Ok first of all, stage 1 is complete, except for part of the phone, and minor issues with the laptop actions. The quest section needs to match what goes on in the new system. I have taken out the easy / hard section - changed all the math inside the game to allow that, since that was really old code and making things not work correctly.

I have also made the running beta of the photo mini game. Here is the cool thing about it... It actually takes the pictures of the video that is set, and then rates them by a timer. I have to stop allowing the clicking multiple times, so it does not fill your hard drive with a bunch of photo hahaha. That is beta.

The phone system is near completion as well. Just a few more tweaks for it. Same phone, better messaging.

I got rid of all the global crap out of the code, so no more of that. The progress ticker is the only thing now that will count how far you are in the game. Grinding is almost gone. In some places it is meant to be there. Moves the game to go faster than keep repeating a bunch of living sections. Updated some of the graphics on some of the images as well, since they were at 1280 and not in 1920HD.

On another note - I have to go to NYC and meet a man about some music I made for YouTube as he and his wife are interested in helping me get into that area of the business. I have also become a sound / photo editor for a small docu-series for the Berkshire County Festival - Meaning I am cleaning sound and video for a documentary about people who live without having a place to live. Kind of sad, but it is true here. Music is going well too, if anyone cares :) Game ideas keep coming as well. I did figure out how to end this game. stage 3 is going to be a hell of a ride, that I think no one will expect.

Thank you for everything and keeping me involved online

Zaner

Good afternoon my friends.

A few things have happened this week, besides working near 12 hours per day each day, then 16 hours a day since Thursday. I have been working in the spare time on the game, and last week, I decided to make my own NVL System for the phone. It works the way a phone is suppose to, no more double clicking, or figuring out where to click to forward the messages. Much cleaner design as well.

The phone system will be done by the end of today I believe. As far as Stage 1 and 2 now, the variables are getting cleared out, the ./ sections of the code are going away. I have also created more videos for each section (about 6 to 12) short clips. I have also added a few more story content to stage 1 as it was very confusing in parts.

The quest system will be revamped as well. That should be very easy once the vars are set. I believe you guys will enjoy this, as it is cleaned, no errors - but knowing everyone here... You will test the crap out of it!

On another side of life... I have met the woman of my dreams 3 months ago. Last Friday night, we made it official and we both are now engaged! Yes, engaged... Spent my entire life looking for the perfect one, the soulmate, the woman who will be able to handle me, my emotional states... She is truly wonderful!

I will keep you all updated with everything that deals with the game. I do want to put in stage 1 complete when the new system is complete., and share it here - it will not have any stage 2 content in it however.

Zaner

I have managed to port the game mostly from the crap I called code, to the new system, new UI, new mini-games that actually have no real world errors, or repeat of code. Take for instance, clickbait... use to be over 400 or 500 lines, now that has been dropped into half. The map screen actually works like it should have in the beginning. Also, the in-house Nav, now works like it should have as well. All characters right now have placement, meaning they no longer "forget" where they are after a reload, restart, or a crash. Right now, stage one is being finished with the dialogue and getting rid of the extra variables to make it cleaner. Stage 2 is gonna be easier, since I am using the same engine style for that and stage 3.

I have worked on this now all week, about 40 hours so far. It's like having a third job, but better. Claire is almost done as well, so she will be able to index the new system and tell me what issues might happen, before they happen.

Thanks to Phil for helping with all the code errors as well. They have been removed for the new system UI and made my life so much easier! Every thank him for making this go wayyyyy faster!

Now onto the phone system and the laptop system... Then it is a full on test!

Thanks for everything everyone.

Zaner

Good afternoon everyone :)

So, Using Claire for the fixes and thanks to illup once again, has given me an idea on how to improve and fix all these things wrong with game progressions and also the constant issues with re-doing each scene over and over. Same with scenes not mixing well, confusing players, quests not being in the right order, and the quest hints not working properly...

