Hi everyone, and thanks for joining me for this week's... well... fortnight's public post. I've been having a very busy time in real life recently, so have had to cut down communication a little for now, but development on 0.8 is proceeding and supporters have already been treated to some previews of the delights that the new content has in store.

My new spoiler warning image at the top there denotes when a post is going to contain previews of new content. It's there for the benefit of people who want to avoid seeing anything at all of the new stuff before it's released.

I had hoped to do a few public previews today, but glancing through what I've made so far, there are actually almost no safe for work pictures! Our lovely girls spend a lot of time naked in this chapter, so instead, let's have a look at a few of the new maps. Chaper Six will open up more of Fivaviana for you to explore and find the clues you need. Let's take a look.

My supporters already saw the imposing Governess's Mansion a while ago, and now you get a peek at it too. Set in impeccably-maintained grounds, (you can see the slave girls there tending the gardens) and overlooking the Fivaviana-Saparos Canal, Governess Kisimi's home is also the state capital of Fivaviana province. It's like the Royal palace in miniature, and it's crawling with Nobles, so keep your head down!

Another new area you can check out is Old Town North. There are things here that you'll need to complete your quest and many quirky inhabitants to talk to. You're well away from the tourist areas of the city here, so keep your wits about you!

Weathersporks, (for you non-Brits, this name is a play on Weatherspoons, a large chain of pubs,) is a quaint little establishment in Old Town North where you might find a few clues if you ask around. The folk here are authentic Fivaviana girls and not as used to tourists.

Finally.... This. I'll leave you to wonder about this one, as Abbie finds herself lost in a maze of shipping crates. Well, Fivaviana is Sapphory's biggest port-city.

I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse of the new content, and will be back next week hopefully if things have started to calm down by then!

Trinian

Did you all enjoy Monday's announcement of the Netflix adaptation? As usual, my post was intended to be so ridiculously over-the-top that most people would get the joke immediately, but I still got a few people with it!

As most of you will have figured out, the promotional shots from the "show" were actually done with AI. I had to go through a number of permutations before I landed on ones I liked. Let's take a look at a few of those that didn't make the cut, just for fun, shall we?

I discovered the Microsoft stable diffusion tool when I made the Missy Funko Pops I posted on Discord a while back. For those of you not in the Discord (or who missed it,) these are they:

I goofed with Jess and forgot her ribbons, but you get the idea. So anyway, this then got me thinking that I could create more sophisticated gags with AI, and while making an April Fools post that I was changing the game to AI CG would have been too close to the 2022 gag, I could certainly use it for something else!

Anyway, the first thing I needed was my splash image. A few permutations were tried before I landed on the great shot of "April Fhurst" up at the top there.

The hair is fine, the face needs some work and the uniform doesn't quite look right. Plus there's a bit of AI hands going on with that left hand. So I tried again.

Cute, shirt still wasn't great, and the pose didn't quite say splashy promo pic, but we were getting warmer.

I probably would have gone with this one if it had got the hair right. That bad girl in the background looks a little more happy and friendly than she should, but I guess that plays into the joke of the tone being entirely changed to mainstream-friendly high school drama.

Another near miss. Cute girl, acceptable hair and shirt, good background characters. But what is this pose? The decidedly AI-looking hand is just sort of up at the side like she's holding up an invisible tray.

Sadly fails the uncanny valley test.

This one again would have been great if Missy's hair was right. Sadly, it often randomly ignores prompts. How is that meant to be curled pigtails? And the pose wasn't quite right.

I also wanted a picture of Missy with Jess, but as people making AI CG games will tell you, it can be hard to make the character look the same in all the shots, so I had to abandon the idea after a few tries, since I couldn't get her looking the same as in the splash and Jess never looked right at all. Here's a few of the failures though.

Jess looks more bored than grumpy here!

Don't know why it gave Missy ribbons, and I'm not sure what Jess is doing to her here either!

"God, Missy, you're such an embarrassment!" Probably my favourite, as it captures the girls' relative personalities the best. Pity about Missy's lazy eye.

Also, for some reason it keeps insisting on giving Jess pigtails, and that's some pretty extreme AI hand on Missy there.

Lastly, I had to show you this alternate one of the dance number. I almost used it, but I just thought having the two boys front and centre would be a bridge too far.

Well, now I've only got 363 days left to think of next year's so I'd better get my twisted mind working! See you next week when maybe I'll actually get back to talking about the game!

Trinian