early-dev 2.0

Hey everyone!

The development of update 2.0 started shortly after the release of update 1.10. As of now, about half a day’s worth of content has been coded. I know, put like that, it doesn’t sound like much. However, that’s because most of the development time so far has been spent structuring the architecture of a mini-game that spans the entire week. This part is now largely complete, which should help speed up development in the coming weeks.

Update 2.0 will be the final update of Chapter 2 (not counting the upcoming revamp). The goal is to wrap up the chapter’s story, but also to treat myself—and you all—by including more scenes than usual. It feels like a fitting way to celebrate both the end of the chapter and the game’s anniversary.

Another bit of news! I’ve been experimenting with a new way of compressing videos. So far, everything is working smoothly, and it should reduce the game’s size by around 40–50%, without any noticeable loss in quality. I shared an example on Discord, and the feedback confirmed that the difference is almost imperceptible. Not only does this mean a smaller download for you, but it also takes a lot of pressure off me regarding the number of scenes or the length of videos for the rest of the game. All good news, really.

This new compression method does mean I’ll need to recompress all the videos in two stages: for 2.0 and then for the revamp. I want to apologize in advance, I know this isn’t the first time I’ve asked you to redownload a lot of existing content. This should be the last time, though, as I’m reaching a point where it’s hard to see how the videos or images could be optimized any further.

No release date to share yet, not even an estimate. it’s still a bit too early for that.

Take care,

Lianland