After Dark (scientifically accurate apocalyptic horror) UPDATE 26 APR

[ChibiKittens]

I have only played through the demo once, but I’m already in love with it! The premise, while feeling familiar, is still very mysterious and leaves me wondering what sort of monsters people are turning into. I wonder why the sun repels them so much… In the house with a grocery bag, I couldn’t help but be reminded of that one creepy SCP monster, the one that chases you when you don’t look at it. Very spooky!! ;0; I can’t wait to see other types of monsters, I get the feeling each one will be unique ;w; I may be a tad masochistic, but I hope future monsters, at lease for some, will have a more involved and difficult escape/defeat process, but obviously there’s only the one so far (I think?) so I bet that’s probably already planned for with other monsters.

For my route, I chose my MC to be interested in literature, I thought it was very cool to see the book passage (from HP love craft if I remember?) come up right as MC spots the monster in the house.

And even though we haven’t gotten far enough for romance yet, I LOVE the prospect that the ROs will take the initiative! I honestly don’t think I’ve seen that in any other work so far, I hope other authors try this out as well.

Another thing that caught my attention was the “evolved human” piece somewhere in the description. Will this mean we will become more… enhanced, somehow? Sort of like the monsters themselves, but still self-aware, still human in our mind? The idea is intriguing Whatever it is, I think I’ll try to find that route whenever it becomes available!

I do have one legit question though, will there be death scenes for the MC? I feel like that would be very fitting for this sort of work. Same goes for other characters as well, but you don’t have to answer obviously if it’s gonna be a spoiler ^-^ Can’t wait to read more!!

[Daleko]

@Bulk_Biceps, @UltraZ – I just tried to reproduce the bug but I can’t, so I’m having trouble identifying the problem. Please tell me:

• What choice did you click on before it came out;
• What choices have you made so far, roughly (favorite relative and such);
• What device and browser you are playing on;
• If this is your first run or if you’ve played it before.

[Bulk_Biceps]

@Daleko

here is my screen shot. as you can see i selected the second option.

[Daleko]

I tried to work around the problem, and it should be ok now. Let me know.

[UltraZ]

thank you it works now

[Daleko]

Thank you for your help!

[AAChmielewski]

@Daleko

May I ask you what passages in particular you found cringeworthy? I’m not a teenager and I’m not American, so maybe it’s my fault.

The whole beginning doesn’t fit well with me. Maybe experienced beta reader can say better. Maybe it’s too rushed?

@Daleko

A few clues about this:

This doesn’t fit well with me either. I can’t even write it off as a artistic exaggeration. Inless it’s MC’s phone that’s problematic.
This is of course minor things, I won’t abandon following the demo, ofc.

@Daleko

No good! Please tell me more about the bug. Thank you!

BTW have you tried RandomTest? It’s helpful.

Screencap

@Daleko

You can view the weather, but you can’t load the maps, unlike Michael.

What about GPS and pre-loaded maps?

[Daleko]

@AAChmielewski

The whole beginning doesn’t fit well with me. Maybe experienced beta reader can say better. Maybe it’s too rushed?

This is the first time I’ve received this kind of feedback, so I don’t really know, to be honest.

@AAChmielewski

This doesn’t fit well with me either. […] I won’t abandon following the demo, ofc.

At this point, I’m afraid it’s my writing style that’s not up your alley. Nothing wrong with that, but please don’t be disappointed if you’ll still find the story cringeworthy in the future.

@AAChmielewski

BTW have you tried RandomTest? It’s helpful.

Unfortunately, not everything can be tested with QuickTest and RandomTest.

@AAChmielewski

What about GPS and pre-loaded maps?

Not everyone has maps pre-loaded on their phone, and GPS is useless if the maps don’t load. It’s not officially explained in the game, though, which leaves you to choose whichever explanation you prefer: a connection problem, or out-of-date apps, hardware problems, jinx.

Anyway, for this and similar doubts in the future, like the one regarding memes—the game is scientifically accurate so I like not to have plot holes, but these are small matters whose motivations I leave to the reader to imagine. I don’t think anyone wants to read a six-million-word load with meticulous explanations of every possible human argument in this scenario.

Anyway, I’ve fixed the bug—thanks for your help!

[AAChmielewski]

@Daleko

I’m afraid it’s my writing style that’s not up your alley.

Maybe I wasn’t clear, sorry -

that part was spoilered!

