Influent: Definitive Edition

There's a brand new update in town and its broadly defined name is redefining the definition of definitive! That's right friends, not only is this new version of Influent so complete in its own definitiveness that it includes every single language pack released for Influent up to this point, it also includes three entirely new language packs plus a very much improved German language pack not to mention a very much corrupted Korean language pack! There's a lot to un-pack here so read on for the details! (Ha! Get it? Yeah you got it.)

Disruptive Distribution

Influent has always been a bit confusing for players to purchase and for storefronts (like Steam) to present on their Store page. After hitting 20 languages, I desperately needed to simplify things instead of continually feeding the ever growing monstrosity that was the Influent Store page. I've been wanting to streamline things for quite some time but wanted to avoid messing up everyone's data in the process. But at this point I've had to wipe everyone's data with the new update anyway! You knew about that right? Sincerest apologies if you didn't know this was coming... I posted a warning months ago in the Steam forums as a head up. (Best I could do! Please don't kill me.) From this point forward, Influent's language packs are all included in one simple bundle known only as the Definitive Edition. "Why should I even care?," you might ask? Well! If you've already purchased the "premium" version of Influent, you rule and will be grandfathered in and updated to the Definitive Edition at no extra cost. (Not feeling like a grandfather yet? Influent released almost 9 years ago!) Now, for everyone with the Free Edition, don't panic! I've put the new Definitive Edition at 67% off for the duration of the Steam Autumn Sale, making it roughly the same price as a single language pack. Also, Free Edition players will still be able to enjoy the updated features available with Influent's new version in French, Italian, and Korean at no cost. We cool? Cool. (Don't flame me bro, it was free!)

What's The Catch

Something something Thanksgiving... I had some extra gravy on my mashed potatoes and started feeling extra grateful that I wouldn't be able to feed myself if it wasn't for all your support over the years and I just wanted to say thank you in some way for keeping me fed. No catch! I genuinely hope you or someone close to you will try out a new language. I am however inserting a humble request: Please tell your friends and family about Influent. While I am grateful to be able to afford food, I can't afford marketing. Ya heard? (o;0) (Yes that's an owl face. Yes I just invented it.)

Major Gameplay Updates

Flip It & Reverse It

I wasn't fully satisfied with the method of mastery that Influent was using up to this point. It felt lackluster in many ways and I realized long ago that it was partly due to having no "reversal" mode. Imagine a flash card where you see side A and have to recall side B from memory. Reversal mode is effectively seeing side B and having to recall side A. This concept was tricky to introduce but I am quite happy with the results and I think you will be too! (Protip: There's a 5th crystal in the bathroom!)

Word Mastery System

This right here is the major change and will help ensure that everyone is truly mastering each word during a play-through. There are now 5 distinct modes for playing back your lists in either Classic Search or Seek and Destroy mode. The 5 modes focus on different areas of expertise such as Listening Comprehension (Vocal), Reading Comprehension (Textual), Both (Vocal + Textual), Reverse Vocal, and Reverse Textual. Each mode represents one point of a five-point star, meaning players must earn a point in all 5 modes before mastering a word. (Protip: Stars Unlock Adjectives and Verbs!)

A New Perspective

As it turns out, there were a number of hard-to-click objects when playing from the first person view mode and many players were reporting issues with trying to select items. It took some time to solve this complex problem but it's finally time to introduce a new playable character. Say hello to the new and improved CHIP! (They're a droid, not a robot!)

Discord Integration

In case you don't already know, Discord is awesome and I've created some cool integrated features for anyone brave enough to share their progress with others on the Influent Discord! It'll post and tag you when you master new words and you can chat with CHIP and ask them for your "!stats" any time! It's still very much a work in progress but I think it's pretty neat and hopefully you will too! (Join the discord here!)

Codebase Overhaul

A long time ago, in a country far away, Influent was originally programmed in a version of JavaScript known as UnityScript. This proved to be problematic as time went on because Unity dropped support for it in favor of C#, which admittedly is the superior language. However, in doing so, Influent was trapped on an old version of Unity, seemingly forever. That is, until I converted the entire codebase to C# and updated it to an LTS version of Unity. (Please, hold your applause until the end!)

Three New Languages

With the fancy new update comes some fancy new languages including Welsh, Polish, and Dutch!

Welsh

This was a fun one to work on because I had never heard a single Welsh word in my life and having now heard a whole lot of Welsh words, I cannot stop having visions of dragons and an insatiable craving for leeks. Cheers to Morgan Roberts for helping to make this happen. This is quite possibly the most interesting language I've ever heard and I highly recommend giving it a play if you've never heard it either. (Here be dragons!)

Polish

There have been far more requests for Polish than any other language at this point, which really surprised me because it wasn't very high on my to-do list. But the people have spoken and it quickly came together thanks to the efforts of Filip Cholewczyski and Monika Bilska aka The Gaming Shark. (Grab some pierogies and dig in!)

Dutch

It's been a long road for the Dutch language pack. As some of you may recall, Dutch was announced for Influent many years ago but it never materialized. From what I've gathered, there was a mishap at the recording studio in Amsterdam where the voice actor was doing the pronunciations and most of the files were irretrievably lost. It was an unfortunate situation that was out of my control and it took me a long time to find someone willing to re-record the pronunciations. But at last, the time has come to release Dutch upon the world! (It's about Amsterdamn time!)

German: Zwei Komma Null

The German language pack was recently put under the microscope after a number of players pointed out that it was missing some crucial information, specifically the definite articles der, die, and das. Not only have the translations been completely redone, so have the audio pronunciations! These new pronunciations have been recorded by German language instructor, Michael Bochmann, who took care to include the singular and plural form of each word in every pronunciation. (Note: Will not help you communicate with German Shepherds!)

Korean:

Yes it's true, the current version of Korean is not in good health. From what I've gathered, there was a communication breakdown and a large number of updates were made to the translation database without my knowledge, thus putting those audio pronunciations out of sync. Effectively many of the pronunciations are outdated and need to be re-recorded. I could revert back but it's considerable time better spent pushing forward. Update coming soon! (I take full responsibility and do apologize for this mishap. Thank you u/TOBESTAR for reporting the issue.)

Steam Trading Cards Fixed

On the plus side, Trading Cards are working again! One of the caveats with the release of Influent's Free Edition was that it changed the way Trading Cards were obtained. I was not aware of this but apparently with Free-to-Play games, players are awarded Trading Cards by purchasing DLC. I was unhappy with this outcome and have been hoping to fix it by reverting back to a premium model. I'm very happy to report that Trading Cards should now be dropping again as expected! (STGs: NFTs before they were uncool!)

Cheers Peeps

Well that about wraps it up for this massive update! If you made it this far, thanks for reading my wall of text. You rock! Please let me know in the Steam forums if you find any issues while playing. <3 Rob @ Three Flip Studios