While it certainly didn't blow up, I'd call the launch of Move the Chains on Steam thus far a success. While I don't know if I'll be quitting my job just yet (I'll need to see what I'm making month to month before I start contemplating that.), this very much removes the financial burden of Daz assets and other purchases that need to be made (music/licenses, icons/svgs/etc., and things of that nature.). I've read all of the positive and negative reviews, and I've taken the criticism some have brought forward. All of it is appreciated, but it's nice to know many are enjoying it. Gives you that bit of extra motivation.
So the basis behind this post is transparency, and something of a roadmap for what's going to happen in this release cycle.
Where are you now with progress?
Rendering was done a while ago, and there's about three more scenes to write (one being longer, the rest are shorter.). Postwork is no more than two or three days, if that, even with 2000+ renders. I'll need to grab the icons for the achievements (should only take a few minutes, though). Inserting music is also rather quick. Postwork and finding the music are the beef of the work left, but shouldn't take too long as a whole.
What will be missing from Episode 3?
For Episode 3, I'll do a quick skim for the proofreading and a few playthroughs to check for bugs/errors. However, I'll be updating the script/dialogue as the update rolls out for Patreons. Meaning, there will most likely be a few spelling errors. But they will be fixed sooner than later. This is purely for getting the update out. Think of Episode 3 when it comes out as something of a beta.
Specifically for the artists/sfx being used in Episode 3, a smaller thing that'll be missing in the update is Attribution. It will be added, along with the an updated layout to the music page in-game that'll make it easier to implement the Title/Artist without a bunch of Photoshop work. The artist and song title will still be featured on the player that can be found by hovering over the top right corner of the screen.
The character menu. I just lost time to work on this between work and just the general size of this update. It will be featured in a mid-cycle update that'll add this among a number of other smaller things.
Updates to the Glossary book (button at top left of screen while in-game.). I'll be adding definition to the script/dialogue, but the glossary can be added to later. Hopefully that isn't too much of a pain point. Most of these are fairly small, so I don't think too many will be missing a lot of these.
When will this 'mid-cycle' update be coming out and what will it include from the above?
Working title for it would be something akin to an Episode 3.5. Either way, the proofreading and/or spellchecking will be done incrementally after the update.
Everything else should be added to Episode 3.5. The longest part is going to be setting up the character page, and I'm also contemplating another small subpage to reference the Achievements you earned thus far. 3.5 should realistically only take a couple weeks if I'm working on it alongside Episode 4, though. So it won't be too long.
Will I have to start from the beginning for Episode 3? Why?
Yes. However, this should be the last time for Season 1 (or any other future seasons). This update is future-proofing a lot of the stuff that would cause restarts. From smaller stuff like changing the quick menu location to the censor toggles to broken code that may cause problems later. Nothing story-wise is changing, so you'll likely be fine holding down Ctrl for a bit. Apologies for the inconvenience.
When will Episode 3 be released exactly?
Episode 3 will be released on December 3rd on Steam, alongside the topmost tier of Patreons. A big reason why I wanted to make this post was due to the shift in date. No, it's not because I won't be finished. But it's because I have to go back home (family issues) for a bit. Depending on how it goes, I might share more. I might not. It's a bit personal, so I hope some of you can understand. I won't be back until the 3rd, though. So, it'll be released then.
I'll be doing postwork on my way there, and likely some remotely. Any free time left will go toward proofreading/spellchecking.
Will future updates take this long?
Hopefully not. Unfortunately life is hectic for everyone, especially recently. It doesn't matter how well laid your plans are, they just don't go the way you want sometimes. If or when I go full time with this, you'll most likely see an uptick in speed and frequency of updates. And if it takes this long, you'll be seeing upwards of four or five thousand renders.
Going forward, I'll be changing my development style a bit and try to find something a bit more efficient. Right now, I'm Prepping Renders > Render > Writing > Postwork > everything else. I'll be playing around with Prepping renders for a scene and writing that scene while they're rendering. That way, I'm not rendering hundreds at time and writing everything all at once. Might make the grunt work a bit less tedious.
Anyways, I think that about covers it. if you have any questions, or anything else, don't hesitate to reach out or comment. :)