Syntherapy Update 1.1.9 is currently live for PC and Linux users, and a version for Macs should be going live in the next few days. The main new feature of this update is French localization for in-game text and dialogue. With the new system created to handle this update, new languages should be far easier to implement going forward. Be sure to let us know if there are particular languages you'd like us to add! Other fixes include:

• Updating fonts to allow for additional characters.
• A bug where the game would lock up if the Enter key was pressed multiple times during loading screens has been fixed.
• A bug that caused voice lines to occasionally echo has been fixed.
• A bug where selecting the Ending Challenge mode but then going back to the main menu broke the selection slots has been fixed.
• Text formatting issues throughout the game have been fixed.

We're still working on our next big update for the game, which we intend to unveil on the three year anniversary of Syntherapy's release!

[ 2023-08-13 04:52:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update 1.1.86 has been released to all platforms! The previous version featured a bug during the 'mantra' sequence in session 2. That has now been fixed. More importantly, 1.1.86 is now available for all versions, including Macs! Going forward, all updates will ship out to all platforms at the same time now that we have a consistent method to compile builds on Apple systems. With that issue resolved, we're aiming to begin development on some more ambitious updates to Syntherapy that will add more content to the game. We'll have more information on the content of that update available in the coming weeks!

[ 2023-03-02 19:56:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

For quite some time, a bug has existed in Syntherapy wherein during a chapter midway through the game, a segment that faded to black would not progress properly to the next section. This bug proved difficult to fix as it did not show up during any playtests on our end. Since it did not result in a crash, no error logs could be used either. The source of this problem, as has been mentioned in previous posts, was due to changes brought about by updating Gamemaker's software. Identifying the exact issue proved difficult. In the end, a complete overhaul of the game code was required in order to completely restructure how transitions were handled. This took some time not just to implement, but also to test, and until recently finding time required to do this was difficult. This situation has now improved considerably, and now updates should come more quickly. Unfortunately this update is currently only available for PC and Linux. The hardware we used for the Mac version is no longer capable of compiling builds. We are working to find a solution for this and hope to have a Mac version of 1.1.85 out soon. We have also addressed an issue where there is no chapter 1 save point, and the first save point comes after the end of your first meeting with Tara. We have added a save point to the first time you access the email hub, which would allow players to skip past the intro and email hub tutorial. Various issues related to text resizing and other problems have also been fixed. We apologize for how long this update took to materialize, but we wanted to make sure that it worked properly before putting it out. If there are problems, please leave comments in our Steam forum to let us know so that we can fix them!

[ 2023-01-17 20:10:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

This patch fixes the bug that prevents autoplay progress after the night time phonecall scene for Windows users. A similar patch for Mac users will be released tomorrow!

[ 2021-07-04 02:43:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! As Mental Health Awareness Month starts, we'd like to take some time and lay out our plans for Syntherapy going forward. One big update, which will be available to everyone at the time of this posting, is that we have completely revamped our UI! The main computer hub where you manage your sessions has been completely retooled to look a lot cleaner and open. We may update other elements of the game UI as well, but for the moment we're very happy with how the game looks now compared to how it looked before! Our next update will include a new game mode that we've been working on for a while. The game mode is called Therapy Training Mode, and it asks the player to read through a series of notes left after a session with a hypothetical patient. Using your knowledge of mental health and therapy, you will have to deduce what you believe the patient's primary problems are and then make a suggestion for a possible diagnosis. We are planning to unveil this new game mode on May 15th as a part of Mental Health Awareness month, and hope that the inclusion of this mode will help teach people about identifying some of the signs and symptoms of poor mental health so that they can seek treatment as early as possible. Another update that we are working on is one that allows more community interaction with Syntherapy. We are currently looking into Twitch integration for the game. This Twitch-Integrated Mode would allow a streamer's audience to vote on dialogue choices or other key descisions in the game. This mode has no set release date currently, but we are working towards having it be ready during the month of June. Thank you all for reading this post, and we hope you enjoy the new updates that we're currently working on!

