September 2024's Writer Support Thread

Development on Pre-School is ongoing!

I’m working on hammering out the interface. In my test environment, your grade hasn’t been set yet (working on implementing a starting variable), but I do have the game accurately checking grades for both academic performance and disciplinary performance.

This will then produce a letter grade that you can see.

The full report card will give a small recap of events that you engaged in. :slight_smile:

As you can also see, your teacher has been dynamically generated. The game accurately determines based upon their gender if they’re marked as Mr./Mrs. My goal is to work on updating code down the line to add a Ms. option as well depending on if they’re married, but this is solid enough functionality for now. :slight_smile:

I hope you’ve had a great weekend!

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Heads up regarding image-based headers like the ones you have there.

A lot of players play CS games in dark mode, which means normal dark text gets inversed into light text on a dark background. However, images don’t usually get inverted, which means you’ll have dark text images on a dark background.

You can fix this by using *text_image instead of *image, but this also fully inverts the colours of your image - which isn’t a problem if your image is monochrome black, but you definitely want to make sure that any other colours you have in that image invert just as well.

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I’d imagine having a sufficiently thick white border around the text in the image might work too.

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I appreciate the heads up!

I’ve tested prior fonts but not this one. Ill load up my mobile environment and flip to dark mode to test this later today.

Thanks again!

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You can also change the background color from the menu when you’re playtesting on computer.

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Of course!

I should’ve specified. As mobile screens can be far more HDR/tint compliant than the vast array of monitors, I want to run the primary test on mobile to see just where it falls compared to a typical PC monitor. :slight_smile:

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Testing your page layout and structure on as many devices as you can, is important.

If you are able to get a tester who reads off a screen reader, all the better too!

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Every diagonal, row and column should add up to the same number, but this number is unknown.

Since you gave us a complete diagonal, isn’t the number known? Or are you counting adding 4+5+6 as part of the puzzle?

I think the instructions would be more fitting and the puzzle more puzzling if fewer numbers were filled in. E.g.,

? 7 6
9 ? ?
4 ? 8
? 7 ?
? 5 ?
4 ? ?

Though having a lot of unknowns could be tedious.

Not that it matters for solving, but are the only allowable numbers in magic squares 1-9 (squares can’t contain, say, 35)? That might be fair to mention.


In addition to *text_image, you can also have dark mode versions of images and use *if (choice_nightmode) to display the correct one, as described here:

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Today’s best typo, “you blink” → “you blonk”.

Also I just realized, it’s snippet day (for an hour and a half for me still).

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I’ve finished Bug Hunting and altered the ending of season two very slightly in a specific path as in hindsight, it ended too abruptly. Now, it piggybacks onto another scene, so all players get a nice scene at the end with their RO.

Running randomtest now to make sure I’ve not broken anything!

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My snippet today is a little raw around the edges and the center, lol. Still a snippet.

"Meeting Elvis The rat pack"

*fake_choice
1#You really had to drag me her uncouncious, where the hell am I?

2#Focus on knowing where you are

3#Redacted expletive// Fuc% yo&!!

A white room with an empty table and two cold, dull metal chairs. No single item, window or furniture barebones don’t ever enter to define the void empty and coldness of the place.

In one of the uncomfortable device of torture poised as hard chair. You sit your ass in front of it…

HIM

A rat man with black bangs like an Elvis from the old Graceland.

The radioactive glow of a total implant in one of his baggy eyes.

He stay proud moving around trying to keep himself in a regal position in her stainless steel throne.

He sighs, standing up in a military stance that shows off his bionic weapon-hand.

How can you even describe a Rat man. Small furry yet human big elfic rat ears. One of the most technically advanced cyber biological human.

Still, His smirk and pimp flair glows around him like his smile of pure, unadulterated sarcasm bigger than his mutated snout.

Of course you knew that the exotic animal men created in laboratories in the last decade. Like the entire galaxy. But still see it one live…

He finally talks with a thick clearly fake falsetto Scottish accent: “Mate, your jaw muscles drop down in a mouth shapped on their own as if you were one of those plastic dolls, Put that show with rented beer and phallic-shaped hats and you coul rock the College frat parties revival in Caribidis sector.”

“Who are you?”

