Happy Monday Jurors!
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. My apologies for no Easter themed images or posts. Quite honestly, my mind and efforts have been focussed on Episode 2 and monitoring that release.
I'm combining a small patch update for both Episode 1 and 2 with a little extra info you can read if you'd like to:
Patch updates:
Episode 1:
- Security System Room - Screens had a potential loop issue that's now resolved
- Edited a few mis-placed variables which relate to the notebook in Episode 2
- Added a data variable for Jacob's secret that was not being counted for in summary screens.
Episode 2:
- Added in another RS point for Heather (An achievement was not possible before this - silly me)
- Sneaky Pictures dialogue added for 2 opportunities which had been missed
- Changes for dialogue for British/American reasons and some legal speak
- Removed a flying teacup!
- Fixed an exception that occurred for Officer Frost in reflective scene at the end of Episode 2.
Little update for you all on Episode 2 and a few other bits:
Firstly, thank you all SO much for the support throughout the launch of Episode 2. I’m once again overwhelmed with the community banding together to help point out a few bugs here and there that snuck through the testing process. I’ve also been reading the comments and reviews that people are leaving to make sure I’m understanding how the episode is being received and work out where I can improve upon what I’m delivering. You have no idea how lovely it is to switch on my computer in the morning and see that someone’s enjoyed a part of the game, or they are wondering what’s next for x,y or z girl. It’s awesome!
I think one of the main items I’m taking away from this release so far is the need for transparency on the narrative paths, (in other words, a walkthrough feature). Creating a walkthrough is something that’s been on the cards and on my mind since the launch of Episode 1 last year. This task has been picked up already by a very talented member of the community who by this stage, probably knows my code better than I do! The idea is to publish a pdf walkthrough, then once that’s firmly established, implement it into the game itself. I don’t have an ETA on that right now (as most of you know how many paths there are in Jury!), but as soon as I know more and all the kinks have been worked out in Ep2, I’ll let you know.
There’s also been a demand for some kind of scene replay feature. I’ve already added the variables for this in the game you’re playing right now, so I just need to get together the GUI for that, and I’ll get that implemented too.
I think most importantly for the future of Jury, I’m so thankful for the initial reception and interest. As a result, I can get the new computer ordered and start working towards building my own render farm, therefore speeding up the process of producing content. Obviously using funds available from Episode 1, I was able to rent a farm (which I will still do because it's useful to have to hand), but ideally I would like my own as it would reduce upload times significantly if I was doing it over an internal network. To give you an idea, those of you who have experienced Lily's path, each of those animation FRAMES was a 3GB+ upload due to the dforce simulation used in the scene. So, I had to upload over 2TB to the farm to render those animations (That does not count the time for the shot to render either...). It's a long and painful process, but with re-investment I'll be able to get quicker and quicker.
I will be taking the next few weeks likely to monitor Episode 2, potentially add new features in which have been discussed internally, but not yet implemented. Then it’s full steam ahead with finishing the storyboarding for Episode 3 and then I’ll get cracking!
Have a fantastic week and I'll check in with you shortly!
All my thanks and gratitude,
Nickle3DArt