It's time to wrap up the build and get it into a playable state. The group's trek will have them visiting locations that prove important for the next few chapters. At this point, while the Burned Ones are still an annoyance and something to be avoided, it's clear that they're the bottom rung of the danger ecosystem, with the Witches moving into their place as a prominent hazard. Now imagine if there was something worse out there. 

Speaking of which, we've had a little fun indulging in some of the fans' jokes about romancing a Witch, including the latest exclusive wallpapers, but let me be clear: That's not happening. That's not to say there's not some nightmare fuel to be mined from that idea. But Girl #4 is coming soon, and I'm sure there'll be some OPINIONS about her (much like people were split on Hana and Selene before). 

The Interim Domain 0.99.0 - 
We have a playable build in a beta state right now. The audio's been coded, including a few new music tracks for a big event at the end. Right now, we're doing a rewrite and reshoot sweep, with the intent of cleaning up the script and fixing some lingering animation issues. Trying to line up the loops of multiple characters onscreen at the same time has proven to be a challenge. And let me say that I hate water animations. LOATHE them. 

Another fun thing that's before us is the fact that the new content is going to take some time to do the appropriate script clean up. 140k + words is a lot to go through, line by line. Still, we have a few tasks left before we can pack up and get the final bundle ready for release. 

Thanks for your interest and patronage,
-Kinderfeld

Let's interrupt the beginning of (American) football season to give you all an update on this month's release. With the NFL kicking in, don't bother contacting me on Sundays (kidding, mostly). Also, fuck AJ Brown for catching one reception and screwing my fantasy team even before the weekend actually started. 

At this point, players should expect future episodes to be packed with drama. Having established the main cast and their relationships with each other, we can focus more on their trek out of the city. Don't be surprised to find trouble around just about every corner from now on. 

With this update, we've added a voice channel and moved all the sexy moans to that channel, meaning that the voice volume option now actually has an effect. So, if you like the sound effects but not the moans, you can have your cake and eat it, too. 

The Interim Domain 0.99.0 update:
So, we can claim to have wrapped up what the film industry refers to as "principal photography," meaning that all the content's been written and shot. What does that mean now? Right now, we're working through the new ending for clean up (fixing animations, re-shooting stuff that doesn't look right or needs an extra render or two). Then another pass to make sure to clean up the story and do rewrites. This is the point in time where we may add a few minor scenes to fill in any holes or give extra time to a character who is sorely underused. Then, we'll make sure the audio is coded in and get all the bits for the main story to unlock added in and tested. Plus, we have a few "extra" scenes we might get to slide in, time permitting. Right now, the new ending is clocking in at about 14k lines, just shy of the 17k that you got in the main story (minus the side stories), so we think it'll be worth the wait.

Thanks for your interest and patronage,
-Kinderfeld

We're chugging away at the latest build. Having a three-day weekend did not hurt, as it gave us a little extra time away from the day job to work on the content. As is usually the case around this time of the month, we've shifted into the cleanup phase, where reshoots and coding in story flags and audio cues are our main focus.

Speaking of story flags, I found it interesting that by this point in the game, it's becoming increasingly clear how much of a focus there will be on secrets as a storytelling element. Sure, the big ticket items are everyone's personal lives leading up to the game's events, but smaller truths are being held back. As you delve deeper into the story, it becomes clear that not everyone knows everything, and you may be actively keeping stuff to yourself. Some of those reveals aren't so important in the long run. Others though? They may cost you trust or worse.

We are deep into Act 3 of the new ending for TID 0.99.0, which is running at well over 11k new lines of code alone. With one big event, a scene that I want to do for myself, and a bit of story to bring it all to a close, we have an end in sight. It's just that the end is on a mountain a few countries away. We still need to play test the new content for reshoots/rewrites/audio and code fix. But, it's getting there. 

Also, we've implemented the code to the main story for Hard Mode, which will require some explanation when it goes live. Since there's roughly 640+ qi to be earned, you don't have to play a perfect game to complete Hard Mode, but there will be multiple tasks you must check off the list to get those story flags (like sending Robin's mom after having them meet). 

Thanks for your patronage and interest,
-Kinderfeld

So, we're at a point where the base structure of the build is in a playable state. There's no audio, no stat flags, and we haven't even tested to see if the animations work right yet, but that's what the next few days are for. It'll all get polished up in time for the nearing release.

It seems that some of you have taken to theory-crafting explanations about the fog and the Burned Ones, and we're enjoying some of the comments we read. While we are taking the philosophy that not every question will be answered, because leaving certain aspects open-ended for players is the intent (we hate movies where everything is spelled out to the viewer), there are sequences planned in the future intended to shape the ecology of the new, hostile environment. 

The Interim Domain 0.99.0 is still on track for later this year. "Why is it taking so long?" you might ask. Well, developing two games at the same time does take time. Plus, that pesky 50 hour a week job I do to pay for other crap. As a reward for your patience, the new ending is pretty big. We are currently at the opening of Act 3, and there are already 1700 new renders and 87 new animations. To give you context, this is about two to three full episodes' worth of the game that are just dedicated to the new ending. And that's not counting what's left to be done and the integration of all the other endings into this new story.

Thanks for your interest and patronage,
-Kinderfeld