Thank you,
working hard on the update now.
As for the rats, if I were you, I'd look closer at the strange cabinet with vials in the room on the top right from the rat swarm ;)
Viewing post in Pitch Black Secrets of Epiotica comments
How long is the full version going to be? (The more the better as I've absolutely enjoyed the demo. 9 hours and running as I want to unearth all the hidden gems. Already found Mario, the Bechdel Test and Dorothea's childhood friend. Wondering if that spot on the old man's map is included within the demo.)
The comment below criticizing your dialogue feels so unfair. To me, it reads just great, period-appropriate and witty, never feeling too long or boring. I'm not a native speaker, but I read and write in English a lot, I used to translate fiction into it so I can appreciate the effort you put into making your characters' speech flow so smoothly. The Dnege's line praising the guards for politeness, in the very beginning, is my favorite.
With all the visual beauty and great stories, I must say the carnival points are weird at best. At Level 1, I had a decent amount of these, but once I advanced to Level 2, they were nullified (I didn't use them up in battle, they were just reset to zero at this precise point). Before facing the Duchess, I pumped my CPs to 48 using the grapes, but entering the battle, Triche appeared to only retain a meagre amount while Dr. Becco still had all of his CPs. I'm puzzled by whether this is a bug or the way CPs are supposed to work.
Thank you so much for your kind words, happy you enjoyed the demo. It really means a lot to me and boosts the determination to finish the full game even more!
It's hard to say exactly how long the whole story will end up being. Consider the demo to be approximately 30% of the entire game.
It's great you've been noticing easter eggs. There are also little refferences to, e.g., Undertale and Skyrim, and many others (perhaps not so obvious though).
Amazing that you finally find the treasure! It is pretty crucial to the old guy's arc, storywise. Also you can try to solve the puzzle with the small birds in the city if you want.
As for the Carnival points - consider this to be a special attack meter (like in fighting games or TPs in RPGs) and not your typical MPs (nevertheless, you can still fill up you Carival gauge and use Carnival-based abilities outside of the battle but you can't keep them for a combat - and vice versa). I wanted Carnival points to be that way to compliment the lore, that chaotic, under-researched nature of Carnival energy. On the other hand, Feint (purple) gauge works as a regular MP gauge.
And my special gratitude to you acknowledging the language, that means a lot!
You're welcome :) That's the very least I can do to thank you for making this awesome game.
The birds puzzle? Oh, looks like I've totally missed this one... I don't even remember coming across small birds in any part of the city location.
I reached the demo end this morning, viewing the intriguing scenes after credits. For now, I'm really invested in Dorothea's story. I hope I'd be able to make her happy in the full version. (No, please don't tell me what you've got in stock for her - I'd rather discover that on my own.)
The old man's my next favorite. That medicine for his joints cost a fortune (90% of money I had at that moment) but was totally worth it. And I'd love to meet the Dnege once again - he's such a good fun.