Progress Summary (Late June)

Hey again everyone, I'm back to post some minor updates & progress on what I've been doing over the weeks.

Similiar to earlier this month there isn't a lot to post, but I'll try to show whatever I can regardless.

Short Summary + Info

Coloring / Model & Animation Work

-Finished shading and modeling a couple of the characters needed for EP1

-Started preparing and coloring the next ones

Script Work

-rewrote a couple more scripts needed for EP1,

Braixen Tamagotchi Work

-started writing the scripts & lines needed for the Tama

-replaced some of the sketches used with a proper model & animations

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There's honestly not a lot that happened as coloring & modeling still took me quite a bit.
As before I don't think it's worth updating these kind of things but I don't want to

let you guys sit in the dark/wait for new information either.

Just know that I'm quietly working in the background and actually finishing stuff off one at the time.

I've realized that I've been rushing things too much a couple of times now and slowed down a bit when it came to work on the Braixen Tamagotchi & Sara (the Players childhood friend in the main game).

Keeping to myself and simply focusing on the work definitely improves the quality a lot and I hope that this will actually be visible in the end though.


Starting next month (July) I will actually have a lot of time to work on the game again and can use a proper time plan to not only work on the game but also do some random animations again. (Lopunny is waiting for a while now)

So let's look forward for those and hopefully have something proper to post at the end of next month!

Some more details, spoilers and the usual rambling

I've been hoping to have finished most of the models needed for DM Episode 1 by now but I'm still not quite done.
I've finished enough to add everything into the main game though so starting this month I will work through each DM Scene and make it 100% playable, working on it one at the time until Episode 1 is finished.

This way I can put out somewhat of an daily progress again too since I can post whenever one scene is done.

Model Work
There isn't much to say or show here since most models finished are side characters that are neither important nor have special features/poses to show.

There's the ruffians that have their skeletons finished but no actual animations yet
(so all they can do is kinda idle around in different random poses) and...

 ..the one filler Pokemon I've decided to add for some reason.

I'm working on finishing the other few side characters too
and actually started working on a lot more than I wanted to initially.

I'm not sure which ones are actually going to end up in the game though, so I might end up not finishing them at all.

I'll most likely make this decision when finishing the scenes those characters are in since that will reveal if it feels strange to not having them shown in the first place.

Sara's Model

This was probably one of the bigger parts of the model work needed for EP1.

Physics Preview            /            Test Expressions/Animations

Sara's model is build and works similiar to Fia's/Braixens model but I actually knew what I was doing this time around.

This not only made it a lot easier but a lot cleaner looking as well, which is kind of shame if you think about who the main character is supposed to be.

It did show me that I at least learned some stuff while doing all of this though so if I ever have the chance I definitely know how to improve Fia's model.

As you can see in the preview I've already completely finished the skeleton and added physics, a couple of animations and simple functions needed for the game.

Similar to Braixen's model you can also change the outfit she's wearing directly on the model so adding newer ones for the later episodes will be no problem either.

                                                Clothing Test (Somewhat NSFW)

I'm going to try keeping up this quality for the coming more important side characters, but it's definitely going to be less important.

Script & Tamagotchi related stuff
While I did a lot of work on the models I've also did quite a bit of programming in the background.

There's a lot of thought that went into the different Tamagotchi systems and most of the message box related scripts in the main game have been replaced by now.

Something I'm a little bit stuck right now is adding chat lines and other responses for each different natured Braixen and how I'm actually going to use them in the end.
I'll take my time with those and update you properly when the whole system is done though.


I've made some additional UI stuff, finished the naming screen for both game start and first Tama use.

(Don't mind the unaligned background, that's just a placeholder xD)

I'm gonna ask you guys for suggestions for the random names later on btw,

so Patrons will be able to have their own or OC Names added to the list. :>

A lot of other scripts are mostly functional and there isn't much to show yet, If you're interested in the save menu and that kinda stuff though I'll definitely update you on that too.

Lastly I've replaced some of the early Tama sketches with the proper model and made/added some proper animations to it.

I thought that it would be cute to be able to pat/scratch your Braixen in different locations and have each Braixen have it's own favorite spots, which is probably gonna look somewhat like this.

I'm planning to give pat scenes and similar Tama stuff it's own more detailed model in the future,

for now it's using the usual DM Braixen Model though.

But this is pretty much all I'm able to show right now...
As mentioned before I'm actually skipping support for this month over on Patreon again, nobody needs to worry about though.
Patreon is not my main income/job and although it does help me pay for the servers/software and tools needed to work on all this I would simply feel bad having anyone pay for something I'm not satisfied with myself.

When I feel like I've done enough for myself and/or need the extra funds I'll definitely put it back on.

