Developer's Journal 2:20
Added 2023-03-05 02:22:37 +0000 UTCHey everybody! This was an exciting week for me because a whopping six new supporters signed up, and there have now been 12 new supps in the last 30 days! Welcome to all of the new people! It's very rewarding for me to find that people like the game enough to support me either on Patreon or SubscribeStar, so a big thank you to the new supporters, and of course to the older supporters as well.
Looking at my numbers, there are eleven of you still here that signed on in the first thirty days after I released the Demo. It was pretty incredible to see anybody at all jump on back then, since before I clicked the upload button I had no idea how LDNA was going to be received. And the fact that you're still here means a lot to me.
So, to supporters old and new, a big thank you!
I'm still working on the same scene as last week, i.e. the reunion with Blondie. This scene has been particularly challenging due the way I've got the lighting set up. The difference between doing a stand-alone render and rendering an entire multi-render scene is that you've got to make sure the lighting stays consistent from render to render. That sounds simple in concept, but the fact is that lighting that looks great in one render looks too dark or too bright when you move the camera to focus on a different character, so often you end up having to do multiple takes on each render while you tinker with the lighting. And render times are between 90 minutes and three hours for each render in this scene, so you can imagine that this week has been a bit slow.
In some of my recent scenes I've been experiencing longer render times than normal. I'm not sure what the cause is, I don't think it's a hardware issue; probably just me not being careful enough with lights and surfaces. But at least for now, the only way I'd be able to shorten render times is to lower the quality of the scene, which I'm not willing to do, so it is what it is.
I'm not sure if I'll have new preview images for you next week. It will depend on whether I'm able to finish with this scene in the next few days.
In the meantime, have a nice week and thank you for your support!
--Monk
Comments
You're welcome, Monk! That right there is also part of the pain in the ass with figuring out render settings. Different ones work for different scenes it seems. And sometimes the smallest of things end up increasing the render time without even realizing it. Haha. Each dev has their own preferences so that makes sense. I still have yet to find settings I'm fully comfortable with when rendering. Their hair does look great! Gotta sacrifice speed for quality with them haha. And oh my goodness is hair a pain in the butt when it comes to the good ones! Looks good but takes forever to get it to turn out good in renders. Ahhhh, okay. That would do it! Lighting + reflective surfaces = massive render times. Sounds like it will be visually appealing! :D Ghost lights of that size are so cruel! Had two big ones in a large gym scene I rendered recently and the damn thing took almost 4 hours to render. T_T So I feel your pain. Heh.
Twisty Ninja
2023-03-07 03:01:57 +0000 UTCGlad I was able to get your full attention! I figure it's best to let the player know the tone of the game right away. I've had a serious internal debate about those clue questions since releasing Part One and I actually posted a poll here on Patreon. They weren't super popular, and consensus is that the second question was way too hard. So when Part Two is released I'll be adding stronger clues for those two questions and there won't be any new questions added going forward.
Impious Monk
2023-03-05 14:23:36 +0000 UTCI was most intrigued after reading the developer's note at the start of the game and seeing what topics this story wants to delve into. Then, when I saw the foot between the door a few moments later, I expected the worst and abandoned the game for the time being. It's impressive when a story can get under my skin in just a few moments and I didn't want to go on during a lunch break. That was also the moment when I subscribed here. In the meantime I played though and was not disappointed, I am still as intrigued as I was before. So far, thanks for a good time, and I hope we'll see more of LDNA in the future. By the way, I liked the two occurrences where you have to find clues and type two words. The second one took me some time.
Callisto
2023-03-05 11:56:13 +0000 UTCSeriously, I love that you're getting more supporters for this game especially the support at Reddit. I'm happy with the outcome of Part One and I knew that I had to subscribe because my heart always goes out to small devs like you. Now, I don't know jackshit about renders so I trust what you're doing and other supporters' feedback but I'm liking what I'm seeing so far!
Calamity_Joe
2023-03-05 06:13:50 +0000 UTCYour story line is was intrigued and is the reason why I decided to become a patron. Just take your time with what you are doing, because the most important thing is for you to tell your story at a pace that keeps you from burning out or frying your brain.
JAS
2023-03-05 05:03:21 +0000 UTCOh, I almost forgot I've also got two ceiling-sized ghost lights in this room so those are probably killing me. 😂
Impious Monk
2023-03-05 03:24:26 +0000 UTCThank you, Twisty! I have spent quite a lot of time reading about, discussing, and testing render times. Each scene is a bit different, though, so it's hard to say exactly what it is in each scene. In general my renders are longer than a lot of other devs because I render in 2K at 99% convergence rate with 25000 to 50000 iterations. I also redo most default textures in a scene to make them bigger resource hogs and I frequently have a lot of reflective surfaces and added props. And Jamie and this blonde also have longer render times because their hair assets are from a top quality creator. But most likely the biggest contributors for this particular scene are having a lot of lights and detailed, reflective surfaces contained within four walls, a floor and ceiling PLUS the way I modified the apartment I ended up with large portions of the walls, floors, and ceiling that hang outside of the enclosed space, and those also have their own interactions with the light outside. There's probably a smarter way to do it, but once I realized how long these renders were going to take I was sort of already committed to the set, so at this point it is what it is. 😊
Impious Monk
2023-03-05 03:19:59 +0000 UTCWe just appreciate the quality game you've provided us with so far. Not only a likeable MC but also likeable LIs! The future of your game is an exciting one. In regards to the render times, those render settings can really be finicky and the smallest of changes end up making a world of difference. I'm still trying to figure out settings that work best for me. Maybe you could get some tips from other creators to help with the render time?
Twisty Ninja
2023-03-05 03:08:10 +0000 UTCGot it! Thank you for the detailed answer. Can't wait for the next update! :)
Bormaley
2023-03-05 02:56:17 +0000 UTCThank you, Bormaley, I've very glad you're enjoying it! There will not be a harem or throuple ending--you can only end up with one woman. You'll have time to spend with each of the women before deciding who you like best, and all sexual/romantic contact with any of the women is entirely avoidable, so if you want to be just friends with a particular LI, you can. You should expect these LI's to behave like real women, and some of them may have strong reactions to seeing MC engaging with the other LI's, including some possible feelings of jealousy.
Impious Monk
2023-03-05 02:39:01 +0000 UTCHey! I was impressed by the quality of the narrative and the renders (especially kudos for Jamie). So, keep up the good work, and thank you for sharing your art with us. One question: do you plan to implement single route options vs harem one, and if yes - do you plan on using jealousy and cheating mechanics?
Bormaley
2023-03-05 02:29:51 +0000 UTC
