Blood For Poppies (Public Beta Test Now Live! Game Complete! 10/9/20)

[LacetheDisgrace]

Progress Report
Keep in mind the new update in the OP. Feel free to play the new content until it breaks and then you report the bugs to me here in this thread.

For anyone interested, BfP is really shaping up. I’m about 90% or so through with the game. I have some endings written up that I’m very excited about. Many of them are sad, but not all. It’s possible to have a happy ending. Most importantly, I want the endings to fit thematically with the game and the choices the MC has made up until that point. Chapter Six is the final chapter I have planned.

For anyone interested, here are the current word count totals. I know this isn’t actually interesting to anyone, but it makes me pretty happy to see how much progress I’ve made.

So far, BfP is 117,277 words long (and counting).

Chapter One: 8,078
Chapter Two: 15,512
Chapter Three: 16,495
Chapter Four: 25,163
Chapter Five: 30,994 (This chapter is a bit of a monster)
Chapter Six: 21,035 (and counting…)

The game gets increasingly complex as it goes on, as reflected by the word counts. That’s partially why it’s taking me so much time to finish it. That and, well, I’m a crappy coder who gets by only on sheer tenacity and willpower.

[deznutes]

Nice to see this is being worked on, six years later. Was starting to lose hope recently.

[Bugreporter]

@LacetheDisgrace
I chose to ask doctor for help, and sacrificed Alyce in cloning me. But I still had the option of talking to Alyce in chapter 5.

Spelling error in chapter 6.

You siply will not kill the man.

Simply

Are you about the watch Doctor get his brains blown out?

Change the bolded word to: to

Remove the extra asterisk.

Perhaps, if you stepped off the edge, you could a fly.

Remove the bolded word.

[Ninja1]

ToldCalvin and Haroldson about the Summerset Apartments. Later it said that I hadn’t told them and I had the option to tell them by phone, again.

[hustlertwo]

Wow. Here I thought the office romance game was the oldest WIP that still earned the P part of that acronym, but I do believe it is this one. Kudos on your tenacity, and may it bring you the rest of the way to the finish line!

[Nocturnal_Stillness]

Welcome back. Glad to see your still working on the project. Both you and the story deserve to see it get finished

[LacetheDisgrace]

@deznutes

Thanks! And, no need to lose hope. Definitely not dead. If I don’t say anything, assume I’m quietly working on the project. I’m bad at keeping people up to date on my progress. In general, I’m not good and promoting myself, and It’s partially my fault people keep assuming this thing is dead. But it lives!

@hustlertwo

Thanks! At one point, there was a pretty long hiatus where I thought I would never return to the project. I’m close enough to the finish line that I’m not worried about if it will be finished. It’s more of a question of when.

@Nocturnal_Stillness

You are seriously awesome. Thanks so much for your continued support, as always.

@Ninja1 @Bugreporter

Great. Typos and bugs you reported should now be fixed. As always, thanks for the great work.

[Bugreporter]

@LacetheDisgrace
In the stats screen, I would prefer if the appearance, gender, name, and influence stats were capitalised, as it looks neater.
Also, I think the “inner self”, and “influence with fellow freaks” headings should be capitalised.

Also, no problem. Keep up the great work!

[LacetheDisgrace]

@Bugreporter

Oh man, I think you’re right. The stat screen has looked exactly like that for six years. Time for a change.

[Bugreporter]

Bug found in chapter 2. Choosing: “Search for Doctor, calling out his name”, then “I need to know more about that woman.”

In chapter 6, when talking to Dr. Haroldson. The choice: “Ask some questions” can still be selected after all the options in that choice have been selected.

Edit
How long do clones live for?

[Victoriya]

I was so excited when i saw this thread updated. I did a squee/yay. I think I’m too happy to see the conclusion of this mostly sad tale.

[LacetheDisgrace]

@Bugreporter

Thanks! It’s odd that there is a bug in chapter 2 since it has been beta-tested so many times and worked, but something broke it. I’m still looking into it.

@Victoriya

Ha. Thanks! I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Not all of the endings will be sad, but all of the ones I’ve written up so far are. Still, I want to give the MC a way to end up relatively happy.

