Development Update: 19/03/2022

I recently announced a new navigation system I have been working on, a psudo-freeroam if you will. I am now in a position to go into more detail about the system and share some screen shots.
The original intent was to use a static image of the beach house and surrounding area. on this image would be red location spots, that as you mouse over them a tooltip would pop-up at the mouse location to say the name of the location.

Clicking the spot would then move you to that location and start any story events as required. There were levels you could select, ground floor, first floor. The house would update and display those floors, like layers of a cake, giving you new locations to visit.
Quite a few VN's employ a system very similar to this and on the whole I was happy with the result, if somewhat hoping to find a better 'location spot' indicator. However one issue I had was how to show inactive rooms, these are locations that either you have already visited or where there is no active event there yet.
Upon reflection I decided to use an alternative method. I still utilise still images but this time I have each 'room' listed and as you mouse over the image the name of the room shows up.

Active locations are in colour, the swimming pool is 'mouse over' and the two blurred images are inactive. Please note, colours and images are still subject to change.
I much prefer this system and this allows me to re-use excising code for additional free-roam events. This system is now active in game and I've spent last week working on the events that go into each location.
I know many players dislike sandbox games, more so if it's suddenly added during development. I want to re-assure you that this is not a sandbox. merely just an expanded choice menu.
This system allows me to add some dynamic events that will add further to the uniqueness to each play though.
Always interested in your feedback, comment below if you have any questions.
This comming week is the release of the final bonus image for this month. The additional scenes for the chapter one encounter with the boss are made and queued up to render. these should be completed by next week. In addition to the updated images There will also be 2 new animations.
The updated scene will be available to everyone, however there is an extension that will be open to those who are on a higher support tier. I am working on a way for players to view this without having to start a new game, It may just be an additional button on the bonus code page.
In other news, OfficiallyGames recently did a Chibi image of Kimiko.

I really like this art style and am considering expanding this to include all the girls from the game. Nothing yet is confirmed, but watch this space!
That's it for this week, Stay safe all.
Cenc