Games Being a DIK [v0.11.1]
Noel6am
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Happy Friday!
I started the week by wrapping up work with the main girl branch I've been working on for the last couple of weeks. It felt like every time I completed a playthrough of that branch, I came up with a new way of testing it. But now, I believe I have covered all bases.
After that, I worked through a to-do list of 70+ fixes I had noted during my playthroughs. So, I took a break from playing by working on those. Most were relatively quick to fix, but a few involved issues I found with mini-games. I went ahead and thoroughly playtested the affected mini-games, and now it's all good.
After that, I started playing another main girl branch. If you kept track, I have this one and one more main girl branch left until I'm done adding content to the episode.
This branch is easier to work with than the last, but also requires multiple playthroughs and attention to detail. I have finished one playthrough of the branch and started creating the missing content for it. I wrote two scenes and created art for them, and I'm now working on a lewd scene.
Speaking of lewd scenes, I have now decided that there will be just one more lewd scene to go after I finish this one.
So, to sum up what's left to do before beta testing:
Create missing content for 2 main girl branches
Create 2 more lewd scenes
Wrap up SFX and Music work
Wait for the animation queue to complete
Write the missing the Bios entries
Write the missing episode report entries
Finalize the credits section for Season 3 (I'll let you know when I'm about to do it in case you wish to be in the credits. This will be the last chance to appear in the Season 3 credits.)
Create the recap section at the start of episode 12
Test Discord Rich presence integration (the code is written, and everything surrounding it has been prepared)
Playtest and polish all branches
The wait for the animations to render will be a bottleneck, and I will estimate the time required once I'm done creating the remaining content.
Have a nice weekend
Dr PinkCake
Noel6am
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Happy Friday!
I had a great week working on the final branch for episode 12. I played through it once and wrote the remaining scenes.
All scenes of episode 12 are now written - with a reservation for minor changes that will happen when I continue to play this branch a bit more, of course. But other than that, the writing is close to a wrap, which is a huge milestone.
I continued working on art for the scenes I've written, and there was plenty to do. I've posed more than 300 renders, and I just started working on the episode's final lewd scene.
I aim to complete it by next Friday and also to play more variations of this branch.
But that's not all. I completed writing the remaining bios, so that task is now done.
Music work is completed as well! There may be a couple of sound effects not in place yet, but it's likely just a couple that I'll spot when I play more. So, SFX work is pretty much done too.
And the "Previously on Being a DIK" section is also done!
It's starting to shape up.
I've seen good render speed all week, and I have no reason to think it will slow down from here on in. 87 animations and 232 static renders are currently in the render queue.
What's left to do before beta testing is:
Finish the art and animations for one lewd scene
Create 2 Special render sets (Isabella and Camila)
Finalize the episode report entries
Complete the credits section for Season 3
Test Discord Rich presence
Wait for the animation queue to complete
Playtest and polish all branches
I'm finalizing the credits section for Season 3 soon, which is why I have decided that this month (May) will be the final chance for you to add your name to the credits. Enter your name here before June 1stto be immortalized in the game credits. The post will be locked sometime on June 1st.
Have a nice weekend!
Dr PinkCake
Noel6am
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Happy Friday!
Big milestone reached this week - all animations for episode 12 are now posed! If I counted correctly, the total number of animations for episode 12 will be 431.
I have just completed the last lewd scene of the episode. 101 animations are currently in the render queue, and that number won't increase. It's a big number as it accounts for 23% of the episode's animations, but the render speed is good, and I don't have any pesky animations in the queue waiting to render.
I have tried my best to estimate the render time based on the remaining frames to render and the average daily produced render count. The average daily render count will vary because there are 7 different lewd scenes in the render queue, and each scene has different render times.
My current estimate is that it will take between 52 and 57 days to complete the render queue, given no interruptions. I will keep you updated on this estimate, and I hope it improves, as I'm eager to release this behemoth. Beta testing will commence when the queue has finished - or is near finished, if possible.
Next up, I plan on playing more variations of the branch I've been working on. The good news is that even with more variations to play, most of the content is already in place. I'm fairly positive there won't be any more scenes added to the episode, just some extra renders and lines of dialogue here and there.
I'll also start working on the Special Render sets for Isabella and Camila soon. Then I'll focus on playtesting and polishing the episode.
I've gotten lots of playtesting done already, as I've worked on each main girl branch over the last few months. Currently, the others branch need the most playtesting. There are lewd scenes and scenes I haven't even seen in-game yet.
I also have some other game-related tasks to work on. One of those is the walkthrough, which needs to be written and coded into the game for the upcoming Steam/GOG release.
And I need to run a paranoid test of the save transfer to S4 as well, as nothing would be worse than finding out that players couldn't import their saves into S4 later on.
So, to sum up, there's still work to do, but it's all about wrapping up the development from here on in and waiting for the queue to complete.
