Time to get emotional
(you can skip, its only my feelings)
This update arrives 7 years after launch and 3 years after we recovered control of the game.
The studio went through serious legal and financial challenges, but we persevered.
I want to thank everyone that supported us over the years and let's keep these updates coming! And we even have a Community Challenge so don't skip over the text…you are going to skip over? Fine…
Cheat Codes?
You will notice some new options when starting a new game, now you can permanently unlock Cheat Codes, in the Unlock Cheatcodes menu option.
These are basically game modifiers and once unlocked you can activate/de-activate them in the Quick Cheatcodes menu before the start of a new playthrough.
Activated modifiers provide additional dialogue and situations and also help you with new ways of falling in love. You will even see a cute little icon pop up whenever those cheatcodes are having an effect on gameplay.
What Kind of Gameplay Modifiers?
All kinds of stuff. But I will let players figure it out on their own.
You can activate the Love Mode cheatcodes for instance to play the game in a casual way.
Love Mode disables ending achievements only. All other achievements can still be earned.
Conversely you can activate the Hate Mode cheatcodes for each character and get a hardcore challenge for the real gamer inside of you.
There are even new achievements to reflect that you have mastered the art of aerial seduction.
Also finally Immortality is implemented in the game, as we promised all those years ago. We are still testing if it works in real life. When using a revolver it seems to work out fine 5 out of 6 times, so I would take my chances, but not our responsibility.
How do you unlock Cheat Codes?
But I hear you ask:
“How do I unlock those cheatcodes? The game is asking for some sort of code?”
Pay attention! I was about to get to that.
The codes are hidden inside the game, but there is no way to get all of them in a single playthrough. The best way would be to cooperate in democratic spirit in our Discord Server and get them all together.
The worst way would be to try to get them yourself, but that is also possible if you are that afraid of human interaction (I know I am).
A total Face-Lift
There is a lot of new art created for this update including music by Gor3my and horror Illustrations by MPercivale. Be sure to follow them and generate a great parasocial relationship.
We will have a more comprehensible list of credits on the next update, since we are still doing stuff.
A little warning, since the visual changes were some massive it will probably corrupt your savefile if you try to load stuff. So best to start a new game from scratch.
The UI was upgraded in a massive way, showing an animated HUD with radar that indicates single helicopters in your area.
The choice menu have also received an update, to separate it from the default 2018 Ren'py stuff.
The nightmare menu has been re-organized in sub menus and a timer has been added to create a tense environment, alongside the new music. Also this sequence has a lot of new surprises including new art and animations, so pay close attention to it.
A lot of menus have received the same treatment to make everything more readable when having multiple choices on screen at the same time.
The Rock Paper Scissors combat received some of the most updates, including japanese voice acting, new original songs and original Ukiyo-e Japanese Style art.
Also an original long intro.
All the UI of the combat was overhauled and made fancier and shinier giving more room for the stand illustration to show off.
You may also notice the cheatcode icon showing up if you have that cheatcode activated, that will prevent you from losing on the RPS if you want to skip this part completely, or just get some funny extra dialogs when the enemy is unable to hit you.
More Sliders and audio channels. In preparation for another massive update focused on music and sound we have added more audio channels and changed the default configurations so that your eardrums are not destroyed every time the game starts.
The main menu also has some direct links to our Merch Store and to our Socials and Discord. That will come in handy with a little surprise we have at the end of this post.
More!
We have added more of everything:
More Small fixes
The intro text has been modified to better reflect the function of the Serial Denomination. A lot of people didn't get that it was your name, so we clarified that to avoid unnecessary frustration.
You can no longer Save during the RPS fight to avoid cheating, that's what the Cheatcodes are for, and even have contextual dialog if you use them.
Community Challenge
But wait! We are hosting a Community Challenge! And It has 3 Tiers of prestige.
The first person to get each of the new achievements (not including the character achievements) will be immortalized inside the game in our Bronze Wall of Heroes, which will be coming in the next update after the contest ends.
The first person to finish the game with each character on Epic Mode (with the Hate Achievement activated), will be placed on the Silver Wall of Heroes inside the game.
And as a final part of the contest, the first 3 people to have all of the achievements unlocked, will have their helicopter of choice included inside of the game and can even name the helicopter. Also their name will be immortalized in the Golden Wall of Heroes, inside the game. The added helicopters will have their own storylines separated from the main campaign, and possibility of dating them. They will interact with the main cast but in a more contained way, to not affect the pacing of the game.
If you want you could also immortalize something else, like a phrase, maybe a proposal? A proposal? I don't know, you figure it out. If we approve it, it's going into the game!
Imagine finding the love of your life because you are such an epic gamer, that could happen, for real.
How to Participate
We need different Proof Requirements for each price tier. The proof needs to be uploaded to our Discord Server. If you are the first one you will be notified there.
Bronze Wall of Heroes: You will need to post a screenshot of the moment you got the secret code, and of the moment when you unlocked the steam achievement.
Silver Wall of Heroes: For the Epic Achievements of each character we will require video proof (Youtube link or Twitch recording) of your playthrough to be posted on our Discord.
No matter the amount of followers, even if it's a freshly made account, we only want proof that everything was done correctly, and that the community can see that as well.
We are not the UN, we need to be able to hold you accountable for your transgressions, so that's that.
Golden Wall of Heroes: Same as the Silver Wall of Heroes requirements, just that you need to record each of your playthroughs, can be in a single long video or a bunch of smaller ones.
Important Notes / Disclaimers
The contest starts with the release of this update and ends when all of us are dead due to WW3 March 1st or before that if all of the sports are already filled.
“First” will be determined by timestamped Discord submissions.
The videos could be shared in all of our social media to help people that want to get those difficult Achievements, but we will ask your permission first, so don't worry if you don't want exposure.
On the opposite side it's your chance to get some free cloud and finally become rich, like all the people that try to be an influencer.
