ArianeB 7.2 Walkthroughs

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When I downloaded the Something's In The Air beta (SITA) and started playing the dating game there wasn't a hair on my head that was thinking of making a set of elaborate walkthroughs like I did for the first Ariane Dating Sim. So I just played along, clicking in a wild and rather unstructured way and before the second day was over I had found something like 23 endings out of a possible 40. By then it was hard finding new ways to end the game as I didn't recall how on earth I had find the first solutions anyway.

One criticisms on the beta version of the game I can agree with, is that the menu with achievements isn't really helping the player to find all endings. The creator, Ariane Barnes, has taken note of this and the scoring system will problem change when the game is officially released.

Personally I liked the Katawa Shoujo advancement system a lot, not only you had a visual representation of your 'position' in the game, but the 'holes' on the thumbnail menu showed you rather intuitively where you had skipped a scene or had missed an arch.

So to start over in a more structured way I deleted my previous SITA settings by going to the C:\Users\{UserName}\AppData\Roaming\RenPy\sita-1281761245 folder (in Windows 7) and removing everything that was inside, as there isn't a reset button from inside the game (hint hint).

Ren'Py is an easy platform to save and reload games at any point, while playing you can even go backwards to review previous choices (mouse wheel) and by holding the CTRL-key you can fast-forward through scenes you have already seen before (these keys are for the Windows version).

The second time I decided to play all 40 possible endings (closer to 50 in fact as there are 10 variations, ranging from funny to hilarious, on the Bonnie ending alone) in chronological order, first the 11 Ariane dates, then the 19 Rachel adventures and so on... To remember what I had be doing I also took notes, like I did for the first Ariane game, and before I knew it I had something that could be described as a set of walkthroughs.

Of course male pride took over and I announced on Shark's Lagoon that this blog would probably publish this set as soon as SITA would hit the 1.0 stage, not willing to publish anything while the game was still young and in beta. (And as a matter of fact this will need a complete and time consuming structural revision of the blog, to make a clear distinction between Ariane #1 and SITA.)

But it seems that I have been taken in speed... Fraekke learned us that a set of walkthroughs have already been published by DeusExLibris, who also published a review of the game on his adult gaming blog Over-Analysing AIF.

But as soon as the game hits the 1.0 status, you better watch these pages!

Something's In The Air beta can be downloaded at: http://arianeb.com/sita/download.htm
Fraekke's overview of all possible SITA endings at Shark's Lagoon: http://the-new-lagoon.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2941
DeusExLibris SITA walkthroughs: walkthrough-somethings-in-air-by-ariane
DeusExLibris SITA review: review-somethings-in-air-by-ariane

SPOILERS AHEAD
Ariane Barnes Director’s Commentary 1: Another Date With Ariane (an indeep analysis by the creator) and if you have really read this post till the end, here is a SITA easter egg that can be found by being very attentive during one of the many conversations in the game : Rachel Spahr 'personal' Tumblr page.

When Ariane Barnes messaged to the Shark's Lagoon forum that a beta version of Something's In The Air (SITA) could be exclusively downloaded it hit 140 downloads in the first hour. It shows how the game was anticipated in the adult gameplaying world.

The overall impression is that the game is graphically splendid. To quote Blaman:

The models are amazing! Faces, lighting, skin tones - easily the best work I've seen in visual dates!

Of course there are some huge differences with the first ArianeB game, including a new look for Ariane herself. Personally I'm still getting used to it having spend so many years with Ariane v1. Also the gameplay and download size has changed, this version runs with an executable (different downloads for Windows, Mac and Linux) and counts about 200 MB, mainly because the images are now bigger than before.

The previous game was made in Javascript, had a zillion of html files, each with their own code, and had several hotspots on each image. SITA has been made in Ren'Py and is a visual novel, rather than a click'n play game. This means that there is a new approach to the game, with much more situations that take longer or have more text, and a chance to add plenty of humour (even debunking the gamer's wet dream of a threesome with Ariane and Rebecca, see: In Bed with Three..., use code aa8f6 to start SITA from there.)

