Testing, Dev Schedule, Flowcharts

Hey everyone! I am here with the previously mentioned post about beta testing! 

So here's the thing I'm making good headway on my third route of Gilded Shadows. Once it's complete 50% of the original six routes will be completed at the rough draft stage. We'll actually be more than halfway through our original target word count as well since the routes have gone over our target by a fair bit.

With Changeling, I really didn't start editing and coding routes until all the writing is complete but I'm considering whether we want to adhere to that model or try a different strategy this time around.

What I'm considering is whether or not to pause writing and edit the three completed routes after Caleb's is done.

Getting three routes edited early means that I'll be able to start coding them early as well. While it's unlikely I'll focus heavily on coding at this stage, having edited routes I can code just lets me divide my time and make progress in multiple areas at once instead of just focusing on writing.

The main question for me is whether or not changing the order in which I do things will make me more or less efficient. It's possible it wouldn't change anything anyway. 

But it might mean we can get into beta testing a little early. Of course, beta testing also requires other assets to be in place and we have none of the Endgame backgrounds yet.

It's possible I'm just eager to get into polishing the routes because I know it's going to take a while to write this game! LoL

I do think there is value having parts of development squared away and complete. Right now, I don't have any routes fully complete because they all need one big structural edit and copy edit. If I do that now, I can set some routes aside and say the writing is totally complete. 

I think I'm also getting a bit antsy about the word count. I really want to see if I can trim the existing routes down and tighten them up, then reduce my overall word count estimates to something a little more reasonable. Nine LIs with entirely stand alone routes is a lot and while I'm not worried about my ability to write that much, I'm worried if the average player has the attention span to stick with a game that long.

For that reason, I'm really wondering if I can trim the routes down to less than 100,000 words each. If I can do that with the first three routes, it means I'll have a better idea of what the remaining six routes should look like in terms of content. And it'll save me from aiming too high and overshooting my word count estimates.

So yeah, that's one thing I've been thinking about lately - adjusting my schedule, working in sets of three - writing, then doing the full edit, then moving to the next group.

The other thing is something I've discussed on Discord a few times...

Flow charts! 

So back when I was working on Changeling, I really wanted to add a story tree/branching map/flow chart diagram to the game. 

At the time, I wasn't sure how to do it - even now, I'm not 100% on how to do it. But I've learned enough about Ren'py that I've got a basic idea of how it could be done and I think it won't be too difficult to set up.

I find them really interesting and I think they can show players what they're missing, what potential content there is to explore, what bad endings you've dodged, etc. In general, I think they can help people engage with a visual novel in a broader way than just reading and clicking choices because it lets you see what's really going on with story - something that can be difficult to otherwise visualise when you're playing.

I think they become more interesting when you are able to see the branches that are not happening because of a choice you just made - but are happening because of choices way earlier in the game, or personality choices, or romance stats. Those branches are not obvious when you're in the story, but would become visible when looking at the flowchart.

There were places in Changeling where people were not aware that the story was branching because the branch is invisible from a player standpoint. From a player standpoint, this meant that some choices may have seemed to lack value - because you couldn't see you were dodging a bad ending there, or you didn't realise there was an alternate version of the scene where a CG might be lurking.

People would end up in forums asking where CGs might be hiding, or trying to find out what they missed. This takes away that element of uncertainty. I won't say it completely does away with the value of a game guide because it won't show right choices or wrong choices. It won't tell you how to unlock non-choice branches. It'll just show you that stuff is there.

I'll talk a lot more about the process I went through to design them when I do the update tomorrow, but as I worked on designs and icons and visual elements, I was really able to work out, I think, a lot of details about how the images would need to be set up in the code.

One thing I decided is that, because the stories are so long, I probably don't want to do a complete flow chart for each route; rather, I'll probably break them up in to chapter flow charts to avoid making the player scroll through what will probably be a 9000 pixel long image.

I could do that, but I've seen full flowcharts implemented in other games and I just kind of like the chapter by chapter approach instead.

Anyway, the current design I'm leaning toward is this:

I like that it's easy to follow and understand - it wouldn't need a key like a purely symbol based one either.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll talk more about specific updates this week and show off some new backgrounds and WIPs we have gotten this week.

I just wanted to do a post specifically about the potential change in our schedule/plan, as well as a specific post about the flowcharts. I know that flowcharts aren't often seen in visual novels. I can only think of a few that have used them, so I know some players may not have an opinion on them.

Even so, if you have any thoughts on anything in this post, I'd love to hear your comments! We always appreciate hearing from you all whether it's here on Patreon, or on Discord.

That's all for now! 

See you tomorrow!