6.0 - New Challengers Approach

Greetings everyone!

With work on Chapter 3 beginning soon, I wanted to take some time to give everyone an idea of what they should expect from the 6.0 update. Honestly, it's a little hard to preview this particular update without giving too much away, but I'll do my best!

In Regards to Release

I always hate giving out any kind of release information because all it does is sets an expectation that I invariably fail to meet. That in mind, my intention is to have Update 6.0 and Chapter 3 out "Before December". Naturally, I'll be shooting for an earlier release, but for all intents and purposes you can assume that Alpha 6.0 has a tentative release date of November 30th.

As for pre-alphas, I'll be handling these a little differently as well. During the pre-alpha phase of this update I'll be setting a hard stop to the end of the game once story content is complete. Every time new story content is added, I move the stop forward to accommodate the new content. This is to avoid people having to constantly start new games every time a new pre-alpha comes out.

Mechanics Updates

I don't plan on making any sweeping mechanical changes this update aside from cleaning up some code on the backend.

When I am looking at adding are a new type of micro-event, something between a static event and a conversation. One thing I'm lacking at the moment are good ways to handle minor interactions that can be referenced again in the future. So, I'll be adding a few fixed encounters with characters throughout the existing content. These will be simple, and the only difference between them and a conversation is that they'll occur at a fixed time/day and you'll be presented with a choice at the end which will have an affect on future content and events.

I'll be adding only a few with 6.0, starting small, with the intention to grow them as the game progresses if people like them.

Additionally, I'm looking at adding some more timed side events to the game. A good example of these is the CMD-1 event in Chapter 1. If you make the serum in time, you're rewarded, otherwise the story moves on and you miss out. I'd like to get at least one of these in each chapter, along with some other opportunities to force the players to make hard decisions about how their time is spent.

Oh yeah, and I'll be making the morning events with Ava avoidable in some fashion. You know the ones.

More Story, Fresh Faces

On to Chapter 3!

Following the events that ended Chapter 2, players will get about a week's reprieve before Chapter 3 really gets rolling. Immediately, a company mandated reorg is going to shake up your little underground family. One of your coworkers is getting called back to HQ, and a new girl is taking their place!

Lauren takes an immediate interest in you and the work you do, while simultaneously managing to get off on the wrong foot with the rest of the staff. Much of Chapter 3 will be shaped based on how you handle both your interactions with her, as well as how you manage her interactions with your coworkers.

In addition to getting to know Lauren, whether you want to or not, you'll also finally get your first glimpse of The Company's central office. There, you'll come face to face with Dr. James Klein, one of The Company's executives who also acts as head of their Genetics and Chemical Research division. Naturally, he's taken quite an interest you and your serums.

Chapter 3 will be setting the stage for the next two chapters, putting events in motion that will determine how your game will end. As it is, Chapter 3 is expected to last into November, making it at least three times as long as Chapter 2 before it!

As far as other loose ends are concerned, you can expect to see the following:

• Work with Penny to decide the fate of Julia's detained husband, Sean
• Continue down Sophie's serum routes with at least one new opportunity to dose her, as well as more of her feminization route if you decide to go down it
• Get to spend some time with Tasha outside the office
• Run into your old friend Chris during at least one of Chapter 3's story events

Finally, casting! Lauren will, of course, be played by Lauren Phillips. An actor for Dr. Klein has not been selected yet, thought I'm thinking about opening a poll for him! I'm welcoming suggestions. As far as artwork is concerned, Lauren will be modeled after her real life counterpart, while Dr. Klein will be somewhat reminiscent of a certain mad scientist from a certain anime about time travel and microwaves.

Touching Down

This time next week I'll be touching back down on American soil, which means I'l also be falling back into my usual development routine. As a result, there will be no development blog on Wednesday, September 26th. As much as I hate missing these posts, there just won't be anything to report!

I'll be posting again no later than October 3rd, with pre-alpha builds following shortly after.

Until then, that's it for now! I hope everyone's looking forward to playing through Chapter 3 as much as I'm looking forward to writing it.

Thank you all for your continued feedback and support!