Have a nice weekend
Dr PinkCake
Noel6am
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This week, I've played more of the last main girl branch and worked on scenes that needed some extra improvement in this regard. I will likely wrap up work on this main girl branch next week, and I've been waiting for the static renders to complete so I can fully test some scenes.
I've also been trying out some new things that I finally got time to test, but I can't talk much more about that today.
Despite this short update, it's been a busy week.
PCs have been working at a great speed all week, but my cooling systems are feeling the summer heat, and I had some issues with those. It sucks that summer coincides with the time I need everything to work flawlessly, but I'm doing my best to make sure it won't affect rendering.
One of my PCs is still rendering static renders, and it should start rendering animations sometime next week, which should boost animation rendering a bit.
93 animations are currently in the queue, and despite this looking like a small jump since last week, my estimate from last week is based on the remaining frame count, not the animation count. For the time being, the estimation still holds.
Season 3 credits
This is the last call for the credits section for Season 3. If you haven't already put your name here to appear in the Season 3 credits, this weekend is your last chance. So, if you planned on entering your name, do it now - and don't wait until the last minute.
The credits post will be locked on Monday, June 1st, and the $30 tier's credits reward will be paused until a credit section for Season 4 is available. I'll announce when that is, in a future status update.
Upcoming Patreon changes
Speaking of Patreon tier changes, to be able to provide the game on Patreon while selling it on Steam/GOG, there will be additional changes after Season 3 is released.
Seasons 1 & 2 and Acting Lessons will be turned into product posts rather than included in the monthly subscription. That means those posts will be a one-time purchase, including future Patreon patches - similar to how Steam/GOG works. Basically, if you bought a product post in the past and I publish a patch for that game/season, you can download the patch without having to buy it again.
Season 3 will be moved to the Huge DIK ($25) tier when this change happens.
This won't affect the release cycle in any way, and I will still make sure that everyone gets Season 3 with the current tier settings:
+$25 Huge DIK tier: 3-day early access
$10 DIK tier: Season 3 full download
$5 Mini DIK tier: Season 3 patch that works with v0.11.0 and v0.11.1
My main priority is making sure you aren't negatively affected by any sudden changes, and I'll also have a grace period when the changes occur. I am contractually obligated to make these changes when I start selling Season 3 on Steam/GOG, and that's why they need to happen.
And after that, work on Season 4 will begin, and it will be brought to you ASAP with the same tier settings as now. And we'll keep the party going like that until the game is complete. I'll let you know when these changes will come into effect. This was more of an early heads-up.
Have a nice weekend
Dr PinkCake
Noel6am
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Happy Friday!
My cooling systems have been tuned up, and after some changes with the placement of my render stations, the heat is now manageable - hopefully for the duration of summer.
All PCs are rendering animations, and the speed has improved as a result. 78 animations remain in the queue, and based on the remaining frames, I believe we're looking at roughly 35 more days of rendering to complete the entire queue - that is, if the speed stays similar to this week. I'll keep you updated on this.
When the final animations in the queue render, some PCs won't have any work, which could make the final stretch a bit longer while we wait for a single PC to complete the remaining file. I will try to balance this as best I can so the PCs finish at the same time, but it's very tricky.
And when you render animations, it's bad practice to let multiple PCs work on the same animation file, as even small changes in software versions can subtly affect the output and cause flickering when the animation is put together. I count on the final animation being completed within 4 days after the queue has fully depleted.
The credits section for Season 3 is now locked, and no more entries can be added. Thank you to everyone who supported me at that level. I have now finalized the credits section in-game.
I tried compiling a Season 3 distribution for the first time. It was a bit trickier than normal releases, as the new 4K mode made the process longer. It took me 45 minutes to compile and zip one distribution file.
What I can see is that Season 3 is currently 102 GB for the 4K mode and 23.5 GB for the full HD mode.
The final sizes will be slightly bigger after the remaining animations are included, but at least there's a ballpark figure for the game size now.
And as unzipping the distribution files requires roughly double the disk space (one part for the .zip file and one part for the unzipped folders), you can see that the 4K mode as a zip file on Patreon isn't a feasible standard.
I've been testing Discord Rich Presence and realized I needed to change the code that didn't work properly on Windows 11. I updated it and even improved it to ensure all images worked as intended and that it remained stable when playing. It should now be good to go, but I will conduct more testing as I polish the episode.
I completed the end-of-episode reports, adding the needed art and tweaking some sentences. I believe it now works as intended; polishing and testing will reveal if it needs further tweaks.
I also completed work on the final main girl branch, proofread it, and started polishing the Others branch.
What's left to do is:
2 Special render sets for Camila and Bella
Polish the episode
Finish rendering the animation queue (estimated 35 days)
After that, beta testing can begin. And speaking of it, I have started preparing the task lists for my testers. So far, I'm up to 26 bug fixes to test and verify, and 23 tasks with sub-tasks to test for Episode 12 (some easier than others).