I don’t understand, can it be that you can’t make any sort of call but you’re able to send an sms and so on? The only idea I can think of that the network is overloaded.
I’m actually interested in this! Will you explain that later in the game?

I actually like the style right from the moment the apocalypse starts, so no questions here.

@Daleko

It’s not officially explained in the game, though, which leaves you to choose whichever explanation you prefer: a connection problem, or out-of-date apps, hardware problems, jinx.

Ok thanks

@Daleko

I don’t think anyone wants to read a six-million-word load with meticulous explanations of every possible human argument in this scenario

…you underestimate me.

[Daleko]

@AAChmielewski

that part was spoilered!

I don’t understand, can it be that you can’t make any sort of call but you’re able to send an sms and so on? The only idea I can think of that the network is overloaded.
I’m actually interested in this! Will you explain that later in the game?

I actually like the style right from the moment the apocalypse starts, so no questions here.

Here it is!

Sure, it may be that the network is overloaded. What I mean is that some things may or may not be explained; the things ignored are just minor ones that are easily guessable, nothing fancy.

@AAChmielewski

…you underestimate me.

Ha! Okay, let me rephrase that—the majority of people

[Kel08]

I always love me a good apocalypse story, and one slated as scientifically accurate is certainly appealing. I’m curious to see where this goes, especially with the multiple routes.

I know only the first route is available right now, but I enjoy seeing just how obvious the differences are in these early stages. Doing that led to this …

Very interesting story you got here. Looking forward to meeting more characters.

[Daleko]

Uh-oh, thank you for letting me know! A couple of questions about the bug:

• Did you load a previously saved game? Or was it a new one?
• When did it happen, more or less?

By the way, I’m glad you’re enjoying it this far. I hope it will be even better in the future!

[Kel08]

Yeah, I loaded up a previous save. To the best of my memory (which isn’t great all the time ), it happened after I selected to have lunch. I think I then chose to tell the truth that I didn’t have any food and after the next page, it led to the screenshot I shared.

And no problem! I’m definitely adding this to the many WIP I’ve been obsessively playing these days.

[Daleko]

Yeah, unfortunately that’s a known bug that I can’t fix at the moment.

@Daleko

The hard save system doesn’t work well because of the very long scenes. Therefore I suggest you not to use it too much, and just use it to load your initial settings if you want to (at the end of the prologue, and after the choice of the path).

What happens is that the save system sends you to the beginning of the scene in which you saved (scene meant as a file, not as a displayed page), but keeping all the statistics unaltered. Because of the huge fluctuation of the values, I can’t tell the game to bring them back to a certain specific number at a certain time, as that would still give you different values from the ones you got while playing.

Briefly: going from 11pm to 7am, MC gets hungry. Upon reloading the game it returns to 11pm (since it is part of the same scene); however, MC is still as hungry as before the reload, and so he has to do another day of fasting, leading to the error seen.

I recommend using the save system either after the prologue (when you wake up in your bed), or right after you choose the route to follow.

I’m really sorry about it. Thanks for your patience!

[Kel08]

Hey no apologies necessary. It’s a WIP. These things can happen, and I have no problem starting over.

Thanks for explaining it all. I’m running into issues coding minor stuff, so I can’t imagine some of the things you may get with this with how much you’re putting into it.

I wish you luck, and I’ll keep popping back in for more.

[Greedygoblin0304]

I really enjoyed the demo so far. Looking foreward to more.

[Daleko]

A quick update. I’m implementing some big things in the game, kind of complex systems that are taking me a lot of time and trial-and-error testing. As I’m testing these systems all by myself, I may miss some major bugs.
So, if anyone has both the interest and time to test some parts of the game, please send me a private message here on the forum, on Discord, or via email (nathanielnappo [at] gmail [dot] com).

Testing will obviously be a preview of the next big update, so a bit of discretion is required, but I promise that there will be no plot spoilers.

Very few testers are needed, so if you are interested please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you!

[feurio]

Technically, the MC is a little young for my taste but the premise and the features you offer are just too interesting to not check this game out.

Thoughts:

Thankfully, your dad had no issues with your coming out, so you didn’t feel uncomfortable while shopping.

The sentence above frames the MC’s coming-out as being recent-ish. Personally, I would love a more specific timeline here (for example: “your dad had no issue with you coming out a few months ago”) for more immersion.

