New Early Access and a Thank You!

Hello there:)

The Early Access has been out for over a week now, and while the content is limited, the reception has been delightful which feels great to see. I can't understate how happy it makes me that people like my work, after so many months of being stuck alone obsessing over this thing 😅. Thank you for staying with me through everything.

As mentioned before, I will be treating Early Access like an active development branch, which means I'll be updating it every 7-10 days with any new work that gets finished (I am currently figuring out how to set up an auto-updater so your game receives the newest version upon launch and you won't have to keep messing with downloading folders manually and transferring saves constantly). With that said, I just uploaded a new version that dramatically improves performance on lower end systems, adds a whole new quest journal, fixes most problems from the initial release, and adds a few more goodies here and there. This is a stable foundation going forward, at least for now, so next week I will be including the entire rest of Katrina's plotline and we'll be set to head into Madeline the week afterwards.

Once again, thank you for the support you've been showing. It's legitimately enthralling. I love you all so fucking much.

Changelog for REMAKE [EA 0.1.1]

[If you are pledged to the Puppy tier, check your Chats. All EAs will be uploaded in the Puppy group chat, as well as the #puppys-playground channel on the Discord server (can only see it if you have the Puppy role)].

- Dramatically improved performance for lower end devices. Still WIP.

- Added option to switch back to the original Domina font from the Options menu (UI section). The font is Kingthings Petrock, it's considerably easier to read while still stylized. Still leaving the new font as the default for now though.

- Slightly increased font size and reduced max dialogue box lines from 4 to 3. Should make reading easier.

- Added kink selection options in the Options menu (General section). These do the same things with the starting kink selection screen and just exist if you want to change something mid-playthrough.

- Cleaned up the Options menu of bloat and unneeded options.

- Moved Options menu inside the Data category (same place Save and Load is).

- Dashing no longer costs stamina. Casting spells on the map to light torches - or later on to blink through walls etc - still does.

- On top of the above, dashing is now 15% faster. Nothing major, might make sneaking past enemies slightly easier.

- Passive flat stamina regeneration on the map increased from 2 per 1.5secs to 4 per 2secs.

- MC now also has a base of 5% stamina regen, which I forgot to set up from the start. This triggers every turn start when in combat. It also triggers every few steps while on the map (standard RPGM function, might remove later).

- Diagonal movement is slightly faster and should feel a bit less sluggish.

- A lot of people reported 'input lag' but it was actually 'turn in place' functionality (clicking the movement button doesn't immediately move you, just turns you on that direction, you need to press the button for slightly longer to actually move). I have left the functionality in, but drastically reduced the press time required to move. So, you can still technically turn in place by tapping the button as quick as possible, but in most cases you will move instead. The current setting feels good to me, let me know if it still feels input laggy, I can remove the functionality completely if needed.

- Chest loot is now randomized (except potion recipes).

- Chests reset with death like mobs and plants.

- Added the full suite of defensive equipment: Light/Heavy Shields and Under-Armor, in material tiers of Copper, Bronze, Iron and Wrought Iron. Also added Bloodbound enchanted versions of defensive equipment, can only be found in high tier loot.

- Added starting Dekarous logo and disclaimer (both skippable) (planning to make the intro movie skippable too).

- Added popup to explain why the alchemy menu might not open.

- Fixed transition in one of the Catacombs rooms, the Underground Artery Cavern is now accessible (guaranteed 2 night panthers inside so I don't recommend entering before unlocking some perks first).

- Fixed some dialogue that should be told by the MC but is told by other characters instead, and vice versa. I might have still missed some, please report it if you find any.

- Fixed some reagents that could be harvested unlimited times. Probably still missed some, please report it if you find any.

- Fixed a lot of collision and sprite overlapping problems. Definitively missed some, please report it if you find any. Unfortunately I was so bogged down with fixing performance the past week I couldn't playtest much.

- Fixed Valnus' sprite changing to a placeholder after his dialogue.

- Fixed some Valnus' broken dialogue and picture stuck on screen.

- Blood rain only applies in exterior areas.

- The Catacombs remain locked until Katrina actually allows you entrance, to prevent you finding Bitterweed before it's needed and breaking the quest.

- Fixed some slaves in the Dungeon getting stuck on their passive pathfinding.

- Impure Draught of Healing heals a max of 24% HP instead of 18%.

- Vampiric Blood Elixir heals a max of 28% HP instead of 20%.

- Prayer to Llavanya heals a max of 18% HP instead of 12%.

- Removed stray testing event from Katrina's throne room.

- Dying now reincarnates you back in the Cerulean Fields in accordance with the world's lore. This is also used to: 1) Make you have to walk all the way back, soulslike style, which is used to make you a bit more afraid of dying; death is still not a bad thing, you get stronger by doing it and it's the only way to unlock perks, but I also don't want you spamming it. 2) Prevent a situation where you are trapped deep in a mob area and want to leave but every death keeps resetting all enemies and makes the situation frustrating.

- In addition to the above, death now reduced Max Sanity by 1 -> 2. Sanity does not reset to full with death.

- New Laudanum item added to restore Sanity, randomly added to loot lists as a rare drop.

- Added extra Grim Reaper dialogue since you'll be now returning to the Cerulean Fields before beating Katrina.

- Fixed accidentally giving you double Soul Shards at game start.

- Connecting a controller will now show a pop-up on the corner of the screen.

- Updated Agatha and Valnus' sprites to their finalised versions.

- Removed random learning of how to brew a potion of Phlegmatic Augment from interacting with the forge.

- Mobs will chase you for half the amount of time before giving up and returning to their previous area.

- The rain sound sometimes gets overwritten by the torch fire sound when leaving the castle. This annoys me to no end but I haven't come up with a definitive fix yet.

- Improved lighting in Katrina's Experimentation Chamber.

- Added Credits! 2800+ patron names! Thank you all so much!