@CreepyPastaKittyFay
In my (public) high school, we have what is called a zero-tolerance policy. Any fighting will be punished (even play-fighting and self-defense). Using weapons (even improvised weapons in self-defense) would lead to a more severe punishment (up to and including expulsion).
Not sure if the schools in the game will have a zero-tolerance policy, though.
Screaming and acting odd (but not throwing punches) will certainly draw attention from nearby adults in the school. Maybe the success of the tactic could be tied to Education or Structure (teachers do tend to believe the well-behaved students, after all).
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Really enjoying this so far, gonna keep my eyes peeled on this as itâs looking really good. Canât wait for the next few years 
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I love that everyone is coming up with tactics for the violence lmfao.
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Well when I was in kindergarten my very pregnant 20 year old aunt saw a kid bullying me. The kid pulled my backpack and I fell and started crying. So she yelled âHEY!â And yanked his backpack so he fell too. His mom was apparently not going to fight my aunt so she left with her kid. The end 
some deus ex machina shit
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This may have been asked alreadyâŚbut if your a Dad what happens with the birth mother? is she ever mentioned?
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@jmar
There will be a mandatory scene dealing with the other parentâs absence in year 12 or 13. 
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Okay good because I was just wondering why they were never mentioned⌠like even our child completely ignores the motherâs existence or doesnât even question not having a mother
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Updated! Year 12 is in the can, most or all of your suggestions or typo finds should be resolved. The possibility of a short non-pet scene in Year 9 is something I will have to ponder a bit.
Also, right now there is a cheevo for not doing the family past scene but none for doing it. That is because doing it now also triggers a later scene in a couple years, and you get one of two achievements later based on what happens there. So it will more or less even out eventually.
I wonât update again this month, but I hopefully will make a couple of announcements in early February.
Well, thatâs an interesting thought. I never considered randomized starting stats; at one time I did bandy about the notion of having a random stat shoot up or down 3-5 points every year or two to show how they grow outside of your influence. But the beating NPT took for not embracing the choice nature of IF makes me loathe to make the same mistake again. Still a possibility though.
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Interesting plot twist with childhood friend being the bully/being bullied. I knew that that video would come back to haunt us!
If the player doesnât get the scene when childhood friend transfers to their school, will the bully/victim change?
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Enjoyed year twelve very much; though I do have one question.
Is there a reason you donât have a LGBT option for other parent?
I understand it can be a complicated topic to discuss with a child, but with the care that has been put into this game so far it felt a little jarring to not see that option.
While that maybe true; this game is about raising a child. being inside a minority does exclude you from being a parent. And from what I have seen on the forum people from the LGBT community are drawn to CoG because of it inclusiveness
And a game like this where such care was put into making the player truly care for their vitural child; it just seemed out of place to exclude a family dynamic that would impact how the playerâs child would see the world.
@hustlertwo
The adoption scene is confusing me, Iâm not sure why the kid is repeatedly asking about their origins. I think the scene will work better if {aname} has asked about their orgins before, but not fully understood all of what they are being told, so this the first time they fully understand.
I suggest changing the scene to the below text:
Itâs a conversation that you have had from time to time, and while it never gets any easier for you, at least by now youâre prepared for most of what $!{aname} will ask.
Children love to hear about where they came from, and $!{aname} is no exception.
Where it often became more unpleasant to navigate is when the conversation turns to why you are raising ${ahim} alone, as opposed to so many of ${ahis} friends who have two parents.
Youâve never made a secret of the reason or shied away from it, but youâve had difficulty with getting {aname} to understand all of what youâre telling {ahim}, and when {ahe} brings it up again one sunny afternoon you launch into the story and explain it more successfully.
Does sending my kid to the private have an effect
So you think it seems too jarring that ${ahe} never asked some of these specific questions all the other times it came up? I can potentially shift it around; all I want to do is convey that it did come up previously offscreen, but this is the first time certain ground has been covered. I definitely have some flexibility on how exactly that is done, and if yâall think another way might work better Iâm open to the possibility.
@Megus For the adoption choice, sexuality is irrelevant. For the two other ones (the other parent left or the other parent died), Iâll be honest, I donât know offhand what LGBT option that would be since weâre talking about biological reproduction. The child wants to know about this missing other person that contributed to their existence, and it pretty much has to be opposite-gendered to yourself.
