Reimplementation of an Endgame Event

The main new change in this update is a safer and more reliable implementation of (spoilers for the end of the game): [spoiler]the game's final delete functionality. Previously, in order to delete the game, the game would first check if the game's parent directory was named what the game expected, and if so, delete the entire directory. In the new implementation, the game instead references a hard coded list of all files of the base game and deletes each file individually. This ensures that only game files will be deleted and not other files such as mods or other data that are placed inside the directory. Issues regarding some files not deleting sometimes in Windows and a crash that often occurred on the final screen have also been fixed. [/spoiler]

Official Linux Support

Despite a native Linux version of the game being available since launch, the Creator did not have any experience with this platform five years ago when the game was released so had not implemented the final endgame functionality there. Five years later, this lack of experience is no longer the case, so starting with this update, this endgame functionality has been implemented and tested on all major desktop platforms, meaning Linux is now officially fully supported.

RenPy Engine Update

The other significant change is an update of the RenPy engine from version 7.2.2 (released March 2019) to 7.8.4 (released December 2024). The motivations behind this update are to get Linux running without any graphical glitches and to better support newer systems. This newer engine has a new openGL renderer implementation, better gamepad support, and less platform related bugs. This comes with a small caveat: some older systems will now be deprecated: WindowsXP, and macOS versions 10.6 - 10.9. So that the game does not become unavailable to older systems post-release, the previous version of the game using the older engine will continue to be available on itch.io. The Creator has done their best to make sure the game has not changed in any perceivable way as a result of this engine update, including making tweaks to the configuration of the new renderer to match the look and feel of the older renderer. Special thanks to RenPy's primary developer renpytom for their work in RenPy which makes this update process as easy and painless as possible. If you find anything that we missed please let us know.

Other Changes

The following changes have also been made:

• RenPy's default Help menu which explains some keybindings was previously intentionally hidden and has been added back to the main menu. This choice by the Creator has been determined to have been pretty lame and has thus been reversed.
• Additionally, RenPy's hidden Graphics and Accessibility menus have been added as new options in the Preferences menu. These menus have a few engine-specific controls such as framerate control, self voicing, render backend choice, high contrast mode, and more.
• Powersaving, a framerate limiting feature, is now disabled by default. There were too many issues with this feature and recording/streaming the game. It can be reenabled in the "Graphics and Gamepad" menu.
• The prior update (version 1.0.3.0, released June 2021) introduced a single line of dialogue regarding winning an achievement that was only in the Steam version. This line now appears in all versions of the game in all storefronts regardless if achievements are relevant.
• Many words were removed from the outsourced "bad words" list that were not actually bad words. A few examples: "gay" "lesbian", "lmao".
• In the interest of delivering on the promise of not being a subversive horror game with jump scares, the music tracks "Too Intense Beat" and "Too Intense Beat 2" have had their volume lowered slightly.
• The credits are no longer skippable (apologies to the confused streamer who skipped the entire credits by accident, hopefully not too many other people did that!)
• The vocal sound blip files have been reencoded to fix a sound glitch that manifested in newer versions of RenPy.

Now that the game is officially supported on Linux, we've asked Valve to verify the game as "Playable" for Steam Deck instead of "Unsupported". Valve did a manual review of the game in 2023 but somewhat erroneously categorized the game as Unsupported due to RenPy's self-voicing accessibility feature not working on Steam Deck. In a future update if resources and time allow we will update the game to be fully supported. This would involve some tweaks to the game's UI for the smaller screen among other console specific tweaks.

