Update development status #6.
Hello everyone. So, what do we have here? Well, here's what we've got:
I finally finished going through all the code and fixed everything that could have broken the game in the future.
While I was sorting out everything related to point 1, I simultaneously prepared the groundwork for everything that goes into the other points.
Chat redesign. I changed the chat window itself and fixed the borders of the images Vincent sends. The problem was that the attachment seemed to go beyond the phone's frame. It looks better now, but there's still work to do. I added avatars, names, and, in short, borrowed a couple of ideas from various messengers. So far, only one problem remains with the chats — group chats. I haven't figured out how to fit avatars in there so they look normal.
Effects. Various effects will be applied for different in-game situations, like intoxication, rage, and so on. Right now it doesn't look exactly how I want it to, but it works and the foundation is laid.
Interactivity. We now have a system that adds interactive objects to the game. The first time there's an opportunity to click something, the game won't let you proceed until you actually click it. All subsequent times, these objects can be skipped, so you'll need to be more attentive if you want to explore the game as fully as possible. A bit about why this is needed — so as not to burden you with a ton of unnecessary dialogue in story scenes and not add new ones that would stand out too much against the rest of the game, you'll be able to find interactive objects. When clicked, they'll give you access to documents, notes, files, and so on. In places where it's plot-important, you can't skip them. These documents and such will contain attachments (not always), and clicking on them will open them full-screen. Overall, a system similar to the chat, but at the same time something different for the game. Most of what you can find complements the plot and the game's world, but I wouldn't say these are strictly mandatory for understanding the story. Either way, there'll be a lot of interesting stuff there.
Gallery. When a new image is unlocked in the gallery, a notification and sound appear. When you go into the gallery itself, the character tile whose image was unlocked will show a "NEW" label. I might add some more tricks to the gallery, but I'm tired of dealing with all this for now and want to take a little break.
Rework of some action scenes. For the combat scene in the prologue and its ending, changes were made in an attempt to convey a bit more static action as much as possible for static images. If Michael Bay calls me, we could shoot a CGI clip for such scenes, but so far no calls have come in.
General quality-of-life changes. I reconfigured the relationship system, and for now it consists half of the old system plus the new one. At the moment, all of this works without breaking saves, but in the future, when the old system is removed, it might take your saves with it — sorry about that.
These are the main changes and additions I've been working on lately. For now, all of this is in beta, and during the release of Chapter 2, they'll remain in beta as well. Fixes, changes, and so on will come with Chapter 3, when I can gather feedback on all the new systems and features.
As for the images, scenes, and such — one scene needs to be finished, it suffocated me so much that I forgot about it and made two others. A couple more scenes need new renders and changes to old ones, so I'll have to go back to them, even though I really don't want to.
I'll post a poll on Discord that will directly relate to development, and it will be genuinely important.
Summer is over, and there are only a few weeks of more or less good weather left. So I need to make the most of it before the autumn grayness sets in.
I wish everyone a good weekend and thank you so much for your support, see you soon!