For anyone that is bothered by this (I have been asked for my paypal/etc a couple of times) I'm thinking of adding a simple donation button somewhere if that's something you want.

Just know that at the moment simply reading through these kinda posts and following what I'm doing is enough support to keep me going already!

I hope this was informative and/or entertaining for some of you guys and I'll see you around with my next update in hopefully ~2 weeks!

Stay healthy and have a good time everyone,
Dark~

Progress Summary (Early June)

Hey everyone, first of all I'm really sorry for being so quiet over the past few weeks.

To keep things honest I haven't been feeling too well lately and combined with having had a lot of stuff to do after moving I didn't get to work on DM as much as I wanted to.

I still tried to get as much progress as I could. It's a bit all over the place though and there isn't much to show because of it..

I'm still gonna try to give you somewhat of an summary of what I've done over the last 2 weeks/since release of the h-Scene though and show whatever little thing I can.

I'll start witha smaller summary, then go into some details below with my usual rambling.
I'm gonna try to make it readable since I tend to be all over the place, just let me know if I forget/need to fix something though!

 Progress Early June Overview - Work on DM Episode 1 & Braixen Tamagotchi

Coloring / Model Work

-Flat colored side characters and prepared textures for model import

-Started building models with flat textures

-Started shading side character textures

Script Work

-Started rewriting some of the scripts needed for Episode 1 (saving, menus, message Box related stuff, etc)

Braixen Tamagotchi Work
-Build groundwork for Tamagotchi and for adding it into DM-EP1

(Drew/Build simple UI, added time progression and added first few interactions, added needs, affection system, mood system, custom Braixens possible natures and first few traits, etc...)

Summary

Most work finished over these two weeks was probably Tamagotchi related.

That doesn't mean that there was no work on DM at all since the coloring/modeling part might look like it isn't a lot, but probably took about the same amount of time I used for everything Tamagotchi related.

Preparing the textures for use in Live2D/the model software simply takes me way longer than what it should, which I'm really not too happy about.
Which is pretty much why I alternated between Tama and Model work each day.

I'll go into more detail to this further below though as this was just somewhat of an short overview.

I really hope I can get more stuff done over the other half of the month since work didn't start too great at the first half, but we'll see over the days...

Sorry again for the silence everyone, but now some details for everyone that's interested in those:


Coloring / Model Work Summary

This was the main objective for these last two weeks but really didn't turn out as well as I was hoping for.

I decided that it would be best to do outlines and flat colors for all of the side characters needed for EP1, then prepare those flat color sketches as textures for the model and simply replace the textures with shaded versions later on.

Reason for this was that I would be able to immediatly start work on the models as well and use them inGame for testing and Bugfixing before even having to finish the shading.

This way I can swap between shading, scripting and modeling over the days while not having to do everything in one go.

This went all nice and well until I realized how slow this would be for progress updates on the blog/discord though.
Work has pretty much been all over the place, having a bunch of flat color textures, half-baked models and "useless" inGame scripts that I would be unable to show off.

I've already started shading on a couple of them but again not enough to show off anything as most parts/textures will just look random and out of place without the finished model putting them in place.


One of the bigger characters of the game (the players childhood friend Sara) however is already halfway done, which was a big part of the model/coloring work that is needed.

With around 80ish Poses and at least 3 different outfits she uses inGame (only 1 in EP1) she has quite a bit of textures which had to be colored, shaded and prepared.
The picture on the right being a couple of the hands and smaller parts used, for example.

Altogether I won't be able to show of the proper side character models for a bit longer, but the ground work is done as all of them are already split and prepared similar to Sara above, only needing a bit more shading and skeleton work in Live2D until they're done.

So let's hope I'll get all of them finished until end of the month, I'll definitely focus them over the Tama for the second half...

Script Work Summary

There's not much to say nor show over here.
I've started rewriting some of the default scripts and functions that were used by the older demo in attempt to make the game less buggy and modernize everything a bit.

This will hopefully fix loading times for some people while also making game freezes less likely.
It's definitely gonna look and feel better, that much is sure.
Until I've drawn proper UI's for the new stuff to use though there won't be much to show off.

Something I ran into when working on the scripts though was the "problem" of where to put Braixen customization in the main game.

While there will be some occasions where you can change Fia's look through decisions you make, I've never quite thought about how to "immersively" add the customization without interrupting the game flow.

Which is how/why I got to the next point...


Braixen Tamagotchi Work Summary
While the main idea for customization was a simple "Style" button in some menu and the possability of Fia changing stuff by herself at random, I felt like adding some parts of the Braixen Tama to the maingame would actually be a cool idea.

