An update...

I'm sure that many of you will be wondering when the new Chapter Fifteen is going to be released.

A few of you have been messaging me for progress updates too.

There have been some things delaying the process which I feel I should explain publicly.


As many of you know, I take the integrity, protection and security of my creative work very seriously.

I've worked in the creative industries for many, many years and I see the damage that can be done by those who disrespect copyright laws and normalize the piracy of digital content.
It can literally destroy projects and ruin businesses and livelihoods.

A few months ago, I became aware that some of my latest material was being shared on a certain forum.

What's worse is that it was being shared by somebody who had been trusted with access to pre-release 'Beta' content.

There are/were also posts containing content from my Patreon page and offers of account sharing.

This appears to be focused on a small group of individuals.

All of which is a clear breach of the Patreon terms of service and those published on my dsp3000.games website.

I've been investigating this for some time.

There are also several automated and semi-automated protocols in place which identify and flag suspicious activity on user accounts.

This shows when people access certain parts of the website, monitors potential account sharing and tracks inbound links to the website.

There are also other tools which we can use to protect the website and its content for the benefit of myself and all legitimate users.

If you are reading this and wondering why your account isn't working as it should do, then you may have triggered something on the security protocols, intentionally or otherwise.

If this has affected you, then please contact me here via Direct Message and we can figure out how to resolve it.

All this has of course diverted time and attention away from the work I would much prefer to be doing. That's continuing the Academy series.

It's a real shame that the actions of a few people can slow things down and have a detrimental effect on the enjoyment of others.

Thankfully, I know that most of you reading this are honest patrons who respect my work and support what I am doing.

This project is nearly ten years old now, and as such has been an all-consuming and significant part of my life.

As long as it remains personally enjoyable and financially viable, then I see no reason to stop what I'm doing.

I have plenty of ideas and energy left to give, but I also have a limited threshold for bullshit!

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Much of what is posted on forums is generally negative, critical and often wildly inaccurate.

I understand that and, while I fully appreciate the power of constructive criticism, most of it just sounds like the usual echo chamber found on practically every other forum or comments section you would otherwise avoid reading.

But some of the stuff posted is frustrating and amusing in equal measure.

The 'best' example I read recently was somebody suggesting that I really need to upgrade my computer so I can render more quickly.

A previous post here on my Patreon page quoted a figure of 3250 images completed for Chapter Fifteen.

The suggestion was that the 30 days in April should be more than adequate to 'knock out' that many images, especially as I use 'plain backgrounds', 'old assets' , 'very little variation' in my images.

I did some math...

Based on working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for 30 days. That gives me just under 9 minutes per image.

The image below took about 11.5 minutes just to open and render through. The hair and the environment in that one is quite processor hungry so perhaps it's a bad example. Most renders take between 2 and 5 minutes on average.

It often takes as long to open existing images and save them due to how memory intensive the Daz3D software can be.

Pure render time isn't the only factor though...

You must also include adjusting up the lighting and camera, posing the character, and adjusting skin textures and clothing for each and every image.

There's also the time it takes to build the environment, set up the lighting, and create the character in the first place.

Many images also require a little post render work in Photoshop too.

Alongside rendering images, I also search for and buy all my assets from legitimate sources, spend time developing the story, look after the website, and of course turn several thousand of those individually considered and rendered images into a complex and multi-faceted game.

There are scoring metrics and variables to figure out and myriad examples of cause and effect to implement and follow through in a plausible way. The animations, end cards and achievement tiles don’t magically make themselves either.

There are so many moving parts to consider... My computers (yes! I use more than just a Pentium powered laptop nowadays) are just a small but reasonably pwerful part of that.

The point I'm making is that it takes longer than you might think, and it's more than just image render times.

Image counts are a very crude way of measuring the size of a game, but with nearly 43,000 images in the series so far, you may be able to appreciate how big a task this is.

I'm very focussed when I work and really hate distractions...

The size and variety in the Academy series is intentional. This isn't supposed to be a small, simple and linear game.

If you have the time and patience to play through a few times and find all the subtle and not so subtle variations, then you will be rewarded. It's not supposed to all be easy. It's a game!

If you can't be bothered with that then I'd suggest it's not really for you and the internet is awash with more immediate and accessible forms of entertainment to look at.

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Anyway... Thanks again to the vast majority of you for your ongoing support.
You have my respect for that.

Chapter Fifteen will be released this week.
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dsp3000