[UPDATE] — Zahera, Intro Revamped — $20 Release // Name Changing is HERE!


ZAHERA, INTRO REVAMPED — $20 RELEASE

 

When we finally got back to Zahera, we realized that her existing setup does not allow for the character growth she deserves. More so, she appeared way more irritating than we intended originally, and that's never a good sign. To counteract on this problem, we decided to rewrite the majority of the dialogue to better reflect what we want her character to be, while keeping the scenes and the overall structure completely intact. On top of that, the setup of her story was changed as well, adding a comprehensive reasoning to all that is happening.

Keep in mind, that this is NOT the content update we announced in our new roadmap! It's still coming later this month!

But these changes only the tip of the iceberg!

We are finally introducing a new setting, that would allow you to change any character's name to whatever you want! To compliment this, we have also added a new "Contacts" menu, where you could find a complete list of all interactable characters, and an easy way to access the gallery of their scenes. The latter was a necessary addition, given that the amount of unique scenes is now in triple digits, so we wanted to give you an easy way to find the exact replay you want, without having to scroll through dozens of pages. And on top of that, we have also updated our textbox, which now includes unique colors for all of the mentioned names, drastically improving rideability! We will expand upon all of those things below.

This is a massive Quality of Life update, where we tried to touch upon as many thing as we could, and bring your experience to the next level!

 

THE NAME CHANGING

 
Yes, the Name Changing setting is finally here! It might be a bit clunky still, but it's functional, and probably more functional than we thought it would be. That said, we don't EXPECT bugs to occur, we KNOW for a FACT that something is broken, but with limited amount of testing that we can do internally it's impossible to find all of them. Please, go into this with an open mind and be sure to share all of the bugs, typos and inconsistencies that you find!

We had to completely rework the way Name System operates, which is why it took so damn long to implement. On the flip side, now we have a very flexible and customizable system, that we can easily modify in the future!

To change character's name, you need to:
1. Open your "Contacts", which is the first option in the Phone Menu.
2. Pick the desired character.
3. Click on the "Edit" button, which is located on the left.
4. You will be given a prompt to write a desired First Name, then a separate prompt for the Last Name if applicable.

That's it! From now on, the game will display updated name in all instances, including the dialogue. It does not (yet) apply to the names you see on pictures, though it happens rarely, but we are planning to fix that as well.

 

UPDATED USER INTERFACE

 
This is only the first step towards completely overhauling the current User Interface, but this is a necessary one. We added a new "Contacts" menu into player's phone, where you would be able to find a complete list of all interactable characters. "Contacts" menu allows you change character's name, access the gallery of their scenes and pictures, and see the next step of their questline.

Since we have already talked about the name changing setting, let's get straight to gallery shortcut: As we already said, the amount of replays in the gallery is getting out of hand, so having to scroll through dozens of pages simply to find a specific scene that you'd like to replay is annoying. This is why we added a shortcut into the "Contacts" menu, which will allow you to access the gallery of replays ONLY for the character that you picked. Simply get into the "Contacts" list, pick a character, and the click on the button at the center of the screen, the one with an image icon. It will bring a sorted list of all their replays!

And, like we mentioned, you will also be able to see the next step in the questline for a specific character that you are trying to romance. That should help you to progress through their routes much easier!

 

NEW TEXTBOX

 
Yes, this change is so big, it deserves it's own category! Our original textbox was decent, but it lacked many important features, especially for those who play using Android devices.

Updated textbox introduces buttons to access Save/Load menu, to fast-forward an interaction you already played through, and to go back to the previous line in the current dialogue. As a bonus, we added a separate small button underneath the textbox to hide it during the interaction in case you want to enjoy the scenery uninterrupted.

We also added unique colors to names of all major characters to help you more easily distinguish who is currently speaking. At least based by our internal testing, it does wonders to overall comfort during long dialogues!

Considering the amount of additions, many of which are concerning the existing systems, it will undoubtedly cause problems. This is why we wanted to limit the amount of players during the first few weeks, so we won't get overwhelmed by the amount of reports. We still only have a single developer and two people, who collect your feedback, so having a limited amount of players should allow us to process everything more comfortably. We hope you understand, and we promise to bring many more QoL additions in the upcoming months!

 

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If you enjoy what we do and would like to take part in shaping our game's future, be sure to join high ranks and get access to this and every upcoming closed testing, as well as many other rewards!

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Comments

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yay they took my advice :3

sorry, i didn't really understand, all the versions will be free in some moment and the ranks only gives you an early acces, or you need the rank to download new updates always?

All updates eventually release for free (after a 4 week Patreon exclusive period). You only need Patreon subscription if you want to play before everyone else or want to learn all the secret plans we have for the game months in advance. Oh, and Academy34 Discord server access as well!

Hmm am i the only one who can't see this "contact" option on the phone? unless this is a patreon only feature

Yes, it's because we know there will be a lot of bugs and in it's current state we're not ready to release it to the public just yet, it will go through the same release pattern as every other update, and that will give us time to listen to feedback and actually have time to implement or fix stuff.

Ooooh i understand. Alright i wish you the best of luck then

no way ?? so soon after my comment lol? thats fate

Cool feature!