Possibly bad news (Patreon)

Okay, so in the interest of being really honest with you all, I'd like to let you know what specifically the holdup is with the demo. (To reiterate, Triangulate is continuing with Ice Level art, and if we can't get the demo out in time for the end of the month, then we'll likely put up more art from the demo if people want that, or maybe even a preview of some of the Ice Level stuff if Triangulate's ok with it.)

Essentially, about a week or so ago, Cheshire was working on Future Fragments, and all of a sudden the game developed a massive memory leak.

For those of you who don't know what a "memory leak" is, basically imagine a gigantic ship, and it's got a tiny, tiny leak in it, the size of a fingernail, but this leak can cause the boat to slowly flood and sink.

The problem is, this particular leak, while still being the size of a fingernail... it lets in about 50,000 gallons a second. So the minute you start up the game, it quickly eats up 20 GB. Of RAM. Within about 5 seconds.

I'm not a programmer myself, but according to what he's said (and this makes sense from what I know of programming), the memory leak was sort of a cascade effect; it's something deep, deep in his programming, so it's not something where he can just rewind back to an earlier date of the game's code; it's something that if he doesn't fix now, no matter what he does, future iterations of the game will do this at some point.

Now, for those of you who are programmers, you probably are already kind of shitting bricks at this point, because you realize how ridiculously difficult and time-consuming it is to search for a memory leak like this; big studios generally have to employ something like 30+ people going ham on this full time to find something on AAA games because it's like searching for a coin in the ocean.

Luckily, Future Fragments isn't THAT huge, but Cheshire has spent pretty much all this time in the last week or so searching for this leak. He's down to the final 10%-ish of his code and still hasn't found it, despite literally testing it 16 hours a day, nonstop. (The dude's wearing clothes with blood on them from his last hospital incursion, lol)

So, we're basically facing three options (none of which will end the game, to avail any fears of that);

1) He finds the memory leak in the last 10% of code and fixes it and everyone is happy. This is the most preferable outcome, as it means we'd absolutely get the demo out before the end of the month.

2) We find some awesome programmers, and they grind through the code together, trying to find whatever the heck is causing the leak; if we go this route, we'll likely go in tandem with outcome 3) at the same time, but ANYONE who finds the memory leak's cause, I'll give them $300 of the Patreon money and a link on the activity feed page to whatever Patreon project they're doing or whatever else they'd like so long as it doesn't break Patreon rules.

3) This is the least preferable outcome, as it's going to take the longest amount of time; Cheshire would need to port the game to C++, which he intended to do to begin with, but he wanted to do it AFTER this demo was released as it'll take about 2-ish weeks to port the whole thing over and make sure it's running right, and then to compile a garbage-finding program that would directly root out the source of the memory leak, upon which he could fix it, and release the demo. (Notably, this route would make the demo even better than before in terms of aesthetics like dynamic light, loading times, and more, but we'd REALLY rather not have to delay this another two weeks.)

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So, in case Cheshire can't find the leak, we're asking for your help, any of you who are skilled, talented programmers; if that fits you, and you fit these requirements, then email me at hentaiwriter@gmail.com

- You have extended knowledge of "GML" and GameMaker

- You have at least basic CPP skills

- You have a full understanding of "Structs"

In the event that Cheshire gets through the code and CAN'T find the cause, we'll be contacting you.

I should also note, even if you AREN'T the person that finds the memory leak, I can always, always use skilled programmers for future projects, so if you volunteer for this, it's highly likely I'll find a project for you to work on in the future where you *will* get paid for sure, even if you don't find the leak this time.

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And as always, two reminders;

- Triangulate is continuing to work on the game's art, so progress on the game as a whole is not at a standstill; those of you pledging to us are not having your money go to waste.

- If you do want a refund however because you're dissatisfied with our progress or any other reason, please contact me at hentaiwriter@gmail.com or send me a PM on Patreon and I'll be happy to give you a refund, in full.

Crossing my fingers that Cheshire finds it, but if not, at least the port to C++ will make the game that much better (and it'll be out of the way too, as it'll be a necessary evil we have to undertake anyways)!

Thanks so much again for understanding and being patient; all three of us are feeling pretty bad for letting everyone down like this, and again, we fully understand if you've lost faith in us, but we're hoping once the demo's out, we can redeem some of that. Thanks so much again, seriously.

I’ll of course keep everyone updated on if he finds it or not or if we need help or not. :)