timoteoxo
patreon
Public version of Chapter 2 now available.
🕑 Added 2023-12-06 22:28:16 +0000 UTCSmaller update on itch: removed all Google Drive and Mediafire links on itch. I've finally figured out how to upload on itch via butler(their own upload Api) directly from renpy. It allows me to bypass the 1gb limit, and allows me to upload on itch only the files that are actually changed in an update which makes pushing updates easier and faster.
As I previously said, this is publicly available. Story-wise, the main storyline has not been changed from the early access version. There are a couple side quests that are “to be continued” and a few more that you’ll be able to activate but not play, as outlined before, these will be in the part2 patch that complete the chapter.
But first thing’s first:
Apologies for being radio silent for November. I’ve been very busy finishing this update. I was sick at the start of the month but the rest of it was spent coding the update. Truth be told y’all were right about the feature creep. And that was the biggest part that had the most time dedicated to making all the stuff I think the game needed and making sure they work, they save and load properly, etc. With that said, I’ve managed to build all the features I intended to put into the game, that at the end of it I’ve basically almost memorized the Renpy documentation. Also now have better understanding of things that I’ve been doing wrong with screens, variables, and a whole lot of other stuff.
So what were those things? I’ve mentioned some of them before but now they’re final, and are in the game. To recap:
Day/Night Cycle – Introduced a broad tracking of the time of day – that’s simply Day or Dream, in either of these, you are able to explore either the Prison Facility and its different buildings or The Dream world which has a warped version of prison as well as a few other places.
Inventory – You’ll begin collecting objects that will be a mix of important quest items, sellable items, puzzle items, and other items that you don’t really know what to do with for now like people’s underwear ;). One side quest in this patch will heavily involve a couple of items you get, as well as some puzzle solving. Obviously, you can’t access your inventory in the dream world. You’ll have a completely different inventory there. Previously mentioned there was a bug that caused items found to stay there when you load back to a point where you didn't have it. All of these issues, i think, have been fixed. I have been very messy with my python and now I've understood it and why that happened.
Stats – This is a work in progress. This is something you can interact with and see a description of how they work but they do not affect gameplay yet.
Threads – This is the third time I've mentioned "threads" but it's final now. It's an organized view of what stuff you’re involved in. Basically “Quests” but not all of it are quests you need to accomplish so we’re going with “Threads”. I've added a few of them, and you get to see all the inactive ones so you know if there are stuff you're missing. But a lot of them are previews for now - to be continued later.
Highlighting Main Quest objects: Maybe you don’t want to explore the map for side quests. Maybe you just want to focus on the Visual Novel portion, the Main Quest – so to speak. No problem. Turn this on, and the next person, place, or thing you need to click on the map that advances the main storyline will be highlighted – a pulsating orange color. In this patch, you’ll get to play up until the very end of Chapter 2. (As mentioned in the previous blog post, you’ll need to choose a certain option in the end of Chapter 1 for your gameplay to reach the end, otherwise, you’ll stop halfway, for now.)
There are a few more I’m forgetting. Basically built a mini-rpg with some puzzles, etc.
Some caveats.
The first 2 maps feature the mc’s sprite, he doesn’t walk around though, merely teleports to objects you interact with. This is the least developed feature in the patch as it’s merely visual and there are a couple of bugs that I haven’t been able to fix with it.
I haven’t touched on the live2d stuff. But they’re still on the table. I intend to put them to use instead of videos later on. That said, the videos that I’ve put in that one sex scene in the chapter, I’ve recompiled to include the MCs instead of it having a different layer of just MC. This removed the visual glitching that was happening with that. It still isn’t all videos, as mentioned before, I intend to replace the entire scene with live2d.
Sound – No sound yet. I have purchased a sound pack that I intend to put into the game but that will come with the part2 patch.
Important Notes:
START A NEW GAME:
Absolutely start a new game. Ironically, this is so your new saves will work with future versions of the game and so you don’t have to keep starting a new game. I’ve done a sizable change to the game’s script and how I’ve handled a lot of elements in the past in order to maximize the chances that your saves will be compatible with future releases.
I’ve fixed a lot of errors that I’ve made that cause stuff like items in inventory not saving and loading properly – basically learned how variables should be properly instantiated and this included all my custom classes such as the inventory itself.
Please start a new game. Any save made before this particular patch will produce an error.
ISSUES FOR MOBILE DEVICES:
While playable on Android, a huge chunk of the new content in this patch involves exploring a terrain environment (point and click gameplay) with a UI that was not built for mobile devices. There are large issues that came with this that I’ve only found while testing the game today. (Haven’t tested on mobile all throughout the dev time for this chapter.)
These include:
- Speech Bubble dialogue too small. This isn’t a simple fix. As previously explained the bubbles had to be manually placed per line. It’s a fairly recent renpy feature and unfortunately lacks stuff like automatically resizing based on what’s inside, or being able to globally set its padding. So I think I will have to change it manually this time. I will have an android focus patch for this as this isn’t the only issue here.
- UI elements too small and difficult to click on the maps.
- Skipping feature cannot be turned off while on the map. Must press Back to stop it.
As I’ve not been able to produce anything for November as bonus content(apologies). I’ll pause payments starting Jan1 to catch up on that issue. And in the meantime actually work on those bonuses.
Again, thank you all for your support. Enjoy.
Comments
mta
You should be able to reach a scene with a lion, that's the end of the main storyline, even without touching any of the side quest. The side quests are not yet finished. Some of then that are father along will be done in the next patch which focuses advancing all of the side quests and the romances plus ending the chapter on the other route.
mta
Thanks for telling me, I'm looking into it. Should be in a hotfix patch.
Moridin1972
Ah, right. That bit I think I have now solved (managed to get to the stage where it tells you to report for a new assignment but couldn't work out what to do). Turns out clicking on the main quest marker finally highlighted it tucked away at the bottom of the screen :-) )
Snowish
I didn't have that problem, it still ends after encountering the lion ( hope that's spoilerfree enough). Though I did all optional stuff I could. However, the scene that happens while the cell was getting searched is missing. I skips right from the officer arriving to the new cell.
Snowish
I encountered the same problem. After you start Carl's quest, you can progress by finding the cleaning machine and can only bring is back, but the progression after that is clearly not working as intended. You bring the machine back, have a conversation with Carl without seeing his sprite and somehow unlock a new quest without meeting the two characters mentioned in it. But the real problem is that is starts a loop that makes daytime progression impossible.
Moridin1972
Also, is it possible to confirm where the story 'ends' for now in this current version. I've run through the path that's marked as getting to the end of chapter 2, and it seems to end much earlier than the previous Patreon 0.2.2 version (I don't want to say too much here for fear of spoilers)
Moridin1972
Hi TimoteoXO - loving the update - have noticed a few issues with it. One in particular relates to finding the polisher, which allows access to the Admin building (where Carl works and which opens up a new thread involving the tree - apologies for being vague but I'm going from memory now). Appears to be stuck in a loop - I can't progress anything within the building itself in terms of handing the polisher back in, but when I leave the building it just keeps telling me I need to go back to the building to hand the polisher in so I'm not accused of stealing