“You are not interested in my name, what you need are my services. And services is what I offer. You are dying , and only a elusive group of beings in this galaxy can cure you.”

Another dramatically flair pause. Somehow managed to give a Shakespearean disdain to his hand movements.

"Lucky for you, and for my dating service. Vampires need humans. Oh no for blood, synthetic blood has existed for millennia. They need a human to love or obsess over

“Hmm?” You compute to muster.

“I know it sounds bonkers. But they become depressed and begin to wither like a plant without water. That’s if they’re lucky…”

The histrionically dramatic tone makes rolling your eyes like a holographic nian kat in a dog food can factory his rat cinamon fur hanging stiff.

Hmm, maybe he waiting for me to ask him? Oh he totally does

"What happens if they don’t have it? Your question hangs tight, but at least it gets this strange conversation moving forward.

“Little by little, they lose their sanity similar to how psychotics addicted to implants lose their minds until boom they explode. Half of the news you see on the holo news are vampires, well not half, but quite a few.”

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So, Snippet Day (even though it’s 16th already on my timezone). Let’s see.

So, okay, cross-language punctuation is weird. No news there, but I thought I'd share. Might provide some insight for if I use weird punctuation at times. For example, these are valid punctuation in Finnish (note the position of commas).

He said:
– My apologies!

He said: “My apologies!”

– My apologies, he said. – Was I supposed to breathe? I tend to forget that at times.

”My apologies”, he said. ”Was I supposed to breathe? I tend to forget that at times.”

I found this from my notes, and it reignited my want to add a DA:I-esque codex with snippets (and trading cards) for entries you can unlock, but I'm still debating with myself on that one. This was written before I had decided on the naming scheme of organizations, but anyway.

The lab was eerily quiet, like a field after the final battle of a war. And the sight wasn’t all that far from the image, either. There was barely room - this wasn’t your military-funded research base, but a private and probably even unregistered one - every nook and cranny was filled with lab equipment, currently broken and spreading its contents everywhere. But the disturbing part was the amount of bodies scattered through the space that was supposed to be walkways between the equipment.

It took a moment from the SWAT team to regain their composure.

”DCPD! Don’t move!” cut the air, although there was no apparent response. But then again, there was no movement in sight to begin with, so it was unclear what was the purpose of the line in the first place, other than announcing the arrival of authorities. In hindsight, it was probably lucky for the doctor how the situation turned out the way it did - with all this gore, the team would have shot on sight of movement.

They moved on carefully, through the maze of broken machines, expecting an ambush that never came, like soldiers late to the war.

”Did he leave already?”

”Stay on your guard.”

”Found him!”

That snapped everyone into focus, calling the team like a beacon. They gathered around the caller, and in extension the target, who seemed to not even register the commotion, instead sitting in a corner between two strange machines whose purpose was anyone’s guess, leaning against a server rack, hugging himself, hands and formerly-white lab coat covered in blood and other substances best not thought about, staring into nothingness.

”You’re under arrest” triggered no response. As of itself that was no surprise - suspects rarely just surrendered after going on a killing frenzy - but this was less of a defiance and more of a not being there, and after everything that had happened, it was more than a little unnerving.

But he was not fighting, and the words were useless, so they just grabbed the doctor by arms; he complied, mechanically, like a broken machine that didn’t know how to move without a guiding touch, and offered no resistance as they cuffed him and led him out.

It wasn’t exactly the most satisfying ending, but at least the job was easy for once. Let the detectives sort this one out.

Here's a random Noir Detective line.

The morning was gray and smudged like a cheap digital knockoff of a watercolor painting.

Here's a random bonus line from my notes I really really like the imagery of.

And Vortex was there, fading from the edges, leaking black mist from the seams like he was barely able to contain whatever nightmare it was that was hidden inside him.

I love writing Vortex.

”Don’t get your pants in a knot, Abigail. I may not be a licenced Ashguard anymore, but I’m still a lawyer.”

And this is what I've been working on for days... I've shown parts of it before, but here it is in all its glory.

“Hey, new blood!”

