Hello there cleasunnies! Hope you have been doing well. A patch just went up for the Steam edition of Clea. Please note the same updates will be up first on Itch.io (should be in a matter of days), followed by consoles (could be in several weeks due to the approval processes involved). First, here are the smaller items: a) In chapter 2, there was a cake that was placed quite close to a painting, so players could select the unwanted item. I have moved the cake away more. b) In a secret chapter, there was a dialogue box that underlapped a side wall. This has been fixed. c) On the Switch version, if you bind B to another command, the cancel command will become unbound. This will be fixed when the patch goes up for consoles. Now, for some of the bigger things: 1) When players die, they can now skip the monster roar sound effect by pressing any button. Clea is a challenging game. No shame in growing through setbacks. Now the process will be that much smoother. 2) When you start a new game for the first time, a pop up will now appear and ask if you wish to activate infinite saves. I had designed Clea with limited saves in mind. In Resident Evil 1, for example, I had to run a route multiple times until I perfected it, then I would execute that run, and when I used that ink ribbon at the end, boy did it feel gratifying. But I will admit, once the modern options came, I took advantage. In Resident Evil 3, I nearly saved after every zombie kill! However players wish to play, I take pride in supporting it. The pop up does ask players to please consider playing without infinite saves, perhaps on a subsequent run, but it is ultimately your freedom.
3) Last, and the biggest one, is the new 1 Ups feature. This can be activated via the difficulty selection screen. Before we get too excited, this is a feature for those who find the game difficult. If you have already dominated the campaign, there is nothing to see here. Chaos+ (with invisibility set on even) is where the monster tier players belong.
With 1 Ups on, players will find green orbs scattered throughout the campaign. Each one will save players from death a single time. It has recently come to my attention that Clea is quite a challenging title. In fact, I have updated the Steam page's description to emphasize this. While Clea is a horror game, I would like it to primarily be a test of players' skills. To struggle, to grow from setbacks (learning patterns etc), then eventually dominating even the toughest modes. That to me is sheer joy. By the way, 1 Ups mode will not activate in Chaos, Chaos+ and Arcade Mode.
I may as well speak of this briefly here. You know about the Ancient Gods 1 DLC that recently came out for Doom Eternal? In the original game, many players/reviewers protested about the design of this monster named the Marauder. He was challenging to many, to a point where it ruined the experience for them. Some even wanted this demon removed altogether. Instead, in the DLC, the designers made us fight two at a time, and some other tricks I will not spoil. I want to ask you to imagine yourself as a game creator for a moment (perhaps you are). Consider the courage it takes to take this kind of stance. I had beaten Doom Eternal on Ultra Nightmare (max difficulty on one life), yet this DLC has been pushing me to develop new knowledge, to enhance my skills further. There is no greater joy than mastering a game you love. That said, again, I see it as a challenge to design a game just about anyone can enjoy. From the newest of the new to those gamer gods. Doom Eternal, of course, also has lower difficulty settings. As usual, if you spot any errors in this new patch, please notify me right away! I am going to jump onto that first thing. These updates have not been fully tested for Clea 2's demo yet. Once I manage that, I will push the same patch up. Thank you so much cleahappy!