Chapter Nine progress update

I'm sure many of you are wondering what's taking so long with getting the next chapter released.
Picking things apart a little means that I can really see and hopefully explain why...

The old 'Date with Bridgette: Part One' was a relatively simple game with about 900 images.
It revolved around the premise that this was the first time you were really getting to know Bridgette and if your date failed then it was game over.

With all the additions to the story so far, I was never going to leave Thursday evening exactly as it was.
If nothing else, from a narrative perspective it wouldn't really have made much sense.

I am also aware that a rigid pathway with Bridgette isn't what everybody wants either.
Bridgette is a popular character but they do say that variety is the spice of life.
If anything Alexia has the biggest role in Chapter Nine if that's the direction you choose to go in.

---
With or without Bridgette

There has been a huge amount of work that's gone into the updated version of this episode. Once again it's a massive development and expansion on what has gone before.
The pathway with Bridgette remains relatively unchanged, but with some extensive image remakes and a few extra elements here and there.

I have introduced a whole new 'solo' pathway that runs in parallel to the events that can take place with Bridgette.
The idea being that it will be possible to switch pathways during this and future chapters.

I have effectively created two parallel chapters and two parallel games this time around.
My intention is to make games which have huge replay potential. I think this episode more than meets that brief.

The 900 image original story now weighs in at over 3600 images.
Which makes Chapter Nine the biggest in the series so far.
The expansion has also introduced a few new characters and fleshed out some of the existing personalities too.

Most of the images in this post are taken from some of the new solo scenes so you can see a few familiar and not so familiar faces in there.

---
Chapter Nine breaks down into the following scenes:

Bridgette pathway
- Call and then pick Bridgette up
- Visit the Park, Bar or Restaurant with Bridgette first
- Visit the Park, Bar or Restaurant with Bridgette second
- Conclude the first part of your date with Bridgette

Solo pathway
- Get ready to go out/meet the hotel maid
- Solo visit to the Park, Bar or Restaurant first
- Solo visit to the Park, Bar or Restaurant second
- Optional Alexia Bonus
- Go back to your hotel room with Alexia

This description over simplifies the pathways.
Each option has several outcomes and a few new surprises in there too.
There will be just the one new bonus scene in this chapter.

---
Restructuring

Another rather complicated and time consuming element has been pulling apart the old scoring stucture and replacing it with the updated one.
I've also been shuffling the achievements around to make them work more effectively and fit into the relevant pathways.
Having parallel narratives has also meant paying very close attention timing.
Chapter Nine will cover the time between 6:00pm and 9:00pm on Thursday evening.
Chapter Ten takes in the next 2.5 hours, Chapter Eleven takes you past midnight.
Everything has to synchronise up to flow from one chapter to the next.

It's been complicated but I am getting much closer to completion now.
My aim is to release Ch9 before the end of March. I am optimistic that this is an achievable target because I don't intend to add any more to this chapter than I already have.
It's now just a case of applying all the technical polish, a few more 16 hour days and some more testing.

---
Website updates
Just before the new year, we pushed up a big update to the website which solved many of the early technical issues especially involving how games were saved.
There are still however a few recurring issues that can still occur.

With that in mind, while I have been concentrating on game production, my web developer has been working on resolving these issues.

The main problems are caused by in-browser caching. This is why Chrome never works with these types of games.

We are currently developing a new system which uses non persistent session storage and parsing into objects for the database.
The technicalities are way over my head but if anybody out there has any experience in such matters than please feel free to get in touch.

The main benefits that should be introduced will be consistently reliable game saves and perhaps even the ability to play the game in Chrome...

That's all for now.
Thanks again for all your support.
dsp3000