Hi all!

Just a really quick note to let you know why I've not handled a bunch of stuff raised by the community!

I actually had my wedding this weekend just gone by, and there was a LOT to get sorted, quite a lot of stress, but the day went perfectly in the end, so was worth all the hard work and stress!

I'll now start to pick up the bugs and glitches found by the community.

• Lily conversation repetition towards the end of the episode

• Black Screens when playing animations (I've heard that to resolve this, you need to uncheck 'Mute All' in the settings?)

• A few gallery items not unlocking like they should

• I think some conversation continuity issues at breakfast

Essentially, I need to go through comments and gather all items as I'm sure there are more than just those, but rest assured, I'm back now and will get them sorted!

I hope you've been enjoying the content!

Speak soon!

Much love!

Nickle3DArt

Hello Jurors!

The time is finally here!

[dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/3734730/Jury__Episode_3_Knives__Dark_Desires/"][/dynamiclink]

I do hope you enjoy the content if you decide to purchase now. I'll continue to take feedback on the episode so far. I've already received a number of good ideas from Alpha/Beta/Early Release players so will be considering those as I move to complete the rest of the episode.

As stated before, this is HALF the epsiode, and I'll update the same DLC package with the rest when it's done. I feel there's a lot of content to play through, so I hope you enjoy!

This has taken me a LONG time (much longer than I had hoped), but I'm hoping you'll be pleased with the quality, and enjoy the story as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

As always, releasing to Steam isn't always the most straight forward of processes, so please bear with me if there are teething issues getting the episodes to connect correctly or achievements to sync.

If you are having trouble, or need assistance, I'll of course work my hardest to resolve it. You can provide feedback in my Discord.

I hope you enjoy, and I look forward to the feedback!

Nickle3DArt

Hi all!

A quick message to let you know that the new store page is up for Episode 3!

Please take a look and hopefully you'll consider wishlisting, even if you don't intend to buy it until the whole episode is there. It really does help me out a lot with the algorithm.

[dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/3734730/Jury__Episode_3_Knives__Dark_Desires/"][/dynamiclink]

As an update, the episode has been through Alpha testing now and has entered the Beta stages. There were a few continuity errors I needed to fix, and of course spellings and typos (you know me...). It's received really good feedback so far, so I'm pretty confident that you will enjoy it!

Thanks everyone for being so patient and understanding!

Nickle3DArt

Hello one and all! So, the time has almost come! Here's what's happening... After reading the comments on the 2 part release, I have made the decision to release Epsidoe 3 in 2 parts. It almost pleases both parties. Those who want content now, can get it, and those who want to wait for the full thing, can still wait. It also shows some commitment from me and you can see that I've not been sat on my thumb doing nothing for the past year! I will be releasing Episode 3, Part 1 in the coming weeks. It consists of: - 6611 images - 340 animations (approx - some animations have more than 1 inside them as a montage so very difficult to actually count them) Episode 3 Part 1 is the entire day 5 essentially, but there's quite a bit to do and explore so realistically it's about the same size as a normal episode, but with more animations (hence it taking this long). The second half will be delivered inclusive of this Episode 3, so you will not need to purchase the second half of it. The second half is pretty much all written, all that remains is the renders/animations etc. What's left to do with Ep3 Part1? It's currently in Alpha testing, meaning I've got a few very trusted individuals playing through to check for story/continuity errors. I'll then be releasing it to a beta team to find bugs and images that need corrections etc. Pending further changes requested from the Alpha and Beta teams, it will then be release onto Steam. I would anticipate late June. I know this has taken me way longer than I'd hoped, but I can assure you Jury is something I'm in for the long run. I obviously hit a pretty nasty snag with the computer issues I had where my computer was essentially gone for 6 weeks, but that time I used to write the scripts for the second half, so no time was 'wasted'. You can expect to see the store page up fairly soon with a brand new trailer that should give you a good flavour of the new content. The page is currently with the Steam team for approval (it failed the first review because one of my capsule images wasn't meeting their spec), but please do go ahead and wishlist when you see it even if you don't intend to buy right away. It genuinely helps me out a lot in terms of advertising and gaining exposure. As soon as I get the initial feedback from the beta team, I'll be able to give a solid release date. It's been a damn long road for this episode, and I appreciate every single one of you who have supported me thus far. It's so great to read the words of encouragement that come through when I do posts on Steam. It's always a little nerve wracking to post these things, so I apprecaite the kind words that you all post. I'm also very interested to see what you think of the Ep3 Part1 'Finale'... It was a bit of an experiment, but in my opinion, it paid off... I'm eager to see what you all think about it, and if it's something you'd like to see more of. It took quite a while to put together... You'll see what I mean when you play through it... So I'll crack on with testing, and the next post should be either an announcment date or a 'How did you like it?' Much love to you all, thanks for being here, and speak soon! Nickle3DArt

