Thank you to everyone who has played the game and provided feedback since launch. I've been working through the reports and suggestions that have been submitted and have released the following changes:

Fixes & Improvements

- Reworked the interaction system to address reports of interactions occasionally stopping working.
- Addressed an issue that could cause the enemy to become stuck after spawning.
- Artefacts are now more visible. My original intention was for players to discover the requirements for the good ending through exploration, but it seems many players were missing them entirely. Hopefully this encourages more players to pursue both endings and experience the level's replayability.
- Fixed an issue that could cause controller camera movement to behave as if stick drift was present.
- Added a temporary visual effect when zone barriers disappear to better indicate where progression is available.
- Made the fuse box skill check more forgiving.

Planned Improvements

These are some of the things I'd like to improve in the near future:

- Improve menu navigation for mouse and keyboard users.
- Create dedicated visual effects for the completed zone barriers.
- Make it clearer where players need to look during the final pillar sequence (you need to look near the bottom of the pillars).
- Further level optimisation.
- Add additional settings to the pause menu.
- Add a settings menu to the main menu.
- Rework the fuse box repair sequence to be more interactive.
- Add additional gameplay voice lines to make certain events clearer and reduce confusion.
- Add a pop-up panel in the main menu to replay a level, so you don't have to start a new game each time.

A Personal Note

Thank you for your patience, and apologies for a somewhat rocky launch.

When I mentioned in the release date announcement post that development began in 2019, I mean that work started in late December of that year while I was still in high school. The project has been developed alongside five years of education and my current full-time job, meaning only a fraction of that time has been spent actively developing the game.

I also don't want that six-year timeline to give the impression that future chapters will take as long to release. Most of the core systems and groundwork are now complete, which should allow future chapters to be developed much more efficiently. The project has also gone through several major design iterations over the years.

Chapter 2 will be a much stronger representation of my vision for the game, and I fully intend to continue improving Chapter 1 as future chapters are released.

Thank you for reading.

– toz x