[ 2021-05-04 01:38:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy 2021 everyone! We hope you all had a safe and enjoyable holidays. In the three months since Syntherapy launched, we've been busy implementing features that our players wanted to see. From large updates such as our flowchart and additional game modes, to UI improvements such as the objective tabs and dialogue popups, we've been taking the feedback we've been getting from you and applying it to Syntherapy. With the new year here and all of our previous roadmap goals accomplished, it's time to take stock of our current situation and respond to the new bits of player feedback we've received in recent weeks.

Reflections on the Previous Roadmap

We are now in a far more comfortable place than we were several months ago. While bugs are still an issue, they are new bugs introduced by the updates rather than the same bugs that were present at launch. Many of these bugs have been exclusive to the Mac versions of the game and were caused by updates Gamemaker introduced that made our previously-functional code no longer work properly. Going forward we will be staggering our update schedule to occur every other week instead of weekly. This will give us more time to test our updates before going live with them. It will also allow us to have more substantive updates which will broaden the scope of the game.

Flowchart Updates

One of the main focuses of our 2020 roadmap was incorporating a flowchart that mapped out the decisions you make in Syntherapy. Implementing the flowchart was a big undertaking given the scale of choices available in Syntherapy, and we believe our work isn't quite finished yet. We plan on introducing more graphical indicators on the flowchart to help players keep track of what therapies they had selected at different points in the game and what points can be gained through different dialogue choices. We also plan on including a section of the flowchart that will lay out the exact requirements for achieving each of the 37 different endings in Syntherapy (NOTE: to unlock this section you must achieve at least one of the endings first). Our current goal is to have these updates to the flowchart ready on January 30th.

Ending Challenge Mode

In our previous year's roadmap, we discussed adding additional game modes to Syntherapy. One of those, the Therapist Mode, is now playable for everyone who has achieved at least one of Syntherapy's endings. We are now also planning on adding the second game mode we discussed: the Ending Challenge mode. In this game mode, you will be assigned one of the 37 endings at the start of the game, and your goal will be to achieve that ending. We plan on introducing this new game mode on February 13th.

Psychology/Therapy Quiz

When Syntherapy was in development and we discussed the game with people, many assumed that the game's purpose was as an educational tool to help teach about psychology and therapy. We had developed Syntherapy with the idea of telling a character-focused story rather than necessarily being an educational tool, but the idea of a game that teaches players about therapy and psychology is something we think is very important. We plan on creating an additional mode to Syntherapy that will quiz you on your knowledge of various psychology and therapy concepts. This mode will be accessible from both the main menu and the in-game computer hub. We plan on introducing this new mode on March 6th.

Miscellaneous Updates

One of our updates in the previous roadmap involved making the minigames playable from the main menu. Building on that feature, we will be making the in-game music player also available from the main menu for those who just want to listen to the in-game music. One recurring issue at launch were problems with the UI and direction. We've taken great strides to address these problems since launch, and will continue to add updates to the UI and direction wherever possible.

SCHEDULE AND RECAP

JANUARY 30TH: Flowchart updates FEBRUARY 13TH: Ending Challenge Mode MARCH 6TH: Psychology/Therapy Quiz

If you have any other suggestions for features or game modes you would like to see in Syntherapy, let us know in the comments! We look forward to the coming year of updates and we thank all of you for being a part of our journey!

[ 2021-01-18 17:30:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Earlier this week we put out an update, version 1.1.1. The update focused on fixing some bugs that had been caused by our previous update.

• A bug preventing additional therapies from being chosen in the report menu has been fixed.
• A bug in the Mac version that crashed the game after choosing additional therapies has been fixed.

Yesterday we added onto this with update version 1.1.2. In this new update we added more dialogue paths to the flowchart.

