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While it's possible to cheat, it's much more fun to test the boundaries to see if it's possible to finish the game without turning evil.
If I were to speedrun this, that's where I'd focus my attention.

So without further ado, let's overanalyse this idle game!

Basics:
The skills of Concentration and Meditation assist eachother. Creating a kind of multiplicative effect that boosts XP gain per daily tick. In the interests of efficiency it's important to level each as equally as possible. (As squares have a higher area/perimeter ratio than rectangles.)

Obviously increasing Max XP level is the most important objective of all. The question of when to press for boosting versus life extending is still an open problem.

I have, however, worked out an estimation for when to switch from increasing Concentration and Meditation into improving other skills. I anticipate that taking Max XP into consideration may add extra complexity in the decision making process. But that's a discussion for another time.

Early Analysis:

All skills have a starting XP requirement (baseData.maxXP) value of 100. You can work out the amount of XP needed to level up from level n to level n+1 with the equation: 100*(n+1)*1.01^n

These equations combine in such a way that it's possible to observe higher levels becoming less and less effective; owing to how much more XP (and days taken) are required for any increased boost.

The data:
So I composed a spreadsheet to calculate the best timing for most boost, but least wasted days ticking over XP gains. The results are as follows. Levels are calculated in lots of 10.

If the target for your 3rd skill is between level 10 to 50, levelling Concentration and Meditation to 10 is best.

3rd skill target 60 to 70; C&M level of 20. Target 80; C&M 30.

90 to 100; 40.  150; 80.  200; 120. 300; 200. 400; 280.  500; 360.

600; 440.  700; 530.  800; 620.  900; 700.  1000; 790.

1200; 970.  1400; 1160.  1600; 1340.  1800; 1530.  2000; 1720.

What a banger!

Another hand-tailored quality asset from Rusted.
A.I. can't compare to your mastering skill

I wonder that since this game is about opening a box, if the opening could form part of the gameplay somehow?
https://brstf.itch.io/infinity-card-template is an origami project that 'flips' the paper to different views.

Do you know if it's possible to work out what card you just drew by obsessively clicking your library/stock (deck) and noting what's not there anymore?

Once you get 10 student level, you can then unlock apprentice mage.
(Provided that you've also managed to get Mana Control up to level 400.)

Once Apprentice Mage is level 10, you can finally extend your life.

The best strat is to level up both Concentration and Meditation as much as they can go. I managed to get each up to 440 before I started extending my lifespan. It's best to switch back and forth levelling each one up.

This game hinges on living until you're 200 years old so you then take an evil route. I'm trying to refuse evil and it might be impossible to play long-term. The XP requirements for levelling up exceed any wage you can reasonably earn to pump your bonus from the shop.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable game. I eagerly await to see what you create next!

I've tried many different combinations of inputting the code. With the hints from the tapestries with the words 'The Order' on them and watching the glowing gems, the sequence appears to be:

Goat (5) -> Lion (8) -> Eagle (3) -> Ox (4)

And the need to select the Ox multiple times (owing to the number of gems the Eagle is holding).

HOWEVER: These clues of order is an (unintentional) red herring.

I even considered how the L in Roman numbers meant 50; and how it might reflect in the puzzle in some way. But no, that was also a red herring.

The solution? Knowing the start and end animals and simply swap the order you visit the others.The developer seriously needs to correct the way in which they shine the gems!

Why is this annoying? Because this is a fabulous game let down by an unfortunate quirk.

I sometimes get a bit of glitching of text in the game's computer searches. I need to search for something else as refreshing the same search doesn't update.

Additionally, I was having a difficult time trying to find the true name for "Wild Bill" Williams. Neither Periodicals nor Search was able to help. Was I supposed to assume the rumours were true and look for a book written by Marilyn Monroe (or Norma Jeane Mortenson) to see if there was an expose about ol' creepily charming Bill? It's so easy to overthink things.

I'm coming to the realisation that I should write down information into real notebooks. It's easy to take too many notes. I started thinking that the birth years of the people was going to be important.

In time, are you looking to eventually release the game files here on itch for paid download? (Some of us may have issues with Discord's EULA)

Is that perhaps related to the Legendary Turbo Encabulator?
(Not talking about the game anymore, but the meme)

What do the red numbers on the character's face mean?
Is the Flame Warden an enemy? It's not completely clear.

