Wheels in Motion - 8/5/2018

Howdy, everybody!

It's been about a month since the last update, so I want to put out some news to assure anyone who cares that the project is still alive. Since the last update, the 1080 Ti arrived, and with 2 graphics cards rendering at over 200% of my previous speed, I was able to finish the rest of the scenes in day one. There will probably be a little bit of additional graphical work down the road, but I've cautioned that before.

I've done some additional work on tweaking the menu interface with some code customization. Irrelevant things like HP have been removed and some additional detail has been added. One thought I've had is to try to build in a relationship tracking mechanism that can be viewed through the menu. Another is to build in a page with more specific details on all of the important people you've met so far. Both are works in progress and not critical to the release of Day 1, but I'll work on them as I feel like it (and I'll probably feel like it when I'm procrastinating from programming).

Speaking of, the rest of Day 1 is ready for programming and scripting! I've made some progress, but have also been taking time off since rendering nonstop for back to back to back weeks. As this game remains a passion project, I'm taking my time with it to ensure that I really like what I'm putting out there - with the hope that others will too! Progress is slow and steady, but I think you'll find it worth it in the end.

Finally, I did want to show off the lovely banner image here - a more flavorful (in my opinion) re-imagining of the beach themed wallpaper I first designed for the game when coming up with this blog. Amanda, Erisa, Chrissy, and Abby are all represented (and nicely, too!) and I think the lighting and environment just felt a little more realistic with this one. You'll notice, too, that I've redesigned the game's logo (shown at the bottom left), and feel pretty happy with the change. The image will feature as the game's new title card once the full day one version is ready.

If, for some reason, you're a big fan (I hope you are!) here's a 4K version of the wallpaper you can download (click to enlarge):

Thanks for checking in and for any interest you have in the game! Hopefully I'll have another update for you before another month is up!

A Late Celebration of Liberty - 7/6/2018

Ah, patriotism at its finest, right folks?

This is just a quick little update since I've been out of commission for a while, but am now back at it! I'm still working on renders at this stage, but have completed the modeling/setup for all Amanda scenes at this point. That means that now I'm ready to begin the final branch - Chrissy's endings for day 1!

I always seem to get bored with her after a while, but then I do something like put her in an American flag thong and suddenly she's an immediate favorite again. The above image will be cleaned up a little (it was a 15 minute quickie render), but will be a part of Chrissy's final scenes for the day.

Once I'm done rendering the Amanda scenes and the Chrissy scenes, it'll finally be time to write and program things into the game. There may be a LITTLE bit of rework with an earlier scene that I rendered ages and ages ago (as in, well prior to any release) that features in the latter half of day 1, but so far I'm thinking that and a little post-work are the only remaining graphical work. I may toss in a little work on UI as well since variables will now start to have significant meaning and I want the player to be able to track them relatively easily. That said, I expect programming and writing to go fairly quickly (couple weeks maybe?) so hopefully the finalized day 1 edition will be coming soon!

Also, exciting graphical news! I've recently ordered a second GPU (a 1080 Ti), which, when paired with my existing 1080, should give me some massive speed boosts when rendering. Hooray for Nvidia pricing things direct to customer and for Bitcoin mining finally falling off somewhat! I'll try and post about some speed gains once the new beast has arrived and been installed. I can probably pop out a few astounding 4K images here and there just for fun (though the game will remain at 1080, this will just give me insight for future endeavors).

Cheers!

The Tree Has Branches - 6/16/2018

Hello and welcome to another update!

Today I want to open up and talk a little bit about the branches and routes at the end of Day 1 (since that's where my work has been for the past week or 2).

Here are a few quick previews:

Abby's first scene of the Day 1 ending branches

Erisa using her laptop as part of one of the ending scnees
Content on the screen up to your imagination... for now

There were certain perks to dating Amanda...

After the girls finish shopping for their trip, they'll head home and start packing. I know it's been all "Chrissy, Chrissy, Chrissy!" (with a little distraction from Nina) up until this point, but once she's home, Erisa will have some options as to who to start pursuing. Some of the decisions up until this point may gain you some favor with Chrissy, but you'll still have the full choice of who to pursue at this point.

Now, while Day 2 will start to open up a number of other possibilities, Erisa's options are mostly familiar faces at this point:

• Chrissy (of course), who's just a room away
• Abby, Erisa's first girlfriend, who's kind of had a rekindled interest in her
• Amanda, Erisa's recent (bitchy/controlling) ex
• None of the above - in case you hate seeing sex and/or want to keep yourself pure for girls to be introduced in day 2 (which may offer an advantage with some of them... eventually - I haven't really gotten that far)

These characters are already built into the Day 1 preview (primarily using the "think about" function), and will be more directly referenced/acknowledged in the story prior to this point. I feel that having a few characters with pre-existing ties to the protagonist (especially ties that are romantic) make for realistic possibilities here.

