[Episode 1.16] Building passages

Hey guys! This week I've been creating passages in the game engine.

What does that even mean
Here's how it works.  Each episode has a storyboard that I use as a guide.  Storyboard screens look like this:

Storyboards are just Google Slides.  To make them actually happen in the game, I need to write them into the game code.  The code for the above screen looks like this:

Which displays the following "passage" in the game:

That's just a simple example, of course, passages are often much more complex.  But basically, this is the stage where I'm taking the ideas from the storyboard and making them happen in the game.


Looks like it should take about five minutes
I know, right!  But it's not as simple as just copying and pasting the storyboards into the source code.  The storyboards are just a guide; when I'm actually building the game I often need to add to, reörder, change or cut scenes.

This is especially true for sexy scenes.  Often, what makes them hot is a little sensual or emotional detail, and the storyboard isn't the place to write those.  So they can take time in this stage.

This week, for instance, I was working on a section that's quite short and perfunctory in the storyboard.  I realised that we could do a little more with it, and the section now introduces some new NPCs and sets up a future optional side quest.

How it's going
Greta!  I'm so excited about the content in the next episode.

I ran into some problems with a challenging dialogue scene.  But I was able to get feedback on it from Victoria and Behbeh, who helped me work out how to fix it.

I can't wait to get this episode out, I've got a good feeling about it.  I'll continue next week and report on progress.