Darkovika Games

I can't believe I can FINALLY post this.

For any who haven't seen what this is about yet, you can read that here.

New playable chapter one can be found on DashingDon.

I absolutely want to hear all of your thoughts, if you come across issues, misspellings, misgenderings (all genders are variables, so I fully expect to have messed up a few), and anything that just feel wonky.

I want to hear it all.

Edit: CoG forum thread can be found here!

I do live, the Project is Still Going

I know it's been radio silence since I last updated you guys, so I'm here with both a very brief explanation as to said silence, and then a roadmap for ya'll to prove I'm not nuts and I do know what I'm doing, sort of XD

We had a lot of family activities for quite some time, and as family's important to us, I put all of my energy into that

NaNoWriMo started and I was extremely excited about that and spent some time working on the project. I got to 25k words about 4 days into NaNo, until...

My one year old got sick. His sickness lasted 5 minutes.

I got sick. My sickness was UNHOLY and BRUTAL and I am still recovering, even though this was a week ago. For various reasons, I had no back up, so... mentally, I'm not sure how I got this far.

ON TO THE ROADMAP

Current objective: Finish the second route for Chapter One.

Chapter One currently consists of just the option to choose the Nobility route, wherein the Player and their sibling are the children of well-off, successful parents who have done very well for themselves as Merchants.

The second route will feature the ability to be an orphan, wherein the Player and their sibling were orphaned after the brief but hard-hitting plague Mage Rot took out both of their parents. Both will roughly end in the same scenario, with the Player being whisked off to attend the College for Mages, which in this world, is required for ALL mages.

Next Objective: Chapter 2, the College Vignette Years

After I finish the second route- and barring editing that will likely happen to both routes, as the Merchant route is still very much in a rough draft state- there comes the College Years.

Chapter 2 will consist of a collection of vignettes that take place over the course of a decade, as the player and their sibling grow up in the Mage's College together.

The player will be able to choose the episode that plays out each year that passes, making for a minimum of 20 vignettes to choose from that play out in entirety, but after completion, skip to the next vignette.

There's no Earth-shattering reason for this- the ending will not be affected by your choices. My entire plan with this game was so that players wouldn't feel pressured to make the "right" choice all the time based on what ending they wanted, but that choices that drive what ending they get were super obvious, and other choices were purely for their own enjoyment, allowing them to feel like they can still be themselves... without getting a bad ending.

So during Chapter 2, you can choose episodes that entertain you or interest you. They'll play out in entirety, but after each episode ends, the year progresses to the next year, where you'll be able to choose your next episode.

Yes. This is a lot. It's going to take a while lmfao. It's also one of the things I'm most excited to write.

Following Objective: Returning Home

This isn't as fleshed out as Chapter 2 is, but mostly because I'm still in the state of fleshing out Chapter 2. Make no mistake- I know how this story ends, in all endings. At this stage, you and your sibling will return home together to find that things have changed drastically in your absence.

Some Problems

I'll be frank lmao, there are some things I'm juggling in my head with indecision. Some parts of the story I am absolutely SOLD on, but my initial plan for how the Player's past would play into the main story isn't as solid or as unique/special as I'd have liked. I'm now struggling with how to better incorporate the pasts in a way that doesn't feel like just replacing a character with a different one, based on who your childhood villain is.

There is an overarching plot that will really pick up starting in Chapter 3, involving a vast mystery that you can either solve, or mess up, depending on who you're trying to impress. There is a Good Ending and a Bad Ending, based entirely on who you choose to go with.

Because I'm trying to make choices very obvious, there isn't going to be as much of a sense of mystery for the player, unfortunately, in who the "bad ending" really belongs to. I'm sure most of you kind of know already. That is a draw back to this kind of formatting, but I still want to go ahead and experiment with it, partly because I do really wish there was a way to actually "be yourself" and still have the freedom to get the ending you want, regardless of your personality. Endings or characters requiring you to be something you're not always bugged me a little, lmao.

On the flip side, I’ve got really bad back pain and some things going on health wise that are just… no bueno right now, mega unfun 😭😭😭 Still working on “Trust Me, Obey Me” but I’m in the notes phase for the second route of Chapter One and then I’ll be hacking away.

Sorry for the radio silence haha, just wanted to let you all know I'm still working on the IF! Things are a little slower because of some stuff- completely fine and safe and healthy- involving my baby and family, but everything's going to be just fine, if a little rocky.

Ah, parenthood, lmao.

I'm also giving myself a tiny break to come back into the second half of Chapter One- the orphan path of gameplay- with a fresh head, clear of anything from the Merchant path. It's entirely different, with a different enemy and everything, so I'm both excited and nervous to write that out.

Thank you everyone who gave Chapter One a play in its current state, and I really hoped you all liked it! It'll probably get further ironed out as time passes, so I look forward to being able to say that there's minor or major updates to Chapter One. This is my very first IF, so I'm learning a lot about gameplay, about what constitutes as gameplay, about choices, and about making it feel like you're in control... without my losing control of the project.