There are 40 different situations to be found. Ariane Barnes:

There are indeed 40:
11 involving Ariane,
19 involving Rachel,
1 involving Stacy,
3 involving Wendy,
2 involving Bonnie,
1 involving Veronica, and
3 involving Paula.

At least 4 of these endings are only reachable by picking different prequel settings in the Options screen.

This means that this is not an Ariane Dating game as such, but that a certain Rachel and a bunch of others have taken over the torch.

Prequel Sequel

Although it isn't really good news for this blog (that has the most elaborate set of walkthroughs for the first ArianeB game) the prequel score doesn't need to filled in as such. The option screen has several 'predefined' prequel option buttons that can be activated and that will trigger the events in SITA. It is a nice way and much more user-friendly than having to fill in a hexadecimal code (like '480d0' the code for: Mailbox Check) each time. A nice touch is that Ariane will indeed tell you what happened on the previous date, using some images from the first version.

So far the most common reproach to this adult game is... the lack of sex. The sex scenes are there and they are all very stylish and erotic, but some gamers have been screaming for more explicit, read: hardcore, scenes, as a kind of present after hours of searching and clicking. Ariane Barnes reacts as follows:

Ultimately, it is all a balancing act. Where do I draw the line, and all artists have a line to draw. I considered all my options and what my potential audience may like and enjoy and a little more "hard core" scenes would probably boost the audience a little bit. Then I started thinking that I might get a more mainstream audience if I kept it tame, because the sex should not take away the story, and how will it affect my reputation as an artist and storyteller.

One can indeed say that this second installment of the Ariane series is more adult than the previous one, adult in the meaning of more mature. And for the fans of nudity there are of course many situations where pixelated women get out of their clothes.

Shark's Lagoon SITA thread

Over at Shark's Lagoon players are asking questions, sharing hints and giving their opinion on the game. So far Ariane Barnes has already promised that the 'official' 1.0 release of the game will have a more elaborate achievement system:

Not just for getting to the various endings, but things like: doing everything at the amusement park, seeing all the magazine articles, seeing all the movies, seeing each character naked for the first time, and all the characters naked at least once, etc. Have these achievements actually flash on the screen as they get accomplished so you can see when you get one.

And that there is still a future for the first Ariane dating adventure is assured as well. Ariane Barnes:

I'm planning to convert Date Ariane to Renpy. To save memory, I will mostly use menus, but there are obvious places in the Date Ariane game (the mini games, the make out scenes) that MUST use mouse over events. Hopefully I can keep that project under 200 MB as well.

We can hardly wait, but first let's enjoy Something's In The Air, it will be a hot summer.

Donationware

Something's In The Air can be downloaded and played for free, without restrictions, but Ariane Barnes isn't refusing donations... be a sport and donate the sum of 5$, not even the price of a decent hamburger.

For 40 dates with 7 different women this is ridiculously cheap. And the waiting has been worthwhile.

A playable beta version of ArianeB #2 Something's In The Air has just been released.

Apparently Something's In The Air starts where Date Ariane ended and you can take that quite literally. Date Ariane 7.2 gives the player a code when the game ends and this code can be fed into the game at the start of SITA.

It is an intriguing concept (that we haven't tested ourselves yet) and will make sure that players who want to discover all situations of SITA will be obliged to play the first game as well (unless they pinch the codes from the walkthrough pages presented here).

Quote from the official ArianeB blog:

After more than two years in development, Something’s In The Air is now available for download at ArianeB.com/sita. There is a lot of downloading going on, so it may take a while to load the 180MB file, but I have not heard any complaints that the download is not working.

I’m calling this an “open beta” version, but it should not be too different from the eventual “official 1.0″ version I plan to finish later this summer.

More info at: GAME ON!! Something’s In The Air is Now Out!

What a splendid occasion to have another go at the first adventure of ArianeB that can still be found at arianeb dot com, playable online or as a download: Go on a virtual date with me, Ariane .

