Re Education is now 2 years old!

On April 21, 2021 the Purple hat created a folder called “Testgame”. This was (and still is) Re Education’s development folder.

Re Education started out as a test to see what was possible to accomplish with little to no budget, using only what was on this computer, plus whatever free tools that were available online, to create a Ren’Py visual novel that was not some quickly made, low effort deal with only 20 minutes of gameplay tops.

At the time, the Purple hat had little experience with creating 3D objects. It had a copy of Blender, but had little idea how to use it. (Blender’s user interface is not exactly intuitive) Drawing backgrounds by hand was and is out of the question for the Purple hat. A solution was found in the form of a free program called Sweet Home 3D, made by eTeks.

Sweet Home 3D solved the biggest hurdle to making a visual novel. Free to use, with a library of free to use 3D assets, the ability to import 3D assets, and the ability to not only export 3D models, but render images with realistic lighting… Sweet Home 3D made Re Education possible. Sweet Home 3D is a great starting point for the novice 3D designer. Its interface is very intuitive, and you can learn how to do most of what you want to do simply by playing around with the program, or opening example files and seeing how they were put together. This is the Purple hat’s preferred way of learning.

Reading the instructions can help, but seeing what you can do with hands on tutorials is a superior way to gain knowledge and take in information. However, Sweet Home 3D has its limits, and the Purple hat started running into these limits around the time the park scenes were made. While you can make outdoor areas in Sweet Home 3D, there is only so much mesh data you can add, before the renderer runs out of memory. Attempts to increase the memory limit were not successful.

So, little by little, the Purple hat began getting more acquainted with Blender.

Blender is kind of the inverse of Sweet Home 3D. SH3D is easy to use, but limited in what it can do. Blender is far less limited, but far more difficult to use. Blender is such a complex program, that you will never stop learning how to use it better. Here we are two years later, and, apart from occasionally needing data from the legacy rooms, the Purple hat has retired SH3D and is now making all the new backgrounds for Re Education in Blender. This has resulted in cleaner, more detailed renders, and additions like realistic carpeting, better grass, and highly detailed outdoor scenes.

And now, Re Education is about to have a big update! It’s Chapter 3 of the Fanservice Chloe path. That may not sound like much, but there is a lot in this new chapter. This is the most active chapter in Re Education to date, with Zach visiting several new locations, before meeting up with Chloe over at Rachel's house.

There’s also something new on the horizon. Have you seen that little in game preview in the bottom right corner Re Education’s main menu? That’s a hint at what’s coming...