Dev Blog #011

The past week has been a rollercoaster of emotions.

The demo got released!

I can’t tell you how excited and nervous I was when I released the demo! I am extremely proud of what I’ve released and look forward to the game’s continued development. Now I want to give you all some statistics from 20:39 (GMT) on Saturday 11th June 2022:
 

Total Downloads: 1,912
So, 1,912 downloads in two days, that’s more than I could ever imagine! But I know there will be a drop-off curve, so I won’t expect this to continue. The data here is from two download sources, Mediafire & itch.io; regrettably, I can’t get analytics from the other mirrors.
I will provide links at the bottom again so you can find places to download the demo, but first, let’s talk more about the goings-on this week and all the lessons I’ve learned…the hard way!

The Beta Test

I had four beta testers who kindly sacrificed developing their games or spending time with family to break, I mean, find all the bugs in the game. So who were these beta testers? Well, you’ll have to play the demo if you want to see them in the credit. To help consolidate the feedback, so it wasn’t the open season, I developed a UAT Script I applied called a BUTTS (Beta User Testing Tracker Sheet). So I enjoyed all the BUTT puns in discord Hur-hur.
During the beta test, I ended up re-architecting the entire game code and adding rendering the first lewd scene as part of the Extra Edition. I hadn’t planned on releasing an Extra Edition until I released Chapter 1, but I felt it was the right thing to do for my Patrons & Subscribers. I think the scene looked pretty good, and this was the first time I posed a sex scene. From what I experienced, it will probably take me longer for these kinds of scenes than the main images. Although re-writing the architecture took me about 6 hours, I was fortunate to have Thor in VC with me to troubleshoot some of the issues with toggles and call the correct content from the suitable rpy files.

The Release

I also need to double-check or triple-check things before creating my build packages. For example, I uploaded 10 GB of game data to Mediafire, Mega & GoFile this week. Yes, I know the game files are only 300MB (ish), so why so much data? Well, there are many reasons, but it was my fault for not testing properly and forgetting to change some minor mistakes a few times in a row. There was also the re-architecting of the game which resulted in the final re-build of the game files.
When I started this journey of making my AVN, I didn’t think I had much thought about what was precisely involved. Honestly, I didn’t know much about anything and damned, in 11 weeks, I’ve learned so much about programming, 3D art, lighting and community management, to name a few. I am immensely proud of what I’ve achieved, considering where I was 11 weeks ago.
So this has taken me far too long to write tonight. My kids are watching Back to the Future II, and I keep stopping to watch it myself.
 I have no progress images to share with you this week as I've not created any new renders with the beta testing and release of the game.
Snowy