After Dark (scientifically accurate apocalyptic horror) UPDATE 16 NOV

Why i can’t play chapter 3?

What do you mean?

Nah my fault don’t worry, i thought this game has more chapter

I updated some files to fix various bugs. Everything should be okay now, but as usual, feel free to let me know about any issues with the game.

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I love the story a lot. I hope there’s gonna be more gore soon. Also, is this the end of the demo? Where i can choose to save some kids or not. I keep having the same error results in either options.

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Nope, that’s a bug! I’ll check it out as soon as possible, thank you.

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Sorry for the long wait. I took the opportunity to fix a few other small bugs, also I further patched the backpack system which should now work better.

Please let me know if everything is working as it should! :grin: :heart_hands:

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Hello! First time posting in this particular thread, but I really enjoyed your story! The current cast is very likeable and I really liked the pacing of the story! I am really impressed by the branching and it’s amazing to be able to replay and see something new.

More Gushing

I really love the PC’s (player character) thoughts and I feel like they act pretty realistic given their circumstance. They also have that little snark or attitude that’d I’d expect from a teen. I don’t know if I could be as brave or as prepared, but for where they’re at, they’re awesome! One of my favorite parts of the game was when they had to break in to a house with Michael and they looked up how to pick up a lock, I laughed because I was like oh duh!

Same with the cast, I really love them even though I’ve known them for two chapters lol. Specifically, I love Michael. He is my brother in arms for this trauma ride, but also he’s just very sweet. I also like that there’s some kind of foreshadowing that there’s something deeper behind some of actions (from dialogue and poetry), but that’s something to unpack later. I really like that you can have disagreements with the cast and their reasoning for things, because it’s very human and they’re not going to always agree. My first playthrough when I suggested that PC, Michael, AND Abigail take watch, I felt so embarrassed when Michael was like NO! I completely forgot about the pregnant woman…and was more focused on the equality of the job haha.

And lastly, I really like the world-building. I can totally imagine this world and the little touches with the lore and the weather makes it really fun. Even though my PC is at risk at sunburn, I like that’s something I have take into consideration because that’s not something I’d often see as a mechanic.

Potential Bug Description 1

I’ve been scrolling down so I might have missed some things, but I believe there’s been a bug with arming Divya with a weapon at the house? If so, I too have experienced this issue today. The choices given to me was that I armed myself (with a baseball bat), but I was not given an option to arm Divya despite having weapons (knife, multi-fuctional pocket knife, and scissors). She ends up using the nightstand lamp.

Another thing I am wondering about is that are you planning to have later romance flag or branch for Michael (I may be jumping the gun)? On my first run, I picked the butterfly in the stomach feeling and followed the romance choices when they were there and it was super cute. I had to physically stop myself from picking the same choices on my second run. Which brings me to:

Potential Bug Description 2?

But, on my second run, my thought for it was that my PC is a little more cautious and feels attraction once they get to know people (in this case Michael). I chose that my PC was grateful for Michael in the beginning. Later, I chose that he was someone I could trust and I was really excited to see Michael’s love stat (at 5%) come up in the stat screen, but then the Michael’s love stat disappeared after meeting Kay. So, I’m not sure if that’s a bug or not.

I really like the idea of maybe realizing you’re in love/like them a lot after much forced proximity or work together. It’s especially funny/angsty because Michael just seems friendly in general so it’s kind of like ??? when ??? did I (PC) end up liking him. My PC would probably struggle with the thought between the situation and just remembering that’s just Michael being friendly. They’re just friends. But if it’s a coding nightmare or not feasible, I totally understand.

Overall, you have made a monster of a game, but I love it! This turned into a ramble and I’m not sure if some of these that I mentioned will be helpful, but please let me know if you want me to explain more. I’ll do my best. Best of luck on your work!

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@mintybunbun, just know that your answer is making me smile so much that my cheeks hurt. Okay, I’ll answer to each point now!

This is music to my ears, thank you for the feedback :blue_heart:

This is something we discussed on the Discord server, and there was a vote for a preference for horizontal development (as many choices as possible at once) rather than vertical development (few choices at once, but moving forward more quickly with the story). I’m glad to hear that it’s appreciated here as well!

About this part: it’s all very spot on, and I’m glad I was able to convey exactly what you felt came through. At the suggestion of other readers, I will work on the sunburn system in the future to make it work more dynamically!

This is a bug, but it should have been fixed already ( theoretically), so I don’t know what the problem is yet. I’ll have to look at the code again and see if I missed something. In case you can remember what exactly you had in your inventory and in what quantities, could you send me a DM about it please? That would be incredibly helpful.

Yup :grin:
If you don’t mind spoilers, in the game description (under spoilers) you will find the description of all ROs of this route, pictures included.

This is very odd. Do you happen to remember what choices you made before that? Because, as I recall, the relationship should only go away if you choose to have Michael go with you as an “insurance” in case of attack.

That’s something I’m kind of working on, with the separate bars for friendship and love. We’ll see how complicated it gets :grin:

Thank you truly from the bottom of my heart for your insightful reply, and feel free to write as much as you want–external feedback really helps my brain kick into gear!

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Yay! :sparkles: :sparkling_heart: :sparkles: I’m glad that it was useful and made you happy! I was so nervous writing it. :sweat_smile:

Got it! Should be in there soon, if not, let me know! But, just in case, here are the two screenshots from the two different runs where it happened.

Run 1

InventoryRun1withDivyaHouse_10_15_23

Run 2

InventoryRun2withDivyaHouse_10_15_23

Oh my…:face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth: :flushed: :open_mouth: that was what happened. I just tested that and the stat did go away for that run where I didn’t show immediate interest. It was at 5% then poof gone. I also tested it on the other run where I did show interest and also had him as “insurance” and it didn’t disappear, just lowered. Huh, so I see what happened now, Michael just REALLY didn’t like that lol. Understandable. I was being too cautious I guess haha… :sweat_smile:

In regards to the separate bars, yeah! It’ll be super interesting (albeit complicated I imagine). And, haha I forgot there was a description of the ROs up there, but wonderful! :sparkles::smile: :sparkles: I’ll be using them for reference for art, no promises though haha

Same! I love reading this. It’s always fun to get a little insight and always happy to help! :smiling_face:

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Just played the new content, it’s so good! Now my party is complete. I love all the companions - specially Michael, of course. I really like how the romance progresses with him, it feels very natural.

I think I found a bug, after the scene where Michael asks about our medication, I chose this option and next there is one of those pages where we can decide what to do in our day, skipping the conversation. (I am curious about his reaction)

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It will take me a while to fix it, but I’ll work on it as soon as possible. Thank you!

Ugh, there was a typo in the line for fibromyalgia meds. Now it’s working as it should though, so thanks for the heads up!

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I just gotta laugh. This is one of my fave apocalypse stories yet and i was like yeaaa i was i doing so good! Keeping erebody alive and fed… i forgot to feed my own character lmfaooooo. Death by starvation lmfao :rofl: :joy:

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Well dehydration actually but eh lol

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Really like this. Keep it up! :slight_smile:

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Thank you! I’m currently in bed with a bad covid infection, but I hope to recover soon enough :sweat_smile:

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stay safe and get better :heart:

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Oh, take care of yourself, I hope you get better soon :hibiscus:

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Thank you both! :four_leaf_clover::blue_heart:

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love this a lot!

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