[ 2021-01-09 17:01:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

The biggest update in Version 1.1.0 is a new game mode, Therapist Mode. In this mode, you are randomly assigned a treatment outcome. Using hints provided in the game, you need to find out what that treatment outcome is, and then work to achieve it in order to get a good ending! This game mode is only available to people who have beaten the game. As a part of this update, we've added some other features to the game.

• Your journal now keeps track of what additional therapies you used in previous sessions.
• The Report app in the computer hub now has an additional window that tells you what character relationships and therapies will help you achieve a good ending with different treatment outcomes.
• More options have been added to the flowchart.

This will likely be our last update for the year. Thanks to everyone who has been playing through Syntherapy so far, and we look forward to seeing you all in 2021 with more content updates!

[ 2020-12-22 21:05:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

The following updates are in Syntherapy Update 1.0.09:

• When choices are made, a popup will indicate how many points you earned and with which character.
• A bug causing the butterflies to not appear at the start of the room has been fixed
• A bug causing the textbox trust levels to differ from the journal trust levels has been fixed
• A crush issue in the flowchart has been fixed

[ 2020-12-05 01:44:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Late Saturday, we pushed update 1.0.08. New features and updates include:

• Added Concept Art Scavenger Hunt feature which allows you to unlock concept art after finding objects in the background.
• More flowchart decisions added
• Save file bug fixed

In the coming week we'll be working to better improve these features!

[ 2020-11-30 18:01:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

The nomination phase of the Steam Game Awards is underway! If the story of Syntherapy resonated with you, please take a moment to vote for us!

[ 2020-11-25 18:00:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

In yesterday's update to Syntherapy version 1.0.07, the following changes have been added:

• The flowchart can now be accessed from the main menu and access all save files.
• The main menu now has full keyboard controls
• The hub menu now has full keyboard controls
• A new option that randomizes character loyalty stats has been added to the chapter select menu

[ 2020-11-21 17:52:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Yesterday we put out update 1.0.06 for PC, Mac and Linux! The main feature of this update is:

• A flowchart reader that lets you see what choices you made and what additional choices can be made

There are some additional features we plan to add to this flowchart reader which will be available this coming Tuesday on November 17th. These updates are:

• The option to open the flowchart reader from the main menu in order to look at any individual save file's flowchart
• Add more information on what points you earn through each choice

In the future we will also be adding a feature to the flowchart that can help players learn what stats they need in order to achieve all of the different endings. Our plan is to have this feature unlock for players once they have achieved at least one ending.

[ 2020-11-14 16:23:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

In today's update to Syntherapy, version 1.0.05, we've added a quality of life update to the in-game dialogue box. Now when you play through Syntherapy, there are several tabs attached to the dialogue box. Clicking them will allow the player to see several different bits of information, including:

• Current objectives
• Character loyalty stats
• A list of hidden objects the player has found

In addition to this new feature, we have also fixed some minor bugs, including:

• Lines of dialogue that weren't playing after fade-to-black transitions now work
• Issues with the dialogue spreadsheet were fixed

A lot of this week was spent laying the code base for Syntherapy's flowcharts, which will be coming out in next week's update! All choice progress should be saved from now on and will be visible in next week's update. Thank you for continuing to play Syntherapy and we look forward to showing off our biggest update yet next week with the flowcharts!

[ 2020-11-06 21:13:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Syntherapy Version 1.0.04 is here and brings two new features to the game! Syntherapy now has an option to let you play minigames from the main menu. We also have changed it so that starting a new game on a fresh save slot now gives you the option of starting the game at any chapter you've previously unlocked! Overall, here are the changes for Syntherapy Version 1.0.04:

• Minigames are playable from the main menu
• You can now play a game from any previously encountered chapter through the chapter select menu
• Errors in the spreadsheet causing dialogue loops have been fixed
• Bugs effecting Syntherapy's endings have been fixed
• Problems with the Neurofeedback minigame arrow buttons not appearing have been fixed

Next week's update, Version 1.0.05, will include objective tabs on your textbox to help you keep track of what's going on in the game during dialogue sections! We hope you enjoy the new update to Syntherapy and we'll see you next week!

