Bi-weekly status #54 (20240802)

Things are slowly getting back to normal. I’m starting to spend a bit of time sitting upright, but the standing desk has been a godsend. I knocked out quite a few animations, and am getting closer to seeing the tantalizing light at the end of the Chapter 9 tunnel.

Put the final nail in the coffin for scene 12 of chapter 9 yesterday. Whew! It was a beast. 9 animations. There are no fewer than 6 trains of story/conversation going on, and combinations of those threads depending on choices made. <sarcasm> It will be so awesomely wonderful to test! </sarcasm> Now all that’s left is clean up for scenes 5 and 7 and complete their animations…

I’ve had to back out the achievements system I added to the game a few months ago. It’s not really needed until the game is ready for listing on Steam or GOG anyway, and there were a number of issues trying to shoehorn it into the existing code and still maintain compatibility with current save games. So, as much as I hated to do it (not the least reason being all of the time I spent coding it in the first place) it’s gone for now. It’ll be back when the game goes on sale on Steam and GOG.

I’m shooting for being able to announce the chapter 9 release schedule by the next bi-weekly status update. I think I’m close enough now once more of the final animations are finished to commit to a date. Fingers crossed!

With all of my whinging about delays about being in hospital, the August 4K renders for our Patreon and SubscribeStar upper tier members got out on time. Chris and Zoey have never looked better. Literally. The combination of the tools I have at my disposal and some more experience with them is starting to pay off. September’s renders will feature: Becca and Sam. I’m not sure yet how these two will get together (since they haven’t yet met in the story) but I’m sure something will come to me.

A big hello to all the fresh faces who have recently joined our cause! Your encouragement is crucial and keeps the project moving along. If you haven’t already, please join me on our Discord and participate! There, you can find everything from lewd images, discussions about LGBTQ+ rights, reports on our daily progress, to programming tips for budding Ren’Py developers.

Step up, step up! Marvel at the product of [an amount of time slightly less than two weeks…] of hard work, encapsulated in these images!