So last we spoke, I needed a break from working on the Interp-Theory Mind, the new system for controlling how NPCs process what’s happening around them and make decisions. Project Wild One v0.08 introduced the first big chunk of that system, and so far I’ve been getting some positive feedback on it! But it was a pretty huge undertaking and I needed to work on something else for a while before I was ready to work on the next big chunk of it. When I announced the new release, I mentioned I wasn’t really sure what I’d be working on next, but I wanted something nice and different that I could hopefully put out as a quick and easy release.
Since I started working on PWO, my mental list of things I’d like to add or change has only grown longer and longer with time– I always come up with ideas faster than I can implement them all properly, so there were tons of things I’d love to do with this time. But I know that, while in the long term the ITM system will make the game better for everyone, it doesn’t make for a very exciting or flashy update, and the game still doesn’t have a lot of appeal for new players as it stands. I wanted to find something that’s really going to draw in new players and raise the profile of the game, and when I was going down the list, I realized there was one thing that would do that better than anything else, and I’d just recently heard that it might be easier to do now than I’d ever thought it could be before.
I started experimenting with it, and I was surprised how easy it was to get started and produce a decent result. But I knew that before I committed a lot of time and creative energy to full production, I’d need to go through and check the full pipeline, to make sure the final result would work well in Unity. I had to work through a lot of issues and experiment a lot with how to get better results, but after a month or so I managed to confirm it would work well enough I could be confident in the final product and start actual production.
Since then, I’ve been learning the ropes in DaVinci Resolve to make my own basic animations for Project Wild One! In retrospect, this wasn’t the best choice for a fast update just because I have to develop a new skill set from scratch for all this, both for working in a new application and for making proper animations myself in general. For that matter, overcoming my own self-doubt and pushing through to finish the work is always hardest when it’s a new pursuit I haven’t proven myself in– it’s hard to really be confident about the end result. I’m still pretty anxious about how folks will like it, but I’m hoping that even if it’s not the highest quality, it’ll do a lot to punch up the visual aspect of the game.
I’ve found in playing other erotic games that even the most rudimentary visual elements can do a lot to increase the “impact” or the “excitement” of particular moments, to let you confirm at a glance that certain things are happening before you read through all the prose and the details. I want to be able to capture some of that magic myself, and I’ve struggled a lot with how best to do that without sacrificing the flexibility and open-ended design of Project Wild One. I’m hoping the system I’ve landed on will manage to accomplish that with a somewhat abstracted but bright and colorful approach!
It’s been a series of challenges both technical and creative to get these animations to a point I’m happy with them, and I still have a lot of doubts, but I’ve finally got enough of them done I’ve been able to put together the first series of examples! It’s been ages since I had new art previews to offer on the Patreon, and at this point I’m not even sure which is easier between commissioning work and making it myself, but I definitely feel a lot more nervous showing this stuff to others! The first previews are available right now, and as I finish more animations there’ll be a lot more to show off before it’s all ready to ship in a new version.
The system I’m developing should be pretty flexible in its possibilities for adding more and more animations long term, but for now I wanted to start with something a little “mix and match” for different pieces so I could at least have a basic animation for all of the most common erotic actions. Make animations for the various anatomical pieces and a suggestive but abstract background animation for what’s “happening” between them right now, that sort of thing. I do think there’s tons of room to expand this down the road still, but right now the priority is just to cover as broad a range of actions as I can without too much work. It’s already ended up taking longer than I wanted for this update, so at this point I’m debating on which planned additions I can push off to some other update just to get this one out sooner.
Working so much on animations has been a really strange experience, but it’s definitely been a big change of pace, which has been great. I’m starting to think about the ITM again in the back of my head, which is a good sign I’m feeling better about getting back into it. I’m hoping to find a good cutoff point for making animations, maybe pack a few random extra bits into this update, then ship it so I can get back into the big stuff! I still want to get the NPC control system fully established before I think about taking a break from PWO development to look at other pursuits, like some sort of port for MVOL. There’s always so much to do and so little time!
That’s about the state of things for now. The big challenge for this one has mostly been fighting my own self-doubts about trying to “play artist,” and trying to keep it all up to the same standard I maintain with the rest of my work. It’s tough! I hope you guys will like it. For now, thanks for reading!