Wolf Hall - Development Testing Thread

[hanako]

If you were not able to participate in the kickstarter (wrong country, paypal, etc) you can back the game's development and join in the testing here. The game is NOT complete! Much is still to be written/added!

We don't have a true 'spoiler' text function on this forum. We traditionally handle it by changing text to a light color like this so that it's hard to read without highlighting it, making it easy to skip over for people who don't want to see. You can change the text color either by clicking the little droplet icon next to the text-size dropdown or by typing color-change code:

Code: Select all

[color="white"]White Text[/color]

White Text

And if you want to be even more secretive you could make your text small...

Feel free to chat about the characters or ask about options you wish were available as well as talking about bugs and puzzles! While there's no guarantee anything you ask for will be added, we do listen, and you never know what might springboard us into a new idea.

Stuck in a dungeon puzzle? There's several different dungeons, so it helps to describe what's around you as much as possible, and also tell us what spells you have!

We are pushing out a lot of patches quickly to handle bugs, so it helps to keep an eye on your version number! If you're running the game through the itch app, it should auto-update, and since it will only replace the files that have changed, most updates are very quick. If you downloaded the zip file manually, though, you'll have to download new ones in order to get the latest version.

Did a spell do something odd, something that didn't make a crash but didn't seem quite right? Please let us know! There's a lot of spells and all their interactions are pretty complex, so we expect a few bugs, but the more you tell us the faster we can repair it. (Hoping to add a list of Known Spell Statuses here shortly, which may count as a minor spoiler since it will list off all the spells in the game)

[MillaMaxwell]

So far, I love this game! I just played through Horse Hall again a few days ago so that I could get the bonus surprise in my room and I love the choice of wand, haha! Having played Horse Hall so recently makes the UI and art changes really stand out to me. Wolf Hall is much nicer looking and easier to navigate. I also love Gary Stu's rainbow hair option!

Is Blaise going to be one of the vote-able side romance options? I really hope so because I really like em!

The only "bug" I've noticed thus far is that some characters don't show up in the Codex until well after they're introduced. Potsdam, Grabiner, William, Donald, Virginia, Luke, Ellen, Raven, and Taranis were there right from the start, I'm guessing since they are all either mentioned or met in the first few scenes. Oddly, even though Pastel is also mentioned there, I still don't see her in the Codex... Other characters take a while to show up though. For example, I met Logan during a trip to the mall on the first weekend, but he wasn't added to the Codex until Initiation. I met Angela during Initiation, but she didn't show up in the Codex until after the club sign-ups. I met Corinna and Big Steve during Initiation, but they still haven't been listed in the Codex. I'm not sure how much of this is intentional, but I figured I should mention it because it seemed odd.

[hanako]

Yeah, the codex is a slightly weird thing. The issue is that it's persistent between plays (partly to help remind you of who people are when you're planning other playthroughs) so if you unlock an entry, it'll always be there. That gets weird if entries change over time. Which version should be displayed on a fresh game? The early-game version or the latest unlocked version or something else? (Right now the only one that changes is the PC's entry, since it kind of has to.)

So right now, codex entries generally don't appear until you've had meaningful interactions (some reason they'd be worth remembering) and the codex information is not a spoiler. Which can lead to introductions being a little haphazard.

Not sure this is the best way to handle it.

[MillaMaxwell]

Okay, that makes sense. Now I've got an actual bug though:



I saved at the start of the first exam, right after being transported to the dungeon. I then proceeded to cast all my spells, inspect everything except the things I actually needed to inspect, run out of magic, reluctantly give up, and get yelled at by Grabiner. So then I decided to give it another go and reload that save. I beat the dungeon easily this time around, got congratulated by Potsdam, and then immediately got the above error as soon as she went away. Advancing from there just returned me to the title screen.

Edit: When I tried to load the save again to see if it would break in the same way, I was able to upload the debug log, so I guess this post wasn't really necessarily. Sorry about that!

[indiiea]

The first dungeon, since I'm feeling very dumb at the moment. I got the basic spells + silence and inscribe.
I've found the secret door and can't open it. I also found the Sparkle with spirit sense but my smart is too low to talk to it (24). There's also the vines, but they break. I suppose I'm supposed to go up, and the breeze is blowing in that direction too. Am I supposed to manage it with my current magic and is just missing what to do, or will I have to pick different skills?

