Hey there, you absolute legends! This is Stray Paranormal here with the latest updates on our game. 🐾 Let’s settle in—this one’s going to be a bit of a long read, but it’s important. Grab a warm drink, and let’s get started! ☕

Starting with the next progress update, I’ll be keeping things short and to the point. These updates will focus on what’s been done and the plans for the next week. That’s what progress updates should be, right? Don’t worry, though—I still love our talk sessions and rants. They’ll just come as separate posts from now on, without a set schedule, whenever there’s something worth talking about.

Project State and ETA

Right now, the ETA for the game is “Release When It’s Ready.” Honestly, this doesn’t sit well with me. I want to give you something more concrete, but to do that, I need a clearer understanding of the remaining workload.

Here’s how I plan to get there: As I mentioned before I don’t reuse images in the game. Instead, I create a unique render for nearly every line of dialogue. This means the total number of images will more or less match the total number of dialogue lines. By finalizing the dialogue for all branches in Chapter 1, I’ll have an accurate estimate of the number of images needed.

Once I know that number, I can calculate a realistic release timeline based on my current rendering speed—10-20 renders on weekdays and 40-50 on weekends depended on a scene complexity. So now I focused mainly on writing rather than creating images because in the process I go back and change stuff in earlier episodes to maintain consistency.

Writing

While writing, I noticed I was getting stuck on events for free roam sections. But then I remembered an important rule of storytelling: If a scene doesn’t add meaning to the story, it doesn’t belong.

So, I went back and trimmed out all the small, meaningless dialogues and interactions. This made most of the free roam segments unnecessary, so I cut them too and I promised myself that I won’t pull content out of thin air where it’s not needed

For the longest time, Chioko’s branch was an enigma. Up until November, I had a vague idea of her conflict, but it felt unoriginal and mirrored other branches. Then, I had a major _eureka_ moment. Now, I finally know what her story will be! Writing her branch will take time—I need to create a timeline for all chapters, integrate it with the game’s main timeline, and then start writing her dialogue.

Creating images

Now I'm going to say something to you, but please don't be mad. I’m reworking **Scene 2** and Scene 3. Again. 😅

- Scene 2: The original renders were noisy because they were created with a 3060 8GB GPU, and I didn’t know how to manage memory properly. Plus, some shots featured full-frontal talking heads, which I personally dislike in VNs. That's just lazy! The dialogue also needed a rewrite for a more natural flow. - Scene 3: The writing here is solid, but the renders? Not so much. They were underexposed, and my Photoshop fixes didn’t help. I also lost the action file halfway through, so the second half of the scene looked inconsistent. If rerendering doesn’t fix it, I’ll have to redo the lighting for all 240 images. - Scene 7: This one’s getting a complete overhaul. The writing was weak, and Steve’s posing wasn’t great. I’ve improved the model, posing, and lighting for better results.

Here are some before-and-after comparisons:

 Old image

New image: Better posing and facial expressions.

Old image

New image: Improved model, more natural light, better image quality.

Old image

New image: Better posing, facial expressions, and more natural lighting.

Old image

New image: Monica’s improved model and more natural light.

That’s the latest from me! Thanks for sticking around and supporting the project—it means the world to me. Stay safe, drive carefully, and keep being awesome.

Stray Paranormal out. Meow! 🐾✨