nottravisgames

It's the "What would Lola do?" update...

Hi guys,

First things first (which always seems a good order to put things in) you'll have noticed that May was paused as I've had a bit of delay in progress. It's been a sod of a month (April that is) and it started out so well.

Looking at what I had on at the start of April, I reckoned there was about three weeks work before I could start shipping releases, which meant that with a bit of effort on my part, I had a week to spare. And so, full of gleeful enthusiasm and sky high morale I started two other small p...

It's the "I've got a little list" update...

Hello!

A quick(ish) update from me, short on waffle but looooong on detail this time.

Progress

Headline is I'm getting there and getting close. At the bottom of this post you'll find a combined changelog and list of outstanding things to do. You'll note that there's a hell of lot been done with the remainder not (hopefully) that onerous.

The past few weeks have been a bit (actually a lot) slower than I'd have liked. Putting aside I've been running with a stinking cold for most of tha...

It's the "Discord is on the blink" update...

At last I finally can do a quick update!

Albeit this time just to notify you all that discord and patreon aren't talking to each other at the moment. A technical glitch however rather than me disconnecting everyone.

I'll look into it and it should be sorted within the day.

Notty

It's the "Another update already?" update...

Hello!

Just a quick post* to get back on track with some goods after last weeks slightly "meh" news update.

Technical news

Now this relates to one of those technical issues that are really important to get right , but you won't notice it if I do. You'll only notice if I get it wrong.

Not to knock Renpy, as it is pretty flexible after all, but it was designed first and foremost for games that would tend to have a static background with character images sliding in and out from the left ...

It's the "Tale of the lonesome PC" update...*

Hello!

A couple of weeks since I last posted so I thought a quick update was in order.**

A lot's been going on but the progress bar hasn't moved that much sadly. However, it's not all bad news. Indeed, far from it.

The bad news

Alright, so there is some (well it has been a while), and it's mostly due to something that caused me so much grief in making Four. Namely, a single asset in the VR module. 

The set scene up for the VR in both Two and Four is the same and, w...

It's the "Awful combat" update...

Hello!

Just a quick update.

Bad design

So, busy re-wiring Three and I get to the VR combat module and...the combat mechanism is, on reflection, bloody awful. I skipped ahead to Four just to be sure and, yep, still bloody awful.

Now, there is a lot to like about the combat (and I'm talking purely here about the combat nothing else). It's simple; graphically it's rather nice; combat is simultaneous; there's progression in terms of unlocks and there's a lot of complex stuff going on under the ho...

It's the "Promo poster" post...

Whilst I'm tweaking a few animations on one machine I've kept myself busy on the other. Dropped as a pile as I didn't expect any of you to go "Oh, wow! It's a poster of Mike!"  :)

2023-02-18 11:37:05 +0000 UTC View Post

It's the "Here is the news" update...

Hello!

Alrighties, so a couple of weeks since I last posted and how is progress going?

Chapter One

I've been continuing a "supah sekret" release of this, incorporating feedback in respect of the GUI structure and usability each time and then shipping out a fresh version to someone else. The general feedback I'm pleased to say remains consistent, in that there's no dissent over this being a far superior product to what went before. It is, to paraphrase one set of feedback, the version of Heavy Five that they...

It's the "Light at the end of the tunnel" update...

Hello!

The waffley bit

There was a "supah-sekret" soft release of Chapter One over the weekend to a few players as part of the testing process. What I was after here was to see what players would make of the interface without having the insight or design intent that the testers and I have. So, basically, to replicate your experience and see if there were any design issues that needed ironing out before you played it.

I'm glad I did, as a few points did crop up. Nothing major thankfully but enough to have ma...

It's the "Testing, testing..." update!

Hello!

And as you might have guessed by the title, a mere nine months after I thought we'd be testing, we're testing. Actually we've been testing informally and discursively most of the month, amending and tweaking things (of which more later) but we've now started more formal testing.

My God, nine months though. It's bloody horrible to write it let alone have to read it as a patreon. 

Although, I suppose, in my defence at least charging has been off all that time and six months of that delay absolutely wasn't...

It's the "Christmas Prezzie!" update...

Hello!

It's time for your Chrimbo Prezzie! It's just a bit of non-canon fun but I hope you enjoy it. *

Please find attached links for both the PC and MAC below. Just click on the link, download and then click on Snowballgame.exe to play.

PC Link 

MAC Link 

Notty

It's the "Salmon of Doubt" update...

Hello!

A post in two parts this time around. The serious stuff and then the Christmassy bit.

