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Dev Blog #71 - The Long Winter
🕑 Added 2019-06-20 07:00:01 +0000 UTCGreetings everyone!
So... It's been a while since new content's gone out, huh? What you may not know (or may, if you've experienced my neurosis firsthand in Discord) is that going through a content drought is just as anxiety-inducing for me as it is boring for you. It's like being in line at the bank, or having your hand up in class but having the teacher call on everyone else for the answer except you! Or maybe it's like trying to suck a golf ball through a straw... or at least a cold Oreo milkshake through one...
I feel like I've lost you.
What's Taking So Long?
So, you may remember from one of the previous development blogs that Update 6.1.2 will be focusing on getting the comment and tracking systems built throughout the game. For me, that means going through every single line of existing content and going "Oh, Diana should comment on your underwear here." or "Instead of all this, we should have Tasha make a random comment here."
It is... monotonous. There's no easy way to go about it since every instance is based on context and needs to be handled differently. The good news is that progress is being made, and I don't anticipate the update taking too much longer.
What's Actually Coming in Update 6.1.2?
The horrible reality is that as far as the players are concerned... not a lot.
From a technical standpoint, Update 6.1.2 will be accomplishing a couple important features for moving forward:
- Placeholder comments created
- You'll see a lot of "Ava notices your cute blouse" or "Penny notices your shoulder-length hair" appearing in the game
- These are placeholders so that when the comment databases are actually written, the content doesn't actually need to be revisited at all!
- Comment calls added throughout existing content
- Tracking functions added through existing content
- How many times have you done X with Y
- Relationship status with Ava and Dakota now stored in variables
- How you know these two characters will be definable in game now
- Several minor fixes are being made along the way as well
The biggest impact to the players will be a slightly updated character creation scene as well as several new instances of the above comment placeholders, plus a few bugfixes and logical corrections. Oh, and the debug scene should get a bit of a tune-up as well.
The goal is to have Update 6.1.2 either released or nearly released by the end of this month.
Fine... And After That?
Content! Content as far as the eye can see!
As soon as this maintenance update wraps we'll be diving into a quick touch-up for Penny's recent update which will include a few new scenes, interactions, and events. Once that's done, it'll be all about John and his new content. There's been a lot of questions concerning whether or not the player will be able to do certain things with John any time soon, and I'm happy to say the answer is yes!
Starting with the next update, Update 6.1.3 - Penny Redoux, I'll be working on two major initiatives in parallel with actual content. These are the Comment Engine databases, and integration for Image Pack Support. This is going to be the plan moving forward to avoid content gaps like the one we're going through right now and I'm hoping to see a lot of positives come from it.
The will be a lot more details coming on Update 6.1.3 and Update 6.2 in the coming weeks, but for now I ask you just bear with me for a little bit longer as I wrap up this current back-end initiative.
In The Meantime
Voting for the supplementary Community Image Pack for Penny is still going on over on the Discord! We're having a lot of fun and I encourage everyone to participate.
Over on the Patreon you'll notice some adorable Sophie-chans promoting the various Backer Tiers! I intend to expand this style into post category banners in the near future as well, in addition to a general refresh to the About page. Speaking of artwork, I know it's been a long time coming but Marketing Associate backers can expect a proper artwork preview hitting within the next 48 hours. I do apologize for the delay on that!
Until then, I'm very much looking forward to getting out of the dregs and picking up the pace on getting actual content out to everyone. Thank you all so much for your patience and support!
Comments
noted
It's nice you're concerned about putting out content but we already trust you :) , also you did give us the road map so we know good stuff are on their way ^^
