heya, thank you for the kind words. I'm so glad you found me and even more honored that you're enjoying the story. It is very much a slow burn so if you're only on chapter 4, you have a looooong way to go. I'm currently on chapter 8 of the revamp and it'll probably be 2 more updates to finish that chapter then I have no idea how many updates it'll be for the last 2 chapters. each chapter gets progressively longer. hope you continue to enjoy the story and let me know what you think <3
Viewing post in Straight!? Revamp v0.17 Public Release!! comments
Thanks man will do.. Keep up the amazing work.. Take care and stay safe and healthy.. Can't wait to see what's to come! Also you said 2 more chapters so there gonna be 10 chapters in total and the story will end at chapter 10? Just wondering but either way I will always cherish this game even when it ends.. It's a hidden gem
so every update, i'd recommend deleting the old version and just using the new one. old saves will also typically crash the game or skip content without telling you (there's a big long-winded reason why that i can explain if you want). I do think that the android version gets really buggy with multiple instances tho
So basically the way that it works is based on variables. when you make a decision, it either makes something true or false and later on, when the game needs to reference that choice, it uses those true/false variables. in order for the game to recognize a variable exists, it needs to be declared when the game starts-- not on boot-- but when you click new game. Meaning, that when i launched update 1, I would have had to include every possible variable for choice into the game then to never have to force someone to restart a new game. I didn't because i didn't exactly have the story planned out aaaaaand, in the early days, people used to break into the code and try to find variables to figure out where the story was going. To prevent that, i just didn't include any future stuff in the code at all and only planned one update at a time. Meaning when i write the next update, any new variables or choices in the game would have not been loaded at the beginning of the previous game version when you started playing so the game would crash when it gets to that choice and tell you the variable doesn't exist.
to get around that, it's easier to delete old versions and just install the newest version. it usually wont let you play the full story loading an old game but your old game save files would mostly still work if you wanted to replay a certain scene (because all the old variables are still included in the new updates). however, to play the newest update, you'd always want to click New Game and then follow the red prompts. this loads all the necessary variables into the new game including the new ones then asks you some questions to mimic the choices you made before and basically quick creates your old save file with the necessary choices and then drops you at the end of the last update with all the new variables loaded.
the last thing here is that the Revamp has the majority of variables preloaded. i just copied the old variable list from the original game and all of those were loaded at the start of the revamp. however, when i include new dialogue or content, I have created new variables or have renamed things to make them easier to find in my code. So yeah, the old variables from the original game mostly still work in the revamp but not always
no worries. i like interacting with people excited or curious about the project :)
so the way the narrative is written is that most BL or VN games are treated as "dating sims" and typically have a main character (MC) that meets a handful of characters and then you choose which one to pursue or "date." this sets up the multiple "routes" in the typical dating sim. i personally have a hard time with multi-tasking and had no idea what was i was doing with story writing or game development or art or coding or any of that and i figured that juggling multiple storylines would be insane for me to try and tackle. so rather than doing multiple guys to "date," i did one character pairing: zack and braden and focused hardcore on the narrative rather than just going surface level with a handful of guys and hopefully the depth of that narrative would outshine having multiple guys. however, there are 2 "routes" to the game, which was my way nodding back to the typical dating sim. but the way it's written here is that the main story is linear, then it splits at a certain choice in the game and sets up 2 routes. from there, the linear story continues but your choice of route changes a small handful of things that happen throughout the main story until it will split drastically in chapter 9 and then after that split, the main story will then merge back together for the ending. so the body of the story is sorta written generically enough that by adding only a few lines here and there or changing a picture, i can alter the entire perspective of the main story and basically create two different stories out of the same linear story.
your choices, however, will have no impact on the ending. which i know goes completely against all dating sims and VN approaches ever. the reason here is that the story was never about us as a reader, it was about these characters. i wanted to build a story and entice the reader in by making relatable characters that you get attached to and eventually i wanted the reader to lose control of that and have no ability to affect the outcome. i think that creates tension and having choices that could help or hurt things takes away that tension because you could always redo it to make it more satisfactory to you. i didn't want the reader to have that out here, i wanted all of us, myself included even as the writer, to lose absolute control and have all of us dependent and watching from the outside as characters we've grown to love create their own destiny the same way a friend or family member or sibling would.
Wow that's lovely man and I can say it's working I love those characters now while it's not like the typical multiple routes as you said it is a wonderful game I just want them to end up with each other and get their happy ending tho I can't say I'm gonna be really really sad when it's finished it would be bittersweet bc while I would be happy for them I would be sad I'm no longer part of their story and I think that's what you were always aiming for as you noted but thanks man.. I'll ask any more questions if I have I am enjoying it but personal life is so busy so it's sometimes hard to play it.. Sometimes im tired or just too out of it but I really love to play it when I'm free bc I get invested in these stories but again thanks for replying man