Not only would this add some more minigames and fun stuff to do with Fia inbetween story but also give you the oportunity to immersively go to the hair dresser with her, buy her clothing or maybe even unlock some secret/special events in the future.


For now there isn't much to see or show since most of the work done was UI/script/thought based.

For now I made all the groundwork needed to build the rest around it, starting with a simple time and action system, moods that change your Braixens behavior, needs like hunger and sleep, a couple of traits and lastly a nature system that defines your Braixens general character.

I've already talked about most of this stuff over here were I talked about the Tama Ideas/Plans:
https://in-dark-waters.blogspot.com/p/living-with-braixen-tamagotchi-thoughts.html

Just as mentioned over there, the actions available change with the time of day and affection you've build with your Braixen so far.
Actions in this example being the morning ones, with low affection as it's shortly after Fia started living with you. (Preparing breakfast, petting and chat)

Depending on your Braixens nature, current needs, traits, affection and general mood she will then react differently on each of them.

This is all pretty much scripted/prepared already so all that's left is adding some art, different text responses for the different natures and random events to give some variation and make the whole thing more exciting.

Right now everything's still using placeholder graphics, so there isn't much I can show yet.
Debug messages and hit boxes are all over the place, and a lot of simple reactions like this one while petting for example will be in sketch only for now.

It's still fun to see Braixen react and change moods to everything you do though, so I'm pretty excited to be able to share the Tama at some point.

If anyones interested in the technical details to any of the things I've added so far just let me know because I'm having a lot of fun putting this together. (Although I probably should have focused coloring/modeling a bit more than I did the Tama ^^")

Tama's Implementation into the main Game

While there's a lot of people that would love to have this kind of addition to the game there's probably just as many that would be bothered by it showing up.

I want to be clear that this will not be a main feature of the game that needs to be used, but rather an optional way for you to take a break from the story and simply spend some days playing with Fia instead of progressing.

You won't be forced into Tama/Sim mode, nor do you have to do it to progress or get all of the different paths.

Just to be sure I will also add an option to completely turn it off so anyone that doesn't care can simply enjoy the story without even being asked to enter tama mode once.

Besides adding the Tama as an additional option inbetween the main game I will also add it to the end of EP1, where you can swap into an endless Tama mode where you can keep playing and train/befriend Fia until the EP2 Update is out, where you can then end Tama mode and progress story as normal but keep all of the progress made in it. (affection, clothing bought, etc) 

I took quite a bit to put all of this together and probably made a big deal out of the smaller stuff like always, but I hope that some of you enjoyed that bit of my rambling like always.

I will keep to myself a bit longer over the rest of the month and try to finish the things needed for EP1 so I can give a proper update in 2 weeks again.
For now I'm sorry for the long silence (and probably the upcoming one), but I'll do my best to post on discord whenever something big gets done.

For my supporters over on patreon, I'll probably end up skipping this months support/payment again since it didn't go too well so far, but we'll see how far I'll get over the next couple weeks first.

Thanks for staying around everyone, I hope you all have a nice week. <3

Progress Update (Early May) upcoming hScene work

Hey everyone, as promised a small progress update roughly two weeks after last patreon release.
I will try to keep these up and post whatever I've been working on regulary, although this one probably isn't the best one to start with since last two weeks haven't been too successful...

I still hope you find it interesting and let me know in case you have better ideas/critique for whatever I'm working on!


Let's start with a quick list of everything I've finished for those of you that don't want to read through the smaller unimportant stuff.

Progress Early May List - Release of demo hScene 2

Model Work
-Added new Outfits to main Braixen Model (Office Outfit Variations & Stockings)
-Added new Style options to main Braixen Model (Old Dream Sketch Style Tuft+Shoulders)
-Added the ability to change body proportions of main Braixen Model (mainly head and body Size, ear, cheek and leg still being in work for Braixen Creator later)
-Improved main Braixen Model parameteres and fixed a couple of bugs with different styles and poses

Animation Work
-Animated 7 new Poses to use with main model in the demo hScene
-Improved older animations to work with more styles and outfits, including new one

CG and Background Work
-redrew the background for a couple of CG's, including one of the animations to better fit the scene
-changed lighting and general positioning to better fit scene

hAnimation & Model Work
-Changed general structure of the model and overhauled animations to fix inGame look
-Added a couple of smaller animations and expressions to use in first part of scene/animation
-Changed background and lighting in second part of the scene/animation

Script & Scene Work
-Cleaned and rewrote the scenes to use the new models & animations
-Rewrote and improved some of the writing
-Fixed a couple of bugs and visual problems

Braixen Tamagotchi / Braixen Creator Work
-Finished planning and writing down plans and everything needed
-Started some simple UI Designs


Summary
Altogether I didn't finish too much of the stuff that I wanted to have finished by now and ended up doing lot's of smaller stuff that needed fixing or that I simply forgot about.
That was definitely just me messing up planning, but had to be done nonetheless, even if I wouldn't have forgotten about it.