Content Locked

Regarding future updates and patches: All of MetaWare High School (Demo)'s current game content is now considered "Content Locked". The game still contains several minor logic bugs, story inconsistencies, and software performance issues, however the Creator feels that modifying the game experience this far after release would go against the game's themes and identity as an unfinished demo. Therefore except in rare circumstances, all game content, dialogue, animations, logic, software performance issues, and any other details that contribute to the game's core experience will be considered off-limits for changing in future updates, even if doing so were to improve the game by some metric. Updates will instead focus on keeping the game supported for future players on newer hardware and preserving the original experience as closely as is possible and practical with all of its quirks and flaws. Until next time, The Creator P.S. New bluesky account. Made it today. Will likely stop posting on the decomposing bird eventually. P.P.S. New steam developer page. Follow here to be notified when something is new on steam. --- Was planning on releasing this update on the five year anniversary coming up this April, but decided to push this update earlier when I discovered the game's ending functionality was not working at all, at least in my testing. Sorry for leaving it that way for so long. Having it work properly and safely is more important I think than preserving the busted functionality. I've improved a lot as a programmer since then! I'll share more of a life update and what I've been up to these past five years around the game's anniversary. - Ahmayk/Marc

[ 2025-01-31 17:19:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

MetaWare High School (Demo) has been given a minor longevity update. The following changes have been made:

• Minor corrections of unintentional typos, animations, and game logic.
• A tweak regarding how voice blips were loaded into memory that should greatly improve performance.
• Fixed a rare crash that could occur if no player name was set.
• Clarification of a joke regarding eyes in the mochi store route.
• A subtle acknowledgment of the Steam Achievement in-game by Nari in the "Rude Route" (Steam version only).

- The Creator

[ 2021-06-10 02:52:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Aspen here. The Creator just informed me that the Steam Store has started an award nomination process that you can participate in! So I implore you: please nominate MetaWare High School (Demo) for "Best Demo!" I imagine this will be no contest. I mean, of COURSE there can't be a better demo than us that was released this year, right? Out game isn't perfect, but I think it's pretty darn good if I say so myself! Perhaps this whole setup might be unfair to the other demos...I kind of feel bad for them!
All the best! Aspen -----EDIT----- Aspen made a mistake. There is no "Best Demo" category. -The Creator

[ 2020-11-26 07:00:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ok guys Isadora here and OH MY GOD THERES SOME SPECIAL FEATURES THING I didnt really look at what it is yet but the Creator told me to tell you guys that it exists. So like it has some music and an early version of the game an Artbook and OH MY GOD THERE ARE PICTURES OF ME IN IT I LOOK DISGUSTING no no no no no ok DONT BUY THIS I LOOK GROSS Its on page 26 wait I DIDNT MEAN TO TELL YOU THAT SKIP PAGE 26 OK?!?!?!?!! But the rest of it is kind of cool I guess. Theres a lot of Hope in it for some reason and like screenshots of discord and WHAT WHY ARE ASPENS LEGS SO BIG HAHAHAHAHAAHA they are going to HATE this ok oh theres a playable prototype? OH MY GOD WAIT THAT MEANS THIS IS A DEMO OF A DEMO THATS SO COOL do they do demo stuff for the demo????? I mean they would have to right? But maybe they dont know theyre a demo of a demo. Do they think theyre the full game? THAT WOULD BE SO WEIRD OMG ok anyway OH YEAH RIGHT DONT BUY THIS I LOOK UGLY IN IT. ----------------------- Hello. The MetaWare High School (Demo) Special Features is now available for purchace as DLC. It is a collection of behind the scenes content for MetaWare High School (Demo), offering a glimpse into the development of the game. Includes:

• An artbook (45 pages) with extensive developer commentary, unreleased/in-progress art, and more.
• A collection of unused music.
• A playable unfinished early prototype of the game. (~10 minutes playtime)
• A warm thank you from Not Fun Games.

