Never Gives Up Her Dead is officially Feature Complete!
This means that everything I intended to be in the game is now in the game. There are no intentional placeholders or ‘to be filled in later’. There is an intro, full gameplay, and an ending.
But…there is still a lot of testing to be done, both by myself and by others. My current plan is to test the beginning and ending just like the other areas, (first myself, and then with 4-6 people), and then I will unveil my grand requests for final testing and possibly bribe people. I won’t even call this a ‘beta’ until the testing for this area is done and I move on to the final testing.
The code is up to 346K, which isn’t too far off from Blue Lacuna (at slightly less than 400K). I thought about pushing a bit further to try to reach it but, while I’ve been using wordcount as a measure of progress, I think it would hurt the game to intentionally bloat it.
Edit: Throwing Blue Lacuna’s source code in (without extensions, none of which have game content), it’s 348K words. My current beta version is 358K words.
Thanks for everyone who’s been reading along the way! Never again will I have to come up with new ideas for this game; all that’s left is polishing the old ones.
Thanks! Everything feels so quiet now. My mind feels empty. The voice in my head that’s been pushing me to finish this for the last year is gone. Much of my free time was centered around it. There’s still work to be done but it’s much more mechanical; all the brainstorming is gone.
Your last paragraph echoes my experience to an almost eerie extent! I remember that moment(/timeframe) when I had written the last major passage, and realized that all the thinkwork was done. No more “will the puzzles line up”, “will all the scenarios be plausible for the game world and for the storyline at the time they’re encountered”, “will I find words for all the cutscenes that need to happen”, “will the ending feel like a sufficient continuation of and climax to the story, since I’m tacking it on to a four-year-old work without even knowing what it’s going to be”, etc. etc… Nothing left but tweaking wordings and mechanics, dealing with fixes and improvements brought to light by testing!
Like you, I was positively struck by that moment when my mind became aware that there was no more PQ to gravitate to. Nothing left to figure out, design, coordinate, plan, find the right words for (and in my case, no more puns or limericks to create ). It’s incredible how all-consuming it was to my mind in any snatch of free time for so long. I don’t know that I would say my mind felt empty, but it felt weird no longer defaulting to PQ; almost like it kept trying to go back, out of habit, and realizing there was not really anything left there for it to chew on.
I really would want to test your completed version, Brian… I just don’t know that I should make any promises right now. I’m already feeling a little guilty for how much IF time I’ve potentially been snitching from family time, due to the Comp… and of course the madness of the PQ years leading up to it. I know if I started it at all I coudn’t help from going full bore on it, and at the moment I probably shouldn’t be finding additional reasons to add to “Daddy’s-busy-on-the-computer” time…
It’s funny. When I finished up my project recently it felt like driving home from a big party. Remarks and issues and funny little stories still echoing in my brain.
It took a long while for it to recede for me, so it’s interesting that it’s gone quiet so quickly and decisively for you on what is a much larger project. Each artist’s journey is different, I guess!
Great work, and I’m keen to do some more beta testing.
I’ve finished my personal playthrough of the game. I’d say it took me around 10-14 hours (I spent around 22 working on it but took a lot of breaks and spent several hours fixing ropes).
Overall I think it worked out a lot better than I had expected as a whole and a little worse than I expected individually. The dimension where you command robots got a bit tiresome remembering to pick up the grenade and telling the robots to replay; I thought of some shortcuts I could add, but I don’t really want to introduce new stuff right now if players haven’t mentioned it.
That means I just have to finish getting tester feedback on the endings (still the weakest part, coding-wise) and wait for IFComp to end, and then I can start the final testing push. I could release today and be proud of what I have, but I’d like to make it shine. Thanks for everyone who’s helped to this point!
Man, rope really sucks. Everybody said, ‘don’t put rope in the game, it’s a bad idea!’
I guess that, for me, they were right. Every time I patch something, another problem springs up. I got two messages when I should get one; I cut it out, but now I can’t climb the rope. I fix that, but now the game goes blank when walking. I fix that, but now there’s two messages again…it’s a big pain!
I could take it out, but I think it could work (sunk cost fallacy?). Either way, I don’t think I’ll include it in the future, unless it was a ‘rope showcase game’ (like Tethered or Final Exam).
