Bionic Heart 2 - the real deal!

[P_Tigras]

Wow! Don't get so down about it Jack. Have a good long night's sleep before you make any decisions. As I'm certain you recognize, all games have bugs that need fixing, and it's all but impossible to put a time limit on bug testing. It can't have suddenly gotten much worse over the past 24 hours. Maybe you just need another pair of eyeballs to help you sift through the code for plot bugs. Occasionally it helps to have a fresh set of eyes. As you say, it's a "PLAIN SIMPLE visual novel", how insane can the game logic be?

[jack1974]

Well, is a plain simple visual novel, but is rather complex regarding the plot. I think the complete mess started when we decided to have two paths (Mars/Earth) that could end independently. The script wasn't written with that in mind, so when I added in the coding that possibility, everything went ashtray. There are 39 scenes and on top of each there are tons of checks for variables.
And the problem is that I tried what you suggested. Stopped working on it, relaxed, and tried again. Now basically I'm at the point where I can't stand looking at the screen with that game anymore. I know seems hard to believe from the player point of view, but I can tell you that while Loren took much longer, it was because had much more content and longer story, but was planned and executed much better.

Ask sleepykitten, she did the testing in the past days too, and almost went insane doing it

[P_Tigras]

Given your previous words on the subject, I was under the impression that in your visual novels there were only a limited number of variables that really mattered beyond the specific scene. If the major issue is staying on top of the countless variables, then that sounds like a departure from your usual modus operandi. So perhaps it would be helpful to make a complete list of overarching story and character variables that are important for more than one scene, and check that they are being set in the proper places. You may need to take a step back and update your script too, then check that updated script against the variable interactions that you've written, maybe make a flow chart. Then you'll be better positioned to either tackle the bug fixing or do a rewrite, whichever is more appropriate. It sounds like the biggest issue of all right now might be burnout however. You might want to consider delegating some of this.

[jack1974]

Yes you're absolutely right, I feel burned out! for sure better planning, a flow chart, etc all those things would have helped, but it was a combination of having a particularly stressful week for other reason + the illusion to have the beta ready and instead today found out that wasn't possible
Basically, I was like when Hulk transforms!

edit: wooth good news, Aleema said will help. So maybe the game will be ready tomorrow! (well in any case surely sooner than I could do on my own).

[Franka]

Take the time needed, we understand. We want the best game it can be too.

[fleetp]

Take the time needed, we understand. We want the best game it can be too.

I agree with Franka.

Very respectfully,
fleet

[jack1974]

Thanks. I think if we can "salvage" the scenes/story and fix the broken logic (even discarding the parallel plots idea) the plot itself is quite good. That was also a reason for my anger, story is great, everything is coded, and then had yet another game logic bug... anyway I'm confident Aleema will be able to help, since she's very good with this stuff (she even did some flow chart for Loren's expansion last year, and that was VERY complex!).

[abnaxus]

I wonder if this will be as dark and depressing as Kikokugai: the Cyber Slayer. At least from some videos it seems there is also some humour and light-hearted atmosphere at times.

[jack1974]

There are definitely some funny moments, but also some very dark ones. Most of the endings are grim, but there are a few "happy ending" ones too

[adelrex]

I'm reading the description for the game and there are some parts that bug me. I'm not an expert so correct me if I'm wrong.

"Tanya remains on Earth to fight Nanotech, the company lead by Richard Meier and his minions."
"and his minions" is unnecessary here. They don't lead the company, Richard does.

"Luke, who is on Mars with his friends but he can't stop thinking about Tanya and what she told him
Tom, who is on Mars too, but he has strong unconfessed feelings for Helen, Luke's girlfriend"

First of all both sentences lack periods which makes it read like "...Luke's girlfriend Tanya,..."
In the second sentence the "but" seems also unnecessary and should be changed to "and". The whole thing would be better like this:
"Tom, who is also on Mars, and has strong unconfessed feelings for Luke's girlfriend Helen."

edit: "strong suspects" should be "strong suspicion"