As a reminder, here they are in some of their simplest forms:

BUT - Not only will you have some options to choose from in terms of who you'd like to start romancing, they'll each have their own path. For example, Amanda played a highly dominant role in Erisa's recent relationship with her, but if Erisa decides to give her a second chance, will she put up with her boss-bitch attitude? Or try and turn the tables on her?

The choice will be up to you!

Anywho, the bulk of the work done recently has still been in renders, but here's where things are:

• Emma's Closet scenes complete
• Abby end of day 1 scenes complete
• Amanda end of day 1 scenes in progress (~40% complete, with the Erisa dom path at about 50% complete and Erisa sub path at 10%)

Work remaining to be done on Day 1:

• Finish Amanda day 1 ending scenes
• Finish Chrissy day 1 ending scenes
• There will be two sets of scenes for this, since one will be available in the "None of the above" scenario that will offer an alternative Chrissy scene (or, again, no content if you want to avoid it)
• Program in renders/write dialog
• Need to do this for basically everything after the demo, but it shouldn't take nearly as long as rendering since I'm a quick writer and I basically have my storyboard ready to go
• Spriting and map development as necessary
• I already have the map and sprites set up for all locations except maybe 1 or 2, but I'll have to analyze/adjust when I get into the programming/writing

That's all for now! I will be taking some time away soon due to other obligations (the real world never stops...), so expect the next update to come in early July, though I'll be working on the game whenever possible!

Emma's Closet - 6/3/2018

Hello to any of the few who may be reading! Come on in!

I've been swept up by other obligations over the course of the past month, so this update is a little more slim than what I'd usually hope to provide in this span of time. But over that month, I've also made a few strides since completing Nina's design:

• Created the Emma's Closet environment (the shop you see Nina working in as a part of the below update)
• Uses custom signage and a few custom modifications
• In RPGM, I created quite a few custom sprites (by creating/adjusting renders in DAZ and adding/replacing elements in existing tilesets)
• The result should be an environment that more closely resembles its DAZ counterpart, at least in this environment
• Created additional custom signage and sprites for the RPGM outdoors
• Some existing generic signs have been replaced with what I hope you'll find to be upgraded custom images that add a little more uniqueness to the game
• About 40 renders complete for the greater half of the Emma's Closet events
• 2 animations complete for the first half of the Emma's closet events
• 11 renders in progress (complete in DAZ, rendered once, came out grainy - need to give each image more time to bake.

There should be a small number of renders left in the Emma's Closet events after the 11 pending renders, but after that I'll begin work on the 3 branching endings to Day 1. Day 2 will begin at a common point regardless, but the choices you make will have an impact on the affections of those around you and, if I do it right, the options available to you moving forward (don't worry, I plan on making each route rewarding in its own right). There will also be additional branches that present themselves once Day 2 is underway.

I'm focusing on getting renders done first at this point, since I prefer having the images to storyboard around (and I tend to think in terms of "what should happen next?" as I sequence my images) AND my DAZ knowledge has now progressed to the point where I can set them up to batch render overnight. There are some downsides - the above graininess and needing to cook things longer, primarily, so perhaps I'll have to start pre-programming longer render times or at least doing a preview image before setting up a full batch of images.

So, after all of those words, here are a few preview images of the lovely Nina, who will happily model some of the bikinis available at Emma's Closet for you!

She'll happily show off all three bikinis that are on special! Management is eager to move them.

And, of course, she'll be happy to show you the view from the rear as well!

See you all next time!

Meet Nina! - 5/5/2018

Ok, wow, I didn't realize it's been quite so long since the last development update here!

Things are still moving along! Since the last update, I have:

• Finished the Victoria Vixxen Versus scene (including dialog and a few additional renders)
• Finished the Abernathy interior scene renders
• Discovered I had to prim out my own elevator doors and buttons, but, like the glass shower door in the morning shower scenes, it wasn't too hard!
• Finished scene renders at the next location
• May go back for some touch-ups as I complete dialog and integrate into RPGM
• Started development on renders at the location after that

Which leads us to my latest character!

Meet Nina, the sales associate at the local boutique, Emma's Closet!

Nina won't be a primary character in the game, but I like the model and I'm looking to add a short erotic scene with her during this part of the game. Don't expect anything too much, but I think it'll be fun and keep the pace moving!

