Dev Blog #024

Shiiit! The last time I was early by four days; this time, I was late like six weeks!

Pre-Release and V0.06
Honestly, the last six weeks have flown by; I was focused on getting V0.06 out for a few weeks and then had some bug fixes. I have posted pretty regularly on Discord with minor updates on progress etc., in the #dev-blog channel.

As you'll all know, I released V0.06 at the beginning of April; the run-up to that was pretty fucking manic, to put it bluntly. The weekend before release, I had severe issues with code on my custom screen and other areas. I had an army of people in the chat with me working on it; at one point, I totally zoned out Shaddy & Thor's Hamster were having deep discussions about code stuff. Finally, I got it sorted, but that was at 6:30am my time after working on it for 19 hours straight; luckily, it was Saturday, so I could lie in, but no, I was woken at 10am by the kids. 

The update went out to beta testers, and over that week, I made all the tweaks and improvements. I continued making additional tweaks until release day, which bit me in the ass. I should know better, only change things that need changing when you're out to beta; changes should be to fix issues with the release and not to add more stuff. If you do add things, have it retested!

I had decided to add some code for the Achievements system that I'll be implementing, and instead of taking it out, I left it in. I tested it on my PC, but it had everything, all that lovely WIP scripts, etc., so, of course, it all worked. Unfortunately, I was also notified of an issue with my MAC build. The contents were outside the 'app' folder, so I fixed this too. 


Post-Release
I took a few days off and went fishing, three wonderful days beside the water relaxing and catching some decently sized fish. Man, it was bliss! Then, I returned and went deep into developing the next release. 

I decided the bar scene I was using was terrible; it was too upscale for what I was looking for, so I went to look for something more rustic. Finally, I found a bar I mostly like; to be fair, I could make my own, but I have enough custom asset projects on the go. So I just had to settle for something close to what I wanted. I might change it in the future, but who knows? It's not like I'll be revisiting this place, I think.

I've also been busy supporting some of my fellow developers on their games. I made custom Travel Agents for Cr8tive M3dia's OctoPussy Island. Also, made a custom 'Garden' for Shaddy Games; he needed somewhere to park an RV at Rose's parent's house and in true Snowy style, I went crazy! Yep, I took advantage of Shaddy taking a few days away to build him an (in my humble opinion) stunning landscaped garden with yet another custom pool. I also added the basement parking that this particular asset only ever showed the double garage doors too.

I also got a little bored at night and started working on a custom menu screen for Cr8tive M3dia's Limitless. I had talked him into doing an ATL script menu and then coded it for him, and it looks great, especially with the new menu buttons and support link icons 😊. I also helped him code his dynamic menu for OPI too. Also, it looks fantastic.

Hmm, what else have I done? Oh, yeah! I re-wrote the whole code to my custom in-0game menu and redesigned the entire thing. I kinda get carried away sometimes, but visual aesthetics of things is really important to me, so I try to do the best I can with the bit of skill I have. Shaddy was also VERY happy with me doing this, as he HATED working on my bastardised code. So now it's all coded properly using mainly RenPy code. It works even better than before and is now more flexible. This new menu will allow me to change things as and when needed, which is something I couldn't have done so quickly before. It also solves one of my problems: how do I realistically get the player to use this menu outside of the VR world. 

This isn't just an ordinary menu screen anymore either *big cheesy grin* when you open the screen, it will tell what chapter and what scene you are on, and it will also show you a progress bar so you can see how close you are to the end of the current content; I know, you're welcome! I also provide quick controls, so you can quickly change the music & sfx volumes and text speed without delving into the menus. I have also expanded the number of features on the screen; it now has Save, Load, Main Menu and bonus features. This will make it feel more immersive as you won't have to switch between screens now.

Anyway, that's all I have for now; I have to fix a few scenes, so there's a lot of opening, tweaking and saving going on. Once these are done, I'll render them out to put into the next update. I can't wait to get past these few scenes because I want to introduce some other characters, which will also be nice for you guys.

Snowy