You stop on your tracks and blink. It seems you indeed entered a break room… the smell off coffee did not lie. And there are people in there. Two of them, sitting face to face to each other on the opposite ends of an eight-chair table (if you put chairs only on the long sides, that is. Otherwise, it’s a ten-chair table). A large one, both tall and wide, with a bodybuilder physique and wearing what looks like a coal gray business suit, who is sitting their back to you so all you can see (in addition to the suit, that is) is short dark brown hair and pink neck with a sunburn, and another one who is facing you but you can only get a hint of while the other one is blocking your view, so you take a step to the side.

“Yes, you, new blood!” The other one, skinnier but equally tall, wearing an equally coal gray business suit and long, almost-white, almost-bleached-blond hair, is pointing a finger in your direction, a red scrunchie around their wrist. “It’s about time we got some new blood around here.”

They’re so ghostly pale you can’t be sure they don’t actually want to drain you from your blood and use it themself.

“[T], stop scaring the newbie,” the bodybuilder says, getting up and turning to you. Now you can see them better; they’re huge, their face also pink, sunburns on their nose and forehead, and hint of a beard on their chin. “You must be [MC],” they say to you. “Don’t mind [T], his bark is worse than his bite. Mostly.”

“No, please do mind me,” [T] says. “Do not mind [R]. He’s full of crap as usual.”

[R] laughs. “So it’s your first day, isn’t it? Let me show you around.” He walks to you and wraps his arm around your shoulders, leaning on you. It’s heavy. And he smells of sweat, to boot. Why has he been sweating in a business suit?

Thank you for getting permission before invading my personal space,” you say, voice dripping with sarcasm, trying to free yourself to no avail.

“Ha! You sound like [V],” [R] laughs, then half-turns when a jingle at the door grabs his attention. “[V]! Great timing. I was just talking about you.”

“Of course you were,” a new voice says. Presumably the one who jingles, but [R] is blocking your view so you can’t be sure.

“Come here, you grump. There’s someone you need to meet.” He pats your shoulder with the arm resting on you.

You turn to look, finally managing to disentangle yourself from the suffocating weight while [R]'s focus is elsewhere. The person at the door is shorter and leaner than [R], but almost everyone is. They’re dressed in black from head to toe, hiding in an oversized hoodie with its hood up, high-waisted jeans, and leather sneakers. Their hand, clutching tightly the equally black leather strap of their shoulder bag, is pink on the knuckles and fading bronze, like last summer’s tan in January.

“[MC], this is [V],” [R] says. “He’s our resident supervillain.”

Blood of the elder gods,” [V] mutters. “I’m not a supervillain!”

[R] ignores the comment. “[V], this…” he tries to pat your shoulder again, but finds you’re not in his grip anymore, so he transfers the movement to a half shrug instead, “…is [MC], who apparently can teleport. I told you they’d find someone to replace you eventually.”

[V] grunts something you can’t understand, and walks to the coffee machine at the back wall, brushing past [R]. He’d look gloomy if not for the shoulder bag you now get a proper look at when he passes you. Its pine green rain cover is practically hidden under a flock of embroidered patches and novelty badges, and an abundance of colorful reflectors, keychains, and bag mascots hangs on the sides, jingling on every step.

“Hey, I’m talking to you!” [R] says, rushing after him. “Seriously! This is why you get so many complaints in HR.”

“Leave me alone,” [V] says. He then pointedly turns his back and ignores [R], instead opting to reaching for a clean coffee mug from the cupboard—stretching a little, supporting his shoulder bag from slipping off with the other hand—and filling it with fresh coffee.

“I’m just saying, you’ll better start training [MC] here on how to do your job—”

[T] says nothing, he’s just quietly sitting there sipping his coffee and observing the interaction, an amused look on his face.

It seems they have actually forgotten your presence completely, apart from how to use you to annoy other people. Lovely.

[R] claps [V]'s shoulder from behind, making him freeze, but either [R] doesn’t notice or he doesn’t care—given your previous interactions you’re inclined to think the latter—and leans forward, supporting his weight on [V]'s shoulder.

“I said—” [V] says, voice suddenly ice cold.

[R]'s substantial frame is blocking your view, so you can’t really see what’s happening, but there is the unmistakeable sound of knuckles connecting with a nose, and [R]'s head snaps back. [V] moves like a snake; what follows then you’re not sure, but it ends with [R] on his knees on the floor, [V] holding him in an armlock.

