So I managed to do a hackjob on my initial port of saddog’s variables.rpy file. I’m attaching it below:

There are a few issues with this implementation that will warrant future exploration, but for now, I’m happy I managed to hit my initial deadline. At the rate I’m going, I may be able to finish my rewrite/reorganization of the code and implementation of the systems that I want earlier than the end of the year.

This is optimistic news, as it’ll grant me more time to flesh out some of the details I want with some of the other characters, as well as work more on the systems aspect of the gameplay.

If you take a short preview of the variables file, you may notice that the shopItems/inventory system is reworked.

I plan on storing a system of inventory items that Sarah’s store will keep, which replaces the old instantaneous purchase using the phone. Sam/MC will need to start making dedicated effort towards spending an hour of his time in order to visit Sarah’s convenience store to purchase the items he needs.

And as an additional idea, perhaps I need to implement a boutique as well, since clothing wouldn’t normally be available there.

An electronics store may be an extension down the line for both the issue of Alexis’s phone and possibly an expansion of Cassandra’s modeling/influencer ambitions. This is just a brainstorm/note to myself on the official blog so I can revisit this idea in the future.

I believe Sarah is a name that’s mentioned in passing by Alexis, same as Jeremy. Since saddog doesn’t seem to have created a Sarah character in the game, I used the lovely CO Ichigo model for Sarah. The plan is to make her the convenience store clerk/owner who runs the only store the main character buys his usual supplies from.

Note to self: I need to add an event to justify making the hour-long trip to the store to purchase goods, and it’s actually pretty simple. Buying things for delivery to the ‘hood is just asking porch pirates to steal your shit.

So I need to add an event there, whereby Sam’s forced to eat the shit sandwich of either elevated delivery costs to a dangerous neighborhood, missing goods, or a combination of both.

As for Sarah, her arc is because the game is missing one of the more modern/relative stronger/willful/active female types. Cassandra comes closer, but given the amount of content on Cassandra already, she ends up coming off as… making some terribly irrational/stupid choices.

But, rational people sometimes are constrained by their circumstances into making limited choices, or shortsighted ones… and this is the plight of Sarah, the story of Greed and Gluttony.

That said, today, I got a pretty good tip from this YouTube video, which helped put a framework on storytelling- to emphasize the transitions of But then/Therefore’s to stitch together the story beats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Z-Q1bg1tU

So combining it with Dan Harmon/Joseph Campbell’s Story Circle, the Arc is as Follows:

Sarah initially starts in a comfortable situation. She inherited a convenience store with her sister after her parents passed away. Between the two sisters, she’s always been the sensible, level-headed one, while her sister is the emotional wreck. While life could be better for her, she’s plodding along, “doing her time” so-to-speak, while she waits to finish school. School seems like the only barrier to moving on with her life, and freeing up her time to get her life in order.

That, and the fact that she has a deadbeat/druggie sister (Nikki) who happens to be in the depths of a cycle of self-destruction and depression. But at least Nikki hasn’t brought the troubles home. Sure, she’ll occasionally steal some money from the family store to buy drugs, but she hasn’t gone so far as to pull the family into debt, or bring danger home. So with a little bit of time, Sarah should be able to work through her problems one by one.

But then, one day two robbers from the neighborhood gang rob her store. This will put her into the red on her bills. She chases desperately after the gangsters, but they get away from her, even going so far as partially wrecking her store.

Therefore, she files a police report, and works through a grueling day of the police’s malicious compliance with a subtext of corruption. Finally, after hours of jumping through bureaucratic loopholes, she returns home, only to find that her sister has overdosed on a new drug that’s been circulating in the city, which she is unfamiliar with.

There could be a scene here, where the local municipality’s health care system also doesn’t care for her, because she has no money to pay the bills, and their objective assessment of her sister is that she’s too far gone. (Pull in the cold calculated objectivity of With Eyes Shut).

At school, her bestie, Alexis, notices she’s particularly distraught, and tries to cheer her up. She brings Sarah to her home, where she meets the main character, who, at this opportunity, can pony up some cash to cover her rent difference.

But then, she notices that he’s affiliated with the gang that robbed her store, so she leaves, rather angry at him.

Therefore, he will seek her out, and try to make peace with her. He may need to play certain cards to gain her trust, but there should be a twist at this point. Eventually, he reveals that the gang is also the only source for the candy drug that’s been distributed in the city, but he’s also never seen Nikki buying directly from the channels he’s familiar with. Perhaps part of his card he’s playing to gain her trust, is the money and his explanation for why he’s giving it to her without strings attached.

They conclude there has to be another channel of distribution, or reselling happening. They promise to cooperate.

But then, Sarah notices that the candy is been sold at her school, so she tries to look into it. She feels alone at times, and all she wants is revenge and justice.

Therefore, she starts tailing the school drug distributors until she ends up at the Brass Pole, where Frank eventually spots her and what she’s doing.

So Frank approaches Sarah, and tries to dissuade her risky behavior, offering her a scholarship, funding, all in exchange for information that will bust Davide’s gang. He’ll pull a sleight of hand, and reveal information to Sarah about Davide’s gang and their connections, some of the recent things that they have been doing, all to cut at her trust in the main character and Alexis.

This is the element of Greed- she’s offered a quick solution to what she perceives as her problems- Davide’s gang peddling a dangerous drug, the promise of police support, and a financial windfall to cover her debts. This is all in exchange for possibly selling out Davide’s crew.

What she chooses to do here, the information that she reveals, directly leads to Alexis’s subsequent endangerment.

Feeling guilty, and thinking back over what transpired, she calls Sam, warning him at personal risk.

In the end of Act 1, she gets a financial windfall/payoff from the gang’s coffers after the main character takes over, but she’s left with an emptiness, both in terms of goals and her mental headspace. This leads to her mirroring her sister’s self-destructive behaviors and personal growth arc in Act 2. That emptiness will cause the hedonistic gluttony transformation she will undergo at the beginning of Act 2, where she is given everything she wanted at the start of Act 1, but she feels utterly alone.