Madison's Public Relations, Update Progress, and a Poll!

Hey everyone, I'm here to give a progress update and let you know what I've been working on for the last week or two!

First up, AVFH work. My focus has all been on moving the outfit system into 'init' time. In Ren'py code can be put into two categories:
  • Init time. Short for initialization, code in init time runs each time Ren'py starts up. Generally this is where classes and functions are declared, as well as any parameters that shouldn't change during an individual game. Variables set during init time are not saved, so any changes made to them are reset the next time the game is started.
  • Script time. This is all of the code that exists inside of the actual game script, and covers all of the stuff that is expected to change between games. Variables set during script time are saved along with your game, so their state is specific to that save. Updating the code after the code has been run won't change what those variables are set to!

Outfits (meaning the code construct that represents what a character is/could be wearing) were originally defined in script time. Characters would be changing in and out of their outfits, unlocking new outfits, etc., so outfits being saved along with the rest of a character's stats made practical sense.

Over time having outfits in script time has become more and more awkward. Changes to the code for outfits required a specific patch to update old save data, and it was a frequent source of game bugs. It also meant I couldn't link locations (defined in init time) to outfits, because the outfits don't exist until a game is actually running.

Moving the outfits to init time was reasonably easy. The only tricky bit was handling how outfits would be "unlocked" now. Now the 'Household' class handles that, storing a list of outfits that have been unlocked in a particular saved game so far. Maintaining save compatibility turned out to be **waaaaaay** trickier, though! Because old games already have definitions for all of the outfit names Ren'py overwrote any values set by an init block. Renaming all of the outfits was a possible solution, but would have meant a lot of looking through existing events and updating references. Instead, I created a set of duplicate references to the same init outfits and delete all of the original references one an old saved game is loaded. Then I can safely re-assign the outfits to their original names, solving the issue. In theory saves from way back in v0.4 should still be loadable!

There are a lot of other related code things that I've updated, like texture replacements (used by mods that want to add clothing, as well as a few of my own events) and outfit groups (new this update, used to organize outfits so an NPC can grab the correct one), but that's all technical boring stuff. I've written enough boring code stuff already so let's move on!

The next order of business is the actual v0.37 update. With the outfit code all working I'm able to actually add some new content now! Obviously this update is running a tiny bit behind schedule at this point, so my question is: Do I aim for a small release with a small bit of content, or take my time adding a big pile of content? A small release would help me get back into the routine, but could feel underwhelming after such a long wait. A bigger release would mean an even longer wait, but might make the wait seem a little more worth it. I've enabled a poll down below, so go let me know what you think I should do!

And lastly, I've got some practice art for you! Bullying Madison is my comfort art, apparently, so I've been finishing up part 2 of her "public relations" trip.
I guess we DO all turn into our mothers.

If you want to add a comment, like, or retweet you can head over to Twitter. Your votes help motivate me to draw more AND feed the engagement gods so more people hear about A Very Full House - a win-win!

That's all for now, I'll be back with more news about the v0.37 update in a few days! If you're curious about anything I'm usually hanging out on the Discord, so come by and say hi!