It's been a long time, getting from there to here

I was looking back at some old posts over at TFGS today and seeing how much progress I actually made before everything went so badly. I want to get thing going again so that I can at least get it to a point where people can complete the game even if there are still many loose ends left to tie up. Every time I try to work on it though I just feel that I'm throwing my free time away, I have a list of TV shows I want to catch up on, a bunch of games that I bought but haven't played yet and I can't remember the last time I read a book. I know I'm just repeating stuff I've already posted before but I hate going weeks without posting something.
I had forgotten about the mini-game I made for Halloween, something else I found in old posts. I've been checking it over to see how far I got with it (I never made any of the usual checklists to tell me what still needs doing so I had to run through the game several times). It is still missing a small number of pictures that I remember struggling to find, I also wanted to populate the game with some more furniture, that won't take long though. There are lots of bugs in the latter parts of the game and some tidying up to be done throughout, if I could find the pictures I could get it done in a day probably. The problem is that I never feel like working on it, the next time I get the urge to be creative I will try my best to finish it but I'm not giving a deadline for this one, I would only end up missing it again.
If anyone would like to help there is one image I was finding particularly difficult to locate; an apartment atrium, it has to either be at night or only feature artificial lighting, it would ideally have one door straight ahead and a room to the right which is the warden's room although depending on the angle of the image that shouldn't be necessary. I want it to be wider than a standard corridor image as it is an entrance hall of sorts but I don't want a reception desk as a hotel would have. I've actually lived in a number of places that would fit the bill nicely but I have no way of getting to them and I haven't been able to locate anywhere locally that would be suitable. I can always move things around a bit but I have yet to find pics online of anything even close to what I want. Any help would be greatly appreciated and can either be submitted anonymously or you can be credited in the game (you would also receive a mention in the "Appreciative Enchanter" book in the library in the main game.
I will get back to Redus, it's just a matter of time. Thanks for your patience.

Recovery is a painful process

First let's get this out of the way, I'm not planning on getting back to work on this stuff any time soon. I have to be in the mood to write and I haven't been in that headspace for some time. That said I did do a little work the other day, nothing to write home about just a little photo editing and tidying up a couple of things so I may begin doing bits and pieces every now and then, we'll have to see. I don't want to abandon Redus completely after the couple of hundred hours of work I put into it but if I don't release any new content in the next six months don't be surprised.

I have a job now, working full time for good money. It keeps me occupied and distracted and that's a lot better than what the booze was doing. There will likely never again be whole days I spend writing and that's okay, but it will mean any future content will take longer than before even if I do start doing regular work on it.

I know you guys have been waiting patiently for the update and I thankyou for your loyalty in that regard, but I have to say the silence is getting worrying. I can check how many hits the blog has each day but not how many of them were bots or repeat visits so I have no idea how many of you there are. Based on the number of previous comments there could easily be just two of you. I'd still keep the blog open I think even if no one was there but it does feel like I'm just writing to a few google bots some times. I have little enough desire to work on Redus these days as it is, seriously any input, suggestions, criticisms or whatever would go a long way to drawing me back in. I'm not stuck or anything like that, I just don't feel like there is any demand for this thing any more. I've had so much support from friends and family, we all have, but this used to be a fairly large part of my life and it's just faded so much I can barely remember why I used to enjoy it so much.

Not in the mood for this

I guess I can't put this off any longer, that's not fair on you guys. I'm not working on any games right now and I doubt I will be doing so any time soon so you can forget about that Jan 1st deadline. You can keep checking on here if you want but don't expect to find any updates any time soon.

Screw it, I'll just tell you. My sister passed away last week, she was in hospital for a few weeks and I was watching the house and cats for her. Anyway there were complications during surgery and she didn't make it and I can't be arsed working on some game that. Fuck this I can't even think of words right now.
This was just a heads up so, yeah there you go. This has been a crap year. Now if you don't mind I'm going to go have a drink and watch some TV. I really shouldn't be writing this when I'm in a mood like this but I've been putting if off long enough already.

