Version 1.1 Update
Hi, everyone! Although we've had quite a bit going on this year - releasing Artificial Nexus and some other smaller projects, and beginning the early stages of planning for our next project - we're happy to announce that we've nevertheless found the time to fit in a major update for The Many Deaths of Lily Kosen! For a while now we've felt that the experience could be improved a bit as we've learned more about the engine it's built in, as well as tightening up some parts of the story that, in hindsight, are a bit weaker. Read on for more details.
Better display for talking to characters
When choosing a character to talk to in order to destress, the display is a bit more engaging, and adds a bit more visual imagery to the process. It'll also look a bit different if any of the characters die...
Story Updates
The majority of the first chapter of the game - up to the end of the demo - has been tweaked and rewritten. While the majority of the story beats are the same, some egregious uses of red herrings and weak jokes have been removed, and the tone and pacing of the story has been greatly improved. Some minor changes have been additionally been added beyond the first chapter.
Voice Bleeps
It's not voice acting, but it's not a bad substitute. During spoken dialogue, each character will play a simple noise to represent them speaking. Not a fan of it? No worries - there's a setting in the preferences screen to disable it.
Higher Resolution
Due to some inexperience with the game's engine when it was initially developed, the game displayed images at a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. It's since been updated to display at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, and the images - which were always well above the existing resolution - have been updated in turn.
Better Preferences Screen
A better preferences screen, which gives a better example of how the values for text speed and auto play work, has been added. This screen will also be brought up the first time you begin a new game to ensure that you're beginning the game as smoothly as possible.
Cinematic CGs
CGs now feature panning and zooming to help make the presentation of the game as exciting as possible.
Other Changes
A simple sound will play on hovering over an interactive element to assist with accessibility
The history screen now overlays the current scene
Some other small changes to the GUI have been implemented
Some behind-the-scenes changes have been implemented to make some of the code easier to manage
Phew! As you can see, there's quite a bit there! Whether you're about to play The Many Deaths of Lily Kosen for the first time, or the above changes make you want to dip your toes back into it, thank you so, so much for your support and feedback. We're a pretty small team, so anything we hear is both affirming and great for helping us to grow professionally.
Find a bug with the update? Did we forget to turn a debugging mode off? The fastest way to let us know is to message us via Discord, where we'll see anything a lot faster than via other methods! Thanks in advance for letting us know, and for your patience!