Hi Everyone!
We’re thrilled to share that we’ve just pushed through another update to the demo! Check out the changes:
Voting
Bug Fixes:
• Resolved issues with voting logic where votes were not being counted correctly in certain edge cases.
Improvements:
• In games with 5 - 6 players, any extra time remaining at the end of the first voting round will now carry over to the second voting round.
• Transitions between voting rounds have been sped up for a smoother experience.
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Score Screen Breakdown
Overall Enhancements:
• Significantly sped up the score breakdown process to improve game flow while maintaining transparency on point sources and player abilities.
• Reduced or eliminated small delays and wait times to accelerate the breakdown.
Specific Changes:
• Character Abilities: Retimed and accelerated character abilities (see Characters section for details).
• Pillar Animation: Drastically increased the speed of pillar animations.
• Reshuffle Animation: Replaced the horizontal movement with a new animation where player portraits pop out from the bottom of the frame during position shifts after the score screen.
• Point Pop-ups: Adjusted point pop-ups to be slightly smaller for a cleaner look.
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Menus
Scriptorium Updates:
• Introduced a new, streamlined design for character descriptions, enhancing readability in both the main area and character selection screens.
• Added new randomization options for characters, fonts, and font colors.
• The game now remembers your selections for the character skin, font, and font color between play sessions.
Layout Adjustments:
• Made minor spacing adjustments for improved menu aesthetics and navigation.
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Characters
General Updates:
• Informational pop-ups now appear in the center of the screen when a character ability is activated.
• Character abilities no longer interrupt gameplay.
• Simplified and clarified character ability descriptions for better readability and understanding.
• Accelerated all ability animations where possible to enhance game pacing.
New Characters:
Elara:
• Based on the character word system.
• Gains extra character word bonuses each round.
• Grants all players an additional word when she wins.
Brighthorn:
• When he wins a round, he burns a letter.
• Players who type the burned letter grant him extra points.
• Note: Brighthorn's main portrait is currently a placeholder.
Character Ability Adjustments:
Eli:
• Soul-stealing now occurs during the voting round.
• The action is only visible to Eli and the affected player.
Giselle:
• Point-stealing animations now occur during the voting round.
• Only visible to Giselle and the affected player.
Javier:
• Now requires only a single win to obtain his Magnum Opus.
• The Magnum Opus no longer grants additional points on subsequent wins.
Evelyn:
• Now haunts all players only when she wins.
• Added a new animation to support this change.
Kira:
• Now hacks all players only when she wins.
• Adjusted hack animations for consistency across the writing area and player portraits.
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Plot Points
Witching Hour:
• Implemented a ramping point system:
• Players lose more points for multiple failures.
• Players gain more points for multiple successes.
• Improved tutorial clarity.
• Players can now type during the tutorial.
• Added new ingredient words.
• Reworked visual elements for better user experience.
• Receiving the Arcane Anecdote now grants a flat 50 points.
• Word bonuses are no longer awarded during this event.
Cursed Manuscript/Mysterious Stranger:
• Sped up the intro animation to reduce downtime.
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AI Improvements
• Introduced a new system to prevent AI from generating inappropriate content or breaking immersion by becoming too meta.
• Enhanced AI voting logic to more accurately select the best sentences.
• Testing a new AI model: Your feedback on sentence quality is appreciated!
• AI names are now pre-generated to eliminate extra wait time when entering a lobby.
• If AI is enabled, the AI will now generate plot point sentences.
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Miscellaneous
Profanity Filter:
• Adjusted to run only at the end of words or upon submission, reducing false positives.
• Autocorrect will no longer change words into profanity.
Gameplay:
• Players can no longer be kicked from custom games for being AFK.
• Applied a validator to the starting sentence to prevent exploits.
• Increased the time allocated for the story readout to enhance readability.
User Interface:
• Removed the top-left UI element for a cleaner screen layout.
Thank you for your continued support and feedback. We hope these updates enhance your gaming experience!
Make sure to share any feedback in the Steam Community Hub or the Discord server.
– Boltz Entertainment