Oh and thanks for the 0 replies regarding that other game idea, at least it means less work in the future, I don't even know if I can be bothered doing this anymore tbh. I'll wait until christmas and then I'll decide if I'm giving up on making these games. Hopefully my head will be clearer by then.

This is Tim signing off the foreseeable future

Blast it where is that rope?

It looks like this could take a while, I might be able to pop home this weekend for a few hours though so I will try to finish and post the minigame if I can at some point over the next few days (no promises though, I don't drive so I have no say in when and for how long I can go back but I promise to do my best). The delay on Redus will continue for at least another week, I'm not going to change the deadline for that but there may be less new content than I was hoping for and some of the character reactions may not be done, we'll see how that all goes. Also I may be finally getting a new job soon, I have been informed through back channels that I will be being contacted soon to arrange an interview. What does this mean for you guys? Work on Redus will slow down even more in the future :( . What does it mean for me guys? For the first time in nearly 12 months now I will have money. As always I will keep you all posted on developments but if I do get this job I will be able to move into a new place so whilst I won't be able to make games during the day any more I will have evenings and weekends to work on them so the difference won't be huge.
My time here hasn't been completely wasted though, with my other games already planned out I have started designing another one, it is quite different from anything I have worked on before and is definitely not to everyone's taste but if I ever get around to creating it I think it would be a very interesting project to work on. I'd like to hear what you guys think about it so I can judge if there would ever be any demand for it:
You are on a ski holiday with some classmates (18-20 year olds) and your girlfriend. A supernatural being (I haven't decided who yet) catches you flirting with another girl and punishes you by turning you into the dog you are. You then play as a husky and have a few options available; find a bitch and live out your days as a dog, remain faithful to your GF and earn your old life back or try to get with the other girls in the lodge regardless. (Doing so would require alcohol, sabotage and taking advantage of your new position and yes, this route would include bestiality from the animal's POV).

I have a few scenarios sketched out but this is even further outside of my comfort zone than Redus is and I don't want to delve much deeper into this idea if it will only result in negative feedback. This is a niche fetish so please, if you aren't into this sort of thing don't bother spamming but if this sounds even remotely interesting to you please let me know. I don't care how you do be it anon posting here, pm-ing on TFGS or creating a temp email account and emailing me (seriously ten-minute email services rule and don't require you to create an account or anything). If I do work on this at some point in the future it will not interfere with my plans for Redus and I will not delay any other project for it.Actually I already have some location pics I could use on my PC at home that would be perfect so that's a big part of the work done already.
I know in the past I have joked about the lack of comments here but if you have any comments about this concept please let me know because if there is no perceivable interest it will never go any further than the notes I have jotted down already and I can't help but feel that it deserves a chance. It's fate is in your hands.

Why is it so hard to release? I've got devs constipation!

Guess what gang? No release today, or for the next few days. I don't know when exactly I'll be back home but I won't have access to my PC for a little while. I actually have better internet here but no RAGS and I didn't put the files online. I would rather not go into too much detail about what is going on only that it is a family matter. As I said I still have internet access and actually I can use it more freely so I will be on here and TFGS a lot over the coming days, I'll post an update when I know when I will be able to go back home. The game was close enough to completion that I should be able to finish it off and release it that same day or the next morning. If this lasts longer than I think it will though I may also have to revise that Jan 1st deadline... Bad times.

There goes another deadline

Still missing lots of pics, spent all day babysitting so not much progress, I can get some done tonight but there is no way it will be ready by tonight. Sundays are never good for me, I'll try to get it out tomorrow but it is looking likely that it will be a Monday release now. Sorry. Well at least everyone is back to school on Monday so I will be able to go back to working on Redus straight away, it just means that I won't get to play any Injustice this weekend. These delays are hurting me more than they are annoying you trust me.

