Apart from more endings and the tracker, will there be any main difference goimg alpha going to beta?
Generally I view alpha products as functional but flawed / incomplete demos. A beta should have nearly all a game's final features and an ever increasing level of polish. I want at least a few of the "true" endings I wrote to be added; these are not just any average endings like the Nuthouse.
The beta should feel a lot more complete. I have been gradually adding features and polish (character portaits, popup menu, edits, filling in dead ends, screen adjustment, centered pics, text size adjuster etc) but it usually requires some really generous readers to help me get the code to function properly before implementation. A lot of these upgrades are a WIP and being added as I proofread and edit routes. There isn't going to be a hard transition to beta, it is an ongoing process.
I have a wish list (features I want, but may or may not make it to the final game because they are overly technical). These include a combat system, a clothing system, an achievement system, and a scene tracker (different from the ending tracker). The scene tracker will probably become a modified unlockable version of the quickjump menu which is sort of a placeholder.
Then there is the to do list which frequently contains stuff I don't know to do yet but I deem as must haves. At the top of this the list is the ending tracker. All my code tests to make an ending tracker have failed because the variables reset when a player restarts the game. So if anyone knows how to make a "sticky" variable in Twine, let me know. I also want a volume adjuster and several other basic UI features. I have volunteers to do significant, sweeping editing passes to scour the huge document for typos and other errors. In the beta you should be able to play several of the core routes to their conclusions with multiple ends and all priority features enabled with no stops.
I am also considering a cosmetic upgrade to make Transfigure look less generic, the problem is I find the black/white to offer high visibility. But one of the features I do want is a toggle mode where players can select a CSS (color scheme) that they find easy on their eyes or reverse the color scheme. The rest of the stuff probably falls under polish. I want to have a walkthrough section in game as well as a link page where I can direct players to other games by other Tango approved authors that loosely fall under the Tango Fiction umbrella. One of the greatest honors I get doing this is having other creators tell me that I inspired them to make something of their own. There are around ten of these projects in development and several are excellent based on my sneak previews.
I think release 1.080085 A will get a reset designation around .5 B and then by the time I get back to 1.0 it should be a near finished product of approximately one million words. There is a chance Transfigure continues indefinitely but at some point I would roll it into TF2.
