bobothehobo

Cicada Springs v0.10.1.0 | Time Keeps on Slippin'

Added 2025-10-02 00:19:05 +0000 UTC

Hello everyone, and happy Spooky Season!

The real horror for me is a missed deadline - I forgot that September only had 30 days in it when I was writing everything out on my calendar. I managed to get a lot done, and it would have been great if I'd released it on time.

Regardless, this is another one of those big updates - probably the last one big update until it's time to go through and edit/streamline everything, and this one dramatically changes the gameplay.

In this post I have attached an Excel Spreadsheet that should hold every character's schedule within the game. This is for bugtesters, and people who want to see how this all works.

There's a lot to cover, so let's dive in.

v0.10.1.0

Will I need to start a new game?
Surprisingly, no! I recommend that you do, but all of these changes have been made by common events and rearranging events manually. They should run smoothly if you import a save file, but as always, do so with caution.

Are there any known bugs?
This is the soft launch of a new scheduling system within the game. There may be a few instances of NPCs doubled up due to scheduling conflicts not being ironed out yet.

The New Day common event doubles up on the "go to bed" message. It's annoying, and will be fixed soon (hopefully), but only counts for one day.

What's Changed?

Much of this finishes the "half-update" that I set up last month, fully implementing the schedule and time system in the game proper. Characters will now move around as set by a preset schedule, making it a challenge for players to learn where they are and where they will be unless they pay attention.

In time (probably when I start the rewrite part of the finalization process), the Notes section will be more closely aligned with helping players remember these schedule quirks, rather than simple biographies. The Notes section is due for a graphical update, much like the menu has received; unfortunately I'm only one man, and that is a much larger project than I can take on without making you all wait another few days.

Let's break it down into sections:

The job that you select at the beginning of the game will affect when your player is pulled from the city. Working is no longer optional, and will act as your main obstacle towards interacting with certain characters or obtaining certain items.

Phone Jockeys will work a straight 9-5pm Monday thru Friday. They will wake up at 7, and go to bed at 10pm.
Code Monkeys will work Monday-Tuesday, Thursday-Friday from 10-6pm. They will wake up at 8, and go to bed at 11pm.
Writers will work Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11-7pm. They (lazy bastards) will wake up at 9 and go to bed at 11pm.

The personality that you select at the beginning of the game will affect your rise and rest times. This is also not optional, and will also act as an obstacle/boon towards those characters you want to interact with.

Friendly characters will have their default rise and rest times
Snarky characters will rise an hour later and go to bed an hour later
Loner characters will rise an hour earlier, but go to bed and hour later.

The computer will allow you to sacrifice a whole day (unless it's after 5pm) so that you can put in extra hours at work. Doing so will increase your paycheck by $1 each time, to a maximum of five times. There will be other factors that can do this (Alex's study buddy mechanic has finally found a viable integration) but this is the first.

The bed will allow you to skip to the end of the day, so long as it is after 7pm. This has been included as a way for players who are more interested in acting with characters whose schedules they do know have a viable option to do so. Days are an economy within this game, and I encourage people to play around with what is given.

In addition, there have been changes made to the menu. The icons were neat, and I'd like to try and find a way to still use them, but they don't quite fit the vibe that I'm going for with this game anymore.

What's Next?

Alex's endings.

And Charlie's revised endings.

I swear they're coming - my focus when writing has been taking on my commissions, and that can get in the way of making sure these endings get done. I'm sort of taking from the bottom to give to the top, since this is all stuff that I would have had to do anyway, but I'd like to get these endings done so that I can move into the endgame of this project.

As always, I appreciate your patience just as much as your patronage. Everything I do in regard to this project has always been to make a better game for my players, and I hope that you all are pleased by the changes that I've implemented here today.

Without further hullabaloo, I hope you enjoy the latest update.