Cyberpolice (Minor Update: 19th of March 2024) (WIP)

[Tiavals]

Updated with next file.

Contains: Rest of the previous scene.

(Had to re-upload the file to fix a potentially catastrophic code problem in the future, hope it didn’t cause problems)

Current average playthrough:

• Total average: 105,500 (was 102,500. Around 7500 words added overall. A bit more than half is “default” descriptions and dialogue, the rest is choice text variance.)

Alright, it’s done now. It’s pretty good in my opinion. Will definitely have to add a bunch of stuff after the sub-plots are added, I’d imagine. Plus there’s some other consequence related tinkering I’ll no doubt have to do as well.

Overall it had a lot of stuff I had to check and wrap my head around, so if there are any consistency mistakes either within the scene or compared to the rest of the story, be sure to post here or message me about it so I can fix it. It’s not easy juggling a zillion theoretical possibilities at the same time.

As for the next scene, I doubt it’ll be ready tomorrow, since it’s technically two separate scenes, sort of. A realistic estimation is probably one day for the first, and two days for the other scene(based on how long it took to do this current scene). As such, I might post the other sub-scene tomorrow if it’s ready.

Anyway, I’ll do my best.

@Entracte

@Tiavals

It was intended to be as short as possible, a test to see if the way I make interactive fiction is appealing

Oh, no. You cannot do this to me, I am madly in love with Stillwater and the day I leave his side is the day clouds settle permanently over the sun. Or something.

@AstinFamily

I assecond this. I can’t leave Mouse side.

Whaaat, did you expect Cyberpolice to be a string of sequels or something? Of course it’d end some day.

I have toyed with the idea of sequels, and spin-offs, but unless this does well I doubt they’ll materialize, since I have other stuff I’m more interested in doing in regards to interactive fiction.

But hey, at least the story will be robust enough that you can replay through it several times to see very different versions of it, once all the sub-plots and finales and the like are added in. Who knows what secrets and wonders your favorite characters will reveal in alternate paths, eventually?

Also, it’s great to hear people have this intense feelings about the material and characters! (though I shudder to think of the response if I screw them up somehow!)

I wasn’t aware you intended this game as a warm-up of sorts, though - it’s cool to know you won’t be disappearing entirely from the forum as soon as you finish it! I look forward (understatement.) to seeing the rest of this game and whatever you produce in the future.

Funny thing, I originally started working on CyberMayor, which essentially provides the “skeleton” of the world the story is based on, but it became too complex and I couldn’t get far enough in it to even post a demo before I had to give up, so I decided to make a “dumbed down” version that’s CyberPolice(with mostly the same cast(some of the characters were very different though), funnily enough, and some of the same plot elements).

Unfortunately, I’ll sort of disappear once I finish CyberPolice since I have another project lined up that isn’t interactive fiction, and it’ll take me at least half a year to do, bare minimum(probably much more).

But I’ll return at some point, for sure. I have too many stories to tell and I love the concept of interactive fiction since I can tell so many different versions of the same premise. I just have to get more efficient at it, since I’ll never be able to do any of the cool stuff if even this takes this long(and it’s the simplest one! Or maybe I underestimated the complexity of a detective story, who knows ).

When CyberPolice is done, I’ll probably post all of my ideas in the “interest thread” and see which catches the most fire. Since there are so many of them, even if I post one per week to avoid over-saturation it’ll be a good while before I run out.

[AstinFamily]

@Tiavals

but unless this does well

I mean. I only saw positive comment in this page. I doubt it will not sell well.
Good World Building (I hope in the future you will expand on the war that happened).
Good Characters.
Nicely written scenes.
A good balance of comedic, serious and normal moment.

[Tiavals]

No update today.

Back to work on Monday.

@AstinFamily

@Tiavals

but unless this does well

I mean. I only saw positive comment in this page. I doubt it will not sell well.
Good World Building (I hope in the future you will expand on the war that happened).
Good Characters.
Nicely written scenes.
A good balance of comedic, serious and normal moment.

Well, this is hardly the type of place where people post negative comments unless something is REALLY bad. You have to dig the criticism out if you want it, people tend to be nice and kind here.

Also, just because something’s good doesn’t mean it’ll sell well. Some of my favorite products(particular computer games for instance) have sold abysmally poorly despite being incredibly good in my opinion. Although, admittedly, they’ve often been coupled with zero advertisement in the first place, and with Hosted Games that isn’t an issue as there’s an already existing customer base. Anyway, I’d rather not get too optimistic in case the end result is lackluster, so I won’t dash my hopes if it does worse than I’d like.

But thank you for the encouragement and praise, regardless.

As for whether there’ll be more about the war… not too much I’m afraid. There will be some snippets here and there, but you might not come across them, depending on your sub-plots and choices. A few characters(two I think?) have some background in it(which may result in interesting dialogue changes), but otherwise it isn’t a major part of anything. Spoilers, I know, but that’s how it is.

[Tiavals]

Alright, I’m back. Didn’t get anything finished today, but I’ll probably post something tomorrow.

[Tiavals]

Updated with next file.

Contains: Next scene, continuation of previous scene essentially. Mari Badr elevator talk.

Current average playthrough:

• Total average: 107,500 (was 105,500. Around 5000 words added overall. Largely “default” stuff and “interrogation style choice-recursion”, dialogue for the most part. Frankly I don’t quite get how the average increase is only 2000 rather than 4000, there isn’t really that much variance in it from what I can see. It’s quite linear with barely any variable choices or paths. The last update was definitely leagues above this one in terms of variation, yet comparatively speaking the increase was the same? Weird)

As I presumed, this took it’s own day(or more) to finish. It’s by no means finished, in fact it’s very unfinished. Will get more relevant stuff in the second polishing pass with the sub-plots etc, since I need to be really sure about all the details before I add certain stuff in it. (same goes for all of the scenes in this segment, really)

As such, it’s perhaps not super exciting at the moment. Still, it’s somewhat important even as it is.

