Dear Diary, We Created a Plot Hole!

Dev blog for DDWCaPH!, an interactive slice-of-life fantasy adventure novel. Go to @in-auctorem-credimus-if for spoilers and sneak peeks about DDWCaPH! @franzinyte-writes is my primary blog.

[ddwcaph-game]

Dear Diary, We Created a Plot Hole!

The day after you and your twin rewrote your mother's unfinished bedtime story, you quickly find out why she never finished it. You have unleashed a plot hole—a portal to different story worlds—and now the villains from the stories you've written have become real. They're here to crash your school fieldtrip, and they're here to finish your mother's story for good. Grab your plot armor and join your twin and friends in a meta-fictional adventure! Explore different story worlds—from fantasy and sci-fi, to mythology and mystery. Will you discover the truth behind your mother’s story? Or will villains, plot twists, and character development prevent you from getting your happily ever after?

Dear Diary, We Created a Plot Hole! is an interactive slice-of-life fantasy adventure story. (Demo Link below)

DDWCaPH! is written as a love letter to all the kids-at-heart out there, who’d like to revisit their childhood and reimagine it as one big fantasy adventure.

It’s a light-hearted and whimsical slice-of-life, but the story also aims to explore, deconstruct, and reconstruct the themes about growing up and the more serious tropes about what it means to be a character in a story (such as character deaths and the abundance of orphan protagonists).

Volume 1 of DDWCaPH! is set in a fictional city in the Philippines, but later volumes will each feature a different genre and story world to explore.

If you like episodic shows and stories with a deeper overarching mystery, then this story is just for you!

⭐ Create a completely unique character!

With over 200+ customizable character traits available for you and your twin that each affect the story in their own way, you can be anything you want! You can be a stoic cuddlebug with a sweet tooth, a competitive and precocious yet manipulative crybaby, or be an aspiring astronaut-slash-demigod while developing your own secret language with your twin! Check out the Twin Character Template to see a preview of some of the things you can customize!

⭐ Explore different story worlds!

Choose from 8 origin story genres: Fantasy, Fairytales, Sci-Fi, Mythology, Horror/Supernatural, Mystery, Superheroes, and Adventure! Pilot a flying school bus, join a pirate gang, and solve the mystery of your mother’s secrets, as you complete side-quests and fight legendary monsters alongside your army of adorable animal companions (and maybe sing to a musical)!

⭐ Retcon the narrative with your magical locket's powers!

Use your magical locket’s powers to retcon your mother's bedtime story! Develop telepathy/empathy powers, and find out what effects your choices have on the story! Keep track of your choices, as well as your treasure collection and secrets you’ve discovered with your inventory and personal diary! What other powers and abilities will you unlock?

⭐ Inevitable puppy love (and friendship) subplots!

Develop friendships and crushes with your classmates and other companions as you travel through enchanted forests, post-apocalyptic colonies, and maybe even the u̴͇̓n̵̗̾̇d̸͎̹̽e̷̖̤̋ŗ̷̊ͅw̷͎̳̚o̷̰̓͝r̶̞̆̒l̵͎̄͜d̷̤̺̃.

⭐ See how your choices compare to others!

At the end of the demo, you will be able to see the percentage of readers who picked the same choices as you!

🚀 PLAY THE DEMO  (Ver. 2.1.5.41 - Updated Aug. 31, 2024)

The public demo for DDWCaPH! is currently unavailable. Stay tuned for when the next update will be available!

🌐 PLAY IN AUCTOREM CREDIMUS

Current word count including code: ~52,000

In Auctorem Credimus is a sidequel short story I made in Twine for the interact-if ranked game jam! IAC won 1st Place in the Story & Plot Category, and 3rd Place Overall!

Please note that IAC contains heavy spoilers for DDWCaPH! and is told from an adult's perspective. It'll also be updated in the future to include more side stories. Follow the IAC side blog (@in-auctorem-credimus-if) for spoilers and sneak peeks!

