Cool. Thank you kindly. I’ll go ahead and fix this for the next release.
3 Likes
No matter how many times I play your demo, Carmelle’s situation always hits me more than I really like. I just wish there can be a happy endinh with my mc and Carmelle 
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There actually can be a happy resolution, or happyish resolution, if you play your cards right. Or things can go horribly wrong! …which is sad. Carmelle does have problems that can’t be resolved easily (like most problems), but she and your MC can get to a place where at least Doctor isn’t breathing down your necks.
It’s interesting to hear that Car’s situation has that kind of emotional impact. When I write things I think, “well, this is supposed to be emotional,” but I don’t always know if it hits or not.
5 Likes
BFP Status
Please keep in mind that none of the progress I’m about to talk about is actually in the online playable version of the game yet. For various reasons there was definitely a lull in progress on BFP, but lately I’ve been able to earnestly start back to work.
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Chapter 4 is complete now. This chapter is about 26,000 words, including code.
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Chapter 5 has been started. A few scenes have been completed. It’s about 5,000 words, including code, so far.
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There are about 77 variables right now with more to be added.
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I’ve outlined much of the story to be written using bubbl (a mindmapping website). I’m a dummy for not doing outlines in such an organized, simple way before. It helps tremendously! BFP is now more complex than I anticipated. There are quite a few branches, variables and paths to account for, especially now that the MC is being given more agency and choice. It’s not something I can keep track of on a few scraps of paper and in my head any more.
I’m determined to finish this game. In fact, I’m freshly inspired to work on it. What’s nice is that I can clearly see what the end is shaping up to be, and how the MC is supposed to get there.
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That inspires me to play the demo again. I guess that’s because what you write hits the person person or something like that. Anyway, thanks!
1 Like
@LacetheDisgrace
I love the game by the way.
I found a spelling error in chapter 2.
I chose these choices: Explore the lower floors, Go to the second floor, Tell her she can’t go up there.,“I can’t.”, Think of a way to stop her and Throw off the coat, untie the harness and scare her.
You take this opportunity to hiss at her, whispering under your breathe
Your breath
I found this bug when I went to the roof and selected “Ask her questions”.
*hide_reuse"How long do I have to live?"
*hide_reuse"Are you sure you’re not lying? Is this a joke?"
Both options don’t disappear when clicked.
I found another bug when I selected to clone myself with Doctor’s help. I chose to stamp out his consciousnesses.
!{cheshe}
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Any way this story can end in a non emotional gut punch?
Thank you! Those are all bugs that are really hard for me to catch by myself because they don’t trip up quicktest or randomtest, and so bug reports are really useful. I’ll make sure to have those bugs squashed by the next release.
Well, the MC can do some pretty violent things in getting vengeance or whatever it is they do, but I’m not sure about an outright gut punch. I mean, maybe as I’m writing I’ll find I can seamlessly fit it in haha.
2 Likes
My goodness, I fell into a hole. It’s been a while since I’ve posted in here. There actually has been progress, even if I’m busy, busy, busy. Although it feels like I’ll never finish this thing, the word counts are actually higher than I realized.
I added text to chapter 4 and fixed various errors. Current word count is 26,500.
The currently unreleased chapter 5 is 10,142 words long so far. An update is imminent!
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Just popping in to talk about my current progress. Well, weirdly things have come together for BFP. I admit I was stuck in a rut for a while. I was working on it, of course, but everything felt disconnected and nothing was coming together. I was frustrated and only discipline kept me going. No more! I now know what I’m doing! Rejoice!
Chapter 5 is now around 15,000 words. I only need to do a bit more writing, testing, and bug fixing before I feel ready to post an update. I know that doesn’t seem like too terribly much, but considering that I’m having to squeeze BfP in between everything else, it’s not bad. And, man, it’s still progress.