Hello Jurors! I do apologise for a very delayed post. I essentially skipped the whole of February without even realising it! I can assure you Ive been working hard on Episode 3. I have run into more pc issues unfortunately Basically the latest windows update has done a whole whirlwind of destruction on my already fragile pc. Its going back again to the store this coming week, Im assuming it will have a new motherboard/hard drive replacement. The issues started quite a while back, as I may have mentioned, but I've tried to push though them just to get to a release point, then sort it out properly afterwards. To give you an example, to render an animation, I was having to restart DAZ (and sometimes the computer) every 2 frames. Often clicking on the 'Render' button would pull up an instant blue screen of death and you're back to square one. That was frustrating, but I could deal with it short-term. However, since the last windows update (or whatever did this), it's become impossible to progress at all, hence the final NEED to get it resolved once and for all. I can't even keep a discord or Chrome session open for more than 2 minutes before it crashes with no error showing at all. If I leave the computer alone completely, it will blue screen within 15-25 minutes. Even re-installing windows is not working, leading me to think that this is ultimately a hardware fault. Ive already backed up all the content, files etc in multiple places, the machine is ready to be shipped back, and hopefully I'll get the machine back later this week and I can get cracking again. I'm also going to book off some holiday from my day job to try and speed along the process further.

Episode 3:

Uploading a small fix to hopefully activate the steam achievements again!

Little fix uploaded to help with PlayerName. In some cases it was throwing an exception for new players entering their name.

Happy Christmas Jurors! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday period, eat more than you should, drink and be merry! Ive spent the day with my parents, brother and other extended family. I'm always very fortunate to have family around me at Christmas time, something I'm very thankful for. While I do hope you all have a lovely holiday, I do feel its important to remember that this period can be quite a lonely time of year for many. It can also be a particularly hard time in general for some. Financial difficulties and pressures, family politics and perhaps even having to exert additional effort to make sure someone else has a positive day to remember. Along this thread, Id like to offer my gift to you this Christmas, Laylas Christmas.
I didnt want to go down the route of another Christmas themed background wallpaper, but wanted to provide some more value to the gift this year. Along with a collaborator, we have created a little side story for you to play through about Layla. You all know Layla as the happy, positive character from Jury, so lets get an insight into her life before she took that bus to travel to the Raddison Hotel for Jury duty. The mini side story became not so mini and I think If youre reading all the content, its around an hour play time! To access it, you can find a new tab on the main menu called Side Stories. This should only be playable if you have met Layla in game. (There will be additional side stories in the future, but not before the release of Ep3. They do take quite a lot of effort and planning, and for 2025 my main goal is to get Ep3 released). Additional updates: -Added more accessibility items (change font size, style, outline etc) -Changed the way the age disclaimer functions. Now it will only ask upon first launching the game rather than on every playthrough -Added in the option to skip the prologue for fresh run-throughs -Fixed some gallery/replay items that were not functioning properly. -Numerous typos -Added in a loading spinner which should activate when the game is going through some textless renders. -Updated renpy base code -General GUI updates (Moved away from the red/black color theme towards the yellow/black Jury colors. Bug Warning: During this update, I was required to upgrade the base Renpy code. As a result, myself and the collaborator have been battling upgrade related issues with both Episode 1 and 2 over the past 48 hours. I think weve managed to squash those bugs, but there is a chance that some are still there. The way the beta branch works on Steam is not ideal as it does not cater for DLCs, so you have to create a single package containing EVERYTHING and its not quite the same as releasing as a DLC. Essentially, Ill need to see how the package deploys on live and then work out if there are any remaining issues. Please bear with me if there are any outstanding issues. I do hope you enjoy the mini episode! Please feel free to leave feedback on this post. Happy Holidays! Nickle3DArt

Happy December Everyone! Apologies for the later than usual monthly post on Steam. In all honesty, I completely lost track of the days/months! It seems crazy how quickly this year has gone! I've also been pretty focused recently on a holiday surprise for you all (read below). Its been a pretty good month. Ive got a ton of new renders/animations etc done. Chapter 3 Progress: -Now up to 4573 (another 1097 images this month) -Now up to 202 animations (another 48 this month) -Written/Transcribed another 8 Scenes -New freeroam posed. New Free Roam: Toward the end of November, I managed to finally get another free roam posed. Its quite a fun one this, a Cocktail party in the bar arranged by Willow. For this one I had help from fans to pick out outfits for the girls and it worked out really nicely. I was pleasantly surprised with the number of outfits that were picked out that really suited the specific girls personality! Have a look here at some previews of that scene and the outfits picked out by the players!



