Isekai dev diary

[Piergiorgio_d_errico]

April entry. For once I keep the schedule…

Thanks to Eric (again), I have solved an annoying compiler issue which puts spurious spaces when using a “readable format” in the embedded adprose, and the spurious spaces are now gone for good, aside the possibility of some oversight here and there. another hook for non-constructive criticism removed.

I have got exactly ZERO answers to my question of the last month, so let’s tackle the issue after the feedback from the first public beta next month. I’m working toward it, and I’m researching for ways and means for allowing a sneak preview of the middle-game and late game (mainly the outside and Luroz areas) without spoilers.

Perhaps early may I’ll call for a final closed beta, mainly for spotting bad english, but I’m not optimist for volunteers, because on one side, people are playing the Spring Thing stories, and OTOH working (and ßtesting…) for that ifcomp.

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

[Piergiorgio_d_errico]

May update, in “Cesarini zone”…

First and foremost, the first public beta (which is becoming more an intro than a beta…) is going well, mainly thanks to a ßtester extraordinaire, and we’re experimenting a novelty, perhaps a major breakthrough, in the art of testing IF.

The release is still estimated for the end of June, just ahead of the opening of the IFComp season; this gives fellow judges an occasion for warming-up their critical sense and constructive criticism ahead of the competition itself (as everyone know, I will NEVER partecipate again to said competition) so, I think that I get the best of both world, an more or less IFComp-grade constructive criticism without questionable scoreboard placement.

Enough harsh words… on the more sweet notes, basically, the “intro-beta” covers the entire early story, until the major event leading to the middle story; I seriously dislike the concept of cliffhanger, but I hope that the rather unusual denouement will compensate the inevitable cliffhanging.

As always, Eric has gone again beyond unreasonable expectations in delivering useful new features, functions and methods, to the point that I’m mulling how to release at least partly the sources, because I feel that can be an excellent showcase of the 2.x features of adv3Lite.

on the actual development, I’m placing the finishing touches to the parts to be released in the “intro-beta” release, then I’ll implement the intro ending and the unusual denouement I noted above; Hope to run at least a closed beta after the “experimental ßtesting” in process, then release, as noted above, end-june/early july.

On this, I respectfully preannunce to the prior ßtesters that a PM asking about their availability to partecipate to said closed beta will be sent soon, of course everyone is free to accept or pass this ßtesting run.

On the controversial points, the major one (a really constructive criticism) is well-answered (with unexpected enthusiasm and new, interesting, constructive criticism & ideas from the author of said really constructive criticism); on the more general “too borderline between IF and AIF” I’m working for striking the best balance possible. For now, I’m fooling around the idea of “telegraphing” where are the (IMO, alleged) borderline between IF and AIF parts. Taking a well-known example, everyone should know by default what to expect from, say, X BOSOM, but only players of First Contact can surmise where will lead uncovering said bosom in presence of one or both the spouses NPC, or even ASKing them about MILK… so, should be telegraphed to the conservative player where the action leads, and is the “how” my current planning work about this issue.

The alternative are the classical “content warning with quitting now option”, which defeats the purpose of the narrative, and the “content warning with option of setting a ‘tandy bit’” with the accompanying complication in an already complex coding, which will inevitably irritate the non-conservative player for the inevitable delay in completing the games caused by the appeasement to the conservative side of the divide. Of course, I encourage my four readers (cit.) to say freely their opinion on these alternatives.

I think this is all. Of course, in due time, the next entry in this diary will be about the release of this “intro-public beta”…

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

[jkj_yuio]

“Tandy bit” ?

[Draconis (Daniel Stelzer)]

Some of Infocom’s games were distributed through the Tandy Corporation, and their Z-machine interpreter set a particular bit in the header. If The Witness found that bit set, it would use less offensive language (e.g. “those bastards” became “those idiots”).

[jkj_yuio]

Wow. That’s really interesting. You’d think they might just have had a different story file. But I guess this way was to censor games regardless of where you get them.

[Piergiorgio_d_errico]

My apologies for the classic historian’s mistake (the use of period terms; the word was used in this community during the “preservation era” (early '90s) when, among other thing, the Z-machine was decoded, and today used only by really old timers)

claryfing my usage of this word without entering in the programmer’s mistake (long and winded explanation of the coding), the concept is indeed simple as switching a flag. what I pointed was not setting the flag “I don’t want mature content”, but the handling of said flag. The narrative rely heavily on adaptive prose centered on the current game’s state; let’s take a non-controversial bodypart (I have scoured the source for ~20 minutes for an non-spoiler example, or, to be honest, the least-spoilery example; here the lone spoiler here is a little AMUSING):

"<<if etuye.location == umezz && mirror.examined>>
 Looking at your ears in 
the mirror, you're fascinated by their long and slender shape; you admit that 
are beautiful, an exotic <i>elfin</i> beauty, you admit
<<if ears.touched>>; 
 that you now feel sorry for the earlier mistreatment you have given to 
those pointy ears..
<<end>>.
<<else>>
You can't see your ears without a mirror.
<<end>>
<<if etuye.gamutkno>>
You don't know if is from of the shape of the outer ear or from elsewhere in 
the inner ear, but these ears gives a larger gamut of sounds, both in 
frequency and amplitude. Not only beautiful ears, but also more discerning.
<<if ears.touched>>
You feel more sorry for that earlier mistreatment..."

Now, one can easily figure the complexity of the “usually censored bodypart”, complexity, trust me, mainly for genuinely IF reasons. Add to the mix of flags, .greveals, & like handling and shake with my bad english and is easy to figure that I consider an “tandy bit” option (settable by player at the beginning) for appeasing specific player’s tastes the least optimal solution in the context of dev effort. My estimate is that adds least a full year of development, more “word-grinding” than “code-grinding”.