❓ FAQs and Ask Guidelines 

📚 Ask Me Stuff! 

🏷️ Tags List

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦Characters Page (Mobile Friendly Version)

🖍️ Twin Character Templates

🔍 Trinkets and Secrets Guide

💬 Discord Server

⚙️Forum Thread

🎥 Animated Trailer Preview

⭐ Reblogs and asks are very much appreciated! ⭐

[ddwcaph-game]

hihihi !! could I make f6e in tomodachi life ?? 🫶🫶

Hehe, yes! I'm not very familiar with the game, but I don't see why not! I wouldn't mind seeing them either if you do. 😊

[ddwcaph-game]

Hi, I hope you're doing well! I love this interactive fiction, and I saw it hasn't been updated in a while. I was wondering if this was still being worked on or is it abandoned.

Hello there, hi! I'm still working on DDWCaPH! and I have never abandoned it for a moment. 😊

Anyway, sorry again (to everyone that's still here) for the radio silence. I've been meaning to post a little update at the start of the new year, but then I got kinda sick that makes it hard for me to focus on writing, and at that point I didn't really want to share something that's basically just "I promise I'm still working on it!"

That said, I am still kinda sick, but I'm finally on my way to recovery. As for the update... well, there's still a lot left for me to finish, but hopefully progress will start picking back up again. I DID FINISH most of the code and technical stuff, so all that's left for me is the actual writing, so there's that.

Honestly there's A TON of little things I've added all over the story, and the change log is going to be a whole chapter in itself when I finish it. There won't be a new chapter in the next update, but this might be the biggest update in terms of scope, and pretty much the WHOLE game experience is different.

Maybe I'll start being a little more active here again :3

[ddwcaph-game]

franzinyte bring ddwcaph back and my life is YOURS

Hello! The update still isn't close to being finished, but I figured I owe you guys an update before the new year, so I have both good news and bad news. The bad news is that the demo is delayed again, but the good news is that I'm working on something that should DOUBLE the current replayability of the demo.

Yup, New Game+ is coming with the next update! New Diary+ (or New Demo+ since it's just a demo) will be available once you finish the demo. That means there's another reason to replay the demo beyond just choosing different choices!

I've always had the idea of adding a New Game+ feature to the game for a long time now, but until now I didn't have a clear idea of what that would entail.

What's so special about New Diary+ anyway?

A LOT. Besides new exclusive choices, branches, quests, traits, locket upgrades and all that kind of stuff, there will be an ENTIRELY NEW SUBPLOT running in parallel with the main story. (And no, it's not IAC)

Think of it as a personalized extended epilogue, where you get to see and interact with the future consequences of your actions, while also getting the chance to reflect on those choices and choose something differently.

If you don't mind some minor spoilers/sneak peeks, this will be the first choice you encounter when you replay the demo in New Diary+:

Yup, New Diary+ is MC retelling the whole story to their five-year-old sibling/child/godchild/grandchild! To keep it short, I'll be referring to them as "Bunso" (Tagalog for the youngest child in the family). Bunso will be customizable to an extent and have their own traits (although not as much as MC).

Bunso will interrupt the story every so often during important story beats (like new character introductions) to react and ask questions. MC can reflect back on their previous choices and relationships, as well as discuss storytelling tropes with Bunso (such as MC's opinion on infodumps and spoilers), and influence what kind of storyteller they will be in the future.

You'll be able to narrate the story along with your twin, F6E, and the other characters, but it will start with just the two of you. And before you ask, you can choose if you get married later with the crush options and choose how many kids you have together (if you choose the adult/senior options). That will all be happening while a new subplot is brewing in the background—this isn't just a rehash of the story.

There's also the fact that with an increased Max NP, MC will now be able to pick some of the NP options they can't choose before, plus some exclusive new locket upgrades (such as unlocking twin telepathy as early as Volume 1, or being able to see all the hidden stats that the regular locket notification doesn't show you).

How spoilery is New Diary+?

