Alpha Preview Update (November) (Patreon)

Play the alpha here

Password: sleepyhead ⬅ ❗️

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View bug reports here

Incomplete routes guide

What's New

• 14,000 words of new content 
• Completion of Chapter 4 and the saving Mekduk route!!! Finally!!!!
• Don't forget the new password, noted above!

Developer's Notes

Hi everybody, I hope you're all doing well and taking care of yourselves as the season starts to get colder! (And if you celebrate American Thanksgiving, I hope you had a great time! I sure did, but I was stuffed for literal days afterwards... 🤰🏻 I can't pack food away like I used to 😔)

Not much to say about this update, as it's pretty straightforward: I have FINALLY buckled down and finished off Chapter 4's last major route--falling off the cliff, saving Mekduk from the flood, and facing off with the last Faceless Lord Buubas in person! 

This is very exciting stuff, as this unfinished branch has been haunting me FOREVER! 

(There is technically still the route of falling off the cliff and completely failing to get out on your own, but I'm contemplating having this result in a "Mission Failed"-style GAME OVER pseudo-ending, as the Twine version of the game will feature autosaves and restarting the mission will be fairly straightforward. While the idea of Halek or Blade coming to rescue MC is quite romantic, the logistics of it just aren't quite jiving with me: venturing hours into the tunnels, somehow figuring out that MC fell off the cliff, somehow climbing down to them, and then somehow carrying their broken body back up the cliff and back out of the cave just seems really convoluted and difficult to code, especially factoring in all of the other things like the thoret, the lachryma, Mekduk, the Ghasts, and the Faceless Lord, and how everything is supposed to play out afterward. So we'll see!)

Anyway, the major and important stuff is done, and it's such a relief! As an important tip for everyone: successfully getting out of the cave after falling off the cliff requires the use of a lantern, so the easiest thing to do is to buy a lantern before the mission, choose not to use it in the tunnels (so you'll fall off the cliff), then turn it on once you're at the bottom. You can also just set your physique to less than 50 and use the lantern regardless, but keep in mind that strength will be an important factor if you face off against Buubas later, since you won't have your magic to rely on!

If you're still having trouble with getting the route you want, try the Incomplete Routes Guide (linked above), which will tell you about certain stat checks, or check in with the #alpha-build-help section of our Discord! 

Oh, and content warning for this chapter: confronting Buubas, who is the demon of plague, does involve some descriptions of body horror, sickness, and plague that you might find unpleasant, so be warned!

As I mentioned in the last update post, we've been hard at working both on the Twine conversion of the game and building the actual GUI for it this month, which is why I decided to tackle and tie up the loose ends in Chapter 4 (so it could be converted) rather than persisting with Chapter 8. Next month, I'll be continuing Shery, Riel, Chandry, and Mimir's adventures with MC in the past!

I think that's all I have for you this time: thanks very much as always for your support, and I hope you enjoy!

Total wordcount (without code): 884,809 words without code

What's Next

More Chapter 8!