The Parenting Simulator- Now Available on iOS, Google Play and Amazon!

I wanted to address this before I forgot. You are absolutely right that I didn’t focus much on rewrites with NPT. At first because of the contest, and afterwards, while I did do a lengthy pass before submission, it was hard to spend too much time with it because the frenzied pace of its creation had ultimately led me to outright hate the story. It was to the point that I didn’t really want to look at it for several months.

Fortunately, that has not been the case here. Hopefully I have grown at least a little, and your input has been a part of that (especially in the NPT days, when I had a lot fewer beta readers to give feedback or bug reports). I still struggle with taking the time for revisions, just because my default is to always go forward, forward, forward. I don’t hate Parenting and hopefully never will, but I am antsy to finish and go on to the next shiny new story. That said, I fully intend to give it the time and effort it needs to really shine, and hopefully provide some redemption after the very rocky debut that was Nuclear Powered Toaster. With any luck I can finish all words by March, and devote April to playtesting, balancing, editing, and just generally honing the final product. Then submit at the end of April for a decent chance at a 2019 release.

Whenever you or anyone else thinks I am not giving something the attention it is due, please tell me. It’s important that this story get the attention it is due.

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I feel like STEM club and games (of year 10) should have a slightly larger description, similar to art and music.
Also, about the private tutors/better teams, is it possible for the kid to be liked by them (ex. high education/athletics and/or independence= enough dedication [and skill] to the activity that the coach/tutor respects them and teaches them much more) and for the kid to like them (ex. "Mom/Dad, why do you keep asking if I’m sure I want to keep doing this? Coach/Tutor is the best teacher ever!)?

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I can look at that about the description. And I will have to see if that’s a possibility, though I honestly don’t know if there will be another scene with the tutors or not. With the exception of a small bit I am writing in 11, this may be the only significant mention of activities until year 15, when there will be tryouts for the team ones and something similar for the others.

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Okay, I ran into a different problem. I got to the start of Year 11, but it’s still loading even after I waited 10 minutes.

Here’s the screen shot that shows it;

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It’s good so far - funny and endearing. I just want to point out a typo:

It should be: It doesn’t matter if she is a bit obsessed now.

Also, I don’t think an interest in princesses is peculiar for a 2-year-old girl. That line just seems out of place.

Edit: I also noticed an inconsistency. At the age of 6, my child can almost read Arnold Schwarzenegger’s last name. But at the age of 7, she doesn’t know how to read “we”.

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Good catches! Especially the reading one.

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@hustlertwo
In year 8.
I really like !{aname} and **feels** like {ahe} is a great kid.

Feel

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@hustlertwo
In year 1. In the choice: “I bundle up my baby and head to the ER, stat!”

The victim of a grisly accident involving an attempt at deep-frying a turkey arrives. as do several passengers from a SUV that flipped on Cherry Tree Lane,

Capitalise the bolded word.

Edit
It’s possible to get independence to 101%.

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Its darn it one of the best wip I have gone through so far

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I worried this might be the case. It only didn’t happen in NPT because the stats started at zero instead of 50. I don’t know if I should take a stronger hand in tracking stat bumps to avoid this, or just scrap it and do FairMath. Or is there something that would limit it to 100% and keep it from going past? That would be a good solution too, even if it then leaves them unable to boost further.

@BeastHunter Glad you liked it, hopefully the final product will also meet with your approval!

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I think fair math will be better

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You can always run a sub-routine where any stat greater then 100 gets rounded down to 100 (or whatever upper limit you chose).

Fairmath means never attaining 100 and I don’t know if you want a check equal to 100 or not.

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In year 5.
In the choice:
“I try to slip in quietly and explain to $!{aname} what a bad idea this is.”

Your child frowns, but says “Yes, $!{mama}” and comes out with you.

Add a full stop after the bolded word.

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Gettin’ down late with an update, yo. All typos and bugs should be busted except the 100+ thing. I will deal with that later. Leaning toward the subroutine option. I guess I couldn’t just put something in the stat folder that does it, right?

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Hey there is a thread about the Saving
System, here is the link:

Hope it helps you since I must as well recommend it could be useful in order to find mistakes or bugsnin the game. Like your game a lot and even more the reason you are writing and making this.

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I don’t see why not. A subroutine works wherever it physically resides in the code as long as it is accessible.

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I have a checkered past with the save system. I tried to implement it in Nuclear Powered Toaster about halfway through development, and could not get it to work at all. The presence of the save code made the whole demo unplayable. I decided to delete it since I had a deadline for the contest and couldn’t spend time with something optional like the save system. But even after I did, it messed up the demo in Dashingdon forevermore just because it had detected the save data that one time, and always showed Bad Save up at the top.

I’m under no such strict timeframe this time, beyond what I place upon myself. But I also don’t anticipate a need for a save system in the finished product (the vast majority of people purchase these titles on formats where progress is automatically saved like iOS and Google, and certainly player death isn’t a thing here). Would y’all be interested in seeing it implemented as a temporary testing feature, to be removed at publication?

I am currently writing the bit about why you’re a single parent. I pray that this isn’t too jarring tonally with the rest of the story, because no matter how much I try to keep things light it is still going to some heavy places. It’s hard to pretty up subjects like death or abandonment.

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In year 11.

"You have two choices, Buckaroo Banzai: love it, or lump it. Spoiler alert: either way, you’re going.

Add a double quote after the bolded word.

"Why not give it a try? Who knows, you might have more fun than you think.

Add a double quote after the bolded word.

$!{aname} grumbles a bit, but after a sharp look he relents.

{ahe}

and on the way to pick up $!{aname} at the end fo the day

Of

But you know you’re doing that thing again where just say the word ‘sigh’."

Put ‘you’ after the bolded word.

You have two choices, Buckaroo Banzai: love it, or lump it. Spoiler alert: either way, you’re going.

This option made me laugh. :+1:

I’d like the save system put in.

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@hustlertwo
In year 11.

$![{fname}] is ditching me for all ${fhis} camp friends.

The square bracketed text should be: fbname

In the camp scene, can you add a option to let the child decide which camp they want to go to?

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I feel like there should be a scene addressing behavior, probably in middle school. It would probably be tied to freedom.
Also, when it comes to the middle schools, is Edgewick K-8 or K-5? Will we have an option to switch to public school or homeschool (if Edgewick is K-8)? Is there another private middle school?
Also, will you include high schools that are only accessible to high Education/Athletics children? In my hometown, there is public high school and a high school that you could apply for (for students with strong academic skills). There was also the chance to apply to academically-focused boarding school in Chicago, but I don’t think that boarding school is an option in this game.

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