Monthly Archives: July 2016
You Win Again Apple

Spankers, Spankees, and Switches of All Ages (18 and above),

So I tried (again) to figure out how to turn my game into a Mac App, and failed (again). Basically, I can’t figure out where to put the external data files (i.e. character information, outfit information, game events) so that the game sees it, so the app crashes immediately. Honestly, I’m not even sure that the reason the app crashes immediately is because it can’t find the resource files, because the stupid App swallows all the error messages (as opposed to Windows and Linux which nicely print errors to the terminal and logs when they barf).

So after a very frustrating morning, I’ve decided that I will not be officially supporting Mac. Sorry guy and gals. Take it up with Apple and their insistence on obfuscating where, how, and what is going on when, they execute their applications.

Note: I understand that bundling everything into one file, is what you’re “supposed” to do. However, forcing me to do that in such an obfuscated manner, rather than just having a small executable surrounded by external resource files like Windows and Linux, really makes it hard to support the OS when you’re one guy writing a porn game as a hobby. Besides, I don’t want to hide all the game data behind an executable. I want people to be free to edit the game content and even their save files if they so desire.

However, I have introduces one more last-resort way to run the game if you are having trouble running any of the variants posted (i.e. you’re on a Mac and can’t run linx_mac_no_jre, or all of the versions just don’t work):

1. Download the source code.

2. Extract the source code into a folder (doesn’t matter where).

3. If you’re on windows, execute ScarletMoon_windows.bat. If you’re on Linux or Mac, execute ScarletMoon_linux_mac.sh.

Essentially, what you’re doing is compiling the code, and then executing it directly. So it will take a bit of time to get started (on my old-ass Macbook it took about 16 seconds the first time, and 10 seconds the second). Furthermore, you won’t have any music if you execute the game this way. If you want to play the music, do the following:

1. Download  music.zip from the release.
2. Unzip music.zip and copy the resulting “music” folder into the “data” folder. So “data” should have the following folders:

a. characters
b. events
c. items
d. music

And inside “music” should be a bunch of music files (.mp3 and .ogg mostly).

I’ve also released a new version, 0.1.22. This fixes the directory problems in the previous release that kept the no-jre variations of the game from running. It also converted all of the .wav music files into .mp3 (which are significantly smaller) and removed a (rather large) library that I’m not actually using. So that should hopefully save us a few megabytes.

Windows-no-jre bug

Spankers, Spankees, and Switches of All Ages (18 and above),

There is a problem with the directory structure for the windows version of the game without an embedded JRE (the one that has a .bat file rather than a .exe). I’m not currently in a position to fix it, but you can do the following as a workaround until I fix the build:

1. There should be two folders: ScarletMoon-0.1.21 and ScarletMoon-0.1.21-windows-no-jre. They are supposed to be the same folder, I just have a setting wrong somewhere in my build tool.

2. Open the ScarletMoon-0.1.21 and copy both directories (bin and lib) into ScarletMoon-0.1.21-windows-no-jre. Now, when you run the .bat file, the game should work as intended.

Sorry about that.

AKA

July Update

Spankers, Spankees, and Switches of All Ages (18 and above),

Sorry about the delay in the monthly post. Fourth of July is a thing where I’m from, and I had a pretty busy weekend.

Anyway, I’ve stopped receiving complaints about the game being broken, so either people’s problems have been fixed, or a bunch of you have given up on ever getting the game to work. I hope it’s the former, and not the latter…

Anyway, there are now four variations you can download: The original two versions for Windows and Linux/Mac/Unix that don’t come with an embedded JRE, and a version for Windows that comes with an embedded JRE and a version for Linux that comes with an embedded JRE. The windows version may or may not work with PlayOnMac, I haven’t tested it. I would recommend one of the first two initially, because they are a smaller download size. Only download the version with the embedded JRE if you are having trouble running the version without an embedded JRE.

Now that all the fires have either been put out, or burned you all to ash, I’ve been working on a significant refactor of the parts of the codebase that are responsible for displaying the GUI, and processing input from the user. Both of those two pieces were rather heavily intertwined and fugly, but the new version is looking much cleaner (makes heavy use of a rather awesome library called ReactiveX).

I’m performing this refactor partially because my codebase desperately needed it, partially support some additional GUI work I’ll need to do to support the second episode, and partially because one SpankerOfOmens on animeotk has expressed interest in using my engine, and this refactor is the first step to pulling the Scarlet Moon specific stuff out of the more general game engine stuff. I’ve tried to keep the two logically separate, so hopefully pulling them apart won’t be too difficult, but we’ll see.

Bonemouth and I have written static text for the bulk of day 2 of episode 1 (he handled the beach scene, while I handled the scene immediately after). The only thing lacking is the climax of the episode (a rematch with Buzzsaw). However, Chaosnova (the one who wrote those two shorts that I posted a while back) has agreed to write that up while I work on cleaning up some of the warts in my code, and making it ready for other projects to use. Once Chaosnova has finished their scene, I’ll edit it and make it dynamic. Then we’ll have to make sure the combat is properly balanced, as well as implement a few more skills (though those should be pretty quick). Chaosnova has also provided a third bit of flash fiction that I’m looking over right now. I’ll post that once I think it’s ready.

AKA