It’s Friday, we got a lot of work done this week, and we’re feeling gooooooood!

In Version 1.4.2, expect to find a barrel full of Quality of Life changes and bug fixes, and some behind-the-scenes prep for Chapter 2. 😀

You can find the full changelog at the bottom of this article. Keep reading if you wanna hear more details about it!

🤔So… what’s interesting about this update?

Three are a lot of changes made to the game, which might not be super interesting or clearly obvious (but still really important). But, I thought I’d have a section of this article highlight a few of the more noticeable and interesting ones!

Showcase of “Toggle Head Bob” Setting

For anyone who has any issues with the head bobbing in the game, you now have a “Toggle Head Bob” option in the settings menu! This will simply toggle head bobbing on or off, which some people might have issues with because it might potentially mess with your aim, or potentially cause motion sickness to some users.

Showcase of New Tutorial Sign

The Tutorial Signs you come across in 1-1 have a new voxel model instead of being a round capsule. Mainly because it breaks the scene coherence, as everything else in the level is made of voxels apart from this sign. But also because… well, it looked kinda ugly. Some members of our Discord thought it looked ugly, we agreed, and we changed it!

Here are some other changes that we think are interesting enough to mention, but that we can’t convey interestingly in a Gif or Image.

• If you want to restart a run from the start in Speedrun Mode, you can do so now! The “Hard Restart” default binding is F5, but you can change that in the Settings menu.
• You can now skip the I.M.I.Self intro sequence, but please don’t. We worked hard on that opening sequence, we like it a lot, please don’t skip it.😢
• The Escape key can now be used as a quick shortcut to exit from the Settings menu back into the Pause menu. So, for example, if you wanted to change a setting quickly, you can then get back into the game by quickly pressing the Escape key two times!

This version also contains a good chunk of work behind the scenes in preparation for Chapter 2. And you know what? I like to tease stuff a lot, sooo…

Here you go! Testing out Unity's AI Navigation.

🎆THANK YOU for the support on the Itch.io Summer Sale!

This screenshot contains $40. Not like an NFT though, nono, it doesn’t have the VALUE of $40, it just contains $40. Can you spot it?

Even though we never sought to make a profitable game, seeing this screenshot makes us really happy. That this small goal we set for ourselves was completely overshot, that people see that this game has an actual value that warrants giving us money even though it is COMPLETELY OPTIONAL and NOT NECESSARY AT ALL makes us smile gladly! 😄

THANK YOU so much to anyone who supported us on the Itch.io Summer Sale! You really didn’t need to, but your generosity is deeply appreciated. Keep an eye on your email whenever we decide to enact any of the benefits we listed!

Speaking of benefits, these are still in effect even after the sale! If you decide to pay the optional but recommended amount for the game, which is $2, you will still get the same benefits. This includes downloads of the Official Soundtrack which is updated with every new chapter released, access to any bonus content/products related to JKR, and a handful of Steam Keys once the game gets released on Steam!

👋Come join our Official Discord Server!

Oh wow, would you look at that, we still have a relatively active Discord server which you can join if you wanna hang around with us!

Our server is filled with a lot of interesting people. A good chunk of speedrunners, people working on mods for the game, and they’re the reason why this version of the game is filled with so many changes and fixes!

The variety of people is broad as well. You have a lot of other people interested in game development here. You’ll find a lot of artists, writers, and musicians hanging around here, and we want our community to become a kind of hub for all of us creatives to share some really cool ideas with each other!

So, again, if you wanna talk to us and a community of really cool people, please do join! The doors are open to everybody.😊

Full Changelog

[1.4.2] - 2023-07-14

(Shoutouts to Olmo Gutiérrez / Trollmo for suggesting most of these changes!)

ADDED

• “Toggle Head Bob” setting: For players who would prefer to not have the player's camera bob up and down when moving, that can now be disabled in the settings menu.
• Hard Restart Key: If you’re in Speedrun Mode, you can press the Hard Restart key to quickly restart your run from the level you began in. The default binding is F5, but it can be changed in the Settings Menu.
• Added ability to skip the I.M.I.Self intro sequence when booting up the game.
• Prep work behind the scenes for Chapter 2.

CHANGED

• When in-game, Players can now press Escape to go back to the pause menu while they’re in the settings menu.
• Tutorial Guides models have been changed to a voxel model to conform with the environment of the rest of the game.
• Updated Unity Version to 2022.3.4f1.

FIXED

• A potential exploit where players can jump on picked-up objects after looking at another pickable object while holding one.
• Not being able to pick up objects if “Pickup” and “Throw” are bound to the same key. (S/O to an anonymous person who used the feedback form for leading us to discover this issue!)
• Cubes being slippery to stand on when looking at them, but then being able to walk on them fine when looking away.
• Speedrunners not being able to slide through exit doors, eliminating specific speedrun strats. (S/O Gaminator for pointing this out!)
• Holographic Materials looking warped from certain angles.
• Navigation on social media buttons in the Main Menu being incorrectly configured.
• The player moving horizontally slightly when jumping while standing completely still.
• The “click” sound when dragging a slider in the Settings being played even if the value of a slider hasn’t changed, causing the sound to potentially layer itself over each other and intensifying the sound. (S/O Gaminator for pointing this one out as well!)

KNOWN ISSUES

• Currently, we have no other known issues. If you spot something that looks like an issue, please let us know!

Changelog formatting is partly based on  [Keep a Changelog] (https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/). Version numbers are formatted as such…

• MAJOR.MINOR.HOTFIX
  • Major releases usually include extensive visual & technological additions, like new campaign chapters and/or major new features, or overhauls of significant systems that might invalidate older game versions, such as save files.
  • Minor releases include visual & technological additions and changes that are significant but likely do not include anything that may invalidate older versions of the game.
  • Hotfix releases mostly include Quality of Life changes or fixes to other bugs and issues.