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Decisions carry over and change things over time, things from chapter one will affect chapter 2 etc. 

No, it will be a part of the same game but I will make an easy chapter select button for use during development! 

Here is a preview: https://vxtwitter.com/horgrunt/status/1802038965563748479

More importantly: Crabs say "skwaba". 

Thank you, you have plenty more content to go! Chapter 1 is four acts, act 3 alternates between two vastly different options depending on your choices, act 4 has three different variations. 

If you want to check out all the content but not replay everything at the end you can use the cheating room. I will make it more user-friendly at some point... 

Music and the "video cutscenes" are the biggest culprits, and choosing not to use tiles and instead basically treat all maps as big images. It creates a more erratic impression I think and makes things less orderly which is mainly why I went that way. 

Also: thank you! 

Someone, please make a linux build ;_;

Thank you for the kind words, will continue to polish chapter one and work on it until everything is spiffy as fuck. I wont spoil the big story departures for you if you do not want to, but the big changes do come in act 3 and 4. When it comes to Winter, yes, he will have more space later. This is just chapter 1 ; ) 

Thanks for trying it out, not a lot of usefulness in the feedback but I am glad you got to rant a bit. 

Added another tutorial message, thanks for the idea. Euthanasia is very simple as long as you equip the card you get right before facing her. Tutorialguy now tells you this too. 

Thanks for playing and for the things you pointed out! I love the weird sfx so that stays but I will think about the combat and menu stuff. 

This will be a big game, all content here is essentially part  of Chapter 1 which is now pretty much "completed". There are three big acts and a fourth ending act, act 3 changes between a hate/love version depending on your choices. Act 4 consists of three different endings, each with a runtime of about 40 min. 

All in all there is about 12 hours of content in there. I am now working on polishing it all up and fixing stuff, correcting bugs and so on, but storywise you can finish this chapter. Two of the endings cannot be reached natively for now though, or at least I do not think they can. Testing this shit takes forever. There is a cheating room you can access with skip ahead options. Once chapter 1 is completely done you will be able to skip ahead to chapter 2 directly as well. 

Continuing on the same save does unfortunately not work yet.

Cheating room is accessed by not taking the tutorial, going to the first tree, waiting for the deer to pass and then essentially going "backwards". 

Now that some more testing will be needed I will probably just add a "skip to cheatingroom" at the beginning when you start a new game. 

Autosave triggers each time you enter an area, you can pick up essentially from where you left off.  Thanks for pointing out the bug, it happens when you are forcefully moved into collision, I will fix it when I get home from work. It has happened with other enemies before. 

Yeah, I have so consistently made that spelling error I am thinking of just running with it... Thanks for pointing it out, I guess I will have to fix it...

A lonely bird went out into the night looking for answers. There was a boy in the bird. 

Nice vibe and really good ambience, could not figure out what to do after dropping of the cigarette. 

If you want to tune it down... That is completely fine, but many of the core themes seem to be sexual in nature. I think going full lewd may be good, refraining may also be good. But these kinds of themes are there, the first quest you get capitalize on them. 

Testing the new character, jutting down my thoughts as I go. 

Setup with the autofire orbs and the spiderbots is neat. 

Just noticed that I do not really like the circular splash effect when a bullet hits an enemy, not sure what would be better though. 

One upgrade idea for inventor would be deploying stationary turrets, seems on brand. These could be locked on to one position of the map, may be interesting. Cooldown would have to be pretty big though. It would make it possibly to sort of make a "camp area". 

Enemy waves and variety adds a lot of fun to the gameplay. 

Why set a limit for the amount of airbombs? 

New character is fun! 

This game is my kind of jam, do love a traditional rpg. Art and character design is gorgeous, the music is neat. World overall seems interesting. Early combat is fairly traditional, which I have no problem with. Will write  down my thoughts as I play: 

Some spelling errors here and there, I know the pain of getting everything correct... 

Not a big fan of some of the standard rpgmaker sound effects, may want to consider changing them. An example of this would be the dodge sfx. 

