re:Dreamer Alpha 0.11.0

Happy third anniversary, re:Dreamer (and happy 29th birthday to me, CaptainCaption!) This third anniversary release isn't just special for not having any passwords and coming out for everyone at the same time, but now there is an introductory day in Zach's life before he found the game that changed everything about his life (maybe that can be a tagline for the visual novel given how many eggs it's cracked?)

Changelog:

• Zach finally has his day in the sun with a new intro. About 40-60 minutes long (more on the "about" in a bit), the last day in his life before he found re:Dreamer. I think the writing slaps as it sets a ton of the tone for the game, gives great foreshadowing, and really provides context that Zoey isn't just some girl who says she is a guy as it provides visible context of who that guy was. I can understand that not everyone will want this introductory day to Zach's new life to be as long as it is (for reasons other than wanting to more more easily self-insert as the excessively detailed protagonist of this visual novel) which is why it gets shorter (particularly the lectures) if Awkwardness is the default value of 3 or below. C.H.E.A.T.S., by strict canon, is not supposed to exist yet, but I am bending my rules a bit to make this game more enjoyable for more people.
• The writing and expressions from the end of the transformation to the choice menu that can lead to the first bad end has been polished. This largely meant making the expressions match the quality standards set from the middle of the Britney mall date and beyond, but a few lines have been altered; most notably, Ai first looks up her player on his phone (she had previously just known his name) and realizes that the woman in front of her doesn't match that man, and she starts to piece things together from that.
• The first masturbation scene in Zach's dorm room has been adjusted and expanded so that Zach finds a thick permanent marker to help him as he doesn't have enough knowledge for his hands alone to do the job. This has the benefit of making the focus for Zach's inability to climax in Keisuke's dorm room being that he was using his bare hands. I'll be getting to that scene soon, once the last of the CGs for the alternatives to the sex scene come in.
• The bad ends have been polished with some cool new graphics and better expressions.
• The explanation by Zach to Molly and Patrick can now be done fully in one loop with the maximum starting points because I changed a few of the penalty points to allow for it.
• The "Stratus" thing with re:Dreamer having a social media component has been removed since it added nothing to the game and was an old plot point. There's now just a generic player profile thing that Ai uses, with the implication that she can only call her player by the name on that profile.
• C.H.E.A.T.S. is explained more clearly to players new to it on its screen and in the story with Zach at the character creator.
• I changed the name of Zach's primary gacha from "Steel Blue Sky Corridor" to just "Steel Blue Sky" as it's less wordy. Also, the game actually has a screen based on Azur Lane's old 2019 user interface. I have to resist calling the game "Azur Plane" after someone mentioned the pun...
• The arcade games, quick menu on the main dialogue window, and C.H.E.A.T.S. screen now highlight and work properly with controller and keyboard (minus Zone of the Zombies 2, where Zach blames his light gun for not firing a single shot). The C.H.E.A.T.S. bars (all the bars, in fact) the still require you to press the enter key or A button to select, but it works. Honestly, Ren'Py is not very pleasant to navigate with just a controller, but there's really not much I or Espeon can do about it.
• A potential bug with Zoey hovering in the Britney Day 2 clothing store changing room has been fixed. I wasn't able to replicate a user reporting the issue, but Zoey's sprite has been hardcoded to be in the right position there.
• Some minor polish to the expressions in the Keisuke route (mostly in the konbini). I'm saving the expressions overhaul in the route for when I get all of the Keisuke dorm room HCGs, but fixing a minor issue led to me doing some ahead of time.
• Except on the title screen, you now have to unlock viewing every character in the sprite viewer by reading to certain points in the story (or jumping past them in the story jump menu). This sort of keeps characters, mainly Zoey, a surprise... but let's be honest: you likely know what you're getting into if you download this game.
• There's now a variable tracking the route you are currently on. This will be used for common overlapping events later, like Zach's classes.
• The World Information alert bar now works with sub-entries and clicking on it no longer advances to the next line (meaning that you're free to check the information in the moment it becomes relevant without a consequence of the story moving past that). The alert bar also shows for 6 seconds instead of 3, but it disappears at the next line of dialogue as usual.
• Zach's sabbatical (and a few other World Information entries) now have fancy stock photos that cost a lot of money. They break up things so they're not just a wall of text.
• I changed the expressions in Zach's sprites slightly. Most of this was making some lines less harsh and changing the order of the faces to make more sense (at least to me) of what Zoey parts they were based on, but mouth_0 is now Zoey's mouth_11 because it works a lot better as a neutral face than the slight frown it was.
• Ai's sprite code has completely changed to allow a non-insane way of dealing with what direction she is facing. You can also make her background pink!

Without further ado, here are the download links:

Windows/Linux (MEGA)

Mac (MEGA)

Android (MEGA)

Windows/Linux (MediaFire)

Mac (MediaFire)

Android (MediaFire)

I am likely being dragged on an Alaskan cruise on the 26th for my grandma's birthday (which I do not want to go to), but I'll be bringing my laptop so I can work during the trip.

I'd post something reflective and poignant about how much working on this game has improved my life and made my birthdays worth looking forward to, but I can't think of anything good to say except "thank you."