Microgame Additions
“The Destiny of Polly” has been added to Polly’s episode
Unless I’ve forgotten one, this is the only microgame that is not solvable without knowledge from places in the game outside of the microgame. My hope is that because there’s only 5 pairings, you will learn quickly enough for it to not affect a high-score run.
“Rotten Heresy” has been added to Polly’s episode
Polly hypnotizes Kendra into buying him virtual currency
“The Ants😡🐜 “ has been added to Arthur’s episode
Don’t ask
If you’ve been keeping track, we are now at 10 microgames for each character! There is one more for Polly in the works, and we will likely end up adding more in the future, but we’ve finally reached that initial goal of 10 per episode!!!
Gameplay Changes
The following microgames saw a change to the amount of rounds played in Story Mode before hitting the boss
Arthur - Increased from 10 to 20
Polly - Increased from 10 to 20
Kendra - Decreased from 20 to 15
For Arthur and Polly, their original low counts were due to them only having 4-5 microgames at launch, and us wanting the player to not get fatigued before they reached the boss. Now that they are each at 9-10 microgames, their intended number of rounds was restored.
For Kendra, theirs was reduced to match Carmy, as their episodes are unlocked at the same time. Although Carmy has 10 microgames now, I’m still a bit iffy on whether I think the ones she has stand up to repeated play. I’m also not sure if I’m gonna keep Sam at 10 rounds or not, and if I do, then Kendra and Carmy will likely stay at 15 to ease the player into 20.
Cutscenes and Story Stuff
Jud has been updated to the new cutscene system! Like with Hecate, he is missing CG.
Jud’s Episode
Jud’s episode has largely the same plot in terms of dialogue spoken, however, some new revelations have been made due to Carmy taking over the narration. I hope her narration doesn’t come across as too hand-holdy, but as we prepare to make our move into the epilogue, I realized we implied a lot of stuff that was easy to miss, be it a single line in a cutscene, or something only stated in PLC-dia logs.
Music Changes
The dramatic theme has finally been added! Alongside it, music in the visual novel sections is a bit more dynamic now! It no longer plays by default, and can switch music tracks depending on what is happening in the scene!
Right now, we only have two music tracks to use in the VN segments (Dramatic, and Neutral). We have updated all existing cutscenes to use the most fitting of the two tracks based on the current scenario.
If you have played the game prior to this item, you may not have realized the music track is meant to match a mood, and was just a generic track meant for all cutscenes. In actuality, the final game is intended to have two more mood tracks for these segments: Joyous and Sad. As for when each will be added, it depends on Jordan’s availability, so for now each cutscene has been scored as if Dramatic and Neutral are the only tracks that will ever exist.
Bug Fixes
When playing Polly’s episode in “Brief Mode”, the microgames “Break Room” and “Visitor” would not show up.
Potential Linux Beta Branch
We are attempting to get a linux build out today. I’m hoping that making the depot doesn’t unintentionally remove access to the game to Linux users. Unfortunately unity keeps crashing when I try to build for it, so I did not have it ready in-time for this update. We will make another post if we get it built.
I got a Steam Deck finally (I do not like it tbh, I gave it a fair chance for 8 hours last Friday and it has sat in a drawer ever since), but that means we finally have the means to see if we can get the game running on Steam Deck. When school is less hectic I will assess its viability.
What’s Next?
The next update (pending any necessary bug fixes) will be released whenever I am content with the writing of Enzio’s episode. Currently I just haven’t felt the best about publishing it, both due to the quality of my writing, and worries about the overall quality of the game. I’ve spoken about this before, but major changes had to be made to Enzio’s episode plotwise, and the episode now has to more properly set up the epilogue. I’ve learned I’m really bad at writing serious dialogue and most of the team is busy with other projects: So I haven’t been able to run anything by anyone.
I am back in school this semester so it’ll be awhile before I can work on the game for more than a couple hours a day. I’m truly sorry we’re so far out from the original promise of December 2025 and the game’s still in Early access. I’ve been burnt out for awhile but I’m trying to power through. Hopefully I can get at least the main story out before August (2 year anniversary of version 1.0)
Anyways, I think I should also provide anyone reading this with a list of completed or nearly-completed features that are currently being held off for 2.5.0-EA:
Cutscene Viewer
This will allow you to view any cutscene you’ve already seen alongside some bonuses like the accurate translation of Polly’s episode.
This is essentially done, but because Enzio’s episode isn’t updated I don’t want to make it live
Interrogation
This is a special type of cutscene you are able to make choices in, currently only Sam’s is written.
Hecate CG Update
Some new CG has been made for Hecate’s episode, but it is not live yet. (Mostly because releasing this update was a very spur of the moment thing)