Shake it like a polaroid picture

Well yesterday sucked, didn't post an update because there wasn't anything to report. I had a string of things to do all of which took longer than expected and were as pointless as one another. By the time I got home (late) I didn't have the brain to do work so I played some Broken Sword instead (one of the bigger inspirations for Redus, seriously if you have never played the series get it on Steam or something, they rule).
I was busy this morning as well and so I had to work later than usual to get enough done, the story is complete although sure to be buggy still. Also the world feels very empty, I still need to add descriptions and furniture to bulk it all out. The problem is I don't want to write a description only to have a picture than contradicts it completely. Oh, and finding usable pics is turning out to be a major ball ache. Seriously, how hard can it be to find half-decent pics of interiors for council flats? (Low-rent apartments work as well but the pics have to be at night and not look overly American). There is a good chance there may be missing pics by the time I release this thing, something I really didn't want but I'm running out of ideas now. If anyone has any location pics they think would fit this purpose I would appreciate it, even if I can't use them for this they could be useful for other projects. Fingers crossed that I can get this all wrapped up within the next 24 hours.

'Twas the night before Halloween and all through the house...

Done for today, I just have a little more work to do on it before I start adding pictures and descriptions. I just hope I have enough decent pics. I should be pretty much done tomorrow unless something comes up, then I'll spend a few hours on Friday sweeping for bugs. I'll give myself some contingency time and if all goes well I will upload on Saturday afternoon / evening. Fingers crossed.

Everybody's working for the weekend

I'm going to push back the deadline for this mini-project to Saturday. I could get it done for Thursday but not to the standard I would be happy with. I've got most of the actual work done, I just have a little more story to add before I populate the world and add pictures. Then I will spend a few hours bug hunting before release, there aren't a huge number of options the player can choose from but since this is meant to be far more linear than my other works everything has to be able to blend together and end up at the same ending. At one point there's nearly 20 options and most of them can cross over one another so I have to look out for unintended branches and the like. There's probably less than 5 minutes of gameplay if I'm honest but if you want to experience every route it's closer to half an hour. It's giving me a nice break from Redus and is proving to be a good learning experience.

Poor planning

Completely slipped my mind that it is half-term this week so my little sisters are home all week. I'll be working solely on this Halloween project instead. I had hoped that it would be almost done by now but the direction I was taking it made no sense so I have had to scrap most of what I had. Fortunately it is only small so it won't take long to redo the work but it is going to be a tight deadline if I want it done on Thursday. As I said last time don't get too excited about it, I just thought it would be an interesting way to add a little depth to the series. The main problem will be finding suitable pictures, what I have in my head and what is available are always very different so don't be surprised if some of them don't fit.

Leave the gun, take the cannoli

Only just got back in from a day of running errands, I'm going to have an early night tonight as well so no work. Sorry. See you all on Monday!

I've been browsing on the internet, all the live long day!

I was searching for location pics for one of my other projects and lost track of time. Had to watch my little sisters when they got back from school so I lost a couple of hours anyway from that. I did manage to find some very interesting pics though so at least that will save me time in the future. I think I may a little something for you guys as a Halloween present. It won't be scary and it won't be sexy but hopefully some of you will find it interesting. We'll see how it goes, if I can't get it done in time I may hold onto it until episode 1 is done instead to bridge the gap between the first and second games but I think you've gone long enough without anything to play with.

Why do time bombs make loud ticking sounds?

Made some decent progress today, mostly on minor tweaks to the game. I fixed a few grammatical errors I stumbled across early on in the game, moved the Golden Star code to a timer (not sure why I hadn't done that earlier) and added a few more ways to unlock them. There were a few other things I cleaned up here and there but I would be surprised if anyone noticed them. I have added a few more jokes to the game, again if you play the game right you shouldn't notice them but if you are the sort of person who just doesn't know when to quit you will at least get a giggle even if it takes you all day. There are now seven secret endings to find, I doubt anyone will find more than half of them though!

