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Sticky: attn: beta testers

Since I've had to explain the same thing over and over, lmfao. If you're reading this, you're probably a new beta tester! Welcome to the madness and hello!

- First things first, all the releases are posted to a "secret" Twitter account: Alonzo the Pirate. So please request to be added so you can see all the download links.

- New versions come out whenever I feel like I've added enough stuff to warrant a new version. Usually this means once every week or two. Please skim through the changelog for each new version so you have some idea of what's been added.

- Constructive criticism and bug reporting are really important. Even if I haven't explicitly asked you to be an editor, if you have any comments on the story/characters/gameplay/whatever, please let me know and feel free to be as harsh as possible. Of course, if you run into any bugs, please let me know, too, and copy the text that pops up when you get the error.

- All that said, please note that as of writing this post, the artwork is still all temporary placeholder art. So please hold off on any art critique because that's not what the art for the game is actually going to look like. You can, however, critique the user interface because I did that and it's pretty much complete in my mind, lol. Unless you have some mind-blowing idea, though, the UI is probably not going to change.

- Every time there's a new release, you'll have to re-download it and delete your old game. That's the easiest way to do things right now, unfortunately, but so far the game really isn't that large in filesize, so hopefully it's not a big deal. You can copy over your save files, though, if you want! At this point, I'm probably not adding in any more huge features, so you should be able to play through all the alpha/beta versions from here on out without having to start over each time a new version comes out.

- During alpha/beta testing, I'm allowing everyone developer access. This means you can hit shift+D -> variable viewer and see a list of all the variables in the game and your current points. This means that you can see how many affection points you have with each guy, which is normally kept hidden from the player.

I think that's about it! If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Obviously you all have me added on Twitter, lol, so that's a pretty quick way of getting my attention. For longer reports, there's my email: feudal[@]love[.]com without the brackets.

+ To-do list - This is for things not listed on our roadmap, so mostly bugs and the like. If you already see a bug/something listed here, you don't have to report it to me because I already know. :3
+ Dev blog

Current list of active beta testers (for my convenience)
- @dopespacenine (editor)
- @mitegoran
- @SilverxBlue
- @selenity136

alpha 3.6

- story-wise, the game now goes up to the break-in scene. there are five variations of that scene and so far, alonzo and azhar's are done. (note: javiel's sprite is azhar's for now)
- affection points are now balanced for chapter three. it's possible to add up to +15 affection points with map scenes, +5 from replying to their perfume contest letters, and then another +7 points after the break-in scene. (so far, obviously only for alonzo and azhar) so this means max points after the break-in scene = 92 points.
- chapter one is now fully voiced. (added tetsuyoshi and jean's lines)
- there is now a toggle for a little drop-down that shows your current date/location. it should show up after completing a map scene (so you guys don't have to start your game over to see it). of course, if you start your game over, it'll appear right around when lucien appears for the first time.
- fixed the letter reply system so that it doesn't count a letter as "replied to" until after you're finished replying. unfortunately, I can't make it so you can save/rollback mid-reply, but if you save before you reply to any letters, you can keep loading until you get the results you want.
- the chapter/location/date screens' timing has been increased by about 1 second each.

beta testers: https://twitter.com/#!/alonzothepirate/status/94920954043576320

alpha 3.5

- the first chapter is now almost fully voiced. still missing tetsuyoshi and jean's lines, but alonzo, lucien, and azhar's scenes are now all voiced.
- story-wise, we are now about 80% done with chapter three. azhar, lucien, and alonzo's three scenes on the map are done. the carmine/sabine and sergei/esperansa scenes are also done. basically the only map scene still missing at this point is tetsuyoshi's last one.
- letters now have deadlines for replies. if you don't reply after 1-3 days (depends on the urgency of the letter, really) the letters will "expire" and you can't reply to them anymore. so now you don't have to bother choosing "don't respond", it'll automatically go away after a little while.
- slightly changed the letter reply button to go based off a numerical variable, so you don't have to respond to all the letters at once (you can pick and choose the ones you want to reply to, and then return).
- the letters now all have a signature at the bottom of them (only reflected in new letters--you'll only see this if you start a new game or reload an old save file from before receiving a letter) so you know to keep scrolling until you see it.
- letters tutorial has been tweaked to reflect the above changes.
- I fixed an error with the persistent variables used for the tutorials. (basically I had them set to "if true" instead of "if false"; a simple programming mistake lol)
- edited the map so that the hover is a lot more ... obvious-looking? it's redder and highlighted more.
- compressed all of the music tracks except for the ones daniel composed because those sound terrible mono and they're so gorgeous they ought to be heard at their real quality.