Because of this there isn't too much to look at right now, but I'll still try showing as much as I can!

The Tamagotchi stuff wasn't actually needed for the demo release btw, but I ended up working on that one whenever progress got stuck/slowed down over the weeks and I needed a break.


Model Work Summary
The model work wasn't something I expected to still have to for this update.
First I've noticed that the only outfit needed for the scene was missing and had to be colored and modeled from scratch.
Then I relalized that the model still has way too many visual bugs and problems that I didn't realize when working for it on the Braixen Creator.

Now this is all kind of because of time problems and trying to get stuff done fast enough, but I still didn't expect the sheer amount of problems/work that needed to be done on it.

I've ended up fixing a big chunk of the bugs, mostly those that needed fixing to be usable in the demo and will need to look at the rest of them along the line.
The outfit in itself was extra work that did cost a lot of time, but wasn't a big deal in the end.





The outfit was actually mend for the "Dream Form" which was supposed to have it's own model.
A lot of the parts and work needed for the Dream Form ended up being finished and added to the Braixen Creator though, which is why I decided to instead add the outfit to the main model. (Which I never did.)

Having the outfit on the main model has multiple advantages, mainly, that it can be used like a normal style/outfit in other parts of the game and the Braixen Creator.
I've improved a lot of the older outfits and sorted out clipping issues while working on this one as well, so that's definitely another plus.

This means the outfit will be usable with all chest sizes and can be fitted together from the different parts if you wanted to use it for your Braixen's casual look.
So yeah, make whatever you like from it~

(Different Chest Sizes)

(No Skirt / Just Vest / Vest + Legwear without Chest)
Another thing needed to go along with the Dream Form & Outfit was a fitting chestfluff and shoulder style.
Both the chestfluff and shoulders were covering a big part of the chest and clothing, so I've ended up adding the styles that were used in the old Dream Form sketches.



The shoulder style wasn't actually needed in this case, but I felt like it wasn't a big deal and would fit in nicely with the new tuft style.
Important was that it fits the form of the chest more to emphasize the body change in dream form.



Lastly to make the "body transformation" in dream form complete I've added a few options to slightly scale body parts like the head, ears and legs, giving you the option to drasticly change the look of your Braixen and make it look even more unique.
In Dream Molder this will be used to make Fia look more "mature" when needed, in Braixen Creator and Tamagotchi though it can be used to make your Braixens look more different from one another, especially needed when owning more than one.

(Default scaling) / (long legs, short body, big ears, small head, long cheeks) / (short legs, short body, wide hips, small ears, big head, short cheeks)

The changes are mostly subtle since too big of a change will need extra work on the clothing/animations/etc, but I think this example should somewhat show what you're going to be capable with it.
(All of the outfit and style previews above are actually using a slightly bigger body and smaller head since it's supposed to represent the "dream form".)


CG and Background Work Summary
Here's not too much to say and I'll go right ahead and post the changes~
>

>

Main problem here was that the old background was part of an older background that I used for the office that I drew myself, but ended up discarding because I didn't like it. (And because my backgrounds are horrendous :D)

Realizing that I'm still using the old background in the CG's I had to redraw them to fit the new office used (from the first gameplay sample above).
These have been a quite a few of CG's I had to change, but since most of them were using the same background in different angles/positions it wasn't as much of a deal.

The new one isn't perfect but does look a lot better than the old one at least.
The BG from the last picture is also used in the second part of the animation which is why I had to update that one along with the CG's, here's a small (although censored) preview: :D




I've also drawn a sketch for another CG that I felt was missing, but depending on how fast I get everything done I will color/refine it or simply use the model for the scene.

Animation and Script Work Summary
Besides telling you everything that could have possibly gone wrong actually happened,
there isn't much to be said.

Because of some limitations with the engine I'm using I had to rework a big part of the models.
I ended up having to change the textures, rebuild the skeleton for the animation and
add a couple of work arounds to even get them to run.

Once I had the animations inGame and running, the software simply kept crashing
and slowing down, and by now I'm fairly annoyed as you can imagine. xD


Luckely I did get to fix most of the problems, no more crashing, no more slowing down/etc...

(actual model used inGame here, not a CG)

Still needs fixing...
Problem now is that the engine forces animations to fade out on end, even when this isn't needed.
(In loops for example).
This causes little skips and lags in places where they shouldn't be and this is especially inconvient with the h-animations as little lags and skips definitely disrupt the flow and ruin the mood of the scene.


