A Crash Course

I just had quite a fright. I was actually started thinking about releasing the next stage of Ascension (after the one I posted just this past Friday). I was finishing some stuff up tonight, and while working on it, my computer crashed. Don't know why. Wasn't doing anything I'd expect would cause my computer to crash. But I restarted, and re-opened RPG Maker MV, and when I went to open up my project, it wouldn't open. Said it couldn't read some of the data files. Apparently, they'd been corrupted (whether by the crash itself or whatever caused the crash, I don't know). That's when I started to get scared.

I replaced each corrupted file in succession (determined by trying to open the project after each one and seeing what other file the program couldn't read) - which included all of the JSON files in the data folder (minus the specific maps), as well as plugins.js - from my last backup, which I copied before I renewed work on this project at the start of January. (I know, obligatory warning about backing up your work - but I got enough shit to do and keep track of, both with this game and the rest of my life; I can't make backups every single day).

Finally got the project to open, but now I was looking at having to repeat all the work - essentially my whole adaptation effort - I've put in since the start of the New Year (and I've been working on this game almost every day since January 1 - the only exceptions being the couple of weekends I've been out of town). I won't lie. In the back of my mind, I was entertaining the thought of giving up game development for good. But then as a last ditch effort, I remembered the releases I've posted here on this blog (they've had a purpose all along - even if nobody plays them - that I didn't even know about!).

Thankfully, I was able to re-copy all the corrupted files from as late as the version of the game I released on Friday. (The first thing I did after that was backup my whole project). I'd be annoyed that now I'm going to have to repeat all the work I've done the last three nights, but honestly, most of that work has just been porting the next stage from one engine to another, and not any significant modifications or new content (thank god this stage has very little dialogue!), and compared to the devastating implication of repeating all the work I've done since the beginning of January(!), all I'm doing now is counting my lucky stars, and hoping something like this doesn't ever happen again...

Update (2/13/18):

Unfortunately, my relief was a little premature. Although I did manage to salvage the data, I realized when I tried to playtest last night that the game wouldn't run. Not sure why, and I have no clue how to fix it. So now I have to copy all my data (again...) into a new, fresh project. Maybe one of these years, I'll actually reach the end of the game before some act of god causes me to start over from the beginning. I feel a bit like Sisyphus, trapped in my very own special stage of Hell.

Ascension (MV) Alpha 4.0

Shortly after my last release, I posted an update in the sidebar quietly, without any fanfare, featuring the next stage (now with a full library!). And I'm glad I did, because the one after that has been taking a long time. I've had to rework the torture sequence a bit, hopefully to improve it a little. The new mechanism was inspired by the torture sequence in Metal Gear Solid, because I remember how nerve-wracking that was. (Call me a sadist, but remember that the very premise of this game is that you're in Hell! :-p).

Ascension (MV) Alpha 4.0 (incl. all stages up to Pandaemonium & Nastrond)
Download (~82 MB): Windows | Mac [see sidebar for latest release]

Next up is Chaos - another one of the stages that testers have told me is among the most challenging in the game. Although I don't know yet if that means it will take a long time or not. Depends on whether and how much I decide to tweak it.