Im currently writing the scenes for this. Theres a couple of girls who could use an extra lewd scene, so I feel a cocktail party could be the perfect opportunity for that! Wen Release? I can see there is chatter asking about when Episode 3 is going to be released. The answer right now is 'I don't know...'. My ambition is always to try and get an episode out within 12 months of the previous (making that early April 2025). However, the Episodes are getting much bigger. As an example, what I've created for Episode 3 is almost already bigger than the whole of Episode 1 was and there's still a lot to do! Episode 1 has 4958 images and 81 animations, and Episode 3 already has 4573 images and 202 animations. I would anticipate by the end of Episode 3, it will be closer to 9000 images (give or take) and perhaps 350 animations. It's going to be a big update and from my perspective, the quality has also increased quite significantly. I'm doing the very best I can, I've managed to get someone to help me with writing (all supervised and blocked out by me), and I'm literally working on Jury every spare hour I get. As soon as I get to a point where I can be confident that I know which month it will be ready, I'll be sure to shout it from the rooftops. I know it's frustrating waiting for new content, I've also been on the other side of waiting for many updates, but it's just how it is. Xmas Special: Im trying to give you guys/girls a little something extra this Christmas other than some generic Holiday wallpapers. My attempt here is to create a free special mini episode. The idea is to show a little prequal of one of the members of the Jury. Its to get an insight into her life before she was called up to Jury duty. A long-standing member of the community (literally since day 1) has been working really hard planning it, and together were developing it with the hopes that I can get it rendered/released in time for Christmas. I've been working on it this week and managed to crack out over 400 renders towards it so far (not included in the stats above). Fair warning, it's not a mindless f**kfest. It's a little deeper than that. Having said that, there ARE going to be lewd scenes and it's shaping up really nicely. I'd share some images, but I'd prefer it to be a Christmas surprise! I'm going to crack on with the Xmas special content, and hopefully I'll be able to give you a nice little mini episode to play through on Christmas day! Talk soon and enjoy the start of the Holiday season! Nickle3DArt

