HTML Deep in Hollywood Inc. [v0.20] [Ulysses Games]

4.10 star(s) 17 Votes

riadhloch

Member
Jul 1, 2018
231
326
This game has a surprising amount of tongue in cheek humor. Looking forward to future updates!

EDIT: There are two glaring problems I have with this game though:

1. If the player fails a check, please tell them the target number they need to reach to succeed at that check. Otherwise they'll keep coming back again and again only to be disappointed, and that will drain their excitement and enthusiasm. No one likes to fail without knowing a goal target to reach for eventual success. Arbitrary goals make no one happy.

2. There are events or choices gated by delaying a reply, and no indication that the player should delay to see if something more could happen. It can be inferred from the text in some cases but not all. If I may, I'd recommend some sort of icon on these pages to indicate that something more could happen if the player waits. Otherwise, it's frustrating having to wait on every screen for an arbitrary amount of time to see if there are other choices the player can follow. That kind of unpredictability can be fun in a few cases, but not for every single decision; what should be excitement quickly becomes tedium instead.
 
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Hupplin

New Member
Jan 23, 2021
1
1
I have downloaded this game creating a new file on three separate occasions. I eventually reach a stop point due to lack of points and no clue what else to do to fix it. I start over trying different choices to see if I can squeeze out the extra missing point, but to no avail. Some where along the way I miss one thing and I can't get all the content. I am hesitant on even trying this again, but against my better judgement, MAYBE the creator fixed something.
 
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Oct 25, 2017
256
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People are frustrated because this sort of system creates a nasty feedback loop that grows exponentially. If done badly enough it might even soft lock the game (though this is obviously not the case right now, but it certainly does DELAY a lot of the action present in this version). Please, dev, watch out for those. I can sorta see how that church tries to equalize it but at that point in the game the player might be too deep in the low points from all of the intro scenes.

This is a big conundrum to solve as is, but it gets EVEN WORSE because the game only shows options that require [more than] a set of points, and none that require [less than], which makes the low points players feel like they're playing "the wrong path" instead of just a different one. And I know this makes it seems like I'm asking for a two-path solution, which would double the amount of writing, but there's an alternative that doesn't require a lot of writing at all: Make some options only show up for people with less than X points, not to create a fork in the story, but just to create a quick little scenes to raise a few of those points if they want to.

I'll do something that makes me cringe every time I see people do it here but I'll risk throwing a little idea for the dev about those intro sequences (before free roam): present a little fork in the story that only shows up for people with low points, so that it gives them the opportunity to go back to a high points game before the start of free roam.
 
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sixthousandbees

New Member
Apr 20, 2020
1
0
i experienced a bug in an earlier version that allowed me to retain my stats on completing the game, allowing for a ng+ experience. I think this should be a feature of the game.
 

meleaguance

Member
Mar 2, 2021
266
282
So, I like this game. It's got a good sense of humor. --But does it "work"? I mean I focused on taking exhibitionism whenever I could with depravity in second place, and still it would tell me over and over that those values weren't high enough for this or that thing.

Also, on a side note, I'd like it if you had a negative submission you'd get sexual scenes where you are dominant.
 

Nope

Active Member
Aug 5, 2016
692
1,253
there is a walkthourh or a way to edit the MC stats ?
There is a browser addon called twinehacker that will let you edit variables in most twine games. I find this game somewhat annoying without it.
 

Nope

Active Member
Aug 5, 2016
692
1,253
So, I like this game. It's got a good sense of humor. --But does it "work"? I mean I focused on taking exhibitionism whenever I could with depravity in second place, and still it would tell me over and over that those values weren't high enough for this or that thing.

Also, on a side note, I'd like it if you had a negative submission you'd get sexual scenes where you are dominant.
Some of the ones you can't get immediately are repeatable like the church and news so I'm assuming you just go further with them the higher your stats go. You can edit them high enough to get them first time though.
 

riadhloch

Member
Jul 1, 2018
231
326
there is a walkthourh or a way to edit the MC stats ?
Although saveeditonline.com and TwineHacker are viable options, you don't necessarily need to use either. There are options native to your browser when it comes to Twine games using Sugarcube (rather than Harlowe).

Please note I'm not an expert, but to access these native options:

1. While in your browser window for the game, hit F12. This will bring up the DevTools window pane.

2. Select Console from the tabs available (e.g. Elements, Console, Issues, etc.) Note that in some browsers this is at the top of the new window, whereas in others it will be at the bottom.

3. You will see a right carrot/arrow prompt. This is where you will input commands to edit variables.

4. To access those variables in Twine-Sugarcube games, this begins with: SugarCube.State.variables

e.g. > SugarCube.State.variables then hit the enter key to input​

5. Once entered, you will then be able to click the solid arrow to expand the entirety of the variables for the game.

6. After being able to see the unique variables of the game, drilling down into them is a matter of modifying the input from step #4. e.g. SugarCube.State.variables.money

7. The example of 'money' above will provide you with the current state of that variable (e.g. 100) but if you want to modify it, all that you have to do is change your input to equal a new value.

e.g. SugarCube.State.variables.money=500

8. Note that different variables require different data types. For instance, money is a number and so can be input as such, but say you wanted to change the player name. That's what we call a string and requires designators. You'll know that a variable is a string if its initial, unmodified value is bound by quote marks '' (e.g. 'john doe'). To modify a string variable, you would instead input:

SugarCube.State.variables.playername="john smith"

9. The other type of variable you might encounter are boolean, which is to say that they expect a true or false value. Unless you see the existing value bound by quotes, then any edits to that value must be solely true or false.

e.g. SugarCube.State.variables.worked_today=false

note: technically there are boolean value variables you will see as 0 or 1 as well, so be aware those can be toggled similarly.​

10. Lastly, please note that variables can be nested. For example, they could be in the format of:

SugarCube.State.variables.relationships.best_friend

Or they could be in an array:

SugarCube.State.variables.inventory[0].quantity

You'll need to play around with it some to figure all of this out, but it can be quite powerful when playing Twine-SugarCube games that are still in development and full of bugs, broken game mechanics, or poor tuning/balance.

ProTip: you can use your keyboard's up/down arrow keys to scroll through previously entered commands, and your Tab key to autocomplete while typing out new commands. This can be especially useful because if something isn't autocompleting, you've probably created a typo and the command input will not work.

NOTE: you can severely and easily break your save using this, so do save before you play around. In some Twine-Sugarcube games they've enabled the backwards and forwards arrows for normal play. These will also allow you to back out of erroneous changes you may not have meant to make.
 
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4.10 star(s) 17 Votes