WIP - Forsaken Duality

Oh, alright thanks for your help. Much appreciated.

Hey everyone, I’m here to give you guys an update on the current status of the game. (I would have just edited the post and put the update details there, but I opted to just place them in the comment section so the post wouldn’t get taken down.)

Moving forward, there are now currently 40k words in the game. There was 25k last update, so that means I’ve added a total of 15k more words to the narrative so far. I know thats not a crazy impressive number considering the time span I had from the last update to now, but I’ve just been busy is all, and I’ve been adding what I could to the narrative in my free time.

I would say that I’m in the final stretch of chapter one. There are just a few more sections I need to complete before I can move onto chapter two.

There are about 27 thousand-ish words in chapter one as of now, so thats where most of the narrative lies. So when it does eventually come out, you guy will have more than enough narrative to keep you entertained untill chapter two’s release.

But that was pretty much all I wanted to say. I just needed to let you guys know that this project wasn’t dead and is still actively being worked on.

I will be making an entirely new post when chapter one is out. I’ll add the link to this post whenever it goes live.

Other than that, I appreciate all the feedback I’ve received and can’t wait to hear more of your guys thoughs on the game.

(Clarification - I haven’t posted the updated files on dashingdon as of yet, that is because not every option on some selection of choices are complete, so I wouldn’t want to post half-assed work for you guys. Second, I intend to go over the prologue and chapter one as a whole once chapters one is finished. I’m doing that in an attempt to revitalize the narrative, like rearranging or entirely rewriting bodies of text. So, as of now, the game files on dashingdon are pretty much the same as they where last update. If you find any code errors or grammer mistakes in there, I’ve probably already fixed it, but please still site them so that I can be entirely sure I didn’t miss anything. Again, I appreciate all the support.)

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Good job i’m glad that you’re staying on the ambitions On the story!

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I am grateful for the support, and I’ll try my best not to disappoint🙏

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Chapter 1 is finally out!

It took me longer than expected but I finally managed to finish the scripting for chapter 1 (for the most part.) There are still quite a few things I need to touch up on but they’re minuscule in actuality.

I can not give you guys a definitive update schedule, I apologize for that, I’m just very inconsistent. Some days I feel like writing 5k words, and other days I just feel like writing 500.

Any constructive criticism to help me enhance the narrative or if you find any coding errors is greatly appreciated. I hope you guys enjoy what I currently have to offer.

Spoilers for the end section of chapter 1

For those who have made it to the end of chapter one, I assume that you noticed things felt a bit, anticlimactic. Like I built up the Amphibious Behemoth to be this big bad and imposing obstacle only for you to barely fight the thing and for it to be killed abruptly, and quite easily I might add.

The reason for this being the case is because once I finished writing the encounter, as I was going over re-reading it, I realized that I didn’t like how the flow of the fight went, I didn’t enjoy the confrontation at all to be honest. So after that realization I scraped the whole fight (for future use.) Now with the spirt that suddenly appeared, that was always suppose to happen. Initially it played a more minor role, it was going to confront you and give you that message for Veridian as you were walking back through the swamp after retrieving the gland from the amphibian. I just made it play a more prominent role in the overall narrative.

My new plans were for you to fight the sprit instead of the behemoth, but by the time I thought of that idea I was already too deep in with the amphibian, there were a bunch of variables and coding ingrained into that encounter that I’d put a lot of thought into. After I scraped the fight I had to find new uses for those variables, but at the time I was about done with chapter one as a whole, and I had my hands full with some other problems in the story at the time. So I just wrote that scene where the spirt kills the amphibian than proceeds to leave without a fight as a placeholder for that encounter while I worked on other things.

The conversation with Calista at the end of the chapter was a casualty as a result from my decision to scrape the amphibian. Since the outcomes of her dialogue depends on variables decided in that fight. I’m currently fixing that conversation scene at the moment, it should be fixed come next update.

But I’m surprising content with the way things are as of now, I don’t feel like the fight with the spirt is necessary. That’s why I wanted to ask your option as the readers. Do you feel like the encounter is good the way it is now, or should I proceed with what I initially planed and write the script for the fight with the sprit?

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Hey @Domeztik, I’ve merged the two threads so all the feedback is in the same place, and I’ve edited the thread title to reflect the new title.

Thank you for that, much appreciated🙏

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great update, looking forward to more in the future

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I’m impressed, the story is rather interesting. Can’t wait for chapter 2 to be fleshed out a little more so that I can really grasp the dynamic between the two MC’s. Great job so far though, I’ll definitely be on the lookout for updates👌

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Hey @HarrisPS, would you mind changing the title of the post to (WIP) instead of New WIP? I know it’s tedious, and I would have done it myself, but I’m not able to edit the title, I think my trust level is too low.

