Hey, friends! Hope you're all well this week!

First, I'm doing to re-post something I'd posted to my most recent Sneak Peek feature. So, $5+ subs can skip the next couple paragraphs. :'D

I got a lot of very kind (and slightly concerned..) messages after my last (apparently cranky) Dev Update, which felt the need to reassure me that I was doing well at this whole thing, and that I shouldn't let the words of naysayers get to me. I really, really appreciate all that! But, I wasn't trying to be a downer! :'D I was trying to turn a negative into a positive, and really talk about the whole dev process, in a way I don't ordinarily. But, sometimes my natural tendency to sound like Droopy Dog comes out, and the whole thing apparently reeked of a dev on the verge of laying down and dying.

Let me assure you, that's note the case! Still, I appreciate the outpouring of support! I even heard from some fans who were commenting for the first time, which is always cool.

Alright, back into the fun stuff! I'm brushing up against the 300 render mark this week, which is always a nice milestone. I think the total is like.. 294? So, not 300, but close enough for government work, as the saying goes! I wish I was a little further along, but it's still going pretty well. I'm hoping I can get through Viola's scene this month, which really only leave Gabby's scene for August.

Speaking of Gabby, I did a little just-for-fun render of her, which you may've seen if you're active over on the Discord.

And while I'm posting Discord stuff.. Over there, I recently talked a bit about a comic I'm writing. I won't get into the details, but it'd be kind of a romantic/sexy/mildly smutty little book, which would alternate between a more realistic style I'd use for the sexy bits, and a cartoony style I'd use for the day-to-day. This isn't something I'll have time to work on for quite a while, but it's been fun to kick around. Plus, a lot of people don't know I was a traditional/2D artist, before I chained myself to Daz Studio, and I do like to show off when I can.

That's really all I've got for you folks, today! I'm going to keep my nose to the grindstone for a bit, trying to push through these next couple scenes. Once those are done, I'll be feeling a lot better about making that August release.

Until next time, take care of yourselves, and thank you for your support!

Hey, friends! Hope your week's off to a great start!

I've been hard at work for the past few days, and recently crossed the 250 render mark for Chapter 10. Not too much to say about it right now, aside from the fact things are going pretty smoothly. With any luck I'll be around 700 renders by month's end, and close to bringing this update together.

But, since I have to talk about something today, I'll talk about an interesting review I got recently. This player was a little irritated at my 'slow' progress in terms of putting out chapters. Which is.. Fine, I guess! I disagree, but whatever. I think I do an admirable job of getting this thing out the door, as I've never wanted to be a two-updates-a-year dev. But, I know there are games out there with a team to support them, or a game style that lends itself to quick updates. I've mentioned before that if I made a game that was first person only, with purely cosmetic choices, I'd probably be updating monthly. :'D

But! Agree to disagree! What I did take some issue with, was the way this reviewer basically broke down the game in terms of playtime, divided it by the number of days that have passed since the game launched, and came to the conclusion that I'm only producing one minute of gameplay, per work-day. Now, let's set aside that this was based entirely on their own gameplay experience, which will differ considerably based on the choices the player makes, their reading speed, if they replay the game to make different choices, etc.

Let's also put aside that I have a full-time career that sees me work an average of 60+ hours week, that I make time for hobbies and enrichment (reading, exercising, working in my garden), and that I also need to sleep, eat, and occasionally take a week-long vacation. Or that the scope of my 'job' as a developer means doing community engagement, updating my platforms, programming new builds of the game, etc. Or that there was a big gap from the time I launched the game, and when I began active development on Chapter 2, as I had to get a new rendering PC, and then teach myself how to use Daz.

We'll ignore all that, so I can instead talk about something that this reviewer maybe lost sight of: developing this project is not a linear, straightforward process, where every single second of my work translates to time added to the game. 

To illustrate this idea, I'm going to talk about an aspect of AVNs that I took for granted as a player -- set design! Now, as a player of several AVNs over the years, I noticed some aspects of the backgrounds. I definitely noticed the bad ones.. The ones that felt weirdly sterile and empty. The ones I saw utilized over, and over again across multiple games. But, for the most part, I didn't really consider them. Boy, did that ever change when I began developing my own game!

First, you have to consider VRAM usage -- if your scene has too much crap in it? Well, it's going to take forever to render. When you're talking about needing dozens or even hundreds of images set in a single location.. Well, you'd better make sure you choose wisely. And of course, you don't want to pick something that's been seen in a hundred-and-one other AVNs.