Thank you for all the people who contributed questions for the Q&A. I really didnt know if Id get any questions at all and might have looked a little silly, but youve really come through for me, thank you! From Randall1974 Q: As you have been working on the characters, have you found that you have a favourite and if so, which one? A: Yes. There are a couple of characters who I love writing for and developing their narrative and depth. To name a few, Lily, Jane and Layla are certainly up there, but the character Ive enjoyed writing for the most is Alice. Someone very close to me suffers from anxiety, and Ive needed to be there for them over the years. I like developing Alice because while her symptoms may not really be accurate, and perhaps a little overcooked at times, her inner journey is becoming more confident with herself, and to start accepting situations for what they are. I like seeing a recovery arc and thats kind of the journey she is on to an extent. Another Im enjoying as I mentioned before is Lily. If you play the game in a certain way, you get to see a slightly darker, damaged (for want of a better word) side of her. I think many of us in life put up a front in public and want to be seen a certain way, and suppress unpleasant memories that might even change us in unusual ways. Shes on a journey to discover that, and try and embrace it. From Oni Q: Im working on a game myself and It would be awesome to get some tips and learn from your experience. A: Amazing that youre making your own game! Ill list a bunch of tips that I would suggest for new VN creators: Start with the story. Its the most important part of the game, beyond any visuals. Get a clear idea of the general narrative, and plan the ending (at least roughly. It can always be tweaked later). I say that because writing with no real direction in where you want to end doesnt work. You end up with tangents that kind of lead nowhere, or end in a forced manner that doesnt sit well. Use a storyboarding program to really plan out the game, before you even touch the code or visuals. Its expensive. Be careful when initially designing your cast, and locations because DAZ assets do start to add up very quickly. A tip for this is to Wishlist all the stuff you like, or think you might need in your game. EVERYTHING, goes on sale at some point. I generally have a massive Wishlist and check it every day. The moment something drops to $3-5 or something, I buy it, even if I don't need it YET. Then come the hidden costs you might not think about initially. Licenses (music/sound effects/editing software, website domain hosting), physical computer components, and even electricity comes into the picture (rendering does tend to suck up electricity when the graphics card is running at a high rate). Im adding this one because Ive seen it happen. Dont start investing in your game until you KNOW its what you want to do, and its within your skillset. As above, it gets very expensive, and if you decided after a month that you dont really like game dev, then youve not lost a bunch of money on assets you'll never use again. Often the idea of being a dev (or any job really) is quite attractive, but when you get into the weeds, theres always a ton of work and expenses to the job that you may not have initially realised. Make sure its something you really want to pursue before you start shelling out on expensive kit/assets/licenses. Start simple. One of the aspects of Jury that makes it so time consuming to work is the vast cast and number of routes. You need to develop all the character narratives, their personalities, their development plus think of different scenarios for them all so it doesn't get stale. You also need to consider relationships between each other (which can be affected by variables). Those variables may lead to different tones of conversations, which then leads to additional renders. My advice would be to start out simple, potentially limit your characters, and create a more linear game, at least to start. You can always go back at a later date and add in different routes/characters and change the dialogue etc if you wish to. Jury is I think my third attempt at creating a game. The other two never saw the light of day because they became so over complicated and I got into a real muddle with all the strands or narrative. Be kind to yourself. Youll never please everyone. From my perspective, as long as a developer is trying to produce something good/positive, is open to constructive feedback and communicates with the players, then they are doing a good job. I initially found it quite hard to take when I saw negative reviews, or people slating my game, but the reality is, youll always get those kinds of comments. Learn to read them, and remember what has been said without taking it personally. They have commented or left that review because they were unhappy. Try and understand WHY they were unhappy and if there is something you can do to change that in the future. On the flip side, dont just change your game because 1 person didnt like something. It has to be something valid that you agree with yourself, or has been raised by a number of people. Its your game at the end of the day. If youre trying your best, not taking your fanbase for a ride, then hold your head high. Expect the WEN RELEASE? Im trying to slowly educate the players that these games take time, and for the most part, the players get it, which Im so thankful for. The last thing you want to do is to rush your content and release something sub-par after putting in so much time and love. No one wins from that situation. If you need more time to get something done, then communicate that as early as you can, and take the time you need so that you're happy with the product. If you're happy, then there's a higher chance the players will be happy. From Penn Q1: How much coding/development experience did you have at the beginning, and how much did you have to learn? A1: I have a general background in coding, but I mean VERY general. I couldnt code my way out of a paper bag to start with. I learnt in a few ways Youtube tutorials (Thundorn Games I found useful (no affiliation)). I also learnt on the job I previously freelanced at a larger AVN for about 12 months before starting Jury. I got to see a lot of the code, how they arranged it and over time understood what it was all doing. Renpy is a very easy platform to code on, its based on python, but simplified solely for the purposes of Visual Novels. With relation to DAZ (the visuals), that I learned completely from scratch. Its super simple to get started with, and there are loads of tutorials out there to learn from. The only part which I have a lot of experience in is video editing/compositing. A previous career I had, I spent 5-6 years doing visual effects for film. So that part of my skillset I already had which comes in very useful for editing still images, but also animations. Q2: What tools did you use to learn to develop your coding/development/animation skills? A2: Coding, I use Renpy with VisualCode. Its the standard for AVNs, and is a very simple language to pick up and learn. Youtube is your friend there, and their discord community is very healthy and helpful. As long as you're trying yourself, and not just asking questions for every single thing, there are people in there who are incredibly friendly and are happy to help. Visual development is all done in DAZ, self-taught. In terms of 3d programs, its probably the most user friendly on the market to get decent visuals out of without any deep learning. Again, Youtube is your friend here. Regarding animations, Ive had a background in visual media since University. As previously mentioned, I went on to work in VFX for films for a number of years before I realised that the industry had crazy working hours and I wouldnt be able to maintain those in my late career as I got older and wanted to potentially have a better family life. I use Fusion for the animations (adding liquids and that kind of thing), then adobe premiere pro for looping the anims, adding sound and converting to .webm. Its really useful to have some knowledge in a photo or video editing package. Much of what comes out of DAZ has to be corrected (clipping, some backgrounds changed etc) so having skills in photoshop or similar is pretty useful. Q3: How much writing experience did you have, and did you study anything to improve? A3: I didnt have any experience in writing before Jury, other than learning to write stories when I was at school (many years ago). I also used to be a teacher, so have taught the very basics of story writing. I do read in my spare time, so thats really all the experience I have (Huge Harry Potter fan, and I love all the Lee Child books!). To improve further, I actually ended up watching a bunch of random teen series while I was working. The content itself doesnt have to be particularly interesting but I now pay attention to the character development and interactions a lot more than I used to. I think you only get to be a better writer by experience and learning from other people and getting feedback. I made some pretty terrible errors when I released Episode 1, but saw the feedback on it, agreed with the comments and made the changes. The other tip I have here, is when you get an idea for any kind of scenario, WRITE IT DOWN! I make notes on my planning board for the story, then when I need to think of a new piece of content to slip in, I look at that list and see if any of those scenarios fit the narrative and don't feel forced. Q4: What is your process for creating compelling and attractive character models? A4: Youve likely seen characters like Lily in a whole bunch of VNs. You almost have to think of them as actresses playing different roles. DAZ offers hundreds of base character models, most of the good ones will have already been selected for other VN's. You can get morphs to make them look a little different, and obviously you can change their body shapes, hair models, eye colour, etc etc. When it came to actually creating the characters physical appearances, my take was to try and get a bit of everything: - Dark/blonde/red/long/short hair - Large/medium/small breasts - Tall/short/skinny/curvy figures. I wanted to create a game where there was something for everyone. I tried to do that with their personalities too (Nervous, outgoing, reserved, sad, happy, chill etc). To make them all a little different brings interest in my opinion and also reflects reality a bit more. Everyones different, and that's something that makes the world interesting and exciting. Lets embrace that! Q5: I heard that DAZ can be constricting in certain ways. Did you ever consider using an alternative? A5: DAZ can be constricting, youre quite right. The animation editor in there is awful. Its clunky, unintuitive, and at times does the most random things! In terms of general rendering, I never considered using something else. DAZ has pretty much been made for visual novels. It looks good, theres a ton of assets available, and generally its not too difficult to customize things if you have a little experience with photoshop/blender or similar. However, I would like to start looking further into using a more professional program for animations. The issue with that is you have to export the scenes/textures etc from DAZ into Maya, or Blender etc, which is a bit finnicky and daunting. Ive spoken to some seriously good animators in the field, and they wouldnt touch DAZ with a barge pole for animations. From Rioden Q: Are you rendering on a single machine, or do you have a multi-machine farm set up? A: Ill answer this in a few parts... For Episode 1, I only had access to my local machine, which was a Ryzen 3900x I think, with a 3080ti and 32gb RAM. The entire episode was rendered on that machine locally. For Episode 2, I had some cash injection from the sales of Episode 1, so I ended up upgrading my card to a 4090, and getting 64GB ram. I also used the revenue to start hiring a renderfarm which is a machine with 3x3090s running inside it. Following the release of Episode 2, I then bought a new full machine as I was running out of storage space, my CPU was about to die etc. I got myself an i9 14900KS, 96GB DDR5 RAM, 4090, MSI MEG motherboard, and a bunch of M.2 storage. Here's a picture of my current set up (I've obfuscated the BG just for privacy reasons (pictures on the wall etc. I've also had to black out the 3D printed models 'parts')

