v0.4.1 Game Status (Patreon)

It's that time again! I'll start this post off with v0.4.1's patch notes, for the TL;DRers out there, as there's a few things I want to go into some more detail about below. As usual, game links will be posted for supporters in a following post.

v0.4.1 Change Log

Game Functions:

* Copy button added for main panel text.

* Option (x64 Only): TTS trigger button for main panel text.

* Option: Background Selection options.

Scene Content:

* Vox Specialist Intro Scene

* Vox Director Scene 2

* Vox Dept Scene 2

* Hellfire Romance Scene 1

Art Content:

* Hellfire Office Background

* 30 Additional scifi main background options added.

Codex Entries:

* Lencist Roboticists

* Vox Propagandists

Bug Fixes:

* The background image no longer disappears in fullscreen mode. The starfield particle effect has also been disabled.

Known Issues:

* Copy button has no effect in WebGL.

* TTS dialogue cannot be interrupted once begun. May have issues if triggered on multiple screens at once.

* WebGL Issues: Be warned that save game data in WebGL mode is less permanent than PC standalone. May also be more prone to memory and other issues.

So, overview out of the way, a few details! The first thing I'd like to talk about is something that has had a few requests, and which I was a bit curious about myself: Text To Speech (TTS) support. There's no quick, perfect solution for adding TTS to the game, but here's what we currently have:

* Copy: The Copy button appears just below the main text panel, and can be used to copy whatever text is currently displayed (this has no effect in WebGL and will be removed later). You can then paste this into whatever online or desktop TTS app you like, and have a burly Scottish man read the game to you. I assume they all come with burly Scottish options, right?

* Built-In TTS: This is a bit of a quick bolt-on addition with a few drawbacks, so it's disabled by default. Additionally, one of those drawbacks is that it only works on 64-bit Windows, so for the first time I'll be doing two Windows builds, x86 and 64. Another drawback is that once it starts playing a scene, it'll play through to the end of the text, so caution before you go slamming it on a bunch of scenes at once. For this reason, you'll need to go into options and enable it, at which point a trigger button will appear next to the Copy button. This just uses your default Windows TTS options, so voice selection, volume, etc, are up to your settings (I use Win7 myself, which has only a single voice option, so my test environment's been limited in that regard).

This is an admittedly quick, low-effort implementation, so if you have any thoughts or suggestions regarding TTS, let me know, and maybe it'll be worth finding a more robust solution for in the future if there's an interest.

The other thing I'd like to mention today is that, while I was fixing up the background issue, I threw in a pack of extra backgrounds I picked up in a sci-fi UI kit, so you can now choose your favorite starfield to play on! These did inflate the build size a bit more than I realized, so I apologize for that, I'll attempt to shrink the builds back down a bit for the next release.

As a reminder for our freebie players, you can expect this content to go public around early June.  Thanks for reading, and game links will be up shortly!