I know this is a spoiler minefield, so there'll be a new setting you can choose at the start:

Minimal Spoilers: Most spoilers will be ████████ or hidden entirely

IAC Spoilers: Unhides most explicit and implied spoilers mentioned in IAC, but spoilers beyond that point are still hidden

There will still be plenty of minor spoilers and teasers about what happens to the characters post-plot, such as MC having a younger sibling (otherwise the whole concept of retelling the story doesn't make sense), but I won't be revealing most of the details so hopefully it makes you more excited and ask more questions instead!

In fact, Bunso will be quite annoyed at MC at how many spoilers they can't talk about yet. I love how they have so much personality already. 😄

Why work on this now and delay the update again?

Simply because it's fun to write and think about. It's a much needed break for me to avoid getting burnt out, and writing a story is more fun if you don't have everything figured out. There's also the fact that it's better for me to lay out the groundwork for this now, so that I don't have to make too many changes later.

It also gives me a chance to mention the other four crush options that are yet to be introduced. You don't actually learn much (if at all) about them, but I'm just happy that they actually "exist" in the game now and not just hidden in my notes and the code.

I figured adding an extra couple or so weeks to the wait time is worth it for the amount of sneak peeks and replayability that it adds. After this, I won't be devoting any more significant development/writing time to ND+, so this is just a one-off, and later updates will not be affected.

That said, I do have to mention that ND+ as it stands is more of a "proof of concept" and is not in any way representative of its final version or quality. Most of the choices/dialogue is structured in a way to avoid spoilers, so those will be structured differently when the game is actually finished (some choices will just become flavor text, for example). There also isn't much in the flavor text department, since I'm not spending time on something that will most likely be changed later.

***

Anyways, I wish you all a Happy New Year!

[ddwcaph-game]

Hello!! I just want to say that i super duper loved your game!! It was my favorite hosted game ever!! Slice of life is a very rare thing in text-based sort of stories, so yours instantly catched my eye. I understand that you're turning it into a visual novel (yay!!) and i'm so very excited. Ever since dashingdon went down, i was like looking for your game (i forgot the name lol), and then i eventually gave up trying to find it, but then suddenly this shows up on my FYP!? This is awesome and I'm so glad i found it again and yayayayayayay!!!

Hiii hello there! Thank you! It's always nice waking up to messages like this. 😄 And it's awesome you found my game again like that, hehe. The next update for DDWCaPH! will still be in the new CoGDemos site, I'm just not sure what's my next step after that.

Anyway, here's another small update for everyone:

Progress on the game is still going, but I just recently finished playing through the newest demo of OLNF, and you bet I've got all sorts of new ideas and inspiration from it, so… the update's going to take even longer than I thought. 😅 But I promise it's for the best! I'm honestly still a mess (in a good way) after all the Step 2 stuff (mostly because playing as teen Roselyna is a whole experience), but I hope I can channel all those feelings into making the game better. I'm genuinely excited to continue writing after playing it!

On another note, I also got a breakthrough regarding the worldbuilding in Wayne's story world! I really can't spoil much, but I think this is the last important piece I needed figuring out to have a concrete idea of the Volume 2 plot. And yes, this affects some of the existing secrets and hidden details that's already in the story. Now there's even more clues hidden in plain sight about Nestor and Mary's true backstory!

[ddwcaph-game]

HIIII!!!!! Just wanted to say that I really adore your game and it was was got me into IFs <33 Is the game still in work or it's frozen?/(DONT FEEL PRESSURED TO RESPOND!!)

Hiii hello there! The game is still absolutely going! The biggest problem with the update taking too long, is that I get new ideas while working on it so the update takes even longer 😅

I don't wanna ramble about why it's taking too long, but I'm still semi-active posting sneak peeks in the Discord! It's been a while so I get really iffy about posting non-major updates here when I haven't made actual progress in a while. You know, small things like Wayne now playing the basketball and having a treehouse in his backyard, Rosie's house now having a second floor, JM and Little B starring in their own commercial, updated enneagram traits, a surprise character appearance in Chapter 5...