The CPU cooler is pretty awesome. I switch between the Jury Logo, some of the animated avatars from Steam, and videos of my cats! :D So that's the questions asked and answered for the moment. I'll do another Q&A after a few more months if anyone has any further questions. I hope you're all having a great final quarter so far, and I'll check in with you all soon! Nickle3DArt

Hi all! (This is a 2-part post this month as with the Q&A, it became a bit of an essay Ill post this part now and the Q&A tomorrow. Last chance to get any final questions in before I post!) Im here a little early this month as its Halloween and wanted to put some spooky images out there for you! Its been a very good month for Jury. Ive managed to get a load more renders/animations/writing/transcribing done. I know youre probably getting bored of me saying that, but Im just keeping you in the loop as to the progress. This Month: - Now up to 3312 images (This month another 1012) - Now up to 148 animations (This month another 34) - Another 3 scenes written and 4 Transcribed Im spending this current week rendering the more boring (to render) and laborious scenes The court stuff. As always, its never easy to render a scene with 20 people in it. The initial upload to the farm for this scene is over 40GB and even with fibre, it does take time! Heres a little shot of the upload (with 8 of the characters missing).
To get these shots rendered, I have to do it in 2 shots, then combine them in fusion/photoshop after.
Essentially anywhere you see a shot with more than 10 characters on the screen, thats been cobbled together using more than 1 image (The scenes in the lobby and on the rooftop spring to mind). As its October, Ive done some spooky renders for you all! I hope you enjoy! Nickle3DArt

Hello Jurors! This past month has been quite focused around writing. Im finding that I can blast through rendering quite quickly now so Im basically writing a ton of content so then I can just go on a render spree. It was my Birthday this month so had a few days off for that, and last week I was in New York for business, so I lost a bit of time there, but still managed to do some transcription on the plane journey there and back! Overall its been a very productive month though for both rendering and writing. Ive managed to write a some of the more complex narrative (the trial stuff), and also written far more deeply into the episode now. Normally, I write the scene, then render the scene straight after, but Ive basically teed up a bunch of scenes to plough though now. Youre certainly getting to see some deeper sides of the characters, and able to progress with them further in relationship terms. Characters like Ivy and Willow, not to mention the 12th Juror (well done for those of you who picked up on that last post) will become more readily available to interact with too. Ive also been busy in the DAZ store, having purchased another 40 or so assets (There was a great sale this week and I got a bit carried away...), so more clothing and scenes to refresh the look of everything. So far Ive only had to create a few more scenes, but there is going to be quite a number new rooms and outdoor scenes in Episode 3, so buying in advance of rendering those scenes. Heres a couple of teaser shots from some of scenes Ive rendered



Please know that Im not showing you images of all the scenes Ive worked on, I do want it to be a surprise still. This month: - 704 new images rendered (Over 2300 now) - 114 animations rendered (Honestly, I cant remember what number I was on last month, but I did a bunch more this month. Ill use this as the benchmark for next month) - 19 scenes written (11 transcribed) Im unsure if you guys/girls know what I mean when I say transcribed. For those of you who dont, see the image below:
Essentially, it's the process of taking a base script, then adding in the image names, and writing the description (in green). If you don't take this step, it can sometimes get really confusing to know what images you need to pose. Often when I'm rendering, I'll realise that a new image is needed to make the scene play correctly, and just add those in on the fly, but I always take this step before starting the renders. Q&A Session: I'm not sure if there's any interest in it or not, but I'd love to do a Q&A section to these monthly posts. If you've got any questions about game development, questions about Jury, the characters, or anything really, I'd love to open the floor to you all. No pressure, but please know that the offer is there. If you have questions, please put them in the comments here, and I'll address them in next month's post! Have a great end to September, and I'll speak to you all soon! Nickle3DArt

