DevBuild Update (12/5) (Patreon)

Hello all you wonderful supporters!

It's been four days, and as promised I have a small update to the DevBuild for you!

Download it >>HERE<<

I managed to completely finish the breakfast scene for day 17 (with full sprite expression work), and it successfully flows into the next set of scenes. This particular scene has been the bane of my existence because of how many variations can occur due to differences in game state. I'll go into the details below, but the short of it is there are twenty-eight (28) different possible game states going into this scene and each one can cause variations to the dialogue. Luckily, none of the following scenes have nearly as many conditional checks necessary as this one, so things should get easier from here. My goal for the next DevBuild update is to finish all the scenes leading up to the track scene (and start into the track scene if I can).

Thank you all for your amazing continued support, and I'll see you in the next DevBuild update!

K. Bro

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Okay, nitty gritty time! Let me break down what's in this breakfast scene that's made it such a nightmare :

To start, there are twenty-eight (28) different possible game states for day 17, depending on which route you initially chose and who volunteers for the first two experiments. There are four routes (EJMS), and each route has seven (7) different sequences for the first two experiments.

The start of the breakfast scene is simple enough, because it's only the player and Jessica, so there are basic checks for Jessica's size, if certain Jessica flags are triggered, and if Jessica grew in the last experiment (and therefore has a different outfit for the player to react to). There's also a check for if Jessica had two back to back experiments for another little bit of dialogue. All easy stuff.

The difficult starts after that, when the player and Jessica join Sophia for breakfast. The order of game state checks to influence the dialogue is as follows :

check for player reaction to Sophia's temporary size 2 outfit (due to growing in the second test)

check if Jessica needs to be introduced to Sophia, as it is possible for the two to never have met

check if Sophia grew since the last time Jessica saw her, and have Jessica react accordingly; Jessica asks Sophia how she is after growing, with dialogue variations dependent on route and all the girls' sizes

check if Jessica grew in the second test; Sophia asks Jessica how she is after growing, with dialogue variations dependent on route and all the girls' sizes

check if Elena grew in second test; more route and size dependent dialogue

check if Mia grew in second test; more route and size dependent dialogue

check for back to back tests for either Jessica or Sophia, and run appropriate dialogue

execute third experiment choice logic; size possible options

size 0 Jessica and Sophia each get unique sets of dialogue, as they are the only available options

choice dialogue for Elena and Mia

choice dialogue for Jessica and Sophia, each with checks for participating in the first or second experiments, which have unique dialogue

On top of all this, I also had to proofread each possible set of dialogue variation to ensure everything flows together naturally. This required creating 28 different save games which I could switch between as I worked. Also, any time I changed something for one particular game state, I had to make sure it did not have adverse effects on the dialogue for any other game state.

So, there you have it. Hopefully this might illuminate a bit of why I've had issues getting myself to work on the game. This particular scene has been a huge roadblock, but now it's finally done.