Great news, everyone! Development for version 2.0 is finally complete! After sixteen long months, our first update is here! To be fair, we purposely held off on releasing mini-patches to eventually bundle everything into a large release, which is exactly what version 2.0 is.

First off, I wanted to be completely transparent about the cause of delays. To summarize things, I was going through a personal move at the time, which is why our target date for spring 2021 was missed. My wife and I went through many stressful days in an attempt to relocate. This involved the long process of finding a home in our price range, working with realtors and loan officers, and the actual move itself. As of writing this post, we just finally handed in the keys to our old apartment, ending a long process that began roughly 5 months ago. Being a new homeowner is a great feeling, and certainly worth the price. When shopping for a home, I made sure to prioritize something that was affordable to me, rather than going outside of my budget. While mortgage is often cheaper than apartment rent, you can easily bury yourself in deeper than necessary, especially with a 30-year contract. Going forward, this should allow me to set aside more funding for Zeta Wolf and in turn, have more assets available for production each month. 

Zeta Wolf Chronicles version 2.0 release date is 8/4/21! 

Let me clarify a few things with this new launch. If you donated at least $5 in the past to us (through itch.io) you will be given a key to download the game early. Additionally, anyone can choose to support development by purchasing version 2.0 from 8/4 until 8/20. Thank you for your support and patience! I know it only took a long and grueling 16 months, but we're finally here! 

Here's an overview of some of the upcoming changes and additions. 

Save and Load Updates

This honestly took me the longest time to get the programming correct. Many frustrating nights bashing my hand against my head. The good news is, things are finally working as intended. Upon saving a game or using quicksave, the current chapter and scene are now displayed. Unfortunately, showing the date/time didn't make it into this update, but I feel it will be easier to implement in the future. Please note that you can only access slot 1 by using the quicksave function from the message box. A small but needed prompt for save confirmation was added. Unfortunately, saved games are now limited to 6 slots, but I had a feeling what we had before was excessive. 

Backlog 

Backlog is now actually included! As far as I know, things are operating as intended, but keep in mind that the log only records text from the current scene. Apparently, it has no trouble with lengthy scenes either, as the converse event is easily over 8k words long. One thing to note is that text from insight/reflection points is invisible in the log. One part by the design, the other technical difficulty. 

Converse Events 

Converse events (free-for-all chatting time) is a new system that allows you to talk to certain characters at your leisure. New scenes may unlock when you happen to meet a set determined quota. In this build, you can spend some time getting to know Lyca and Ferine. At any point, you can continue, but please note, in this version, selecting continue sends you to the end scenes in this version. 

I'm happy I was able to implement this, as programming actually took incredible effort, and was a personal accomplishment for me. As it stands currently, this scene is the largest in the game, and as you would expect, took the longest to code. It allows me to have greater flexibility with some of the more in-depth conversations while interweaving the various systems like insight/reflection, unlockable scenes, and so on.  With 3+ characters in the future, I'm sure these scenes will be a lot of fun. For now, please enjoy the scene included in this version. 

Dual Insight/Reflection Events

A twist on the classic point and click implementation of insight points, comes dual reflection/insight points. What makes these events special is that you will have the option (if you choose to select any at all) to hear a certain character's thoughts. With reflections points, simply treat them as a bonus look into Rayen's thoughts. In the above example, you can choose to hear Lyca's thoughts (insight), Rayen's thoughts (reflection), or simply advance the text without triggering either. 

Ravia Reveal

It's that time again! We have another character to reveal for the first time! The girl to be revealed this time is named Ravia, who will be featured for the first time at the end of version 2.0. It's important to note that Ravia and Maikah will be integral to the route you select in the full version. Put simply, you must select a girl and commit to her. It's much more involved than simply the idea of "romancing" your choice. Siona being the main heroine is still a staple going forward, and in fact, the overarching narrative will mostly revolve around Rayen, Siona and the "third wheel" choice. For now, the main routes will be denoted as Siona/Ravia, Siona/Maikah, Siona/Crescia, and Siona/(to be revealed). Things will make more sense with a playthrough of versions 2.0 and 2.1. 

By the way, the girl in the orange bottom square was recently teased on our twitter, her name is Crescia. She's likely to be (fully) revealed on twitter in the relative future. Speaking of, I can promise that there will be 1 more male supporting character to be revealed in the future, for a total of 12 characters. I solidified this choice to support the voice actors (since many people wanted to voice another male and requested so). Please look forward to it (his design is not final yet, heh). 

...And so Many Bugfixes 

There are too many to list, to be honest. I'm not the best at chronicling everything that I fix in the game, but I tried my best to address all of the concerns regarding version 1.0.  If you encounter a bug and wish to report it, you can easily access the feedback form in-game from the title screen. That being said, it's likely that introducing new systems also had adverse side effects and produced new bugs (as in all game development). 

I wanted to mention that in addition to .exe file for windows, a .zip version will be provided. If for some reason your system is incompatible with the .exe file, try to unzip the folder and launch the game.exe file. 

I have not fully tested save compatibility, so I'm under the assumption that saves will not transfer over. Instead, simply use the continue option from the main menu to jump right into chapter 2. 

One number to throw out there: according to logs of my software dev program, I have 2330 hours logged. This is simply for programming alone. Suffice to say, I'm not the fastest programmer around by any stretch, but there's the total tally so far. This figure doesn't include writing, brainstorming, PR work/image creation, nor audio work but it does include QA testing. Even counting idle hours (as logged by steam), that's an enormous figure. Given that, I admit I could have worked harder the past few months, and have recently only settled down again in this new home.  I've easily spent over 3000 hours creating what's on display in 2.0. So far, I'm mostly content with how far we have come, but there's a long way to go still. 

What's Next? 

Version 2.1 will be the next release, and since all major systems are in place outside of a few quality of life screens, turnaround time should be much shorter. Version 2.1 will focus on Ravia and her mini introduction arc. Major additions in the future include a glossary and CG unlock viewer (aka gallery). 

That's it, everyone. There's likely to be things that are missing as far as detailed update notes go, but I hope everyone is looking forward to the next version. Leaving your comments or feedback through the form would help a great deal, and I appreciate anyone who left their input so far. See you on 8/4!