@poison_mara Thanks again. You give great feedback and it’s most appreciated.
I didn’t play beyond chapter 4 last night due to the gender bug I’m afraid. 
As I usually have no interest in playing female characters.
Oh and when introducing ourselves to Brad in chapter 1 the mc cannot say their name, because we have yet to give them one. So the game defaults to listing the code.
Hey, Mara if you have the time can you check if you get the misgendered bug with a male mc too?
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I will not worry. Edit Yes My male character is address like female . Also in two occasions character give the default name before asking me tge name.
Selectable_if choices appear in the choice and i don’t like it is not pretty and you are giving me stats check info . I don’t did anything craZy i choose all peace choices however game give me all crazy choices… The toad scene is confusing even knowing is a book reading it is so rushing that still sounding me is talking about the pregnancy girl.
My advice use a page_break With a message saying reading my father text or something similar. Still I want say the coma girl Go away and I won’t pay no shit operation I do not care what happened my father let me hanging as teen and I don’t give a shit
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@MindightWatcher
@Gamerboy01
@Harley_Robin_Evans
Here’s the link to the beta, it currently plays the first 11 chapters which isn’t all the way to the end but it’s close. The game passes randomtest over 2,000 times.
https://dashingdon.com/play/jollyspaniard/hong-kong-blood-opera/mygame/index.php?cb=56680
@idonotlikeusernames I think I fixed the gender pronoun problems for male MCs. Thanks for spotting that.
@poison_mara Thanks for spotting the name problem. I’m going to fix that later on this week. I’m about to go out of town for two days. I have rewritten the infamous “pregnancy” reference to make it clearer that you’re reading another narrative (it wasn’t clear). Thank you so much for spotting that and reminding me. That’s the kind of thing that becomes invisible to me after a while.
I also added some narrative to the poker game. Created a “revenge” stat to distinguish MCs who aren’t pursuing revenge (which isn’t fully implemented yet). I’ve also started working on rewriting and fleshing out the Spin arc a bit more. So far though I’ve only scratched the surface of all the things that need doing to get this into good shape.
The project is at 199,000 words at the moment. There’s still a lot more that needs adding. Not all of those words are accessible in the open beta as the last three chapters are still “offline” as it were.
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The problem with not fully implemented variables is that Choicescript will treat them as non-existent ones and crash the game when choices referring to them are chosen: 01 line 60: Non-existent variable ‘revenge’
And an error with the savegame plugin: Uncaught Error: SaveMod: Unable to *sm_save before *sm_init
This is the reference to the mc’s not yet set name in chapter 1 I was referring to earlier: “Hello I’m {name}”
“My name is Seiko…”
Chapter 4,
Another choice button that lists its code requirements:
(*hideif chips <250000)Call and raise another fifty grand
“Do you remember the time we through threw milk bottles against the wall in that village.?” You ask.
Raise your glass. “Let’s shake the pillars of heaven. Maybe some money fill off.” Shouldn’t that be “Maybe some money will fall off” or something?
So he spends a few weeks in a Dutch prison. Which are great by the way. He says Dutch prisons are like youth hostels." These days they merely look like that, but the real value added programmes, such as the education and skills training that is supposed to prepare inmates for their second chance outside have been allowed to deteriorate far too much by three decades of first neo-liberal and now hard, conservative governance. 
Chapter 3:
Name issue again:
“Hello I’m {name}” And this is after the mc’s name is supposed to be set.
“Plumb wine it is.” Lose the b, on plum wine.
Chapter 5
You’re both too tired to continue and fall asleep. When you awake in the morning, Spin is already gone. CHAPTER 5: Endings and Beginnings Maybe reformat this paragraph so it doesn’t look so awkwardly on screen?
Whose Who’s that?" says one of the Adidas gang. “Stay back {mr}” says the Earth2 female version of Bruce Lee. “We’ve got this.”
Awww…misgendered again. 
Tommy sits at your right. He’s wearing a shirt this time, baggy blue check collared T Shirt which can’t conceal his muscular contours. Punky is wearing a black T shirt and leggings, a pink leather jacket is draped on the chair behind her.
“The prodigal daughter has returned.” Punky says. It really should be “son” for my poor mc. 
Selecting “Catch up with Spin” after meeting the trio in the restaurant gives this error: 05 line 478: Non-existent variable ‘writework’
Also either Sally takes way too much money for the bike or the text stating that it is only 80000 is wrong.With how much bikes and cars vary in price both are possible though an 800000 Hong Kong dollar bike would be near the top of the line.
*fake_choice
*selectable_if (money > 800000) #“I’ll take it.”
*set money - 800000
Keep up the good work though!
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I fixed the revenge variable problem. I am out of action for 24 hours si can’t implement your other feedback just yet but will soon.
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So, how are things going @Jose_Garcia? I haven’t been able to test read as much as I wanted but I’m still interested in your progress 
Things are going well. This project is at 199 thousand words but still needs a lot more writing to flesh out. I wasn’t very organised with this project and I bit off a bit more than I could comfortably chew but I am chewing my way through anyways and I am in very good spirits. The next project will go more smoothly.
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Hello buddy. Normally i feel too lazy to give feedback. But i made new acc for you as old was banned .game doesn’t shows my acc as male .as mentioned above too. Then none of choice are real. Only 1 choice works rest other option each time go to same choice. Like attack spear carriers with demon blade but it doesn’t. When you try to follow bear or go to city it only follows spear carriers. Same way you want to go kumg fu practice with tommy but it only goes to that ambrella dance stuff.many more such choices. Your game is very good. Please msg me if you update it or add new stuff. I do not say such for most games.