Sound will also be hard to implement this way, knowing that the scene can skip/lag at any time and force sound/animation to be out of sync.

My guess is that it's the engines poor compability with Live2D here, I'm unsure of how to fix it though.
For now I'm using longer loops to simply reduce the amount of times it needs to skip, but sound is still a problem.

The developer of the engine already promised/works on an update to add the missing live2D functions and improve newer version compability, however last time anything about this update was mentioned was about a year ago if I remember correctly?
I've been waiting for this update for a while now and I'm unsure if it's actually still coming...

For now all I can do is try to find a workaround, maybe someone else has a bit of live2D knowhow and/or an idea of how I could go at this...


Aside from these problems the animations are running though, so give me a couple more days to figure things out and I'm able to upload first demo samples for testing. :D



Braixen Tamagotchi Info
Alright, knowing that my post/writing is all over the place again I'm gonna keep things short and post all the info for the tamagotchi seperately, then link it over here when it's done.

I actually didn't want to work on the tamagotchi until after Dream Molder, but I felt like the time between the episode releases would need some additional stuff to play with. <3

It's not going to be anything big or fancy for the for the start, but you can at least expect a simple demo of it to be released with Episode 1.

More info here:
https://in-dark-waters.blogspot.com/p/living-with-braixen-tamagotchi-thoughts.html

Please know that this is just me rambling again and only interesting if you, for some reason, find my usual rambling entertaining.

I feel like I did go a bit overboard, talked about more than I had to, but for everyone that's still interested:
Have fun~

Upcoming Dream Molder Releases, Ongoing Problems, Patreon Changes, Etc...

Alright, I don't actually know how to really start this off so I'll simply begin with rambling a bit as always.
I will post somewhat of an abbreviated version over on Discord.

I will try marking everything important over here too, but if you're not into these kind of rants I'd recommend checking out the Dream Molder News Channel over there!


Upcoming Dream Molder Animation Release
Let's start this by going ahead and saying that I definitely won't be able to upload the animations/h-scene before end of the month as I planned to.

This was probably pretty obvious by now since progress kept getting slower over the last few days but I wanted to make it clear for everyone that isn't following the blog 24/7.


Not only does this mean that I have to push back animation releases but that also means that the first DM Episode will take a bit longer to release again aswell.

Now I know that there simply isn't much I can do, if it's too much work to get done in that amount of time that's pretty much how it is. I need the time that I need after all.

However since I've pretty much got no content for this month to upload AGAIN, I kind of got into thinking if I should change how I handle the whole Patreon situation...


Patreon Situation (rant)

I set up the patreon so that people that might want to help & support me with what I do have the option/ability to do so.
Not only is this a way of giving something back to or showing me that you've liked my work and I should keep going but it also helps me taking my mind of some things that I usually have to deal with, making it easier for me to focus on work/art for you guys.


However as the support increased I also increasingly worried about being unable to actually give back the amount of effort you guys deserve for it.

It's a bit stupid in a sense since everyone of you obviously knows for themselves if what I put out is worth supporting as you wouldn't support me if that wasn't the case.

But still.
I can't help but think someone might feel cheated on which I simply can't deal with it seems.


The split in support about some people being here for the animations and some for DM doesn't help either since I feel bad posting either without the other.
It's an easy thing to post an animation that I'm working on over a month or two as I have a finished "product" to post in the end, but with DM it isn't as easy.

It's gotten to the point that I avoid activity or posting on Patreon altogether, and that simply wasn't what I set it up for.

It's not the first time I'm ranting about this and a lot of the people following me for a while probably anway.
Me trying to avoid posting definitely has to stop and it's about time thatI change things up to make it work again though.

So for everyone having to deal with this, sorry for the chaotic mess and I hope it's not too much of a bother.


Patreon / Update Changes
But let's get to the important part of this rant, how I'm actually planning to change stuff up for now:

1. Random Patreon Animations will have to wait, Dream Molder releases come first
First off I need to make clear that I'm focusing work on DM right now and until I've finished Episode 1 there won't be any random animations.

This was probably clear from the get-go as I mentioned it a couple of times by now. I'm still planning on releasing the Lopunny Animation at some point, but not in April as planned in the roadmap since the Dream Molder Episode isn't out either.

2. Returning to Patreon
2nd, I will start posting on Patreon again to enable support for the few that want to do so or were actually waiting for it.
I won't change anything up about the way I did it before.
It's still going to be per post, and 1 post per month at most, but instead of forcing myself to get a certain patch out and posting every few months while having rushed through it the whole time I will post summaries/collections of what I actually got done without rushing/crunching.

