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There is currently a demo! It's a few months behind at this point, but I've been working on an overhaul of the game and will be putting out a brand new demo once it's in a playable state.

As for in-browser, it will depend on further testing. Screen size / window size is very finicky and rigid with this setup, and especially with mobile formats I'm not sure how well it will handle it. That said, it is something I'm interested in doing.

Yes, there will!

Just the one save, at least for now. Multiple saves currently tank performance.

I just tested it and that shouldn't be the issue. Just want to confirm, are you heading straight to the Gallery after booting the game, or are you loading the save first and then heading to the gallery? 

Nooo! Are *all* images gone, or just ones from yesterday? Do you remember doing anything different that time? 

Hey! Yes, this is normal. 

There may be a few images that cause confusion, and for many of these images the game will accept multiple rejection reasons before the 3rd night where it's officially defined. When reviewing the answers, though, it will only show 1 of these reasons. A lot of the clothed CDC images should still look sexual in some form or fashion, although a few may not-- it's not exactly perfect, but those images are very limited for those first two nights and is just another part of the reason why the game is more lenient on the answers themselves as opposed to the time it takes to answer.

I hope this latest update fixes the issues you were experiencing!

I believe the issues with the loss of gallery should be fixed now, it's held up in my testing at least. The only quirk is that in order to save the buzzer ending image to the gallery, it will require restarting from night 1. After it's saved, the checkpoint can just be reloaded as normal and the image will stay unlocked.

The Clock In button should now appear at the last word instead of 30 seconds after.

At the end of every shift, you will also have the option to review the images you got wrong and see what the correct answer would be.

I've fallen on some hard times lately, and your comment in its good grace has lifted my spirits, so before I answer any questions I just want to thank you immensely for your kind words. 

I wouldn't necessarily say Phocal isn't my favorite, or that I even have a favorite. I love Artifact but it has grown so much beyond its original scope that it's very difficult to develop. Phocal, comparatively, is so much simpler that it feels like a breath of fresh air.

Community feedback is extremely valuable, and I want to offer support on everything for as long as I can to the best of my ability, even if the community remains small. I remember in the beginning someone accused Artifact of being vaporware and so I'm just trying to be as active as I can to show people that I'm not here to just dump and run.

I'm glad you saw a lot of improvement in the update! I feel you on the AI art, believe it or not. I was worried about general sentiments toward my first game to use AI art as the actual assets and not just placeholders. This game would not even exist if I had to hire an artist to draw over 700 works, as part of the reason I wanted to do it was because my other games which do have hired artists are also limited in how quickly they can develop. I wanted the vast number of images to both reduce the possibility of  running into duplicate images in the same shift, and to give more value and replayability. On top of that, I hired a few models to take various pictures for me that I could then use to train the AI, so the images aren't created using just any old model out there that anyone can find and make their own.

Normally, on the first night, you have to listen to the ~1 minute phone call before you can clock in. I figured this may get tiresome on replays, so the Skip Tutorial option makes it so that entire first part of the call gets skipped.

The number in the gallery is not the image number, but actually how many of the total images have been unlocked! I should probably find a way to make that more apparent. 

Sometimes having to click twice is not just you. I don't think this engine was really made for complex timed events. In the initial testing, it sometimes took 3-4 tries to get a click to register. Using some CSS tricks and whatnot, I was able to mend this for the most part, getting it down to 1 click for the grand majority of time, though like you said sometimes an extra click is needed-- which is another reason why the timer counts at just a little slower than an actual second. At this moment I'm unsure how or if it can be improved any further, but I will continue looking into it.

In order to implement an image gallery that persists between playthroughs, I had to make some changes to how the game saves progress. It seems I may have missed accounting for a certain scenario, as it sounds like experiencing that type of game over may effectively restart the game and save over the progress. I'm sorry for the issue, it is a huge problem and I'm grateful that you have brought it to my attention. This is the type of bug I'd usually push out a fix for on the spot but unfortunately I am far away from my computer for the next few days.

I tried to make the game in such a way that the wrong answer doesn't impact the player as much as hesitation does, so I'm hoping that saves some other players from the same headache while I'm away. 

I am not French, but for some reason "Fin" just matches the vibe of the game better to me. 

