ImpiousMonk

Developer's Journal 4:42

Back on October 19th I estimated that I had perhaps 600 renders left to do. Since then I've finished about 800 new renders, and I still am only halfway through one of my final two large scenes. I'd try to give you a new estimate, but we can see at this point that it wouldn't do much except create false expectations. There are some things I'm quite good at. Estimating how many renders I have left in an update is not one of them.

I'm still working, still pushing. I thought I'd be don...

Developer's Journal 4:41

Hey everybody.

Doesn't an afternoon in the sun sound really nice when it's cold in December?

I still can't give you an ETA. Before Christmas isn't looking very likely at the moment. But every day it's closer to being done.

Thank you for your patience.

--Monk

Developer's Journal 4:40

Hey everybody.

Still working on the update. Still not ready to give an ETA. But closer every day.

Thank you for your patience.

--Monk

Special Render: The Girls

Alright guys, I hope you'll forgive me for skipping this month's special render poll as I wanted to keep it simple and save my creative energy for pushing through the end of Episode Four. Not a lot to complain about with this set, though, right? 4K files are attached.

Developer's Journal 4:39

Hey everybody.

It has now been nine months since Episode Three was released. I had been pushing to get Episode Four to the playtesters by this weekend, but I unfortunately still have quite a lot of work left to do. I am close to being finished with the episode's closing scene, but still have two more large scenes from earlier in the episode left to pose/render.

I've finished postwork on more than 3,000 still renders with about 39 animations completely rendered.

At this poi...

Developer's Journal 4:38

Hey everybody.

I am still slogging through this final scenes. On one hand I feel like I saved the hardest scenes for last. On the other hand, goddamn I feel like this whole fucking episode has been packed with hard scenes.

Anyway, I'm getting there. Thank you for your support.

--Monk

Developer's Journal 4:37

Hey everybody.

I made some headway into one of the episode's last big scenes and also spent some time editing/polishing some of the other renders and script I've been completing over the last couple of months.

27 animations have been rendered and over 2700 still images have been rendered and postworked. Still have a ways to go.

In case you are curious, these are the popularity numbers for each of the four LI's:

Jamie is either the first or second...

Poll: Second Best Girl

Alright, guys--indulge me. Who is your second favorite girl in Leaving DNA?

Developer's Journal 4:36

Hey everybody.

I'm just about done with all of the smaller scenes. I've still got three larger scenes left, but I can see the end. Hang with me for a bit longer.

Thank you for your support!

--Monk

Happy Halloween from Vampire Malena!

Be wary if any beautiful girls invite you to a goth Halloween party.

Special Render: Emmeline and the Ghoul

Plot twist!

Special Render: Aghavni and the Ghoul

This one started out as an entry in a just-for-fun Halloween contest on Reddit, but when I finished I realized I had used the wrong dimensions! Oh well, still a fun render.

Developer's Journal 4:35

Hey everybody. Postworked still renders have passed 2,500 and rendered animations are at 18. I don't know what the word count is--I'll figure it out when I publish the episode because I still have some dialogue to write.

I still have a lot of work to do, but things have really been moving along well these last few weeks.

Thank you for your support and your patience!

--Monk

Sale/Bundle

For a limited time you can buy Leaving DNA for 20% off on Steam or Itch, or for big savings purchase the Exhilarating Stories Bundle on Steam and get four great games for one low price!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/46178/Exhilarating_Stories/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/...

Special Render: Pinup Girl Emmeline

Hey everybody.  Pinup Girl was the winning theme this month and I had a few different ideas for it so I decided to use them all!  I hope you like them.

Poll: October Special Render

Because the other LI's have all gotten special renders the last three months, this month Emmeline will get her chance to shine. As always, Bigger Supporter votes are worth one, Biggest Supporter votes are worth two.

Developer's Journal 4:34

Hey everybody.

This week I worked on a scene that's very important to the last few episodes of the game. A scene where the characters get a piece of information about the investigation that I have been dying to share. I like getting those types of scenes done because they really help to fix the bigger picture for me. Working on a story this complex is hard to do alone because I have no one I can discuss it with. Until the playtesters get it, I'm the only person keeping track of what...

