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Defending Lydia Collier Development Log
🕑 Added 2025-10-16 18:56:47 +0000 UTC
Hello everybody!
A huge thanks to everybody that's helped with the bug-testing so far for the computer and phone, here's a list of bugs reported and fixed so if you do look through it going forwards, you don't need to worry about reporting them.
High-Lo Mini Game in the Slots Machine not launching.
Evidence Gallery windows staying open.
Player's name not appearing properly in screens.
Player not automatically standing on 21 in the Blackjack Mini Game.
Next and back buttons hard to see in the Our Moments Gallery.
Apart from those, it all seems to be working very well!
v.0.17.1 is turning out to be quite a major update.
Coming with the v.0.17.1 update:
All phone, computer and mission events in the game replaced with new ones, from the start to v.0.17's missing computer scene.
New optional in-game walkthrough added, again from the start up to v.0.17.
Moving the game engine from Ren'Py 7 to Ren'Py 8 - major engine update, the previous one was from 7.5 to 7.8, this is from 7.8 to 8.2 and changes from Python 2 to Python 3 behind the scenes, which a lot of the new code relies on.
New images made for nearly all character's Social Media posts and early investigations of Fleur.
New scene with Tiffany in Lydia's dungeon - as voted in the last poll.
New reports for missions, additional news stories focused on expanding on the game's plot. Anybody who enjoys the game's lore and story side, you are going to really enjoy the update, you're going to have a ton to read through!
5 New Achievements and accompanying unlockable images.
A new character and plot line, adding the number of work jobs from 2 to 3. Completely optional and with the chance for a fun scene at the end of it, this will be a short, fun third option that can be done regardless of what route your on and if you have a girlfriend or not (ahem if you're that kind of guy...)
A load of new audio and sounds!
The Negative:
Now I do have to forewarn everybody of something, this update is going to eviscerate saves and you will need to start fresh.
I apologise for this, I know it is very annoying, but unfortunately there's just no way not to do this. I am ripping out about 5 years of dodgy code built upon copy and pasting and full of learning mistakes and technical debt, it's 10,000s of lines of code removed, altered or added and I'm changing from Python 2 to Python 3 with the Ren'Py update, it is going to just bug your saves out completely if you try and use them.
I'm hoping to make this up to you by adding the new content in so its worth replaying it fresh, and the good news is that you will now have an in-game walkthrough, so you can enable that, follow the prompts in the game to get exactly back to where you were, and you'll be able to see the new missions and interactive stuff on the way.
It shouldn't affect replays and achievements, none of the achievement or gallery code is actually being changed by me this update, and none of the replays include anything with the computer or phone, but I won't be able to confirm that until I'm finished and actually able to test the whole game in the new Ren'Py engine, not parts of it.
When will it be out?
I'm not setting a date until all the code is done, and I don't know how long that will take as I've never done this amount of recoding before.
It will be in 2025, it won't be in October, the Alpha might be, but the full tested release just won't be done by then, if it is November or December I can't say yet as I don't know exactly how long this next bit will be, but it will be in 2025, even if I have to disrupt the computer science classes at my local university and convince them to code for beer for me to get it done.
I'm now starting to code everything into the main game, and when I'm done with that it will go into Alpha.
This is going to take a while, there are 865 menus and 920 different screens currently in Defending Lydia Collier, and over 50,000 lines of dialogue. I need to go into every single one of these menus, check what they do and add links to the new computer/phone or the in-game, and most of those screens are being replaced, so please continue being patient.
Considering this is now turning out to be a major update, I want to add some new content too.
I've got my new work side thing I've been working on, and a ton of other ideas.
As I'm now recoding from Day 1, and requiring restarts, I can add new scenes anywhen in the game, so I've got a lot of potential ideas that I'm going to let you guys pick.
I'm going to put up as another two polls, one for all supporters, one for premium supporters, and the winner of each will get made added whilst this is in Alpha testing.
It will mean with the new work task, the Tiffany scene, and these two new ones there will be four new bits of content added to play through and the update will be 500-750 renders long, in addition to all the new text based stuff, so just on content alone will be bigger than anything released in 2024 as I'm now back on track.
This will be in Alpha testing for a while, there are changes from Day 1 to the last update that need thoroughly looking into, so I'll make these additional scenes whilst this happens.
Thanks for all the new and continued support, and I'm very hopeful this update will turn the missions and screen stuff from "this is annoying" to "this is cool" for those of you that don't like them, and make them even better for those of you that do!
WP