Anyway, I know I don't like setting deadlines, but my goal is to finish the update this year so I can finally move on. Thank you for the kind message! 😊

[ddwcaph-game]

Dear Diary, Hi! I was thinking about DDWCAPH again and in particular the whole trait system this game uses for developing the MC! I think it's really neat and not something I've seen in other IFs before. I was curious if this mechanic was inspired by anything in particular or if it's just something you came up with? Hope everything is going well for you!!

Hello there! I'm doing alright, thank you! I've taken a break for some self-care and to avoid burnout, but I'm mostly back to writing again!

History of the Traits System

Yes! It was indeed inspired by an old demo in Dashingdon (RIP) called Set in Stone. I liked how the adjectives in the customization choices in that game were bolded. It's just a simple formatting change that improves clarity, but to me that bold text feels like it was highlighting some important aspect of your character. I remember some planned stuff in the stats screen listing traits like if your MC was creative or attractive based on your choices, but it never got updated past the prologue.

The trait system wasn't in the first version of the game (back when it was still titled TILAEYO), but that's how the idea of traits started in the first rewrite. It was mostly physical characteristics at first, then some twin dynamics like the Leader/Follower Twin. It's mostly for adding flavor text, but somewhere along the way, I decided to put some personality stat bonuses to the traits. The idea is that if your MC is the Leader Twin, your Outgoing Personality will stay relatively high to reflect that, even if you pick reserved choices, and so you don't feel "forced" to keep picking outgoing choices.

From there on, I kinda got addicted to adding bonuses to all the other traits. It always annoyed and bothered me when IFs add all these customization choices which then get forgotten and never acknowledged later. The Traits system is my way of showing the player that YES, I keep track of the customization choices. That's why I also added the emoji markers, to show which traits specifically made certain choices (un)available.

That eventually led to more trait ideas (basically anything that could add potential flavor text later), until I fully embraced the RPG aspect of the game and added the Ancestry/Heritage Traits. It was mostly boring stat bonuses at first, but the introduction of the NP system allowed me to do more creative and flavorful stuff with them.

And then that culminated with the Locket Upgrade system that I'm adding in the next update, which allowed me to be more liberal with adding EXP bonuses. Think of the upgrades as unlocking "traits" for your locket. 😄

Other Mechanics

Since we're on the topic, the secrets mechanic in the game was also inspired by Evertree Inn, one of my favorite mystery CoG/Hosted Games. It has a clue system that keeps track of your discoveries, and the text in the stat screen would update whenever you uncover a new detail. Not all of them were particularly important, which is partly why some of the secrets you can discover in my game aren't always plot relevant. It also fits the diary theming, so there's that. Not everything in your diary is super important, although some of them could be foreshadowing later, hehe.

The Trinkets mechanic was partly inspired by the game 'The Binding of Isaac', which had trinkets you can collect for a minor passive bonus, although you can only keep one or two at a time. So that's why the random collectibles also give you minor bonuses. It didn't make sense for MC to only keep one trinket, but the idea sort of stayed now that I've added the Souvenirs.

***

Anyway, thanks for sending in this question! I'm still very much alive, I just keep adding new stuff so that's why it's taking a while. 😅

[ddwcaph-game]

missing this if!! the way you write is so fun, but also take care of yourself!!

Thank you for checking in with me! ☺️ I'm still not sure when the update will be ready, but I really hope it'll be worth the wait!

As a bit of silver lining, I think I've learned a lot how to structure future scenes so big branchy scenes (hopefully) won't take me as long anymore. I still think progress will go a lot faster when I'm finally done with Chapter 5.

Anyway, I'm still planning to share more previews later. And when I'm done with the update, I might also share how I write the scenes, so you can see why scenes take me so long to write.

[ddwcaph-game]

Hello everyone!

As I mentioned earlier, I'll be sharing more information about the new EXP/NP mechanic! Hopefully this should tide you all over while you wait for the next update. 😊

What's the new mechanic about?