Hello everyone! Here with another monthly update. I had a great time in France, managed to get a lot of relaxation in, and have been back at the grindstone since I got home. The renders are flowing thick and fast now! What I have observed is that Im (without realising it) doing far more renders per scene on average than I was in previous episodes. This has a 2-fold effect. Firstly, it means that there is far more expression and variation of images along with the dialogue which should enrich the experience quite significantly. However secondly, it does mean that Im getting through the scenes a little slower than anticipated. Its going well though, so nothing to worry about, but just sharing my own observations really and I think the increase in images/animations per scene will ultimately be a good thing. To give you some kind of reference, each scene is hitting around 100 separate images now (one has even hit the 250 mark!). Im not doing it where its not needed, but due to previous choices in ep1 and ep2, I obviously have to render multiple reactions and tangents for each of the characters reacting to those decisions. Particularly for the first day on episode 3 Im needing to handle many of those, so I think the second day should go a bit quicker than the first as many of the conflicts (if you want to call them that) will have already been aired and at least partially addressed. Ep3 Development Update: 803 new images rendered (over 1800 in total now) 7 new animations rendered 9 scenes written and transcribed Lovense (The bane of my existence) All relevant scenes now coded with actions. They do work, but Im getting crashes which are being analysed to clean up for release. Defects - I have seen many people reporting that certain scenes are not working for them in the Image Gallery and Replay gallery. I've found the source of some of these, so will be sending out a patch soon to correct those. Thank you to all those who have flagged them as not working. I feel like Im getting a lot better with animations, youll be pleased to hear. Its something I used to semi-dread because they are quite fiddly to get right, and extremely time consuming to render, but Ive been talking with some seriously good animators recently and have taken tips from them, which has helped tremendously. I really think youre going to like them! Its been a busy month for sure, and this next month is going to be just as busy so Ill leave you for now with a couple of previews

Nickle3DArt PS: Perhaps you might like this too

Hi all, A very silly error from me caused achievements not to work and also cause issues going from episode 1 to episode 2. Essentially, when I changed computers, I forgot to install the steam library files within Renpy, meaning it wasn't utilizing the Steam API as it should do. Hopefully this should fix it. Apologies for the inconvenience! Nickle3DArt

Hello Jurors! I'm currently in France for the week, to soak up the sun and Code by the pool. I promise I will be relaxing too! ;) Small patch from Sunday: I put a small update out on Sunday. The main reason was to put in some variables in preparation for Episode 3. I also added in a tiny slither of new content as seen below.
Updates on the Ep3 since the last steam post: -Rendered another 256 shots (Over a thousand now) -Rendered and edited another 20 animations (Over 60 now) -Written another 7 scenes The rendering should pick up a quite a bit when Im back as I now have a gap until more animations come into play (anims slow down the overall process quite a bit as they take a good amount of time to create, then obviously a lot of time to render). For the time being, lets see what you make of Lilys new look (She's possibly trying to catch someone's eye...)!
3D Printing: I've been doing this sporadically throughout the last few weeks. They take a while to print (8 hours a time in the latest cases). I can say that I've successfully printed and painted (To what I think is a fairly good standard) a bust of one of the characters. I'll be printing a run of 5, painting them then doing a couple of give aways. Have great few weeks, and I'll touch base when I'm back! Nickle3DArt

Updates to a few variables (prep for Ep3), a few additional images, more dialogue corrections

Hi everyone! A short update today to let you all know Im still alive, and still working! (Apologies for re-using old steam post images. I have a 160 frame animation rendering right now) Progress since the last post from the 30th May: -Rendered another 500 images -Rendered/edited/added sound to 45 animations in total now for Ep3 (were just getting started here too! This episode is going to have a lot more animations than the previous 2 episodes). -Written another 4 scenes that are now ready for render. -Created 2 Behind the scenes videos for an upcoming supporter page (not yet live). -Created another 3 characters custom outfits for court (Im creating these as they appear in the narrative). Its been a busy few weeks, but absolutely loving seeing the new scenes come to life. One particular scene (some of you probably know what Im talking about) has been a bit of a technical worry of mine since I hinted at it happening in Episode 1. I did wonder if I had overpromised or was too ambitious, but Im very pleased to say that with certain assets mentioned in last months post, Its actually a lot of fun to create, and I neednt have worried!
To keep you all in the loop, Im off on holiday in mid-July, for a week, but Ive bought a keyboard for my IPad so I can still write by the pool and ensure the game continues to develop. Im hoping to get a huge chunk of the story done at that time as I wont have access to DAZ (which often distracts me as I find that side of things more fun), so by the time I get back from that, I should have a good few thousand images to get started on. Lovense My technical consultant has sorted out the issues we were having with that, so I can get those final tweaks sorted out now and get the functionality turned on. For those interested, the issue I was having was that the toys you can link with the game have multiple functions (vibrate, suction, etc) and renpy was having trouble using more than one at a time, which led to the toys just stopping (which would have been a real mood killer!). That's now sorted so for each lewd scene, I need to add in custom commands based on what's happening in the scene. It's going to be developed most specifically for the Solace and the Max 2, but should work generically with any of the toys that Lovense have to offer. 3D Printing For a bit of fun, I've sent off a model for 3D printing (mainly a mini fun side project for my own enjoyment, but if it turns out well, Ill print a few if there is any interest I'll get more printed). I had a call earlier today with an 3D artist in the U.S. who is currently converting one of the characters to something that is printable as a test run. The issue with DAZ figures and 3D printing is that they are all 'open-mesh' due to the nature of how the assets are attachable/detachable and movable. If you fed them through a 3D printer, they would error or come out all deformed. So all the gaps need to be manually closed (eyes to eyelids, top lip to bottom lip, dress/clothing to skin, jewellery to skin, hair to head etc). You also need to re-model some of the assets, like eyebrows and hair because they are often strand-based which is not printable either. I think that's probably the reason you don't see many developers offering figures, because the prep-work involved is quite expensive (plus the cost of having them professionally painted!). That's it for now. I'll check in before I head off on holiday. I do hope everyone is starting to enjoy the sun! Have a fantastic rest of June! Thanks, Nickle3DArt