It ain't ease-ay being cheese-ay

Unrelated title but hey, it's my blog so deal with it.
It looks like the rush has calmed down and most of the people who visited the blog at the mention of an update have gone back to their respective caves leaving the rest of us to clean up after them. Ah well, easy come easy go. Got back on track with Sonia today (finally, yay) but my session was cut short as I had to go sign on. Keeping it short and sweet today because I'm too busy... being delicious.

Wohoo! Four day weekend!

Not really feeling work today, I got a few hours done but nothing like what I was hoping for. I should have the house to myself for at least four hours a day for the next few days though so I will try and make up the lost time and if I'm feeling up to it I may do a little bit tonight.
As I'm working I tend to create little lists of everything I'm working on and what I want to get done before the next update, the problem is that I have a few of these lists now so I have also taken all of those and created a master list and made it easier to edit that one than the others so I should be able to keep on top of it better now. The good news is that there is hardly any code or complicated branching left to do for this update, there is a LOT of writing to do though, possibly as much as 200 hours worth. I think after this next update I'm going to take a couple of weeks break, maybe just focus on bug fixes and typos.

1330 views, 1 comment... not sure if 1 lonely guy or 1000 lurkers

This isn't an update or anything, I just wanted to thanks for the support, even if it is silent. A 1000% increase in visitors at the mention of a future update is pretty impressive, I guess there are a few people who care at least a little about Redus. It really does help, seriously I've wanted to give up on this thing a few times now, even before the accident. I honestly think that had I not created this blog I would've done by now for sure, don't get me wrong I want to see this thing finished more than anyone but going months without being able to show off anything is pretty disheartening. I just hope that the changes in 0.4 will be enough to keep interest in the game alive, there may be a lot of stuff there but most of it is either behind the scenes, will require a lot of work to find or will require multiple playthroughs to get to.
In summary, thanks for visiting, don't get too excited about update and don't be afraid to give me feedback on the game, even criticisms. Some of the biggest changes in 0.4 are due to comments about the playability of the game and suggestions on how to improve it and it has made a big difference.

Oh, and one more thing...

I think I'm going to take that January 1st marker and turn it into a provisional deadline. If the new version isn't ready by then I will at least have a closed beta version for then exclusively for visitors of this blog, maybe have a download limit or application only system or something. With any luck it will be ready before then in which case a closed beta version will be available sooner but either way, I will be releasing something that week if it kills me (tempting fate). It's a good job I couldn't afford GTA V or Pokémon Y because I will have my work cut out for me over the next two months.

It'll be alright on the night

It took longer than I'd hoped but not as long as I'd expected, I found the problem and have RAGS again! Back to work for me then.
(The problem was with Daemon Tools trying to read a broken file, even on startup. I fixed it by getting it to load a working ISO instead, a simple fix for a problem I did not anticipate and only found by noticing I was missing a virtual drive.)
I have since made some more progress, this time on the player examine action. Rather than a generic "You are X tall with Y this and Z that" I have a wider range of descriptions (possible thanks to the instant TF system). They may not be as all encompassing as they were before but will read more like someone actually describing you than a list of physical attributes. They are broken down into two parts, the first part covers your overall appearance and build whilst the second is mostly just your junk or lack thereof. As with many parts of the game a lot of these will be locked until all of the different TF solutions are in the game but once I'm done with this next section there will be 24 unique descriptions written with 4 variations for each of them. They're only short but I still prefer doing it this way as it offers more re-playability. I should have these done tomorrow but since I can only do a couple of hours on Fridays that will be it for this week. Next week I promise I will get back to those character reactions, honestly.

Alright then what's the good news? That was the good news.

Good News:
Checkup went fine, my arm should be back to 100% within a matter of weeks but I'm off all meds and have full use of my hands without any pain. (I have done for a few weeks but now it is official).

Bad News:
RAGS Designer isn't working. I have no idea why, it was fine yesterday and nothing has changed, I haven't updated anything or installed any new software. it just hangs on start. The designer opens but it is frozen as if loading but even after an hour made no progress. I've tried reinstalling it and rebooting my PC but run into the same problem. I will keep trying to get it working but I'm running out of ideas. I'll keep you posted however it pans out.