Before I begin, let me preface this by saying that I plan to keep DDWCaPH! character-focused and NOT a stats-focused game. In fact, I've designed the new mechanics to be as simple and as unobtrusive to the story as possible, with the side effect of making some of the current traits/souvenirs with overloaded effects simpler.

The old EXP System

Alright, so the EXP system has always been kind of an afterthought (since leveling up from 12 to 13 takes very long). It feels like gaining EXP has no point at all, especially when you get more bonuses from acquiring traits and discovering trinkets.

With the introduction of NP, I tried to solve this by increasing your Max NP whenever you earn a certain amount of EXP. I still wasn't satisfied, but now that there's an NP mechanic, I was finally able to think of a solution to that, along with another problem I had: How do I introduce the special interactions from Ancestry/Heritage Traits without being too jarring? It would be weird if Dragon MC can suddenly just fly, and it would also be weird if they always knew they could.

I didn't go with a traditional leveling up system at first, since I wanted to keep the age = level thing, until I realized that it doesn't have to be MC leveling up, it could be the locket instead!

Introducing: Locket Upgrades!

Starting the next update, earning EXP will now level up your locket! Leveling up increases your Max NP, and gives you 1 Locket Upgrade point to spend.

Since I don't want it to be distracting, you can only spend the upgrade points at the end of every chapter. I'm also including a chapter summary in the next update (instead of just the end-of-playthrough summary), so that felt like a natural, non-disruptive place to put the Locket Upgrade menu. I might change it so that you can upgrade whenever in the VN version, but that's how it'll be for now.

What kind of upgrades can I get?

The Locket Upgrades are divided into 4 categories:

Stat Upgrades

Narrativium Upgrades

Relationship Upgrades

Special Upgrades

Here's a preview of what the upgrade menu looks like:

Most upgrades can be upgraded up to ten times. So if something says +2%, the maximum would be +20%. However, to encourage spreading out your points and not just dump all of them into Knowledge, the upgrades will have level restrictions.

The 2nd upgrade is unlocked at Level 5, the 3rd upgrade at Level 10, while the 10th upgrade is unlocked at Level 100. This will most likely change, but you'll be able to reach Level 20 at around 90,000 EXP, while Level 100 can be reached around 1,300,000 EXP (the original EXP required to level up from 12 to 13).

The first four stat upgrades (the Rubescent ones) will have a different name according to your locket's gem, and your locket shape will determine whether you get Heartful Innocence or Starful Sophistication (I'm only showing both for demo purposes).

I didn't want it to be overwhelming, so some of the upgrades are locked until you finish certain chapters, when they become relevant.

I tried to add a variety of upgrades for each playstyle, so even if you don't spend any NP, you can still benefit from the upgrades.

Special Upgrades

The Special Upgrades category is way too long to show here, so here's a list of all the upgrades instead. All of the genre-exclusive upgrades are only unlocked once you finish Volume 1 (you get upgrades for both your favorite genres), but most of them are one-time upgrades (that cost 5 upgrade points to unlock).

Here's where you unlock the special interactions. I've always planned Fairytale MC to be able to talk to animals, but now I can avoid the "jarring" problem: now you need to unlock "Aesop's Wisdom" to be able to do so. This also has the bonus of making the progression feel more "earned", rather than MC being able to automatically talk to animals just because you picked Fairytales as your fave genre.

Some of the special upgrades are just stat bonuses, but that allows me more freedom to spread out the effects of the more complicated traits/trinkets. Most souvenirs now have less/weaker effects at the beginning (which helps avoid the problem of overwhelming the reader during the prologue), but you will be able to upgrade them later to be much more powerful. This delayed upgrade means I can add more fun effects to the souvenirs without worrying about "this is way too powerful for the first chapter".