And if you are stuck the blog you are reading now offers nearly 50 different scenarios for the first game. Have fun!

How to start the game: Start.
Introduction: Introduction.

I rarely wander through the Shark's Lagoon forum lately, call it old age, but when I had a look today there was a thread called The Elf and The Warrior that caught my attention.

What caught my attention was that a kinetic story was completely trashed by a grumpy reviewer at Weeaboo, but that the nice people of the Lagoon tried to cheer up fleet, the maker of the story. The friendliness of (most) Lagooners has always struck me, especially as sarcasm and negativism tend to rule in cyberworld, an easy trick that also has been used by me on several blogposts, I must admit. Shark's Lagoon is a warm place, despite the owner's fearsome name.

Fleet:

The Elf and the Warrior is a kinetic novel. It is a story that has only one ending, and the reader is not given any choices that create different branches for the story. There is no dialog in The Elf and the Warrior; I've tried to use only pictures, music and limited sounds to tell the tale. The story is about a female elf whose pet is killed by a dragon. She seeks help from a warrior.

The 18MB download unzips into a Novelty executable and all the non-player (as there aren't any decisions to be made) or non-reader (as there isn't any text to read) can do is to click to watch the following slide.

Fleet admits he is still a 3D rookie and thus it takes some guts to come out with an uncommon project like this. One can click through the complete story in a few minutes time, the easy way out had been to add some text and some interactivity, something that fleet decided not to do. Kudos, if that still is the lingo these young youngsters use today.

As for the rendering, light settings and animation flaws, practice, practice and some more practice will help. I remember a game called ArianeB that also had some serious flaws in the beginning and see what happened with that.

Download: The Elf And The Warrior

...for the storm...

Like they say in Dutch 'wet your breast!'.

I let you guess for the modern meaning of that saying, but it originates from Dutch naval tradition. Sailors and soldiers on a ship would often be soaked from the seawater or be sweaty from the hard labour.

This is an excellent occasion to have another go at the first adventure of ArianeB that can still be found at arianeb dot com, playable online or as a download: Go on a virtual date with me, Ariane .

And if you are stuck the blog you are reading now offers nearly 50 different scenarios for the game. Have fun!

How to start the game: Start.
Introduction: Introduction.

Shark's Babysitting starts with a bang when Chris, a young journalist-photographer, and Flo, his girlfriend, are being interrupted in their daily routine.

Richard, his old professor from the university, has asked if Chris can accommodate his daughter Lola for a few days because she needs to do some research at the local library. Chris remembers the girl as a turbulent, impertinent brat who used to disturb him when he worked in the professor's office and when she rings at his door she turns out to have grown into a turbulent, impertinent young woman with a healthy passion for her host.

In Babysitting (February 2011) Shark introduced some tricky mouse interactions like triple-clicks or hold-and-drag movements, making the game slightly more difficult than his earlier ones. Personally I found this one of his best and now that I replayed it to refresh my memory I can only confirm that this Shark adventure still is top of the bill material.

Rivalries (August 2012, now released as freeware) is situated only one month later, Chris arrives at the airport at the other side of the country where he is welcomed by Angelica, Richard's second wife and Lola's stepmother. His old friend and tutor has invited him to come over for the week-end, and knowing Shark's naughty mind, this coming will happen in many ways.

Trouble arrives fast as Angelica seems to know what happened with Lola at Chris's apartment those few weeks before: “I saw a kid leave here but a woman who returned” but she promises not to divulge this to her husband if Chris gives her the proper Mrs. Robinson treatment. On top of that Lola has invited her school-friend Evelyn, who is also eager to meet this wonder-boy Chris and his exquisite copulatory skills.

This is Shark's toughest and longest game for now and it has several paths that all merit to be checked out. Throughout the game the girls will grab attention points and the girl who scores the best at the end of part two will make Chris score as well, although only the Lola ending (out of four possibilities) is considered best.

The Babysitter series (so far)

All games are playable online and can be downloaded (often in better quality) at Rapidshare. They have a hint system that can be activated by typing the right word, highlight or mark the space between the quotes ("like this") to reveal the secret word.