Another day, another box of stolen pens

Fairly satisfied with today's work, the initial TF is now complete barring any bugs including two new masturbation scenes and a small number of checks to make sure everything is as it should be (the sequence was not triggering if you were drunk, something I was lucky to catch when I did). I did a little work on Jenny trying to tidy up early interactions with her, I haven't started on her reactions to your changes yet as I'm still on Sonia but things like the initial phone call should go a bit more smoothly now.
The current version isn't far off being playable again now, there's still a lot of work to be done to get it back to the level it was at before but story progression is possible once more, I may release a closed version before the public release to catch the biggest bugs, if that sort of thing interests you watch this space. I will be making that decision over the next few weeks.
There are lots of features affected by the TF system change that I have still not even looked at including watching porn and getting your drink on, that sort of thing, so even after I get these character reactions done there will be a considerable way to go. Not only that but I want to get the date with Mark wrapped up and an alternate sex scene for Jenny at the very least. I'm making better progress now than I have in months but the horizon is still a long way off.

Before I go I just wanted to let you guys know that I'll be going back to the hospital tomorrow, hopefully to get the all clear on my arm. It feels pretty normal again so it should be a routine checkup, possibly another X-ray just to be safe. I'll let you know how it goes.

Not another shower scene!

For a short period of time after your initial transformation you will be able to explore your new body, I am writing a small number of scenes for this with the first that is pretty much complete now taking place in the bathroom. I could only get in a couple of hours to work on it today so that's all I got done besides a few extra bits and pieces that you likely won't notice. I'll try and get more done tomorrow.

Move along, nothing to see here

Not much done today on Redus, did a couple of hours on another project and made a few small tweaks on Redus but that's all. I'm also considering a couple of other game concepts but they will remain on paper until such a time as I am able to work on them if I decide to go through with them. Have a good weekend folks!

When I wake up in the morning and I stumble out of bed

Rewrote the initial transformation sequence today. No longer do you wake up, see your new body and then just go on about your day as if nothing has happened, now there is a reaction period where several things are changed to incorporate the transition and Sam explains his/her thought process much more clearly than before. There is much yet to do in terms of the game changing based on your appearance, something I will be focusing on in future updates, but at least the fact you turn into a woman overnight is no longer brushed off as if it never happened. As always there are a few minor interactions unlocked during this phase that provide a little comedy but are completely optional and will not impact your game if you miss them. I am going to tweak the initial meetings with some characters after this event to better reflect the gravity of the situation but that will have to wait for another time.
I have also unlocked the forest using a new mechanic, the "Think" action. In most cases it will just refer you to your notepad but I will build it up over the next few updates to add extra functionality. At the moment "thinking" during days 4 or 5 will suggest taking a trip to the peaceful woods to provide a chance to reflect on the case. When that doesn't help you decide to take a walk since you are already there. It may seem a little stale and incomplete upon the next release but I would never get it out if I do too much with it now. The new notepad functionality is the main attraction of 0.4 and should help a lot of players who grew frustrated with previous versions of the game.

Reset to zero

Didn't get anything done yesterday, not because I was busy or anything I just wasn't in the mood. I'm still so far off the next update it just feels like I'm wasting my time. Nevertheless I got a fair amount done today. I finally sorted out the issues with restarting after an ending is reached, a series of loops now resets all variables and custom properties to zero every time you restart the game (or at least they should, it will take a while to test and there are still some actions that may appear when they shouldn't). The biggest downside to this fix is that since there are now thousands of numbers being reset at once, when you start a new game it will take several seconds longer to begin depending on your machine. It shouldn't be more than 30 seconds even for old computers though and for most it should only be an extra 10-15 seconds so it isn't really an issue. I tried spreading them out a bit but then there were a number of pauses lasting several seconds each and I would prefer to get them all out of the way in one go, you have to wait for the game to load up anyway.

