Error says my variable isn't defined, but it appears to be

[anawfullotofcups]

In my visual novel, the reader will have some influence over the personality of the main character. To keep track of this, I am categorizing each dialogue choice answer as red, blue, or purple.
I am also keeping track of two other variables: whether the player lied when answering a specific question, and whether the player pissed off a character named Howe.
Below is what I have added right after my start label.

label start:

$ blue_points = 0
$ purple_points = 0
$ red_points = 0
$ c1choice3_lie = 0
$ howe_anger = 0

So far, I have had no problem with this. I have been able to add if statements referring to the number of each type of points the player has, and even the flag on whether the player lied ('c1choice3_lie') has functioned without issue.

However, when I added the howe_anger variable (the player will have many opportunities to piss Howe off and could possibly gather more than one point towards this), this is when problems began. Here is a snippet from my script, showing the menu in which the player has their first chance to make Howe mad:

menu:

"So I couldn't help but retort.":
$ red_points += 1
$ howe_anger += 1
jump howe1choice2_red

This is when I receive the error "NameError: name 'howe_anger' is not defined."
Since 'howe_anger' appears exactly in that fashion both at the beginning and in context, and none of the other point types has returned this error (the red point that is gained here goes off without a hitch when I remove the howe_anger point), I'm sort of at a loss. What have I done incorrectly here which is causing the error?

[Alex]

This might have happened if you've restored the game from save, made before 'howe_anger' variable was added into script.
That's why default statement is the best way to declare your variables - https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/python.h ... statement

[anawfullotofcups]

That did it! Thanks, this is my first shot at a Renpy project so I'm still learning stuff like this. I appreciate the help

[rames44]

This is why the usual recommendation is to set up variables’ initial values with “default” rather than assigning them after the start label - it allows you to add new variables and have them work with old saves.