	Babysitting	BS1	Babysitting an 18-year-old virgin can be more complicated than one thinks, realizes Chris, especially when he finds out that Lola is on a mission to return home as an ex-virgin. Toggle hint: type "luigi" to highlight next move. More hints at the forum.
	Rivalries Pt. 1	BS2	Lola's father invites Chris for the weekend which means that there will be more trouble ahead. Lola is still madly in love and has a few weird tricks up her sleeve to point that out to him. Toggle hint: type "house" to highlight next move. More hints at the forum.
	Rivalries Pt. 2	BS3	Evelyn, Lola's school-friend, is on a mission to return home as an ex-virgin. If this sounds vaguely familiar there is always Angelica who has got a serious problem keeping her clothes on. Toggle hint: type "house" to highlight next move. More hints at the forum.

Babysitting Jump Codes

Spoiler: the Babysitting game can jump to a certain scene by giving a codeword at its start, obviously using these codes take away most fun out of the game and will skip most of the alternative scenes. These are (highlight to visualise): "nice", "boring", "delightful", "attractive", "exciting" and "irresistible".

Rivalries Jump Codes

Spoiler: the Rivalries game can jump to a certain scene by giving a code at its start, obviously using these codes take away most fun out of the game and will skip several juicy scenes. I noted down the codes when I played the game for this review and that (uncomplete) list can be found underneath:
first column: jump code (highlight to visualise);
2nd, 3rd and 4th columns: Angelica, Lola & Evelyn hit points.

Priv-Box

At the moment I write this, a new Horny Afternoon episode, called Nanny's Day, can be played at Shark's Priv-Box.

The purpose of the Priv-box is to finance Shark's website and the development of new games. For a participation of 10 euros one can access the private box for 30 days. When a new game is finished, the old one becomes free to play, but without the bonus scenes or games that are only published in the Priv-box.

My last ArianeB related post dates from about 8 months ago..., about time to do a round-up, one might say. But first of all, Happy New Year.

You probably know (or not) that the development of the original Ariane Dating Sim has stopped and that its definitive version dates from April 2012, see Date Ariane 7.2: final update? Since then the Creator has worked on the second installment of the Ariane Barnes game called Something's In The Air or – because modern media has made us believe we live in an acronym driven society – SITA.

The evolution of SITA can be followed on its official pages: Ariane's Life in the Metaverse (blog) or Ariane's Date Simulator (Facebook). On its last post (What A Difference A Year Makes) the Creator compares his old characters with the new ones and the results are quite stunning. Especially Rebecca (see picture above left) looks smashing but I have always had a soft spot for that chick who got a teasing and somewhat annoying role in the first game: Rebecca tapes.

This (fanmade & unofficial) blog still gets a few thousand hits a day, although it is practically dormant. The 50 or so walkthroughs presented here cover all possible situations and is more a completist dream (or nightmare, if you prefer) than a quick'n dirty way to get Ariane in the sack. Googling for Ariane Dating Simulator solutions will give you a dozen of advertisement infested pages with one or two solutions at the most, but this one - I am proud to say - is the most complete, is pop-up free and will stay so until I am too old or poor to renew its license.

As the game is parameter driven and not always linear, not every possibility path is described on this blog. There are literally thousands of variations to link every situation and an ArianeB fan with too much time on his hands once counted 1800 different nodes in version 5.8 (mid 2009).

Something's In the 2013 Air

The good thing is that there will probably a boost on this blog when Something In the Air comes out. SITA has the possibility to remember situations from the first Ariane game and will behave accordingly (see: Date Ariane 7.2: final update?).

I haven't seen examples of it yet but theoretically it will be possible for Ariane to suggest to have a swim in her backyard pool if you didn't do that in the first version. Although Ariane's memory will have to be typed in as a five hexadecimal digit code, and these codes will flow over the web as soon as the game comes out, some people will actually be tempted to play the first version of the game all over again, at least that is what I hope for. (The walkthroughs on this blog already mention these codes, by the way, and this since April 2012.)

