Weekly report 195
Added 2024-02-02 23:35:00 +0000 UTCHi everybody.
I hope you've had a good week. Here's a summary of what Chestnut and I have been doing:
Chestnut:
She worked on editing the art of the beginning of the content of Gomira, doing variations for the intro cutscenes, and also working on the sprite of Percy, the bard -- a friendly character introduced in 0.7. We liked his original design, but we thought he was a tad too good-looking, so Chestnut has been working on his design. Looking at her PC, I honestly think he's now too ugly, but the editing is not done, and I will have to test it in the game.
Pistachio:
I had, overall, a productive week. I added some of Chestnut's completed artworks (mostly cutscenes), reworked some text, and posed them. Right now, I'm working on the scenes that I left from before because they were more complicated (I still haven't touched the controversial part mentioned last week). Last night, while trying to pose a scene I had difficulty with, I found a major game-breaking bug, which I fixed.
What's next:
Chestnut will work on Percy's design, and I will test it in the game. Then we may go through the first half of Gomira's first quest to list necessary edits for her to focus on.
I want to try to finish these final couple of dialogues (and one event) from Gomira's last quest. I will then focus on the audio and the animations, adding all of the artwork and beginning the polish phase. I doubt I can do all of these in a week, but I'll do what I can.
That's all.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Cheers
Comments
Despite the negative tone of my comment, which was mostly due to my own issues going on in my life and not because of anything you did or didnt do, I wanted to become a patron because I really enjoy the game and want to see it succeed. You didn't have to take the time to give me such a well formed response but I appreciate that you did. I'm sorry that life is so damn hard. For everyone. Thank you for your work and enjoy your V day.
BrickTheThicc
2024-02-14 19:02:39 +0000 UTCWe can talk about numbers: we pay close to about 40% of our income in taxes, and what remains should be divided into two because we're two people working on the game. But I agree with you overall that there are plenty of people whose work is much more beneficial to society than our job (or that of yours, for that matter) who get paid much, much less. I'm not saying, mind you, that electrical engineering or entertainment aren't important, but they're of a different magnitude of importance than the jobs some barely paid teachers and nurses I know do. I wish people would get paid according to what they contribute, but I don't write the rules. Now, on the topic of health, I think 80 hours a week is way too much, and I'm sorry you have to work that hard. I have had to do a lot of crunch and know how difficult it is (usually at 70 hours a week, though, and not for this update; for this one, our baby has taken all my crunch time, hence the longer dev-time). We're lucky that we don't have to do physical work, but there are still some health issues that come with working from home. Example? It's been over a year since we had a single weekend (not counting birthdays and Christmas), and it's been months that I've been sleeping only 3 to 4 hours a day. The stress, which I'm sure you're familiar with given that you work 80 hours a week, is no physical work, but it's no slouch either. For example, four of my teeth have broken during this update alone from grinding them during sleep (the longer we take to release, the more downward the health goes). On top of that, we're a husband and wife working on the game, and there are basically only two topics of conversation in our house: the kids and the job, and unless we're working on it actively, that can very much negatively impact our relationship, causing even more stress (today is valentine's day, for example, and we had a work-but-not-talk-about-work rule, which I already broke by showing your comment to my wife). I don't want to downplay the great things about my job, though. I'm lucky to be able to work from home and spend all my time with my wife and kids. On top of that, we live in one of the cheapest parts of Spain, so our income is more than enough to cover our needs and support our families, but I'm just saying that our job has its own challenges that can be taken for granted. Lastly, about "never finishing my job," which I admit hurts: we have released 5 updates with content that people have mostly enjoyed. This last release has taken us long (much longer than we had anticipated), but we're working on it, and we will absolutely finish it and have many more releases in the future. As an aside, you don't need to become a patron to send us messages or criticisms. We have a public discord page where we read and respond to all messages. But I apprecaite the support all the same.
MagicNuts
2024-02-14 18:58:50 +0000 UTCI wish I could make 7500$ a month to never finish my job. But woe is me I'm just a lowly electrical engineer making less than half of that while destroying my body working 80 hours a week in my surprisingly physical job.
BrickTheThicc
2024-02-14 16:17:55 +0000 UTCThe bigger something gets, the more complicated and difficult it becomes to integrate what appears to be 'the same' amount of added content. I'm also into Holly but will be taking the opposite approach that I won't complete her content until I've done 'most of' the rest of that game, so it will be 0.8 where I'm 'waiting' for 0.9. But that won't be a matter of discontent for me it's my choice (interacting that of the fan base). Take care of yourselves, drive safely and don't get boxed into the off-ramp for Burnout
Volé
2024-02-08 18:19:26 +0000 UTCProgrammers are patient. End-users - not so much. Hang in there folks!
KC Starbuck
2024-02-07 21:38:23 +0000 UTCOn the plus side, now he won't be inundated with advances from all the women who before wouldn't have been able to resist him. Wait, did I say plus side? Well, it will be a plus for the MC, at least: less competition
MagicNuts
2024-02-04 06:20:04 +0000 UTCRIP in peace Hot Percy, you were too hot for this world 😞
Mr F
2024-02-04 06:15:21 +0000 UTCYes ofcourse that ship has sailed. Future quests and events though 😁
AreYaWinningSon
2024-02-03 22:27:17 +0000 UTCIt'd be easy to change the MC's clothes in the sprite, but the problem would be all the cutscene and sex scenes he's in. if we are to change his clothes, we'll have to redo all of those, which is not an option. I do have to say, though, that the changes so far have been done to his face and not his outfit (because, as I said, Chestnut already needed to make adjustments to his face, and this was just something extra).
