re:Dreamer Alpha 0.10.5 (Patreon)

Click here for the download links (currently only open to Backer-tier patrons).

(Sustainer patrons should download 0.10.6 instead).

Hey folks, sorry for the 8 hours of delay. My cold last week completely floored me for a few days, and I've been crunching like a demon at the keyboard catching up to the goals I set for this release since.

re:Dreamer (0.10.5) is a release as simple as the divine Central Texas-style barbecue brisket. No fancy bells or whistles here: just lots of solid writing, with light seasoning, slow-cooked to tender perfection.

• A sizable new Texas BBQ lunch date scene with Britney! This ended up being a lot longer than I expected at just under 6,500 words of dialogue, which should translate to about 26 minutes of reading. Unlike a number of the previous updates, this one focuses on the basics: a straightforward story with little in the way of major C.H.E.A.T.S variants. I also had an incredible amount of fun writing Britney being a prideful goofball, and I think that shows up well in the writing.
• Fixed the Keisuke sprites breaking with sweat drops in his side-profile "D" pose.
• Fixed Britney tauntingly calling Zach "Zach" when it should have been "Zoey" in a few places.
• Fixed the patron passwords system being a little finicky with loading older saves or inputting a password on a save that lacked it.

Before I go, a few solemn words on Texas. I should have written an update similar to this with the 0.10.0 release about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the Russian Dance Dance Revolution clone featured in it, Dance Uprising, comprised of only a small part of that release, while the identity of Texas and what it means to be a Texan is at the forefront of this one.

Writing on this update started with a light-hearted, almost whimsical lampooning of a stereotypically prideful Texas girl, but like many across the country and the world, that sense of joviality about Texas was quickly swept away this Tuesday.

The horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which saw 19 children, 2 adults, and a mentally-ill gunman needlessly dying, was a shocking tragedy. Except… it wasn't even that shocking anymore. As with so many other Americans, I've grown desensitized to the constant horror of mass school shootings. As a kid, I was told Columbine was "a once in a generation" horror, and that something of its magnitude would never happen again.

But it has continued to happen, and it's going to continue to happen unless meaningful change is made  because none of the measures that exist right now to stop it are working. The good guys with guns are not stopping the bad guys with guns; in fact, they stood idly by as bystanders urged them to take action. There are just so many gut-wrenching details of this killing that horrify me (for instance, a child who smeared the blood of her dead classmate on her to play dead from the shooter), but the ones that fill me with the most dread are the institutional failures.

There were tons of early warning signs that the school shooter was planning a shooting that were ignored. Police have kept changing their story about the details and timeline of the events, later admitting that they made "the wrong decision" in barricading the shooter in the building with his victims. Even Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, about as faithful an advocate for law enforcement and guns you could find, is "livid" at the misinformation he was given in these press conferences.

I'd like to be able to tell you cheery, naively optimistic platitudes like "sending thoughts and prayers!" and "make sure you go out to the polls to vote for meaningful changes to firearm laws!" but the truth is, I'm tired. More than that, I'm weary and numb, and the anger and disgust I felt all the way down to my core as much as 2 days ago has simmered down. Instead, I'm going to tell you this, as I tell it to myself.

Stay angry. Stay upset. Stay infuriated, because what's happening is an institutional failure with unacceptable costs. Make a clamor. Keep the pressure up, both on yourself and those who would sit back and do nothing. They say that the squeakiest wheel gets the grease; this one has been getting lubricated with the blood of innocent people for far, far too long and is long overdue to rust and make a horrific noise.

Until next update.