So the main conclusion could be that after the launch of SITA - hopefully this year - the first ArianeB Dating Sim will get a second life.

I don't check Shark's Lagoon often enough, now that Ariane-madness has calmed down a bit. Fans are eagerly waiting for the release of Something In The Air, the second episode in the Ariane Barnes saga, and the Shark's Lagoon ArianeB forum thread that started in 2007 and goes on for 62 pages has only received 9 posts this year.

Shark is a game creator in his own right and recently he published the freeware version of the sequel to Whakawai, subtitled 'Under The Spotlights'. Fans know that Shark first releases his games in the so-called priv-box, but after a few months they become free to play (his priv-box versions often have extra scenes in the game that are deleted in the free version though).

Whakawai saw the light of day in November 2010 and tells the story about a young Polynesian fisherman Hiro and his love for Ahoroa, who sells flowers to the tourists. Obviously these tourists will try to pick another flower and they manage to hire the girl as a guide. The question is if the poor and naive virgin will be able to resist their charm (and alcohol). It is up to the human player to play the story till the end and not to fall in the traps that have been hidden here and there (these traps often contain some pretty steamy scenes though, so you might check them out for the sheer fun of it). Next to a group of libertine tourists, Ahoroa also meets her protector in the sea, a mermaid, adding a nice fantasy touch to the game. Whakawai is one of the better stories in Shark's portfolio.

In this year's sequel 'Under The Spotlights' Hiro accidentally disturbs a film crew and because there is no time to re-shoot the scene they hire him as an extra. The couple are invited to the hotel where Hiro will rehearse his scenes with the female star of the movie, rehearsals he takes really up close and personal. Ahoroa, from her side, is asked for some screen-tests, and the question is if she will be able to resist the decadent temptations of modern method acting. There is a slightly funny side-story as well with script-girl Emma who wants to have revenge on her boyfriend and, last but not least, Ahoroa gets to meet her mermaid again, in a scene that gives a completely new meaning to the Blind Boy Fuller song What's That Smells Like Fish?

All the typical Shark's Lagoon ingredients are here, but in my opinion this is not the best sequel I have seen coming out the Shark stable, the Emma scenes have been 'glued on' and do not fit well into the story, but there are ravishing compliments on the forum that claim the opposite, I must add. All in all, for people with a healthy mermaid fetish there will be a dream come true...

The Whakawai series (so far)

All games are playable online and can be downloaded (often in better quality) at Rapidshare. Most versions have a hint system that can be activated by typing the right word, highlight or mark the space between the quotes ("like this") to reveal the secret word.

	Whakawai (Pt. 1)	WH1	Ahoroa sells her flower necklaces to the tourists... but these are more interested in her virginity, especially when they all go skinny dipping. Toggle hint: type "hiro" to highlight next move. More hints at the forum.
	Whakawai (Pt. 2)	WH2	Can Ahoroa escape from her new friends who fuel her with alcohol and find some love in the arms of Hiro? Toggle hint: type "hiro" to highlight next move. More hints at the forum.
	Under The Spotlights (Pt. 1)	WH3	A movie crew hires Hiro for a low-budget pirate movie. The female star takes her role very seriously giving Hiro a 'hard' time. Toggle hint: type "camera" to highlight next move. More hints at the forum.
	Under The Spotlights (Pt. 2)	WH4	Ahoroa is invited for a photo-shoot and doesn't realise that her portfolio will go straight to Penthouse. Toggle hint: type "camera" to highlight next move. More hints at the forum.

For people who are stuck there is the hint word that has been revealed above, but there are also video walkthroughs that can be found at Shark's Lagoon.

ASF 1: The Eye of Geltz Is Watching Us

Somewhere in a galaxy far away from here is a tide locked planet. On the dark side, where the sun never rises, the Ugeltz, or dark people, live for as long as they can remember. Their, mainly paternalistic and feudal, society is a dying one as their culture, economy and lives are dependant from an energy source, Margin, that has run out.