Going to do some final testing rounds, but... I think I've FINALLY done it. Merchant path of Chapter one is done.

That's a terrifying concept, because there's still the orphan path that I need to write before I can start chapter 2. That makes for a possibly 70,000~ word chapter one.

I always choose to do the most complex things, lmfao

I'm stupid excited, i'm on the last leg, I'm going to do it. I'll still have to do a slew of testing, but I'M GOING TO HAVE IT DONE TONIGHT. Two more hours until I absolutely have to get off (from the time of this post, which is about 10:00pm) but I'm so so so so excited.

And nervous.

This part I'm working on is a little wordy compared to the rest of the gamebook, but I think considering how it's very much the plot of chapter one coming to a close, it at least makes some sense.

I wish I could just keep pushing until I finished this- I'm SO dang close- but at this point, I think I'm pushing too hard. I can probably go back and add a few more choice segments to this last portion of Chapter One, but I'm in the final lap.

Also, I'm a SAHM with a one year old that tends to wake up at like, 6:00am, so there's that lmfao.

Knocked out nearly 4000 words tonight, both code and otherwise. Trap segment is finally put to rest, and I feel like things are really coming toward a close at last for the merchant path of Chapter 1. It took forever, but we're almost there.

And then I have to write the orphan path but you know

I'll consider that heartbreak later lmfao.

A little sneak peak.

I found the problem with why there was an infinite loop

This tiny little segment here

I'm bsaically saying "if none of these items have been found, set 'foundAll' to true"

Ahhhhh, late night scripting

Nice nice nice nice nice nice

I was lucky, because my first manual test, i decided to see what it would do if I attempted to leave early, and an option that SHOULD NOT have been selectable was

"No I'm ready" should've been unselectable lol. I was like "...well that's an immediate bug found"

Why is it that halfbaked ideas never work out, lol? (not a serious question)

The sad thing is that I was finally attached to the concept, and now it feels like the last thing I want to do is take it out. I've got to sit and manually comb through and figure out what's causing the system to completely hang up on that section, though, because I frankly can't randomtest any part of that, and I don't REALLY want to manually test every single choice, particularly in this segment.

It's literally almost 1000 lines T^T is that perhaps why? Maybe the file is too long?

I'm screwed lmao, it's been sitting here for a very long time and my computer's fan kicked in

Thoughts and prayers welcome

UPDATE: Right before I posted this, after putting in my tags, I swapped over to look AND THE RANDOMTEST THING HAD GONE WHITE LMAO probably going to have to see if I can kill the process

Maybe it won't seem like much, but I actually wrote and deleted a bunch and then hummed and hawed over it for way too long lol. I even considered cutting this whole trap segment because it was starting to feel too complex for something that ultimately isn't too integral to the story- but it is fun, and it will have an affect on your stats... and what are we here for, if not entertainment?

(Reminder- you and your sibling both are children here, so the language is going to seem simple in a lot of posts showing story, haha)

This might seem and look stupid simple, but I decided instead of allowing the player to screw up the traps- mostly because that started getting REAL complicated REAL fast for something that the player can actually skip- I decided to make it so each of the trap elements can be used in a different way. Albeit, there's only two options for each item in the trap, but HEY, I've got it.

I'm beginning to regret this segment, lmao, but I'm already in too deep.

Sorry for the lack of updates- it's been a rough week or so on the momhood front. I think we're evening out, so I did a little work tonight and I'll be able to start getting back into the thick of it... assuming my kiddo doesn't have another sleep regression.

I've been working on implementing this portion of building a trap sequence, and decided to tone down the complexity of the entire scenario. It's not the most important moment of the story, and the complexity not only added some SERIOUS logic flaws, but it also kind of prolonged the time between this segment and the next.

This is my first real interactive fiction I've worked on, so there's a lot of I suppose "soul searching" on what constitutes a "good" IF, or what's expected, or even what I envision versus perhaps what might be best for the project.

I still don't know how to put it into words what I'm exploring or discovering, because I've got no idea lmao. All I know is that I want to make an interesting experience that you can at least enjoy reading.

Also I sometimes forget that I'm supposed to be writing child characters, and I have to go scrounge through my dialogue to make sure it's not TOO sophisticated LOL.

Also also, don't judge my parenthesis. Was getting weird errors XD

For context, you and your sibling are children at this portion of the story.

I'm still working on the concept, but it's going to be a nightmare lmfao. I decided I wanted to try and see if I could make a "trap" segment, where you find items and set up a scenario. I wanted there to potentially be a fail clause in this, but I'm swimming in the logic. There's currently an option to skip items, so uh... it's getting a little convoluted. Especially because I also wanted to have the option to put items in the wrong situation.

I also just realized I referenced one item in the if statement for the another item even though you could skip the first, so that means... we can't mention the second item in that if statement.