For the scene in the images above, I wanted Guy to find himself in a run-down part of town, that felt visibly decayed, and desolate. After a bit of searching, I found this cool asset that really matched the vibe I was looking for.

But, one thing I didn't realize was that the ground plane was uneven, with dips and gullies in the street. Perfect for that look of urban decay, but not so much for me, who wanted to throw a ground plane under it -- because said ground plane poked through the uneven street. But, that's okay! I just created some 'primitive' shapes in Daz, in the form of small square planes, textured them with a dirt effect, and then layered them between the ground plane, and the uneven street. Now, it would just look like the road had eroded until the ground beneath it showed through.

Unfortunately, it didn't really look convincing. So, I threw in some weeds and rubble, to further hide poke-through, and sell the illusion. And while I was at it, I sprinkled some more weeds through the scene. Kinda going for that whole early-stages-of-being-reclaimed-by-nature look.

Buuuut, I still needed a little more in the way of backdrop for this asset. I wanted Guy to be entering the scene from an alley, but I'd already used one alley set multiple times.. So, back to the Daz store, where I grabbed this. After a little bit of fine-tuning, and adding some extra trash to the scene to tie everything together, it was looking pretty good! All it needed was a simple curved backdrop to add an extra level of depth, and I had a set!

And having done all this? After hours of searching for and placing props, cameras, lights, and more? I'd contributed a grand total of zero minutes of playtime to the game.

I really hope I'm not coming off as too sour. I love this stuff, and I have a ton of fun working on it, and chatting with you folks about it. But, this isn't like stamping license plates or something, where one input of effort = one unit of product. It's research, and trial and error, and planning, before you even get to the real work.

That said? I'm happy to do it, and to share it with you folks. So, until next time -- take care of yourselves, and thank you for your support!

Hey hey, folks! Hope all's well with you this week!

First, a little self-promotion to get out of the way. Yesterday, I put out a small demo build of Chapter 10, which features the first two scenes. It's relatively brief (140+ images), and there's no ero content to speak of. But, if you're interested in getting a glimpse ahead, and have some extra scratch burning a hole in your pocket, give it a look!

Next up - the results of the poll to choose Madison's outfit for Chapter 10. Her little black dress ran away with the win, with almost 70% of the vote. Totally crushed the competition! Congrats to Team LBD. To the folks who wanted mom jeans and yoga pants, worry not. Your time will come!

Now, moving along to Chapter 10's progress.. As you can discern from the presence of the demo build, things are chugging right along. I'm working on the third scene of the update now, with the hopes of having a new demo out by week's end. With that third scene completed, the first half of the update will be finished, and I'll be moving into Viola, Mason, and Gabby's scenes -- y'know, the stuff you're really here for. >_> As I've said before, that stuff will be a little more of a pain in the butt than the early scenes, but I think I've got a good roadmap, to help me avoid duplicating work. Now I just have to follow it, and not fall to the temptation of making more work for myself.

I'm still trying to get this chapter out in August, owing to the fact that it'll be shorter than normal. But, my progress over the course of July will be crucial. So, wish me luck!

Finally, a big-big thanks to everyone who bought my buddy's book, after I linked to it last week. They were ecstatic to see sales coming in, and now I think I can confidently add 'needle-mover' to my business card.

.. if I had a business card.

I'll leave you with that until next time! But, as always -- take care of yourselves, and thank you for your support!

Hey, folks! Hope all's well with you and yours this week! I'm sweating my butt off here in the Midwest, and recovering from some nasty bug bites, but otherwise I've got no complaints.

A little self-promo here at the top: I've launched a poll to choose Madison's outfit for next chapter, and over the weekend I posted a new image set for Viola, since we hadn't seen her in a hot minute. If you're a $5 supporter, go cast your vote for Madison's new look. Otherwise, go enjoy the Viola eye candy!

Moving onto general news, there's really not much to report. I'm just pushing ahead with the rendering, and doing my best to punch up the script a bit as I go. This one may need a good once-over, to check for continuity kerfuffles. But, the first two scenes are in the bag, and I'm working on the third one. Trying to get through it without too much dilly-dallying, so I can get to the stuff that's a little sexier in the second half of the update. But, you folks know how I like my long, rambling dialogue scenes. Still, the goal remains to get the update out in August. As always, I'll keep you abreast of my progress.

