Hi, I loved the first game and can't wait for the next :) Something I'm worried about from the demo, though, is that it was a bit of a pain in the arse trying to see every single H-scene because there are so many branches. It wasn't too bad, but I'm worried that with the much bigger complete game it'll be really painstaking to go through every possible branch. I also wonder whether branching paths is one reason why the sequel is taking so long to complete (since it multiplies the work), and I think it's a real shame that some people will only follow one or two paths and miss out on a huge chunk of your work. Please add some facility to make it easier to see everything; I find saving at every fork really laborious (especially since you can't do it on the actual choice screen with the buttons), and that's a shame because the game is otherwise fantastic. Perhaps being able to scroll the text backwards, or greying out choices you've made in your other save games, might make things easier. Thanks.
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Heya there,
Thank you for your kind words and feedback!
Chapter Two is indeed very complex--far more complex than even the demo in regards to finding some h-scenes. And I suppose I never set out to make a super complicated or obtuse game, but it just sort of happened the more open things became. So a lot of scenes will definitely be missed out on a single playthrough, or even two. Which isn't ideal because naturally I'd like everyone to be able to easily see the work I put in, but it kind of just ended up being a result of the added complexity, haha. ;~;
While I'm purely focused on writing right now, I'll see what I can do to try to make searching for scenes a bit easier. But to answer a few things:
You should be able to save on a choice selection, by right clicking. And text can be rolled back to a degree with the page up and page down keys. Or even the mousewheel scroll. But I know these controls aren't stated outright and are more just built-in features of the engine I use, so will be more intuitive for some than others. Also, in the most recent builds I do have something of a system in place where dialogue choices are marked with a check as to whether you answered them or not (carrying over between saves on a global basis), and sometimes a heart if a specific choice leads to a h-scene right away--but admittedly it's not the most ideal solution either because some scenes hours down the road might only happen because of a mix of choices made rather than any one choice at a specific moment.
Beyond that, I contemplated having a hint system in the gallery, where if you click a scene that's locked it could give a hint as to what you might need to do to see it. But that's a lot of work so it's something I'd need to evaluate once the bulk of the writing is done.
I'm certainly not handwaving your concerns away though, and totally understand where you come from, because I never intended for Chapter Two to get to quite this size, and it's sort of become a victim under its own weight, haha. Because I'm very proud of everything that's in it, and the fact I've made such a long VN, but at the same time I know I'm asking a lot of people to see EVERYTHING in it, unless they're super dedicated.