Someone had a good idea about the ending, and I thought I might check how people feel; the game has a lot of story build up leading to the endings, with few puzzles, but the ending has some non-trivial puzzles.
The theme of the game is free will vs destiny, and a tester suggested adding an in-game partial walkthrough to the puzzles which the player can either consult (following destiny) or ignore (following free will). That could have the benefit of speeding up the end for players who want to finish, but allow freedom. Do you think it’s a good idea or nah?
I think it’s definitely an interesting idea that I might have to see in practice to make a final judgment on. But it doesn’t seem to me to be something that would compromise your game if you added it? Because the player can experience the end how they wish?
One of my students was offering art commissions as a use of our schools fake currency they use to simulate an economy. He made this picture of the main character of my game, Emrys Tisserand the Storyweaver. I think it looks pretty neat!
While writing a tester about something, I found my oldest backup of the code that I ever had. There was only an outline of the game, along with a few rooms in one area, with two npcs each of which had 1 topic:
September 2022 code
"Tears in Space" by Brian Rushton
Volume 1 - Pre-game setup
Book 1 - Metadata and extensions
Part 1 - Metadata
Chapter 1 - Blank
Section 1 - Blank
Part 2 - Extensions
Include Clues and Conversation by Brian Rushton.
Book 2 - Rules and types of things
Part 1 - Doors
Chapter 1 -Tears in space
Section 1 -Definition
A space-tear is a kind of door. A space-tear is usually unopenable. A space-tear is usually open. Understand "tear" or "space" or "tear in space" or "rip" as a space-tear.
The printed name of a space-tear is usually "tear in space".
Instead of touching a space-tear:
say "Your hand doesn't feel anything at all. The transition is seamless."
Volume 2 - Rooms
Book 1 - Past ship
Part 1 - Main rooms
Chapter 1 - Hangar
Hangar-room is a room. The printed name of Hangar-room is "Hangar".
Section 1 - Tear in space
The hangar-tear is a space-tear. The hangar-tear is north of Hangar-room and south of Napoleon-room. "A tear in space has opened up here, to the north."
Book 2 - Future Ship
Part 1 - Wax museum dimension
The wax-region is a region.
Chapter 1 - Napoleon room
Napoleon-room is a room in the wax-region. The printed name of Napoleon-room is "Napoleon Room".
Section 1 - Wax figures
Part 2 - Ecocosm dimension
The ecocosm-region is a region.
Chapter 1 - Savannah
Savannah-room is a room in the ecocosm-region. The printed name of Savannah-room is "Savannah".
Part 3 - Tool dimension
The tool-region is a region.
Chapter 1 - Main room
Device-room is a room in the tool-region. The printed name of Device-room is "The Device".
Part 4 - Garden dimension
The garden-region is a region.
Chapter 1 - Vegetable room
The Vegetable-room is a room in the garden-region. The printed name of Vegetable-room is "Vegetable Garden".
Part 5 - World Monuments dimension
The monument-region is a region.
Chapter 1 - Eiffel tower room
The Eiffel-room is a room in monument-region. The printed name of Eiffel-room is "Eiffel Tower".
Part 6 - Haunted Mansion dimension
The haunted-region is a region.
[Characters:
Dracula
mummy
frankenstein's monster
creature from the black lagoon
poltergheist
yeti]
Chapter 1 - Parlor
The Parlor-room is a room in haunted-region. The printed name of Parlor-room is "Frankenstein's Parlor".
Section 1 - Frankenstein
Frankenstein is a man in Parlor-room. The description of Frankenstein is "". Understand "Frank" or "huge" or "creature" as Frankenstein.
Franken-name is a quip carried by the player. The printed name of Franken-name is "Creator". Understand "creator" as Franken-name. The preview of Franken-name is "Isn't Frankenstein the name of your creator?" The target of Franken-name is Frankenstein.
The TargetResponse of Franken-name is "The great creature sighs in response. 'That's a common misconception. In fact, [italic type]I[roman type] am Frankenstein, and my creator is technically known as Frankenstein's Scientist.'"
Chapter 2 - Grand Hall
The Grand-room is a room in haunted-region. The printed name of Grand-room is "Pharaoh's Hall".
The Grand-room is north of the Parlor-room.
The Grand-mounds are plural-named scenery in the Grand-room. The printed name of the Grand-mounds is "mounds of sand". Understand "mounds" or "sand" or "mound" or "mounds of sand" or "mound of sand" as the Grand-mounds.
