Dev Blog 30th May '24 (Patreon)

Hey fellow patrons!

And a special welcome to all the newly subscribed members!

My general goal is to release a new major game update roughly every month, however, Chapter 2 0.2 will bleed into June and I want to give you a bit of a background why, plus a preview of what to expect in 0.2.

0.2 will introduce a lot of new systems that allow more freedom in gameplay and new fun (and lewd) activities. 0.1 was a sort of appetizer in that regard, but barely any of the new systems were working/implemented.

I thought about possibly releasing these new systems successively in smaller updates, but while implementing them I noticed, they are so inter-connected that it would lead to a subpar experience.

So here’s an overview of what to definitely expect in 0.2:

- EXPLORABLE DUNGEONS: Search for useful items and treasure in a procedural dungeon system! I had all kinds of ideas how this could actually look like but opted for a very simple system in the end. Not because I was lazy to code something more elaborate (that would be kind of fun actually), but because I didn’t want it to distract too much from the visual novel aspect of the game - that’s what you’re here for right? That’s why it will provide a bit of a challenge (depending on difficulty level) but won’t be grindy or too time-consuming.

- INVENTORY: The items you collect in dungeons and elsewhere are added to your inventory and can be used in various situations.

- CLARA CHAT SYSTEM (IMPROVED): The already existing chat option has been improved under the hood so that new chat topics can be added dynamically as the story and your relationship with her progresses. Unread chat topics will have a “New” indicator, so it’s worth checking every now and then if something new is up.

- CLARA INTERACTIONS: Those “donations” to get to the idol have to come about, somehow, right 😉 . So now you have the chance to ask Clara for a bit of “help”. This feature will evolve over the next updates but my plan is to have the first two levels of these interactions done for 0.2 (I won’t spoil what exactly, yet).

- GIFTS: Some of the inventory items you gather from exploring can be gifted to Clara. This has 2 benefits that cater to both “routes” you can take with her relationship: It slightly increases her affinity but can also lower her anger in case you treat her bad (which will eventually happen if you choose the “low affinity” route).

- SLEEPING: You can progress to the next day by sleeping. Awesome innovative feature that no other game ever had, right? But yeah, it’s necessary to reset some systems and – more excitingly – provides an opportunity to add some special scenes that get shown while sleeping, outside of the main gameplay loop.

- EXTENDED GALLERY: The art gallery now has dedicated pages for the individual chapters, as the first one will already be added with the next update (see little teaser image in this post)

Some more new features / content that MIGHT get into 0.2 but are more likely to be part of a later update:

- Enemies in dungeons - I plan to implement some simple fighting encounters to add a sense of danger and risk to the tomb raiding

- First special scenes that appear during sleeping

- More dynamic ways that interactions with Clara play out depending on your affinity and actions

- Possibility to change music

- Treasure chests in dungeons

So as you can see, there’s lots of stuff coming up and I’m sure you will have a lot of fun with the new update. Therefore, I also hope you understand it takes a little longer than the previous one.

I hope you are excited as I am about June - see you in the catacombs soon!