Or in my case, "writing a wrong," I suppose. I just wanted to make a small announcement about the upcoming v1.01 patch for Chapter 9. Some of the feedback we've received has indicated that named saves were causing compatibility issues on Steam Deck and that the animated main menu was stressing some lower-end hardware. As such, I've created new options in the preferences menu that can disable both features with a click. Here is the changelog:

• Adds about 70 new images and a new scene, and two additional choices (Details below)
• Two additional relationship states (not endings) have been added to the summary
• Enable/Disable Named Saves in Preferences Menu (To prevent Steam Deck issues)
• Enable/Disable Animated Main Menu in Preferences Menu (For slower systems)
• Corrects some spelling and grammar issues
• Fixed condition that allowed players to be intimate with Jaye after having burned her relationship
• Expands on a fun scene in Chapter 6 where Jaye jokes about getting stuck in the clothes dryer.
• Makes end-of-chapter saves consistent and eliminates all intrusive "save now" messages
• Branding visible on certain products in Chapter 6 has been removed (unnoticed trademark)

Now onto the main reason for this patch: Huge spoilers ahead, so read beyond this line at your own risk. There is simply too much to reasonably block out with spoiler text. For those of you who felt burned by the outcome of the casual path for the two main LI's, we know we dropped the ball. While we feel the girls' dissatisfaction with the casual arrangement was adequately telegraphed, we also never provided an offramp for the player to right the ship. That both violates the spirit of our "no gotcha" statement at the beginning of the game, and it's objectively obvious that the result was unduly punitive. I (Stoya) take ownership for that as the writer, and legitimately felt gut-punched the moment I realized that no escape hatch had been provided. I can only offer my word that it wasn't intentional or malicious, and began planning a fix for this the moment I realized the enormity of the miss. As such, we are adding a scene to Chapter 9 near the beginning after the Lexi concert. This scene will provide two choices where the player can exercise agency before the girls start making decisions on his behalf. To be clear, it will NOT add endings that were never planned for, nor does it violate the integrity of the story as planned. I also want to point out that this scene does not exist in a bubble just to change a variable. The fact that this scene occurred will be reflected in other conversations throughout the chapter. If the player was on a committed path, the scene will offer no stat changes and they have no need to replay. There will just be be some banter and a little more visible bonding between primary characters. TL;DR This only impacts saves that were on the casual path with Mallory and Jaye.

This is not (repeat) this is not the end!

I also want to emphasize that each ending will be fully fleshed out in the last content update, and (hopefully) any loose ends will be tied up with it. A surprisingly large number of fans have assumed that we'd ended romantic paths in Walter's bar, and so I wanted to state emphatically that this is not the case. We've had each ending visualized for a few years now, and can't wait to share them with you. As of this moment, the updated script (for the patch) is complete, and approximately half the art is rendered and expected to complete overnight. We will begin working on the last content update as soon as the patch is in the wild. Thank you for your bearing with us. Best, Stone Fox Studios