(whew… someone can post a TL;DR synthesis of the explanation above ??)

Sorry for the loooong and winded explanation, and
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

[jkj_yuio]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Personally i don’t think you should have a “tandy bit” either. It’s a lot of extra work and the story would still have to work nevertheless. Instead have your idea of striking the right balance with the writing. Best of luck with it.

[Piergiorgio_d_errico]

July entry, only slight delayed, but for once, because of force majeure…

I’ll take the ball from the jkj’s post just above, starting this installment with the “striking the right balance” problem:

Formal Thanks to Filiaa, because she ignited the solution for the right balance on a major scene, which is on the top of the TODO list (if someone has played the preview, one will notice that ends just prior of said major scene; I actually have tried to downplay the narrative buildup toward it; if someone is disappointed by the not-much-great, if not even gratuitous, cliffhanger, I deeply apologise)

[after half hour of feline NMI handling]

now about said major scene; undoubtely, allows an excellent showcase for the brand-new enumerated suggested conversation; and the outcome of the conversation will influence the subsequent act. II; overall the best handling, perhaps even superior to the original concept.

on this, and other thing, Azuj, Miyai and the minor NPC has enthutiastically declared that they have no stage fright, allowing appropriate rehearsals of the various scenic interactions.

next part: betatesting

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio

[Piergiorgio_d_errico]

On betatesting, is where the majority of the news is:

rehearsals: I have already planned a “stage” for testing the conversations & interactions between the NPC indipendently from the main Isekai codebase (I’ll share the skeleton of it in one of my “TADS3 tips’n tricks” posts) and of course this allows private ßtesting of the single convos & interactions (esp. the ones critical to the narrative, where bad english must be debugged out)

but the major news is another, not from my brain, but from the “scientific researcher” itself: I have sent him not only the binary, but also the source, as reference, pointing out to the extensive adprose. He surprises me with an invention:

SOURCE LEVEL BETATESTING

That is, he started betatesting not the binary, but the source itself, patiently reading it line-by-line, pointing not only to many bad english which can be easily escaped the usual binary-based betatesting, and even potential issues in coding, but also to insights into the narrative, thanks to the overall picture which can be taken from the source code. this alone, in my judgement, is a major breakthrough in general IF development.

Sirs and ladies, an applause to JJMcC for his invention, worthy, well, of a scientific researcher !

this, of course, don’t preclude everyone’s contribution with solid feedback on the just-released preview, which is the subject of the next part.

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

[Piergiorgio_d_errico]

now, the preview, which is already released since the 25th:

first and foremost: what is omitted:

• obviously, the locations accessible during the next act,
• the THINK mechanism (which gives not only insights, but serves also as immersive hint system)
• an optional (during act.I) sidequest, involving a puzzle which gives not only a “first contact” with Raileian magic, but also access to diverse locations (empty during act.I, save one, which led to an (embarassing) meeting with a minor NPC…) because said locations are badly underdeveloped (practically only the room description)
• The NPCs and their interaction, the meat of the narrative.
• the debugging commands & tools (but this is obvious for a release…)
• The majority of the “library browsing” mechanism, but I think that the few elements implemented will give a good tasting of its mechanism.

for the rest, the introduction covers the entire act.I and is complete, aside improvements stemming from feedback.

In general, I hope to have reined the “combinatorial explosion of disambiguations” stemming from the rather extensive list of synonyms, as everyone discovered in playing The Portrait and that the big surprise nearby the end is well delivered.

On the “scientific research”, is limited to actions which imply, well, will to do “scientific research”… but this should NOT allow victorian nonsense.

Onward to the last part: the road ahead !

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

[Piergiorgio_d_errico]

The road ahead:

firstly, I’ll integrate the improvements in the preview codebase (which is technically a fork of Isekai) into the main codebase (that is, the source of Isekai proper), hopefully together with the feedback from the preview.

Then I’ll build the “theather” for testing the interactions &c. and wrote the key sequence closing act.I and opening act. II

as already noted in the past, implement Azuj’s reactions and interaction to the environment and PC’s actions

Then fully implement the library browsing, which is a major component of act.II

This should cover the entire period prior of that ifcomp, leaving me time for judgement; but if the load during the judgement period is light, perhaps some work will be done during it; the objective being act.II complete by the end of said competition. This means that in fall/winter '25 Miyai’s wings will spread.
The majority of act. III and IV coding will be during '26, with the known objective timeframe, 0.99RC1 released after the end of ifcomp '26, followed by the final 1.0 by christmas.

That’s all for July, I hope.

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

[Qianyixia (Tony)]

Curious do you have a demo out for this yet. I see this post was made two years ago.

Also which isekai tropes are you going to put in the game The people on here seem older I don’t know how that would appeal to them. I like the concept behind isekai and even got a real cool idea for them but I don’t like the modern version. I like the Inuyasha style isekai, escaflowne style isekai these ones don’t share much in common with the oh I go to not Japan and collect a harem of girls, and I master magic in two says type isekai . The genre could be really inventive but ppl over use the same tropes I think it’s because the genre evolved out of Japanese web novels which are essentially fanfiction .

[Piergiorgio_d_errico]

well, Isekai was a provisional title which stuck (happened already in IF history..).

If you have played the demo, I think you have noted that the (really minimal) harem is already collected and that the magic is already mastered, but lost and to be recovered so my work is inventive re. the genre (but with a major twist on genre, but is also a massive spoiler..) and generally the tropes aren’t mere fanservice, but functional to the narrative.

the only dislikeable aspect of Isekai is its bad english, an unescapable thing because I’m not of english mothertongue (I’m Italian)

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.