MagicNuts
2024-02-03 20:46:45 +0000 UTCAh thanks I understand. If Percy is dressing up posh and have the looks of an easy life it will clash with him working in a tavern in the lower class district. But to be fair..outdressing MCs humble attire is very easy, even Anton is on par if he just washed.
AreYaWinningSon
2024-02-03 20:42:20 +0000 UTCPoor Percy! :)
John Hall
2024-02-03 18:27:31 +0000 UTCI'm really sorry that we have taken this long. I assure you that nobody wants the work on this update to be over more than Chestnut and I. I know all the reasons why 0.7's development has taken so long, and even despite that, I think if I were in your shoes, I would still be a bit annoyed that we haven't yet reached the character I'm interested in, the one for which I have supported this project. So I totally understand, and I am very sorry. I wish I could work faster, but I have already been crunching for months, and don't know what else I can do other than just work work work and try to wrap things up. About reworking assets, that is a normal part of our development and has happened in all our previous updates as well. In this case, the change is in a sprite's design, which is a lot simpler than some other changes we have made in the past (including redoing entire cutscenes and sex scenes). What is different this time is that those changes are usually done when both Chestnut and I are in the polish phase; right now, Chestnut is there, but I'm not, so in addition to her usual polish work, she will also have to draw new hands/cutscenes I'm adding while I pose the main content of the update (and those themselves will require polish later, once I'm done). Maybe your projects were different or you were better at planning, but I don't think announcing a release date would help. We announced our release date for the 0.3 update. The results were so much stress that we both became physically ill (I remember Chestnut's hair began falling from lack of sleep and stress), and even wondered if we should just abandon the project. We could only reach the release date by cutting down on a lot of content that had been planned (after 2 weeks of delay), making the release worse than it would have been. Maybe if we were better at planning or at getting the story right on the first try, I would be able to give an estimate, but as it is, our development involves a lot of planning, making, testing, and remaking, retesting, etc. until we get it right and are happy with the outcome (we do a lot of planning, but what makes sense on paper early on, doesn't always work when actually made), which means if there's a fixed deadline, either I will have to go with releasing a not-yet-ready update or cut otherwise enjoyable content. I think people have waited too long to give them a subpar release, so my aim is to do it as well as I can (as good as previous releases, that is) and try to do better in the next release.
MagicNuts
2024-02-03 18:19:12 +0000 UTCI remember when I was posing his interactions with the MC, thinking that if I just saw this, I wouldn't be able to tell who's the protagonist since Percy's design is more elaborate and he's pretty good-looking. Now, if that added something to the game or was a feature we were using, that would be fine, but as it was, his design didn't contribute to the story and didn't match the small 'side-kick' role he has in this update. Given his personal backstory, Chestnut already needed to make a small change to his design, so I asked her to also tone down his good looks so that I can test it later and see if it works better or not.
MagicNuts
2024-02-03 17:14:11 +0000 UTCI tend to agree. It's hard (for me personally) to criticize the team due to them being wholesome and likeable, and it's also clear that this isn't any sort of scam situation, but time between updates has stretched out into something that is very surprising for me. I find myself in the same situation where I try to do the math of when the next content I'm invested in will be added and the answer seems to be years. To the devs: Don't take this as something personal though or get discouraged. Just hoping for a bit more consistency in the future.
Redacted
2024-02-03 16:25:11 +0000 UTCBack in September of 2022, I was intrigued by the idea that in v.8 that the focus would return to Holly. I wasn't a big fan of Gomira specifically nor of monster girls in general. In short, I continued my patronage not based on anticipation of v.7, but rather in hopes that v.7 would be delivered in a timely cycle and that the project would head in a direction more to my liking. Unfortunately, it seems that v.7 is mired in reworking assets that were completed a year ago and not focused on much brand new content. As with January of 2022, this January began with apologies about how challenging the previous year had been and requests that your patrons not ask for specific release dates. I am uncertain of the challenges that have confronted the Magic Nuts family over the past two years. I have observed, however, that your development was faster when you published detailed project plans in years past. Development projects that I have worked on in the past benefited from detailed milestones and the sharing of those milestones with the customers. It may feel like additional overhead, but it creates accountability not just between the development team and the customers but within the team as well. Barring greater transparency and specificity, I fear that this project that showed such wonderful progress initially will never be completed.
david hester
2024-02-03 14:52:03 +0000 UTCI remember also pointing out that the bard was very pretty back when we first saw him. Could you elaborate on why you want to tone down his apperance?
AreYaWinningSon
2024-02-03 08:22:40 +0000 UTCY'all, this is like a certain Valve game that shall remain nameless; every time you ask for a release date, Gaben pushes it back another five hundred years.
Sh0tgun_Jacks0n
2024-02-03 04:14:28 +0000 UTCWe do have an internal deadline, but I'm a bit behind, and I still haven't started the polish phase (which includes a lot of testing and looking for bugs), so I don't dare to give an estimate right now. What I can promise you is that we're working as many hours a day as we can (seven days a week) to try to wrap this update up and get back to quicker release schedules in the next update.
MagicNuts
2024-02-03 00:19:31 +0000 UTCThank you for the update!! Any idea when the next release will be out?
Avman72
2024-02-02 23:59:03 +0000 UTC
