Poll: Which is your favorite initial form in Witch's Minion?

I ask because, while there will be basic solutions available to every form, certain options--particularly those tied to a wardrobe requirement, and by extension requiring illustrations--will not be available in every possible body. I would like to ensure, however, that the most popular forms have at least a decent amount of content available beyond the basic path, or, more precisely, that the additional content I write will be distributed along the paths where the greatest number of players will be able to enjoy it.

(Note that the incomplete forms do not yet have illustrations and as such have been intentionally omitted. If one of these forms is nonetheless your favorite, feel free to say so in the comments.)

Public Alpha 2

Here it is, at long last: ALPHA Release 2! This build isn't as complete or bug-free as I'd have liked (and for an alpha release, my standards were quite low), but as I'm going away for a few days and will be unable to work on the game until at least Monday anyway, I thought it better to put what exists out there before I left rather than make everyone wait the duration of my absence plus however long it actually takes to finish this section of the game when I return.

Alpha Release 2

Many, but not all, of the bugs reported in the playability alpha have been corrected. While I don't have a separate release for readers of the blog this time, I do still have a treat: testing commands! These are commands that will not be present in the final game, but which I've added at one point or another for testing purposes. They are blunt and highly specific, written into the game when I was feeling lazy and writing a new action was faster than playing through the game manually to get the effect I wanted.

• SKIPINTRO - Teleports the player to the Dingy Apartment. Does not apply transformation effects, so doing this as a male will probably break things.
• SHOW RED BOX - Intuitively, displays a red box of the proper dimensions in the main illustration window. Is used primarily for testing images and UI layout.
• BUFF DIGNITY - Adds +100 to the player's dignity score. Will probably break some things, and not others. I was very inconsistent in the way I check dignity and other stats.
• MAKE COP COSTUME - gives the player a police costume, sized to fit the Brunette with 1 bust modifier.
• TFTEST - Runs the witch's transformation immediately. Used for testing the mansion without going upstairs, manually taking the key and running the witch conversation.
• ERICATEST - Runs the witch's transformation after setting the player's variables to 1 bust item (and nothing else).
• VERONIKATEST - Runs the witch's transformation after setting the player's variables to 2 bust items (and nothing else.)
• JANATEST - Runs the witch's transformation after setting the player's variables to 3 bust items (and nothing else.)
• FAITHTEST - Runs the witch's transformation after setting the player's variables to 3 bust items and the golden hairbrush.
• YURIZANTEST - Runs the witch's transformation after setting the player's variables to 3 bust items and the Chili pepper.

There are also two new non-testing commands: INVENTORY OFF and MISSIONS OFF. (and, of course, their counterparts INVENTORY ON and MISSIONS ON). These commands disable the inventory and missions windows, which can function poorly when players have an extreme number of items or missions or for users playing at an unusually small resolution. This should help avoid an experience-ruining bug where the player is forced to hit space for "more" every single turn when the inventory or missions window is full.

Playability Alpha Patch Notes

Thank you all; the responses I've gotten from this playability alpha have been invaluable!  Particularly enthusiastic thanks to Chandra Magic and Zephyr!  Here's what I've been able to fix so far:

Fixed portrait illustration runtime problem caused when drinking pink potion.

Fixed Compass Rose spacing.

Removed stray clothing from stores.

Fixed Hospital Receptionist conversation loop.

Second floor staircase should now function properly after seducing the policeman.

NPCs should now react properly to a player who has imbibed the pink potion.

Purchasing weapons and the climbing gear should no longer be repeatable.

You should no longer be able to stumble across Jacob without first investigating to find his location.

And here's a little of what remains to be done before I release public alpha 2:

It's possible to get stuck with some branches of the Kelly and Ted conversations.

At least one resolutions to the Jacob mission other than transforming him needs to be completed (in case the player uses the potion personally).

Other things, like filling in the remaining missing illustrations, and adding the ability to use the potion on more people, are on the agenda but won't delay the release of Alpha 2.

Again--and I can't say this enough--thank you!

Playability Alpha

I'm planning to release a second public alpha of Witch's Minion soon.  I know there's been a lot of anticipation for this release, but I also know how frustrating it can be to try to navigate a game and keep running into things that are not simply unfinished but game-breakingly broken. That said, fixing them is tricky; I've run through the existing game so many times by now that I either avoid these sections reflexively or have fallen into a routine that misses them entirely.  As such, I'm going to send out a couple of early copies to get some basic playability feedback and to see where players get stuck before the general release.  As a reward for reading this blog, you are hereby invited to receive one such copy!  Just let me know how to contact you--assuming you're someone reading this contemporaneously and not some mysterious future-person digging through the archives--and I'll send you a link.  You can email me at Scipio_Africnaus@ymail.com, or contact me via private message on TFGamesSite, if you prefer.


In retrospect, I realize that asking for individual contact is silly and paranoid.  I'll just post the link here when it's ready in about 20 minutes. 


Here it is: Witch's Minion Playability Alpha

Now, as for the disclaimer:  This game is frighteningly incomplete.  I do NOT recommend downloading it for fun; you'll just have a frustrating, rage-inducing time.  If, however, you'd like to download the game and provide feedback to help speed development, please, feel free.

In particular, I'm looking for all the ways the game is horribly, horribly broken.  Dead ends that prevent further progress.  A lot of the game is simply incomplete; that's just the nature of the current state of development.  However, before I release the general public alpha on TFGamesSite, I'd like to at least close up the major game-stopping bugs, so that people can spend more time providing complete and useful feedback, and less time trying to figure out if their current obstacle is a puzzle or a bug.

This section of the game is supposed to end with the acquisition of a G-Con ticket.  Anything that ends the game before that is something I need to fix.

Also, if you're feeling particularly ambitious, I'd love to know what you tried doing that wasn't implemented, things you tried examining that weren't present, and so forth.  Hopefully, I'll be able to put together a laundry-list of outstanding problems I need to address, which should make finishing this section much faster.

Whether you're bug-hunting or just reading, thank you!

Feedback: Scipio Africanus