This way quality stays up and I'm not burning myself out either.
These collections will pretty much contain everything I've got done in that time and will be shown off as progress gifs of colorations, different texture layers for animations, clips of finished scenes or features, etc, etc..

I even thought about some speed draw to show what I did in detail and have something like a tutorial for coloring at the same time.
(This would need a bit upgrading from my side though and that's only gonna be a thing if enough people want it since I'm way too messy.)

Since I'm unable to finish the animation till the end of the month anyway I would take the next couple days to collect everything I did over the last few months from Fia's model, the Braixen Creator, WIP-CG Art and Animation textures
and upload all of it to patreon instead.
I thought taking the model and making a small demo-clip of sorts to show how the model would be used in DM/dialogues.

Next month will include the animations that I weren't able to finish, a demo of the h-scene itself and hopefully some bigger DM stuff also...

But that will depend on the 3rd change in this list which is regular Dream Molder polls on Patreon.

3. Dream Molder Polls
There's is lot's of decisions and changes to make on Dream Molders progress and I feel like putting up polls on them would not only give more insight on what and how I'm working at the moment, but also make me feel more at ease, showing me that what I'm working on is actually what you guys are looking forward to.

Something I thought about already was that instead of releasing DM as an Episode, I could release the whole game without h-scenes and CG's, then add them one after the other.
This would get the full game out a lot faster, especially the censored version and give me the option to pull in other artists to help out creating the CG's making full release faster than ever.
However, this would also mean that spoilerfree gameplay with 100% of the content won't be possible as early since episodes might take longer but will be released as is.

This is just one of the thoughts and definitely independent of the work on the h-scene I'm doing right now, that's still going to be prority for now.
If people would like to see the full story/gameplay rather than the h-scenes+CG-art I would rather focus on that one next than finishing a short part of the game instead.

But that's the kind of opinion I will try getting from you guys with every release to be sure that where I'm heading is actually the right way to go.



A few more words...
There's probably more that I wanted to talk about but it's getting quite late over here and I still have to post the shorter version on discord as well.

This post probably isn't exactly what people were looking forward too for the end of the month but I will try collecting everything to show and share with you guys on patreon in a couple of days.
If this actually get's positiv feedback that is.

If this is a bad idea after all just let me know. I can always change stuff up and I do want you guys to be part of this after all.


Just something I thought was worth mentioning at the end-
I'm not good with this kind of stuff but I hope that all of you are doing fine in consideration of the ongoing virus situation.
Most people are probably not personally affected healthwise, but I guess we all have to deal with it in some way or form be it quarantine, lockdowns or forced vacations.

Let's hope this all grows over quickly and that everyone here stay's safe and healthy!

Braixen Creator & Info to "Upcoming" Dream Molder Episode/Release

Yay, new blogpost! (For real this time)

I've already said this when I was posting this last night, but it's been a while since I've posted an update over here.
I've been quite busy getting everything done that I wanted and although it took a lot longer than I expected too it was still in the timeframe that I planned it to be finished.


The whole thing turned out to be a lot harder to make then expected, mostly because of software/engine limitations that I didn't expect and will have to think about when working on stuff in the future.
The result wasn't quite what I wanted to relase, but it's the best I could do in the time frame at least.


For everyone wondering what I'm even talking about/worked on over the weeks I mean the

Braixen Creator

A small tool I made to test out the capabilities of the model/animation technique I wanted to use in Dream Molder.
While I always planned on using it from the beginning I never actually tried it before, which is why I had to play around with a lot of different details until I knew what I'm actually going for.

The side product of this was the Braixen Creator.
Pretty much a tool to test and improve my ability to implement Fia's model + customization in the game.
Used to not only test the needed scripts and methods to implement the model and animations into the game but also show that I'm actually working on stuff, even if it takes a while. :,D


It's definitely not perfect, there's a lot of customizations and animations that need a fair bit of work.
But I now know what is possible for me to do and I can move on knowing that what I have will actually be usable since everything that doesn't got filtered out until now.


The tool was actually meant to be somewhat fancier.
I wanted to make it patreon only and have it paid for since I've worked quite some time on all of this and I was a bit split here. I didn't feel like it was worth all the wait.
I know that everyone supporting can/would decide for themselfs if they want to keep going after whatever I updoad/want payment for, I also don't want to make anyone feel scammed though.