Developer's Journal 4:33

Hey everybody. This week I focused on the bonus scene. I have about 150 still renders finished for the bonus scene with maybe 15 or so left to do, plus I've set up six .dufs to send to Sandem for animation with maybe one or two more to go. There's still a lot to do on the canon part of the story, but I am getting closer to being finished with the update. Total still renders now are over 2,200.

Depending on Sandem's availability, it's possible I could end up with an animation bottlene...

Special Render: Nighttime Erin

Got frustrated with the lighting in the scene I was working on, so I took a break and spent some time with the lovely Erin.

Special Render: Jamie at the Ranch

Developer's Journal 4:32

Hey everybody.

Been fighting Covid the last few days. Never had this before but holy shit it knocks you on your ass. But, since I really can't afford to take any time off from either work or game development, I've just been pounding ibuprofen like candy and soldiering ahead.

Last week I said I was going to focus on writing the rest of the update before I got back to rendering. That didn't really happen, though. Back when I wrote the first draft of Episodes One through Four, I ...

Special Render: Lady Raven Malena

Alright guys, I know I said I wasn't going to do any nudes in the monthly special renders but I thought topless really worked for this one. Don't expect it again. 😂 Anyway, here's the winner of this month's special render vote. 4K files are attached!

Developer's Journal 4:31

Hey everybody.

Thank you for all of the nice comments about my mom. My out-of-town family will be leaving by Monday morning and my work on the game should go back to full throttle next week. In the meantime, I did get through the episode's second sex scene this week, and I also finished my to-do list for the existing content of Episode Four, so what I have feels polished.

I did a playthrough of the content I have for this episode so far, and it took me about 2 hours and 20 minut...

Developer's Journal 4:30

Hey everybody.

I have mentioned before that I've spent a lot of time over the last year helping to care for my mother. My mother has now passed away. She had been suffering for some time so we view her death as a mercy.

With that and a lot of family in town through next weekend obviously my game development has not been going full throttle. However I do have the animation machine going and I have also still been working on cleaning up Episode Four's existing content, including cre...

Poll: September Special Render

With Jamie and Aghavni winning the last two month's polls, this month we've got multiple options for Emmeline and Malena!

Developer's Journal 4:29

Hey everybody. I've taken a few days off of work over the last few weeks trying to get caught up on my game development. I've been moderately successful as I've jumped from 1,450 postworked renders three weeks ago to 1779 now. I really do want to increase the pace of development, and without having to take time off of my job. I have a few small things I am working on that I hope will help with that but I'll talk about them in another post.

I want to get the first part of the episode...

Developer's Journal 4:28

Hey everybody.

Tough week here in LA as we dealt with temperatures of 106 and 107 the last few days. I know my Arizona and Texas patrons are shaking their heads at my frailty but the heat from two rendering machines going full blast adds a few degrees!

Post-worked still render count is about 1,650. Still a long ways to go before the episode is finished.

Thank you for your support!

--Monk

Special Render: Arabian Nights Aghavni

Aghavni won this month's special render vote! 4K files are attached.

Developer's Journal 4:27

Hey everybody.

I spent this week going through the content I've already got for Episode Four fixing, filling in holes, adding branching, etc. One of the big struggles is keeping the branching manageable by balancing the power of player choice vs the workload and strength of the narrative.

Giving the player choices has multiple benefits. One, players just like knowing that they are having an impact on the story. That's one of the big draws of this genre.

Two, by making the...

Developer's Journal 4:26

I hope my supporters won't mind, but this will be a public journal also posted on Steam and Itch to give a progress update for everyone who has purchased the game.

There is still quite a bit of work left to be done on Episode Four. At this time I've posed, rendered, and done post-work on roughly 1,450 still renders. I've been working on Episode Four for almost six months (since the end of February, 26 weeks ago) for an average of 55 renders per week. That's not as much as I would like, ...