Winedrinking social scene is a very neat touch, love that kind of shit. 

Many kinda horny/sexual themes for this being sfw, may be a missed opportunity to not just go full smut. 

Random bandit joins the party, very nice. 

Some Lisa-tech with the map jumping. 

Played and finished until the Preta Queen for now, about an hour of playtime. Will play this more. Quite like it!

Come a long way since the last demo, becoming cooler and cooler. Magic system is fun to use. I have one suggestion if you want to add more to it. The charge to release now works so that once the chargebar is finished a spell is released. Make it so spells instead have varying degrees of power depending on how long you hold it down and also so that you can charge a bit longer. Think it will add some more coolness. 

Looking forward to hopefully see some snippets of a story next demo, since Adventure game seems to be where you are going. Arena is good for testing the combat system though, if you are going adventure just slimes approaching is not going to cut it. 

Think oldschool zelda is useful as inspiration. Would be cool to see some kind of town are with associated mechanics, wilderness and a quest. 

Early work I imagine but it is fun. Moving the tank feels good, shooting feels somewhat off, like it needs more impact in some way. Cleared the tutorial and the first level. Cant give that much input yet, would have to see more of what this will become. 

Got past the static room, found three treasures. Audio is nice, exploration and the gimmick is cool. Hard as fuck to navigate.

I blorbed. Have not finished all the levels yet, Gotten to the ice zone for now. Its decently fun, movement feels floaty. Flag at the top of the first bonus level with the big fall does not trigger.  What are your future plans for blorb? I think it would be more fun if you could kill the enemies. 

Keep on trucking, I think this may unironically become great streamer-bait, which will put you on the path to success. 

Kinda love it, but runs very badly on my laptop. It is a pretty bad computer, but can run simple games fine usually. Still, a "clicker" like this holds a lot of potential, and the additional flare of different gambling mechanics gives it a lot of flavour. Hope another version may be more "computer friendly" so I can give it a long run. 

Playing through Order Road and will try the other games included too. Dimasik is my favorite, also: poor Narrator, he/she/it got molested by himself outside of a bathroom. It was not even in the bathroom. A visual novel mindset is harsh for people with a peasant upbringing. 

Got to level 13. Some surprising depth to the system if you think a little more. Think saving up fruits early that heals may be the best strat, gonna try it out some other time. 

Excellent work, looking forward to playing through all of it again next demoday. I have a proper microphone now so may record a video, though I am not 100% my computer can handle it. It is honestly shit...

old man, and think he's fun too.

Billy is meant to be a bit of an acquired taste, once you learn of his circumstances and understand more of his personality I think he comes across as much more sympathetic. 

 Was all the music made by yourself?

Yes, second camp track is a reference to nirvana, forest one is a reimagining of House of the Rising sun. All music has been made by me.

Tried to always maximise my Love points, hopefully it will land on a happy ending! 

Very likely would have! The "saviour ending" is the most good one, you can play it by using the cheating room at the moment. The normal ending is also finished. Working on the final ending now, the "dark path" for players who choose to play hatefully alters act 3 greatly and is also in now. 

Overall, glad you enjoyed it. Still improving a lot of the material and polishing stuff but chapter one is nearly done. The story of Winter will continue for a long time still, as  traverses through the experiences of other people. 

These are some legally distinct levels. Music is lovely, got the AGDG room. I think a straight rip of the mechanics but with new and creative levels may make for a really entertaining game. The mechanics felt familiar and tight, the esthetics are nice. Keep going!

Yeah, feel free to abuse the swagengine to your heart's content, it is by design. 

Top scores, naturally. 

A true ending you say? How... intriguing... 

I might have reached max lives, kept picking things up and did not die. Coins is just fun to collect, even if you never get to use them, just raise the bar a ridiculous amount. 

Might have missed that particular conversation about Booker and Stella, which reminds me, some of the map conversations that continue should maybe be possible to be forwarded by pressing interact,  you have to wait for them now if I have understood things correctly. 