The upgraded Ancestry traits (the "+" versions) that you get when you choose fantasy are now called Legacy Traits, and is now locked behind the "Daddy's Legacy" upgrade. Meanwhile, all sources of Enhanced Senses are now temporary. Enhanced Senses was way too polarizing (you also had no idea which traits grant it), so now everyone has the option to unlock it permanently after Volume 1.

Closing Thoughts

I've always loved coming up with game mechanics ever since I was very little, which is how the idea of MC pretending to be in an RPG came to be. I'm not spoiling what the other upgrades do for now, but I guess you can always peek at the code later. I did have a lot of fun brainstorming the upgrade effects and the upgrade names. You can tell I got some of them from TV Tropes.😄

That said, I hope this makes you more excited for the next update! Most of this has been coded already (minus the parts you can't unlock yet), so you don't need to worry about that. I really think tying the story and game mechanics this way will make the overall game experience much better.

Let me know what you guys think! I'd also love to know what kind of upgrades you'd want to focus on (or if you have any speculations about what effects the other upgrades do)!

[ddwcaph-game]

Hello everyone!

As I mentioned earlier, I'll be sharing more information about the new EXP/NP mechanic! Hopefully this should tide you all over while you wait for the next update. 😊

What's the new mechanic about?

Before I begin, let me preface this by saying that I plan to keep DDWCaPH! character-focused and NOT a stats-focused game. In fact, I've designed the new mechanics to be as simple and as unobtrusive to the story as possible, with the side effect of making some of the current traits/souvenirs with overloaded effects simpler.

The old EXP System

Alright, so the EXP system has always been kind of an afterthought (since leveling up from 12 to 13 takes very long). It feels like gaining EXP has no point at all, especially when you get more bonuses from acquiring traits and discovering trinkets.

With the introduction of NP, I tried to solve this by increasing your Max NP whenever you earn a certain amount of EXP. I still wasn't satisfied, but now that there's an NP mechanic, I was finally able to think of a solution to that, along with another problem I had: How do I introduce the special interactions from Ancestry/Heritage Traits without being too jarring? It would be weird if Dragon MC can suddenly just fly, and it would also be weird if they always knew they could.

I didn't go with a traditional leveling up system at first, since I wanted to keep the age = level thing, until I realized that it doesn't have to be MC leveling up, it could be the locket instead!

Introducing: Locket Upgrades!

Starting the next update, earning EXP will now level up your locket! Leveling up increases your Max NP, and gives you 1 Locket Upgrade point to spend.

Since I don't want it to be distracting, you can only spend the upgrade points at the end of every chapter. I'm also including a chapter summary in the next update (instead of just the end-of-playthrough summary), so that felt like a natural, non-disruptive place to put the Locket Upgrade menu. I might change it so that you can upgrade whenever in the VN version, but that's how it'll be for now.

What kind of upgrades can I get?

The Locket Upgrades are divided into 4 categories:

Stat Upgrades

Narrativium Upgrades

Relationship Upgrades

Special Upgrades

Here's a preview of what the upgrade menu looks like:

Most upgrades can be upgraded up to ten times. So if something says +2%, the maximum would be +20%. However, to encourage spreading out your points and not just dump all of them into Knowledge, the upgrades will have level restrictions.

The 2nd upgrade is unlocked at Level 5, the 3rd upgrade at Level 10, while the 10th upgrade is unlocked at Level 100. This will most likely change, but you'll be able to reach Level 20 at around 90,000 EXP, while Level 100 can be reached around 1,300,000 EXP (the original EXP required to level up from 12 to 13).

The first four stat upgrades (the Rubescent ones) will have a different name according to your locket's gem, and your locket shape will determine whether you get Heartful Innocence or Starful Sophistication (I'm only showing both for demo purposes).

I didn't want it to be overwhelming, so some of the upgrades are locked until you finish certain chapters, when they become relevant.

I tried to add a variety of upgrades for each playstyle, so even if you don't spend any NP, you can still benefit from the upgrades.

