Hey,
Launch is about a couple month away, and I wanted to ship one big polish update before then. Over the last few weeks, I rebuilt most of the UI from scratch and added a theme system. The demo on Steam now has all of it live, give it a spin and let me know what feels off. Quick rundown of what's new:
🎨 New Theme System
The game now ships with 3 themes:
Terminal Sacré
You're now in the matrix itself (maybe you are the matrix?)
Glitch Brutalist
Welcome to 2077
Console Analogique
Play like you're using a cathodic screen
You can switch themes anytime from the Settings menu. The default theme is Terminal Sacré, but I'd genuinely love to know which one you prefer.
🪟 Reworked Project Window
The Project Window was the most-clicked screen in the demo, but the layout was cramped, and progression info was buried. I rebuilt it from scratch:
Cleaner hierarchy, current project, files, and progress are now obvious at a glance.
Inline file completion feedback (no more squinting at tiny progress bars)
Bugs are now fixable manually. You just need to click x times on them, come with an upgrade.
⚡ Upgrades List Overhaul
The upgrade list used to be a wall of text. Now it's a proper interface with clearer states (locked / available / maxed), real-time cost display, and quick-buy actions.
I also tweaked some upgrade costs and added a new one: the Bug Fix Reduction upgrade, which lowers the time you spend on the bug-fix mini phase. Should help the late-game pacing feel less grindy.
🤖 AI Agent Progress Bars
Small but satisfying: the AI agent progress bars are now smooth, color-coded per agent role, and show overclock state more clearly. If you missed it before, you'll spot it now.
🔧 Other tweaks
Adjusted upgrade costs across early-mid game for smoother progression.
Finally, I decided on a new studio name: Raclette Games. We'll talk about this later.
Added an import feature if you want to import from the demo / eslewhere
What's next
Final pre-launch push:
Polishing the tutorial / first 5 minutes (the part that decides if you stick around)
Localization pass on EN and FR
More theme options if the response to this update is good
Deeper Machine things
Try it and tell me what's broken.
The full update will be live soon in the free demo on Steam right now. If you find anything weird, ugly, or just plain wrong, please let me know, either in the Steam discussions, or on the Discord (we're around 200 now, come hang out).
If you've been on the fence, now is the best version of the demo to try. And if you haven't yet, wishlisting helps a solo dev a lot more than you'd think. The launch algo on Steam is brutal for indies, so every single wishlist matters. Thanks for reading, more soon. Tristan / Raclette Games