This week was about making a game something you can keep: you can now create a case, save it and come back to it. Getting into the game is smoother too, and the cellar and bar finally have proper shelves.

Cases & saves

New “Your Story” creation screen. Set up a new game by filling in a typewritten case report: name your case and choose your debt directly in the text.
File no. Every case gets a file number that represents its seed. Type in a number to replay the same case.
Your speakeasy is now saved. The game saves automatically at every phase change (evening, wrap-up, next day).
What is kept. Objects stay exactly where you left them: loaded trays, crates and their contents, liquid in bottles. Glasses are saved empty, and anything you were holding is put down at your feet.
New Load screen. One line per case; Load resumes its most recent save.
Delete a case from the Load screen, with a confirmation.
The pause menu now shows the case name and file number.
Fixed the day getting stuck on the same phase.

Getting in

No more “Create Account or Sign In” screen. Steam players are now signed in automatically.
Epic stays optional. You are only asked for Epic consent if your Steam account is already linked to an Epic account, and declining never blocks you.
New startup notice. If the connection fails, the game tells you why and offers Retry, Quit or Continue without Epic, instead of leaving you stuck.

Party & friends

The party leader can now kick a player, both in the main menu and in game.
The party leader can promote another player to leader from the main menu.
The party member list updates immediately when someone leaves or is kicked.
Fixed Steam rich presence not updating once in game.
The friends list now knows whether a friend is in the menus or in a game, and whether their group has a free slot.

Shelves & placing

Shelves are real storage. The cellar shelves, the cabinet and the space under the bar now hold objects neatly, level by level.
Tall shelves. Aim at the front of a shelf to place or take objects you cannot see from above.
No lost items. You can no longer place an object somewhere you could never get it back from.
Stacking. Place a glass or a bottle on a tray that is already sitting on a shelf.
Quick loading. While holding a tray, click a glass or a bottle to put it straight onto the tray.
Placement preview at a glance. The ghost now appears as soon as you look at a valid spot, without holding Alt (for example, spigot in hand in front of a keg).
The cellar’s starting loot is now properly stored on the shelves.

Objects & physics

Walking into a dropped object no longer launches it across the room (a tray could end up through the floor).
Objects that fall out of the world are brought back to their last stable position.
Dropped objects now settle and stay put instead of being knocked around.
Fixed objects sinking into or floating above the surface they are placed on.
Prompts now read naturally: “Take the glass”, “Take a glass” from a crate.
Fixed glasses taken from a crate not being the right type of glass.

Visuals

Fixed grey checkerboard materials on the bar, desk, mattresses and keg tap in the Steam build.

Under the hood

New save system: one folder per case, timestamped save files, safe writes that cannot corrupt an existing save.
All carryable objects now share a single native foundation.
One single code path for placing an object, whether by a player, at level start or when loading a save.
Custom sign-in flow replacing the default one.

Thanks to everyone who joined the playtest and reported bugs — keep them coming!