BBBen
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Update - Kim is ready for action
🕑 Added 2018-01-07 22:01:00 +0000 UTC tl;dr - According to my schedule I've got a plan to finish off LMO; this month I'll polish off Masami's daily sex scene and Kim & Fumi's as well; and I've been working on the KimIku scene.This week's image
Here's a pic from the Kim & Iku threesome that should be coming in April. I had quite a hard time with this one just getting Kimiko's expression right. This comes from a sequence of images at the start - I may have gone a little overboard and added more to the opening than I needed to, although I imagine you won't mind.
Actually, that raises a question in my mind - generally I try to spread the images out over the scene a bit, because I assume if you get them relatively condensed together then you won't take as much notice of any individual image. Am I right? How much does it matter if the images are a bit concentrated in one part of the scene? Oh, and do you still enjoy the sex responses that don't have a specific image bound to them?
The light at the end of the LMO
This week I went through the remaining endings plan for Let Me Out. While I didn't really want to, I felt I had to be firm with myself and cut out some of the ideas I had in mind for future endings. The plan had been to add at least 11 more endings in to the game, but it was just going to eat up so much of my time to do that that it would drag on for ages before I could wrap up the project. I cut that down to four new endings, which I will roll out over two more updates, and the rest of the unfinished paths will now just link back to endings that are already in the game. It's a weight off my mind to do that - according to my schedule I should now be able to have it more or less done by April, so I can focus on PAL and PAT.
I hope this isn't disappointing to anyone - I think it'll make it a lot more manageable for me to be able to give you a final version with a clear number of endings (22) - but if you don't like the news let me know in the comments below. :)
Daily sex scenes
While the day to day sex scenes are in large part in the game already, if you've played them you'll know they're not quite finished. I'm working to wrap those up over the next couple of releases. In the next one I'm planning to finish off the Masami scene, which is still mostly not in the game, but mostly ready at my end, as well as finishing off the anal sex responses in the Kimiko and Fumi scenes. I've been working on getting those ready this week and it's been going well, I think.
KimIku sex scene
The Kim & Iku threesome is coming along quite well too - I think I might have the images just about done for it at this point. At least, I have enough images done, so anything beyond what I've got is icing on the cake. That's what I was talking about with the discussion of spreading out the images above - most of my stronger visual ideas for the scene happened to be from the intro and one or two other key bits, but I do have others; the scene has a very healthy 21 pics at the moment.
It's mostly not written, but I do have some good chunks of it done, and a lot of it is programmed too (but not finished). This scene will come in the April update (scheduling!) but as that will be when I'm on holiday I'll have to have it ready before then. I think it'll be best anyway if I put out this scene as one complete interactive experience - that's always my preference where possible - so the fact that I'm holding a lot of it back is a good thing for being able to put out a great release in April.
VA scripts
I don't yet know which voice actors I'll be able to get back for the expansion pack, but I'm starting to put together some scripts and I'll try to get in touch with the PAL cast soon. I rather suspect I won't be able to get everyone back, but there's a couple that I think I'll likely be able to persuade to return. I am going to be offering money this time, which might help. I would have done so last time, but it was before the funding really took off for this Patreon campaign. :)
Anyway, compiling the scripts takes longer than you might expect - I have to not only go through and find what lines would be the best to have acted, which is a judgement that takes a bit of thought, but I also have to write up stage directions that help explain to the actor what's happening in the scene and what kind of performance I need from them. This is traditionally a bit of a bad idea in script writing, but when it comes to this kind of game script the actors need a bit of information about the scene as I can't just give them the entire text of the game.
I suppose this update is very much "lift the skirts" behind the scenes talk, so I guess I'm curious how you feel about it. I do think it's best to make an effort to be transparent about all this stuff, though. So let me know if you have any thoughts on the work and scheduling this week. Also, I want to know whether it makes a difference if the images are spread out in the interactive sex scenes! Leave a comment below!
Comments
BBBen
It's always very hard to get good voice actors; I've been very lucky so far. :) They've always deserved pay for their work - I'm glad I'll be able to do it from now on.
Philipp
I see, had been wondering how you found such talented voice actors. Please don't get me wrong, I didn't mean this as a critic.
BBBen
Well, you see the actors in past were volunteers I recruited online who weren't bothered that it was just for fun. I didn't have any cash to give at the time. Now that I do it's just been a long time since I've worked with them, so they may not be interested any more, even if it's a paying gig - not because they've got a problem with me but because it's just not something everyone always wants to do.
Philipp
First of all I appreciate the transparency, it's interesting to see how you approach things. However I'm afraid I can't give you a general rule regarding the condensed images. It depends very much on the atmosphere in a scene and how well text and image complement each other. The voice acting is great but you made the actors work for free? No wonder if they hesitate to return. Throw in a bottle of wine or something for motivation! But once again all this looks very promising!
BBBen
I guess it will be, yeah. I hadn't thought about it like that - it feels more like the end of a project than a release, since I've released a bunch of earlier versions of it already. :)
Hank Rillek
Thanks for this behind the scenes talk, it helps understanding your process a bit better. Spreading out the images a bit sounds like a good idea to me. Getting more voice lines is great, with the amount of stuff added to the game they were less noticeable. I'm glad that you've managed to plan the wrap up of LMO, that will be the first game you'll release in 2018!
