It was about 1 year ago that I released Date Ariane Remastered 1.0, and I am now releasing 1.2 for the one year anniversary. I am upgrading every version of the game windows, mac, linux, android low resolution, android high resolution, and steam. Purchasers of earlier versions on the site store can download a free patch here by downloading the sample patch (DARem1.0to1.2patch.zip) on the right hand side of the page.

There is no new content, but I learned some image beautification techniques while making Something’s In The Air Redux, and realized there are places in Date Ariane Remastered that could use them.

In making pictures for my game, I primarily focus on 3 things: Functionality – does it look like the character is doing the actions and reacting correctly in the context of the story. Structure – Does it look like it is taking place in a location consistent with the story from the point of view of the character, since the game is about 98% first person perspective.

And thirdly, but probably most important, is the picture beautiful or at least aesthetically pleasing.

If a render looks “fine” under the first two criteria, it is easy to miss things to improve the “beauty” aspect.

For example, the above slideshow, shows two version of a picture from early in the game. The second (darker) one looks fine, but the lighting is too even leading to a flat look for Ariane. All I did was add a “cross light” to the left of the image, not really that bright of a light really, but it has the effect of making the light more uneven. With the light on the left brighter than the light on the right, Ariane pops out of the image more. I re-rendered all the introduction images (both regular and bonus) with this added light.

This one is a little tougher to tell whats going on because the lighting is not changing. The difference between the two images is in the background. In one Ariane is in perfect focus, and so is the SUV, and the buildings across the street, and down the street. In the other, only Ariane is in perfect focus and the background is fuzzy depending on how far back they are from Ariane.

The spotlights on the SUV are slightly blurry, the house across the street is blurry enough you can’t see the roof tiles, where you can in the infinite focus version.

This is called “depth of field” and I was using it throughout Date Ariane Remastered since the beginning, but in going over the images in the game I decided there were places that needed it that didn’t have it.

My mistake here is how often that I spend getting all the background details just right, and I want to show them off so I keep them in focus, but that has the affect of distracting from the main subject. As subtle as it seems, it really makes a difference, especially at 1920×1080.

I added depth of field, any place that doesn’t have it that has a deep background: The opening greeting at the doorway, the garage, downtown, the park playground, and the amusement park.

I think I upgraded 77 pictures in all using one or both of these techniques.

Date Ariane Remastered on Steam Deck

Date Ariane Remastered works on Steam Deck, in fact I made some changes to get it that way, disabling the S and A buttons so the left joystick doesn’t accidentally take screenshots. The accessibility has been reassigned to keyboard “X”.

I still haven’t got full steam deck approval yet, but until then, if you have a Steam Deck and load Date Ariane Remastered and press play and it it doesn’t load, try this: 1. Load it on to the steam deck, go to the games Properties.  There is a blank space for “Launch Options” Type the following exactly (CASE MATTERS): PROTON_LOG=1 %command% suddenly it works.

The linux build for DAR works without the launch option, but they haven’t approved the game for Linux yet, all in good time (this trick works for many renpy games, BTW). All the command does is save errors in a file, and does not affect the game in any other way, so I have no idea why it works, but it does.