The serious stuff

So progress on the re-wiring continues but it is, as you can imagine, as much fun as attending a Speed Awareness Course in the UK*.

It's a dull, long slog that requires me to take out old code, apply the new more extensive code, ensure the right images are in and that the PDA is interfacing with the images correctly and isn't crashing the game. There's nothing fun about it, n...

It's the "PDA update" update...

Hello!

A  fairly short update post this time around (well, for me at least).

It's just a jump to the left...

Firstly, my apologies for not being around on the old social media gubbins of late. I've been absent from Discord, the forum, Twitter - the works. Partly due to coming down with a stinking cold at the start of the month (and God alone knows where I got that from)* but mainly as I've had my head down coding like fury otherwise.

There's a lot to get done an...

It's the "Well, why not?" update...

Longer post this weekend but since a) the football is everywhere at the mo and b) the idea popped into my head yesterday, a bit of silliness...

It's the "Damn and blast I missed a bit!" update...

I forgot to mention I've also made the in-game pop-ups a bit more useful too.

Now if an event happens you know to who or what it refers to as opposed to hunting around the PDA trying to find what changed.

It's the "Spooky!" update...

Well, not that spooky I know, but the title seemed apt and the image is from in-game so what the hell. Besides, those that have play tested bits of the game will get the title reference... But onwards to the news!

News the first

Patreon is paused again. Not because I haven't been busy, on the contrary I have, but I'm not going to fire up the patreon charging again until Five is actually released. I'll talk more about this below but if I hadn't have been sideswiped in April the chapter would have ...

It's the "teaser and some news" update

The new GUI is stable :)

It's been a bit of a compromise between what I wanted and what would be stable enough but, as compromises go, it's not bad. Not bad at all.

I'll do a bigger post on this next week but I think it will make a significant difference to your ease of play.

It's the "Tuesday Teaser on a Tuesday!" post...

Also, side note - everything is going wonderfully.

I'm slamming the hours in, and the testers and sneak peakers are going "ooo! and aaah!" as if they're at a fireworks display.

Stay lucky, guys. This is going to be good.

It's the "Tues...um...Thursday! Teaser"

It's the "Update" update...

Hello!

A mix of news this week but let's start with the important one. I'm pausing Patreon again. No, not because I'm ill again or anything like that it's more I need to do a bit of re-work on the GUI, which I'll talk about more in a moment, and it's not something I think you should pay for. With the headline done, onwards!

News the first - Poker

I've been talking about the poker for a bit now but haven't really shown you that much from it other than a couple of stills. Now that's all well ...

It's a Tuesday teaser...

Um...this should have gone out last Tuesday but any bets on who thought they'd set up an automatic post for each Tuesday and didn't hit the right button at the end?

Oops...

It's the "P-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face..." update

What's this? A mid-month update? It seems so, and for a change, it's all good news.

Good news the first!

The headline is that we've got some more testing out of the way and, for a pleasant change, with nothing in the way of errors cropping up codewise either. Given it was the poker module and the coding for that is....um....extensive, I'm banking that as a major, major, win.

It doesn't hurt that it also looks bloody gorgeous*. Completely animated from start to end with dynamic movement of c...

It's the "Tuesday Teaser" post...

;)

It's teaser number one...

It's the "Good news!" update...

News, news and more news this time around but let's start with the key one. 

Health stuff

I got my shoulder fixed.

I couldn't go on as I was and it was no fun not knowing from one day to the next how much mobility I had (and for how long before things went sideways again). It was also more or less stopping any progress on Heavy Five (you can't really do that much with a couple of hours one day, a couple of hours a few days later); so I threw down the credit card and I've paid for priv...

It's the "Slow and the furious" update...

Hi,

You'll have noticed I both paused July and have been somewhat quiet the past few weeks. Unsurprisingly, the two issues are linked. 

(This is the ranty bit so feel free to just skip the Chapter Five stuff)

Rant, rant, rant...

It turns out that the correct treatment for a serious muscle injury is either minor surgery or at the least physiotherapy. Not, it seems, "Take it easy and it'll get better by itself in a few months." It does in a way, right up until the moment it comes under any...

It's the "News" update...

Hello!

A lot of news this post so instead of waffling on as I often do, I'll just crack on.

News the first - Pausing patreon

You may have noticed I've paused June patreon payments. My reasoning is that people supported me in April for the month and, due to events beyond my control, I only ended up doing two weeks work and not a full month.

May has seen some progress but has been slow, patchy and has included me testing and tweaking a few things (which to be honest was probs about the limit of what...