Hellooooooo, Steam!

WOW!

It is a pleasure to be here, finally! This month of may sure has been something. The Steam page went live, and now the DEMO is here after an unconvenient delay because the approval didn't arrive on time? Jeez Louis, we might get onto consoles without the game even being finished while pigs fly at this rate! So, yeah! If you have been following the game's development for a while before we even went live on Steam and missed out on the latest update (which happened NOT TOO LONG AGO, ACTUALLY!), allow me, Nickolai Filipanov, start keeping you updated properly starting with a changelog! (god, finally!)
Now, before we actually start, I will have to bring the bad news. This is the last major update to be available for the demo build. Yeah, I am also upset I even have to say this, but we all knew this day was coming eventually. But hey, the demo will still get updated occasionally, but when and at what times exactly? Well, only time will tell. But we are getting close!

Changes

There has been quite a lot of changes going on since the 0.2 version was released to the public! And basically...the game has become a bit more playable, I guess.

MAJOR CHANGES:

• The game framework has been re-coded from scratch and optimized to fit the entire game into a single frame, freeing up the size of the game and utilizing some of the game engine's features to ease the game's development, even if it's just a tiny little bit. This may come in handy when it will come to porting the game to other platforms, like Android, for example, or even the Nintendo Switch and Xbox sometime later in the future (DISCLAIMER: I am not promising anything NOR confirm that these versions are in the works, but they're still on my bucket list. I know you might be peeved about that, but trust me, I am still kind of even more peeved that Nintendo had declined my game submission for the Switch development license and let an albeit poorly aged FNaF rip-off and a Unity ASSET FLIP OF ALL THINGS onto their platform.)
• The Warehouse is a lot more different now, and there have been other gameplay related changes aswell.
• Detin (literally) retired from being an enemy. I'll later elaborate in the additions section of the changelog.
• Native (via USB) Dualshock 4 controls have been reworked into the "Eastern" scheme to fit the initial philosophy of the original PlayStation controller and the overall retro aesthetic of Stramedia.
• The settings menu went through a major overhaul, splitting it into three categories: general, controls and the accessibility options. [at the moment on PC only] (Take a look at the additions section of the changelog)

MINOR CHANGES:

• The main menu is no longer foggy!... I guess!
• First time setup is temporarily removed.
• The gamepad no longer vibrates while keyboard and mouse is in use.

Additions

• Accessibility Settings are made available for public testing! (only a few may not function as intended either due to some bugs in the system or not being 100% complete). At the moment you can disable the gamepad input, try to change the default position of the dialogue box, it's text size and whenever you'd want to see the the character names colored.
• A few more settings have been added, like a possibility to disable stereo audio panning and toggle dialogue crawling audio!
• Having issues with some of the settings? I've added an F12 hotkey you can hold to hard reset them (and simultaneously restart the game)!
• Added the "How to Play" mini-manual!
• Detin was replaced by some crate headed kid. Try not to get close to him in the room he wants you to be in, just... walk away and wait.
• Added Discord Rich Presence support! (it's still in progress too!)

0.3.1 Minor Patch Notes

• The gamepad input is disabled upon moving the mouse
• Fixed a tiny little string issue
• Android Build now available on itch and Game Jolt! [currently being submitted for review on Google Play]

I will be currently accepting bug reports for about two-three weeks that I can fix right away and pump out the patches during that time period, and the rest of the found bugs will receive their patches only when the next major alpha build gets released to the public.

Now, speaking of the next build:

• This is when the game finally launches in Early Access on both PC and Android!
• You'll finally get to experience the other two sectors (the Prison and the Cafeteria);
• Unlockable characters (Clara, Sam and KiNTecho) will be available to play as;
• And there will be tasks you need to perform in order to unlock them;
• Some accessibility options that are not functioning will be made fully functional (I hope);
• And some bug fixes aswell

When is that gonna come out? We will only see how the development goes. That would be all for now, please enjoy the new update and have a very good day! If you're new here, you're absolutely welcome here to hop onboard this bizarre game's ongoing development, and while it's not available for purchase yet, you can still help out by putting Stramedia on your Steam Wishlist and telling your friend about the game in the making! Stay safe and I will see you soon!