stonefoxstudios

Chasing Sunsets Chapter 2 (0.3) is done! *Updated*

**UPDATE**After talking to Kent, we feel that pushing the day one access to the Engineer Tier made no difference on how quickly our update leaked. Based on that, we'll be reversing that policy. This was always about reaching the largest possible audience, and excluding our $1 supporters or forcing them to download from pirate sites was not the answer.Kentyrr and I are pleased to announce that we hit our target release date, and that Chapter 2 is now available for download to our Engineer Tier and above. Deckhand Tier will receive links to d...

Home Stretch to Chapter 2 Release

When Kentyrr and I started this, we never thought we'd devote so many more hours to it than we do our day jobs, but we do!Chapter 2's art is finishing it's final render phase as I write this, and I have most of it already integrated with the script.Tonight, Kent and I will do our first full play though the chapter frame-by-frame and try to identify any art gaps, continuity issues, plot holes, or other errors, followed shortly after by test release to our beta crew.As of right now, Chapter 2 is about the same size as Chapter 1 in she...

Chapter Summary Feature

As promised in my last post, please find the above video detailing the chapter summary.One of the things that bothers me as an avid VN player myself is that when a development cycle lasts months, it's easy to forget details of where I left off when new content is released..A method of helping players re-acclimate to the story would be to allow the player to pull up the summary of the last update's playthrough at the beginning of a new chapter. It also felt like a good idea to let the player know what their choices amounted to at the end...

Some Updates

Happy April, everyone!Chapter 2 is moving along nicely with the last "difficult" scene from an art perspective fully rendered and complete. Remaining art is primarily conversational, and should go comparatively quickly.We're gunning for a Chapter 2 release no later than May 7, which hits our 90-day development cycle goal.With that said, we are going to make a minor adjustment to the patron tiers going forward. Since we believe patrons deserve a somewhat longer "exclusivity" period than 3 hours, we are going to move the game ...

Chapter 2 Check-In!

Today is something of a milestone for us, as our most challenging scene of the update is behind us. It feels like a good time to break down our current progress level for the chapter.As stated previously, the achievement system is ready to go, and the end-of chapter summary is looking pretty sweet as well. Hopefully we'll be able to share a preview video of that in the next week or two.Below is where things stand at the moment. We have about 600 images for the chapter rendered, post-worked, compressed, and folded into the game. That said, a...

Dev Update - Chapter 2 Progress / Achievement System

While time is really flying for us at SFS, we know that this probably isn't the case for those of you waiting patiently for the next installment.Kent is currently working his way through the most demanding scene he's had to do so far. Suffice it to say that low light, wet skin, and confined spaces where nearly everything deforms under pressure adds significantly to the challenge, and as such we're far from our peak number of renders per day at the moment. For this, we figure quality will be appreciated far more in the long term than...

Chasing Sunsets v0.2b (Final Bugfix)

Here is the final update to the Chapter 1 release, and the last revision until Chapter 2 is released. There is no new content, and this primarily correcting the few spelling/grammar errors that have been reported since 0.2a, a few code issues that caused the game not to execute properly after being decompiled, and it repairs two minor image issues in the scene/image galleries.There is no reason to download this if you have a saved game in 0.2, or 0.2a that you're happy with, this just satisfies my OCD, and gives us a cleaner launch pad to b...

Chapter 2 Development Update

Spring is nearly here, and a month to the day after the release of Chapter 1, we are going strong on Chapter 2 development. Currently, the chapter sits at 70% written, with over 300 images rendered for the next installment.The heart of Chapter 2 really centers on two scenes, and each of them will be challenging for different reasons. One will require rendering more different characters in a single scene than we have had to previously, and the other...Well, you'll see. ;-)So far, Chapter 2 has been pretty smooth sailing. We have had none of ...

Dev Update: Patrons, Livestreams, Patches, Features, Oh My!

**Updated to add links to 0.2a with Linux Distro and Bug Fixes**Predictably, Kent and I did a pretty piss-poor job taking a week off after launching our first chapter. I immediately got to work writing Chapter 2, and Kent began pulling together the asset inventory to build our scenes right away.While this was happening, we broke a threshold we never thought possible. Between Patreon and SubscribeStar, our little game has over 300 patrons now, and we are still in a state of shock. We are consistently blown away by the support we get from each of...

Chapter 2 Plans and Dev Livestream 2/20

This week, Kent and I are going to take a bit of a rest before we dive into Chapter 2, which will be entitled "Truth and Consequences."Remember, it has been five years since our MC left home, and he's been largely disconnected from the events that took place in Boston while he was away. By the same token, much of what the MC has experienced in those five years is a mystery to others in his circle as well.The upcoming chapter will deal with how the player chooses to approach the mutual misunderstandings between himself and Jaye, and ...