Yes, treasure chamber was the slot machine room. 

Forgot to mention that the photobooth was really cute btw. 

Hope your appointment goes well! 

I have defeated you game, you dastardly scoundrel! Now make more content, lest I severely damage your mind with my opinions!

Finally playing the new update, as usual, will be writing down my thoughts as I play. 

I am playing it from the beginning, only using the switch between character commands to see how it feels. I will say this: ladders are easily defeatable with the player changing, the toughest enemy in the game has been severely nerfed. 

Couple of levels in I have to say the game feels very different this way, it feels more like the characters are cooperating rather than the elders siblings leading and helping the younger ones. It's definitely not bad, just different. 

The game is a whole lot easier now, which I think will work to your benefit. 

Found a bug: if you try to walk backwards in the section where you are riding in a van, the van keeps spawning. 

Sun/moon mechanic is more visually interesting with the additional pixel spritework.

As I am playing through these earlier levels I am always sort of stricken by the sheer amount of ideas put into this, it really is a wonderful world. 

I won the running competition this time 8). 

Money pickups in Krimb-stone one does not seem to work. Seems none of them work. 

Rhew-phi clubname, I missed the pun last time. 

Transition from water to ladder is a bit rough for the child characters, did not seem as wonky for the elder sibling. 

I ship Booker and Stella, lovely cutscene overall. 

Durable cheeselore. 

Barney Mackenstein figured out the deeplore before anyone else, the monkeyman knew! 

Unlocked the treasure chamber, could not pick up the chips. Maybe I have triggered some sort of consistent bug with the coin pickups. 

Messag-Coav is a cozy world, lots of nice character designs, good change of pace after Krimb-stone. 

Did not expect some relationship intrigue going on in the background of this part.

Quite enjoyed the train-section. Fotboll challenge section was nice too!

Love this game, hope your health gets better!

the only thing that's confusing to me is what's James role is supposed to be, as the focus very quickly shifts away from him and staying on Sarah and Billy

A lot of things may seem clearer at the end of chapter 1, but the story of James is just beginning. This is chapter 1 out of 6 in the script, once it is done I am starting to work on chapter 2. This will be a big game. James place in everything will become clearer and clearer as he goes through the lives of other people. 

reezed up after the second phase of the shadow boss (after the two Sarah boss phases) with the following: "Uncaught LoadError,chrome-extension://njgcanhfjdabfmnlmpmdedalocpafnhl/movies/wallslam.webm,() => { this._element.load(); }".

You did not miss anything, this is the point where the game will calculate what ending you will get, but those are not reachable natively at this point. Equipment will affect this btw, some of that is in, some of it is not, yet. 

Apart from the overall impression, I drafted up some bugs/findings during my playthrough based on the notes I've been taking:

ACT1

Typo on act name (re-emergAnce)

Originally it was a typo, one I have made so consistently that I have decided to go with it. Reemergance does have a slightly different meaning in universe than reemergence. Maybe I will fix it... 

Not a fan of the Euthanasia fight - shock too op and otherwise the fight is simple, there's no strategy just a binary check of whether you equipped the shock-resistant card (supposed to be a tutorial?) 

Yes, it is supposed to force you to try the card. But it is a bit uninteresting as a fight, combat gets updated and fiddled with continuously, the oldest fights are the ones that has gotten the least amount of polish so far.  That will change, but there is a lot to do. 

 The muzzle flash for Billy appeared for James, probably because I took off the Deerhunter 3 form Billy and gave it to James (probably shouldn't be able to do it) 

This is the reason, will have to think about this one. 

White text in white background during the pc section is hard do read - one of the options (third one I think) seems to be broken Sad 

I hate the look of all the computer stuff, it will be completely remade at some point. 

that can't bait enemies into beartraps 

One day. 

Bugfixes: 

Thanks for the extensive reports, adding all new things to the lists. 

Knife attack under skills just worse version of regular attack? 

