Were lacking two files for Steam release of the second episode. Those files are some edits for the first day of the investigation arc. Like Ive said before, were editing the questions you can ask the suspects and some lines of the second day of the investigation. Most likely were going to need new renders for these goals but only a few, its just dialogues after all and you can re-use some renders in this case. All the events that happen prior to the castle are already in the code. Right now, were testing the build. Its hard to say when well be done with it. To release the game in early access, we had to test the build for a month and a half. However, this build is a lot simpler. Weve got one tester left and hes doing his job while I keep rendering and working on sound design. I try to pay more attention to the latter compared to the first episode. We still havent started codding the castle part. However, like Ive said before, the renders and script for the castle part are all finished except for the investigation part. If our coder could start working on the castle part right away, it would be nice, but hes got his own project to look after and there could be a problem with intertwined deadlines. There arent that many events in the castle and most of them are simple. Well, maybe Sarahs arc is a bit more difficult because there are a few paths you can take with her. If our coder starts working on the other project, well, well have to wait for him to finish. No, its not an option to start looking for another coder. Even if we had another coder, we would still need someone to unify the games code. Freelancers are not really suitable for that position, so it wouldnt really help with the ETA. Were going to release OST separately right after the release. One thing though, itll be only the songs which we bought. The songs we use by CC 0 or CC BY 4.0 license wont be included. So yeah, not all tracks from the game will be available this way. Well keep simplifying the game on easy difficulty and balancing it for medium difficulty. First, I wanted to bend to your wishes but then I thought like hell I would. If someone wants a simple kinetic VN, theres an easy difficulty for you. Its so weird to hear things like: I picked a medium difficulty and I cant play the game. Theres an easy difficulty for you even QTE sequences will be simplified for you. If people will ask us to slow them down even more, we will do that. BUT ONLY FOR EASY DIFFICULTY! I hope I made myself clear. From now on, Ill direct everyone to this message with similar claims regarding the game. Thats how itll be now. Anyway, the business part is over. Time for a small chat. I recently got a message: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1797300/discussions/0/3408678077957403925/ A person wanted more sfx sounds like those hed heard in Treasure of Nadia. I never played that game but I think its amazing. People in the thread told him that we should focus on the story, because the story is what truly matters. And here I found a person saying he wants more gameplay. https://steamcommunity.com/app/1797300/eventcomments/3408678077953644596/#c5788831477022780347 Well, whos more right? Overall, everyones right. We all want something for ourselves and so do we . Therefore we do something we want based on our resources, skills and our own wishes. We want to see some gameplay in our game. I find it funny to read how people claim that first episode of VC had some nice gameplay and that the combat system in that episode was better. As a developer, I had a good laugh reading all that. You want to know why? Because no ones tried to implement a deep gameplay system in the first episode of VC. The combat and levelling system didnt play any part in the game and thats how we intended to make the game. There was only an illusion of some system, we were learning and testing things back then. We knew that we wouldnt be able to create something truly interesting right off the bat. Therefore, we did a sketch for the future releases, but it was an optional content, and it didnt really affect anything story wise. Someone will probably say that they liked the game the way it was. They just like watching renders, they dont need anything else. Well, I understand where youre coming from and youre even right, in a way. However, then why do you buy VC? Even the first episode of VC wasnt really a book experience. Some gameplay elements were present even there. Though, I have to say were used to hearing these things by now. When we first released VC on our Patreon after ToML, we lost around 40% of our patrons. It hurt a little that our ratings were bombed but overtime I started viewing this whole thing with some humor. Truth to be told, theres actually a lot of irony in my posts but unfortunately, it doesnt translate too well. Were just talking here, you and me. Here we are, chilling on some couch while drinking beer and discussing the game. No marketing, managers or hypocrisy. Yes, having a big mouth can easily lead to getting punched in the face, but thats life. Is it that bad?) The second episode of the game is experimental, and we will keep experimenting. After all, we need to learn how to do new things and is there any other way to do that than by experimenting? I dont know, maybe you can tell me?) Well, time to wrap up this little chat. Im eagerly waiting for your comments. Overall, I rarely feel offended by them. I always try to be as straight-forward and explicit in my answers as possible. Some of you like it, some of you not so much. However, thats how I like to do these things. Thats it for now. Just hang in there a little longer, the release will happen very soon, I hope.