VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action
Developer: Sukeban Games Publisher: Ysbryd Games Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch Released internationally: June 21, 2016 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prototype article

VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action is a self-described "booze 'em up about waifus, technology, and post-dystopia life" that takes place at the intersection of vintage cyberpunk anime, PC-98 games, and social drinking.

To do: Comb through the rest of the sprite dump (see talk page). Plenty of pre-release stuff as well as interesting things in the Special Demo Version.

Sub-Page

Prototype Info

Early Character Designs

A few character designs from early in development are still present in the final game, and can be seen using a tool capable of viewing/unpacking Game Maker Studio archives.

Anna

Some early development blog posts from 2014 and early 2015 featured a different design for Anna, with a brighter color scheme and a completely different glitch animation. This version of her design survived all the way until the version of the demo that was shown off at PAX East 2015, and can still be partially seen in the final game as part of her photo ID and one of the Steam achievement icons.

Sprites prefixed with "anna_" belong to the original design. The final sprites are prefixed with "annew_" instead.

(Source: VA-11 HALL-A - PAX East Highlights, official blog 1, 2))

Kira Miki

The final game's resources contain two early versions of Kira Miki's sprites, at least one of which can be seen on the development blog.

These sprites are named "kira_spr", "kira_eyes", and "kira_lips". Screenshots featuring these sprites were shown off on the development blog in September 2014; her final design was shown off in July 2015.

(Source: http://blog.waifubartending.com/tagged/robot-girl)

These sprites are named "miki_spr2", "miki_eyes2", and "miki_lips2". In the demo, which contains both of these early designs but not the final design, the "2" is missing from the sprite names.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Other Unused Graphics

In addition to the early character designs, some other graphical remnants from the development process can be found in the final game as well.

Early New Game Intro

The sprites "jill_intro" and "letter_intro" make up part of an earlier intro to a New Game, featuring Lenore's letter to Jill.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Early Title Screen

The sprites "city_backdrop" and "city_front" make up part of an earlier title screen design which was featured in the PAX East demo.

(Source: VA-11 HALL-A - PAX East Highlights)

Early Break Background

The sprite "break_bg1" contains some artwork which was originally shown during the mid-day break, as seen in a post from November 2014. The sprite "break_eyes1" contains an additional two-frame animation of Jill's eyes blinking.

(Source: http://blog.waifubartending.com/post/102663102368/feast-your-eyes-on-these-brand-new-va-11-hall-a)

Practice Icon

The sprite "practiceicon_spr" shows an app that at one point would have accessed a practice mode similar to the one featured in the Prologue. Another blog post from March 2015 shows Jill's phone/tablet with the icon present.

The practice mode was probably eventually removed since in the final game, you can take as much time as you want to make a drink, or start over as many times as you want with no penalty, which means a separate practice mode would be pretty redundant when you can just practice during the regular game at any time.

(Source: http://blog.waifubartending.com/post/114907913228/some-time-ago-we-teased-you-with-a-pic-of-jills)

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Placeholder Ending

The sprite "ending_placeholder_0" shows a temporary art asset used during development as a placeholder for the ending illustrations.

(Source: https://twitter.com/SukebanGames/status/875183294979211265)

Demo Key Art

Named "title", this sprite of a younger Anna is key art left over from an August 2014 prototype.

(Source: https://twitter.com/SukebanGames/status/1204888656164446208)

Demo End Card

The end card originally used in the 2015 Anna demo. Despite being unused, it was localized into Japanese, with the Vita version credit replaced with a Playism translation credit.

Old Jukebox

Sprites for an old version of the jukebox that would've been part of the CALICOMP interface.

Unused Text

Test Script

In the game's scripts directory, a script called "testroom.txt" is present. To see this script in-game, open a save file, then set the third line to "-1" and the fifth line to "1", and load the modified save.

(The Windows version of the game stores saves in "%LocalAppData%\VA_11_Hall_A\saves". Linux stores saves in "~/.config/VA_11_Hall_A/saves". Other platforms will vary.)

In its original incarnation, the script consisted of Anna and Dorothy both appearing at the same time and standing in the same place, with "..." appearing in the dialog box endlessly.

An update in 2017 changed the content of the script to display the text "勇者王ガオガイガ" (a reference to The King of Braves GaoGaiGar) endlessly, with no characters appearing. The game will attempt to display this text regardless of your chosen language, which will result in an empty dialog box due to missing fonts if the language is set to English.

Given the easily-editable nature of the script files, you could also edit testroom.txt to easily create your own scripts, using the other script files as a reference.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Day 6 Apartment

Jill never goes to her apartment on Day 6 due to sleeping in Dana's office that night. If a save file is edited to force the game to go to the apartment on Day 6, the messages normally shown to inform the player about the current deadline and item Jill wants to buy will be replaced with a series of intentionally-unused messages taunting the player.

Alright, how the fuck did you get here?! Here's a message you shouldn't be able to see anyway.

YOU WILL NEVER MARRY ALMA
YOU WILL NEVER MARRY STELLA
YOU WILL NEVER MARRY DOROTHY.

And you can't do shit about it.

"Fore": Messages here are a joke. Why add them?
Jill: Shhhhh.

Early Augmented Eye

An unused script named news_change contains early Augmented Eye headlines for the first day of the game. Only one has an article body. (The final version of the Augmented Eye script is named aa_control.)

You won't believe who these legs belong to!

This is a close-up of former-child star Reina Chang, best known for her role as Rachel's daughter in Rick and the Rodroids. This 17-years-old teen's carrer has seen a new revival with her idol group 'Sun Sun Shine' in which she shares stage with singing sensation twins Alita and Gally. Sun Sun Shine is having their first tour right now, but sadly, they won't be making a stop at Glitch City.

Did Alice_Rabbit hack the DNA Channel?

Cyborg in high heels causing terror.

Revisional Differences

Title Screen Version String

The title screen originally displayed the message "Holy shit, it's actually done!" on the title screen before the game version. The update on February 13, 2017 (v1.2.1.0) changed this string to have a 3/4 chance of being "Good Bye Miss Bartender" and a 1/4 chance of being "The Ballad of a Gay Ghost".