Fans, Fury, & Puzzles - Build Update #447

Wow, this one took way longer than expected. That's the way it goes sometimes, apparently. For a single piece of content, the new fan (Aaron) turned out to require a significant amount of extra testing (Thanks Ash) because of it's many extra choices and endings.

It's one of those situations where we had this specific apex moment we wanted to reach, but the lead-to and fallout both required a sizable amount of variance to follow the "real choice" logic that SAM typically demands. Would have felt dishonest cutting the options short or pasting them into eachother, so it came down to just writing a ton of extra script and adding appropriate variability mechanics based on your character's stats. Anyway, it's a cool scene, and we hope you enjoy it.

Going forward, we hope to add more content like it if people are interested in it. It's a little less like some of the world-features, and a lot more story-focused. Though it's relatively isolated, it speaks to where the player is in terms of the main arc, at the point it happens. Let us know what you think of it.

New Fan: Aaron

In the latter days of your New Creole stop, players who explore the city may encounter a new NPC named Aaron. This character is a little disgruntled, a little opinionated, and a little aggressive about the new book that you're working on. He comes from a place of earnest passion, but things can quickly take a turn for the worse if he isn't satisfied by your answers during the confrontation. There are a lot of different ways that this encounter can end, but it's a fairly isolated incident. Be cautious, things can get ugly.

Spoilers: Fit players, and those who learned boxing in ASM will have an advantage here.

Missing Puzzle Pieces

Not a terribly deep feature, but the authors on board the bus will now sometimes work on a puzzle that will complete itself over the course of the tour. There's a minor thread about a missing piece that needs the player's help, but it's a pretty dumb piece of content all-considered. More importantly it sets up a bit of framework that'll help expand future activities for authors sitting in the table-seats.

Here what else is in the update:

• Added a flashlight to the player's inventory
• Expanded win and lose dialogue with the authors playing AirPuck with ~50 new lines
• Added additional dialogue for spouse playing AirPuck, and fixed their portrait display
• When playing AirPuck in gym clothes or swimsuit, players will no longer appear in normal clothes
• Edited a typo explaining that you need to "throw babies out of the window" in Fire Escape
• Reduced duplication time of fire in Fire Escape game to make things a little easier for everyone
• Changed the art for newly-spawned fires to help indicate direction of the spread better
• Improved art for the Sequoia movie theater exterior to better highlight the entrance doors
• Removed the Box Mover arcade game from Con-Mart
• Players can no longer masturbate in public, or in front of the other authors at will
• Added sexy comments from your spouse, if you masturbate in front of them
• Spouse may now incite sex if you masturbate in front of them
• Made transfer into Stalker media immediate after the authors leave you
• Players may now get painkillers and prescriptions (WIP) after visiting hospital
• Edited a typo in the Meaningful Mother sequence
• Fixed a gamefreeze when dealing with the drunk driver NPC at 2ELF
• Viper / Darkeff will no longer give players a reservation to Pancha's Plancha (your spouse will)
• Updated the Haunted Mansion and Alexa's misadventure with more Character Mode content
• Updated the visit to Casey's apartyment with more Character Mode content
• Added manual control to the game's initial philosophy shout
• Players will now have the option to write when the typewriter suggests not to
• Writing in jail will no longer be impeded by loneliness
• Fixed some muddied save data sets in some endings where player went to jail
• During the finale, characters will now never disappear after suicide

As a small parting aside, the stats are telling us that a lot of you have missed the free Party Dogs DLC that we released, so... go download it. This thing's free, and it's fun! Cool dogs are the best.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1292640

We've got more cool stuff cooking, but we'll spare you the details for now.
Until then, we'll catch you on Twitch, on Discord, or on Twitter.

- VD