[Sel_Lee]

I’m loving this, but have you considered implementing the save system? It’s not much of a hassel to add it, and it’ll help a lot, especially since the game has bugs and encountering one will require the player to start over.

Also, putting the update date on the title would help a lot.

[Sel_Lee]

I’m still exploring the game, and I’ve encountered other bugs. So, just a tip; using “quicktest” is the fastest way to catch every bug. It’ll be in your files, if you downloaded them from the forum. You only have to click on it, and it’ll alert you which lines are bugged.

[Alexandra_Fugate]

Happy to see you back! This has always been one of my favorite WIPs.

[deznutes]

Got an error with Alyce, but I’m on my phone at the moment and can’t post it. I had my wings removed by Carmelle, and wanted new ones, like an angel’s. So I ask Doctor for help. he tells me to go see Alyce. I do, and end up talking her into giving me a sick/dying bird. It was implied through narration that she’d be angry with me. I later proceed to select the “check up on someone” option. I chose Alyce, and get the text reading “Neutralalyce 2” before text saying that she smiles and waves at me or something like that.

Arrived home, can’t replicate the glitch. But I did find this:

Shouldn’t this be may or may not?

[LacetheDisgrace]

Good News Everyone
Blood for Poppies is fully written. All endings are complete. As it goes through rounds of internal bug testing, I’m sure more will be added, polished, and refined. As of now, the word count is about 161,000.

Please keep in mind that the download link in the first post has not been updated to reflect this. I will post announcing when public/semi-public betatesting opens. Again, you’re all wonderful, and this thread is full of incredible displays of support. This is an intensely personal work, and I hope others enjoy it.

What comes next? Before public betatesting begins, the following will happen:

• Internal bug testing and squishing. Namely, me and a few of my friends breaking the game over and over until it stops breaking.

• Stat screen is still in preliminary form. Obviously, that will be finished.

• Implementation of a save system, at least for ease while beta-testing. Whenever this thing becomes a hosted game, I’m not sure if the save system will still be appropriate. As I understand, COG seems to have its own save system. CJW’s save system plugin looks great for this purpose (ChoiceScript Saving Plugin (Update: Sept. 2019)).

• Other stuff might be added. I’m open to community feedback and ideas, although I don’t anticipate getting many until the public betatesting phase.

And, lastly, the rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated. Apparently, many people think this game is still defunct or discontinued. I still occasionally read posts bemoaning the death of BPF. Just shows how bad I am at promoting my own stuff haha. Anyway, time to address those rumors: BFP lives! I’m back, bby!

@Sel_Lee @deznutes
This is woefully belated, but thank you for the suggestions and bug reports. I’ve made note of them.

@Sel_Lee
Yes, I’m considering a save system, although I haven’t implemented one yet. I agree; it’s a good idea. I’m actually aware of and make use of quicktest and randomtest, but thank you for pointing them out. They are, indeed, helpful.

As for adding the update date to the title, again, totally agree. I attempted to do it, but I found that I was unable. I think it’s related to my account. This account is not the original account that I started this thread with (Farside), so I might not have the privilege to edit the title in this way, sadly.

@deznutes
I think I know what’s going on. It should be a pretty easy fix. If you make a character mad by doing something particularly egregious, the game keeps track of a variable that is separate from their relationship points. Thus, either the variable isn’t being set initially when you take Alyce’s bird, or the “check up on someone” scene isn’t checking for the variable. Either way, I’ll investigate and correct.

*Edit: I figured out what the error was. Turns out, the variable keeping track of whether Alyce is pissed at you or not doesn’t exist at at all in the startup file. D’oh.

@Alexandra_Fugate
Thank you kindly!

[War_Doctor]

I’m not sure how kosher this post is, but I’ve been rereading the book as I am like to do, and I saw an area in which it would be interesting to have another choice. When the doctor says all the things he’s done to Carmelle, your options are to, complain about it, not respond out of fear, or agree with it, something I imagine my character doing would be trying to scientifically engage with the matter e.g interesting, so then what do you now think the root of the problem is? Or, what if it’s her lack of feelings that cause her to plot, she cannot feel, so she can only think which naturally leads to plotting. Or something along those lines, just a thought. Also I keep getting an error every time Doctor wants to show me something, right after Carmelle offers to make a deal.