Kinetic novel, one story, multiple protagonists/paths?

[gnosis]

Hello! I'm 100% new to Ren'py, and am at best a coding novice, but I'm eager to start learning!

My project is going to be a kinetic novel, no multiple endings or choice based branching. However I want to have three separate story paths with three separate protagonists, all happening at the same time in the timeline that all come to the same point in the end.

I want to make it so your progress with each story is tracked so that when all three characters reach a certain point, I can unlock a 4th path to be selectable. (antagonists pov)

Also I'm hoping it's possible say... If I pick character 1 and get to chapter 3... Is it possibly to have the player go back tocharacter selection, start on charcter 2s story, yet still be able to go back to chapter 3 of char 1 to pick up where they left off?

I'm guessing I'm looking at a lot of flag work with if/else statements... But I haven't fully grasped the coding enough yet to figure out how this would be done.

Summary. I have 3 story paths that are 3 parts of a whole. I'd like to have each path memorize your progress so you can jump between characters. And I want to be able to unlock an extra pov once all three characters reach a certain point in each of their paths...... Are these things possible?

I don't know if it's too much to ask for tips and pointers for how I should be going about doing it... I'm not a slow learner, and I'm excited to pick all this up, but I really am new to it all.

Thanks so much in advance!

[Laiska]

Persistent data: http://www.renpy.org/doc/html/persistent.html

I think you should be able to set a persistent flag at the start of each chapter for each character, and then have the game evaluate backwards for which flag has been reached, when you select that character from the main menu.

For example, when you reach the start of ch3 on character A, you can set: $persistent.charA_ch3 = True

Then when selecting character A from the menu, you could have the game check-

Code: Select all

if persistent.charA_ch5 == True:
    jump chA_chapter5start
elif persistent.charA_ch4 == True:
    jump chA_chapter4start
elif persistent.charA_ch3 == True:
    jump chA_chapter3start
[etc...]

Alternatively, you could have a chapter select screen for each character after they're selected from the main menu, with buttons the player can press to select the chapter they want to read, in case they want to jump around.

As for the extra route, you can have the game evaluate persistent on the main menu or character select screen-

Code: Select all

if persistent.charA_ch4 == True and persistent.charB_ch4 == True and persistent.charC_ch4 == True:
    $ persistent.charD = True

With the selection for that 4 character toggled by that charD variable.

[gnosis]

Ooh, I see, so I'd be setting a flag for every chapter, and selecting that character from the select screen would just check to see if it hits a true flag, starting with the furthest chapter and working it's way backwards!

Thanks so much for that, I wonder how long before I can just come up with solutions like that.

Would this method of progress control conflict at all with the way Ren'py handles auto saving? I'm not at home right now, so this question comes purely from memory... Is this correct:

Start character A, get to chapter 3. Exit game. Hit continue to start charA-chap3. Or hit new game and be able to pick Char B, but have CharA-chap3 progress saved via persistant data?

So I can exit after charB-ch2, and hit new game, select charA, and start on ch3, else hit continue to start charB-ch3?

(or alternatively, have my list of selectable chapters growing, and available for selection, rather than just automatically jumping to the next part, in case the reader wants to go back?)

..... God I hope that's not confusing. I think I'm explaining my interpretation correctly.