As for how I came up with the idea, let me first say it was born out of necessity. The economy is crazy right now, and I wanted to make a small game that could help supplement some lost income and help with growing development costs of my other games.  This meant spending $0 money (which failed, because ultimately I still hired voice actors). My first goal was just trying to justify the use of so many AI images in the game without it feeling hollow. With the limitations of AI art (or at least the method by which I generate it, because I know there are a lot of different ways to generate ai art these days), it's difficult to get the exact image I want. But in the context of an image moderator, theoretically any image I could generate could be usable (though in reality I still trashed 10x more images than had made it into the game). On top of that, the setting of doing mindless repetitive work at an office in the wee hours of the morning as an overworked and underpaid drone was something I used to experience daily and I always wanted to make a horror setting out of it. 

It was indeed a personal challenge, although I guess technically it was inspired by the very concept of game jams. I would love to do a game jam some day but I'm not sure I could manage it just yet. Sure it was mostly coded in the one week, but to get it to the point where it is now it was closer to 4-6 weeks to actually finish it. 

The voices are real! The actresses are credited in the end credits. Katherine and Jean were incredible to work with and did a spectacular job. I would love to work with them again in the future.

Lastly, I am a solo developer. For my other games, I do have artists that make the assets and music. As far as coding, testing, Marketing, Support, Etc etc it's just me. I'd love to have a team, but my budgets are stretched paper thin as it is and I don't feel right asking for free help. On rare occasions some amazing people will volunteer to help out, though, so I'm grateful for that.

Thank you again for your comment! I'd absolutely love to see your YouTube video if you make one.

Assuming you are using the Windows version and not the HTML, this aligns with what's been reported, though this is my first time seeing a filename (Win32/Wacatac.B!ml). Upon searching for the filename, it appears to just be something that comes up relatively often when converting files into an exe, like what was done with the HTML file to make the Windows version.

Sorry, I missed your reply! 

I was coming back to tell you that I had figured out a way around those engine limitations and have implemented the gallery. I've also messed with the timer, so I'd love to hear back if you are still having the problem. The timer does seem to occasionally jump the gun just a little bit, but also has deliberately been slowed down ever so slightly to account. It may even be worth mentioning that even though the timer still counts after an image has been submitted, as long as the image gets submitted by the mouse before the max seconds is hit then it's good, i.e. no buzzer, no problem.

There is also a new link on the computer that contains some elaborations on the reasons, and it can be viewed any shift.

Violence has also deliberately been kept to a minimum. There are only 5 violence images to occasionally throw the player a curve ball. 

I believe I have fixed the clock-in issue as well, so please don't hesitate to let me know if it still occurs for you.

Thank you for the kind words and support! Artifact is bigger and, while not as polished as Phocal, is my baby. I've been putting a ton of work into it and am excited to hammer it out. I hope you enjoy the update!

Thank you for the feedback! I am certain I can add/improve some of these features. 

• The category formatting is something I struggled with but I'm testing out some improvements.
• Now that you mention it, the categories themselves can seem vague and could use some further explaining in the tutorial. 
  • Under the hood, at least for the first two nights, there are many images (in particular, the ones that [SPOILER] will later go on to fall under the new "CDC" category [/SPOILER] where the game will accept either "Nudity" or "Pornographic" as the correct response. Aside from those particular images, the difference between Nudity and Pornographic is that Pornographic includes sex with another (directly or implied), masturbation, or suggestive fluids.

• I love the idea of being able to freely view the images. While it would be virtually impossible to have the images seen persist through each playthrough (I say virtually because I'm not sure if someone may have already or eventually will find a way to hack that ability into the engine-- it's something I'm looking into but can make no guarantees about), I could definitely provide post-game passcode(s) to unlock galleries where the images can then be viewed freely.

Regarding the timer, though, I'm having some trouble recreating the issue where it runs out before the image loads and would like to know more. Are you playing the Windows version, or the HTML version? If it's the HTML, what browser are you using? 

Hey, thank you for bringing this up! Ordering the pills will be patched here shortly.

To frenzy Tom, you will currently need the Diminish3 upgrade. Soon, as additional M|M scenes are added, this will no longer be a requirement for any of the male characters.

Does the intro say Start Game or Start Demo?

If it says Start Game, then a brand new save is recommended. This is because if you began a save in the demo and were still able to load that same save on the full version, it will end on day 30.

I believe I've fixed the issue. It won't work on saves where the Midterms have already been taken, so I have added a toggle for the Midterms pass/fail to the dev console. Thank you for bringing it up!

Dev console can be accessed via the bedroom Laptop > Switch Profile > 1937 > Dev Console

I don't think there is anything you are missing, but I'll be looking into it closer and will patch ASAP. Thank you for the report.

Thank you, this has now been fixed :)

The "Essence not found" message only occurs when the essence didn't get saved or saved improperly. In one of the recent patches I made some changes to how they were saved. Unfortunately, not all the fixes apply to essences that were obtained before the patch, so trying to use those essences may be resulting in the error for you. 