The "3.04s" in the box infront of the enemy is meaningless. Please add context is this a timer? Then you'll need to create a 'time' section of your screen with a pocketwatch or similar metaphor.
While I like the fact that you are logging the actions with text, could you consider updating the values in place rather than adding a new line of text?

Actually... now I can see that they are tabs to the right of the screen. You only want to page off information that's not time sensitive. Inventory, Equipment, and Skills are pretty time sensitive in the middle of combat or running from a threat. I'm assuming that this game is going to work  like a point-and-click MUD?

I've had a quick read of a few of your texts. I can see you're stretching out your literary muscles. There's no shortage of content.

If I were to suggest anything, it would simply be to clarify the character you are writing for with a brief explanation why they're the way they are; and then to put your character's words in a contextual grid. What kind of grid? Imagine if you will a spreadsheet filled with the character's sayings where each row is one of a multitude of moods and the columns are possible states in the storyline.

The freedom that comes from having a character who can respond to circumstances and their own personal issues feels very much like a living breathing entity. I'm sure you may have had some situations in mind when you wrote your work. Making the character's intentions explicitly easy to read not only assists a developer copy+pasting the text for the appropriate places, but also for you the writer who can muse on how slight differences in circumstance would reflect a different delivery by the character.

These are very evocative original sounds! Lots of character and clarity. You've done a good job.

While this project is small enough to avoid the attention of Nintendo, they still have a very eager legal team to defend any potential Intellectual Property 'infringement'. (Although they don't own the concept of tiny monsters that can fit into your pocket at least. There is always the opportunity to rebrand to avoid potential litigation. I'm not a lawyer, and nothing I say can be taken as legal advice. I'd hate to see a skilled individual possibly bitten by a big company.)

Generic Possible Reasons (until someone who knows more can tell you):

It could be a versioning problem. Such that you need to update to the latest version to connect to their server, or the developer didn't update their server to allow the new updated version of the game. (A magic number is usually a hash value for integrity validation. It's not foolproof though.) Such an outcome can usually be patched quick enough if reported to the developer. Most Likely scenario.

It could mean that their game server is not available. Such that the developer didn't pay fees  in time to the hosting provider, or that the server has been locked down by hosting admins in order to deal with an active hack elsewhere in their network. (yes, this happens.)

It could mean that your computer has a virus that has infected a file's magic number they are checking for. (Please NEVER disable anti-virus unless the vendor has legitimately earned your trust; say for example by following advice from your workplace's I.T. department or the source instructions is the same official one where you got your Operating System from and you can verify it the message comes from them.)
Opening ports is also risky, but absolutely necessary sometimes.

It could mean that the program has a glitch where your specific computer with your specific configuration results in a failed check despite the details being correct. Programmers are falliable. It happens. Such an outcome can usually be patched quick enough if reported to the developer. Also, check to see if you have a configuration file needing maintenance. It might simply be that.

It could mean that the program you were trying to run was identified as malware by the hosting provider; and as such they've quarantined new network connections, but haven't removed the files - a form of reverse-shadowban so as to track new activity by the hacker and learn more about them. Extremely rare.

It could also mean that your DNS has issues.

It could mean any of these or something completely different. Hope you get resolution soon!

Interesting!

My connection is wired (copper and fibre optic) however, I do not live in the United States.

Thanks for getting back to me. I guess this is going to be a tricky issue to bugfix; for even if you had a 'resubmit' button it could be abused by hackers caching in auto-generated images. I guess all I have is to disable screensaver whilst I'm in the middle of a paint (in case it's suspending network connection) and cross my fingers. Thanks again! It's a fun game! :)

Very interesting!

I enjoyed the nudges of new plot to keep the feeling of progression after a couple of fruitless loops.

I wasn't expecting to need to write down the laser equation settings, so I wasted a couple of loops there.

Knowing what actions are responsible for unlocking available choices remain uncertain; which arguably can extend playtime. However this game offers enough replayability in the form of the metrics of Knowledge/Bowling/Romance/Cat. There doesn't seem to be any need for any of the inevitable frustrating route testing. (ie. bowling alone is key to improving your ability, even though you should still be picking up bowling experience if you play with your friend.)

And no. I don't use Windows, so the download version isn't possible for me.

It was fun while it lasted.

Canvas stuck in perpetual 'Uploading...' (See image view for reference)

While this image is meaningless, I'd hate to lose my work if I actually made something worthwhile. Is there a note about this issue somewhere? I'm not logged in; and so there's no method to double-check if it ultimately uploaded or not. If you know something about the pesky 'uploading', please give us a heads up!

