Monthly Update: Snakes 'n' Ladders!

So since the test build I've been doing some serious 'refactoring' of my code - meaning I've not simply been ironing out the bugs but instead going back and making the whole thing a whole lot more smoothly -  so that such things don't appear in the first place.

I'm not sure how much or little depth to go into about this (for fear of boring you all!) but for those interested, keep on reading and I'll explain. And for the rest of you, skip on down a paragraph or three!

So yeah, refactoring ... In the test build I had a whole bunch of systems and information that was kind of hooked up, but it still allowed certain glitches and bugs to creep in. Stuff like the way the cut scene skip button might sometimes race the text ahead by two paragraphs, or the way the 'day to night' fadeout images worked sometimes, and other times didn't. Well, and this is where the snakes and ladders analogy comes in. You see, I've had to go back a few steps in order to prevent that stuff happening in future by making the whole underlying game code and systems way more robust.

Now, I've got 'state machines' up and working for things like images and day/night logic, and - most excitingly of all (at least to me, lol, I realise this might just sound like total gobbledeygook) - I've also implemented something called 'scriptable objects'. You see, before all my variables were seperate but now they're actually housed within game resources (or "objects") - I now have 'Quest' objects and 'Location' objects and 'Conversation' objects that can all hold certain pieces of information and all talk to each other. 

And the most exciting thing is, it's all working so freaking well! I've been testing the crap out of this new version and it's all holding together and doing exactly what I hoped it would do. The way it's looking, once all this is hooked up and in place, writing future content is going to be sooo much quicker and easier than it is currently ... I'll just instance a new Quest object, set its variables accordingly and attach the corresponding Json file (which contains all the 'story' text) and ta-da! Another new story block added. And by "quests", I'm basically referring to each and every little segment of story that requires some condition to happen - such as when Heather asks you to do something, or when you have to log in to Kevin's laptop or whatever. Each of these is now a seperate 'Quest' object that is triggered if certain location (or other) variables are met.

Okay so enough of the jargon. What does this all mean for the game? It means that I am very much still working on it, hard as ever, and that going forward things are going to speed up drastically ... but that's only once I have all this in place and working. 

Right now (back to the Snakes and Ladders analogy again!) I'm actually somewhat farther behind than I was at the release of the test build, as I still need to hook up a bunch of the remaining story elements, plus refactor the Paperdoll/clothing stuff to makeit just as robust. Plus I still need to actually add in the Games itself - and all the other little bits and pieces like the gloryhole and classes and dreams and Amy storyline to add in more spice and variety - before I share the next iteration. 

So while I'm leaving billing on - because I AM working damn hard on this, I can assure you - there's going to be nothing new to actually share with you this month. I'm also telling you this in plenty of time so you can decide whether or not you want to unsubscribe for now or whatever. Obviously your support is amazing but I'm still not quite at a point where I can share a new build or new content each and every month. Obviously I want that to be the case going forward,  and once i have everything working how I want it, my plan is to put out new game content on a monthly basis to justify your subscriptions. But right I'm still busy laying the groundwork ...

So that's where I'm at. I hope all that makes sense and that you can see this for the positive step forward that it ultimately is! And don't worry, this isn't some precursor to me taking another freaking year out before I share something again. i'm just saying it's probably about a month or so away from the next (and this time hopefully public too) version being ready to share with y'all.

And in the meantime, here's a couple screenshots of the new 'conversation system' I have up and running to whet your appetites!