Today's update is a giant step forward on a lot of fronts; the game has hit a ton of new milestones and we're eager to share them with everyone.
2 New Narrative Arcs
You may have noticed that this is a bump of 2 major versions, not just 1. That's because we got 2 narrative arcs done for you, which brings us to the full complement of 9 out of 9.
Arc 8 - Misjump - is an object lesson on why precision matters. In arc 7, we explored the ship's AI. In arc 8, we explore the ship's mission. Despite everything, the ship is still moving forward, and it still has its orders. How many more lifetimes can your duty possibly span?
Arc 9 - Obsolete - is the arc many of you have been long asking for. As robots, Robbie, Annie, and FRANK should have been built better. Built different. Built above all of these petty struggles and horrors that plague them every cycle of their all-too-short existences. Why were they built to suffer? Who is to blame for this atrocity?
With all 9 arcs complete, all that remains is the finale. You, and the Custodian, will take control of the situation and do precisely what you feel is right. Think long and hard about what that is, until the finale - and 1.0!
Self-improvement mini-arcs
Since the launch of 0.3.0, we have been asking: What can change the nature of a machine? This patch, we give you the power to answer - at least to some extent.
When gazing out of observation, you now have the option to begin a mini-arc, focused on one of the flaws of your Custodian. With diligence and commitment, you can help the Custodian recognize and overcome one of their faults. Change is difficult, however, and taking it too quickly can result in permanent damage. But perhaps going a little crazy is worth the payoff? Isn't a little insanity worth Robbie giving himself a break?
Or maybe that's too difficult. Maybe change is simply a bridge too far. Maybe the universe is already too far gone. It CAN be comforting to revel in your flaws, do things the same broken way as you've always done them. The routine can be comforting. During these arcs, you can also refuse to change in order to blow off stress. Maybe this saves you from the last psychotic break that would finish you.
But hopefully you can live with yourself afterward.
Meta-progression and story rewards
Have you ever felt like your actions didn't have enough consequences? Yeah, us too.
Now, every narrative arc you complete will give all of your successor Custodians some sort of bonus, reflecting the state of the ship you left, and the impressions your previous lives leave. What is best? That usually depends on your perspective. Change your mind? No problem - just replay the associated arc, and take the path you didn't travel before.
All the story rewards carry over into Sandbox and Endless mode, and can be optionally disabled by one of the numerous new difficulty selections (which we'll say more about in a minute).
Nightmares
We quietly trialed this feature in the previous patch, and are now rolling it out more fully. At higher levels of psychosis, you will start having terrible visions. Momentary lapses of attention spiraling into, as your Nerve Staplers refer to it, 'cancerous introspection'. Or perhaps you fail to power down entirely, and your trapped consciousness seeks to rationalize its situation. Whatever the cause of these distressing terrors, the first few are properly here.
There will be more.
(But you can also turn them off in the new difficulty selections.)
First phase of ship revamps
As we have continued through Early Access, we have gotten much better at working with our art team, in no small part because of the delightfully detailed input everyone has given us. Put simply, we are now capable of making much higher quality assets to represent the ship. You can expect to see more of these upgrades as we march toward 1.0.
New ship area
As part of the above art upgrades, we are also adding areas to the ship as the writing mentions them, and we get the quality assets they deserve. You can see the first addition like this between Command and Cryo in this update.
Be, uh, be careful in there.
More difficulty options
As the game gets closer to complete, we keep listening to things people like, what they don't, and which of those opinions might change from day to day. For all of these last category, we continue to add difficulty options.
These options don't always affect difficulty directly, but all are designed to tailor to the experience you want to see out of the game. New in this patch are:
Decaying Ship - If on, two permanent Decaying Ship modifiers will be added as the game progresses, making each playthrough progressively more complicated. These modifiers are independent of any story actions, and are specifically meant to be flies in your proverbial honey.
Nightmares - If on, the newly fleshed out NIGHTMARES feature will be enabled. Turning this off has no effect on difficulty, as the nightmares do not have mechanical effects.
Bounded Weather - If on, the game will keep track of how many weather zones it randomly rolls for your game, and will reroll the weather map if too many are generated. Turning it off removes this upper limit.
Story Meta Rewards - If on, you will have access to the persistent rewards you earn in narrative arcs, regardless of what mode you are in. Turning this off will remove all of these rewards, as though you have not completed a story arc yet.
You can expect to see more of these as we march toward 1.0, along with a better way to tell exactly how hard you're making the game.
Other milestones, and road to 1.0
With this update, Endless Dark has broken 200,000 written words across all of its events. While both core team members are published writers, neither of us expected to be writing quite so much for this project. Our inspiration is constantly stoked by those of you sharing your thoughts and experiences with us. Thank you.
In a similar vein, expect to see a news post coming soon detailing all of our thoughts and ambitions for the finale, 1.0, and what comes after 1.0. Thank you again for loving Endless Dark. Quirky indie games like this one exist entirely because of the support of open-minded and big-hearted fans, and we are honored every day by the community we continue to foster and grow.