Edit: Silly me. https://swsteffes.itch.io/different-strokes/devlog/486175/new-server-build-requi... clearly explains that the web version is broken.

If you have sample writing, that might be helpful. What tools do you use to help you keep track of plot branching?  (I've played a bit with Freeplane; but there are many other workflows out there)

Do you have a philosophy in how you've found certain types of writing work best? Such as how you might approach the different writing styles between choice-based pathing (Interactive Fiction/Visual Novel) versus RNG based pathing (RPGs/strategy games)?

Thanks for your reply!

The I managed to find https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/20-minutes-till-dawn-be3305, however the deal you mentioned wasn't available. Not that I wanted anything for free, I simply wanted to pay to buy this here on itch.

Interesting to see how I ended up downvoted when I pointed out some pretty obvious things without any entitled expectation.

What is the character's background? What role does this character play in the story? Have you written how the character's voice and personality should sound like?

How many lines of dialogue will be required? How many successful takes are you expecting from each line? Has all the dialogue been written already, or are you expecting more dialogue later in the project?

Remember that involving anyone under the age of 18 requires guardian approval for participation; and if NSFW material is going to be even slightly in your game, you won't be allowed to have anyone under 18 involved in the project at all. Will you be needing participants to forfeit controls over how their voicework would be used? Do you have a sunset clause to gracefully delete (original and any copies of) recordings after a certain date?

This might MIGHT be working as intended? (It's not unthinkable for a nefarious dev to point a user to an automatically loading website with a javascript payload. At the very least, they can get the user's IP and/or digital thumbprint of OS/image-display-resolution/timezone.)

We will need to wait and see from official sources.

Like any artform - once it exists in a medium where an outsider can see it, the outsider's opinion isn't inherently invalid for for not being 'official'™. There can and will be personal biases in any interpretation. This is expected. By sharing discourse amongst critics, there is great transformative power with facets like social commentary and marginalised groups finding a source of representation.

We have death of the author. We have subtext in everything that can possibly be the subject of analysis. We even have dorks who will try to rule 34 and/or ship every character in their own fanfiction.

You can contact me on GameMasterCaddy@ProtonMail.com

As they say; great dissatisfaction can lead to a spark of creativity. Itch has lots of very talented people, sometimes people are willing to assist with projects.

Would you be interested in writing the plot for a visual novel of your own?

If you'd like to give it a try, some points to consider:
* What theme would you like to set your game world in?
*What is it that the player needs to do in the game world? (In what way does the player discover the world? Searching locations? Observing characters to make correct dialogue choices - in asking questions or giving gifts?)
*How does the player affect the game world? (Do you save NPC lives by getting them to go to safe locations? Do you manage to set upmatchmaking between NPCs?)
*If an event happens or fails to happen, what are the consequences for each outcome?
*Focus on a plot of no more than 5 different things to get started on your first try.

I'd be most happy to help you brainstorm and make a flowchart or two.

There are plenty of assets on itch to make a quick playable rough draft on Ren'Py. Evn if it's just for your own amusement.

Anyway, just a thought.

Interesting premise!

Unfortunately when you finally reach a stable orbit around the first level, the timer doesn't go any lower than 1 and you end up stuck in a softlock!

It is unfortunately so very easy to accidentally make future potions impossible by picking mushrooms you'll need later.

Interestingly enough, I didn't know if one particular blue mushroom was close enough to the graves to count. So I placed it into the cauldron first only to be told that I failed (despite not adding/wasting any of the other ingredients).

I see that you uploaded a zip file for offline use (presumaby)?

I would love the option to purchase a copy.

Would one assume that the licence would stay the same as the website (CC0), or would the zip file be released under a different licence?

We can thank the numerous reaction youtubers who popularise horror games with the teen/preteen market.

Even without the theme of horror, this market drastically changes the nature of how a game is interpreted. Take Minecraft for example*.

I'm not sure if anyone else here has played the Narrow One; but it too is plagued with its own issues. All-in-all, the main issue is that there are very different types of people visiting itch. Keeping the front page needs to cater to the kinds of gamer who doesn't want to explore for themselves. Such people are mostly underage kids. We know itch to have so much diversity and creativity. And you are correct in pointing out that an intial impact sets the tone for all but the most adventurous.