It's the same, someone asked me to put it in the "knifebox" so they would not have to go back when they noticed they did not have enough swagger for cuttabitch. 

 the gun is "now not the right time" - framing implies it's out and should be useable.

The functionality for Jackie-0 is just not done, will be working on it soon though since its more featured in the haterun section of the game. 

I will give you a more thorough answer later but I will tell you this right away. You had finished act 3, you were at the cutout point where you would have gotten to act 4 if everything would have been finished. Two out of three endings for chapter 1 are done (still needs some more polish) you can reach them if you use the cheating room. Act 4 is all different endings depending on choices made, but these things are still worked on. 

You can also watch the two completed endings here if you are interested: 

No rush, I will play your game more at some point, but there are a lot of games to follow, and a lot of things to do. 

Don't get to hung up on the "wordy" comment, that is just a matter of taste, and not all necessarily a detriment for the players that will become your core audience. I was honestly not sure if I should have included it, but I figured if this was a recurring comment in the future, then some fiddling might be good.  

Thank you, still some final work content wise for chapter 1, and a bunch of polish. Touching up or replacing a bunch of scenes and maps I am not satisfied with. Menu setup is wonky at best at the moment, making such things better will be part of the final polish process before chapter 2. 

Also there are laws concerning parody music and satire which complicates things, its not exactly clearcut, and you know, this is clearly a parody of u drive me crazy by waldos people a song whhich may or may not  have been inspired by a certain riff. In case you are curious there are also copyright stuff you can run things through when it comes to audio, youtube probably being the most used one these days. If I ever get a real complaint, I would probably get the mechanical license, which is a whole lot different from a normal one.

Different key, changed lyrics, changed melodies, it is a finicky field. You want it recognizable but not close enough to the original ;  ). 

There is one other cover in there, particularly one for house of the rising sun, where copyright has faded with time. 

The MP4s displaying seemingly random iconography at random times are both a bit jarring and noticeably blurrier than the base game itself. 

They unfortunately have to be to not bloat the size to unreasonable proportions. Still working on alternating paths for chapter one, sections you get depending on your choices, and its above 1 gig. The cutscenes are by far the element that takes up the most space. 

Overall Fun: 2/5 - The combat was a little below average for an RPG and exploration and story weren't huge highlights, but outside the game's general vague vibes, it was mostly poor encounter design that bogged down my experience; with so few options in combat and only one party member, enemies like Euthanasia and the fish dudes would completely stun lock me for several turns at a time, with my only hope for victory being luck.

Equipment management is important, you get a card nullifying the stunlock ability right before the battle, equipping it makes the battle a breeze. It is there to force you to learn to change out the equipment to adjust to different battles. Same with the moods you get straight before the fish, so you neither need to grind nor get lucky if you are willing to experiment a little. 

Spelling things out is boring, but all elements of the story are explained and explored, but it will take some effort on the part of the player. 

 With so few options in combat, I'm not compelled to fight enemies either, so I was probably underleveled.

Think you have barely gotten past the tutorial, combat gets more advanced as the game progresses. Story progresses with time, it all fits together and gets answered.

Controls/UI: 2/5 - While the controls themselves are just normal RPG Maker controls, the use of vague terminology like "PH" and "Swagger" adds unnecessary friction to understanding the effects of items and abilities, leading to me docking points. Gauges in battle are cramped and overlap each other, and the pictures when obtaining a new card also overlap with text boxes and just generally need a bit of restructuring.

Some work to get done here for sure, the terminology is related to the story and makes sense in time, if you are willing to head deeper. This is a 8+ hour game and still growing. 

Art: 4/5 - Very good art! Subjectively it's not to my specific sensibilities, but it all looks very well made and it's clear this is where most of the work went.

Sound/Music: 2/5 - The music was pretty good, but I have to dock huge points for that random Nirvana remix in chapter 2. Unless you actually got the rights to Smells Like Teen Spirit.

A cover is not the same as a remix , there is no sampled material at all. 

I suspect this may not be for you though, good luck in the future!