I also made some headway with the new player descriptions, since there are far fewer possibilities now I am using set descriptions rather than the old dynamic ones. They will feel less stale and there will be noticeable changes after each transformation rather than a few altered numbers and adjectives. Unfortunately this does mean more work but it will feel more rewarding for players who try out different combinations of things. Most of these descriptions won't be accessible immediately as the items to unlock them are not available yet but I will write them anyway so that future updates don't take as long as this one.

It's so far, so far away

Started work on Sonia today, there are still some aspects of Christie's comments that I will have to test before calling her complete but there are a lot of branches and I feel that crowd sourcing may be more effective so I will leave her until post release and post feedback. I have too much work to do to worry about every little possible outcome. (It's scenarios such as you meeting Christie after multiple transformations have occurred that I am not sure will always make sense, this will likely be the case for many characters but will only affect a small number of players.) It's difficult pressing on when I know how much work is ahead of me, fortunately I can skip some characters as they have only one or two appearances in the game or at least reduce the number of branches and the minor characters don't need major reactions since you can't develop relationships with them anyway. Jenny might care if you lose your penis but Bob won't.

If anyone wants to get hold of me but doesn't want it to be public, my email address is: timandhisburntfingers@gmail.com
I will reply to all emails (unless you ask me not to) although since this is not my primary account I may not get your email straight away. If you are a member at TFGamesSite then you can PM me instead and I should be able to reply within 12 hours in most cases.

It's the little things

I had two hours to myself today, didn't feel like getting into anything major because of the strict time limit so instead I worked some more on the magnifying glass replacing 50 or so of the generic "you found nothing unusual or interesting" with object specific messages. It won't impact on the game or make the magnifying glass any more useful but if are the sort of person who examines and inspects every room and object in the game then it should make your experience a little more entertaining and rewarding. Most inventory items and furniture around your office now have such messages associated with them and I will continue to add more of these when I have small gaps of free time and nothing else to do, it won't interfere with standard productivity I promise. Speaking of which, I have to go into the job centre on Tuesday so I will have less time to work on Redus then. Not a big thing but I thought I might share. This is Tim with TEDB, signing off for the night.

Not sure if good thing...

Ooh aah, just a little bit

Not much done today as I had guests, mostly just bug fixing including one curious little blighter that kept ignoring the current room group and assuming it was instead in all of the room groups at once which led to several problems. I also moved around a few exits that I disliked the placement of. General things like that. I should be able to crack on with a decent amount of work next week but once again the weekend is looking fully booked up. The game file is now up to 71MB and this is looking to be the biggest update yet, not only in terms of size but the number of little tweaks and improvements is adding up and once I have the new transformation system complete I can begin adding more of the promised new content. I may have something to show around christmas or new years but if not 0.4 will almost certainly be ready by February. 0.5 won't take nearly as long, even if I don't get a new place by then as it will mostly be endings and bulking out existing content.

I wish I could just tidy up what I have now just so I could let people play around with some of the new features but with so many core mechanics being changed there is a lot of work ahead just to make the current version playable. Trust me though, it will be worth the wait when it is done.

The trees are moving!

That's the forest done, there's nothing to do there yet except explore, I will add a few things to do soon but all 45 rooms are created each with their own image and description. I have the layout of the forest sorted as well, it will take a few runs to ensure I didn't make any stupid mistakes but assuming I didn't all should be well. I just hope it doesn't have a significant impact on loading times. My testing has suggested not but every computer is different so I won't know until post release. I will not be releasing my map of the forest, if anyone wants to make one when it comes out they are free to do so but I would rather folks experience the location with a sense of exploration.

I've reduced the image sizes and quality as much as I dare but the game file size will increase significantly as a result of this addition. I apologize if this is an inconvenience to anyone.

