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News (Also my first real post)

What's up?

So, you've probably noticed (or forgot) from the last post that I was in the progress of making a game, but didn't announce what it was exactly. Others of you noticed I spent a crapton of time complaining about stuff my laptop manufacturer was doing with my laptop. The rest of you are probably wondering when you joined this group since you click accept whenever you get group invites in case they raffle away goodies. I'll start with the "what I've been doing part. If you're not here for that, skip down to the second header.

* Note: If you're sensitive to people swearing on the internet for some reason, this section is definitely not for you.

So, shortly after that last blog post, I ran into an issue with my network card in my new laptop not picking up in certain areas of my house, despite being a bit close to my router. So, sometime in July, I asked HP about it, and after some troubleshooting, they figured that it was a weak network card. My laptop was under warranty, so I shipped it off to HP on July 30th. It was supposed to be a one-week job, but as anyone who's been chatting me since knows, it has been anything BUT a one-week job.

Once it's confirmed to have arrived, they claim to be fixing it, and the person I was with promised to give me updates. During this one-week period, either a prank caller at HP, someone HP sold my number to, or someone who hacked into HP and got my number (as of this writing, I still have no damn clue who it was since the privacy issue was the least of their concerns) started calling me. On the occasions I did pick up, I got a dial tone. It was coming from the same phone number that HP used for contacting me, so I rightfully thought it was them having issues. The final call from whomever it was that I picked up claimed that "My PC wouldn't boot", and claimed to be from Microsoft (same phone number). I checked in on HP before contacting them to see if my laptop was almost done, and I found out that the estimated repair date was suddenly changed from Friday, August 5th to August 19th, and then changed a while later to September 11th (no coincidence to the holiday from what I'm told). A bit furious at this point, I contacted them and demanded some answers, to which I got barely any.

Around this time, I learned from the Privacy Policy (that I browsed through) that they have a pretty good rating on the Better Business Bureau, which is a business accreditation agency that accredits businesses who do excellent customer service. (Look up Valve on there if you want some laughs.) They also offer a free mediation service, which I took full advantage of. After that, the person handling my case (who kept calling it "court") pushed a rather speedy priority to help get rid of the case, so lots of out-of-protocol stuff got done. For example, stuff that happened as a result of the resulting back-and-forth conversation on that case was HP offering a complete replacement (never happened before), gift certificates, and pretty much anything save for actually speed up the repair (which was later delayed to 9/28. As I have the fixed laptop now, that was something I'm fortunate to not be still dealing with). Later, I came up with the genius idea for them to ship me back the un-repaired laptop, and I would ship it back when the network card actually came in. After him talking to his manager/boss, it turned out to be a great move (for HP) since it shut me up and they could keep delaying the repair, and I could use the laptop in the meantime. Great!

So, that laptop came back a week afterwards, because the repair facility stopped responding to the company's e-mails and calls. BBB closed the case since a resolution was supposedly settled, though I complained since it was closed prematurely, to which the manager of BBB sent me a private e-mail to contact her if it didn't come back in two weeks. So, the laptop came back temporarily. And behold, they used my laptop for testing other crap and didn't bother to fix it before shipping it back. My screen didn't work (turned out to be a hinge issue), my keyboard was replaced with a French Keyboard (which I didn't have, and I don't know any French), and, since they likely sent it as-is, it was very, very greasy. Pissed, I demanded HP to fix the issues that they created for themselves (and sent the BBB a copy, causing the case to re-open, and forcing the executives to notice), and after copying some files that I forgot to back up earlier, I sent it back. By this point, it was around the end of August/beginning of September.

Thankfully, that actually took a week, and as a bonus, the network card that was predicted to arrive by 9/28 was suddenly available and installed. It arrived on my doorstep on the 9th of this month, and actually worked like intended. The network card still doesn't work too well in my house (granted, I do have an old router), but it's fine on public Wi-Fi, and I am not jumping through more hoops. I've done enough customer support shit for a few months. Anyways, as for why this blog post is somewhat late (I was hoping to post last week), I caught a cold the same day the laptop came back, so I haven't exactly felt too great since then. I am getting better though, and I should be back to normal soon.