But the subsumation of the existing main page into an alternative user experience would result in rage for the current users for whom the popular offerings appeal to. A bigger question can be for where itch gets the most value. Of the current users being catered to, are they more likely to spend more overall than the average user? Is there another meaningful metric we can look at instead?

*: A novel sandbox. Appealing in it's ease of controlling space. Of use to those who had an interest in architectural aesthetic. Then it gained increasing popularity in gamified form. The ability to be used as an intellectual tool never changed. However the ability to hold serious discussion on subjects like adjacency and negative space, with Minecraft as the medium, became cheapened somewhat. You'd have to move into specialised forums than be a conversation in situ as part of the medium.

Sounds like you're using a bug bounty system?

While a team first writing specifications before writing code is a serious time sink, you end up with less trouble during debugging phases. As automated testing can only catch the most glaring errors. While the game seems to be single player, are you seeking contribution to stress test server/network load?

Where are you in the development cycle? Still working on prototying, or are you finalising a major rollout?

Here's some A.I. generated fan art of someone entering/leaving L-space.

I feel of the wonky proportions helps add to the madness somewhat.

Pretty cool game. I can see how this would lead to an addiction-fueled consumption of time!

H O W E V E R
It appears this demo is another one of those 'steam wishlist' games, for when the commercial game is out, there won't be upload any full seperate version for purchase here on itch.

The game has been on steam since June 9th, 2022. There's no chance of it being available. Not everyone wants (or is able) to use Steam; but also, developers quite resonably don't want users having access to source code to something that should earn them money. Something Steam's DRM protects.

Hopefully the developer might decide to eventually upload a full (paid) version to itch if sales on Steam taper off.

Thanks for reading.

Very interesting! You've set up a solid premise for the storylines to write themselves.

That failure ending alone should earn this RPG a place in a Game Master's scenario library.

If you had enough memory cards and yellow cards; I wonder how the game would handle having an NPC who doesn't have any cards left in their deck to play?

It is extremely difficult to write games with flirtation interaction that involves the player.

The tonal shift from 'Player's character doesn't want to be at work' into a 'Player's character is vulnerable to be flirted with' came across a little disjointed.

Without the setup of character building, it feels like the player is meant to personally be won over with how the text is written rather than putting ourselves into the shoes of Kate and how she sees the world.

As a suggestion, it might be possible to lay out a little groundwork on the life of this Player Character (Kate) beforehand. Perhaps having us play through a few bar shifts? Understanding what it's like to be in the role, revealing bits of exposition, setting up plot hooks for Kate to have curiosity about the intimate nature of people; the player is then aware of the intended premise when the main antagonist arrives.

Final note: At the 'always playing it safe' dialogue, I really wanted to yell at the computer about how it's a choice based on defining ourselves in a chaotic world. Even the overly simplified good person / bad person narrative for how the world is, is part of this choice of defining self. heh. Ah well.

Thanks for making this game :)

Great game!

Reminds me a little of Robert Asprin's 'Dragon Poker' (from the novel 'Little Myth Marker' in his Myth series.)

I love the concept of playing a game vastly beyond one's ability to control it. But best of all, the devloper has managed to keep it fairly approachable and fun to play out different combinations!

The only issue I have is that this game plays more like a combination of Vingt-Et-Un and Blackjack (rather than strictly Blackjack).

I would offer a suggestion to the developer to encode and graph the various complications or system balancing will end up as an impossible task.

The Gun seems to have been disabled now.

I got as far as I could without knowing that I needed a planter/gardening-pot,
(One already has dirt and can grow trees, that such a gardening container never came to mind.) Or which to summon an animal, you need to prepare an appropriate environment.

It's way too easy to get caught up trying to exhaust new creations than taking things methodically. The fact that the seeds were 'mixed' was a good clue that they contained different things that activated in different ways.

I don't mind abstract symbolism. However the final few combinations relied on guessing what the developer had in mind; than adhering to a learned consistency. The animal puzzles required more patience than applying the game's logic. By the end of the game, my thoughts lingered on combinations never realised. Which becomes a great source of inspiration for others to draw from.

All in all, a really neat game! :)

This was a fun little game!

It has potential to be taken even further. :)

The Queen Bee's gimmick is using honey dice to pump up dice values when placed on the specifc tiles on the board.

However, You are correct in that if the honey claims your shield dice, you're going to be out of luck when the big attack happens.

I feel the best you can do is to ensure you have only 2 of each colour type. More dice means more chance of having an unfavourable streak of dice you don't want for a given situation.