Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Dev Log #87

Hiya there! I hope you're all doing well! We're finally escaping the evil clutches of winter and it's starting to warm up at long last. I'll finally be able to cut back on heating bills, so rejoice, haha.

I'm back just before the end of the month to cap things off with another dev log--admittedly a shorter one than usual, but I hope to get back into the full swing of things come April!

To recap what I've been working on over the month, I aim to have at least 2 new h-scenes in the upcoming alpha build (that I admittedly fell behind on, aaaa) along with some cutesy non-h event scenes that build up Matt's relationship with some of the characters. I'm also aiming to implement a 'free' mode that plays out once the current story material runs its course, so that you can go on day-to-day and experience the remaining present events in the game without running into roadblocks or being told to reload your save. This will take some testing to make sure nothing breaks in the meantime, since a few events are very time sensitive, but it should make testing things a WHOLE lot easier, but for myself and everyone else.

This also leads me to something else I've been having to take into account with the more events I add for each character. Since my biggest concern is that if people chose a specific set of choices, they might end up burning out a character's entire set of events in a day or two--and this isn't the intended way to experience them, nor does it make too much sense in a narrative sense. It's not my intention to limit players too much, though, or dictate where or when they should be able to experience certain moments--but rather I feel it might get a little exhausting if you end up seeing back to back h-scenes for a single character without any variety in between.

So the more complex things get (and you'd probably scratch your head if you saw the script files at this point haha) I came up with a relatively simple solution that effectively acts as a cooldown for a character.
If you engage in a special event with a character, be it a h-scene or a cutesy relationship boosting moment (smaller interactions like just casually talking to them don't count) that specific area you met the character, or the character themselves will be flagged in a variable. This variable is checked before you enter the area or talk to the character, to see if you've previously interacted with them in a day. And if it's marked as on, you'll be unable to see them until the next day. (Matt will usually cite something like not wanting to bother them, or he's too exhausted from earlier with them. Winkwink.) Where, at the start of each day, I have a big series of events that check to see if any cool-downs or active and then appropriately reset them for the next day. With the amount of stuff open to you at any given point in the story, I feel that these cool-downs won't end up limiting you, but rather encourage you to explore around and see what other places you can find! That special girl of your dreams isn't going to up and run away overnight, I promise, she can wait! (Most of the time, anyway...)

As well as proper cool-downs, I found that just from the way the game is designed that a bunch of 'natural' cool-downs ended up popping up as a result. Be it the transition from day to night swapping and limiting certain events, and the gold at hand potentially gating you from seeing too many events at once (with a certain holy nun~). I'll definitely be balancing and tweaking things as I go along, to see what feels most appropriate--but so far I'm really happy with how it's all going!

Between these cool-down flags, Matt's gold, camp neglect values and then all the relationship points on top of it all, Chapter Two has definitely broken away from the linear shackles that Chapter One had! Time will tell if the more open feeling benefits the gameplay, but so far I'm really proud of what I've achieved!

How do you personally feel about h-scenes and events being more carefully dished out throughout the game? Do you feel compelled to explore around as a result, or is being gated from a girl of your choice for any in-game day more frustrating as a result?