[jellybi]

Whoops, I wrote a lot of comments for my first playthrough but got logged out due to inactivity and lost them, let me try to remember them:

YAY
- I enjoyed Barbara a lot, and getting new interactions with old characters, particularly going deeper into William's story and the new spin on Damien interactions
- I really like getting to choose a personality archetype for the main character through early options and then have it stick--I feel like every convo I have with friends about cool features for choice-driven stories come back to something like this
- Something I love about both games is how many cute and nice moments you get with characters you aren't actively "pursuing" like there were some really sweet moments with Ellen even though I was kind of on the William and/or Damien track

Maybe fix:
- Can there be more contrast in the menu? The text outlining helps but it's still pale on pale
- I genuinely failed the first exam due to running out of magic as I exhausted all my exploration options, but all the dialogue options suggested that the character had failed on purpose
- I was surprised that you couldn't use Breeze on the gas in the second dungeon since Grabiner specifically mentions that use of the spell in one of the intro sections. In fact I was so sure that would be the solution that I walked right into it thinking I had to be closer and failed the exam!
- In fact, I failed all the exams, even though I'm pretty familiar with the solutions from the first game! Not necessarily a problem since it means more replay value, but it does feel a bit dissonant to have the characters talking like the exams are easy or practically unfailable after easily failing every one of them
- Keeping all the possibilities open for the Damien storyline can't be easy to write, but I hope there is a very clear option to (spoilers): reveal you were playing him at the end, since it's possible to go into the relationship under that premise. I was enjoying it but based on some of the options and dialogue I kept worrying the story would start to assume my character was dating him sincerely without checking in with the player and eventually your options would be to either "fall in love" or "let him down easy" and I was absolutely in it to avenge everyone he'd toyed with and be a jerk to him

[jellybi]

Another YAY I forgot to add:

- I love the popups telling you when a specific story flag or skill level is the reason for an interaction you just got! On the first playthrough it provides feedback that your choices mattered in some way, and I can see it being useful in finding other storylines on future playthroughs without having to cheat/risk spoilers by following a guide

[wendymarlowe]

Darn it, I had errors on two spell actions and I forgot to write them down. One was inspecting the boulder, I think, and gave me <some random alphanumeric string>. The other *I think* was diagnosis (green) and when I cast it in the dungeon with the abysses (abyssi?) it gave me a white error screen where I had to hit "ignore" to continue on. It used the mana but did not cast the spell.

Non-bug comment: since Gary Stu is from "Europe," I would expect all his references to football to mean soccer. It would establish his character more in the beginning if he referred to jocks liking "American football"

[hanako]

Exam 1 may get more hints added, we're still trying to figure out how hard it is and how much nudging people need. Since obviously WE know the answers, so it's not obvious what's not obvious

There are two different 'exits' to the first exam. One you can get using only the spells you learn in week one, though it's easier if you have more spells or more Smart. The other is only available if you've learned certain spells. The vines are only an exit if you've studied Green Magic.

For a start, try Examining things a lot, since that isn't a spell so it won't use up your mana.

- Can there be more contrast in the menu? The text outlining helps but it's still pale on pale

Which menu? There's a lot of different buttons and styles.

I was surprised that you couldn't use Breeze on the gas in the second dungeon since Grabiner specifically mentions that use of the spell in one of the intro sections. In fact I was so sure that would be the solution that I walked right into it thinking I had to be closer and failed the exam!

IIRC it does have an effect, but the effect may be too subtle. Will consider tweaking this.

[wendymarlowe]

FWIW, I failed the first exam too. Ran out of mana testing different spells like "inspect" and ultimately wasn't able to do anything except give up.

[jellybi]

Which menu? There's a lot of different buttons and styles.

Oh, sorry, I meant the area at the bottom where all the dialogue and narration appears. It's not really a "menu" now that I think of it.

[indiiea]

Still stuck on exam 1..
I upped my smart so I could talk to the spirit, and it will show me the way. It moves in front of that secret door that you find if you examine the wall (still don'tknow how to open) bur the when the spirit moves between in front of the vines, and the square with the blue scrabbles, and I move back and forth I sometimes get a view of vines with a cracked stone wall so I can see brown dirt behind the vines (?) but I can't do anything special and then it looks like normal again..

[hanako]

Hmm, that's odd. If you managed to talk to the spirit, you should see it go down into the floor.

quick test later - Looks like something has gotten broken. Sorry! We'll have to edit this. Something weird happened.

What's *supposed* to happen is that it leads you to the square where there's no ceiling and vines going up, then disappears into the floor.

[Lucy]

Overall it looks great! Love the art style. FWIW I did not do well in the first exam either.

I did run into a bug where some of my save files could not be loaded. I got this error message:




When I clicked ignore I could play for a little longer but then the game would shut down. I've also clicked the option to upload the log, so I hope this helps.

[indiiea]

I guess my "can't fail self" doesn't want to fail the exam xD
I still don't understand how to open the wall with a hidden door. I've tried all the basic spells, but nothing happens. I've also tried examining everything. Then I tried using "push" on the Sparkle to push it through the hidden door wall, and now there is a soft yellow glow from the roof on the square with the blue writing wall. Not sure what it is...
Edit: added a pic