Instead of taking the Grand-mounds:
say "The sand slips through your fingers".
Withtaking is an action applying to two things. Understand "take [something] with [something]" as withtaking.
Carry out withtaking:
try taking the noun;
[we're going to have a missing cat in this room. Your job is to find the pharaoh's cat]
Section 1 - Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a man in Grand-room. The description of Pharaoh is "The mummified Pharaoh is a towering figure that commands respect. He is covered in tightly-wrapped linen bandages, yellowed with age, and is covered in bracelets and jewels."
The tightly-wrapped linen bandages are worn by pharaoh. Understand "yellow" or "yellowed" or "age" as the tightly-wrapped linen bandages.
Understand "mummy" or "mummified" or "towering" or "figure" as Pharaoh.
Section 2 - Variables and quips
The cat-level is a number that varies. The cat-level is 0.
Pharaoh-hello is a quip carried by the player. The printed name of Pharaoh-hello is "Problem". Understand "problem" as Pharaoh-hello. The preview of Pharaoh-hello is "What's wrong?" The target of Pharaoh-hello is Pharaoh.
The TargetResponse of Franken-name is "The great creature sighs in response. 'That's a common misconception. In fact, [italic type]I[roman type] am Frankenstein, and my creator is technically known as Frankenstein's Scientist.'"
Chapter 3 - Library
The Library-room is a room in haunted-region. The printed name of Library-room is "Dracula's Library".
The Library-room is north of the Grand-room.
Chapter 4 - Great Bath
The Bath-room is a room in haunted-region. The printed name of Bath-room is "Indoor Lagoon".
The Bath-room is west of the Grand-room.
Chapter 4 - Dining Hall
The Dining-room is a room in haunted-region. The printed name of Dining-room is "Frozen Feast Room".
The Dining-room is east of the Grand-room.
Part 7 - Murder mystery dimension
The murder-region is a region.
Chapter 1 - Entry hall
The Entry-room is a room in murder-region. The printed name of Entry-room is "Entryway".
Part 8 - Spell dimension
The spell-region is a region.
Chapter 1 - Foyer
The Foyer-room is a room in spell-region. The printed name of Foyer-room is "Foyer".
Part 9 - Combat dimension
The combat-region is a region.
Part 10 - Wildcard dimension
The wildcard-region is a region.
Volume 3 - Standard responses, endgame text, etc
Book 1 - Standard Responses
Book 2 - Endgame text
Book 3 - Help System
Book 4 - Testing
Book 5 - Teleporting
haunted-teleporting is an action applying to nothing. Understand "xyhaunt" as haunted-teleporting.
Carry out haunted-teleporting:
now the player is in the Parlor-room.
I think that overestimating depend from diverse factor (e.g. young cats around…) and circumstances, but I know my circumstances (italian pacing, on-and-off periods, and yes, a young cat…) so, I feel confident about my estimate of dev time, two and half years, and I hope that remains so, because the premise of the story (revealed in an epilogue) is, to put it mildly, really hurting in this historical moment. (I have scrapped the original introcomp '24 entry because is something really painfully hurting). I hope that two and half years is enough to mend that hurting.
(OTOH, what happened gives more motivation and reason for work on that WIP, whose indeed seriously address human condition & issues)
I’m close to releasing a Version 2 of this game (I earlier asked if anyone was playing online and no one responded so I’ll probably just replace the online file when this version comes out!), but I had one of those funny dev moments.
Someone reported a crash in the game that occurred 100% of the time. I looked at the code, and this was what I wrote:
Instead of jumping when the player is on climbing-wall:
try jumping instead;
I have to admit I laughed out loud. I do know what my past self was thinking; it’s part of a line of code that says Instead of _____ when the player is on climbing-wall: try ____ instead and my mind must have been caught up on jumping. But it’s pretty funny!
I’m still regularly updating the Prince Quisborne file on GitHub (which IFDB points to), so don’t feel like you’re alone! I’ve got it a little easier since play online isn’t currently available…
). It’s incredible how all-consuming it was to my mind in any snatch of free time for so long. I don’t know that I would say my mind felt empty, but it felt weird no longer defaulting to PQ; almost like it kept trying to go back, out of habit, and realizing there was not really anything left there for it to chew on.