[ 2020-10-30 19:59:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Last week, we released Syntherapy out into the world for all of you to play! We've been very happy to see how receptive the community has been so far. Releasing any game is a daunting task, but putting out a game that dealt with such a difficult topic as mental health that drew from our personal experiences was especially scary. We're relieved to see that the game has been well received by those who have played it regarding our exploration of this topic! Like all games, there was a lot we wanted to do with Syntherapy that had to be cut in order to make sure we launched in as best a state as possible. Two of those features were a skip dialogue button and an ability to read through the flowchart of Syntherapy's dialogue choices. After reading through the reviews and discussions of Syntherapy after our launch, it is clear these two features are very important to our community. As of yesterday's update, 1.0.03, the skip dialogue button has been put back into the game! We have designed it so that it skips to the next choice or next line of dialogue that triggers a stat check. This way players will be able to freely skip over dialogue without worrying about potentially missing out on new dialogue that might result from their different choices!

Flowchart

This leaves the flowchart as the next scrapped feature that our community would like to see included in the game. This is a feature that we wanted to include in the game, but knew we would not have the time to get into the game in time for launch. The main problem was finding a way to make the flowchart easily legible, since the sheer volume of choices makes a normal flowchart hard to navigate. For reference, here's a picture of a flowchart of the first session in Syntherapy that we made in Twine during Syntherapy's preproduction:
And that's only the first session. Many other parts of the game are FAR more complicated, so we needed to make sure whatever flowchart method we used was more easily readable. We have an idea for a flowchart that would show major choices, and then give players the option to click on those major choices to open a side-window to see the other decisions made afterward. There would be two versions of these flowcharts. The first would be available from the computer hub and show all of the choices made in that current playthrough. The second would be available from the main menu and would show all of the choices made in all of the current save files. It will take a while to implement and test this system, but we're confident we will have it available to all of you by November 13th. We will be keeping you all updated on the flowchart's progress as it comes into shape!

Chapter Select

While the flowchart is our current main priority since it has been a feature the community has been asking for, there are other features we would like to implement that we think the community will appreciate. One of these features will be a chapter select option for new playthroughs. From the main menu, clicking on a blank save slot would give you the option to start a game from the beginning, or start the game from a chapter you have played in a previous playthrough. The main difficulty in setting up this feature is that every choice in a playthrough earns the player points that play a role in what therapies the player can get access to and what endings the player will receive. Starting a game midway through would have the player missing out on so many points that a bad ending would be guaranteed, while giving the player full points would remove any difficulty or incentive to play from the beginning. We plan to avoid this by giving the player a small amount of points, so that a playthrough from chapter select is viable and sufficiently challenging. In the future we might build on this feature by giving players more customization options with how chapter select-based playthroughs work. Possible options include randomizing what stats players start with and allowing players to pick what points they start with. Because the chapter select feature requires some similar coding to the flowchart while requiring fewer new graphical elements, the base chapter select will be available next week on Oct 30th, with the updated options coming out November 20th.

Concept Art Scavenger Hunt

Syntherapy had lots of redesigns since development first started as a Twine game back in 2017, and the look of Syntherapy has changed a lot over the years as a result! There's a lot of pieces of concept art we have that we think would be fun to show off to all of you, and we know a lot of players had fun finding the hidden butterflies, so we'll build on the idea of finding hidden objects with a scavenger hunt that allows players to unlock pieces of concept art! These pieces of concept art will be viewable both from the main menu and the images folder in the computer hub. Because this feature isn't as crucial to the game as the chapter select and flowchart, this feature will be out a bit later. Our current plan is to have this feature available on November 27th.

Objective Tabs

During beta testing, a common issue our players informed us about was poor direction. To remedy this, we added the Stanley icon in the email hub to inform players about the current objective. We think it would probably help if we brought a similar feature to the sessions. We'll be adding a tab attached to the textbox that will remind the player about their current objectives, loyalties with different characters, and other information including what hidden butterflies have been found and other information relevant to the player. We'll be updating this feature as other features are completed, but we plan on having the the main objective tab available to players on November 6th.