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Of course, no problem!

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Found an error in my second run -
chapter1 line 1394: Non-existant variable ‘bolt’

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Should be fixed now, thanks for pointing that out👍

The prologue was very well written, even though there weren’t alot of choices presented, I still felt very captivated and engaged.

Unfortunately the prologue was all I had to time read before I had to go to work. I will most definitely be tuning in again when I have some free time, I am eager to see how chapter 1 will play out.

Great work so far, your story has definitely peaked my interests👏

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Thank you for the support, I’m glad you enjoyed the game so far.

Chapter one is quite large, and I’m a little unsure if weather I missed polishing some things when going over it, so I am eager to hear your feedback on the chapter whenever you get the chance.

Thank you again for taking an interest in my work🙏

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I havent noticed any game breaking bugs though have noticed something strange at very start it mentions something about save when just loading it up lol
Aside from that just the occasional typo and im looking forward to seeing more.

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Glad you enjoyed it. As of the issue with the game asking if you want to save at the very beginning, that has to do with the save-plugin dashingdon implemented.

There’s a specific command you have to put into the startup file for it to work, there are two form of this command. I wanted to use the one where the player can save at any given point in the story without being prompted to do so, I copied the instructions down to the letter but the command refused to work.

After that, I had no choice but to use the other command where the games automatically pops out the save prompt everytime you launch it. It becomes pretty annoying after a while, but it’s only a stand-in save function I’m using until I find out how to get the other command working.

You’re still able to save your progress at any given point in the story but when you decide to relaunch the game after closing it you will be prompted if you want to override your save everytime you relaunch.

It’s pretty tedious and I’m going to fix it soon, but for the time being if you already have saved progress just always deny the prompt and there shouldn’t be any issues when loading your pervious save👌

Sorry for the inconvenience.

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Okay so after I finally got the time to read chapter one, I have to say that it was an enjoyable read overall, very good work👌 But damn you got me invested in chapter two only for it to abruptly end like that😤 I will definitely be on the lookout for more updates when that chapter is fleshed out more.

As for my thoughts on chapter one, from the little bits of dialogue we got from Calista, I find myself enjoying her character so far. I am also quite curious to learn more about Veridian and his character as well, he seems to be some sort of employer, I know the PC is a mercenary so that would make sense. I’m also assuming that our payment must be the treatment the PC’s needs, it’s only brought up a hand full of times so the specifics elude me, could it have to do with the PC’s lineage?

I do like the all the weapons you provided us with though, especially that saber, I always enjoyed the ability to manipulate blood in games, I find it to be such an interesting power. The whip seems promising as well, though we only got to see a little bit of it in action.

But I must say, I really enjoy the descriptions you put into the stat chart. I like how you describe each spell in fleshed out detail, and the bestiary that decribes the creatures we are hunting is quite intricate as well, it reminds me somewhat of the Witcher.

There is a stat on the chart that says feral but it’s opposing stat is blank. I don’t know if it’s a coding errors or if you just didn’t implement it. Regardless I thought you should know.

I would suggest that you provide a glossy to describe the difference between glyphs, sigils, and runes. And also explaining exactly what vitalium is. I’m assuming that it’s another form of mana since that’s what it seems like so far.

Anyway, other than that, it is a great story so far, keep up the good work, I’ll definitely be invested in your progress🙏

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Thank you for the support and feedback. As for your suggestion about adding a glossary, I had planned on implementing that soon after I finished creating the second stat chart for the other PC.

And about that blank stat on the chart, it’s supposed to say domesticated but it just refuses to show, I’ll fix it sooner or later but thanks for pointing that out as well.

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Hey everyone!

I’m excited to announce the latest update for the game!

Major Update Details:

  • Prologue and Chapter One: I’ve restructured their beginnings and polished the narrative to enhance the overall experience.
  • Chapter Two: A new stat chart has been introduced, along with an additional 10,000 words of content.

Over the past month, my time has been limited, but I’ve dedicated all the spare time I had to refining the prologue and Chapter One. There were numerous instances where the narrative flow needed improvement, so I gave these sections a thorough touch-up.

I value the feedback I’ve received so far and would love to hear more from you. Your insights into the game’s strengths and weaknesses are incredibly important. Specifically, I’m aiming to make the prologue more interactive without deviating from its core path. Any feedback that can help enhance this aspect would be greatly appreciated.

Lastly, I want to ensure future updates are more consistent. Please let me know your preference: would you rather have smaller updates of around 5,000 words each time or larger updates of 10,000 to 20,000 words?

I hope you enjoy the new content. I’m eager to hear your thoughts and opinions!

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