Special Upgrades

The Special Upgrades category is way too long to show here, so here's a list of all the upgrades instead. All of the genre-exclusive upgrades are only unlocked once you finish Volume 1 (you get upgrades for both your favorite genres), but most of them are one-time upgrades (that cost 5 upgrade points to unlock).

Here's where you unlock the special interactions. I've always planned Fairytale MC to be able to talk to animals, but now I can avoid the "jarring" problem: now you need to unlock "Aesop's Wisdom" to be able to do so. This also has the bonus of making the progression feel more "earned", rather than MC being able to automatically talk to animals just because you picked Fairytales as your fave genre.

Some of the special upgrades are just stat bonuses, but that allows me more freedom to spread out the effects of the more complicated traits/trinkets. Most souvenirs now have less/weaker effects at the beginning (which helps avoid the problem of overwhelming the reader during the prologue), but you will be able to upgrade them later to be much more powerful. This delayed upgrade means I can add more fun effects to the souvenirs without worrying about "this is way too powerful for the first chapter".

The upgraded Ancestry traits (the "+" versions) that you get when you choose fantasy are now called Legacy Traits, and is now locked behind the "Daddy's Legacy" upgrade. Meanwhile, all sources of Enhanced Senses are now temporary. Enhanced Senses was way too polarizing (you also had no idea which traits grant it), so now everyone has the option to unlock it permanently after Volume 1.

Closing Thoughts

I've always loved coming up with game mechanics ever since I was very little, which is how the idea of MC pretending to be in an RPG came to be. I'm not spoiling what the other upgrades do for now, but I guess you can always peek at the code later. I did have a lot of fun brainstorming the upgrade effects and the upgrade names. You can tell I got some of them from TV Tropes.😄

That said, I hope this makes you more excited for the next update! Most of this has been coded already (minus the parts you can't unlock yet), so you don't need to worry about that. I really think tying the story and game mechanics this way will make the overall game experience much better.

Let me know what you guys think! I'd also love to know what kind of upgrades you'd want to focus on (or if you have any speculations about what effects the other upgrades do)!

[ddwcaph-game]

dear diary, hey franz! hope you’re okay since you’ve been silent for a while. i miss you and this IF!

Hi there! I'm doing alright, all things considered. I'm still semi-active in the Discord server if you didn't know, but I'll have more news soon! I'm also itching to draw again, so that's a good sign after that one disaster happened.

Long story short, I just finished coding a new mechanic that should tie in the EXP and NP systems much better together. I might've finished the update already otherwise, but I'm much happier with the gameplay side of things now.

There's still quite a bit, but with that out of the way, the rest of my to-do list should hopefully be done much faster now.

[ddwcaph-game]

which of ur characters are #yearners

Uhh, most or all of them? Pretty much everyone in F6E is yearning for their parents one way or another.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something here, but save for the minor/background characters, don't most characters qualify for that? 😅

[ddwcaph-game]

regarding the new np choice for chapter 4, does that mean mc can intimidate adults if their cold stat is high enough? Just curious since an achievement is mentioned and it would be funny seeing the mc that I had with like 95% coldness just start to intimidate adults from how cold they are.

Yup! If you succeed the intimidation check, Tita Steph will actually sorta apologize to JM and MC. In all of the other NP choices, she just does a half-hearted "my bad". You get extra relationship points with JM too, as opposed to losing points when you fail the check.

There aren't many opportunities to use the Intimidation stat at the moment, but I'd imagine you can maybe even intimidate some villains or animals/monsters later. And if that fails, you can just use NP to succeed anyway. 😄

I still wanna keep achievements meaningful though, so you might not get certain achievements if you use NP to succeed failed stat checks.

Also I do wanna point out that currently, the intimidation stat is calculated by using your Vigor, multiplied by a percentage of your Cold & Composed Stats, plus any other bonuses (of course that might change later).

[ddwcaph-game]

New NP Choices 👀

As promised, here are two of the new NP choices in Chapter 4 where you can let your twin or friends finally talk back against Tita Steph. I had a lot of fun writing them 😄

Take note that picking these options will increase Wayne's Silliness and Roselyna's Emotional stats respectively (plus a bunch of other things), so you might not want to pick them if you don't want them to act like that later.