Even more so since a lot of people are supporting me for my animations, not for the DM work/stuff I do.That's why I ended up releasing it for everyone instead.
So even though it's not much, have some fun playing and creating whatever you want with it. :D

Downloads

Download Censored Version:
Braixen Creator a0.2 Censored - Windows    (>32Bit Version here<)
Braixen Creator a0.2 Censored - Linux
Braixen Creator a0.2 Censored - Mac

Download Uncensored Version:
Braixen Creator a0.2 - Windows                      (>32Bit Version here<)
Braixen Creator Light a0.2 - Windows

Braixen Creator a0.2 - Linux
Braixen Creator a0.2 - Mac

Browser Version Light: 
(Does not work for everyone, but doesn't need download and works on portable devices)
Braixen Creator a0.2 - Browser


Known Bugs:
-Quite a bit of loading time at start up in Default Versions (only loads when in focus, need to wait through the black screen :c)
-Lucario Style Shoulders might have layer Problems?
-There's still a few styles that weren't animated/properly modeled yet. (Only in there for fun/screenshots [1 Hairstyle, 2 Makeup, 1 Outfit/Hair accessory?])
-Animations/Model need work and improvements in general, please keep in mind that this is really just for fun and not a serious release

Custom Textures / Color Palettes

For everyone that was hoping for a certain color palette or texture that didn't make it into the creator I've actually got some good news, the textures are open to edit and use by anyone and it's fairly easy to do so too!
I'm gonna write/upload somewhat of an tutorial with pictures after posting this, so if you need help just take a look over here:
https://in-dark-waters.blogspot.com/p/braixen-creator-custom-palette-tutorial.html




But now on to the more important stuff...

First Dream Molder Episode / Release

I've just spend 30 minutes writing some emotional, kinda cringy rant about what I've done and learned up to this day, only to scrap it all because it didn't really say anything about whats actually coming up (and was probably more embarassing than anything).
So let's keep things short instead. :D

While I released lot's of demos and other random information/stuff for Dream Molder I've never once released an actual presentation of what I imagined Dream Molder to be.

This month, I will start building the first half of exactly that though.
The first actual release, so to say.

I know it took me a while to get to this point and honestly I'm not sure if it was worth putting all this work into it myself. We're only going to know once it's out though.
So let's start and finally release something proper that everyone can enjoy!

Episode?
Since there's still quite some work needed to actually finish the game I'm planning on releasing it in multiple parts or "Episodes" that I will put together to a full game in the end.

I've actually planned on making a smaller episode (1/3 -1/4 of the game) and releasing them in 1-2 months each, starting this month.
After going through everything planned one more time however I changed my mind and will instead do a bigger Episode that covers around half of the game.

This means I will have to do a bit more work and probably push back release by another month (april instead of march), but the work of this episode will cover most of what's needed for the whole game and all things left will be H-Scenes (which the first episode won't have a lot of) and CG's (Which are actually the most time consuming part of all of this).

What will Episode 1 cover?
While I'm saying that it's the first half it's definitely not half the content yet, but rather half the story,
the calm part before actual stuff happens I guess.

It's going to include 20~ish scenes (of 40~), 2 H-Scenes (of 9~) and the first half of 3 game paths (of 5).

I know that most people are probably waiting for the H-Scenes, so releasing the tame stuff first isn't the best option for everyone.
Having only the H-Scene stuff left after that though will make things a lot easier for me and also give a lot of new animations and content for the months that follow after that.

There's probably more to say to this but I will put out an list of what's needed exactly and what steps need to be taken in order to finish everything on the progress page as always.

So if you're interested in any of the details take a look over there!


I feel like I kinda forgot about what I actually wanted to say, but I'm just going to end this here so I can move on with working on everything needed for the first release as fast as possible! :D

But before I go...

I know I told this a couple of times but I'm thankful to everyone out there who's supporting me and looking forward to the stuff I do.

You guys keep me going and I hope that I can soon release the game you were waiting for. :>

Have a nice weekend everyone and I'll update you whenever something important happens!

I hope to see you around when Episode 1 releases, stay healthy until then! :D

Dream Molder progress, technical difficulties and some other stuff...

Hey everyone, I took quite some time since my last post, as always.
Sorry about that.

I've been quite busy with a couple of things since the release of the last Braixen (Fauna) Animation.
Mainly focusing on coloring and animating Fia's Model for Dream Molder but also reworking and properly animating the old Lucario model which people where asking for.

I actually wanted to release the first proper Dream Molder version or at least something similiar to a Braixen "Character Creator" that will go along with the game, but after hitting some roadblocks along the way I had to put in a lot of extra work which isn't quite finished yet.

I'll use this post to go into detail of what was planned and why it failed, but also to show some of the stuff to can expect.
But let's start with Fia's Model...