The Road Goes Ever On And On

A fair amount of progress today, not what I wanted to get done as I got very much sidetracked but I had fun doing it and that's what matters right? Right? Please agree with me! Well anyway, I've tweaked the magnifying glass a little, changed a few things around the office including preventing a game-breaking sequence from taking place by adding another secret ending. Then I found some pictures and began work on a new area: The Forest. It won't play a big role in the game and won't have any significant impact on the story but it was a joy to work on (I'm about quarter way done with it after just a couple of hours but now that I'm into the rhythm of it the rest should be even quicker).

So why create the Forest if it serves little purpose? Well I intend for a number of locations to be revisited in later games and thought it might be a good idea to let players learn the layout now so they know what to expect, it is a bit of a maze in there so if you can learn your way around now it will help in the future. Plus I wanted to begin work on some Golden Star rewards and thought this would be a good place for it since it will be accessible in later games. I may also add a few hidden treasures in there if I have time as well but I haven't decided what yet. I will be splitting my time over the next few days between this and the character reactions so that I have something else to work on if I get bored. Otherwise I would just end up back on Terraria.

Everyday I'm Shovelling

Sorry, no work today. Terraria just got 200% more awesomesauce so I couldn't stand idly by hearing how much everyone else is loving the new additions. I had to play it, I had no choice. I'll try and get some work done tomorrow though.

One down and only 19 more to go (well 27 really)

I had about three hours to get stuff done today, I might do a bit more tonight but I doubt it. I'd rather play some XCOM or something. So, what did I get done in those three hours I hear no-one cry, well I'll tell you:
Christie now responds to your changes with a little more depth and a little less crazy, it makes her a more likeable character and works as a nice template for other characters.
I had planned on moving straight on to Jenny but was getting bored and so instead I worked on some hidden content. I'm not sure how many people will find it as it does require a fairly specific sequence of events and rather a lot of legwork but there is a new character and room if you do find it with some rather intriguing insight. I also added a couple more searchable entries on the PC taking the total up to 37. I want that number closer to 100 by the time the game is complete but I doubt most players will ever find more than 10-20 entries anyway. I like to reward the obsessive.
I'm also starting up a poll, there is no real end date, I just want to get some feedback on how you want to be rewarded for finding lots of Golden Stars. I have a few ideas but can't decide between them. Expect another update in the next day or two, I have the house to myself for a couple of hours pretty much every day now during the week. So long!

Weekends aren't good for me, how about Monday?

It doesn't look like I'm going to get anything done over the next few days but whilst I'm in a productive mood, how about some stats instead? You do all like stats right? You do! Good.

The latest version of the game has so far been downloaded 5251 times, that's almost double the download count of the two previous versions combined!

The current build I am working on is 40,628KB, this includes 17,669KB of images leaving 22,959KB for text and the framework the format requires to be read by the player.

The game currently features 143 images, 268 objects, 28 characters, 56 rooms, 33 variables, 38 timers and 73 custom properties (variables specific to a character, room, object, player, variable or timer). Every object, character and room that can be interacted with also has a description displayed when you examine them, some even have multiple descriptions based on your current level of drunkenness or alternate descriptions if you inspect them. How descriptive!

Work began on Redus on the 17th February 2013 and continued until early June although there hasn't been much progress since then I have rough plans drawn up for a further 14 episodes. It is unlikely most of these will ever be made but that is my ultimate vision for the series.

Unfortunately there is no way to do a word count without manually copying the text from every text box and if I had time for that I would be working on the game! As always I would like to thank everyone who has made a positive comment about the game, if I'm honest I would like more feedback but I know that the internet is full of lurkers and observers so I won't press the matter further. I would also like to encourage fellow RAGS devs to upgrade to the paid version of the software to show their support, it isn't expensive and everyone benefits as it contributes to further software improvements which means better games.

If I do get any more work done before Monday I'll post another update but if not have a great weekend! I'll be checking in every evening to respond to any comments or questions, I want the community to have as much input into the development of this game as possible and I do consider every suggestion so please, don't be shy and you can always post anonymously if you wish. Bye then!

