Tiny update today: I've added a divider line that shows when you've viewed a whole chain in the chain forest and it's starting over. Just a little quality of life improvement to throw out while we're working on bigger stuff.

Other work this week was more server side focused. Like making the conversation system more efficient to handle the 40,000 conversations people have started.

Cheers!

Ella was embarrassed to realize she had not been thanking people when they reported requests in their inbox and has renewed her efforts to be a great hostess.

She's also going to be a lot clearer in explaining that the "Lifetime train pass for all cool people" is in the store marked "Books & Stuff".

Also fixed in this update are multiple timing issues which could result in overlapping UI and problems listening to conversations.

Cheers!

I'm delighted to let you know the soundtrack to Kind Words 2 is now available for purchase as DLC on Steam!

To celebrate, I've created a new Steam bundle that includes both Kind Words games and both Kind Words soundtracks at a discount.

I'm so grateful to Clark Aboud for sharing his talents as composer on Kind Words and Kind Words 2 and I've invited him to tell you a bit about his work in his own words:


The first Kind Words soundtrack was a beautiful and appreciated (thank you Ziba & Luigi) opportunity to just write music freely (fitting, for a game about writing freely), so getting the chance to step back into that comfortable isometric room and out into the big new city has been an exciting one.

The subtitle of lofi city pop was a ticket to a wonderful world of music that I will ever be an admirer and student of, with its dense harmonies, bright grooves, and toppest of top tier bass lines. Bringing touches of those inspirations into the lofi sampling, synths, and style of the original, led to recording guitars, drums, strings, harp, brass, piano, and more, re-sequencing on samplers, printing to recycled cassette tapes, running through guitar pedals, and once again enjoying writing freely.

All of these new spaces to visit gave room for rearrangements and remixes of each of the songs, written to suit the different atmospheres of each corner of the city. Some of my favourite rearrangements are the Ambient remixes that can be heard on Snow Mountain, at Last Stop and in the Chain Forest. (You’ll find these on the soundtrack along with the original songs).

Just like the first, I feel incredibly privileged to be a part of this game, and now a part of your time in the new city as you write, talk, and share.

Clark.

• New: FPS Limiter in Settings->Display. Options: none, 30 ,60.
  
• New: Escape or Gamepad B will close the map menu.
  
• Better: Optimized some game assets to be 60MB smaller on disk and use a bit less ram.
  
• Fixed: Removed multiple cases where button pressing during scene changes could trigger WACKY STUFF.

As a reward for reading these little patch notes, I'm gonna slip some fun news in here first:

The soundtrack for Kind Words 2 just got approved for sale on Steam. Look for it this week!

Today's challenge has been tracking down the cause of the reports I'm getting that sometimes the game gets stuck when transitioning between spaces.

The tricky part is that it never happens to me!

So today I rewrote a good deal of the code that handles transitioning between scenes. If it's not more reliable, it is at least more careful and will hopefully leave much better clues as to the source of the problem.

A nice side bonus is that it's much faster to wander through the chain forest now.

Thanks for playing and for the patience of those affected by the transitioning bug.

Cheers,
Ziba

• Viewing subscribed poems no longer cuts off longer poems (and media recommendations)
  
• Fixed multiple ui bugs related to reporting and deleting messages
  
• Reporting a letter you have received will now give you an option to delete that letter
  
• Fixed a problem which could make the settings menu appear at the same time as other menus
  
• Fixed a bug that occurred when you clicked on a person after finishing a conversation with them
  
• Fixed a bug which could make an npc walk creepily backward while staring at you

Much love once more for all the reports.

Moving ever forward to perfection!

Thank you all so much for making the launch of Kind Words 2 wonderful!

For years Luigi and I have been wandering around this city by ourselves. Like kids who snuck in to an amusement park when none of the rides are running. We've spent so long walking through while imagining what it would be like full of people.

What will be most popular? How busy will it feel? What ride will go off the rails?

We had a few brilliant glimpses of the future during our playtesting, but this Monday when the doors opened, Kind Words 2 truly began not just for our players, but for us developers as well.

Everything feels so alive now!

Since Monday, players have started over 11,000 conversations with each other! We had a feeling chatting would be popular. More surprising is the 10,000 messages you've written in the chain forest!
In less than 5 days!

Judging by the sheer volume of nice messages floating about, things appear to be running mostly smoothly. But we have also had excellent feedback about bugs and quality improvements that I am now hard at work on. I'm very grateful for your communications and suggestions. Please keep them coming in game, in discord[discord.gg] and on Steam!

And once you feel we've earned it, please consider leaving a review.

Wrapping up, if I may briefly switch metaphors from Kind Words 2 being an amusement park to being my child, I'd like to embarrass it here with a baby photo from 2022.

We've come a long way. Thank you so much for being here with us now!

Yours,
Ziba & Luigi

• New: You can delete messages you receive in your inboxes.
  
• Fixed: Multiple issues viewing inboxes while offline.
  
• Fixed: The favorites button getting stuck down while viewing wishes
  
• Trap: Several better debugging tools to help me figure out some mysteries. Like why loading the chain forest locks up the game for some people.

If you encounter something that makes you have to force quit the game: A) I'm very sorry. B) If you restart the game to submit feedback and you choose to attach an anonymized log, I'll also get the log for the previous session where the bad thing happened.

Thanks!

Sorry, some funny business was getting people stuck on the title screen. Not really that funny if you can't start the game you just bought. Thanks for sticking with us.

• Fixed multiple causes of title soft locks.
  
• Fixed paper airplanes knocking you out of your chair. (In your own home! Rude!)
  
• Fixed text resetting to default if you cancel writing something, then un-cancel, then write more and then add a sticker but then cancel adding the sticker. Whew.

Thanks so much for all your reports in-game and on discord. I couldn't shake these things out without you!