Well done not letting that be a straitjacket. It’s a decent rule of thumb, but not when it’s wrong for the choice block – some choices just need more room to breathe – and not when it stops you from finishing the project.
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Had a quiet night yesterday as been dealing with a poorly child whilst simultaneously dismantling an old gaming chair and assembling a new one. I did attempt to untangle my coding from the other day and while I made progress it still needs work. However I am off work today so I plan to try and catch myself up.
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Does anyone know a game that uses this method, where you need to have completed certain chapters as a requirement to play the next?
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Sabres of Infinity does something like that, but not exactly that.
In one part of the game, you need to meet certain requirements to be able to advance the plot. If you don’t meet the requirements (or don’t wish to advance the plot yet), you are given two optional chapters which can be attempted in any order. You can make certain choices in these optional chapters to bring you closer to the requirements and advance the plot. However, you will lose the game if you are unable to meet those requirements even after completing both optional chapters.
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I’ll bookmark that and try it out sometimes. I just need to start figuring out which game I’ve bookmarked I want to start first, because the list is ever growing 
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Saturnine is a WIP that does this. At a certain point in the game, you get a pick between exploring three areas, once you do all three, in whatever preferred order, then the plot advances
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Managed to get 731 words in and finish 2 more environments before work already which is great. Added a couple more ideas that came up that I need to work out in the future as well. Gonna have to start thinking about a proper name for the project because it’s really starting to take form both ‘on paper’ as well as in my head.
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Exactly!
Thank you! 
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If you do use that method, just be very careful when it comes to keeping track of an internal timeline. I had a hell of a time as a Choicescript novice making the story’s chronological events line up properly.
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Good thing to keep in mind! Any tips you have that you figured out along the way?
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Yeah, if you do end up doing something like that, code a skeleton first and make sure it all works before you fill it in.
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A question for others… What are peoples’ opinions (as both authors and readers) of characters who display vulgarity by constantly swearing?
Shows like Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss (created by VivziePop) have been criticized that there’s too much swearing by too many of the characters, so it got me thinking of my own writing. I can swear like a sailor if I’m in a particular mood, but it made me start thinking of how to use vulgarity effectively in my own writing and with my own characters.
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If there’s too much of something, the effect generally gets diminished.
Therefore, unless it’s a character trait for someone to swear all the time (or in particular situations), it’s perhaps better to save profanity for the more charged moments.
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For me, it depends on the character. As you pointed out, I’d expect Popeye the Sailor man to swear like a sailor. If a character is vulgar, show that.
The only thing not to do is be vulgar for the shock value alone.
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Ah, yes, the people who see animation and immediately go “well, it’s a cartoon, it MUST be children-appropriate, obviously”. None of these people complain about the absolutely murderous violence in the shows, I presume.
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To be fair, not all adults like having a lot of swearing in their own entertainment, either.
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Stopping in with a small tidbit.
For the sake of preventing clogging up other threads as I issue polls and the like, I’m leaning on releasing the Character Creator & Personality/Lifestyle Demo for Once in a Lifetime as a WiP thread in the coming weeks.
This will be a small, mostly confined build that’ll let people:
- Make their own character, as well as craft their family members.
- Choose their lifestyle background manually or answer questions to do so.
It’s a relatively simple build that’s lightish on content, but will feature the in-game glossary (in the stats page), alongside some starting content. I was leaning against a WiP thread, but I would generally like to issue polls on features to those following it here, and would like to avoid clogging up the Interest Check thread or this one.
Nonetheless, plenty of content is churning out for Once in a Lifetime, and my hope is that Update Zero will follow rapidly after (which will be a much, much meatier update that actually shows off the game proper.
At least in terms of reading content and backgrounds, the Lifestyle descriptors are each mini pieces of content on their own. This is one of the thirty examples.
Hard at work on content and development, and thankfully things are flowing relatively well! 
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Both shows take place (mostly) in hell.
One is about demons who run an assassin business. They literally take money to pop into the mortal world and do revenge killings.
The other show deals with genocide. One of its protagonists is a literal cannibal. One of the least worst people is an arms dealer.
If you (general “you”) have a moral objection to the shows on the lines of “too many 'fuck’s per minute”, I don’t know what to tell you.
They’re also awesome shows. Adam is too much of a piece of shit to have a song as banging as Hell Is Forever (well, if you ignore the context, it’s banging), but I prefer Respectless, which is just gold (and is ALSO a villain-sung song).
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It’s not always for moral reasons. Gratuitous swearing can just feel offputting sometimes, just because it can be so repetitive and I say that as someone who can barely go a few sentences without dropping a “fuck” somewhere
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I assure you that either show has a lot more violent murder than it does swearing.
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