Right now the entirety of BfP is a little more than 80,000 words. Huzzah. In fact, I actually put together the word counts for each chapter to remind myself how far I’ve come:
Chapter 1: 8,415 words
Chapter 2: 16,114 words
Chapter 3: 17,219 words
Chapter 4: 26,479 words
Chapter 5: around 15,000 words
What’s nice about chapter 5 is that the story is now at a place where I can now implement much of the fun and cool stuff people asked for the entire time. Spoilers for chapter 5: I want to get rid of my wings! I wanna make fancy new wings that look how I want! I wanna make Doctor pay! I wanna escape the apartment! etc. etc. And, actually, most of everything listed there is complete. I’m working on some other stuff now. My one hesitation is that quite a few things in the story require that you make certain choices to get there, so it may seem inaccessible to many players. We’ll see how that goes and whether I should make it more straightforward later. One day I’ll put together a guide. One day.
Chapter 6 or chapter 7 will revolve around many of the big changes the MC undergoes (or chooses to undergo) in the previous chapters with a 2-5 year time skip. And, so, if your MC is still dying, it puts the MC in an incredibly tense situation.
Lastly, I finally figured out how *gosub works. It’s not nearly as complicated as I thought it was, but it’s helpful. Ughhhhhh. I do my best with my poor programming ability. Mostly, though, I bang my head against the keyboard until something works.
28 Likes
HOLY FUCK!! I forgot all about this game! I thought you stopped it years ago. But low and behold your back just like me. Did you still keep that bullshit “old yeller” death that I told you about. You might not even remember
Yo! Welcome back. Yeah, I stopped work on it for a while. My work on it now is very stop-and-start because I have to fit time in for it between a lot of other stuff.
Bullshit “Old Yeller” death? Haha. Nope. I don’t remember, although chances are it’s still in there.
I love this thread, its like A plant I forgot to water for a bit, only to come back and see it kept growing! Looking forward to saying WTF during chapter 5 a whole bunch
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Ask pro-coders how often they mash keys and hope something useful happens 
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Update 3/31/17
Chapter 5
Woo! So this chapter’s a doozy. Please scroll to the top to see all notes associated with the playtest. They can guide you on what to do if a bug causes the game to implode.
https://dashingdon.com/play/LaceTheDisgrace/blood-for-poppies/mygame/
Some notes for those playing chapter 3 and 4:
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If the MC “accepts their fate” (specifically “accepts their fate” about their demise) then the game ends, as I haven’t written this part of the game just yet. You’ll find way wayyy more content by attempting to fight your looming demise, especially if you decide to do so through cloning.
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In order to open up the special conversation with Doctor at the end of chapter 3, you need to have a loyalty of 3 to the Doctor (previously, I had this variable set at 5). I did manage to get a loyalty of 3 with Doctor. However, some people have found it difficult to get this level of loyalty. I’m looking into it presently, and it’ll be easier in the future. For now, the MC should be very deferential, forgiving and “kiss ass” to Doctor to accrue loyalty.
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Romances are now fixed! Before, there was a pesky bug where Ashton and Kel would react to the MC as if they kept Carmelle’s corpse around, which precluded romance with them. It seemed to work properly when I ran through it.
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If you guys would, go through the process of cloning a new body so your MC can avoid dying prematurely. I wanna catch any bugs in this section, and the code is complicated (messy) enough that I’m sure it’s filled with bugs.
Notes for chapters 4 and 5
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There are a lot of “hidden” paths the MC can follow. For instance, during the cloning process, Poppy may steal the clone’s consciousness if the player tends to be “manipulated” and Doctor isn’t present to stop her. This leads to Poppy being a character that is around the apartment. The MC can also start the cloning process, but end it before you have Poppy crush the clone’s consciousness. The clone then becomes a character in chapter 5. This comes at a price, as then the MC can’t use the clone’s body to avoid prematurely dying. Lastly, if Carmelle dies,the MC goes mad in reaction to her death, and the MC keeps Carmelle’s body, then the MC can clone Carmelle. The MC can try to train this new Carmelle clone to be like the old one. Again, this comes with a price. The MC loses the opportunity to avoid premature death.