Much of the basic structure was given by stuff I wrote ages ago(originally intended to be inserted during the first visit to ABGS). This means there might be weird continuity errors, contradictions, plot holes, plot changes, or such left. However, I combed through it pretty painstakingly, so there shouldn’t be any.

The hard part is, that since I’ve personally written this(and often rewritten stuff or made different choices later than earlier), I can’t necessarily see/remember what’s something that’s “a known fact” vs “I sure didn’t know this before”. The creator is often blind to continuity errors etc, especially for interactive fiction.

If you spot anything weird, be sure to tell me, it’s super important.

(whether it’s a character saying something you already knew, or a character saying something as if you knew it when you really had no idea about, or anything that seems off, whether repetition, nonsense, mysterious stuff, spoilers, etc)

Next up is the concluding scene for this segment. Unsure of how long it’ll take. A day? Two? Three? We’ll see. I don’t think it’ll be any larger than the other two scope wise.

[Tiavals]

No update today.

Perhaps tomorrow? Hard to say for sure.

[Tiavals]

No update today.

Was a bit busy and didn’t get super much done, but it’ll probably be ready tomorrow, unless something weird happens.

[Tiavals]

No update today.

Sadly, the weird thing that happened was me expanding the scene considerably in a fun way. It’s better this way, I think, but it also means it won’t be ready until tomorrow.

[Tiavals]

No update today.

Looks like we’re back at the era of delays.

Fortunately I can work tomorrow, and it should be done then. (as has been the case the last few days )

Also, today’s delay was extremely important on the grand scale of things, since I managed to solve some big “problems”(sorta, more like an issue of bloat and efficiency, and the solution I came up with should make things much smoother) with the sub-plots. That’ll make it immensely easier to do the rest of the stuff without having to skimp on the quality, which will hopefully make the major update a lot quicker once it’s time to do it. However, it also means the current scene will have a huge hole in it(like the last two scenes, but much more noticeable since I’m skipping a part of the scene entirely this time, unlike with the other two).

[LiliArch]

Well, I’d say that missing an update due to improving the inner workings or what-have-you of the project is an acceptable tradeoff.

[Tiavals]

Of course, but that doesn’t mean it feels nice when it’s the fourth day in a row that I didn’t finish a scene I meant to!

[SocioGaming]

Idk if you still need this but here you go

[Tiavals]

Updated with next file.

Contains: Rest of the segment. CEO meeting.

Current average playthrough:

• Total average: 111,500 (was 107,500, 8500 words added overall. Lots of “default” stuff, but also a fair deal of variance in certain parts.)

So, this took a bit longer than I hoped for, plus it’s not finished by any means(especially the glaring gap in the middle which’ll have to wait for the sub-plots).

Still, it ought be entertaining and perhaps informative nonetheless. A bit lackluster due to the gap(in a sense), but can’t do anything about it(fortunately it won’t be long until I start working on the sub-plots).

As with the other two, if there are weird inconsistencies or the game presumes you know something when you don’t, or such, please post about them so I can do some fixing.

If, for some reason, it doesn’t feel fun, then it’d be nice to know. Much of the fancy writing serves the purpose of enjoyment(and also information naturally), but if it’s annoying or boring, I’ll have to rework it. I doubt it is, since I thought it most fun to write, but you never know. (the reason I specifically ask this, this time, is that it may be a bit longer than “normal” or than it should be, so…)

Anyway, next up is a mix of work and fun, back at the police station. Or at least that’s the plan, I’ll find out tomorrow if anything has changed from when I originally wrote it like over half a year ago or something.

@SocioGaming

Idk if you still need this but here you go

Thanks! I can always use more of this type of data, will make balancing the scene easier.

[Tiavals]

No update today.

Had much less time than I expected, so barely got anything done. Hopefully tomorrow will be different.

[Tiavals]

No update today.

Got some work done and it looks like it’ll be ready tomorrow. (first scene of the two, the other will take a few days I’d imagine, since I intend it to be fairly robust).

[Tiavals]

No update today.

Forgot I had a guest coming over, so I didn’t have a chance to write. As always, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.

[Tiavals]

No update today.

Almost ready. Not much more to say.

[Tiavals]

Updated with next file.

Contains: Meeting with Chaska

Current average playthrough:

• Total average: 113,000 (was 111,500. Around 5000 words added overall. Pretty much dialogue for the most part)

Finally got this up. Weird how things sometimes happen in a row to prevent me from working.

As for the scene itself… gotta say, not super pleased with it. In retrospect, it seems kinda boring and even pointless in some ways(redundant, sort of? hard to explain). Hopefully that isn’t the case for the player, though, and is just author bias.

I’ll probably have to either make it more interesting on the second polish, or even delete it altogether if it seems like it doesn’t serve any real purpose that can’t be done in some other, superior manner. We’ll see.

Unfortunately I probably can’t work too much this weekend, so the next scene will have to wait until next week.

Ultimately it seems that this week was one of ‘barely getting anything done’. Perhaps next week will be better.

Anyway, the next scene will be much more interesting, at least if you care about character interactions. Won’t have much in the way of police-stuff, but it’s a change of pace for sure.

[Tiavals]

No update today.

The coming scene is actually easier to make than I expected, so far at least. Shouldn’t take too much longer. A day or two.

[Tiavals]

No update today.

Got less done than expected. Maybe tomorrow?