Shale Hill Secrets | Episode 5 released to $10+ patrons!

Hello everyone, how is it going?

Well, it took a while, but Episode 5 of Shale Hill Secrets is now available to all $10+ patrons out there.

As we said last week, this episode contains some routes that are impacted by your decisions. This means that in your first playthrough you will miss other content that is within the update and you’ll have to do multiple replays if you wish to explore all different options (if you do this, replay for a last time with your favorite choice so this sticks in your progress data if you wish to have that route for future episodes). These options are also impacted by episode four, meaning if you didn’t pick a specific option there, then it’ll impact the choices you can make in this episode.

Cheat Codes

We have made a cheat code to help explore the other routes if you wish to do it the quick way. We recommend only using this after you have completed one full playthrough of episode five. You can enter this in the main menu and you will then be sent to a menu to select the option you wish to explore.

Cheat: Ep5partymenu

We’ve also included an extra cheat code to address an issue with scenes not being properly unlocked in the Gallery. The bug is already fixed in this build, but unlocking the scenes would require you to replay the scene's episode. To avoid that and instantly unlock all the scenes available in Shale Hill Secrets, just input the cheat code below.

Please Note: This will not show you everything you missed originally, but a majority of it. If you are interested in seeing 100% of everything, it’ll be worth skipping from the start of episode five.

Cheat: Galleryunlock

We’ve said from the start that we are always looking for new ways to give players more control over their decisions, meaning sometimes you will have to pick one girl over others to have branching routes. Everyone wishes we could split ourselves into multiple people and keep every girl happy, but sadly it’s not that easy! 😉 (if only we had a cheat code for real life!)

There are three special scenes to find in this episode. It’ll become pretty clear after one playthrough what you need to do to test the other two!

Install Instructions

IMPORTANT: Do not play previous builds (0.1.x, 0.2.x etc). Always play the latest build available (it contains all the episodes). Since we are constantly improving the engine, executing a previous build after you've run a newer one could corrupt your progress.

Shale Hill Secrets Episode 5 v0.5.3
Full Download here (Windows 64-bit, macOS, Android)

The files are hosted on itch since their download speeds are better.

You don't need to create an itch account. Just click "Connect with Patreon" > "Allow" > "Download". If you have canceled your pledge, Itch may not allow you to access the downloads. Please re-enable your pledge (you won't be charged again) to download the files. Then you can cancel it afterwards.

If for any reason you can't download the game from Itch, please get in touch with any of our moderators at our Discord server.

Patreon Auth

The game now requires direct access validation using your Patreon account. Your subscription must be active for the API to recognize it. If you pledged and cancelled it right afterwards, the validation process could fail. Please re-enable your pledge (you won't be charged again) and try again.

Windows

Download the file below, extract the zipped file to a location of your choice and then run the Shale Hill Secrets executable. The game should open straight away after this. Do not try to run the executable without unzipping it first or you’ll get an error message! Do not mix these files with previous releases! This release contains all the episodes.

macOS

Double click Install Shale Hill Secrets.dmg. Then, in the window that opens, drag and drop the app to the Applications folder.

If the DMG file doesn't open, this means Gatekeeper could have quarantined it. It can be fixed by running this command in Terminal:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine $HOME/Downloads/Install\ Shale\ Hill\ Secrets\ v0.5.3.dmg

Android

Your device needs to be able to install APKs outside of the Play Store. If it isn't, you need to enable that option first.

After downloading the file, open the APK and select "update". Don't uninstall the previous version or you might lose your progress.

Support

Report any bugs or issues to #bug-reports or #typos in our Discord channel. Please do not post bug reports here in the comments section of this post - It’s hard to track and difficult to give proper assistance. If you don’t have a Discord account, please send us an email instead to support@love-joint.com. Please also feel free to leave some feedback in #constructive-feedback on Discord or down below in the comments.

Changelog

v0.5.1 - 03/22/2022

- Fixed some typos.
- Tweaked a couple of animations.
- Ultimately fixed and changed the Scene Gallery's unlocking system. If you have locked scenes that should be unlocked, please replay the affected episode or use the cheat code (Galleryunlock).

v0.5.2 31/03/2022

- Typos fixes.
- Ep4 continuity fixes.
- March 2022 Platinum Bonus Scene added.
- Minor tweaks.

v0.5.3 04/30/2022

- April 2022 Platinum bonus scene added.
- Graphics' scaling method has been improved. Text looks crispier and nicer overall.
- Performance tweaks for the Log screen.
- Patreon's auth code improvements.

Developed by Love-Joint

Ricky | Producer, Code, Engine
AW | Plot, Writing, Direction
Mr. Vargas | Character Design, Art
Zed | Marketing, Art
Luke | Marketing, Art
NiRo | Character Design, Art

In Memory of Palmer.