Minigames

There are three minigames in Syntherapy: Bubble Pop, a Spot-the-Difference game, and a Neurotherapy minigame. These minigames can be used to gain more points during playthroughs. For players who might just want to play these minigames or practice them, we'll be adding an option to the main menu that will allow players to just play the minigames outside of the main game. Because of how simple this feature is to implement, we plan to make it available on October 30th.

Alternative Game Modes

As of now we currently have plans for two alternative game modes that will both encourage different play styles, and also encourage players to see game content that they might not think about seeing otherwise! The first alternative game mode would be an Challenge Mode to try and land at a specific ending in Syntherapy. Chapter select would be disabled for this mode, and knowledge of the flow chart will be essential to ensure landing at the correct ending! The second game mode would be a Therapist Mode. Unlike the main game, where there are five outcomes you can advise for the patient that can all lead to a good ending (mind wipe, returning to Tara's care, continuing therapy with Dr. Park, continuing therapy with another therapist, or letting Willow live independently), in this game mode only one of these options will result in a good ending. Your job will be to use clues from your therapy sessions and discussions with Heather in order to find out which one of these options is the correct one, and then try to achieve one of the good endings that results in that option! While we plan on implementing both of these game modes, we will most likely only be able to have one of these ready before the end of the year. We'd love to hear back from all of you about which game mode you would like us to prioritize for 2020! Our goal would be to have this new game mode released sometime in December 2020.

Quality of Life Improvements

Syntherapy currently has limited keyboard controls in the main computer hub, which we plan to remedy in the coming weeks. Our goal is to have full keyboard controls by November 20th. We also plan to continue fixing any other bugs that come up!

SCHEDULE AND RECAP

That was a lot to go over, so to recap, here's our content schedule for the remainder of 2020:

OCTOBER 30TH: Minigames playable from main menu Base chapter select options NOVEMBER 6TH: Objective tabs NOVEMBER 13TH: Flowchart viewer NOVEMBER 20TH: Full Keyboard Controls Updated chapter select options NOVEMBER 27TH: Concept Art Scavenger Hunt DECEMBER 2020: New Game Mode (ENDING CHALLENGE MODE or THERAPIST MODE)

Let us know which New Game Mode you would like us to prioritize for December 2020 and be sure to let us know if there are any other game features you would like us to include! Thank you for being a part of Syntherapy's launch and we hope you'll enjoy the rest of our journey together!

[ 2020-10-23 19:46:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Version 1.0.03 of Syntherapy is live! The new additions to this build include:

• The skip dialogue button has been reintroduced!
• Steam screenshots are now a feature of the game.
• The game now supports up to 4k resolution.

There are also several bugfixes included in this version, including:

• A bug where accessing the music player would cause crashes has been fixed.
• All bugs caused from pressing the D or Right arrow key repeatedly have been fixed
• Minor bugs in the spreadsheet causing unusual dialogue loops have been fixed
• Bugs involving some of the game's endings not progressing properly have been fixed
• Willow's Last Song for some of the endings now works as intended

[ 2020-10-22 21:55:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Version 1.0.02 is now live for Windows! This updated build contains bugfixes for:

• The music volume settings caused game crashes due to an undeclared variable. This was caused by removing an audiogroup from the game but forgetting to take the reference out of the options.
• Some of the endings weren't transitioning properly and have been fixed.
• Some lines of dialogue were missing and have been put back in

More updates will be out in the coming days!

[ 2020-10-18 12:14:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone!

