dev-blog #33 - techDemo 0.7.1 and "Patreon Censored Version"

it's christmas time so what better opportunity there is for a new release, right? Right!

After all the struggles I went through prior to my hiatus I can finally show some new features for the game. Unfortunately Patreon changed a part of their ToS during that time which has a big impact on my game: the banning of incest and rape
this directly impacts on how I inteded this game to be and already lead to the demise of the scene that should have come with this update (the scenes concept was worked out way before Patreon changed their ToS).

Since I dont want to miss out on the opportunities and chances Patreon offers I will adapt my game accordingly which means that you won't be able to have any sexual relations with your direct relatives anymore or be able to perform violent rape acts on any other character in the game, as long as you play the "Patreon Censored Version". These changes will take effect with the next release of TechDemo 0.8 as the development of 0.7.1 was already beyond adaptability from coding side.

but now on to the good stuff, whats new in TechDemo 0.7.1:

• BGM integration
  there are now 20 music tracks included in the download that will loop as background music during the game. you can adapt the volume of it to your needs or silence it completely via the Settings menu
  
  
• Foto Mode
  a big part of the final game will be the ability to snap pictures of candid moments either for your own pleasure, leverage or as trading objects with other NPCs. You can test it out in the Shower Scene
  
  
• new Smartphone UI
  originally the Smartphone was inteded to be just "another" menu where you can take a look at the pictures you took in the Foto Mode but then I decided to make it more versatile and replace the quick menu with it. the Smartphone now houses all existing menus and has room for those yet to come.
  
• Area Lockdown
  as many may have experienced: you could get stuck in school really easy. mainly due to the door and dialog system not set up to handle any other "encounter" outside the intended school time because the player should not be there any other time anyway. and now that system is finally in place to make sure nobody gets in to places at times they should not be there. (PS: who wants to be at school on weekend anyway, right?)
  
  
• New NPCs: Deon and Suki
  both, Deon and Suki, are classmates and can be found in the classroom during school time. for now they serve no other purpose than to fill up the place a little but they will get their share of interaction with the coming updates.
  
• file size optimization
  this might not sound too fancy at first but given the intended scope of my game it became clear for me that I might end up with a massively large game package if I keep the almost raw PNGs for my scenes. I did some tests with image optimization tools to find the sweet spot between file size and quality which lead to a overall file size decrease of ~70%. In the long run this will be vital to keep the games download size to an acceptable amount.

and of course many fixes and tweaks.

so what about that "Patreon Censored Version"?

good question that is! I had something in mind like a "patch" that will add in the content Patreon doesn't allow so they get the censored version on their page and anyone who wants to can get the patch from my blog. works like many of the "censored" games on steam that provide an extrenal patch to deliver content which is not tolerated by steam.
But I first need to adapt the backbone of the game engine to account for that change so it could not be added in a quick way to already have it in place for this update.