At this point, there's one more scene after this one that I'm going to build before I work on the branching paths that will end Day 1. All roads will, of course, lead to something fun :)

Progress Report - 4/16

I wish I had a bigger update to share today, but most of my development time recently has been going into very large renders (~2-5 hours to complete, compared to my usual 5 to 15 minutes).

The good news is that I'm all but done with the large renders. And being entirely done with that environment is just a matter of whether or not I feel like touching up a few things I started in that environment a while ago.

The OTHER good news is that I figured out a good workaround for the world center shadow bug in DAZ. Using this will save me a lot of time clone stamping in Photoshop (for the instances where I've encountered the bug, particularly in large environments).

You can see a good example of where I've put this to use in the animated image above - originally I had to crop Chrissy because she had some just awful black marks on her face and it wasn't feasible for me to touch up 30 frames (I have tried doing this before, the touch-ups become far, far more noticeable in animations since you see the touch-up smudges moving - it's just not a good idea!), so I'm rather pleased that I have a good working method to handle this in DAZ now!

I'm currently working on rendering the sequences on the interior of Abernathy, which shouldn't take me TOO much longer. Up next will be some of the scenes with Chrissy immediately after being in Abernathy. Those scenes will be followed by the branching scenes at the end of the day (probably three or four paths, with some additional options).

Depending on my mood, I'm also considering a few other development opportunities (that aren't focused on the main plot), including:

• Building the Kunnilingus Kombat scene
• 33 images, already rendered, just need to add the text
• Would be on Erisa's PC before leaving the apartment, also later when you'd be able to not have Chrissy looking over your shoulder
• Finishing the Victoria Vixxen Versus the Autofuck 5000 scene
• Already have 1 animation (currently in-game) and 5 still scenes (some with multiple angles) rendered, just need to add to it and add text
• Adding an interface tracking relationships
• I've pondered putting this in phone (which currently does nothing)
• Basically, I've already done a little JS to make a simpler (in my mind) way of coding the "Check Objective" skill (because RMMV 'if' statements are awful, contain no elseifs or switch cases, and don't offer string variables) and am considering doing some more advanced coding/light UX development to make a "check how you're progressing with girl x" screen.
• I feel like these are pretty standard, but it's something I've yet to build myself, and I like doing new things

Anyway, the next release is still a ways away (no ETA), but I'm happy to have a little more traction on the interwebs and some positive feedback (some negative too, but all I can do is learn and improve, right?) It's really kind of amazing how one post on one website results in so many uploads by other parties on other sites (are they paid upload links? probably).

As a reminder, there are no current plans to monetize this game. No Patreon, no bullshit. I'll continue uploading the latest version here and on https://f95zone.com/threads/erisas-summer-v0-0e98-im6.11135/ - which is probably also the best place for discussion at this point.

Bug Fixes - v0.0e98 Released

So, some of the intrepid players at f95zone pointed out to me that there was a bug preventing players from using the shower, which locks probably 30 - 40% of the existing game content (not that it's ALL that much, but it is significant). It was a really, really dumb bug, one that I'm not even sure how it made its way through, but the fix has been made and the latest version of the game (v0.0e98) is now downloadable here:

MEGA
NOFILE
FILESUPLOAD

Initial Release! Demo v0.0e99

Time to wake up!

Yes, Erisa's Summer v0.0e99 is here! Why 0.0x10^99? Because I can steadily back it away from being infinite zero to slightly less infinite zero in version! Don't worry, I'll give it real version numbers once I consider it to be out of a demo phase and have at least the first full day done, but I did want to get something released not only as proof of concept, but to get the feedback ball rolling.

Hopefully, if you play enough, you'll find there's a decent amount of content for the demo version.

I've also submitted the game to f95zone and am awaiting board approval on the upload there. Once it's there, I'll share that thread as well (not that anyone is coming here first, anyway!)

Anyway, here are some links to v0.0e99 if you care to give it a try!

MEGA
NOFILE
FILESUPLOAD

There's an email I'll be monitoring listed at the end of the game if you have any feedback as well. Thanks for giving this project a go!

Sneaky dev edit: here's the f95zone.com link for anyone interested: link

Demo Coming Soon!

Hi everyone! Mostly, I just want to let everyone (or at least all of the 0 people reading this blog) know that things are still moving along. Or, at least they will be. I had a few personal events that kept me away from the computer for a few weeks. I expect to resume my regular irregular development tonight/tomorrow.

I've used some of the time away from the computer to think out some ideas for paths and plotlines, including different paths for each romanceable character. So, if you decide you'd like to focus on Chrissy, it won't be as simple as just spending each day and possible scene with her, you'll need to make choices on whether you want to proceed down path a or path b with her. That way there's still a little spice for each girl.

