Let’s answer the question in the title right out of the gate. Damn, I have been crushing it this week. I set myself a pretty unhinged goal at the start of the week and somehow managed to hit it. It may or may not have cost me my sanity, but we got there. So let’s break down what I managed to achieve.
On the animation side, I completed another animation this week, and Episode 3 is really starting to lean into a more cinematic experience. I feel like this helps strengthen the world building and visual identity of the game. I am always chasing the version of Moonlight that lives in my head, and these small cinematic transitions are helping get me closer to that vision.
I also set up the environment and began work on the biggest animation of the episode so far. This one acts as a full cinematic cut scene with voice acting. It is a very ambitious undertaking and something I expect to be working on for a few weeks. That said, I do not want it to stall the overall progress of the episode, so I will be balancing this alongside other work. Classy Lemon gave me a sneak peek at some of his newer cut scenes recently, and if I can achieve even a fraction of that quality, I will be extremely happy.
Render numbers are the big headline this week. I set myself the slightly insane goal of hitting 200 renders and somehow managed to pull it off. It may or may not have cost me the remainder of my sanity, but at this point I am not convinced there was much left anyway. This brings the total render count for Episode 3 up to 725, along with seven animations completed so far.
The first section of this episode is very story driven. There is a lot of narrative ground to cover before we reach the date night content. I am looking forward to getting back to spending more time with the girls and developing those relationships further. Balancing the overarching narrative with the relationships the MC builds has always been important to me. In the last episode, I threw in an early interaction to add some lewd content, but as the story deepens and relationships grow, it becomes harder to justify random lewds that undermine those connections. I knew the fun train would slow down eventually, even if I am not thrilled about it.
As for the week ahead, I am not sure I can repeat this level of output, but I will do what I always do and try to make meaningful progress. I will then return here to report back, like a golden retriever proudly presenting a half chewed slipper in hopes of praise.
Have a great week,
Bat