A Shot in the Dark: Chapter 4 BETA Release Info

Chapter 4 BETA Release

Early / BETA Release of Chapter 4 of A Shot in the Dark will start on Wednesday, March 27 for our supporters on Patreon and SubscribeStar:

-Wed, Mar 27 - $40+ Patrons & Subscribers

-Fri, Mar 29 - $20 Patrons & Subscribers

-Sun, Mar 31 - $10 Patrons & Subscribers

-Wed, Apr 3 - $5 Patrons & Subscribers

Remember, anyone with a lifetime pledge of $10+ also gets access to the Interactive In-Game Walkthrough Features + Hondo's Complete PDF Guide!

Official Public Release of Chapter 4 for players who own the game on Steam and Itch will happen in mid to late April, once we have had time to add Steam achievements and do further testing once those are added.

THIS IS A SAVE-BREAKING UPDATE!

WARNING!!! SAVES WILL BE BROKEN THIS UPDATE! Opening old saves will introduce bugs. Please plan to start a new game or use the Entry Points feature to avoid opening old saves. To be safe, please consider deleting your old save files: https://savelocation.net/renpy

We know broken saves are a huge inconvenience for players, but unfortunately we made too many changes to the foundation of the codebase for it to be avoided.

What's new in Chapter 4?

With this update we are adding:

-16 scenes, 9 lewd

-~55K+ words

-2,226 renders

-97 animations

-28 songs, 21 sfx

Ren'Py upgrade and code optimization

This update we upgraded from Ren'Py 7.4.11 to Ren'Py 8+ which allows us to take advantage of the newer optimization features Ren'Py has to offer! We also took this opportunity to refactor our code to integrate well with Crowdin and help automate the translation process.

New Achievements feature added

We've now added Achievements (which were previously only available via the Steam platform) to the game itself so that players on all platforms can access them! All players will get notifications when achievements are completed and can check in-game to see which achievements they have completed or not.

If you have the Walkthrough features purchased and enabled, you can also get hints for the achievements in-game.

Note: Only Chapters 1-3 currently have achievements implemented in the BETA version. Chapter 4 does not have achievements in the BETA version, but they will be added before we release on Steam and Itch in April.

Unlock All Memories feature added

We added the ability to Unlock All Memories with a toggle in the settings. We already had the feature that allows you Reset All Memories. These are quality of life features to help players who get stuck in bugged states, are playing on multiple platforms/devices that can't share saves, etc. Both can be found in the Options menu in the More tab.

Brand new GUI throughout entire game

Thank you to m. of Tsundere Studio for the complete GUI overhaul! We couldn't be happier with how it all turned out. Be sure to add their game to your Steam wish list: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1703610/I_Just_Want_to_be_Single/

Prince of Suburbia: V1.0 BETA for $5 Subscribers!

If you are an active $5 Subscriber with a lifetime pledge of $10+, please check your messages for the download link. If you did not receive a download link, please send us a message.

If you are an active $10+ Subscriber, this post is not for you. You can access the download links in this post: https://subscribestar.adult/posts/1061810

Note: Many saves will be broken by this update. We made major changes to the code with this update, including brand new GUI and upgrading to Ren'Py 8+. If your saves are broken, clicking Start in the main menu will give you a few options for different jump in points so you don't have to start from the beginning.

Also, possible Android issue reported by one of our testers: FYI regarding possible installation problems with the Android beta apk. Potentially, the change in RenPy versions coupled with the Andriod restricted file access policy, causes the update process to fail. Solution: Uninstall the previous version, reboot the device, then install the new version. All saved games are lost, but that's a feature. The player gets to enjoy the remastered game from the beginning.

If you have any other trouble accessing the game or encounter any bugs or issues, please let us know!

The final update (V1.0 BETA) of Prince of Suburbia includes:

• NEW CONTENT:
• ~20K words
• 39 illustrations
• 23 animations
• 33 voice acting files (thanks to HaruLuna)
• REMASTERED CONTENT:
• 16 illustrations
• 8 animations
• 115 voice acting files (thanks to HaruLuna)
• brand new GUI (thanks to m. of Tsundere Studio)

Please keep in mind that the Early Release version is a BETA version and English only. When the translated versions are complete (likely in November), we will release on Steam and Itch as well.

We'd like to extend a special THANK YOU to those who helped with this update:

• m. of Tsundere Studio for the brand spanking new GUI
• auxiliaryout, for all the art and animations
• HaruLuna, for the amazing voice acting
• Rachel Writes and Yvlan_Angel for their writing help
• Our play testers for this update: Doc62, EDHPlayer, Hondo, NeverAtone, Saniya

And, of course, a HUGE THANK YOU to our generous supporters who made this update possible!

This update completes the Prince of Suburbia story, but we won't be saying goodbye to your favorite ladies just yet. Development of a Pregnancy DLC is already in progress and will release in 2024. Dev logs for the Pregnancy DLC will begin after the main game leaves Early Access on Steam during the first half of 2024. Check out the polls we've already done for a taste of what's to come!

It's hard to believe this little game that we started in 2017 is finally coming to close! There is still a lot to be done before we say goodbye to the beloved characters and world of Prince of Suburbia, but releasing a V1.0 BETA is a huge accomplishment that we are so excited to celebrate with our fans and supporters.

Thank you, as always, for all of your support! We couldn't do this without you!