Tara and everything after...

Today marks the ten year anniversary of my first ever game release.

'Tara : The Hitch-Hiker' was released on 17th October 2014 on vdategames.com
It was my first venture into creating an interactive adult visual experiment.

All credit to Chaotic for giving me the opportunity to put out a very early, rough and ready little game.
It only had 375 images, but I remember it took me ages to create.

Of course that spawned 'Tara : The Hotel' and 'Tara : The Assignment' as a trilogy of games.

Creating games at this point was very much a part time pre-occupation and hobby.
It was something I enjoyed more and more as time progressed.
I wrapped up the 'Tara Trilogy' with the release of part three in December 2015.

I'd learned a lot and really developed my style and processes during those early games.
They weren't great but I understandably see the third part of the Tara series as the most complete and polished of that period.
I liked the notion of a story with multiple episodes and multiple narrative pathways.
Reflecting on what I had learned, I next set my ambitions on a much more expansive series.
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My original plan for the then untitled project was five parts each containing about 1000 images.
I'd set myself a target of one year for the completion of this entire series.
I invested in a much more powerful computer and planned out basic synopses for the series.
 
The first episode in the Academy series was originally released in April 2016.
It comprised what is now Chapters One and Two and had 997 images.
I tried to combine story telling with elements of strategic game-play and of course sex!
Feedback at the time was generally positive and I was encouraged to continue.
So far so good.

The next instalment came out about three months later and had 1500 images.
By day three, I was already up to nearly 1800 images instead of the 1000 per episode I had originally anticipated.
I was rapidly realising that five parts, or at least 5000 images would never be sufficient to tell the story I wanted to tell.

One year later I'd just about completed and released day four in the Academy story.
At this point I really hadn’t decided how I wanted the story to end.
That's when I decided to side step an unsatisfactory and unresolved concluding day five,  and instead began creating the infamous 'Date with Bridgette' episodes.
The four stages of ‘Thursday evening’ took me through to October 2019.
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So five years into a one year project, and with over 17,300 images produced, I did what any self-doubting, over-sensitive perfectionist would naturally do...

Instead of just finishing it, I decided to start it all again...

That does somewhat over-simplify matters, but essentially I just wanted to go back and make the series much bigger and much better.
I'd also still been agonizing over various ways to draw the story to a climax for several years.
I finally figured it out (mostly) but that did necessitate some revisions and additions to the story so far.
The remake process allowed me to iron out some continuity issues and add more depth and tension to the narrative.
The game doubled in size.

I'd also developed my technical understanding and creative ability over that time to the extent that it was really noticeable when comparing new material to the older renders.
Many of the earlier images just didn’t look as good as I wanted them to be.
My improved understanding of lighting and render settings had taken several years to develop.
Another even more powerful computer enabled a more efficiant work flow.

That was the start of the remake and expansion process back in late 2021 and the genesis of my own platform and website.
Setting up this Patreon page was a natural development of that because I wanted and needed a way of communicating what I was up to.
I'd kept very quiet for a couple of difficult years and this was a chance to break cover and announce that I was still very much alive and very much creating. 
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The decision to try out Patreon has genuinely been life changing for me.

It has allowed me to move on from a previously problematic work environment to having full autonomy and, more importantly, the time and confidence to fully commit to completing the series.

I am continually grateful and humbled by every one of you who supports my work.
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Ten years is a long time to spend doing anything.

Dreaming up and then telling a story is the real fun part.
The whole posing, lighting and rendering process for every single image is incredibly labour intensive. Multiply that by tens of thousands and you begin to realise where all the time goes.

But despite the sometimes-glacial pace of movement, I still truly love what I am doing.

Thanks Tara!