Two different factions seem to be present in the dark realm: the haves who are pessimistic and who live a hedonistic and decadent live; and the have-nots who believe that there is somewhere a Realm of Light where a solution might be found to rescue the society from its imminent collapse and – en passant – bring in a better life, abolish slavery and give equal rights to everyone.

The reigning king Ugk feels that it is time to give the throne to the son who can come up with a solution for their dying society and here is where this adventure game starts. You play as Rabbok, one of the enlightened sons of the king and he will try to get in contact with the followers of the Realm of Light.

Written and programmed by Jospin Le Woltaire, the freeware game The Eye of Geltz Is Watching Us, the first part of the A Second Face (ASF) trilogy, was released in 2008 (with its most recent, Spanish language, update in 2010). That year it was promptly nominated fifteen times for the Adventure Game Studio awards and got away with three prizes: Best Game, Best Story and Best Backgrounds.

The Gods Must Be Crazy

Despite its many nominations ASF is clearly an amateur game, depending on volunteers and working with no budget. It is up to the player to like or dislike the crude drawings (frankly, I like them, they give the place a drab and claustrophobic look) but some harsh criticism has been written about the voice acting that is, and I fully agree, quite silly. And there are those typical adventure game traps, like having to distil a certain potion twice without getting a hint that might lead you to that conclusion or the fact that an important item happens to swim by in the stomach of a fish... There is an outworldish, rough kind of humour as well, what to think about a beggar who has sold his stomach to medicine because he doesn't have anything to eat anyway?

ASF: The Eye of Geltz Is Watching Us is not an adult game in the strict sense of the word but a game with a certain mature content, that will awfully disappoint fans of click and fuck games. The Ugeltz have an official deity: Geltz, a hermaphrodite fertility god, and during the annual festival orgies are being organised in his temple. Needless to say that the festival is the right time to search for hidden items in the temple.

The most erotic moment happens during a drug-induced spiritual trip when Rabbok gets in telepathic contact with his second face, Fraka, an inhabitant of the sunny side of the planet. She will be the protagonist of the second part of the ASF trilogy.

ASF 2: May Sunlight Be With You

May Sunlight Be With You will be situated on the side of the planet where the sun never descends. The tribe has a nudist culture and a philosophy based on freedom but obviously some people are thinking differently.

Started in 2009, the second chapter was promised for 2011, but not even a demo version has been uploaded. Le Woltaire's progress report on ASF2 stops in November 2011, his blog hasn't been updated since March 2011 and his latest tweet dates from March 2012 (and isn't at all about ASF). It seems that the downfall of the Geltz civilisation has struck on its creator as well, which is a pity.

Freetime Freeware

In the freeware gaming world many are invited but few are chosen and the internet is full of games in beta status that are in perpetual limbo and that never will be finished. On an old blog of mine (defunct as well, so who am I to complain?) I once wrote about an open source remake of Yoot Tower (or Sim Tower, if you prefer) and how the project had apparently halted because the contributors couldn't agree. That text had only been published for a few hours or I was reprimanded, by the project leader, that my comments were completely wrong and that the program was still alive and kicking. Today, in 2012, the Open Yoot Tower project page is still on the web, at exactly the same level it was three years ago. A few spin-off projects, started by the disgruntled collaborators, have not been moving either.

While we can't force people to go on with their projects I would like to see chapters two and three of A Second Face. Le Woltaire created a bizarre, slightly worrying but addictive virtual world and it is not because reality has caught up on him that he has to stop thinking about his planet, after all he has been commissioned by Geltz and A Second face urgently needs a second chance.

Update January 2013: the official A Second Face forum has been updated in January 2013 (after a year of silence) and apparently ASF2 is still being worked on... to be continued...

Official Homepage & downloads: A Second Face

Walkthroughs:
English: A Second Face – Walkthrough (Le Woltaire/2008)
Dutch: A Second Face - "The Eye of Geltz is watching Us"