From a very high level perspective, my idea of paths for the three girls Erisa already knows are:

• Chrissy
• Exclusive relationship versus semi-open relationship where you two invite others to join you
• Amanda
• Submit to Amanda's domineering versus convince Amanda to take things seriously with you
• Abby
• Long-distance relationship with lots of skype and phone sex versus moving a ways away to be together

Ideally, there'll be plenty of time across multiple days in the game to achieve all of this and have multiple triggers that will help you lean one way or another (with associated scenes), but since I'm still very early on, I'm making no promises! Just sharing my ideas.

Also, I'm leaning towards putting out my demo or proof of concept version relatively soon. This would basically be a version of the game where the player could experience everything in Day 1 up until the point where they'd have to leave the apartment. There's a decent amount of content and setup up to that point, should you choose to interact with it, and it'll prime me for some feedback before I get too far.

There may also be a few "bonus" elements I'd inject after the fact - such as the completed Kunnilingus Kombat scene and the full version of the Victoria Vixxen Versus the Autofuck 5000 scene (the game currently only has one rendered animation from that scene, though the rest of it is at least 60% complete, excluding text).

And, of course, as a reminder, this game is 100% free with no plans to monetize. I may open things up to donation at some point, but there will be no Patreon for this project nor anything be behind a paywall ever. So, hopefully I'll have a taste of something you may enjoy out soon!

What's New?

Has it been a week already? Time is flying!

In the past week I've made a couple breakthroughs with DAZ, mainly in the areas of lighting, building, and animating. I was having a lot of frustration with keyframes not locking as I expected in DAZ... lo and behold, DAZ requires you to select all child nodes of an object when creating keyframes. Sometimes user-friendliness goes out the window with that program.

As far as lighting is concerned, I've improved, I think, a fair bit, by learning more about ghost lighting and coloring my light sources. I think I still have room to grow there, but I'm much happier with some of the renders I've come out with since applying ghost lighting techniques. I'll also admit it's frustrating how ineffective DAZ's default lighting sources can be.

Here's a quick comparison of some lighting changes I did:

DAZ default lights

Ghost lighting

DAZ default lights - looks drab and overcast

Ghost lighting - was able to make it a nice, bright summer day!

My other new foray in DAZ was into primming out some environmental props. I've been working on a shower scene and found the stall I wanted to use, but didn't like the curtain associated with it, so I decided to build a glass door for it (along with handle, hinges, etc.). I think it came out pretty nicely!

Things you can't see in this scene: the hinges, which rotate the door along expected lines
Also, the split between the glass panels at the hinges

I've worked on a few other things as well, of course, like rendering scenes, creating animations (including an animation I just rendered last night of Chrissy in the shower that I think looks... well, I think it's my favorite animation so far).

As far as story goes, I think I now have a full roadmap for Day 1 from start to finish. Day 1 should feature about 12 distinct scenes (each with multiple renders and possible animations), including a few branching paths and choices I plan to carry into Day 2 and beyond. This does not include optional content I've also included, like solo masturbation scenes for Erisa and the Victoria Vixxen content on her computer.

Now that I have my roadmap, I'm probably about 25% complete from a time standpoint. There are a number of renders I still need to do to complete the day, but I feel comfortable with my progress.

Pew Pew!

Animation Sample

Yep, I am wayyyyyy too into animating right now. Here are my two latest characters: River and Sandy. They're sisters who will feature in Erisa's Summer, but I'm also leaning towards giving them their own game as well.

Also, this is my first time trying to get a WEBM to run on Blogger, so here's hoping it works. I can tell you already that things work splendidly in RPGM (and no, the backgrounds are not transparent/black there!)

On to RPGM!

I've decided to move the scope of this project to RPG Maker.

ADRIFT was starting to become an issue. First off, I was encountering some annoyance with the system just in the way that every little thing is parceled out. Admittedly, I had an easier time with TADS3 where this was concerned (nesting variables, building conditional statements, etc.), but I ran into more technical challenges with TADS (read: it stopped making sense and it was a headache to figure out how to do damn near anything I wanted to do).

Second, I was running into option paralysis. As limiting as an IF system can be, it can also give you waaaaaaay too many options to create verbs and possibilities. Getting through what I envision as "Day 1" of the game was becoming a nightmare because I kept thinking of new verbs and new descriptions... you get the idea.

RPGM is liberating in that there is less text work to be done and the programming is much, much friendlier than ADRIFT. I'm still planning on incorporating some features of IF that I had already been working on - things like "think about x," which I'd already used as a way to give the player background on characters (and rewarding them with some sex scenes and maybe additional content as the game progresses) without forcing them to engage it. I actually already built in the "Think About" functionality through the skills menu, and am planning the same for other concepts.

