Hey friends, hope you’re all well this week!

Progress since last week has been a little slow-going, with my real life being extra hectic as of late. But, I’m still moving ahead in fits and starts.

For Ch14 I’ve got about ¾ of the script using the new-and-improved name/portrait system for characters, allowing me to more easily change them from scene to scene, as characters change costumes (or occasionally) names. I also added the little bits of Gabby content I wanted on the lover/friend path.

On Ch15 I’ve mostly been working on the script, trying to tighten up the ero content at the end. I’m also experimenting with animations for this scene. Like, real animations. Not my little 3-4 frame flip-book ones. We’ll see if I can make something worth using.

While Ch16 is still a little ways out, I did want to start putting together assets and test shots for an ambitious segment taking place at a nightclub. As always, crowds are the enemy when you’re working in Daz Studio, but they just give such a sense of liveliness to a scene that I have a hard time resisting them. So, I needed to make some waitresses and partygoers. Then I had a bit of a eureka moment, and just made a giant mass of dancing silhouettes, and I think it works. You can see the before/after in the attached images.

Finally, I completed a near-final draft of the Carolina short story I was working on, exploring her life prior to the events of the game. I still need to do some images for it, but it’ll be up this weekend for everyone. I’m sending the text-only version to the Close Friend tier via PM, so check your inboxes if you’re interested in reading that before everyone else.

Annnnd in general miscellany, I’m experimenting with an idea I had for the portrait system as a whole. At present, the model I’m following is basically that the character’s dialogue portrait changes costume/hairstyles as they do so in-game. But in order to give people more flexibility, I’m playing with an idea where you’d have two more options. The first would just mean getting rid of the portrait entirely, so you’d only have the character’s name on-screen while they’re speaking, for the people who prefer a cleaner UI. But the second option would be a non-representative portrait, where you could select a few costumes, including unlockable ones for completing certain scenes/achievements. This isn’t something I’m going to put into practice immediately, but I did want to do some Gabby variants, showing what this might look like.

Alright, that’s it for me, today! I’ll be back here next week, but as always take care of yourselves – and thank you for your support!