@Snowflower The video only does if you picked one of the more embarrassing (and thus more popular) options. You canât just get that WeView money and expect no cost later! I think you always get the transfer scene? Canât recall offhand. If not, itâs only part of the puzzle. Several events have paths that potentially strain the relationship between your kid and their friend from childhood. If those have occurred, that is the bully/victim. If the relationship is still fairly sturdy, itâs Avery. This kid is briefly mentioned in the sleepover scene if you make certain choices, but otherwise might be new to you.
@DontJudge A big effect in that chapter where you choose it, and a lot of little effects afterwards. I would expect some bigger effects later on, especially in the end. Itâs still not a tremendous difference, though.
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The childhood friend transfer is not a mandatory event (I didnât get it, but my kid still bullied the childhood friend). It affects the theater scene as well (maybe Avery or Jamie could be the competition for the star role if the childhood friend doesnât transfer).
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I need to catch up on this! How much more do you need to finish?
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This is roughly two-thirds; there is still years 13-18 and then Graduation, which is the ending and epilogue.
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This was an interesting year! Itâs some heavy stuff, but it works really well following the events of the previous year (with the foreshadowing of the importance of friendship and popularity at the camp and the sleepover, or the importance of the parent in the diorama scenario).
A few things
*label response
*if (otherg = 1)
I think you might have to put a space in between the *label and the *if â that lack of space is causing the kidâs paragraph and dialogue to meld with the previous paragraph of the parent, and in this case it looks like they should be two separate paragraphs.
When we begin talking about the other parent, the descriptions and imagery are a bit awkward. We start off with:
You shift over a bit, wrapping an arm around $!{aname}.
and then later we do this:
You hold up a hand.
and then finally we do this:
You hold out your hands.
I think itâs because thereâs a repetition of us holding up our hands, as well as that by having us wrap an arm around the kid, but also use our two hands to hold out, it seems like we have three arms.
You raise an eyebrow. âWhat videoâ
Needs punctuation at the end (wasnât sure if it was meant to be a question or a flat what).
"I didnât do anything until ${fbhe} started in on me again, like you had said last night. As soon as ${fbhe} flicked me, I decked ${fbhim}.
Needs a quotation mark at the end.
I agree with @Bugreporter about it being confusing â I think itâs because it seems like these questions have come up before (since you state the conversation has come up from time to time), but then in some parts it acts like this is the first time not just for a certain question, but the entire subject. Perhaps having it so the questions have come up, but the kid didnât really understand before like @Bugreporter suggested would work â or perhaps word it so that the parent avoided certain questions until this moment.
I think the issue is that thereâs a blurring between the question of the biological parent and the question of why the MC doesnât have a husband/wife/etc. Since I chose to play as a mother with the dad dying it worked, but looking through that section thereâs a line like this:
You feel youâve done a pretty good job at solo parenting, all things considered. But it was always meant to be a two-player game, and if youâve often felt the lack of a partner, youâre quite certain $!{aname} has also been impacted by not having a second guiding force in ${ahis} life.
Where it feels like it brings up the question of why the MC is lacking a partner, which does delve into the MCâs sexuality.
Looking forward to year 13! 
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Yeah.
@hustlertwo
Using both of these options is a good idea to me.
I suggest changing the adoption scene again to the below text:
Itâs a conversation that you have had from time to time, and while it never gets any easier for you, at least by now youâre prepared for most of what !{aname} will ask. And ready to answer all of {ahis} questions, now {ahe} is mature enough to understand everything {ahe} is told.
Children love to hear about where they came from, and !{aname} is no exception.
Where it often became more unpleasant to navigate is when the conversation turns to why you are raising {ahim} alone, as opposed to so many of {ahis} friends who have two parents.
Youâve never made a secret of the reason or shied away from it, but youâve had difficulty with getting {aname} to understand all of what youâre telling {ahim}, and when {ahe} brings it up again one sunny afternoon you launch into the story and explain it more successfully.
I thought something like that was the reason. Because how I read the scene was the player child asking why they didnât have two parents rather than who was their biological parent.
As for how LGBT options fit in to the discussion
Alot of families use donors or surrogates in order to have the child be related to at least one parent.
So two options that could be there are somthinglike this:
When playing a male parent
âWell, Son/daughterâs nickname, when your father and I wished to have you, a friend of his used herself as a surrogate in order to bring you to me. As for your other father, wellâŚâ
Or when playing a female parent
âWell, Son/daughterâs nickname, when your mother and I whished to have you, a friend of hers donated something that allowed us to bring you into this world. As for your other mother, wellâŚâ
These are just two ideas of how you could handle it.
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