[ 2020-07-29 07:14:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, My other announcements have been in character. This one is not. Id like to answer some questions that some players who have finished MetaWare High School (Demo) might have. First off: Q: Is this really a Demo? A: Yes and No. It is a complete self-contained experience and also a prototype of many underdeveloped ideas. Q: Will there be more MetaWare? A: Yes. Q: When? A: I have no idea. Ive actually been undecided whether or not I should actually make a full game and continue the series. MetaWare turned out to be a story about endings. So leaving its continuation ambiguous by abandoning it as a demo and saying goodbye has been alluring. However now that the game has released and Ive had time to think Ive mulled over whatever could be next in store and Ive gathered up some ideas that are exciting enough to me to warrant a continuation of the series. So Id like to make it happen. ...Eventually. A little about me I made this game mostly on my own and released it right before finishing grad school. Whats next for me is a little uncertain at the moment. I dont even know where on the globe Im going to be living next month, much less what resources Ill have in the immediate future to start production on anything MetaWare related. So theres a lot of other stuff I need to work out until I can figure out how I would be able to make a full game happen. Good video games take a lot of time and resources and thats not something I have access to yet unfortunately. So it might be a bit before you see anything. Theres one thing I can promise you though: Im not gonna stop making games any time soon. What does the immediate future hold? Well, your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps the next project youll see from Not Fun Games might be something other than MetaWare. Or perhaps not. Well just have to both wait and see. Thank you all for the support so far. I had no idea what to expect when releasing the game. The positive response has already far exceeded what I was expecting, especially given the game has had almost zero marketing. It couldnt be more humbling. Thank you. Thats all. Until next time, Marc P.S. I lied, thats not all. There IS something new coming soon! Im going to be releasing some extra goodies that Im calling MetaWare High School (Demo) Special Features. It will include a Digital Art Book with commentary, unused music, and some other cool behind the scenes stuff. It will be sold for $9.99 or your regional equivalent. Itll come out...soon. Once I finish it. Any moment now...when you least expect it...

[ 2020-06-15 00:34:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello! This is Aspen, coming to you with a progress report! The game has just been updated for, according to this document here, reads: "small performance updates". Our world has now become even more perfect for you! Especially for "more powerful systems!" Haha! Of course, only the MOST powerful systems can run our world! It also says here that there is no new content. Hmph. How disappointing. I would have loved an expansion to our world, but I suppose you cannot expect more content to be added to a demo...such is life! By the way, the Creator allowed me a brief glimpse into your reality and I discovered that there is ANOTHER Aspen who exists on twitter? How curious! Another version of me? There are even other versions of the entire gang! According to the creator, they aren't even run by the Creator themself, but by other Creators altogether! And people are even drawing pictures of me? Wow! I never thought there were so many ways I could look so dashing! Anyway, I hope you are all doing well! Enjoy our improved game! Sincerely, Aspen ----- EDIT: Aspen got one detail incorrect. Performance has been improved for "less powerful" systems. Not "more powerful" systems. The game is now at version 1.0.1.6. - The Creator

[ 2020-05-07 18:21:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, This is the Creator. Unfortunately, you have been somewhat deceived. The last update that was made to the game this morning was not made by me. A version of Hope that we recently created to live outside the game and communicate to fans directly had attempted to patch the game and did so very poorly claiming that she was speaking on my behalf. She attempted to edit the game for her own purposes and posted an update without my consent resulting in some of the game to become broken. As a result, we believe that many players may have missed key content in the game. If you played the game and haven't by chance uninstalled it or removed it from your system by some other means then it is advised that you open the game again to find the content you may have missed. Our apologies. Thank you all for your continued support. We never expected our demo to receive so much attention so quickly. Until next time, -The Creator

[ 2020-04-03 23:43:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

hey guys hope here the creator is letting me write this as long as i tell u what they fixed so like according to this list here uh they like fixed a few crashes and made us spell better and made skipping more obvious if u wanted to do that also the creator gave nari invisibility powers o wait I read that wrong now she doesnt have invisibility powers apparently she was disappearing 4 no reason? lmao wow thats just like her uh it also says here that the game is running kinda slow 4 some ppl and skipping and doing weird music things theyre gonna try and make that better aw man i wish I could hear the music that sounds cool is it like glitchwave or smthn btw i have a twitter did u know follow me for sweet content babbbbbyyyyyy yeahhhhhhhhhh follow me at @metamochigurl uhhhh heres the link https://twitter.com/metamochigurl k bye

[ 2020-04-03 16:37:07 CET ] [ Original post ]