Warning, Only engine update talk below.
This testing is very big compared to other updates due to the fact that pretty much every core system has been revamped in the engine as well, that means the progression system is completely changed with the new task system that is in the game. The hint system got thrown into the bin and the task system has replaced it, but you can still get the same style of hints if you click on tasks, but under the hood it's a completely different thing to before.
Save system has also been optimized greatly, when i started the game development, to maintain save compatibility I couldn't do any big changes to it, because it would ruin the saves, but because we are adding so much stuff anyway in the earlier game, essentailly making it a whole new experience, I decided to fix this as well. It should make saving and loading faster, and the save files smaller. (not the thumbnail pic though, thats still the same).
The map has also been thrown into the garbage bin and replaced with a new map, not only is it a new map design but how it works, is completely different from before. It's much more reliable now to start scenes. It will also show in a different color when there is a scene triggered by that location.
Navigation between rooms had some loading quirks, for example going into veronikas bedroom was a bit slower due to the fact that there are multiple variations of the room depending on situation, now all of that has been redone almost completely, which means that the loading time is much faster.
There are a bunch of new locations available, and these locations unlock over time, while not all have so much content it expands the world and it also prepares us for whats to come in chapter 2.
Fixing this loading performance for the rooms also lead to the night-mode also applying faster, you won't see the daytime version for a split second in some cases (especially noticable with the phone if you open it up first time at night).
The entire way the dialogue system decides what goes into a scene has also been redone massively, to improve stability, speed, and reliability.
One of the biggest things with this is that going backwards now is a lot better than before. There were some quirks and they have been adressed. You can now also when facing a choice, choose to go back with the mouse button/q , something that was not possible before. (you cannot reverse directly after a choice though, that's what the last choice button is for).
We also added "parental protection" lock to the game for those that want, this is available from the options menu and will make it impossible to play the game without a password that you have set, on your computer user account. After seeing the loading screen you will face a completely black screen with a password field only and an exit button. You remove it again by just going into settings and leaving the password blank, just hit enter (once you are passed the password lock). Also resettable in a file if you forget your password (password is stored in hashed not in plain text, on your computer).
We have added some new dialogue effects too, to make some transitions between scenes nicer.
The jumpy dialogue panel when you are skipping, or just going into a scene has now been pretty much obliterated, so it stays where it should be.
Going from one scene to another is now seamless, no more extra click or a black screen.
The SFX slider in options was not working since some versions ago, it's now fixed. Also improved the options menu under the hood in multiple ways to make it more reliable.
When saving/loading the game you would accidentally move forward a step in the dialogue, this has also been fixed.
The dialogue history now shows the correct colors of the characters names (For those that used that feature)
There's a buunch more things that has happened, so many performance improvements. I am super proud how far this engine has gone over the course of the development, and i sure want it to feel like a proper version 1.0 not only story wise but the feel of the game as well.
The list can go on with even more things that you can't really see happening, trust me, you'll feel it when you play.
After all of this, we're still pretty damn close to a release, it's not just testing the engine but we also have to test the dialogue extensively, because of all the rewriting, new scenes, new features in the scenes, and so many things going on. Keep in mind that Motkeyz works hard on renders constantly, so like now, when we need more time also for writing and the engine, we got even more bonus and extended scenes than first planned, so no time is lost. We want you guys to really enjoy this.
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