Sound is coming + version 03.12

Hello guys,

Another update is here! This one is a bit of an unusual one, as we've temporarily had to split our efforts on 2 branches, with more details below:

In March, by pure coincidence I stumbled upon a composer who was enthusiastic to work on the project. Sound was originally something that we had planned for later on in the development pipeline, but seeing their work and hearing a test piece that they created for the project, I decided that it would be best not to let this opportunity slip by.

As a result, we had to shift gears a little bit from the usual pipeline and set up a sound tool and documentation so the composer can start working on their magic in parallel and also test how things sound in-game.

Setting up the sound had some unexpected challenges - some of you have seen an earlier prototype, but unfortunately that version had bugs. The reason for the bugs is that we wanted to use a more advanced sound system than the default HTML audio, so we had to use a plugin called HAL (Harlowe Audio Library). HAL comes with its own sidebar, which did not look good with the existing sidebar in the game, but moving the sound controls to the existing settings menu created a few bugs. Since this was a little outside of my area of competence, I contacted the original creator of HAL, who was kind and awesome to lend us a hand with a custom integration of the audio controls.

Once that was up and running and we were able to use HAL's features, I started building how the sound would work in the game. Currently we are going with assigning passages to an area, and having a playlist of possible tracks for each area, with automatic transitions as you move around the world. The composer has already started creating some tracks, and you can experience what we've got here:

https://xfiction.org/game-builds/TransylvaniaSound.html? 

We are also experimenting with environmental effects layered on top of the tracks (go to the inn to see that). Of course as the sound is being produced, we will wait to have at least a basic package before we merge this onto the main version of the game, as I feel having sound only here and there would feel weird.

Please don't hesitate to share any feedback about the sound design, feel and direction!

Onto patch 0.3.12 - since our hands were busy with sound, this one is lighter on new story, but comes with A LOT of new art for environments, including time of day variations (day/night for your room, the floors of The Crooked Elm, etc). There are also fixes and improvements to Chapter 2, and alternative branches for some choices related to the Elder.

Full patch notes below:

Environments
-a new background has been added for Alex's room;
-a new background has been added for the top floor;
-added night version of Alex's room;
-added night version of floor1;
-added night version of floor2;
-added night version of floor3;
-added a special version of floor 3 when meeting Elise at the end of Chapter 1;
Chapter2
-Meeting Mihai after a new cycle begin has been redesigned to offer a larger variety of options and avoid repeating scenes;
-opened an alternative route to bonding with the Elder if you complete the conspiracy without falling in the pit;
-improved repeated interactions with the Elder;
Yaga
-Yaga (the kindly old woman at the inn) has been redesigned;
-new character portrait;
-new art for the milking scenes;
Fixes and improvements
-unlocking the tower with Ionut's keys will now correctly send you to the appropriate Elder encounter depending on what you have already done;
-Leaving the Elder's tower will not automatically send you to move the box if you've already done it;
-improved choice order and formatting on some locations;

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On a final note, the new transformations are continuing work but have also not been merged yet. We have already shown some of their art on the Discord and are expecting the new horns + tail art and story content to be ready for next patch.