Chasing Sunsets 0.2 (Chapter 1) Available to Patrons!

Chapter 1 has arrived! Thank you all for your patience as Kentyrr and I refined our workflow and fed our Cyberpunk addiction.Below, you will find the Mega links to the PC and MAC versions of Chasing Sunsets. Here are a list of feature improvements you can expect in this episode that opens up the main story branches we'll begin to explore in Chapter 2: Discord Rich Presence Scene Gallery Image Gallery 1400 new renders (Well over twice as many as the Prologue) Improved, cleaner UI with hotkey show/hide Four custom assets/environments you won&...

The Last Push - Chapter 1 Is Imminent!

Our release date is rapidly approaching, and Kent and I are as tired as Alex is in the preview image above.I promised a date on the last update, so our goal is Sunday February 7th. It may be sooner, but we want to be sure we have a little cushion in case beta finds something we can't fix super quick.Kentyrr has two scenes left to pose art for, and there are a few last tweaks to implement before releasing Beta 0.2e to our testers.So, here's what to expect: We've upped our game in production values, and we've delivered a significa...

Stay with Ren'Py 7.3.5 or move to 7.4.1?

All,The vast majority of Ren'Py VN's launch on the tried and true Ren'Py 7.3.5 framework. On the last day of 2020, Ren'Py 7.4.1 launched with significant improvements, including a model-based renderer and the correction of a number of bugs that can cause development headaches.That said, 7.4.1 does come at a cost: It no longer supports Windows XP and requires a minimum MacOS version of 10.10.Before making a decision on a framework change like this, we figured we'd poll our patrons on whether this change would impact them or n...

Dev Bits - Weekly Highlights

COVID strikes Stone Fox. Kentyrr was introduced to the pandemic a short while ago, they hit it off, and now they're a couple!While this may seem like bad news, it's a mild case, and he's been quarantined. With his art rig, This means he's been tearing through scenes at a faster pace, though we try to make sure he doesn't overdo it and gets plenty of rest.Beta 1 feedback was very positive, and we've incorporated a few changes based on feedback, but nothing that adds significantly to the remaining work.We did find an issue...

Chapter 1 Credits - Opt Out/Customization

As Chapter 1 approaches release, the current plan is to add all Patron names to the closing credits crawl. I typically do this by scraping the Patron list and adding the names I see there.We will NOT add names which appear to be personally identifying - Meaning, a real name or some other detail by which you could potentially be identified.If you do not want your name in the credits, or wish to have it appear differently than your Patreon name, either send us a message or post your preference below. Thanks again for making Chasing Sunsets a real...

Beta 0.2b Out to Testers - Other Notes

As Kentyrr and I barrel into the home stretch for Chapter 1, I just wanted to announce that the fully-scripted beta is out to select testers for feedback and focus testing.The story is somewhat denser than the average Adult Visual Novel, and we've seen from previous feedback that this is somewhat polarizing, particularly for people who feel let down that there's as much story as sex. As such, we do try to walk the line and we view the feedback phase as our last chance to modify the narrative if we've sailed off the map.Kent is avera...

The Big Happy New Year Dev Update

Wew, what a marathon!Chapter 1 is now playable beginning to end with all choices, consequences, point tabulations, and dialogue fully scripted.Kentyrr's been going nuts on the art, and upped his quality game by an order of magnitude. Seeing the art in screenshots is one thing, but seeing it play out in context with dialogue is a whole other experience.So, for those of you patiently waiting, this is where we stand as of today: As stated, the game plays completely through Chapter 1 from beginning to end, with several scenes waiting on art. Se...

Holiday Update

Well, Cyberpunk 2077 came and went. When Kent and I started this project, we figured we'd take a month off for development to play a game we've both really looked forward to. The good news for all of you patiently waiting for Chapter 1 is that we only took a week. Even with the "time off," Kent has generated another 150+ renders for Chapter 1, and I'm cooking off another 20 or so tonight.The story is moving forward briskly, but we have a major event left to build art for before the chapter is complete.One of the events we ex...

Chasing Sunsets Holiday Render Series

Quick Update

This last weekend, Kentyrr was prolific, generating almost 80 renders for Chapter 1! I'll be folding these into the game tonight and looking for image gaps that would require supplemental art. Then we'll start working on the first of this episode's "big scenes."My intent is to have to chapter playable up to the current art either tonight or tomorrow AM so we can release our first beta after this next scene is complete.While the DAZ Studio bug that is causing us some issues with certain scenes has not been resolved, we've...