I also wish that information about the MC’s transition status found on the stats page (“You haven’t started your hormone replacement therapy”) would appear in-game so that the player is aware of it right from the beginning.

Is there a reason why there is no more nuance to the family’s reaction to the MC coming out as trans? I can understand the “thankfully” phrasing with regard to the parents but with a slightly older sibling, one could assume that they would be a bit more tolerant. For example: “As expected, your sibling had no issues with your coming out […]”

As an ace person, this option reads a tad ambiguous:

I’m not interested in people in that sense.

Is this meant for the aces, the aros, the aro-aces? The basic info listed after making the decision (“Moreover, you’re not interested in romance”) makes it sound like an aro option but in your game description, you only list the possibility to play as asexual.

• If you mean that the MC has no interest in sex and love and will thus be locked out of the romance routes, please change your game description from “ace” to “aro-ace”.

• If you mean that the MC feels no sexual attraction towards anyone, please consider changing the basic info to something more fitting like “Moreover, you’re not interested in sex.”

• If you mean that the MC is “not interested in romance” (= no romance route) but might pursue sexual relationships regardless, please change your game description from “ace” to “aro”.

TL;DR: A very basic explanation of the terms.

• ace = no sexual attraction (= can fall in love but the focus is rarely on the “Dang, you are hot, I want to lick your abs” part of the feelings)

• aro = no romantic attraction (= no crushes but can have interest in sexual relationships)

• ace-aro = no sexual or romantic attraction (= no crushes or desire for a sexual relationship, however, aro-aces can still wish to form close platonic bonds with other people)

I love that you give us disability/addiction options. I only wish we could choose more than one.

This strikes me as strange:

But I’m much taller than average, and I have to walk very slowly for him to keep up.

The MC would have to be a literal giant for their height to make such a huge difference with an already above-average tall dude. I also think Michael’s height wouldn’t really matter to anyone who isn’t super short. (Speaking as a short person who usually doesn’t hurry after people. And if I have to, then it tends to be my mom who’s even shorter!)

[Daleko]

@feurio

The sentence above frames the MC’s coming-out as being recent-ish. Personally, I would love a more specific timeline here (for example: “your dad had no issue with you coming out a few months ago”) for more immersion.

The timeline setting is intentionally left out as it is not important to the game dynamics, and it might break the realism should someone want to play a character with a more or less recent coming-out story.

@feurio

I also wish that information about the MC’s transition status found on the stats page (“You haven’t started your hormone replacement therapy”) would appear in-game so that the player is aware of it right from the beginning.

Good idea, thank you.

@feurio

Is there a reason why there is no more nuance to the family’s reaction to the MC coming out as trans? I can understand the “thankfully” phrasing with regard to the parents but with a slightly older sibling, one could assume that they would be a bit more tolerant. For example: “As expected, your sibling had no issues with your coming out […]”

Same as above. Being thankful is a universal reaction, but someone may not necessarily expect a postiive outcome (or not) just because of the age of the concerned person.

@feurio

Is this meant for the aces, the aros, the aro-aces? The basic info listed after making the decision

Very briefly, since we are talking about teenagers there will be no descriptions of sex scenes, and I am not yet sure how this will evolve being present somewhat complex systems, such as the intelligent autonomy for ROs. As you can see in the description of ROs, however, there is a specifically aro/ace character, who therefore feels neither romantic nor sexual attraction. For MC, the situation is deliberately ambiguous.

@feurio

I love that you give us disability/addiction options. I only wish we could choose more than one.

Thank you. The malus system deals with giving a type of “worry” to your character. This can be taking care not to lose/break glasses, making sure you have enough cigarettes/antidepressants every day, etc. Choosing a certain malus unlocks certain strings of dialogue, description, reaction, or even whole scenes that cannot be cumulated with each other. This may change in the future, but for now the game is built that way.

@feurio

The MC would have to be a literal giant for their height to make such a huge difference with an already above-average tall dude.

The average height of an American adolescent male at 5’7", or 173 cm. We can say that Michael is 6’07", or 185 cm. This would make a possible very tall MC around 6’6", or 200 cm.
(As a very short person, I assure you that I have to trot behind my 6’6" fiancé. But also behind my 5’7" friends, sigh…)

Thank you for your input and food for thought, I hope the answers were satisfactory.

[Aethelric]

Damn, this is a really interesting story, I can’t wait for more.