beta testers: https://twitter.com/#!/alonzothepirate/status/91025237008855040

alpha 3.4

- story-wise, all of the guys' first and second scenarios are done. they may be elaborated upon or rewritten a bit in the future, but they're there.
- you now reply to letters from the letters menu whenever you want. there's no longer a separate scene for replying. (note: I just thought of a better way of doing this, but this feature is already here. I'll implement the slightly better way in the next release)
- there's a letters tutorial at the beginning of chapter two and a points tutorial after the first choice in chapter one. these are on persistent variables--so once you've seen the tutorials once, you never have to see them again (even if you start a new game) unless you erase the persistent data.
- the letters button only shows up after this tutorial, so you don't have to worry anymore about opening the letters menu and there being nothing there. :P
- the images are now in subfolders. this doesn't actually affect much of anything, just made things a bit easier for me, organization-wise.
- I've made it so it's no longer possible to have negative stat/affection points. no matter what, your points can be no lower than 0.
- I've balanced the affection points for the first two chapters. the maximum affection points a guy can have at the end of chapter 2 is 65 points. to get their scenarios to show up in chapter three, you need 30 points with a guy. I think that's pretty fair.
- removed the ability to reply to the letter tetsu sends you after your little park date in chapter two. this gave him an unfair edge, points-wise. he still sends you a letter, you just don't get to reply to it.
- I've changed it so the whole "I think this is the beginning of love with ___" bit (at the end of the perfume contest routes) is only triggered if you have 40 points with a guy.

Point balancing for chapter three will happen when it's done. While you don't HAVE to start over your game, it'd probably be best to do so since I've changed so much, points-wise...

beta testers: https://twitter.com/alonzothepirate/status/89397093378179072

alpha 3.3

- fixed a bug causing the perfume contest follow-up letters to be reply-able no matter how many times you replied/ignored them
- fixed the letters interface so now when you have more letters than fits in the sidebar on the left, it'll let you scroll (you scroll by clicking and dragging along the white stitching. same way you scroll up on the longer letters. ALTERNATELY you can use your mouse's scrolly wheel thing)
- all of the main characters have their own temp sprites now except for jean, who hasn't been fully designed yet (I was supposed to add in lucille's sprite for this update and completely forgot until just now whoops NEXT TIME)
- azhar now uses contractions sometimes!!
- the letters/stats buttons are now literally attached to the dialogue box. before, they just looked like they were. :c while this is good because now the buttons get hidden during choices (as they should be, so they're no longer awkwardly floating there alone), this also unfortunately means that you all have to start your game over because trying to load a save file will crash the game :c
- the return/delete buttons on the stats/letters menus have been tweaked so they ... well they look infinitely better than those crap circular things I put in before
- the stats menu has been completely changed so that it now has bars on it instead of just numbers. the left stats are out of 50 and the right stats are out of 100.
- the "!" new message notification that appears now appears for EVERY new letter, not just the reply-able ones, but it now also disappears when you open up your letters and read them. you no longer have to wait until reaching the reply window (I am also contemplating making it so you can reply to your messages from the letters menu instead of waiting for that part to show up in the script)
- also fixed this bug where you'd keep getting a letter from tetsu every day after seeing his 1st scenario. you'd end up with 5 of the same letter by the end of the month, which was not fun
- story-wise, all of the guys' first scenarios are done now, tetsu's second is also done

beta testers: https://twitter.com/#!/alonzothepirate/status/86964039648940032

alpha 3.2

- made it so that the enter heroine name box appears in the middle of the screen, changed input color
- edited the yes/no screen so you don't have to click right on the letters anymore
- fixed the if statements on the map; all four guys' final scenario happens at the rose, so I just have it set to jump to whoever you've seen the first two scenarios for because that should only be one guy
- finished the first scenarios for tetsuyoshi and alonzo
- changed A LOT of the music (tell me if any seems out of place) and removed most of the non-ambience sound effects; also cut a number of the tracks to save space, so even though I added a lot of songs, the overall filesize actually went down
- fixed this error that shows up at the "end of chapter three"
- fixed up the prologue based on @dopespacenine's revisions

This is mostly a bugfix kind of release, so the story hasn't really progressed much. The next release probably won't be until I've gotten more of the scenarios written. (12 left to write!)

beta testers: https://twitter.com/#!/alonzothepirate/status/84321039470960640

alpha 3.1

- the map is coded and fully functional
- all of the scenarios are in place (and should appear in proper order) but most of them are not filled in
- all of the research/library scenarios are written/coded
- the third (repeatable) friendship scenario is written/coded
- about 3/4 of tetsuyoshi's first scenario is written
- a couple of new placeholder sprites: charlene, lucien, tetsu, sabine, and esperansa
- tetsuyoshi's japanese line in chapter two has been fixed to sound less formal
- the guys are now in our default order for the perfume contest choice (lucien, tetsuyoshi, azhar, alonzo - ie: by order of appearance)