TL:DR; Customer Support failed pretty badly.

Yes, I am still making a game. I didn't lie when I said I was a few months ago, and I'm still working on it. I had a draft for the store page with what I had coded in for a fact (without screenshots since I'm doing that later), but that got lost, so I'll just skip to a summary.

I'm working on an RPG game called "Lilith", which will mix Sims elements and survival together. The overall premise is to safely travel from the protagonist's former house to a city (as of yet unnamed). However, she's a vampire, and thus has to regularly feed off the human population and can only travel at night. While most of the people on the journey are indifferent to you, there are a few select factions trying to prevent you from completing your journey.

The gameplay for the most part involves need management. You have to deal with blood levels, hunger (yes, you have to eat actual food too), and most of your other typical needs to stay alive. From the start of the game, factions follow you at a distance, forcing you to keep moving or else get attacked. Towns are somewhat safe spaces, as they won't directly attack you in those, but will eventually overwhelm the population and force you to keep going. NPCs you find have to be persuaded (again, see Sims) in order to give you blood or other things (aka, you can't just feed off the first person you find, you actually have to talk/flirt with them for a while).

Unlike most typical RPGs, to attempt to promote realism, there will be lots of randomization and minor, but complex systems that are much more complex than other RPGs. For example, when you order food, there's a full menu (about what you'd expect to see in a typical restaurant), for both food & drinks, not just basic potions. You can customize stuff to your liking (don't want anchovies on your supreme pizza? Take them off. For $1 more, replace it with steak. Or half house special, half just cheese. You know, like actual restaurants will do for you) Any leftovers you take from the restaurant can and will eventually expire. For most restaurants serving alcoholic drinks, you can order the full IBA bar menu if you wish. Enjoy having way too many choices just short of walking in a mall food court or here[www.mariettadiner.com]. (Before you ask, yes your character can get drunk. Also in the same complex spirit, Lilith can gain a tolerance with responsible drinking.) Unfortunately, I can't think of any non-food examples at this time, but trust me, it will be fun experimenting.

Now, for actual technical details. It's being coded in RPG Maker MV, which uses JavaScript as a programming language. The game is rendered using HTML5, which exports to most systems with minor technical differences with barely any additional coding. As such, it will initially be released for Windows/OS X on Steam, and depending on popular demand, iOS/Android later. And since it's HTML5, I could theoretically post demo builds and such online, and you can test it on whatever device you feel like playing it on. I'll attach a price tag to it when I'm closer to publishing it, though I'm currently estimating $19.99 for the Steam version, and probably $9.99 for mobile versions. Of course, these are bound to change depending on how much gameplay is in the initial build. And, of course, whether Trump causes massive inflation if he gets in office.

Q: Are you working with anyone else on this?
A: At the moment, I am not. However, I may need someone to create original music, though I'll get to that when I'm closer to needing it. And if I do need help, I'll contact the person directly, not just ask who has experience. I have my contacts.

Q: Do you have any screenshots?
A: Not right now. I'm not an artist, so I can't particularly draw well right now. It's also why the art assets are coming last.

Q: Any benefits for us for being your friends?
A: Well, you qualify for beta testing when I get to that point, but it's not ready yet. If you want a short term benefit, here's GameMaker + its DLC for only $15[www.humblebundle.com]! There's three freebies near the bottom of that page if you're cash-deprived.

Q: Is this FAQ done?
A: Since when is a true FAQ finished? These are pretty terrible questions, but since I typically include FAQs with stuff, here's an FAQ. These will be replaced with actual questions as they get asked in the comments.

Anyways, have a great weekend, and hopefully I'll get back to being on here more frequently than I have been.
Oh: one more thing. The "kicking people off my friends list thing" hasn't happened yet, but will eventually. Don't ask questions about it, as it won't happen for a long time.