For a moment, nobody moves. Then [V] blinks, looking slightly confused as if he himself wasn’t quite sure what had happened, and lets go. “—leave me alone, [R].”

“And you wonder why everyone calls you a supervillain,” [R] grumbles, holding his nose.

[V] huffs, grabs his coffee, and turns on his heels, all in sharp, angry moves.

[T] says nothing; he just gets up, takes some ice cubes from the freezer, wraps them in a towel, and gives the result to [R].

You ignore the pair and offer your hand for a handshake to [V]. “Hello, I’m—”

[V] ignores your outstretched hand and gives you a glare instead. “Leave me alone,” he repeats, then storms off. Jingling. You’re still trying to wrap your head around that.

No, you decide. Despite the shoulder bag, he definitely looks gloomy.

Now to move to something I actually should be writing. Although I probably should get some sleep first.

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Obligatory snippet time.
This time, it’s a flashback of one of the other main characters in Lily Adventuresses! Episode 1.

Flashback of the MacGyvering mage

Two and a half years ago…

This was from when I was about to graduate.
Emiliana and I were dispatched by the academy on a mission to retrieve a rare mineral that was stolen by a demon.
That mineral was essential for a mission-critical alchemy project, mind you.

Alongside an experienced swordsman, we tracked down the demon’s hideout, and we successfully retrieved the mineral.
But as it turned out, the demon set us up for an ambush, as he summoned hundreds of his minions just as we’re about to make our escape.
The swordie reacted…

Experienced Swordsman:
I have no problems taking on 20 of them myself, but hundreds?
This’ll be my first time.

Emiliana:
Sure, we have our magic, but our mana isn’t infinite, and the Ethers we carry can only go so far.

As my family always says, necessity is the mother of invention.
So to save precious mana, I had to come up with a new spell using a pre-existing one plus some items I had lying around.
Fortunately, I had some fever tablets in my pocket, and these suckers contain a chemical that is fatal to snakes.
Coincidentally, the minions the demon summoned were serpentine in origin.
Combining the tablets with some black powder I nabbed from the hideout, plus a handy-dandy Pyroclast-All spell…

Kathleen:
I’ve had it with you monkey-fighting snakes! Serpens Comedentis!

As expected, the spell snuffed out most of the minions; and the remaining ones, which numbered a measly 50 or so, were eliminated by us three without breaking a sweat.
And how about the demon?
He was no match for the swordie’s excellent combat skills, which were highly reminiscent of Jada’s.

Triumphant, we all came back to the Academy with the mineral.
For our feats, Emiliana and I were conferred special honors; and the swordsman was awarded a free scholarship!

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So randomtest passed successfully 50,000 times. Now, I must sleep and decide whether I want to do anything more. But I should be submitting an update in the next few days, and then I’m excited to start work on Season Three. And I’ve got plans for the first episode prepared.

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It’s been a while since I’ve shared a snippet; it’s good to be back in it!!

Are you trying to sell me a house?

“${doename}, are you with me?”

You blink, startled back into the present. Doe is watching you. She’s smiling again. The corners of her mouth pull a little too tight. The plastered-on smile doesn’t wipe away the cold, unfriendly look in her eyes.

“Sorry. I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

“I understand. Your situation has been quite…beguiling,” her voice is customer-service sharp. She raises her eyebrows. You think she might be trying to convey sympathy, but instead you feel trapped under her icy gaze.

Beguiling is one word for everything you’ve survived. You sigh and sit up straighter in the desk chair, doing your best to focus in on her. It’s been harder than you’d like to focus. For somebody with so little to do, you’ve been feeling remarkably distracted.

Something tells you that you want to keep your wits about you here. Even if you still aren’t completely sure why you were invited. You study Doe’s face, as if reading her expression could answer all of your questions.

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Snippet day!!

The RO's. And the reason I won't make a poly route.

As you’re about to respond, a familiar voice echoes from down the hall behind you. “I’ll take over from here,” Karus says. You turn to see ${kthem} waving off your guards.