NOTES TO TESTERS:
- The Evernote page I link to in the Twitter has the locations and requirements for all of the scenarios for chapter three. (also brief summaries)
- If you notice something that's out of place or out of order, please let me know immediately. While the scenes are not all coded, they are all labeled. So if you go to Ruyton for the first time and get "HAR HAR ALONZO2", there is something very wrong, lol.
- For your convenience, I have added a special beta tester perk. You're not supposed to be able to access the Pleasure Quarter yet ($5 if you can guess why you need to go there later), but accessing it at this point takes you to this ... mysterious place where you can add +30 points to any of the guys you don't already have 30 points with. ;D (good for testing!) It also removes the restriction for going to Ruyton. (you can only go there normally if you picked Tetsu for the perfume contest) This perk is only for chapter three. At the end of chapter three, all of your bonuses reset. :c

beta testers: https://twitter.com/#!/alonzothepirate/status/83376860028870657

alpha 3.0

- notification "!" whenever a new reply-able letter is received
- menu transitions
- finished options/save/load gui (basically I changed the button appearances)
- switched places for the delete/done buttons in the letters menu
- main menu now plays the complete theme song
- chapter two is now completely finished with all the guys' scenarios
- this release includes the first general part of chapter three before all the scenarios
- there's two lines of voice acting during the perfume route that are there for testing purposes (in order to hear the second one, you have to choose the "my heart belongs to someone else" option)

beta testers: https://twitter.com/#!/alonzothepirate/status/81996596388179968

alpha 2.5

- removed the clock (too distracting)
- tweaked the stats UI some more -- it's now animated and shiny!
- added the click to continue icon
- altered tetsuyoshi's first appearance (chapter one) so that it's more IC and slightly less comical
- changed the sliders in the preferences menu to the red jewels
- implemented the letter system, updated the previous chapters to have letters/replies
- azhar and lucien's perfume scenarios are finished, tetsuyoshi's is about 1/3 complete
- edited the ambience sound channel so that it's sfx and can be turned down by turning down the sound in the preferences menu
- tetsuyoshi now has his own theme song

beta testers: https://twitter.com/#!/alonzothepirate/status/78653824738398208

alpha 2.4

- alonzo's perfume contest scenario is done, may tweak it later
- the prologue has been trimmed to make it drag less
- NEW UI: stats menu, letters, nicer-looking buttons
- there are only two letters atm; will write more for the next update
- added more placeholder BGs, fixed them so they all appear to be the same style
- changed the "most important thing in life" variable so that it's a string; you will need to start a new game because your old save files no longer work properly with this changed
- removed a lot of extraneous labels to streamline coding
- save/load files now show the in-game date
- "smart" punctuation
- dynamic character namebox for the heroine (ie: the name shows up above the text now)

... come to think of it, this is a pretty massive update...

beta testers: https://twitter.com/#!/alonzothepirate/status/73128857443643392

alpha 2.3

- jk lol chapter two is not done
- the beginning of the perfume contest and half of alonzo's scenario for it is done
- fixed the name box, added the heroine's name
- added a lot more sfx and bgms -- the song in the main menu is the beginning of the official theme song
- revised/added to/changed parts in the script to make things more interesting and clear
- cleaned up the coding to make things smoother and the rpy files a liiiiittle bit smaller
- made it so when that one ship blows up, the textbox doesn't shake with the bg

beta testers: https://twitter.com/#!/alonzothepirate/status/69623759719505920

alpha 2.2

- tweaked the color/placement of the clock
- finished chapter two (some revisions still needed)

beta testers: https://twitter.com/#!/alonzothepirate/status/66156868346720256

alpha 2.1

- added an analog clock
- added a date/location screen
- got rid of the centered, fullscreen dates
- edited the prologue and chapter 1 to reflect the above changes
- wrote a tiny bit of dialogue and 1 choice
- edited one section of the story after discussing the plot point with airi
- added a new bgm to complement the previous edit

beta testers: https://twitter.com/#!/alonzothepirate/status/65278362926592000

alpha 2.0

- added the "daring" stat point, adjusted previous choices accordingly
- got up to about 1/3 of chapter two

beta testers: https://twitter.com/#!/alonzothepirate/status/64851790000173056

alpha 1.5

- additional choice at the end of chapter one
- the start of chapter two
- introduction of esperansa and sabine
- tweaked point values; it is no longer obnoxiously easy to get alonzo points

beta testers: https://twitter.com/#!/alonzothepirate/status/63618160351383553

First post

This is the changelog for Machina Jewel, a visual novel/otome game in progress that you can read more about here. Again, no download links here. This is mostly just for my benefit as the developer.

Previous versions:
Alpha 0.0 - 0.9
These were mostly me figuring out the mechanics of Ren'Py and messing with fonts and such. Also completed the prologue during these versions.
Alpha 1.0 - 1.4
Finished the GUI and all of chapter one.