It's Here! - Day One COMPLETE!

Get in there girl, Day One is finally done!

You can download it here: MEGA - NOFILE - FILESUPLOAD

As a reminder, in addition to uploading this blog, I also keep a pretty active update going on f95zone.to here: Erisa's Summer on F95zone

It's been a long time coming and I very nearly gave up altogether. I'm not sure when (or if) I'll ever get to doing Day 2 and beyond in Ren'Py, but I do feel good about providing some resolution to Erisa and Chrissy, who have become dear characters to me.

I'm not going to say this game is perfect. There's definitely still more to the story as I always intended the meat to be in Day 2 and beyond, with the introduction of additional characters and all of the fun that can happen with a bunch of college girls on an all-inclusive cruise. But I had to put Day 1 to bed so that I could get out of RPGM and make even the thought of development fun again.

I've done my best to make sure that the game is bug free, but I'll monitor the usual inbox (ErisasSummer (at) gmail (dot) com) as well as feedback on the F95zone thread in case there's another bug like Chrissy's shower. I do hope people get some enjoyment out of the game, and would love to hear it if you did!

As a reminder, this game is 100% free, which means you should not be paying for it ANYWHERE.

Enjoy!

-IM6

A Wild Update Appears! - 4/9/19

Wow, it's been more than half a year since I've last updated. Time flies!

Things have been going on in my own life and I haven't had the time or drive in these past many months to work on Erisa and her quest for sweet college poon. Enough so that f95 even swooped in and flagged the thread as Abandoned! The shame, the horror!

Well, to be honest about things, it was always my intent to work at my own pace (even if that meant taking a long break), but it was never my intent to abandon the game. But I got damn close - mostly because it became apparent to me that RPGM is a pain in the ass to work with.

I've had all the renders done for months (since one of the last updates), but basically lost the will to live in RPGM at some point. It's a weird constant middle ground between pre-made assets and custom made assets that I don't think I'll ever be happy with. Not to mention the variable system is incredibly frustrating when you want to track events that haven't yet happened or try to build events based on multiple variables.

It was leagues ahead of ADRIFT, but I've gotten to the point where I want more.

But the real question was how to cross that bridge - and it was a question I didn't want to address, until now.

Essentially, over the past several months, I've been playing in Ren'Py on another game I've been kicking around in my head - prototypically named EveL and based around a girl who develops mind control powers and uses them for good or ill. I've been quietly developing that game and an engine that runs similar to many of the LOP games you'll see where you can click buttons to move between environments and interact with the surroundings.

It's coming along nicely, and I'm really happy with the way the engine is progressing, but the thought of Erisa's unfinished Day 1 campaign kept eating at me to the point where I feel the need to at LEAST finish Day 1 of Erisa's Summer before taking off with EveL.

So again, how to cross that bridge?

Well, I'm going to finish Day 1 in RPGM since the bolus of the work is already there. Then, if I decide to build out Day 2 and beyond, they'll be in their own Ren'Py system similar to the above. This just means that the variables in RPGM will only matter for Day 1, and if I ever expand into a Day 2 in Ren'Py, a few key triggers will be captured by user input on startup and then everything will be tracked there moving forward in perpetuity.

Now, how far along is Day 1's implementation?

Well, the shitty RPGM engine has taken me longer than expected to implement everything I've wanted to build out. I've been working on all events following the last publish release and have probably put in over 20 hours already. I'm at the point where I just have the build out the branches at the end of the day (which may take some time, since they're all their own full scenes) and do some playtesting to hopefully get around any bugs like the shitty shower issue the first 0.0e99 release encountered.

I'm not publishing a timeline because I'm not holding myself to a timeline, but I hope to have Day 1 done in the near future. Day 2+ will be in indefinite limbo once Day 1 is complete, but I'll publish details there as I'm able to - or as I decide to focus on EveL.

Anyway - cheers for reading! Here's hoping the next post is a release post!

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 :)