Hey all,
Bringing this dev-note a little earlier in the month this month, as I have some things to talk about. First of all, and this is sad news, but I don't see a release being out this month. I have hopes we can make a September release, but honestly I'm not going to promise that either. The size of episode 11 has honestly been a kick in the teeth, and it's been so hard to get through, but things are progressing, which I'll explain in more detail below. The thing that has annoyed me the most about this update is I said not too long ago that future releases would be much quicker and I'm working on making the episodes smaller but still feel full of content, but then this episode comes along and it's so big it makes me feel like I'm just a liar, and I apologise for that. That being said, let me fill you in on what's going on with The Cabin, and various other projects;The Cabin - Episode 11
So I finally finished the script work! It took me a long ass month to do, and most of the delays were because of that. I say it's finished, but I still need to do achievements for Steam, sound effects, music, animations, and other little things that I can't really do until I have all the images done. I keep saying how most of the delays are because of the size of scene 6, whose details I can now share a little better since I have the script finished. So episode 11 currently has around 770 renders. I can't give an exact number, as some may be added or taken away, but scene 6 on its own accounts for 560 of those renders. That's over 72% of the episode in one scene. That being said, the scene does have multiple versions depending on previous choices made, & it's pretty much 4/5 scenes pushed into one, but they had to be put into one scene, as they all run the same variable.
I also messaged Crab this morning and introduced a new way of tracking render count so we don't run into this issue again. I'm limiting future releases to 300 renders max! This may push the total episode count up, but I'd rather have 3 more episodes than 6 month release windows.
Adverse Effects 2
I have a little news about Adverse Effects 2, and it might piss some people off. But I have decided to put it on pause for the foreseeable future. I've finished all the script work for it, and it just needs the art doing, but since my focus was on The Cabin and WTHI the last few months, I just haven't had any time to get into the art for AE2. That being said, there is a reason I'm pausing AE2 for the foreseeable future, and that reason is below...
Nordstrums Treasure
As you may or may not remember, a few months back I announced a secret project I was working on, and while working on that I realized something... I haven't touched Nordstrums Treasure in almost a year. Which I hadn't noticed, but it saddened me a little because NT is what AE was supposed to be. NT was supposed to be out in place of AE, but for the past year it's been sitting on a shelf gathering dust, which is a shame because (and I might be blowing my own horn here) I think NT is a far superior game to AE. Which is why I've decided I'm going to pause AE2 and instead focus on getting NT out. Even though AE2 is much smaller than NT, AE2 is still many months of art, and it'll be even more months of NT sitting on a shelf. Not to mention, I can guarantee by the time AE2 is done, I'll already have the script for AE3 finished, and NT will sit for longer, and I'll never get it done.
That being said, once episode 11 of The Cabin is out, I plan to take a week away from The Cabin and focus on getting a workable demo out for NT. The script and art are done, but I need some time to put it together and get it working. I don't know what the demo will consist of yet, though; it'll either be the prologue on its own (which is around 125 renders) or the prologue and day 1 (which would be a total of around 500 renders). Again, I have the art and script already done for both; I just don't know how long I want the demo to be, as the game is broken down into 7 days, so would releasing the prologue and day 1 be too much? I'd rather release too much than too little, plus day 1 has some sexy scenes too, so it might get you guys more excited for it 😛
The Secret Project!
I'm not going to talk much about this, and I don't want people getting excited by it; it's nothing amazing, it's nothing that'll rock the boat, and it's nothing that'll take up any of my time. Technically speaking, the work for this has been done for many years; it just needs a little more time to do something, but I can't say what that something is, or it'll ruin it. That being said, since all my focus right now is on The Cabin, I'm having to delay this project by a good number of months. I really thought I'd have it done the first month I announced it, but boy was I wrong; I forgot just how big it is. But again, please don't be excited or waiting for this; it isn't worth your excitement, so don't be disappointed that it's delayed.
The New SUPER DUPER Secret Project!
Alright... don't judge me too hard... But I started a new project. This one is super secret, like top-level clearance kind of secret. I'm not even telling Crab what this one is. I want to make sure I get it right and get enough done before announcing it. But just know, I am super excited about this project. I haven't been this excited for a project since I first started working on The Cabin. Like I'm literally giddy when working on it, which I haven't been giddy about anything in many, many years. I know once I announce this project, and you see what I've done, a lot of you will be just as giddy as me! I just can't exclaim how excited I am for it. I've been working on it for about a week now, in my spare time, and in that 1 week I've gotten so much done, and I'm just smiling from ear to ear when working on it. But that's enough about that! I'm being awfully talkative about it for something that's top-secret to the highest levels.
But I will finish by saying working on this project is not taking me away from any other projects or from The Cabin. Right now I'm in the planning phase, which takes no time at all. I've maybe done a solid... 6 hours of actual non-stop work on it over the past 9 days. I will have more details on this project either next month or the month after, though, once I get more done.
August 4K Winner!
This month's 4K winner was... Grace... and Hazel 👀I hadn't voted in the poll myself, which I often do, so I could have broken the tie but decided not to. This month's 4Ks will consist of Grace solo, Hazel solo and Grace/Hazel together (probably not full lesbian action though).
But I've rambled enough. If you're looking for a TL;DR... don't ask me because I can't be bothered to re-read it all either. I will possibly have another dev note near the end of the month too. Once I have a better grasp and understanding of the art for episode 11.