I've also expanded the scene where MC talks back to Tita Steph, so there will now be a new Intimidation stat check (which will grant you a new achievement if you succeed) if you pick that option.

I might share Heart/Star Twin, Lily, and JM's scenes later, but that's all for now!

[ddwcaph-game]

Happy Birthday Wayne and Roselyna!*

Oh look, another year, another birthday where I don't have a present for my favorite goobers. I know this is a bit late*, but I'm still chugging along with the update, and I wanna finish that first before I get back into drawing again.

But instead of beating myself up again for not having done anything special, I want to take this moment instead to reminisce a bit about my early days with these two gremlins.

This was buried in the very first post I made on the blog, but if you haven't seen it yet, this is the first drawing I have of Wayne and Roselyna together, back when they were still 8 year old twins!

You can tell it's really old because they still had black hair, Rosie still has the (amethyst) heart locket, and Rosie's nowhere near as huggable as she is now. Hehe.

And this is the very first drawing I had of Roselyna. Minor spoiler, but that is supposed to be Wilboar, back when he was still named Waddles. He obviously has a different design now, and as you can see from the tiny scribble on the sign above, she was celebrating her birthday at the inn/tavern of Cordelia's parents.

(Please ignore the ferret, it's a joke character from one of my old RPs back in the day)

Anyway, time really flies, huh? I can't believe my little goobers are already 17 years old. They've been living inside my head for almost a decade now, but I'll have to wait until November for that. Maybe I'll have time to draw them as teens by then.

~~~

Speaking of Wayne and Roselyna, I'll be posting some more sneak peeks on the new update about them later today/tomorrow! If you have any presents/messages for either of them, I'll be sure to let them know too!

[to-where-all-paths-lie]

To celebrate Rosie's (of @ddwcaph-game) birthday, I drew her and my MC, Agnes Madrigal in a fairytale-ish setting.

Happy Birthday, Rosie!

[ddwcaph-game]

Sorry for the late reblog, but you already know I love it anyway 😊

I love their pose together, and Rosie's really cute with her lil tooth gap, hehe. Roselyna's very flattered with the drawing, even if both their proportions are a bit off. Maybe Rosie had a little nibble of the Eat Me Cake 😛

But in all seriousness, thank you from the bottom of my heart! I'm so happy that her character resonated very well with you, and I really can't express my gratitude enough that you took the time to draw them together and celebrate her birthday with me ❤️

[ddwcaph-game]

Happy Birthday Wayne and Roselyna!*

Oh look, another year, another birthday where I don't have a present for my favorite goobers. I know this is a bit late*, but I'm still chugging along with the update, and I wanna finish that first before I get back into drawing again.

But instead of beating myself up again for not having done anything special, I want to take this moment instead to reminisce a bit about my early days with these two gremlins.

This was buried in the very first post I made on the blog, but if you haven't seen it yet, this is the first drawing I have of Wayne and Roselyna together, back when they were still 8 year old twins!

You can tell it's really old because they still had black hair, Rosie still has the (amethyst) heart locket, and Rosie's nowhere near as huggable as she is now. Hehe.

And this is the very first drawing I had of Roselyna. Minor spoiler, but that is supposed to be Wilboar, back when he was still named Waddles. He obviously has a different design now, and as you can see from the tiny scribble on the sign above, she was celebrating her birthday at the inn/tavern of Cordelia's parents.

(Please ignore the ferret, it's a joke character from one of my old RPs back in the day)

Anyway, time really flies, huh? I can't believe my little goobers are already 17 years old. They've been living inside my head for almost a decade now, but I'll have to wait until November for that. Maybe I'll have time to draw them as teens by then.

~~~

Speaking of Wayne and Roselyna, I'll be posting some more sneak peeks on the new update about them later today/tomorrow! If you have any presents/messages for either of them, I'll be sure to let them know too!