Itty-bitty dev update (I'm wearing a maid outfit while I write this)

Hey, friends. I actually wanted to put out some previews but more on that later.

While I put out that post confirming the completion of Pt 2's script, I actually still had a bunch of real-life shenanigans throughout the first half of September. Wrapping up all the kitchen shit I was bemoaning for 3 or so months. That's all done, I built myself a new table and shit, bought myself an Aeron chair, and am now finally back in the land of comfort so I can lock in on rendering.

It's going... fine? I guess, not great, but fine. If you want to be an optimist, progress is progress. The main issue I've been facing is that of environments and setpieces. There's quite a lot of locale-hopping at this point of the story, and my momentum gets completely obliterated as I have to craft another scene.

For those of you who are uninitiated, this is how it works: I can use a bunch of premade environments and furnish them however I please. This is great until there aren't any premade environments that suit your needs. This is the issue I've been facing thanks to setting this whole update in a palace. Exteriors, interiors, nothing. I'm building dirt floors and backdrops.

The good news is that this isn't non-stop. I'm creeping up on a stretch of >150 renders without an environmental change. I've kind of lost track of how much of this has to happen in the future. Couple it with the usual suspects of workload i.e. animations, and yeah, sorry. No wonder this episode is taking much longer.

As for previews, you've gotta give me just a few more days, right now I don't have a particularly diverse set of renders, and the biggest issue is that what I've recently been rendering is something I don't want to spoil, even in a preview batch. So my hands are a little tied. But I promise, previews are going to start coming out hard and fast, I just need to get it snowballing.

Leaning into more unabashedly positive news, I've still got it! After not having touched Studio for the whole of summer, I'm extremely satisfied with these visuals. If you've seen the previous previews for this update, you'll have an idea. I'm kinda proud of how some of these look, so that's the biggest saving Grace of this update.

I just can't wait to get back to full speed. I'm tired and frustrated. I always want to reassure you guys that this dev cycle has been an anomaly. Regardless of how long my updates usually take, this one has been especially long due to the many speed bumps I've had to face. I'm excited for the following update too as I have a much clearer idea of what I'm doing, and I'll be able to go at it full-speed from the start.

This was just a small update as I don't have too much to say either way, I just wanted to let the higher patrons know they need to wait just a little bit longer for the previews and let everyone else know that I'm still moving forward.

Love you guys and especially your patience.

- Gary