Magical Diary Alpha/Preorder

Message

#1 Post by **hanako** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 3:49 pm

I'm locking this topic because it's so HUGE and largely out of date. Making a new one for beta chat.

Please see the Pre-Order Links pinned topic for the latest news on prices and ordering.

The game is vaguely complete but not yet completely polished, and there is no demo yet available. You can buy in now for a small discount, but at THIS point you may prefer to wait for the full release which is coming soon.

When you order, you'll get a download/installer for your OS like you would normally, as well as a license key. When you run it, go to the options menu and you'll find an Updater. Click on that, and you can check for updates and download all new patches. You will need your license key to download patches.

As you play the game, if you run into errors, you should end up on a traceback screen with several buttons. If you click 'upload traceback' then as long as you're connected to the internet, it will send us the error report so we can investigate it (and also offer you a patch, in case we've already fixed it!) You will also have the option of rolling back - backing up to before the error happened, so that you can possibly make a different choice and keep playing.

Beyond bugs, feel free to make comments about anything you'd like to see. I don't promise to act on all requests, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

I can't answer questions about plot/characters/setting because many things will be explained later in the game or series. You can speculate to each other if you want, just don't expect me to tell you. If you're not sure how something works gameplay wise, though, ask away!

Okay, here we go.

Windows Preorder

Macintosh Preorder

Linux Preorder

Spazzbunny · #2 Post by **Spazzbunny** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 7:12 pm

When I encountered an error, the rollback didn't work after I sent the bug report. I tried to send a bug report on that too, but it's hard to tell if it sent that through or the other, prior bug. So I figured I'd just post it on here too. ^^

#3 Post by **hanako** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 7:14 pm

Did it not work at all, or did it only roll back one step? What should happen is that it backs up one step, and you can use the mouse-wheel-scroll-up to keep rolling back from there.

however depending on WHERE it breaks sometimes there's nowhere to roll back to, so it just explodes again.

Spazzbunny · #4 Post by **Spazzbunny** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 8:34 pm

Hard to say, since I already moved on and quit from that point. ^^;; Sorry. I'll let you know if it happens again though.

Naiomi666 · #5 Post by **Naiomi666** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 2:20 am

im curious, is the script done in the game? Will we be able to get an ending? Or does it just cut off at a certain point.

#6 Post by **hanako** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 2:35 am

No, the script is not done and you can't get anywhere near an ending. There's over 60,000 words written but at the moment it will just stop when it hits Thanksgiving... so it's less than halfway through the year, really.

I've been taking a break from writing script for the past week and some to work on the GUI and the patcher, so that people joining now would be able to smoothly continue in the story as it progresses. As long as you save regularly you should be able to pick back up without much trouble as the new plot gets added. (run updater, load saved game, continue).

I'll make regular progress posts to let people know what weeks of in-game time have been completed, so you don't have to sit there hammering the updater waiting for new story to appear.

The next section of story I'll be working on is finding out what happened over Thanksgiving break, and the third exam.

#7 Post by **Spiky Caterpillar** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 11:19 am

Spazzbunny wrote:When I encountered an error, the rollback didn't work after I sent the bug report. I tried to send a bug report on that too, but it's hard to tell if it sent that through or the other, prior bug. So I figured I'd just post it on here too. ^^

Thanks - if it was a crash trying to view the diary, it's been fixed (and both reports went through successfully) as of 0.2.26.

nonhoration · #8 Post by **nonhoration** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 5:55 pm

Are you supposed to be able to entirely skip the first exam (the one where you just have to pick which colour of magic to use) if you choose "maybe it would be for the best" in the detention options when the teacher deems your magic levels too low? On my first character, I did that and was expecting the exam to be postponed, but then never actually had to do it.

#9 Post by **hanako** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 6:29 pm

Yes, that is what's intended. I can possibly make it clearer that the issue is resolved - it's supposed to be sort of a pleasant surprise.

chensterrain · #10 Post by **chensterrain** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 11:06 pm

(Am I the person you mentioned on your blog? Sorry for not posting earlier!

) The updater's not working for me at all, some sort of access denied thing. It might just be my computer, though - I'm running Windows 7, and half the time it won't give me the access rights I ask for, so it's probably just on my end, tbh.

Great game so far, though!

#11 Post by **hanako** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 11:45 pm

No problem!

Yeah, I guessed it was you from the data the traceback sent, but I wanted to be sure before going after you with questions. We THINK we have a workaround for the access problem, although we're not yet sure because I don't actually have 7 myself. (Sigh. I should get it just so I can test things on it. It's always giving me headaches.)

So I'm currently uploading a new installer and once it's up I'll send you a new download link for the latest version which MIGHT work. Maybe.

If it doesn't, let us know and we'll try a few more things on our side before bugging you about it again.

#12 Post by **hanako** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:04 pm

For others - if you're running Vista/7 and you have 0.2.22.5 your updater will DEFINITELY not work. If you have 0.2.30 it might or it might not, we've got reports both ways at the moment. If you have the first and want to try the second, let me know, but we are still investigating...

slowmolasses · #13 Post by **slowmolasses** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 11:02 pm

I might have been the Vista person, because I tried last night but it wasn't working and I was going to post today to tell you about it (I guess the reports were faster

). I would be interested in trying 0.2.30 if possible.

#14 Post by **hanako** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 11:36 pm

Hmm, if I'm tracking your order timestamp correctly I would have thought you already had that one... What version number does it say you have when you go to the updater, and what happens when you try to update?

slowmolasses · #15 Post by **slowmolasses** » Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:12 am

Oh... You're right. I misread it earlier. But I still can't update. It said that either my username was unknown or that I wasn't allowed to, er, not have a password. So I got a password. And then it said it was bad (it actually wouldn't let me type it in). I tried once more, just now, and it got farther than before (the game opened again and said 'updating') but then it did not. It said it couldn't and then I was returned to the title screen. Those are the various things that have happened when trying to do so, but the second one, with the 'bad password' has been the most common.