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If the MC gives up the opportunity to take the clone’s body during the cloning process there is later the opportunity to avoid death, but only with help of Doctor or Poppy (should Poppy be around).
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Many, many options are opened up if you have a decent relationship with a particular character. Just be careful not to piss anyone off, as this shuts down some opportunities. By chapter 5, your MC should have already been able to start a romance with Kel, Ashton, or Carmelle, should the MC meet the requirements.
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In chapter 5, your player has the opportunity to “check up” on other character (Kel, Carmelle, etc., etc.). The template and code is in place, but I haven’t written these scenes yet.
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The cloning process should be a possibility in chapter 4.
As always, report bugs and enjoy! There’s way more stuff I need to add and tweak (including adding a pic of Doctor), but this is it for now. If the game implodes, let me know.
Also, here’s a link to my Web site to keep track of all BfP updates: https://mesmithcreations.wordpress.com. The site also contains information about my other projects and work in case you want to stalk me for some ungodly reason. I’ll soon have a blog up where I’ll post updates and various other things.
16 Likes
On a personal note that I debated about even writing: My father died at the end of last month. We were very close. I’m 25, and so I potentially have a long, long time to miss him. He had stage IV lung cancer for 5 years. He owes his longevity to his own strength and targeted drug therapy. In the end, the targeted drug therapy continued to work to diminish his tumors (the ones in his brain were necrotic), but ultimately his kidneys couldn’t take it anymore. One day, our children and grandchildren will not have to die of cancer, and it’s because of people like him that participate in these drug trials (he bounced around from trial to trial. When he developed an immunity to one, he switched to another). I hope to make everyone aware of how far cancer research has come in the last decade. When my father was initially diagnosed, he was told he had less than a 5% chance of surviving five years. Well, he survived 5 years, but died shortly after. I miss him every second, of every day.
I started writing BfP a year after my father was diagnosed. It’s a dark, depressed, claustrophobic story obsessed with death and the futility of life that has more to do with my feelings about my dad’s cancer than I ever realized. But, you know, BfP is also about finding hope in other people. If the MC gets close to the other freaks, then the game provides them the few moments of joy there are to offer. I’ve gotten through this shitty, awful time in life only because of the kindness, openness, and goodness of the people around me. It’s a cold world. We only really have each other.
I’m not writing this to get pity, or donations, or anything crazy like that. I guess I just want to unwrap this aspect of my life that I’ve kept hidden. Really, I just want people to know that there are options (options that become greater and greater as time progresses) should they be diagnosed with cancer. Targeted drug therapy isn’t necessarily for everyone. You have to have specific genes for different classes of drugs to work. I’m fuzzy on the details, honestly. My mom was the one on top of all of that. She researched cancer and cancer therapy information relentlessly, and she’s one of the main reasons my dad lived so long. The original oncologist that diagnosed my dad didn’t even know about the drug trials or new research. Doctors are only human, and many doctors aren’t open to change or new treatments.
Anyway, disregard this personal post, if you like.
47 Likes
i appreciate everything you’ve said and appreciate you took the time and courage to mention this as it is a difficult thing to just talk about outwardly and i know that heaps of people on here support you too
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Bug
When cloning the MC with the help of doctor, and choosing to use Alyce.
null follows you to Doctor’s room. With Poppy’s instruction, null lies inside one of the two tubs on either side of Poppy.
Doctor double-checks every detail, correcting even null’s posture.
Spelling error, when leaving the apartment, and trying to hide your original wings.
and then you could them under an overcoat, although you could try.
You could put them
Spelling error, under the label *label poppyground and *if love >= 60
After shaking under you blankets for a few moments,
Your
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Thanks for this! These look easy enough to fix.
These are very kind words. Thank you. If this was any other online community, I wouldn’t have said anything. But CoG has always had a supportive community. 
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That was so fun! This probably one of the most unique and creative pieces on here.
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