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.

5 thoughts on “You Win Again Apple

  1. So, I just found time to play Scarlet Moon. Lot of fun, but a few issues:

    1) The game hangs for me when I try to load a save while playing.

    2) In combat, there needs to be a Rest option or something. In the scenario where the enemy is out of armslength and you don’t want to use a ranged attack, instead of Defending, you might choose Rest, a brief breather which lets you recover energy (or at least, not lose it to attrition). Or, maybe the Defend option should only cost you energy if the enemy actually attacks you.

    3) If you get spanked by the bad guy, then the state of your bottom should cause comment if you also get spanked by Sam. In option 1 where you simply opt for being late, some silly excuse for the sore bottom should be part of dialog. In option 2 where you actually try to tell the truth, the state of your bum should serve as evidence.

    4) Speaking of which, where’s the option to view your appearance and the state of your bottom? That was something of a selling point for me in Potion Wars 🙂

    1. 1. Odd. I’ve never had that happen before, and I haven’t heard of that happening to anyone else. Could you send me a save file that has that problem, and the Log.log file that gets generated when you attempt to load?

      Does the save/load file dialog pop up when you attempt to save? It’s possible that the save/load dialog is just popping up in a weird place, and you’re not seeing it, or it isn’t popping up at all.

      2. Once you gain Scarlet Beam, that becomes less of a problem, because you can shoot them. That being said, I do need to improve the AI of the enemies so that their movement makes more sense (they should be trying to get to a position where they can do the most damage). Right now, their movement is basically random. There is no rest option partially for balance reasons, and partially because your character is brand new to their powers, and don’t have a good handle just yet on how to turn them on and off. I may introduce a “Rest” skill at some point, that allows your character to lower their shield to take a breather. While resting they gain energy rather than losing it at the attrition rate. That could actually be interesting once you start working with other heroes…

      3. That’s a good idea! I’ll add that to our TODO list.

      4. You’ll definitely have that option on the “Home Screen” (introduced in episode 2). I’ll probably include the option to view your character’s status during events as well. I just haven’t done it yet, because it’s not strictly necessary to play the game.

      1. I’ve managed to reproduce the bug, and I think it’s because of a hack I introduced a while ago to fix a different bug. I’m currently in the middle of a major rewrite of a good chunk of the codebase to make the GUI much less of a hackfest. The bug should be fixed as a part of that rewrite.

        Until then, I’d recommend just quitting to the Title Screen before you load a game. Less than ideal, but I’d rather not try to introduce another hack that could introduce other, more severe bugs.

  2. Aw what a shame… I mean I played it on a mac. It still works if it’s not bundled, but you have to know how to navigate a console. Then again on a mac you’re kinda used to poor gaming support 🙂

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