Cicada Springs, v0.9.4.3 | Out Questin' Again

Happy Holiday season, everyone.

It is a supreme failing of ours that all of our big social holidays take place in the latter half of the year. Among other things that have gotten in the way of writing (a load-bearing commission, political unrest, and Sparking Zero) I've tried not to let the holidays get in the way of my work here.

This update is very much the sister update to the previous month's, finishing up our 4 main questlines.

That means much of what will be happening moving forward is endings! The end is near as we move into the final aspects of this game before a big polish job. Just a few more updates and I think this will be ready to go!

But before we get too ahead of ourselves, let's discuss the latest version.

Version 0.9.4.3.

Will I need to start a new game?
No, you should be fine.

Are there any known bugs I should worry about?
None that I am aware of!

Quests - Who, Where, and What

In addition to last month's update, two more questlines have been introduced. One is a very easy to unlock, the other takes more friendship and getting to know the characters through their favorite gifts. Or the developer's room, if you're savvy.

Margot:

• Margot's feud with Clover can be tackled when Margot hits 6 points of friendship. If your friendship with Clover is high enough, you'll be able to convince her to start carrying her weight around the Bean Machine - and pay Margot back for a little karma.

• Doing this quest will provide a daily weight buff for Margot, and will (in future updates) result in different ASK responses when talking about Clover.

Alex:

• Alex's beef with Clover can be resolved in a similar way, but it requires a very high friendship level with both characters. Alex and Clover should require levels 14 and 17 respectively.

• Reigniting their friendship will affect both of their off-the-clock schedules, as well as add a passive weight buff for both characters.

Much of this update was spent trying to figure out how to parse through the ending tags, switches, and variables that players accrue through the game. I believe to have settled on a good system, but didn't have the chance to see it through. Without knowing the downsides of it, I intentionally left it out so as to not mess with any previous saves being ported over.

As such there are now only 2 steps left to finishing Cicada Springs and getting it out of Beta:

Endings, secret and not, have to be assignable to player actions and written out. Various friendship levels and weights will result in certain dialogue, as well quests completed with other characters that impact their story. This will undoubtedly be the most time-consuming part.

Polishing up the dialogue and adding sound-effects, zoom-ins, and so on will be the final steps before the game is ready. This will also have to include extensive bug-testing. I've got friends on my discord server who help me with that. If you'd like to help out, you're more than welcome to. Part of the Developer's Room has been so that people who don't have RPGMaker MZ can play around with getting certain dialogues more easily.

I hope that everyone has had a good holiday season, and as always appreciate your support.

Without further ado, here is your latest download link:

[Download.]