Everstone Daycare - April Demo

I'm a day late, but it's here!

Howdy everyone!

Delayed, again, but we are slowly working on improving the workflow of the project and there are definitely new learnings and changes to be made to try to improve more. Last month, we attempted a switch up where I would focus more on programming additional features and fixing bugs while Spooky would handle all the writing in an attempt to see if this would be a better, faster way for us to handle things. It unfortunately fell through as there was a miscommunication of the way the story needed written and formatted and I needed to pivot back to story writing last minute, using what we had as a guide, causing me to have to delay testing the new features to be added and ultimately, the release of the demo itself.

We will continue to work on improving the speed and efficiency of our releases, and hopefully find one that lets us bring you the story we want to tell in a timely manner. Hopefully, any new changes in our process that we try don't end up causing us another delay similar to this one.

Back on the topic of the game itself, this is the first time I've attempted to coded what could be considered a branching path, with one leading to one of the first [BAD ENDINGS], which the $10 have already seen a preview of. To access the new section of the story, after the Garchomp punishment scene, please interact with Ekans while holding the blue key. This continues your interactions with Ekans and where that road will lead to, with the path branching depending on how much you value Ekans as a friend.

There are a few new tricks that I've learned how to do that I've implemented in these sections. Nothing huge, but open up what I'll be able to do in the future. I always end up underestimating the amount of thought it takes to string scenes together using triggers, flags, and variables and has so far been an unexpected challenge every time. I already have a college background on programming and coding, but this is definitely a new venture for me and a new way of thinking I have to get used to. 

I've also discovered that demos carry over which dialogue had already been read in past demos, allowing you to skip through them with the fastforward feature via the [AUTO] button in future releases. As handy as this is, this might cause issues in case I need to change certain text or add new dialogue in old content that people might just fastforward through and not see.

What that in mind, I will be changing my stance on adding flags which disable the fastforward feature to the game. I am planning to add them at the beginning of every dialogue tree and major scene. This will prevent the fastforward setting from carrying over from one conversation to the next when interacting with NPCs and objects. Currently, not all dialogue trees and scenes added prior to this demo have them, but I will continue to go through all the old content and make sure it is there. Please feel free to point out if it is bothersome to deal with, or if I missed some place where you would have liked me to have added it in.

As always, all feedback and bug reports are appreciated. I've been getting a better handle on writing (I think), and any feedback on my writing style, especially with how I've written the more 'exciting' scenes, would also be helpful. 

Without further ado, please enjoy the game!

Edit

The Mac version is now available!

I've updated the game file to fix the following bug(s):

• Clicking on the door to the nap room and the hallways going to the cafeteria causes imagebuttons from other scenes to appear on the current scene.
• Handing over the key to Salandit causes you to be unable to leave the room. I've removed the prompt for it, allowing you to leave even without holding the key.
• Opening Buizel's locker was not properly sending you to the correct scene.

Disclaimer

Any saves carried over from previous demos might cause issues when playing through them in the current demo. In the event that any flags, variables, and other data were changed in a scene after you had completed it already in your current save file, you might not be able to access the new content. Creating a new game file is advised. 

Install Instructions

Please extract the game folder to your directory of choice, and then run the 'Everstone Daycare.exe' file within to play the  game. Enjoy!

Please note for the Mac version that this is not a signed app, so you may encounter an error  when first trying to open this program. Please follow the instructions  on this support page to work around this.

Walkthrough

If you're stuck, please refer to this document: Everstone Daycare Walkthrough 

Known Issues

• Character sprites may become invisible during the scene if you go through dialogue boxes too quickly. They return the next time their character is sprite is supposed to appear. I assume this is because you can go too fast for the sprite finish fading in, causing it to skip it entirely and leave them unloaded.
• The font color changes to blue randomly when interacting with an npc or object. Switching rooms fixes this problem.
• Leaving via the Changing Room after distracting Nurse Charmeleon can prevent you from progressing the story.