Hotfix coming within the next couple of days.

This post has mild spoilers for the new chapter interspersed throughout....very mild

Patch is quite messy at the moment. I'm working on a hotfix patch for some severly gamebreaking stuff that should be a quick fix...This hotfix will be included in what's going to Silver and Bronze as well because there won't be new significant content in here.

If you have a save at that last scene in Chapter1, go ahead and go there instead of starting a new game. A lot of the issues here that will actually send an error and stop your game are in chapter 1.

What's in the hotfix?:

• 1. Broken speech bubbles - Chapter 1 and especially the hangouts with the love interests are the most affected. As previously discussed: click on History at the bottom of the screen if there's a dialogue/narration that you cant read. You'll know because their speech bubble will be offscreen but with a little bit peeking through. Migrating to the speech bubble system broke a few things. The speech bubbles just need to be placed, there are other broken stuff that would actually send an error. Anything with the sprites are highly likely to have something I missed. (There are no sprite scenes in ch2). In some parts of the hangout with Carl and Devin as my MC, there were parts where he wasn't even on screen. Other instances of missing/misplaced speech bubbles are in parts when MC is dreaming and imagining stuff with another character. The reason for this is because those scenes with dreaming/fantasizing that appear in the gallery separately for each MC are 3 different scenes in the code. So placing speech bubbles in one do not propagate to the other 2 automatically unlike the rest of the game. (The reason for the triplicate coded scene is that they will have to be unlocked in the gallery individually per MC. If I coded this similarly to the rest of the game, it would unlock all versions of that dream for all MCs even if you've only played with one. I haven't found a workaround for this yet.)
• 2. I forgot to turn off the music at the end of chapter 1 and entering chapter 2 which means you'll hear the BGm and some sound effects when you get there which isn't supposed to happen. In the meantime, just mute the game. Chapter 2 has no sound fx and bgm yet. (I have other stuff about this in the previous post - basically I bought some great tracks - mostly ambient music but they sound amazing. Haven't got the time to place them though.)
• 3. I will try to add the threads system in this hotfix. I'm mostly rewriting the stuff that should be in there. Also one of the side quest called "The Flickering Lights" is mentioned at the last area when you click on one of the islands where that thread should continue so I might as well just include that.
• 4. Will add icons and interactions to the important inventory items. Not the underwear yet though. The last 2 items you could get are 1. A photo of one of the characters, 2. A torn page from a book. Right now they have "WIP" icons and no interactions. Interacting with them should bring up a screen showing these items in full-screen so you could inspect. I'll add these in the hotfix as I think it's very important lore. Also, I'm kinda proud of that fake textbook page. All the writing in there is made up as well. That was me pretending to be a "Dream World" scientist/researcher writing a fake book.
• 5. Other stuff I find that are easy to fix and are gamebreaking enough. If you find one let me know asap. I'm also doing a lot of replaying now because of the speech bubbles so I might find more stuff...

Other things I've noted and other issues:

• In my replays now, I realize how white MC-David's hair is in chapter 1(and it looks hotter than what I made in chapter2). Originally he was bald, then white hair. Now he's got gray/dark gray in chapter2. Not yet sure which one I'll be keeping. I remember someone's comments that they loved David as an MC and preferred him bald. I might have to revisit polls soon.
• 1. That long ass explanation by Dr. kent of the dream world where the shot stays the same, I intend to replace that with an animation of the explanation - a sort of puppet show that would better visualize what he's saying....this wont be in the hotfix obviously but I just like to point out why that scene was very static and had very long lines of exposition compared to the rest.
• 2. In that scene with the videos in chapter2(You know the one) - there are some millisecond glitches when it goes from one video to the next. I'll have to look into that and might have to change how it works internally.
• 3. In that same scene, one of the shots of Devin's hand is transparent in one short clip. I've already located the issue.(I might be able to include this in the hotfix).
• 4. When you reach the last area with the clouds.  The scene in the abandoned house, some shots of the outside looked barren. This is the first shot I made in the clouds when I haven't bought the tools to make foliage and beautiful grass in the later shots of the islands. I'll be redoing this. Another shot here is when you look at the picture you obtained from the house, there is a white line at the bottom, that's the bottom of the page which still rendered even though that part's torn. Should be a quick photoshop fix. Also I'll be keeping an eye out for other stuff that just needs a quick photo editing fix.
• 5. You'll notice I haven't updated the gallery yet. That will have to wait a bit longer.
• There's still a lot of work with beautification on different elements of the game - Not yet satisfied with the UI elements and color scheme which I think needs updating. The maps - especially the cloud map at the end - looks barren. I'll be continuing to add more to these/improving them as time goes.

I also like to hear everyone's thoughts on the story.

I have scrambled, pushed and pulled plot points, removed some elements, etc. for a few months in this chapter. I've soaked in it for a long time, I'm no longer sensitive to stuff I've missed. In my head it would all make sense because I'm already very familiar with what happens. But that means I might edit out important stuff and assumed those were still in there, or it will still make sense in readers. So I need people to tell me if some stuff seem disconnected, or doesn't make sense, or just feels like it skipped some stuff. It's possible that I've explained stuff poorly in some dialogue/scenes. I'm also not really the best of writers-particularly keeping track of arcs and character motivations intuitively. I need some spreadsheets for that which I keep referencing so really let me know anything you want to tell me about the writing and with all the other stuff as well.

Important choices in the previous chapter that will matter in your playthrough here:

As mentioned several times the last choice you make in that last scene in chapter 1 will dictate a large part of this chapter:

As a refresher these were the choices:

A. Say Yes to Aaron - have sex with Craig - he reveals who he thinks stole the knife - he tells you of a spot in the kitchen where it might be - Aaron snuffs him out.

B. Don't answer - hesitate - Aaron gets angry - shows you his demon form - Craig vanishes into thin air.

THe first choice will still be continued in this chapter but it will end somewhere around 30% of the way through. The 2nd choice is the one which will let you play until the end. As a spoiler: you will meet Craig here: I've teased him in images, but you won't meet him in the other route where he got killed by Aaron in the dream. You'll hear from others that he was sent to the hospital for some kind of mental breakdown.

Another stuff that matters - telling Tarriq and Ed about your nightmares in chapter1. It's all or nothing. You either tell both or tell neither. If you tell both, the scene at the rooftop starts with them, including Carl, discussing the medicine Dr. Kent gave you. This implies, that Carl also learns about your nightmares in the interim. If you don't tell either of them, the rooftop scene will start with you noticing Dr. Kent and Officer MIke talking. This has more implications with Officer Mike down the road but not so much this time. It will be explored later as an alternate playthrough where you dont romance anyone and it involves the officer. In the meantime, I encourage you, if you're doing a start over, to tell both characters about the problem.(That's also the canon route). A third way the rooftop scene starts is when you told one and not the other. It will be the "base" version with very little unique interactions versus the other two.

3. The romance stuff will have to wait until the next patch (not next chapter, still chapter 2).

Thanks...I'll be back shortly.