Dev diary (1) (Patreon)

I had no idea how to title this post, so I guess developer diary will be just fine!

I just wanted to share some thoughts and experiences regarding GGGB with you guys. I rarely get a chance to play my own game nowadays, as I'm constantly caught up in the development cycle, but from time to time I dive into it so refresh some story paths and to see if all the pieces in that branch fit together. Often I find possibilities I wasn't really aware of and my own game surprises even me, that's how complex and interconnected everything is. 

This time I decided to try and play a bimbo Ash who nonetheless tries to redeem herself once she starts dating Dave, making it possible for bimbo Ash to be in a pure and honest relationship with Dave. Surprisingly, it was possible, but I stumbled upon some bugs and inconsistencies no one seemed to be aware of, even my awesome bug reporters. So, after tweaking a few things, I discovered it is possible and coherent for bimbo Ashley not to be a huge slut and connect with her romantic feelings once again.

For those of you who are curious how to get this route, there are a couple of specific and not intuitive things to do: you need to have quite a lot of bad points (I think fore than 30 or 35) and not more than 9 good points when Ashley gets the option of changing from "sexy" to "whore".  This happens just a bit after you get the option to get Dave as a boyfriend, and it is perfectly possible to be totally faithful to him from this point onwards. Once she is in "whore" status, if you get the boobjob she will get the option to become bimbo regardless of her good/bad points ratio. So, you have to get a lot of bad points early on and get below 10 good points, but if you get too low on good points too early, you won't get the option to fall in love with Dave. And while you're getting bad points, is crucial to not ask Jack to "fuck me the whore I am" and not to tell Arthur you love him. If you do any of those, Ash will become hooked to them and cheat on Dave. But if you don't, you can stop being bad and get some good points back during your relationship with him. 

So yeah, I had to go back and test a lot of different possibilities to make sure I wasn't missing any possible combination. And I'm sure this happens with a lot more combinations of choices and branches, so polishing the game after it's finished won't be an easy task! I guess I could just make it impossible for bimbo Ash to be in a loving and faithful relationship to streamline things, but... I guess I'm just a masochist and I love to add as much depth as I possibly can to the game! There are more nuanced story permutations I would like to add here and there, but they will have to wait until the main stories are finished and tied up.

For those of you who want to replicate the path I just described, you'll have to wait to v0.27Preview for it to be viable and stable.

So yeah, I just wanted to share with you my little adventure diving into the game's code. I'm aware I used to post and communicate a lot more often back at the start of the project, but as work keeps getting more and more complex I just can't find the time to do it... I guess you've noticed this month I've been trying to post more often and think about topics and strategies to engage with you guys more, as I don't want to be a distant creator. I really value the following and community around my Patreon page, without you guys there wouldn't be a game at all and this project would have died a long time ago. So, as always, thank you so much and hopefully I can become more socially active once again! (I'm behind on schedule for v0.27 though, so wish me luck because these next weeks I will be working my ass off...)