Hello everybody, Jacob here. And yes, this is what its all been leading up to. Half-sequel and half-update, Sirens Call: Escape Velocity aims to take everything weve learned from the past year and use it to make the best version of this story imaginable. And Im not just talking minor bug fixes and UI updates either Heres a couple things to expect upon release: *A true ending that can only be unlocked through our games new Lucidity System. Depending on player choices, Oliver will end things differently than in the original build of the game. *An unlockable epilogue chapter centered around a conflict unique to Violet and Judiths friendship (spoilers, its not related to Oliver). *24 new CGs-- a number of which will be used to flesh out and add tension to the original story. *An optional hint system create a more streamlined visual novel experience. *Updated character sprites for Miss Lawrence. *Translations into Spanish, German and Russian with more languages being added after the games release! *The complete original story of Sirens Call that remains (mostly) untouched in terms of its narrative. *And much more! While improved UI and bug fixes are a big goal of ours, the truth is that theres a lot of story content we had to cut to meet our release date last year (and even more art assets and gameplay features that were left out due to lack of budget or time constraints). Since the release, Ive been working tirelessly on polishing up the game to better meet my initial vision. The feedback everybody has provided in both the Steam Reviews and Sirens Call discord has been illuminating and paramount in shaping the direction of this game. As such, I think its only fair to talk about some of these changes and why theyre being made. If you want to know more about why were doing things the way were going to, please read on! 1. The Lucidity System. Along with a new UI comes a new gameplay mechanic: The Lucidity System. Essentially, the more Oliver is made to explore Sirens Call through the players choices, the more hell get closer to the truth of what is happening, gaining lucidity in the process. This lucidity can be used not only to unlock hints during particularly difficult social interactions, but also as a means to unlock the games new, true ending. Essentially, Lucidity functions as a sort of cognitive currency. While reception of Sirens Call has been very positive at the time of writing this update, one of the complaints we did receive was that player choices on the whole felt like they lacked weight. There is intention in this, of course, and while we did try to make the different choices matter in some respect though the games unlockables, there were people that still wanted more control of Oliver. People wanted to better shape the story through him. While complete control over Oliver and his story cannot be given to the player for major plot reasons, we did still want to provide more ways for the player to feel as if they are helping him reach the truth. Whats more, we also wanted to find a way to reduce the rate at which players got stuck in some of the trickier loops. A currency system that could pay for optional hints, as well as open the way to a better ending seemed like a natural solution. Even better, it could be implemented without taking away what makes Olivers role as a protagonist interesting. For now, it seems like a win-win that wont take away from the games mystery and tone, but well see how it stacks up in playtesting. For now though, were feeling great about its inclusion. 2. Violets Epilogue: Prove You Arent Dead After waking up from a strange seizure on the beach, Violet is taken to her old high school to wade out the deadliest hurricane in the history of Sirens Call. There, her and Judith are forced to work together to uncover the truth of their situation...as well as the nature of this bizarre, otherworldly storm. Both Oliver and Judith had playable sections of Sirens Call, so from the start, I really wanted to give Violets character the same attention. Her friendship with Judith is also something I wanted to explore in greater detail, as it always had the potential to be the deepest and most complex friendship out of the group. So in addition to being the completion of Violets character arc (as well as the games overall story), it serves as a nice bit of extra story content for those wanting to see everything Sirens Call: Escape Velocity has to offer. 3. 24 New Cgs and updated versions of Miss Lawrences sprites Raies, one of the artists weve been working with over the years, has agreed to create a batch of new CGs for scenes that desperately needed them. Not only that, but Miss Lawrences sprite will also be polished afterwards to better fit her new look in these CGs. Raies has done great work for us in the past (the art as been cited as one of the games strongest features), so we really just want to double down on the already great art hes done and enhance the opening sections of the game in particular. 4. Pricing for Sirens Call: Escape Velocity While Sirens Call itself is always going to be free, the reality is that this game (at least at the time of writing) has been made entirely out of pocket. As such, while the base version of Sirens Call will stay free (and we have no plans of removing it from the store), Escape Velocity is going to need to cost something in order for my friends and I to continue making games. Weve kind of hit a brick wall in development where in order to bring this VN up to the standards of the industry, were going to need funds of some kind. Theres also the Steam Algorithm to take into consideration. Simply put, if a game doesnt make Steam money, theyre just not going to show it to people. So making Sirens Call: Escape Velocity cost something is kind of a necessary evil at this point. While the amount of people that have downloaded Sirens Call already has far exceeded our expectations, in order to get this game the kind of attention our fans believe it deserves, weve gotta play things by Steams rules for the time. That being said, were not charging more than 5 dollars for Escape Velocity. And were going to go hard with steam sales whenever we get the chance. None of this has ever been about the money, but if we can make enough to cover the costs of developing Escape Velocity, then the odds of us making future games is much higher. If we eventually get a publisher, that 5 dollar price may have to change due to contracts and such, but it will also open the door to things like professional voice acting and more translations, so itll be well worth it. For now though, were sticking with self-publishing, which means we get to set what we consider an honest price for this project. We hope this seems like a fair, consumer friendly way to handle things in the future. TLDR: Sirens Call is always going to be free, but Escape Velocity has to cost something for Steam to show it more to people and for us to keep making games. We hope you guys understand and find the new content worth the price.

Questions you might be having:

In conclusion:

• 7+ hours of Visual Novel Gameplay with dire consequences for how you choose to spend this final day of yours.

• 55 journal entries and and 60 unlockable gallery images for those who want to explore everything this town has to offer.

• An original story centered on saying goodbye to friends rather than saying hello to strangers.

• A dynamic, evocative soundtrack made by The Pocket Protectors meant to perfectly capture the feel of central Florida music.

• A cast of lovely characters that only want what's best for you.

• OS: Ubuntu 20.04
• Processor: Intel Core i5Memory: 4 MB RAM
• Memory: 4 MB RAM
• Graphics: Intergrated graphics