Turning to something a little different, I'm going to do a little promo for my IRL bestie, who recently completed their first smutty novel: The Punch Card. I'm super proud of my pal Jo for finally getting their work out there, after years of talking about it. The filthy little gremlin wrote a really darling, penetration-filled romance here. All the fun tropes are on display -- size difference, enemies to lovers, grumpy X sunshine, and a little aggressive nose-to-pelvis action. >_>The story follows Kaye, a burnt-out barista who comes into possession of a pilfered punch card which guarantees the holder eight free gym sessions. Looking to shake up her normal routine, Kaye finds exactly what she's looking for in Leo, an enormous gym rat with the heart of a golden retriever. 

It's cute, it's sexy, and it's only $2.99 -- or free on Kindle Unlimited. Plus, I did the cover art. So, go give it a read, and if you dig it, drop a review on Amazon! Gotta fight that algorithm!

Being without anything more interesting to say today, I'll leave you with a little preview of The Punch Card. As always, take care of yourselves, stay hydrated, and thank you for your support!

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Hey, hey friends! First off, sorry to get this post up a little late. A storm rolled through and knocked out my wired internet, and I just really didn't want to type this up on my phone. :'D

For a quick state-of-things update, I'm presently 85~ images into the new update. In the next day or two, I plan to wrap up the second scene of the update, which features Brent and our irascible MC having a little heart to heart. After that, I'll be moving into a brief(ish) scene featuring Nicki and Mason. Once that's done, I'll be roughly at the halfway point of this update, in terms of scenes. But, the coding/rendering workload will be weighted a bit heavily towards the back-end on this one, so the second half may be a bit more troublesome.

My goal at present is to get through that first half of things, and then begin assembling a new demo/test build for my supporters at the $15 level. If I can get all that done by the end of the month, I'll feel great about how things are going. If not? Less so, but still pretty good. My goal is still to hit an August release date. Preferably closer to the beginning of August, than the end. But, let's see how it goes.

Overall, I'm having a lot of fun with this one. Having a pretty limited scope for the update has been nice. It's definitely kept the workload from feeling as overwhelming as it often can. Plus, it's just a fun mix of characters that I love to write -- Nicki, Mason, Viola, Brent, Gabby, and Madison? What's not to love?

Also, please enjoy these renders of Risa, in a few new hair assets. Daz was having a sale, and I had a coupon, so.. >_> I always tell people who are getting started in Daz, and trying to stretch their budget: buy hair. Even if you're using the same base model, throwing a new hairstyle of an old figure, can make them look like a brand new character. 

I'll leave you with that, as I stayed up past my bedtime to get this post up. But, I hope this week treats you well. As always, take care of yourselves, and thank you for your support!

Hey, friends! Hope your week's off to a great start! Sorry for the late update, but I found myself bogged down with some work I had to do in my yard, today. Then I figured, "Hey, it's such a nice day.. Let's clean out that garden shed!" Then I found a colony of ants that had made their way inside, and I had to evict them, before sealing up any cracks they could use as a means of entrance. Soon a few hours had passed, and I'd taken up more projects than I'd planned..

Lesson learned: Just leave the shed alone!

Turning to more enjoyable projects.. At present, I'm slowly rendering through the opening scenes of Chapter 10. Having a lot of fun with it, so far! It's always interesting to have certain personalities interact with each other, and Nicki/Mason is a neat combo. They're both kinda dorks, but in opposite directions.

I did hit a small snag with rendering, but got over it pretty quickly. See, I'd been waiting until after I finished Chapter 9, to update Daz Studio to the newest version. You just never know what fun new things are going to break, when you update Daz. Lights in a scene may look different, certain assets may stop working, etc. So, it's always a good idea to wait until you're well and truly done, to start screwing with stuff. 

Which turned out to be a good idea, because my graphics drivers didn't want to play nicely with Daz, and I wound up uninstalling and reinstalling stuff. Now my renders seem to take a little longer, and also Daz seems to be eating up more memory. Oh, and the Depth of Field function for cameras seems way more finicky and harder to fine-tune.. But, I got everything working, and I'll just have to get used to these new wrinkles.

Besides the normal process of writing, rendering, editing, and fighting Daz, I got to try my hand at doing a little background graffiti. This isn't really in my wheelhouse -- I have terrible handwriting, and I was never one of those people that could really draw letters. But, it was a fun little challenge, and I think it came out pretty cool -- for something you'll really only see in the background.

Also, just a little reminder, but I tend to post a lot of random, one-off art on Discord. Such as Brittani, here! So if you're not part of the community, you may be missing out on some little goodies!

That's about all I have for you, today! I'm hoping that, by month's end, I'll have an idea of when I'll be able to release Chapter 10. I'm aiming for somewhere in August, but beyond that, the future's a bit opaque. Until next time, take care of yourselves -- and as always, thank you for your support!