So I ended up taking an unexpected day off, since I had a ton to do today. Tomorrow I got stuff to do as well but hopefully I am going to have some free time in the evening to get stuff done.

So today was feeling more refreshed, probably because I slept in until like 2pm. I was thinking if I should do an update this week for the game or wait until next week. I think I might just do the update, though since I got a lot of stuff out of order, it means you wont be able to reach all the passages that are written. Though there would still be a lot of new stuff you can reach. Then the week following I can get everything updated to the end of the game.

Though there is a lot of endings. My goal is to get to everything done by the end of the month, though the months end midweek, so I am not sure if I will release the final stuff the last week of this month or the first week of next month(so the 25th or the 4th). That wont be the final final though, since I need to spell check everything and polish it up.

I was feeling pretty tired all day today. Maybe I should get to sleep earlier. Though oddly, even though I felt tired all day, I feel more awake later at night.

So got a ton done over this last weekend, though today I don’t feel like I got very much done at all as things were super busy and a lot of stuff going on. Well I hoping to get back on track tomorrow, since I got a lot to do. Though overall I am still ahead of what my plans were, and should finish everything well before the contest deadline.

I am thinking I am probably not going to have an update for the contest game this week. The reason is because all of the branching stuff. I don’t want to leave it where, there is multiple ending points for the update. If I can get everything to the same point on all the branches, then I will release the update but since there is a lot, not sure if that will happen.

Also as I am getting nearer to the end of the game, I am doing some of the passages out of order to help organize where each branch is leading ending wise. So that they all make sense. I feel I should be able to finish the game by the end of the month. Or at least the first pass through everything by the end of the month.

After I release the update with all the content, I will go through to spell check everything. Then I will probably post on the tfgamesite to get feedback and tweak stuff as needed. I will probably have time left over at that point to go back in and add extra substories as well. The ones I add will probably be ones focused heavily on reinforcing themes and helping people better determine which path they are going into it.

So I was thinking about how to organize the game and I think I finally determined what I am going to do. It will have the branching paths in the framing story and the game will be divided up into 4 parts. How I have it now, is that the first quarter effects if Meshia ends up using the aphrodisiacs to sleep with the king or if you escape her plot. Then you move to the next quarter effecting the next part.

That keeps things a bit more simple, but it means the game diverges a lot later in the game. Since it goes from 2 paths in the first quarter, to 4 paths at the mid point, then 8 and then ends with 16 different endings. I already made sure to change the format to one with a save feature, so that will be in the next update.

That should make it not so bad to get all the endings, since you can save the game right before the game splits, then go back if you want to go down a different path.

I posted the update earlier but I was on a roll and completed night 9 and 10 just since I posted the other update earlier today. Since it is still Saturday I figure I will post the new update with the extra stuff!

Play

So I got my update for the contest game today. I advanced the story a good deal this week, though I do have one concern. The path you end up on the framing story is based on your choices in the substories but I am not sure if players will figure out what choices do what. There is a logic to it, but it is kind of subtle. I may rearrange some stories later as well to help make the themes more clear and fit together better but for now I am just getting all the stories out to advance as far as I can.

Anyway here is the update for this week.

Play

Got a little side tracked today with distraction but I actually think I made a lot of progress on the game over the week. So if I can get a few things done tomorrow, I will probably have an update for the game, including some of the branching paths for the framing story I was talking about.

So I am working on the game, and suddenly had a thought. My original plan was for the storyteller of the contest game to keep trying to be manly and resist sex until the end. After all the idea is that you are telling stories to avoid sex you don’t want, because you are a man!

Though I was thinking, what if you do give in early and have sex and stuff? Maybe you gave in to a moment of temptation or the like and regret it. So I was thinking, what if there was branching paths in the framing story? Maybe one path is you resist sex at all costs until the end! Maybe another path you give in and have sex and you regret it and try to pull yourself back from temptation? And perhaps another you fall to the temptation way to easily and you end up a total slut.

I was planning on having these sort of endings anyway, but branching them off earlier would give the player more feedback on the direction things are going and give them a chance to change paths before it is too late!