“Excellent,” Anatole says. “You’ve proven to be so useful thus far. Om Kepa must have quite the strategic mind, for I cannot discern a single reason to set you, her most recent and glaring failure, to guard the door of her ward after last night’s attack. It bewilders a mind like mine.”

Karus slows ${ktheir} jog to a full halt only inches from Anatole and rests the butt of ${ktheir} spear on the floor, allowing the tip to lean forward toward your @{afm wife|husband}'s face just the slightest bit. “At least be brave enough to speak your treason plainly.”

“Oh, you must forgive me,” Anatole says, bringing a hand to ${atheir} chest in contrition. “You see, I didn’t think you intelligent enough to understand the barb!” Then, to you, before Karus has time to respond. “Rest well; I have some few matters still to attend to today.”

Once Anatole has made it down the hall and around the corner, Karus mutters “Ass.”

Goal progression:

6.5k words so far, 4k of which were dedicated to my WiP (and also so. much. editing. god my code is pristine now.)

ahahaha not even close!

I’m getting there! I think I’m a little over half way done with the chapter and am very optimistic that I can get it out around the end of the month! Hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself, but I feel good about it.

I moved this to the bottom because I thought it would be good to actually talk about it a bit. I talked about it some farther up the thread as well, but I have actual numbers today.

So far this month, I have seen 8 new WiPs. Of those 8, 6 specifically asked for feedback in the OP, and of those 6, I read and left a comment slap full of feedback on… all 6! Of the 6 I left feedback on, 5 writers responded to me (to ask clarifying questions, respond to the feedback, or thank me for the effort). Overall, I spent about 12 hours reading and leaving feedback.

There have been some downsides to this, a few of which I already talked about, but the time suck (I hesitate to use that term because it sounds so negative, but I can’t think of a more useful one atm) has been the biggest. Between work, class, my own writing, handling my family obligations, (various) community involvement, and actually having time to spend with my partner/friends, 12 hours is… significant. Assuming I see about the same amount of time for the remainder of the month, I genuinely don’t think that’s something I’d be able to keep up long term and I’d like to be able to dedicate more of that time to my own writing as well, limited as my free time already is.

But there have been upsides too! I feel good about making the effort to do this. A lot of the writers have said the feedback was helpful and I’ve seen some of it implemented in changelogs/demos. Villain Intern even added an internet iguana for my efforts!! I read a lot of things I probably wouldn’t have otherwise and found at least two WiPs that I enjoyed so much, I’m tracking them for updates.

Overall, unless something significant happens, I think that while this has been a good experiment and a rewarding experience, next month I will have to downsize my feedback ambitions. I’m not sure what that looks like yet, but it’s something I’m going to be thinking about going into the second half of the month.

:two_hearts:

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You should be proud of helping those six. It is hard work I am sure they value greatly.

I would love have a record like that lol. I have an astonishing smash record on the contrary Pissing fan bases. If the were a title for pissing reviewer It would have my avatar photo on it.

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:joy: :joy: :joy: Oh I could tell I stepped on some toes a few times. It’s difficult to tackle feedback sometimes–both as a reader giving it and a writer getting it. There have been a few times myself I’ve had to step back from responding defensively to a comment. I just tried to say things as kindly as I could while still being actually useful. I don’t know if I failed in that or if there was really no amount of tact that would have soothed certain sensitivities, but I have to settle for knowing I did my best to walk that line.

We could also put your avatar photo next to the title of “if you get a compliment from her, she fucking means it.” That’s a good thing.

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Adding up that diagonal is part of the puzzle.

I tend to prefer easier puzzles, as I do not want players to get stuck. Just the satisfaction of solving something, even if it was very easy.

(Plus, some of those riddles in The Dryad’s Riddle were downright unfair.)

Also, there are eight permutations of the picture when players fill in the numbers (three blank squares, so 2x2x2=8), and more blank squares means more pictures to make. :rofl:

Actually, another thing I’m curious about. When people here play CS games (outside of beta testing), do you prefer challenge and difficulty, or do you prefer to breeze through?

The text box (when I coded it) only accepts a single digit number.

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I prefer none. I don’t care as I don’t play I role-play. I play for choices and create a solid coherent story with a character. For me there is no win or lose. Several of my favorite plays are objectively a fail state for 99% of people.

But for my character made sense so it is worthwhile

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