VN Question for Devs

[Deleted member 167032]

So far the game i'm working on will be very linear and may, if at all have alternative choices. I am doing this for many reasons, biggest is that i'm new to this and not going to byte off more than what i can chew. Episode One is in all sense of the work a Visual NOVEL.

Now for Episode Two i would like to release the game monthly or as i finish(project based) it but i would like to mix in the stats or information gathering parts like most games here have. In other words you need x or z amount of points to progress with a character. However as my coding skills are shit is there a way of doing it without going over my head AND i've seen many new releases/updates where the previous save games do not work. I would like to avoid this. Is it better to have someone else do the coding, something i want to avoid also.

I would gladly start Episode Two off with minor information gathering (not sure what to call it) to avoid problems later is this possible?

 

[Aeilion]

I do not know if I understand what you want but if it's about how to manage stats and alternative ways to make your game less linear then here is my answer:

For this kind of thing we usually use variables. I do not know how it's done on tirano but I guess it has to stay in something classic.
You have stats variables for example that you will increase when the player makes a choice. ($ intel, $ love, $ money etc ... ")
There are also variables used to know if the player made a particular choice at a certain time. In general of bolean type (true / false)
And then we use a condition system (if, else etc ...) to check the stat or the value of a particular response. All to know where the player is and direct him to the path you choose based on values.

I think you should be able to find tutorials on the web for variables and conditions. It's not particularly complicated.

 

[CheekyGimp]

Yes. Info gathering (i.e. setting up variables) for your next episode is possible. But just confirm if you are sure you don't want to add similar for episode 1 before moving on. It will mean old episode 1 saves won't work, but the alternate is a game with variables anf choices but where any choices in episode 1 have no impact. May make sense if there weren' many meaningful decisions in Episode 1. AND the coding for this is not too complex at all. Compared to some stuff devs are doing, this would fall into the low coding knowledge needed category.

 

[The Architect]

The problem with old save compatibility most times breaks down to this...

You're working on the next release and have an amazing idea: "that would be so cool if 'X' happens in episode 2 if the player did 'Y' during episode 1". But then you realize that you already released episode 1 and it doesn't record in counters or flag variables any data when 'Y' happens. It means your idea will never work using old saves made in current version of episode 1.

You can mitigate the problem by recording every single action the player chooses. Even those you think won't have much consequences later.

The idea of episodes format is more complex than one might think, unless you have ALL the plot well detailed when you start the game.

 

[Studio Errilhl]

There are several ways to do this, depending on which game-engine you're using. Personally, I'm using Renpy, and it has some ways to cope with this type of problem. First off, if you can pre-define variables before the next episode (ie, if you have the main plot points ready, for several episodes ahead (or, at least the next one, at a minimum) you can add all the needed variables for that right away.

If that is not possible, or, if you ended up changing something in a previous episode that resulted in a given stat or flag being updated, that can be handled as well, in the new release. What you need to do (still in Renpy) is check for existing variables / flags, and if some of the required ones aren't there, you need to update them before you start the actual game. For that, you have something called

label after_load:

where you can do checks, update things, declare new variables etc.

Renpy does have a

default variablename = False

"default" statement, which will give all variables a default value (which you can later change, of course), so even variables that hasn't been used, or won't be used for several iterations will still be in the game, with a default value.

This does mean that you will have to plan, though. And, it will involve coding, and being aware of what you're doing and have done earlier.

If you do make changes, you can also go the simple route:
provide a savegame with the new release which ends where the previous release ended, making it possible to "skip ahead" to the new content, without having to play everything again.

 

[Deleted member 167032]

Thx for the replies...

Episode One will be that a pre-quel to the rest of the game, basically who's how in teh zoo...

I am thinking of introducing some information/stats gathering for Episode two to keep things fresh/new but not many.

To be honest i do not know if a very linear story is what people really want but then again it's my game and i should take a chance....