After many late nights, were proud to finally share Syntherapy with all of you! From our humble beginnings as a twine demo at Magfest, through a successful IndieGoGo campaign, all the way up to our current release, we have had a lot of people supporting our development. We could not have done this without you, and were grateful for all of you! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1077470/Syntherapy/ As we finally allow players around the world to step into the shoes of Dr. Melissa Park and agonize over the complex decisions the game has to offer, know that this is only the beginning of our journey together. In the weeks and months to come, well be working to keep this game alive and fresh! This will start with a variety of quality-of-life upgrades. In testing, we had a skip button that would allow players to jump through dialogue to get to the next choice. We had to remove this feature before launch because it had a habit of causing crashes, but we will work to put this feature back in soon! We also want to add in a flowchart feature to help you keep track of the choices youve made throughout the game, both in your current playthrough and in all other playthroughs currently on your saved files! Thanks to the generosity of our IndieGoGo backers, Syntherapy was able to launch with both English and Spanish as language options! Because of how weve set up our games spreadsheet system, future localizations will not be difficult to create! If youd like Syntherapy to be translated into a specific language, please message us on Steam or Twitter so that we can get a better idea of what languages should be a priority for localization!

Once again, thank you to everyone who has been a part of our Syntherapy journey, whether youve been following us from the start or are joining us now on our launch day! We cant wait to see what lies on the road ahead!

[ 2020-10-15 20:27:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

VERSION 1.0.01 LAUNCH Our launch version of Syntherapy is version 1.0.01! Since our initial Gold version we've been working over the past two weeks on a day one patch to add more features and bugfixes! Main features of Version 1.0.01:

• Audio rebalancing for in-game music and character dialogue
• Full Spanish localization
• Additional events added to planner
• Skip button temporarily removed (will be added back as a quality of life update)
• Therapy artwork collectibles added
• Four new achievements added
• Updated Bubble Pop UI and art assets
• Background static bug fixed
• Ending cinematics updated

We hope that these updates help to make your initial experience of Syntherapy more enjoyable!

[ 2020-10-15 19:32:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Syntherapy is a visual adventure that explores the Mental Health and the ethics of sentient Artificial Intelligence. You play as Dr. Melissa Park, a psychotherapist called to Petrichor University by research student Tara Northrop. Tara has created an experimental therapy AI that is showing signs of concern. Her project Willow is so advanced that its Tara and the University needs to ensure its mental well-being. Dr. Harold Freeman, the President of the university, is worried that Willow's sentience could have wider ethical ramifications for the university and has been fighting to have it shut down. In this story, Syntherapy sensitively looks at the ethics surrounding advanced AI, and explores a variety of topics related to mental health. The game asks wider questions of its audience and the moral behavior of humans, as they design and construct artificially intelligent beings.

[ 2020-10-07 17:00:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone,

Sharing a quick update for the upcoming Steam Autumn Festival for Syntherapy, we will be LIVE at 7:00 PM EDT here on the 7th of October, one week before the game's launch date (October 15th). In the stream, we'll be answering any questions you may have on the game's development and share what the game has in store for you. The Steam festival runs from October 7th through the 13th, and during this time youll also be able to take Syntherapy for a test-run with our free demo. This will glimpse how the game will play out for yourself. So be sure to mark Wednesday, October 7th at 7:00 PM EDT (4:00 PM PDT) down on your calendar. Look forward to seeing you there! [previewyoutube=hOIG5LThDvk;full][/previewyoutube] Until then feel free to wishlist and follow us on Social Media: V Publishing Discord: https://discord.gg/z5SZnBf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Syntherapy Twitter: https://twitter.com/Syntherapygame/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Syntherapygame/

[ 2020-10-01 22:31:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Earlier this month at Magfest, we started an Indiegogo campaign in order to raise some additional funds that would be used to localize Simulacracea into other languages, including Spanish, French, and Russian. Almost a month later, we're currently at 69% funded, with only $370 left to raise! Supporting our Indiegogo campaign now will not only get you a discounted price on the game, but will also give you free artwork from our artist at some of the higher tier rewards! There are THREE DAYS left in our campaign, so be sure to support us now before our campaign ends on Saturday!

[ 2020-01-29 21:56:34 CET ] [ Original post ]