Developer's Journal 2:18

Hey everybody.  Part Two now has over a thousand post-worked renders.  But I still can't predict when I'll be done with this thing.  In the attached previews, the murder investigation continues with the interview of...well, let's just call her a person of interest.

Keeping in mind the excessive time I spent and limited success I had working on animations in Part One, I am exploring the possibility of hiring somebody to do the animations for Part Two.  It's not hard to do bad or boring animations in Daz, but there are very few people available who can do them well enough to be worth paying for.  But I may have found a guy who can at least pose the animations for Part Two, which could save me weeks of work and create a result much better than I could.  It comes at a steep cost, but eventually LDNA is going to make me a billion dollars, so when that happens the cost of hiring an animator will be negligible.  I will keep you posted on that.

Here's an issue I'm pondering, and your feedback is welcome:

LDNA has three types of flashbacks.  (Type 1) Long flashback scenes which are shown to the player, not as a part of a memory, which may or may not have involved MC.  (Type 2) Flashbacks which are shown via MC remembering an event in his past which has not previously been shown to the player.  (Type 3) Single render flashbacks where MC is reflecting on a scene that the player has already watched.

Examples:

(Type 1) The flashback scene of MC and Jamie as a little girl will not come as any sort of reflection on MC's part.  One regular scene will end and then this flashback scene will start the same as if it were a normal scene.

(Type 2) The flashback scene from Part One where Aghavni breaks up with MC was presented as a memory, i.e. MC was drinking on the couch, it cut to the breakup scene, and then it cut back to MC on the couch.

(Type 3) Just before the Aghavni breakup scene, while MC was sitting on the couch, he had a couple of one render flashbacks which were renders from scenes you saw earlier, like when he was facing down the knife.  That was shown in black and white.

Do these categories make sense?  Here's my issue:

The Type 3 one render flashbacks are obvious--they are shown in black and white and the player will remember having seen it before.

The Type 2 memory flashbacks I think are obvious because they come in the middle of reflection scenes, where MC is sitting around thinking about shit (usually with a drink).

The Type 1 independent scene flashbacks are where I'm doubting myself.  Off the top of my head, I can think of two of these types of flashbacks in Part Two.  One will open Part Two--it's a flashback to MC as a teenager.  The other is Jamie as a little girl.  I hope that when a player sees, 'oh, Jamie is a little girl,' or, 'oh, MC is a teenager,' it will be obvious the player is watching at a flashback.  But I worry if it will be disorienting to the player to not have any kind of signal that a flashback is starting.  Like maybe a player will be confused for a few renders before realizing that little redhead is Jamie as a little girl.

So my question is: For Type 1 flashbacks, do you think I need some sort of signal to the player that they're starting a flashback scene?  Like, if I put up a screen that said the year of the flashback: 2008, or whatever.  Or if it said, 15 years ago, or something like that.  Or is such a transition flag unnecessary if the content of the scene makes it clear that's it's a flashback?  What do you guys think?

Hopefully this makes sense.

Thank you for your support!  I really appreciate all of you.

--Monk