ILSProductions

Now & Then Version 0.15.0 Now Live (for Tier 3)

Part Two: Chapter Fifteen [Version 0.15.0]

With their minds focused on a looming departure, Jack and the girls prepare to leave a city that's grown increasingly perilous by the day. Also, Jack, curious about  a recent revelation, goes out to discover what happened to a family friend. 

2021-04-16 15:59:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Happy 1st Year & Chapter Fifteen (0.15.0) Release Schedule

And here we are! Chapter 15 is in the final stages (testing and uploading), which means most of you will be playing it by the beginning of next week. As the penultimate episode of Part 2, this chapter ramps up the tension as Jack and the girls feel their time in the city is fast coming to a close. 

Of greater importance (to me, at least) is that ILS Productions and Now & Then is celebrating it's 1st Year Anniversary (or birthday, whatever). On ...

Chapter Fifteen (0.15.0) Update #2

It occurs to me that the development and workflow that each chapter goes through almost always proves to be a different experience each time. Some episodes are built in quarters, while others have the intimate scenes left until the end of the build (due to them being more complex with the integration of animations). Chapter 15 may be the first time where I'm technically (by the tracking spreadsheet) about halfway done, but realistically have about a 90% playable build.

By that I mean th...

April 2021's Patron-exclusive Wallpapers

EDIT: Oops, used the wrong month. I've updated everything with April instead of March. Sorry for that.

Since it's springtime in my stretch of the woods, that means it's somehow hot one day, cold the next (I'm seeing 40+ degree Fahrenheit swings on a daily basis), and the air is thick with pollen. I have a black car that spends most days this greenish sickly-yellow color. So, no real theme this month. Just Carol and Naomi enjoying warmer days in a more tropical locale. 2021-04-04 20:08:17 +0000 UTC View Post

Behind the Scenes: Music

While I won’t pretend Now & Then isn’t some kind of multi-media experience, during the early development, I did want to have a soundtrack that really nailed the game’s overall mood. As my own favorites for videogame soundtracks included the likes of Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill), Shoji Meguro (Persona/SMT), and Keiichi Okabe (Nier), and I've played my fair share of horror games, I felt I had some idea...

Chapter Fifteen (0.15.0) Update #1

And the work for Chapter Fifteen has begun. Way ahead of our usual schedule, but for good reason. Generally, we like to have about a week between releases for downtime--because burnout is real--but with how full the plot document for this chapter was (in terms of extra content), we got started a little early.

The reason why? Chapter 15 is going to have three additional scenes (you know the kind...

March 2021's NSFW Wallpapers

March's Public wallpapers focus on one of Chapter 14's new locations - the school pool. Of course, it's a version before the pandemic, before they drained it and shut down the school. But, who cares? It gives me an opportunity to put the cast in swimwear and get a little wet.

So... enjoy! Also, check out the public variants.

2021-03-25 20:43:25 +0000 UTC View Post

March 2021's Public Wallpapers

March's Public wallpapers focus on one of Chapter 14's new locations - the school pool. Of course, it's a version before the pandemic, before they drained it and shut down the school. But, who cares? It gives me an opportunity to put the cast in swimwear and get a little wet. 

So... enjoy! Also, check out the NSFW variants for Tier 2 and 3 patrons.

2021-03-25 20:43:13 +0000 UTC View Post

Now & Then Version 0.14.0 Now Live

Part Two: Chapter Fourteen [Version 0.14.0]

When Carol and Sydney uncover something of interest behind the locked door in the locker room, the girls eventually make a somewhat decent proposal. Also, with questions as to why she has yet to look for her family, Jack confronts Sydney about her situation.

2021-03-23 15:59:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Now & Then Trailer

It only took us about a year to get around to this, but Now & Then finally has a promo trailer. Nothing surprising or new here for those who've been following this game for a while now, but I figured we needed something like this for those who haven't given the game a chance, yet.

So, it'll be going up on our Twitter and itch.io pages soon enough. 

Featured song is "Snowfall final" by 2021-03-21 20:51:39 +0000 UTC View Post

Now & Then Version 0.14.0 Now Live (for Tier 2)

Part Two: Chapter Fourteen [Version 0.14.0]

When Carol and Sydney uncover something of interest behind the locked door in the locker room, the girls eventually make a somewhat decent proposal. Also, with questions as to why she has yet to look for her family, Jack confronts Sydney about her situation.

2021-03-21 15:59:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Now & Then Version 0.14.0 Now Live (for Tier 3)

Part Two: Chapter Fourteen [Version 0.14.0]

When Carol and Sydney uncover something of interest behind the locked door in the locker room, the girls eventually make a somewhat decent proposal. Also, with questions as to why she has yet to look for her family, Jack confronts Sydney about her situation.

2021-03-19 15:59:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter Fourteen (0.14.0) Update and Release Schedule

Even with a couple of technology bumps to overcome, Chapter Fourteen is in the bag. Between issues with the Ren'py SDK and some problems with Adobe pushing out their entire 2021 Creative Suite right in the middle of me getting the last of the episode built (which tied up multiple programs I use for image/video conversion and clean up), we're getting this chapter out relatively on schedule. I'm counting the two days...

Chapter Fourteen (0.14.0) Update #2

And here we are, at about the (sorta) half-way point. In truth, there's actually about 2/3rds of the update in a playable state, so far, but with script re-writes for pacing and continuity and a bit of back-end coding to do, it's still hovering at 51ish percent. With upwards of six possible variations of certain scenes, it's good to have some resolution on specific story threads.

In terms of the last five or so scenes yet to be built, I already know the who/what/where/when/why of them, ...

Poll: Ren'py issues and which SDK to use going forward

With Chapter 14's development in full swing, I find myself needing to get an idea of where we're at everyone's ability to currently run the game. In light of the reported issues with 0.13.0 and the release of 0.13.1 to address this problem, I have to make a hard decision on which Ren'py SDK to use going forward.

Background History

Chapter 1 through 11 all ran on Ren'py 7.3.5. When 7.4.2...

March 2021's Patron-exclusive Wallpapers

So, March's wallpaper theme is (of course) St. Patrick's Day, which for me has always been... weird. When I was younger, it was the "wear green or get pinched" day, which seemed like a really stupid tradition. Then, when I got older, it was "Hey, it's St. Patrick’s Day, let's get drunk," which was also dumb, because at that age the only excuse I needed to drink was "Hey, it's a day that ends in Y!"

...

Chapter Fourteen (0.14.0) Update #1

After a little hiccup, work on the next episode of Now & Then is formally underway. The story picks up a few days after the last chapter as Jack and the girls start moving towards the next stage of their journey. 

As with the last third of Ch13, there's a lot here that hinges on what you've done and what a certain character (*cough* Sydney *cough*) knows or feels. By the time this ch...

Now & Then Version 0.13.1 (for those having issues with 0.13.0)

With reports that some users are having issues getting 0.13.0 to open, I've gone ahead and rolled Ren'py back from 7.4.2 to 7.3.5, which was the version used for everything prior to 0.12.0. As mentioned by Lykanz (The Inn), the rework of the Ren'py code in the move to 7.4.2 appears to have caused some issues. 

So, below are links for 0.13.1, which is output through Ren'py 7.3.5. ...