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"We're definitely, uh... I think?" Game updated to 4.1.0... sort of.
🕑 Added 2023-10-31 12:30:01 +0000 UTC
Download links and full changelog on Discord.gg/RcrAdam2zH.
How are we doing today, folks? I hope you're all well. I've been silent for a few... days? Weeks? It's hard to tell. But you guys oughta know by now that if I'm too quiet, it means I'm extra focused on cooking. Here's the endgame to my edgy anime villain arc; the game has officially been updated to 4.1... sort of.
Tl;dr
For people who don't have the time, worry not. The summarized version is that the all-new bonus chapter has been released, and it is 100% polished and playable. However, releasing today comes at the cost of not finishing the gallery system yet again. And because of circumstances out of my control, I did not rework/redesign a single one of my older +18 scenes. Despite that, the UI and code for accessing and playing the new bonus chapter are fully operational and ready. To access the new content, make sure you have a save game where you've done Chloe's second scene in Chapter 3.1 and chose to go for "something more". After that, finish Chapter 4 and go through the end screen to unlock the new content.
The gallery system and redesigned scenes are being worked on for the other half of 4.1.
The not-so-summarized version.
Originally, I had some sour news. Now, I've got even worse news. It's not all bad, though. There is some really good stuff here, too, but mostly lame excuses.
Why I didn't deliver on the reworks I explicitly stated would be in 4.1.
Halfway through the process of redesigning Elena's first scene, with some four animations done, and lots of renders already baked, I realized I wasn't going to just give a fresh coat of paint to my older animations - I was overhauling the whole thing. I had to choose between stretching myself thin by making lots of scenes just a tiny bit better (and still feel unfinished and not up to my current standards), or finishing a single scene and making it a LOT better (and one of my new personal favorites). 130 of my sexiest new renders and five new animations later, I have to tell you, it was not a difficult choice to make. Though it partially breaks the promise I made to you guys, I don't think there would be a single person who would've been disappointed by it had you had the chance to see what the end result was. Unfortunately, in the past few weeks, the render farm I was using has become considerably more unreliable, and rendering the newly redesigned scenes locally on my GPU is out of the question - I've tried. I finished a few renders and then used them to do the math on how long it would take to complete the rest locally. The result? 184 days.
Losing the render farm for a full week (and another two days) was a catastrophic setback, as it completely took away my ability to render scenes using my current art style. I considered paying for a private rendering service but I can't afford it, and the ones I could are incompatible with DAZ Studio. I managed to finish roughly 60 renders for Chapter 0, which I used to update one scene for 4.1, but that was it. Though I had all the new renders for the office scene baked, I only have about 15 from Elena's adult scene, and I couldn't render the remaining ones. Also, It would've been too weird to mix the new renders with the old ones, as I've made slight changes to Elena's outfit. Bra changing color mid-scene? Nope. So for that reason, the office scene, which has some of my most dated renders, will be left untouched for yet another update.
I was already thinking of how I was going to explain to you guys that the Elena scene in Chapter 0 was all I had to show after ten months of development. It turns out I don't even have that much. The worst part is that the render server, though unreliable, is still running. With another week or two, I could've finished rendering Elena's reworked scene and have it ready for the release. But one of the major problems here is I simply do not have enough days to spare. I vowed to myself I would not take another month to release 4.1, no matter what, as MW can't wait another month for a new release, and that's why I have been at it like an absolute maniac to get it done in time. Though it sounds horrible, I'm a little proud that I managed to keep myself focused and working for 28 consecutive hours (a personal record). I can't usually keep myself focused on anything for more than five minutes.
Though the bulk of the work on the gallery system is done (cataloging unlock variables, scenes, and finishing the backend), making all of the scenes accessible through the system would also have taken me at least another week that I don't have. If Chapter 4 was an indication of anything, is that I don't mind working on something until it's perfect, but I can't keep doing this yearly update thing anymore. Chapter 4 took me 16 months to finish and it almost tanked the whole project because of that. Have I ever told you guys how much I made from it? Around 450 bucks. If I cut from that all the stacks of overdue bills and QOL shit I had to buy, the liquid amount comes down to roughly 40 bucks. And that's 40 bucks for 16 months of work. It's just not sustainable to work on a game like MW for long periods of time. It sucks. I don't like writing excuses any more than you guys like reading them, but unfortunately, I had no choice. I would've worked on 4.1 for another year if it was all up to me.
This render farm situation coupled with my own lack of resolve made an already incomplete update into an even bigger headache that I'll be doing my very best to fix in the coming months. For this one, however, though I wanted to keep running as fast as I could, my legs were already giving in. Even without all of this happening, the human factor would still have played a part in 4.1 being incomplete. Working ten months on an update focusing on a single character doesn't do a lot for morale and cohesion.
Still, despite all of that...
There's the Steam release coming up, which I pray will be responsible for some big moneys, hardware upgrades, and... new hires. I found a guy who's enthusiastic to work with me on Mad World, happens to be a close friend, and is also a badass, highly skilled 3D artist with lots of Blender experience (which I had no idea). The guy could give me a masterclass on 3D rendering and Photoshop, so I'm sure teaching him Ren'Py and DAZ Studio will be a cakewalk.
I've also been talking to a skilled Python programmer with thorough professional experience who handles databases for companies. Also very enthusiastic to work with me on MW.
I've also received considerable upgrades to my hardware, which I'll go more in-depth in an upcoming post.
To wrap it up...
Though the new content is here and has undeniable substance, the fact that I haven't been able to come through with the gallery system and full reworks for two years now is shameful, at the very least. There's little for me to do about that but to apologize for not making good on my word and reassuring you guys that I'm undoubtedly committed to getting it done. It's been a challenge, even without external factors working against me. I've been tested in many ways and don't always have the strength needed to pull through. I guess the only promise I can really make here is that I'll keep trying. I'll be counting this update as unfinished, and that's why it's marked as 4.1.0 WIP. I'll keep working on the final cut of this version as soon as I finish writing this post.
In the next few days, I'll be making another post, and that will be one of the big ones. Probably the one I've been drafting for the past couple of months, where I'll go into detail about development and the Steam release, which is pretty huge for the project.
For the time being, I hope you guys will enjoy this update just as much as I enjoyed making it.