Hi all! I hope youve all had a good week and are starting to see at least glimpses of sunshine as we move closer to summer! Ive had a good, productive few weeks and can officially say that Im well into Episode 3 now. Ive rendered the first scene (over 200 renders), so full steam ahead! The new computer is up and running now, all files transferred etc. I have to say, its an absolute dream to be able to move from shot to shot so quickly (I was even given a telling off by the render farm owner for uploading shots too quickly :D ). Im also upgrading my internet tomorrow, moving from 350mbps to 1gig. This is to help with uploading shots to the farm, which can sometimes take a while (uploading 20gig at a time - there's a lot of waiting around!). Thanks to all of you who joined in with the comments regarding the 12th member of the Jury, using some of those ideas I'm a little closer to finalizing her, but I'll continue to think about it while I'm writing and rendering up to her introduction. Animations: Ive already started rendering a few animations overnight, the idea being to keep on top of the animation load as Ep3 is shaping up to have more than Ep2 did (and those took an entire month to render last time). Ive also signed up to an asset service to enhance animations in Ep3. Essentially, its a huge bank of special effects like drips, sprays and liquid stretches/pulls (Im sure you can all imagine where those are going to be used). I do think it will add to the realism, and will certainly help with certain girls 'talents'. See the .gif below to get the idea of the kind of effects I'll be using.
I did a test on one of the new animations yesterday, and honestly, I think it looks awesome. Fortunately, my background in film compositing can help me track/mask/stabilize the base footage so it doesnt appear just plonked on top of the shot and hand animated. I'm really excited about these because I do think they take the quality to the next level. The Lovense integration is still ongoing. My technical advisor is still getting round to fixing an issue we're having with the pattern api, so once that's done, I'll of course be adding that into the game as a minor update. So for now, it's going to be lots of rendering, writing and animating. I'm not going to go quiet on you all though and will keep you all updated as regularly as I have been in the past. Ill check in again soon! Nickle3DArt (P.S. Im absolutely loving working on these first scenes)

