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 ]