Chapter 1 Dev Check-In

Happy Sunday everyone!Work is proceeding apace on the chapter 1 update. Kentyrr and I have been focused on the middle section of the update with a ton of progress, especially in art as our render factories have begun kicking out images at an amazing rate.We have two more scenes to complete before our beta 1 is released to testers!There does remain a bug in the current version of DAZ which is causing us some headaches with specific scenes: In short, iRay crashes if a plane intersects another object. We use planes for billboard crowd assets and w...

Chapter 1 Development Update

Happy November everyone!It's been an eventful month for Kentyrr and I as we drive forward on delivering Chapter 1. This has been a very different experience for us since when we were developing the Prologue, we were doing so without a deadline.On that front, we've had a series of setbacks and victories which have kind of balanced each other out. Lack of certain assets: Commissioned customs Issues with synchronized DAZ settings after update to beta: Fixed Long render times in one environment: Added additional lightingAdditionally, I'...

Dev Update: Chapter 1 Progress

First of all, Ken and I would like to thank everyone who attended our Livestream last Saturday! We had some really good questions, a few really bad ones, and a few we just can't answer without spoiling some plot elements.That said, the pressure's on now! At 180 patrons and growing, Ken and I feel like we've made a little ripple in a very big pond with the Prologue. We're pushing each other every day to deliver even more of what you loved about 0.01 and to streamline around the things that didn't resonate as well.As stated du...

Stone Fox Studios Livestream - 10/10/20 @ 3:00PM UTC

Happy October, everyone! Here we are nearly two weeks after the release of 0.1 and Stone Fox is already hard at work on Chapter 1.Please join us this Saturday for a Livestream where the developers will answer any non-spoilery questions you may have, as well as briefly introduce some new characters and discuss development progress on the next update!Speaking of introductions, please take a moment to welcome our new Discord admin and Livestream host -- Xor from our friends at Thunderline Studios!Also say hello to our new (and first) Discord moder...

Chasing Sunsets v0.1a

This is a bugfix build.All, since the game has released, there have been a number of issues identified. v0.1a addresses the following: Typos in script corrected, some awkward dialogue cleaned up. Custom mouse pointer removed. It was causing mouse lag on some platforms. Approximately 20 images were somehow compressed to a lower quality than the rest. These have been re-inserted at full quality. Stat bar customized to match textbox style.There is no new content here, so if you didn't find the above to be problematic, then wait for 0.2 which w...

Leak of Legends

It's been a pretty crazy weekend for Ken and I. Thursday night we released the Patron build of 0.1, and three hours later it had leaked to the pirate sites.Ken and I apologize that the patron period of exclusivity was so short. We believe we understand how this happened and how to prevent it from happening next time.It seems like reaction to our initial release was generally positive, and as they say in marketing, all publicity is good publicity.Much more importantly, it seems like patron reaction was generally positive, and that gives Kent...

Today IS the Day!

Enjoy! and don't forget to use the #bug-reports channel on discord to report anything that isn't working properly.PC VersionMac VersionWell, to say that we underestimated the amount of work a 0.1 release would require is an huge understatement. As we moved forward, we just kept seeing things we wanted to do, and so we did them.At about 3:30AM PST I burned our release candidate beta and our beta testers have been providing feedback throughout the day. There were a few minor bugs identified, which have been mostly corrected, and Kentyrr w...

What Day is It? Release News and What's Next

Kentyrr and I been burning the midnight oil daily to hit our September deliverable on schedule, and things are lining up well! If all goes well, we will have two scenes left to complete before the end of the month: One of them is relatively short and already partially rendered, and the other is somewhat longer, but critically important to the story and may require up to 60 renders on its own.Since the last post, we have finalized nearly 100 new renders, completed the script and dialogue, and folded sound and music into the build where art is co...

Dev Update: Beta 0.1h Complete - Final Sprint!

Great news! Last week, as promised Beta 0.1h was released to beta testers, and the response has been very positive!Kentyrr and I are working diligently on the final content update for the 0.1 release with one of three scenes fully rendered and dialogue written through to the end.Music and sound has been layered in through the existing content, and that's surprisingly proven to be the most challenging aspect of development for me yet.Sound and music files are usually far too loud by default to be used in Ren'Py, even with the volume slid...

Version 0.1 Progress Update

I try to make a daily update in the Discord #general channel, but will likely limit Patreon update posts to once every week or two to spare you email spam.Work is moving ahead on schedule, with no setbacks (knock on wood) in the past two weeks.We are still shooting to launch in September, barring any surprises.As of September 1st, Patreon will be set to "Bill Ahead" mode. No current patrons should get double-billed, but if you do, please message us and we'll process a refund.As a special "thank you" to our early backers, Sto...