Hi all, Sorry for being a bit quiet over the past few weeks. Lots of bits going on both in and out of Jury! Patch notes: - Updated imagery for the front of the hotel across both Ep1 and Ep2 - Fixed a number of the lewd scenes which I accidentally made mandatory when adding in the scene replayer - Spelling/Grammar across both Ep1 and Ep2 Updates to Ep1 and Ep2: Im taking this opportunity between episodes to revamp a couple of scenes that, personally, I really dislike. I have re-designed the front exterior of the hotel. This was the first scene I ever made for Jury, it uses a really terrible asset for the hotel front, and Rachaels outfit is horrendous Its been mentioned by quite a few since Episode 1 released that there is a pretty significant disconnect between the look of the hotel from the front (a bland building on a high-street), compared to the expansive gardens it offers to the guests. I cant help but agree. As Episode 3 starts to look at areas outside of the hotel, I feel I need to address this now, rather than end up re-working even more scenes later in the game. See below for the hotel Ive managed to create. I feel it fits the narrative and looks a lot more in keeping with the rest of the hotel grounds seen in the game.
The main issues with this is finding the appropriate assets (3D Models). Theres not a great deal available to get the look I wanted, so as a result Ive had to customize quite a bit and take bits and pieces from a load of different packages. The above scene above has been created using about 12 different products. At least youll have never seen THIS in another visual novel! This did mean that I needed to re-render a bunch of images (over 200) the scene on the bus, the scene outside the front of the hotel with Rachael, the scene with frost at the door, the jurors arriving, the backgrounds of frost in the lobby in ep2, leaving for court in ep2 etc. It took a little longer than I had hoped, being that the new hotel asset with characters was about 25GB+ for each scene upload. Still, I'm happy with the results and it creates far less work for me in Episode 3. Lovense (Not yet released): Ive almost integrated Lovense into Jury. I've got the code done and it does work, I just need to code the toy response pattern into each of the applicable scenes. I know for many of you, this wont make a difference to your experience of the game, but integrating Lovense into Jury is being done for multiple reasons: -It exposes Jury to a whole new audience. -Perhaps helps other discover Lovense and their products (I never knew they existed before being told about it the other week). They are pricey, and personally Im yet to try one out myself (watch this space!), but they seem like the front runners in their field. -Its pretty cutting-edge for the AVN genre to be able to offer this, and I think over time it will become a pretty standard addition to most adult games. -Its fairly simple and low-cost to implement, maintain and just offers those who have the products a little something extra for free. See below for a little preview of the Lovense Screens:
I thought it makes sense for Aimee to be the advocate for the products, (she works in an adult retail store after all!). Of course, the in-game guide will be explained by her, and shell be the one to talk you through how to use your Lovense devices (will even help you make sure they are working if you ask her nicely!).
Episode 3: Still in planning stages right now. Im well into the second half of the episode now, and bouncing ideas of some trusted individuals to make sure Im staying at least semi-realistic in my ideas. I had hoped to have the whole thing planned out by now, but it wont stop me getting started on the content I have planned. The challenge with planning is that even though I have the main story blocked out from start to finish, the day-to-day interactions with each of the characters is not. I have a profile on each of them, then I build/write their character into the game using that profile to make sure I stay within their personality and traits. The good part about that is that I have free reign over who the characters interact with, and what possible scenes I can create with them. It also allows to me make use of the newest assets they become available (so Im not totally locked into using x room with y props to make z scene, because thats what I planned to do 6 months ago). To be honest, taking a break between planning sessions is quite good for the narrative. It allows you to mull ideas over, and I can't count the number of times Ive sat back at the storyboard a couple of days later and looked at what I did previously, then thought What the hell was I thinking? and deleted or edited it. The Jacuzzi scene was VERY different on the first draft, let me tell you! The 12th member of the jury: Yup, those of you who have played more recently will have noticed the additional dialogue thats been added in to cover up my nave mistake of having only 11 jurors on the bench. There is supposed to be 12, which has been pointed out by a number of the community. However, this does give a pretty happy opportunity to add in another member of the cast. Ive already developed a few variations of her, and I want her to bring something different to what the others already offer. I've not settled on anything just yet. Id happily welcome any ideas from you in the comments on this post. Perhaps think about personality traits, interesting hobbies as well as physical appearance? I'll genuinely be reading what people have to say. I have a few ideas myself, but always happy to be offered up some alternatives! New PC: The new PC is up and running and all assets transferred (about 1.5TB!), but I've not been using it while I re-do some of Episode 1. My current DAZ version on my old pc is .20 version, and DAZ have a nasty habit of messing with the lighting settings between versions. As a result, if I half render a scene on PC1 with .20, then render the rest on PC2 with .22, then I end up with a very slight lighting mis-match. Now I'm done with the Episode 1 revamp scenes I'll be able to move over my 4090 and start using a PC that doesn't take 15 minutes to open a scene! Well, that's it for the moment. I hope that at least provides a bit of re-assurance that I'm not sat on my hands doing nothing. I'm still progressing as quick as I can! Thanks again for all the reviews, comments in the community forums and the general support! Speak soon! Nickle3DArt

Happy Sunday! I hope youve all had a wonderful week. The sun is starting to show itself a little more here in the UK, so fingers crossed well start seeing some more consistency from it! A brief update to let you know what other items Ive added into Episode 1 & 2, then give you an update on the progression towards Episode 3 and some other bits! Scene Replayer: Ive finally added in a scene replayer. Its still a little rough around the edges, but ideally over the next 12 months, Ill be re-designing the entire GUI. I always feel that games with their own custom GUIs look a little more premium and I think Im starting to approach that stage with Jury. However, the new gallery is in, and Im hoping it all deploys OK on Steam! To those of you who have eagle eyes, you may have already seen that there is a video camera on the table in the Wank Bank. This is now an interactive button which will take you into a scroll window of all the scenes (Id imagine) you may like to replay through. I hope you enjoy it!
Save game naming: Ive added the ability to be able to name your saves now. Im aware that on the saves that DONT have a name, the delete button is a bit offset, but as above, Ill be reworking the GUI properly at some stage. General Updates: - Explanation included for the 11 member of the Jury, rather than 12 - Lots of Grammar Fixes across both Ep1 and Ep2 Episode 3 Progress: Ive managed to storyboard out most of the day following Episode 2. Its actually been a lot of fun. Ill hope to get at least the rest of Ep3 blocked in by the end of the month. Ill then be cracking on with getting stuck into writing the scripts! Some of the scenes I'm already looking forward to both writing and rendering, based on the planning. Ive also started shopping for the girls, finding quite a number of new outfits for them so Ill be sharing some of those when I have some pictures and decided who should wear what! Lovense: Im currently doing a little research into integrating Lovence into Jury. I only heard about it the other day, but seems pretty cool. I know its possible, and it looks fairly easy to do, but will weigh up whether its worth it or not before going ahead with the integration. That's probably it from me for the update this week. I'll be continuing to monitor the community boards, but I'm almost always available in the discord too should anyone want to share feedback, or thoughts on the existing content :) Click HERE to join the Discord. Speak to you all soon! Nickle3DArt