This week, I also continued testing a new feature that is likely to be included in v0.12.0 if everything continues to go well. I will announce what it is a bit later, as I don't want to make any promises if I change my mind. For now, I can say that it's a feature that can be toggled on/off.
Have a nice weekend
Dr PinkCake
Noel6am
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Early update today!
This week, I worked on Camila's and Bella's Special Render sets. I completed work on the last of these renders yesterday. At the moment, they are rendered on one PC, and I post-process them as they are finished.
I usually spend quite a long time on both creating the special renders and post-processing them, and this time was no exception. I'm very pleased with both sets, and I'll show you a preview from each set before the episode release - I'll post the first one next week.
Now, what about the animation queue? At the start of the week, the render speed was nice. I saw a record frame count for a 24-hour time period. But since I have spent the week working on the remaining special render sets, the speed has slowed down by one PC for the time being.
I usually render special renders for much longer than normal renders to ensure an excellent quality. I also render them at 8k before downsampling to the target resolution. The special renders will be finished in three days, and by then, the PC rendering the sets will return to working on animations. So, for this reason, it's a bit tricky to update the estimate today.
Based on the different rates I've seen this week, I estimate I need 20-23 more days of non-stop rendering until the animation queue has depleted. That is roughly the end of the second week of July. I aim to start beta testing as close to that as possible, and it all depends on how quickly I finish polishing.
If all goes well with polishing and beta testing, I believe we're looking at August for the Patreon release. But I'll keep you updated on this as we get closer.
Next week, I'll finish post-processing the special renders and create the remaining art needed for the game, such as miniature images for the gallery. Then I'll get back to polishing the episode, which should now be the only remaining task aside from waiting for the animation queue.
The light at the end of the tunnel shines brighter.
Have a nice weekend
Dr PinkCake
Noel6am
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This week, I've played and polished the episode and worked through my to-do lists based on those playthroughs. I had a list of 10 different playthroughs that I wanted to do, and I've gotten through half of them. The remaining five are a mix of variations of branches I've already played, and I aim to play those next week.
After that, I will have to reflect some more on what else I need to play and test.
A couple of days ago, I completed the scene gallery for episode 12 for the first time, and I'm still encountering scenes I haven't seen in the game before.
I'll likely do an analysis by checking the code to see what content I haven't seen yet, and tailor save files to play those scenes.
The animation rendering has sadly slowed down. The animations that render have mostly been close-up shots, and when hair and textures are rendered close to the camera, this tends to increase the render time per frame.
The current estimate is that the render queue will take 9-11 more days to complete, based on this week's pace. And considering the queue is running low, there might soon be PCs idling if left without work. That puts the completion estimate in early week 29.
While playing, I've noticed a handful of animations I wish to re-render to fix glitches. I will re-render those only after PCs start idling, and the start of the beta testing doesn't hinge on their completion.
Next week, aside from playing and polishing, I will also carry out paranoid tests of the save transfer between S3 and S4.
The cluck I posted earlier this week was the last cluck I could show from this episode without spoiling it.
I'll post a preview of Isabella's Special Render set this weekend. I'm also planning what to show as the final preview for this development cycle.
Have a nice weekend
Dr PinkCake
Noel6am
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Happy Friday!
The animation queue is no more. Each PC is now rendering its final animation, and I have even added some animations to be re-rendered to PCs that started idling.
The frames-per-day speed this week was very good, and if it keeps up, the PCs would need 3 more days to render the remaining animations. However, it doesn't quite work like that because PCs will start idling, and each PC is responsible for its own animation queue. That means the completion date is determined by the slowest PC.
I tried to estimate the remaining render time we should expect. I distributed the animations so that the fastest PCs do the most work, and we should be looking at ~5 more days of rendering before all animations complete. It's a bit tricky to be sure of an exact day, but I'm confident it'll all be 100% rendered sometime next week. And I'm happy that all PCs made it through the heat stroke and can get some needed rest and maintenance soon.
I've been polishing all week, and I've actually replayed the entire season on Steam from a fresh persistent file. I've tested and unlocked the 48 new achievements I added.
While doing so, I found a handful of bugs in older episodes and additional areas for improvement in episode 12.
Playing the entire season from start to finish like this really makes me appreciate this journey even more. It took a long time to get this season done, but I'm very proud of it. It feels like a cohesive experience, and I couldn't be happier about the season finale.
I still have polishing to do, and I'll work as hard as possible over the next 5 days to make the most of the time I have while the PCs are still the bottleneck. After that, I will look into getting beta testing started ASAP.
There will be more information about that later this month, along with a preliminary changelog for episode 12.
Have a nice weekend
Dr PinkCake