Grain to Gain: An ASCII Game

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41

what experience gives the fastest gain speed when fully included?

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Grain1

Have a bug… when I work I barely make any money. It started happening the third time I worked and has persisted ever since. Also, using the alarm clock doesn’t give you any stamina back, but time still passes.

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43

That’s not a bug, it happens whenever you work while on low health. Eating home-cooked rations raises your health and eating fast food lowers it. I’m not sure if there are any other factors.

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Thank you all for the reports and feedback! Now it’s time for…

Patch 3.0.2

  • Health penalty has been corrected and will not be as severe for work
    -The penalty was suppose to be income reduced to 60%-80%, not reduced down to ~1%
  • Experiences are implemented in even more depth
    -Now weight gain will be increased or decreased depending on the experience you choose
  • Option to change how dates are displayed
    -Some don’t like the non-American format (dd/mm/yyyy), so I added American format! (mm/dd/yyyy)
  • You cannot eat past max fullness at Whammy’s and Pyknic Meadow
    -A lack of checking caused this bug
  • Work no longer has unique WG Supplement Function
    -Meaning it was slightly off calculation and convoluted in its numbers
  • GUI in FurnitureDepo was not unison with the rest of the display
    -Who wanted neon green anyway? (At least in my console that how the GUI displayed)
  • Alarm progresses time but does not recover stamina
    -Integers and Decimals weren’t playing nicely here
  • GUI portion added to bank for easier read
    -Now you know if you have money in the bank or not!
  • Some text has been aligned correctly
    -Self explana
    tory
  • Mall Center has been colored
    -but has conflict with current character model

This patch can use your previous save files from V3.0.0 and V3.0.1, So now jump back to the top and play the new patch!

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45

So I’ve gotten to the “extremely obese” weight. Is this the final stage, or do you plan to add more?

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And now to also answer questions directly!

@LeftHandManGary

  1. Muse’n’Fuse is a Music Shop (Now that I said that, the background probably makes more sense), and the position “Clerk” is in synonym to “Cashier” in this case.

  2. When the jobs get fleshed out more, they’ll be set up so that lower level jobs pay less but you have a greater chance at getting hired and higher level jobs pay more but have a lower chance at getting hired. You can increase your chance of getting hired at high level job by increasing skills you can only practice at lower level jobs. (ie you would need some cooking and professional experience to be hired for a Chef position)
    I’d also like to include skill practices in jobs such that ie a chef would get xp in cooking and a waiter would get xp in speed. Those skills would be on top of the Profession skill, which jobs are associated with by default.
    I would also like to redo the tip system (I delayed having Chef as a job because the code still gives tips to any job made as of right now) so certain jobs are more reliant on tips than their main income.

@TotallyAMetrocop

  1. What else are you planning to do in the future updates?
    Besides what I mentioned in the :checkered_flag: section of the V3.0.0 / The Working update post, I really cannot list what will be implemented in the future. If I get too ambitious then the game could suffer from too many mechanics getting shoved in. So as of right now what’s planned for The Story Update is what is currently going to be currently known. (Plus I gotta give you some surprises and something to talk about in the next major update :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: )

  2. So I’ve gotten to the “extremely obese” weight. Is this the final stage, or do you plan to add more?
    For the current version, this is the final stage. But once I rework how the character sprites look and function, I’ll be adding much more weight to the game.

@DarkShadowWulf

  1. The experience that would give the fastest speed would be the Casual mode. You can test how the current gain speed feels in the 3.0.2 Patch. Probably still slow, but it’s much faster than Normal (a x2 multiplier faster).

  2. can you add an option to disable the need to pay rent or manage health?
    *scribbles on notepad* Add custom challenge for adventurous players who want other challenging experiences.
    Tbh, health management is there to replace hunger’s penalty for work (As health should be easier to maintain than hunger) and to add a main quest requirement. Rent is there to cause a gameover scenario (once I start giving out the story in game, it’ll make more sense). I’ll make plans to add a custom challenge setting, but those options will be on the back burner for now.

@Famous @loveshandles
Thank you for reporting this! True, the health now penalizes you at work rather than hunger (As of V3), but the penalty should NOT be that severe! There are other factors that change health, but those 2 are probably the dominant ones right now.

Additionally for @Famous
I’ve hopefully corrected how the alarm clock functions to work properly now. I’ve also noticed that the room isn’t loading correctly, to fix: make sure your .exe is in the same file that contains the scene folder. Such that:

Game (Folder)
|–game.exe
|–scene (Folder)

Since it will look for the folder for the information on the rooms. Just in case I failed at instructions earlier (I fail that a lot)

(@)Everyone:
The game in its current gain state is more of a number raising game, with the size of the character changing at certain milestones. I will rework the character sprite so the milestones may hopefully be less sparse than they already are. (And to add milestones in higher weights)

Just a question to anyone reading this: Why/How does the weight gain seem slow in the game as of current (Referring mainly to Normal mode)?

Thank you for reading and have a nice day!

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47

Ever plan on adding humans or no?