Work on Fia's Model

Shortly after finishing Fauna's animation I started working on Fia's model to use in the final versions of Dream Molder.
For everyone wondering what the whole model thing is about it's pretty much the main graphic file used to display Fia throughout the game, build in/with Live2D and gives me the ability to animate her sprites.

Since Fia has a bit over 100 expressions and poses there's quite a lot to consider until the model is 100% finished, but once the it's done there's not much left towards the proper releases, with CG-Art being the only thing left to do.

Work on the model was going well and I was expecting to be done with it around now as animations, the ability to change her colors, style, etc was all working fine already.

Technical Difficulties

Knowing that there's not much more to be done to finish it I put it aside to work on the Lucario animations for the month.

When I came back to implement the model into the game however it didn't work out as much as I was hoping for...

The model appeared much lower quality from it should actually be like.

Outlines were fuzzy and some things were missing completely.

Experimenting with the model a bit made it obvious that the problem wasn't the model itself but the engine messing up some of the color layers which made the model appear fuzzy.

You can see how the model in itself is actually quite clear when I dye her fur white which removes all the color layers.


Not really knowing what causes this I had to look into the engines code, rework parts of the model and try to figure out what the problem was in general.

I actually went so far as to rebuild the whole model from scratch but to no avail.
The latest build did improve the quality somewhat to not make it obvious as quickly, that definitely wasn't enough to use it for the game though.

It was obvious at this point that something was up with how the engine uses the model.
The mode actually looks fine when viewed in preview or with any other software, putting it in the game though somehow messes up the colors.

The time it took to come to this conclusion however took way too long and I've wasted a lot of time trying to rework the model to make it work and right now I've got about 3 ways to move forward.

1.: Find whatever causes this in the engines code, change it and use the same model

2.: Rework the model to not dye it in real time and have a limited amount of colors to choose from instead
3.: Use another engine or write one from scratch and transfer everything made so far over time.


The first one I go for will definitely be 1. as this one has the highest chances of keeping everything done so far. The engine seems to mess with clipping layers for some reason, most likely scaling them weirdly?

Fixing this is the best scenario, there will always be some kind of quality issue though which is definitely caused by the overuse of clipping and the engine not being able to keep up.
So I might need to do something else if I can't get it to model viewer quality.

The other two options are suboptimal, giving me a lot more to do to implement this than what it's worth.
I'll wait for some feedback and option 1. to fail before making any choice here though.

But yeah, long story short:
Whatever option I'm going with I will have to do some extra work which is why I most likely won't be able to release anything before end of the year.

That doesn't mean I'm not going to try, I'm definitely taking it slow and put quality first though.

Sidenote

I know this isn't much of an update and more of just me talking about minor problems.
It's not the first problem I bumped into and I've always found/had a solution in the end.

However, it's been a while since I've given an proper update for DM's progress and I think it was really needed. Even if it was about something trivial as this.

I felt like I needed to involve everyone to keep up excitement and interest in the game for everyone.
That's what made me work on it until now after all...

So if you have any thoughts on the whole problem (Do you think it's worth using another engine to keep live coloring or would a few colors to choose from be enough for you?) or are excited about any of the features feel free to share/discuss it here or on our discord.

I need the feedback to keep me going and all thoughts/comments on this are appreciated!

Next update will most likely be with the release of either the first proper Dream Molder Scenes or the Braixen Character Maker, (hopefully) next month.

But for now happy holidays to all of you and I hope to see you around next year!~Dark

Upcoming Braixen Animation

Hey everyone, it's been a while.

Last month was quite stressful for me and as a few of you probably noticed I wasn't able to release all of the remaining H-Scenes until the end of the month as I planned to.

Worrying that quality of the scenes/game would keep declining if I kept going I decided to take a break from Dream Molder to take a break from dream molder to work on random art/animations instead.
I will continue working on DM as usual at the end of the month, but until then I will work on the Braixen animation that my Patrons voted for a while back.


The base idea for the animation plus it's still image are already done and will be downloadable on patreon in high res and different variations, including NSFW ones as always.

I already started putting together the model for the animation and am experimenting with some new things to add to it when it releases at the end of the month.


For anyone that's interested and doesn't follow me on Patreon here's a preview of what the animation is going to look like:

I wanted to make sure that the animation stands out from what we have in Dream Molder as we will already have enough Fia art once the game releases.
It's not exactly what I sketched/planned at first but I hope you like it anyway!

I normally come up with a bit of backstory to have a better picture of how the character in the animation moves and behaves.
I thought it would be interesting/fun to share it with you so if you're interested take a look over here:

https://in-dark-waters.blogspot.com/p/fauna-braixen.html


Depending on how fast I get everything done the animation will be released around end of the month.
Let's hope everything goes well and I see you guys then.

Have a nice weekend everyone!