because of the same problems I now see with the free roam: No real hints as to what you have to do or when you even have options to do anything differently. Right now it seems to go down a similar path with the hack app etc, so I'd consider some kind of notifications to help the players. Other than that I really look forward to see what you have yet to show us ❤️
Callisto
So far I love u4ia. Yes, the perk selection was a bit fiddly at first, but some trial and error quickly took care of that. The load menu bug on the other hand was quite disappointing when I wanted to resume after a feline interruption. Thanks for the very quick fix. The location on the island is quite refreshing, the whole setting is very intriguing. I was immediately captivated by the fascinating characters. There is a lot of mystery and things that remain in the dark, just enough is revealed to keep you hooked, motivated, and yearning for more. When I was forced to start over because of the load menu bug, I made a few different choices and was amazed at how completely different the experience was. The replay value of this first episode is outstanding. I'm not usually a big fan of free-roams, but I have absolutely nothing bad to say, at no point did I feel like skipping one. They were simply good and I wouldn't mind to see more of those in the future. I especially like the idea of the clock, which gives weight to one's decisions. So thank you, I had a wonderful time.
Puck
Thanks for the guides! Looks like a good excuse to do a couple more run-throughs.