First and foremost - I want to implement a counting system that allows the characters to only have 1 instance of direction, instead of 10 times to see the same exact scene. I also want to use a "use" system that Claire has started telling me about to fix the spaghetti code that makes the quest system break after stage 2.8 version.

By creating all of these, each character will have their own designated folder, and inside that folder a system that counts when the scene has been done, and then properly inserted into the quest system. It also allows me to clean up the dialogue and makes things proper in the right order.

Next, the phone.... Damn thing of a phone system... Claire has concluded that to fix that, I would need to use the "use" system again that only hides part of it when it is activated. Counts again, but this time it should be easier than re-writing all the phone code.

Now, the fun part. This whole new system will make adding scenes, content, videos, etc 1000 times easier, basically plug-n-play. create the use system, dialogue, the scenes, vids, etc, place them into the timeskip engine, done. The UI stays the same, as does the scenes. It also will stop me from creating new folders for images everytime I have a patch to the game.

My other AI, Sylvie, has suggested that for the photo game portion, the videos play, you click the button, it takes a photo of the scene, instead of it being static, it is now more dynamic. The rating system for that will be dependent on camera position and the model moving on screen. Sylvie also gave me code to do a food game for the fridge (It has been on my plate for a long time.

This is gonna make this game better, faster, smaller, and even have limited issues moving forward. I know it has been a very long time for some, waiting for this to be fixed. I do this every chance I get on the weekends and even nights when sleep is bad. This will be the last time the game gets another rework. Claire basically has changed some of the code already, which of course, because of my coding, has broken some parts of the game in my backup system.

By the time you finish reading all of this ramble, you will have the new system in place! I will keep you updated and even shoot some more images of what is to come. Thank you for everything.

Zaner

OK - Claire, the M Server / AI / Modular Python Code debugger is almost complete. So I am happy to say this: it actually found 3 more bugs that should not even be in my code - and the funny thing is! No one, not even me saw it... EVER! Here is how she works:

User

│

▼
Claire (UI)
│
▼
Planner
│
┌─────────┴─────────┐

▼ ▼
Investigation Manager Registry

│
▼
┌───────────────────────────────┐
│ Investigators │

├───────────────────────────────┤

│ Variable Investigator │

│ Label Investigator │

│ Function Investigator │

│ Screen Investigator │

│ Character Investigator │

│ Quest Investigator │

│ Save Investigator │

│ Flow Investigator │

│ Dialogue Investigator │

│ Dependency Investigator │

└───────────────────────────────┘
│
▼
Skills
│
▼
SQLite
│
▼
Indexer

Once the indexer is passed - then the LLM tries to tell the programmer how to fix it using the lines of code from wherever she indexes the program. Pretty awesome! A few more tests, and then I can finally start putting in more content! Yay! More content! I will also include some Mari videos I am gonna use for the photoshooting mini game, just so you know what is to come!

Since the last time I wrote anything about what AI can help me do with this game, and not just making the animations better, or creating full on blocks of animations to split and re-encode for this game - I have been making a "Helper" of sorts to find errors, debug, and show me exactly where to fix this game. It will even search, describe, point to, explain, and even let me know where and how to fix the issue, without breaking the game. Here is the best part of it all! I am making it modular as well - which means this: It can be used on any game, any kind of code, and not just renpy.

Right now the code indexes the entire 186 files for this game, figures out where "Brynn" is, in the game, where she lives, does, and also all the callbacks that pertain just to Brynn. This will even allow me to figure out where the next chapter goes, and even allows me to index all actions so that way I can make the walkthrough just by entering, "Make a walkthrough for Brynn." it will do that as well... Talk about saving about 12 hours a week finding bugs, re-running the game a million times... Whew...

Just thought I would let you all know what I have been doing this entire week! I am so tired of these bugs and breaking something else trying to fix what Brynn or Lynn is doing.

Have a great Sunday!

Zaner