The gameplay portion that was recently completed was fully reviewed this month, and special attention is needed for handling the new division between episode 3A and 4.

Previously, the amount of game related content needed to execute on the script expanded way beyond its container, and it was decided that a large part of episode 3A should be split off into a fourth episode. However problems with finding a graceful transition point persisted with no good solution. There is no satisfying or sensible end point between the episodes currently, and it is very likely the case that these two episodes (3A and 4) require being shipped together as a result.

The author has stepped back to re-evaluate the best approach.

While we labored optimistically towards providing a release date, a hard decision to err on the side of quality has been made. Keeping to an arbitrary deadline with what exists currently, would hurt the final result.

The development cycle will be prolonged by some additional months to address this entangling work between the next two episodes, and to avoid development burnout.



With previous projections having partly gone out the window, it may not be insightful to continue with the content estimations just yet. As it isn't known yet if episode 3A and its follow-up episode 4 are released at the same time, or if episode 3A can be delivered before episode 4's completion.

Once some details shake out, there might be a better picture of how this dilemma will resolve.

Additional information and consideration is needed to resume providing the graphs for how this situation is moving forward. Work still steadily continues, but the horizon has moved out of view for the time being.

The next release is going to be considerably larger than the previous two combined, and it will simply take longer to finish.

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The work last month has been steady and routine.

One milestone worth mentioning is that the core gameplay for the next episode has been completed from end to end. This gives a true count of how many art assets will be needed to finish off the episode.

Until this point, it was unclear how many audio tracks, cutscenes, backgrounds, and character dialogue sprites would be needed. It's not possible to guess ahead of time how many art assets are required to best stage and convey a written scene ahead of time.

As alluded to in past reporting, with this information a more accurate progress report can be made available.



Now that there are placeholders for everything, the internal progress tracking is fully mapped out. To provide context, a summary infographic has been created of the work that remains. While no time estimates are possible, it should give a picture of how things are moving forward in the months ahead.

Certain areas of work take a significant amount of the total time.


An overall timeline update is still needed, but that will have to wait until work begins on those episodes. Everything mentioned here covers the next episode being released, which is one of the three still remaining.

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The recent patch broke some translation data. A hot-fix has been applied.

Note to translators: No action is required, everything should work fine from this version forward. To support both versions caused by this build issue, these dialogue hash IDs are now interchangeable.

[v 2.0.12] - [v 2.0.13]

w7ZvbBvC - yrrRQ30Q
4yhN4h9P - lcmDVkXT
DCRBH5zy - cT2mmJwp
DxhMltBG - GXCRgnRB

Please use the Bugs, Typos, Issues, and Support board to report any problems.

Thanks for all the feedback for the new episode 2 bad endings. While it appears that the yays have it, a lot of fair points were raised by many for and against it.

It was decided these gag ends would fit best as bonus content. This allows them to stay as is, but not be too jarring to the main story experience.

As it turns out, there already are plans for a game feature that provides unlockable bonus content. It's something that will start becoming accessible in the next major release, and these endings will get moved there.

Given how well the thread discussions went, we're likely to create more of these on-platform polls. There are occasionally things we're on the fence about that could benefit from getting some initial impressions.



Worth mentioning.

Additional endings such as these are never intended to replace any existing content. If they went in as is, the other options would still exist, and all story branches would remain unchanged.



The technical work that is currently in progress is updating the translation tool. It needs to be overhauled so that it can at least provide an easy way to update existing translation files to include newly released content, as well as better handle any new lines that may get added or fixed along the way.

Additionally, some other helpful features will be added to help with troubleshooting, and CSV compatibility problems.

It will release with the new episode, with updated documentation.

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• Fixed an issue with a missing line of dialogue.
  
• Fixed a bug where clock didn't stop ticking after removing batteries.
  
• Removed an unnecessary clock ticking background sound in Episode 1.

More fixes to come.

Please use the Bugs, Typos, Issues, and Support board to report any problems.

This is not a monthly progress report, but rather a small bonus for fun.

Below is a short video clip of what might have happened if a certain someone accepted a certain offer...



The developers would like to know if these choices should actually be included when the next episode releases.

Is this something you care to see in the final game, or should it hit the cutting floor?

You can cast a vote using the following badges on this thread.

Keep it.
Cut it.

Some major news to report on the state of the game.



The original plan was to conclude the game in episode 3 with a variety of endings for each of the two branches. As the master script continues being adapted into game content, it has become clear that the structure of episode 3 won't be able contain the full story.

It has been decided to expand the game to include a fourth episode, as cutting or compressing content would be detrimental to what was originally planned and written last year.

Episode 3 is going to be rather lengthy, and will still be released as two major content updates separately.

The new episode format will look like this:


Not much has changed, apart from an additional episode. All major updates will be patched in at no additional cost to those who already own the game. Each of these major content releases will mark a small price increase in the final game.

When the game play content for the next major release is fully setup, a more detailed estimate of the work remaining will be outlined.



Fixed some minor typos and bugs. There was also an issue with builds having minor differences in file metadata, causing large patch sizes. This has been fixed, so this should be the last time a minor patch will have such a large download size.

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• Patch Notes 2.0.12
  
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• Typo corrections.
  
• Fixed an issue where clock background sound can persist.
  
• Fixed an issue where Andrew will cut off cultist legs after limbs were collected.
  
• Stabilized exported assets to avoid minor file changes in new builds. The patches that come after this patch will have a greatly reduced size in future updates.

More fixes to come.

Please use the Bugs, Typos, Issues, and Support board to report any problems.

The editor limitations mentioned in the last report are mostly under control.

Changes in workflow still haven't been observed long enough to know how much of a delay there will be in the remaining work.



This month's technical work will be focused on developer tools. Adding enhancements to the new editing tool is the main priority, as some features can make up for lost time. Once its stable and provides all the requirements, work will shift back to finishing the new translation tool.

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