Just a trim for me thanks, I don't have long

I got a couple of hours to myself this morning, it looks like that's all I will be able to get done today. I'm about half way through Christie's reactions now. Her mood swings make her fun to write but a little tricky too. Looking over the old stuff I really failed to balance her reactions before, fortunately most of the worst of it was never user-accessible as the only way to get those reactions would require items I had not yet included in the game so only I had to face the sheer ridiculousness of some of what she had to say. I am feeling much more comfortable with the new content, there may be some oddness at first as I don't have the patience to cover every possible sequence of transformations but I'm trying to make her reactions as generic as I can whilst remaining realistic. I will also make it easier to unlock her dialogue about Rose and Dr Payne, anyone who found that in 0.3 should be congratulated for their effort but I feel it is too important a plot point to hide quite so well. I still want it to be hidden, just not so much so that only a handful of players ever get to experience it, it is one of my favourite parts of the game after all.

I think once I've finished on Christie I will get to work on Jenny next, since she knew Sam before the start her reactions will be easier to work with. Although to be honest, if the first time you meet Christie is as a redheaded woman, you are playing the game wrong. The game will allow you to do so and it is fully supported but your detective skills must leave something to be desired.

And without further ado

Now that the blog is just about set up (it still needs some tweaking but there will be plenty of time for that later) it's time for the first progress report!

Today I have been modifying the character reactions to the player's changing appearance based on the new instant transformation system. I was mostly laying the groundwork that I can duplicate for each character with all of the conditions, based on what I have done each character will be able to comment each time you have changed your appearance with unique comments for your first change and if you revert to your original appearance. What's more, how you look the first time each character met you is recorded so if you were a blonde woman the first time spoke with Dr Langstrom he will consider that to be your default image so even if you return to how you looked at the beginning of the game he will still assume that you started as a woman. It took a little while longer to add that feature but I think it will make their reactions seem more authentic as they are based on their own perceptions rather than the player's. I only got around to adding a couple of the comments for Christie to make sure everything was working as intended but I have duplicated a blank version of the framework with all of the conditions so that's a large portion of the work done.

In order to facilitate this new setup I am rewriting all of the comments each character makes about how you look as well as adding comments for all characters who you may speak with at various stages throughout the game, even minor characters such as the security guard at the Warehouse; after all, why would he just let anyone walk in and out freely? It will take a long time to write them all but I can work on those during the day.

Between the streamlined transformation system, the more user-friendly magnifying glass and the new notepad functionality that reminds you of all of the things you need to do 0.4 is looking to be a feature-heavy update unlike 0.3 which was mostly new content although there will be more to do. I have done most of the work on a new piece of evidence that sheds some light on the history of Destiny Labs and her employees. I won't say what it is until release but it shouldn't be too hard to find, there won't be any 'guess the word' puzzles to solve to get to it or anything like that. I have also pretty much finished up work on a date with the handsome Dr Langstrom, depending on how much alone time I have over the next few months it may even lead somewhere...

Don't expect all updates to be this long, this one is covering the past few months of work including some stuff from before the accident, I just wanted to make sure we are all on the same page. Tatty bye!

The Dawn of a New Era (or some other cool title)

Since it is both easier and safer for me to post here than on tfgamessite at the moment I have to decided to start a development blog for my projects. I often find myself wanting to post updates about my work but want to reserve my topic on the site for the release of new versions of the games and comments/questions about them. This blog allows me to post updates more regularly and freely.

I am also taking this opportunity to officially name the two projects I have been working on other than Redus, those being my proposed Summer Contest Entry Villa Maritima (which was almost cancelled after my accident) and Solus. You can find a little bit about them on their respective pages but right now my main focus is on Redus.

 Hopefully this new soap box will help keep my interest in my work during these unproductive times and will give you, the reader a clearer picture of how work is progressing and my working process. See you all soon! Oh, and before I forget, I heartily encourage your comments and questions about any of my work, even if it isn't positive just as long as it isn't needlessly rude. Bye again!