Regardless of if that may be the case, I will continue looking into it. If these were obtained in the past week or so (assuming the game has been kept up to date), then any other information such as the type of essences attempted (Gender, Build, Identity, etc.), the essence details, (Male essence, Slim essence, Shoulder Length Hair essence) would help. Thank you for the report!

You'll be happy to know that a story overhaul has been in the works for months. New story/quest content have taken a pause while that continues to hammer out.

You can do this by taking a Breast Essence from a husk with Vitae Exchange. 

Thank you for the feedback! I have added a way to continue getting PEP after Tom's frenzy to the coming update, as well as increasing the maximum amount that can be ordered at once.

I have also been working on a tutorial to better introduce the mechanics and gameplay, as well as additional quests/events with PEP rewards, although I'm currently unsure exactly how soon they will be ready. 

Thank you, this has been fixed for the coming update!

Thank you! 

You can swap bodies with husks, although the game is still developing how that will come into use. Right now it only helps to alleviate suspicion. 

My apologies for the confusion. I've answered this a few times already, but I lose track of where, so I've updated the game description on the game page.

These images will not be in the final game. There are missing images, and some of those missing images (mainly late-stage broodmothers, background images, map, and item images) use placeholder images while the rest of the character art is being finished, which is currently around 70% done. 

By that I mean events that could cause the player to willingly or unwillingly transform between any of the existing assets. 

Which images? A few characters are still in the works.

Thank you so much! With this information I think I've finally discovered what is happening and am working on a fix for the next update.

First I'll note that if you ever want to try and pull up these saves again, first back up the entire Artifact local storage folder somewhere else on your hard drive.

Then, you can delete the entire Artifact folder in this local storage (since this local storage folder is a completely separate location from the actual installation folder, meaning you won't have to redownload or reinstall anything), and then it's going to automatically be created anew the next time you run the game.

So when creating new saves, you are seeing that the new saves are there with a new date and time, but when you load them, it's loading a much earlier save?

I'm wondering if the slots are somehow getting mixed up. Have you tried it with both quicksaves and manual saves? If so, is it happening for both? 

Just to clarify, when you load a slot from the second playthrough, it's loading the first playthrough? How long ago did you begin the second playthrough? 

I'm looking into it, thank you!

It's definitely not for lack of wanting to add a a way to delete individual saves. It's just that it is, at the very least, almost impossible. In short, with the way the engine's creator(s) built it, it would be a lot simpler for me to rebuild the entire game in a new engine than it would be to hack in this one feature to the existing game's code.

My apologies, I forgot you were using the HTML version! In that case, the local storage folder location depends on the browser that you are using to play the game. 

If you are using Chrome, I believe it should be in :

~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/$PROFILE/Local Storage

If Safari, that should be:

~/Library/Safari/LocalStorage

Gifts can be purchased at the D&W Bookstore, located in the Student Center. Some can also occasionally be found as loot. 

While it's not possible to delete individual saves with this engine, you can wipe them all if you navigate to C:\Users\[PCNAME]\AppData\Local and delete the Artifact folder.

Both versions are available here!

Hey! This should help, let me know if there is anything I can further clarify on:

INSTALL:

• Extract files from the .7z file using an archive manager (7Zip, Winrar, Winzip, etc.) 
• Double-click Artifact.exe (or index.html, for the HTML version)! 

IMPORTANT NOTES FOR THE WINDOWS VERSION ONLY:

Requirements for Windows version only: 

• Visual C++ Redistributables Packages for Visual Studio 2013 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40784) (Many of you likely already have this and will not need to perform this step, but those without it may experience some odd errors. Be sure to right click this file and Run as Administrator.)

The Windows version of the game uses NW.js to wrap the original .html file into an .exe using Chromium, and so an NW.js bug will make attempts to sync with Google services. 

It can be scary when an itch or Steam game can throw up an alert like this. Unfortunately, the existing fixes for this issue are not working with the latest versions of NW.js and it has affected many other developers that also use NW.js.

Fortunately, both the Windows and HTML  versions of the game are still 100% functional offline!

Correct me if I'm wrong, it sounds like you are starting up the game, heading straight into the settings, and then when you try to Resume it gets stuck?

This is something I am in the process if fixing, but for now if you continue past the title screen to Start Game, you can load your game save (or create a new one) and should not encounter the error anymore.

There should be a link to start the game. Is this on HTML or Windows? What resolution are you playing on?