seventhvixen

Development Math Bonanza

Published: July 25th 2024, 4:39:42 pm

pic: 0.25, Leffrin Village

I lied about the not making more long posts so soon x'D

But this one is only for those interested in my work procress.

For those or you are not, well, just saying progress goes well! 1/5 of graphics already done! (And 0.21 with fixes and improvements on its way) Also, TLDR: trying to not make the update too big.

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So, I'm going to go about development expected times, not to force myself into extreme effort, but the contrary, trying to limit 0.25 release to less than a big update.

Saying it publicly helps me focus and try to abide by it...

Premises:

-A medium-big sized updated (1 and half hours of gameplay of unique events, not taking into consideration alternate paths, let's say), should be between 450 and 600 renders by my always trusted formula that every fullscreen render is looked upon for 6 seconds (for an average reader that wants to make a quick job, as most renders have usually 2-3 dialogues at least.), but you add 30 extra minutes for all those times he repeats some little stuff or just enjoy the views. Final size really goes to gameplay and quantity of dialogue, but my way of telling the story is quite tied to a sort of cinematic narrative that more or less follows that custom formula, and gameplay time usually meets my expectation.

-Taking in consideration scenario planning/building, character design/accomodation to scene, light tests, failures and repeats, on Render months, let's say I can make 10 renders a day on average (of course doesn't work like that... maybe there is 3 days tinkering, 1 day making 40 renders, but yeah, average). That means that the target 450-500 renders will me make in around 50 working days. Every month has between 20 and 25 official BFL working days, but just add to that some little crunch to compensate slow augusts, so most of them (never all of them, I always end up doing extra graphics that seem to me to improve scenes until the last day of programming), should be finished between mid and late September.

-This is half a main story introduction full of new scenarios and barely known characters, Grassmere) , and half story about more or less stablished characters in a very limited location (leffrin village). That's some balance and variety to make me have diverse degrees of chill 'cause easy, and frustration to make it look good, So, it's good.

The Work:

I'm already 120 renders in with most of conversational hubs made in Leffrin Village (and “actions” perfomed on the same scenes), Made with chill in around 15 days while bugfixing and coding. I expect a maximum of 150 there. Let's say I finish that this July.

Then there will be at least 200 renders of unique scenes on Leffrin village (very estimated), With between 20 and 40 animations. Probably that will be done in August. (I'll be very far away from the computer when rendering those anims... Heat.). Depends on how heavy the difference between animations and renders; Scenes with less animations uses more renders, but there should be at least 10 unique scenes around here (That doesn't count same scenes with complete different dialogue).

Then first Grassmere visit will amount to a maximum of 200 renders probably. (Various interactions and conversational hubs, and only 6-7 unique scenes as this is just the intro of Grassmere), No anims (beyond scenic). Grassmere scenarios are not yet perfect and they must, so probably these renders will take more than the ones I'm making now.

(Let's say it will be completed inside September)

My second goal that I'm already achiving is being able to code and render more or less at the same time. (It is impossible to focus on anything more than coding when coding, but being able to stop coding sometimes to pose and hit “render”, its a plus. So I hope the coding time of this update will not be overcomboluted, as I'm preparing the way to the code update right now quite well.

The Conclusion:

That would mean code will be finished between half october and the end of october (so the expected 3 months, taking in consideration that this has been a release a month with lots of fixing and coding too).

This is taking in consideration that this week and August will be slow. If I go crunch time in september my expectations can change. Of course, september is also a bad month as kid go back to school and I'll have to attend lots of stuff, but at least he won't be around all day, so one thing for the other. (Really, best months for working are from October to June)

Also, if I see there is rendering spare time, I'll probably start rendering and adding Penketh's Heart Romance scenes (as I have ready many of those scenes). I really want to progress around there. (Reason I have the scenes ready to render xD) Or wathever other side content wins the poll!

So beyond half october, any delay will mostly occur if adding extra content. (But is not the first time I've been adding content meanwhile the first beta testings are happening)
Althought..... There is a golden rule that have never failed that I only publish on the end of the month as my life depends on it, so there is that.

And that's the chill plan to meet my cautious schedule, but if anything goes amiss, I'll not lose my head.

Wow, that was a wall of text! Let's keep rendering! Keep cool!