Ah, like Patreon. That’s a really sweet suggestion, but I should be paying you guys for testing my work! Seems like I’m getting a pretty awesome deal as it is 
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Chapter 9 is released
WARNING: I had to add a couple of variables to chapter 8 after the fact. I apologize in advance if you have to replay that chapter.
The code is a MESS, but five separate endings are available:
- Become a vampire (poison charles + low humanity)
- Become Paul’s minion (poison or starve Charles + Paul needs to have offered this to you)
- Become Richard’s “pet” (Ending coming soon, there’s just a placeholder for now)
- Become trapped in the basement for the rest of your life (avail if you kill Charles, but don’t have any silver)
- Death (Paul either eats you or feeds you to Charles)
Things that aren’t quite finished:
- I still need to flesh out the “Good” ending with Richard where he hooks you up with an apartment (and possibly a job)
- I’m not super happy with the “Become a vampire” ending, so I’ll probably end up rewriting that at a later point (and giving you the option of having your lover be a man or a woman).
- Ahem…I’m still trying to work a “Dick” joke into chapter 9. Suggestions appreciated.
- I still need to calculate exactly how much Xanax you’ve got left throughout this process. Right now, if you’ve gone clean and have > 40 pills remaining, you can safely kill Charles.
- There are still a ton of things I never got to in this chapter. If I mentioned a feature that I was planning to add in a previous post, and you don’t see it, I haven’t forgotten, it’s coming.
In closing, things that I’d loooove feedback on:
- Continuity errors: With all the different paths you can take, it’s really difficult to keep all the variables straight. If you notice that your playthrough takes an unexpected turn, please reach out and let me know about it.
- Games: Two mini-games are available in this release that are actually part of a larger mini-game. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE contact me if you’re having trouble with them, find them impossible/boring, etc.
- Epilogues: Are the endings satisfying, lame, boring, etc?
- Stats/Choices/Flow/etc: I still have a nagging feeling that I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to putting one of these together. PLEASE tell me if there are certain choices that make you cringe.
- Grammar: There is literally no grammatical/spelling error beneath my concern. And I’m super grateful every time someone takes the time to point one out.
PS - Even if you get to one of the endings, I hope you’ll still stick around for the next two chapters 
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YeeeeEEEEEES! I am playing this as soon as I get home from work 
Super stoked to read all the endings, and will definitely get back to you about those mini-games and the dick joke
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I’m loving it so far, but I was wondering about when you’re in that room with rich, the option that says (fearless or fearful)(maybe it was “afraid”), is always greyed out for me no matter what I say during that scene, tried getting there with a higher bored and a higher annoyed but still couldn’t get that option, is that tied to a stat or am I messing up somehow?
Also, will there be a happy ending, or at least kind of, a happy ending? I understand if you don’t wanna give that away yet.
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YAASSSSSSS can’t wait to see the new update! 
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Afraid, brave, and fearless all correspond to the dose of Xanax you take at the start of the chapter:
afraid = 4
brave = 6
fearless = 8
Hope that helps!
I’ll blur this out, even though I’ve probably already spilled the beans before 
The two “happiest” endings will be:
1.BFFS: Paul lets you go. In this one, you’ll remain friends with Paul and Richard. Maybe not the most realistic ending, but I’ll have fun writing it…
2. Certifiable Badass: The one where you kill the vamps. In this one, you’ll emerge victorious and stronger for the experience.
Thanks so much for reading!
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I’m looking…
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Lol I hope you like it!
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If it helps, I got the error right before the minigame where you’re managing your heart rate and Paul’s entertainment.
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So I updated startup.txt with *create implicit_control_flow true, which makes it “legal” to fall into else statements (and, IMHO, makes the code flow a lot more cleanly). But I’m starting to get an awful feeling that if you’re loading a saved game, everything’s going to break. 
Give me 10 minutes to see if there’s a quick patch I can put in place.
@Vox I just uploaded a patch to chapter 9 that I think will solve the problem.
If you have the time (and inclination) to give it another try, please let me know if you still see the error message.
Thank you!
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Oh I will definitely love it! 
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Also ran into a bug during the heartrate game, wherein after selecting all options available and not progressing the game I received the error code “line 138: no selectable options”. Also loaded this file from a save so let me try from the prefills!
That BFF ending is gonna be my crack 
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Just wanted to say: I played this whole thing yesterday (up to chapter 8). And I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it, since dark stuff usually turns me off, but the premise of a junkie shut-in ending up a captive to two bootlegging slumlord vampires that she met on Craigslist selling gramaphone records overcame that. I can’t wait for it to be finished.
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I ran through all the testing tools and manually tested the living shit out of it by hand, but I wonder if there’s some scenario that I’m missing?
Was this during the number scrabble game or the blackjack game, btw? Please let me know if you get the same error in the quickstart. And, I know this is a ton to ask, but if you have any steps that I could follow to reproduce the error, that would be huge. 
Lol me too, actually. I’m really looking forward to writing it 
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OMG I wish I’d used this as the back-matter for the actual novel. Instant bestseller
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I replayed it from the start and didn’t get an error message, so I think the problem is with reloading saves. Maybe due to an added variable that wasn’t in the previous version?
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Of course!
Here is the scenario I encountered.
The error was received in the 2nd round of Blackjack, and IIRC the encounter progressed:
Crossword -> Tic-Tac-Toe -> “No, what are the rules?” -> 1st round (lost) -> Xanax -> Made a drink (talked) . . . “That’s awful” -> 2nd round . . . I went first, Paul chose 6, and the message of Paul choosing 6 looped until I had chosen every other option and ran out of possibilities. I then received the aforementioned error, clicked out of it, and received this screen.
Tried recreating this error twice: once by quicksave (choosing same pathways)-- which did not recreate the error-- and once by loading up my same save from the end of Chapter 8.
The only different pathway I went down on the second attempt was that I tied the first game rather than lost. Regardless, I did load my save from the end of Chapter 8 a third time and didn’t encounter the error again, and was able to progress to the tic-tac-toe board.
Is it possible I was still on the pre-patch version you had up, and once it refreshed the line was fixed? [scratches head] I’ll try again on my laptop later.
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