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To answer your question, it’s mainly because of the long times between the PC’s sprite getting bigger. The other reason, at least for me, is a lack of detail on how the weight affects the PC. Adding some flavor text (i.e. having to clean under the fat folds in the shower, describing the body making noises such as the stomach rumbling with onomatopoeia) or a description page like Corruption of Champions has that changes much more often than the sprite to give the player a sense of progress and motivation to see what happens next. On that note, the PC’s weight gain, body type, and certain scores should be affected by species and job choice (for example, rabbits and birds would be more bottom-heavy, large, fat animals like elephants and pigs would be round, and cows would, of course, have a large chest. As for jobs, waiters might see their legs get thicker from muscles or gain weight more slowly since they’d be moving around, more sedentary jobs such as cashiers would lose less stamina from working, but also gain weight faster, and chefs would have an option to cook and eat food at work in exchange for making less money that day.) Maybe also have NPCs comment on your weight, varying in their reactions from admiration to disgust. I think the main way to improve this game is to add more detail, so the player has a good mental image of the PC that evolves frequently enough to keep them interested. It doesn’t matter how small the change is, just add more descriptions of the PC.

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49

Humans are already playable.

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50

I saw your Twitch post on an ARBot. I feel like there could be more gameplay reasons to make it a better option. Maybe if the PC is heavier, they take longer to get to work and use more stamina getting there, and if they’re too heavy, they become immobile, leaving you with only the ARBot and/or making fat fetish porn for money. The porn would make more money if the PC has good hygiene, which you could get by hiring people to clean them.

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  1. Thank you for responding to my question. Most likely I’d go a flavor text route with few description events when you hit certain milestones.
    For the PC portion, I have been thinking of a “Genetics” mechanic where player’s progress is also tied to which species they played (Also adding incentives to trying other species and what combos of genes they have). But as for the body typing, I’ll let the player make that choice. Wouldn’t hurt to add a default body typing though (Most likely, good idea you got).
    For the jobs portion, that also sounds good. I only got to thinking of what skills it would influence but adding the demands of the job physically sounds good. (looks like I’m rewriting the work system again… yey…)
    For the NPC portion, I could add some rando NPCs that you can talk to, but I just got the idea that maybe some side quests are locked until you reach a certain weight (just a general example: A Rat wants to eat the greasyous dishes. When you talk to them they’ll give you a look over and judge your cooking skill based on your weight. “It hardly looks like you try your own dishes! Come talk to me when you learn to cook a burger… let alone taste it.”)
    I’ll try adding more descriptions after I implement the new player model. I don’t like long descriptions so they’ll be kept short on the most part probably.

  2. Are you sure it wasn’t Discord? Generally more on what I was think of the ARBot was that you can use it when your more immobile and have it help maintain you. Upgrades would allow it to handle more weight (might) and be able to get to places quickly (speed).
    Though it would be set up as a side quest that will be needed to be completed before getting immobile (or having immobile moments if you binge a good portion). Mainly it would be you controlling the ARBot with it assisting in your hygiene and hunger.
    I do have plans to let the player rise in rank and take ownership of certain stores. Your suggestion made me think I could possibly add player generated jobs which could include photography with a desired subject. (Though I won’t straight out say porn, but I won’t add any filters if a player wants to name a service to be like that) (I’ll also pre-dub it as… The Indie Update)

  • Side thought: Maybe have automated bots besides an option for hired help. All in all that would probably be named… The (Something about technology/advancement/robots) Update
  • PS: There is a form of weight influencing stamina and time during travel, it’s just not very noticeable at the moment.
  • PPS: Forgot to mention, if you explore a bit in the game’s environment, you can notice some possible plans for future updates. You just have to look around a bit :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Thank you for your time and have a nice day!

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52

um how do I get a job in the latest version

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53

To apply for a job, go to either Whammy’s, Pyknic Meadow, or Muse’n’Fuse and hit (A)ction. There should be an option to (A)pply for job.

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I think a part of weight gain feeling slow might have to do with how slow digestion feels, at least when you’ve increased stomach capacity. Once you get rolling you can easily maintain a stomach stuffed well passed full just by binge eating before work, stay overstuffed well into the next day, and gain the same amount of weight whether you had 5 rations or 50.

(Also, since the player winds up going to work a lot, would it be possible to make (W)ork one of the travel map’s destinations?)

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By the way, it says “Your too stuffed to take another bite…” when it should say You’re instead of Your.

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56

Are you gonna implement gender for the PC

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@noneexpect
So if I’m understanding from what your saying, it feels slow because digestion is at a constant? Like it would feel a bit faster if as capacity increases your digestion rate increases, which in turn increases the weight gained; or something along those lines. I’ll have to tinker with the idea to see if I could implement a faster digestion.

Also your right, before I had work as a quick route since it is central to a portion of the game, that when I reworked the work system and travel system, I neglected it’s importance. I’ll throw it back in before the next update. Thank you for responding and for bringing this glaring issue to my attention. Also, call me out if I forget to put it in, okay? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

@Tag365
Thank you for catching that typo, I may write walls of text but I still forget basic grammar every once in a while. (XP) I do appreciate the help even with the smallest of details that can be glanced over! (I should probably find a way to get all my text proof read effectively)

@Catqueen
I have thought about this, but as of currently now in development, I will not be implementing that any time soon. I may add customization features to have the character “look” like a particular gender, but for now PC is androgynous.

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Ok thank you for the info about that just wondering if you can or can’t.

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How come when you go to work, and you get too tired to stay anywhere else than the bedroom because of work, you have to travel from work after sleeping to access your home? That makes no sense.

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I still look forward to this game, I want to see more of the ASCII fatty art sprites.

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