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It's the "This weekend, honest" update...
🕑 Added 2021-09-07 09:26:59 +0000 UTCApologies for it not coming out last week as stated/expected. I had one of my "good ideas" that I thought would be easy to implement and ended up being a nightmare (although it's done now and has been worth it).
As you're probably aware the pool game with Annie took a while to make, design and build and as it stood was locked behind some fairly specific paths. This seemed a bit of a waste for a one-off of this size. Plus it again forced the player to choose between several evening activities which seemed not only a bit unnecessary but actually against good game play at this stage. So I tweaked it.
Instead of forcing you to choose between pool and something else, Annie now pops up in an interrupt scene if the player has a pool invite (there are some additional ways this can now happen in Four as well as being the carry overs from Three) and so the game can be played as either a casual game between friends, as part of the "evil" fem MC path for those wagers she might have and as a strip pool game for those male MC's with the right conditions.
After the game concludes, you then get taken back to the evening choices.
I feel this is a better solution in that it extends, or allows you to extend if you decide to play pool, your run through without having to have yet another path save to experience this one module.
The release version is now with the testers and we'll see what, if anything, they find for comment or correction, but bar any mistakes they find I'm happy it's complete and done. Given they have already tested the majority of the game I'm not expecting any major issues.
Whilst the boys run through that, I'm going to be giving the entire game a bit of a squeeze file size. It's still on the big side and there's probably some fat lurking in the earlier chapters that can be compressed down to reduce your loading time. So, let's say this weekend to be on the safe side as the release date. I promise not to have any more "good ideas"...
NEWS!
But the size of the game so far has forced me to make a decision. The end of Chapter Six will be a complete game.
Chapters Seven to Twelve will be a continuation as a "new game". Of all the options open to me this seems the easiest for me to implement as there is a way to carry over variables from one game to the next. I could of course do this method chapter to chapter but some of the earlier ones are fairly small and so would be inconvenient more than anything else - but also this break line works well with the game as a whole as Chapter Six is where we get our first possible real story endings (and yes, "winning" ones too.").
No doubt this last bit will raise a few eyebrows but the story plan always had this mapped in so this is really just a way to formalise what already was on the stocks and make things more practical for you.
But why would you take an ending at Six when there is more to come? Well, you don't have to ofc (and I hope you don't!) but you can. It's a possibility in the storyline that the game could end at that point and so the option is, and indeed has to be, there. Otherwise I feel I'm discounting your choices and they have to matter. Else what's the point, right?
Notty
Comments
Arigon
Notty Hope you are good! Which Week is this week? Just kidding :D
Sulring Durgul
Wait, what? Chapter TWELVE? I thought you had planned for ten chapters... Are you expanding the story, then?
Isaac Dansicker
I will say that I strongly dislike multipart, multi-executable games. Ren'Py games that release as separate chapters is very annoying. However, the way you're positioning it here is more like a Mass Effect sort of thing, where H5 1 is a complete story, and implies I could (but would miss content) with a sequel (H5-2?), which could be played separately, but I could also import my save? That would be a lot more palatable. Also, what's this about an evil female route? Where did I miss this?
hisstoryman
HEAVY FIVE, PART DEUX: BIGGER and, um......Heavier.
Corypheus
I second this.
Can't wait to play the next chapter! And, truth be told, as long as the update arrives somewhere this month I'm still going to be counting that as you keeping your promise! ;p Regarding the splitting off some future chapters into a separate game. As long as all of our choices carry over, I don't mind it. That said, keep in mind that people (like me) will have different playthroughs so it won't be enough to simply carry over the choices from the last save. Saw in a different game where you could load a save from the previous version of the game at the start of a new game, perhaps that's an idea. But I'm confident you'll solve this splendidly regardless of the how. P.S. Already looking forward to *studying* hard with Jane in the tutorial. ;) Was there also another special bonus game with Jane and Becca for "Super Scientists" with this chapter?