I would also estimate that the image work is about the same, if not a bit less. Due to some of the constraints of RPGM, I'll have to script the sex scenes a little more, but I think that's fine and will actually help me refine the scope of my renders for a better final product. In the end, how much does it really help to have a scene where you grope your partner over the shirt before taking it off and doing it again?

As a result, I'm also putting in additional effort in animation. I honestly had no clue how to do animation until a few weeks ago, but I figured it out relatively smoothly and already have a system in place to get some nice looking animations into the game. In fact, I've already tested it in RPGM and would say I've worked out a good system! Here's a still from Victoria Vixxen's promised follow-up, Victoria Vixxen Versus the AutoFuck5000:

This scene is already fully animated and incorporated into the game

Moreover, I've basically gotten everything to the point where I had it in ADRIFT in relatively short order and would say I'm probably about 20% to completion on Day 1. I'll probably release a demo to generate some hype after I complete Day 1.

I'm pretty excited about how far I've been able to take RPGM in this short time and I'm looking forward to sharing additional updates soon!

Kunnilingus Kombat

Yep, so I already went ahead and rendered out the scenes for Kunnilingus Kombat starring Victoria Vixxen. I think the scenes came out... Well, I think they came out awesome. The full set is 32 images comprising 10 primary scenes (the rest are, shall we say, the "porn camera angles" that capture the best shots!)

This was never meant to be a huge undertaking (it's just material that will be viewable in the game), but I really love the results. Next up will be Victoria Vixxen versus the AutoFuck 5000. Once that one's done, I'm giving some consideration to putting together a super pre-Alpha build that would give the user access to the porn on Erisa's computer and maybe some solo scenes in her room.

Oh! And I messed around with RPG Maker for a bit. Decided I am NOT dealing with hunting down the amount of resources I'd need to feel like my game isn't a heaping pile of shit, so I think that's out of the question. I'll still be considering the ArrianeB option, but for now ADRIFT will remain my engine.

And now, here's what you came for:

Promo shot!

Secret Ninja Attack Technique #69

I think the sword was an inspired choice

Bonus! This picture of Erisa and Chrissy will also reside on the computer - look how cute they are!

Victoria Vixxen and Pornception

Hi Everybody!

Still working on things! I've been doing both big picture and detailed work, asking myself some broader questions about goals and formats (e.g., how do I want the player to ultimately interact with the game and is ADRIFT still the best platform? Or would RPGM or something more akin to the games put out by vdategames.com [Chaotic/dsp] and Tlaero and Mortze [the ArrianeB platform] be better?)

I'm still deciding with the platform question. A lot of it has to do with the question of whether the player truly wants a lot of options, questions, text, and easter eggs, and whether I feel like programming all of that. If not, then the ArrianeB/RPGM way is far easier. Still, I have a little nostalgia for good ol' parser AIF... Either way, it'll get done.

On the smaller scale, I've been putting together more scenarios and a few more characters. The most recent scenario focuses around "Victoria Vixxen" - Erisa's favorite porn star! In the game, you'll have the opportunity to have Erisa watch porn at a few times, and she will opt for Victoria's material. I thought this would be fun because it adds a little realism to the game - we all watch porn, right?

Plus, there will be an opportunity not only for Erisa to watch Victoria, but to meet her and... maybe do more? I don't want to spoil too much, but I definitely thought it might be fun to inject an encounter with her favorite porn star in the game! I think you'll enjoy it too!

Meanwhile, here's a preview of Victoria and one of her co-stars from "Kunnilingus Kombat," Mandy Rose:

Mandy Rose - Green Ninja

Victoria Vixxen - Blue Ninja

As a bonus, here's also a render I put together as a nude selfie from Amanda that Erisa... may have saved. There will be more where this came from for Amanda in the game, too!

Amanda doesn't have much of a problem with the whole "send nudes" thing

Rey

Okay, first of all, NO this is not a Star Wars character! Though, I did quite like Episode VIII (sorry to the haters who just decided to forget about this project - if any of you existed in the first place).

Rey will be another character Erisa encounters for the first time. She'll also likely have a few years on her and maybe be able to teach her a few things (wink wink, nudge nudge). I always knew I wanted to add an Asian character to the game (I might even add another!) and I'm pretty pleased with how her design turned out. Here are a few test renders of her - profile shots and a couple quick sexy pics!

A lot of the work right now is conceptual and/or in the code/writing, but I had a lot of fun working on Rey and hope to bring you at least some more test renders sometime soon!