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Thank you very much for the feedback. I am in the process of fixing a gazillion errors like the ones you mentioned. I will give you a heads up when the project has been updated. Most of the problems should be cleared up at the end of this month.
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Thanks yet again to everyone for their feedback. I’ve rewritten Chapters 2 and 3 quite a bit. The project is now 202,000 words. I’m beginning to think that this project might balloon to 250,000 or maybe even 300,000 words before it’s done. That’s much longer than I originally envisaged but all the various arcs and paths I’ve started need to be done justice.
This project is in rougher shape than I initially thought when I declared it an Open Beta. There’s a lot of material missing. Some of it was never written (oops), some of it is written but hasn’t been properly weaved together in the code (something randomtest doesn’t spot). And some of the paths are massively underdeveloped especially Spin, Driving stuff and the Writer’s Path.
My nose is at the grindstone and I’m working on this every day. My enthusiasm is high. Hopefully at the end of this month this Open Beta will be in much better shape and be a fully playable 250,000 words.
All the feedback has been brilliant, it’s been very motivating. If you’re thinking of giving me feedback but you’re worried about hurting my feelings don’t worry I love Harsh But True feedback. You’re doing me a kindness and you don’t have to worry about diminishing my enthusiasm for this project. I’m in very good spirits and feedback of all kinds motivates me to work harder.
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I’m on a massive roll at the moment. I’ve added 3,500 words today (and randomtest passed) to this project and I’ve been adding 1-2 thousand words a day quite consistently.
I’ve been adding subtext, adding choices to existing scenes, developing romances, creating more character conflicts, filling in bald spots.
Genuinely cleaning up the writing and adding texture to the story.
I also wanted to share my working notes on the next project. @idonotlikeusernames you might be pleased to hear that I’m going with your suggestion and doing a prequel as my next project. In the end I want the next project to be tied to this one but I want it to be more comic, not so dire and deadly and I wanted a bigger focus on achieving creative goals.
I’m not doing any work on this project other than dreaming up characters. I’ve got one main character and two minor characters so nothing like a full roster. I’m being very careful and choosey about who I let in to imaginary roster this time.
Second Summer of Love
Britain 1989. The rave explosion. The birth of the modern gay clubbing scene. The Fall of the Berlin Wall. The last days of old school British Gangsters. The Hong Kong movie business in the 1990s.
The game starts with the beginning of “Gay” nights in British nightclubs and small illegal parties called “raves”. This suddenly explodes into a massive phenomena over the course of the summer. Everything changes. A lot of money changes hands. Criminals get involved. The police get very heavy handed. At the end of the summer it all gets too much, people in “the scene” head to Berlin to cool off for the winter. Then the Berlin Wall comes down and Lots of Crazy Things Happen.
Narrative Goals
Crime Arc
Locking Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Film noir. Fabulous gay gangsters. Hong Kong film industry gangsters. Stasi.
All paths skirt this arc.
Gay party boys import “ectasy” into the UK and become drug kingpins overnight. Hooligans and gangsters come into the scene to make a buck and some of them come out of “the closet” after they’ve done a few parties. The musical revolution creates new clubs, new drugs, new ways of making money. It’s easy pickings at first but eventually the police and rival criminals come in hard. Then you mix it up with Stasi after the Berlin Wall goes down and the Triads in Hong Kong.
Criminal Empire: Rags to riches chancer/ Old school british gangster looking for new oppourtunites/ Accidental drug lord (started naively but didn’t stop when things got hot). Assemble your crew. Suceed beyond your wildest dreams. Survive your own success.
Capers: Pull of a string of robberies culminating in the ultimate dare: robbing a Stasi treasure warehouse during the chaotic aftermath of the Berlin Wall going down.
Informant/Spy: You’re a criminal in a bind who snitches/You’re an undercover cop. Progress to working for British Intelligence in Berlin and Hong Kong.
The Scene Arc
All paths go through here.
Rave parties go from two hundred people to twenty thousand in the span of a few months. For the first two acts the rave scene and the gay scene overlap. In the second act this arc diverges into Techno/Gay variants.
Antagonists are similar but different to the Crime arc: Police, criminals and the Stasi.
I have a nascent ideas for state tracking variables and game mechanics to manage your career.
Writer
Artist
DJ
Performer (vocalist or drag queen?)
Party organizer/Club Owner
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I have been adding a lot of the backstory to the next project into this WIP. If you ask Bollywood the right questions he tells you stories about your parents when they were younger which sets the stage for the prequel. This is a good way for me to develop the next project while also adding subtext to Hong Kong Blood Opera.
The project is at 210,000 words now and that’s after killing a few darlings. My goal is to have the Open Beta in good shape by the end of this month and transition to Closed Beta in October.
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The game went from somewhere in chapter 2 straight to chapter 5. I was selecting MC’s clothes and gear before the skip happened.
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Oops! That’s not supposed to happen. Thank you so much for the feedback.
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Oh, I love it! A cute young gay party-boy version of Walter White in the Thatcher era UK. And no of course my mc wouldn’t stop just because things got “hot”. 
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There will be more backstory of the prequel in HKBO I have been weaving it in. The project is now 216000 words on my end but I probably won’t update the beta until I hit 230000.
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woo that lot words to right
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I hope doesn’t have to take drugs. Not because the logical one I don’t want. I found interesting a pc in a drug dealer position that despite the drugs and their buyers. I think is a good rp idea. More in that period that I love so much in fashion and style… @idonotlikeusernames knows already my passion for Adam Ant , Boy George, Duran Duran, Soft cell … So totally I will love the atmosphere
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