🔧 MindWare 0.3.8 Public Hotfix 1

Several players have recently reported that MindWare is running out of space for saves and other game data on their devices, which is what prompted this "emergency" hotfix.

As you may know, MindWare is built with Twine and SugarCube, which stores browser saves in an area called localStorage. That space is usually only around 5 MB for an entire site, although the exact limit varies by browser.

I was always aware that MindWare would eventually begin pressing against the localStorage limit, but I made the problem much worse by letting some tracking lists grow indefinitely and by storing bulky chat, media, and notification data that the game could reconstruct. SugarCube copied that waste into the recent-history snapshots inside every autosave and manual save.

I've burned a lot of midnight oil building proper fixes for the issues mentioned above over the last few days. Older saves will automatically upgrade when loaded, and the next time they are saved they will use the compact format. Future saves will stay smaller, and player-written notes will be preserved. A new Storage tab will show a rough usage estimate and break down what is taking the space. If storage fills up during a save, MindWare will offer export, cleanup, and retry options; its cleanup tools will never silently choose a manual save to delete.

While addressing that problem, I also fixed a larger collection of save-loading, progression, mobile-layout, and settings issues:

• Saves will reliably load back into the passage where they were made, and *Go Back* will no longer loop through the loading screen.

• Several stuck or reappearing quest states will repair themselves, including the malware-cleanup payout and an obsolete reminder that could block sleeping.

• Mobile layouts, music-volume settings, Notes, the malware-cleanup display, and the bug-report window will all receive smaller fixes and improvements.

The hotfix is now live online at https://playmindware.com, and you can also download its offline version from https://playmindware.com/downloads

There is no new story content in this one (that's coming later this week), but it should make long-running saves much safer. Since this hotfix touches a larger number of important things, there's a high chance that hotfix 2 or even 3 will arrive shortly after. Hopefully not, but we'll see.

Thanks to everyone who sent bug reports and saves 🖤