Cicada Springs, v0.9.4.1 | Gone Questin'

Happy Halloween, everybody! The biggest scare for me this month was a hurricane. But followed by some minor health issues and some unfortunate personal ones. Regardless, I'm not one to leave any treats out of anyone's bags when they subscribe to me each month. Though I do have a few tricks up my sleeve! We'll get to those down below.

A few days ago I said that I was planning on having this game ready by January. In a perfect world, that means having it finished by then and ready to port in February. Only time will tell to see if I can keep my schedule, but we'll touch on that later too.

I hope everyone has had an excellent spooky season, and now let's get down to the nuts and bolts of our first entry into the last bits of updates before we get ready to start putting on the polish.

Version 0.9.4.1.

Will I need to start a new game?

Unfortunately, yes. I have greatly changed the way that the days of the week work. I try to make it so that you don't have to make new save files where I can, but this time I've failed you.

Are there any known bugs I should worry about?

I rewrote the script for the beds. The right-hand side is completely fine, but the bottom-left corner of the bed is still operating on the old code for how weekdays are processed. Use this at your own peril, as that scripting is janky.

Quests - Who, Where, and What

There are a planned 4 questlines in this game. Roughly one for each character besides Kendra. Despite my best efforts, I was only able to finish 2 before it came down to too tight of a crunch to manage. The last 2 will be the main focus of my next update, as well as seeding and testing non-special endings.

Here is who they pertain to, how to unlock them, and how they can be completed:

Kendra:

• Kendra needs a new waitress at the Broken Stool. The quest can be activated by seeing the Help Wanted sign, moved off the wall and onto the counter.

  • in future updates, this will be located on the bulletin board in Cutie Pie's

• You will need a friendship of 17+ in order to convince Clover or Charlie to quit their job and work as a waitress at the Broken Stool.

  • Charlie has a special qualifier as well - in order to convince her she needs a change of pace, she needs to fail at dating first. More on that later.

• Whomever becomes a waitress will be locked into a specific ending once those are a factor. Needless to say, a career hanging out in greasy bars and eating all of Kendra's cooking isn't going to leave anyone looking very skinny for long. The character will begin the first of the month after the game ends, so there is (unfortunately) no passive buff in weight.

• This quest can be initiated at any size or friendship level relative to Kendra.

tl;dr - pick your favorite among the two so they can get stuffed full of burgers and beer during a secret ending. They'll turn into a fat waitress for their secret ending.

Charlie:

• For the uninitiated, Charlie's as into the idea of fattening these characters as you are. Probably more. But she's new to town, and pickings are slim. Help her find someone who's compatible with her.

  • This can be activated by reaching a friendship level of 8+.

• Alex and Margot are both two people that Charlie would get along great with. But again, you'll need a friendship bonus of 17+ in order to help them connect the dots that Charlie likes them likes them. You have your pick, but whichever person you set up with Charlie will get a passive +3 weight modifier on a daily basis. These dating factors will also factor into secret endings - but I'll elaborate more on that (hopefully) in the next update.

tl;dr - help Charlie the Chubby Chaser get a girlfriend. Watch her get fat without you having to literally feed her every day.

Fixing Broken Quests -

Part of the reason why I changed the weekday system was because certain quests were not functioning properly. There's still some tweaking to be done, but I've managed to fix things through stopgaps for now.

• Charlie will now accept whatever you get her from the Bobo's cart on Tuesdays.

• Charlie, Clover, and Margot now have their quests fixed so that they actually only happen on those certain days. Charlie's is Tuesday mornings Clover's is Wednesday mornings and Margot's is Saturday evenings. 

  • These are repeatable by design. If you are able to do it on a day that you shouldn't, please let me know. If you're unable to do it on a day you should be able to, do much of the same please.

Other Fixes -

• During the last update, I put in four whole new tracks for your apartment and didn't let you play them. Now you can. They're listed as tracks E, F, G, and H on your stereo system.

• At request, I have added a pay buff to certain careers. Instead of careers getting a flat increase on top of whatever your chosen career path is, said path also now influences how much you get in raises.

  • Writers make the least, Code Monkeys make the middle, and Phone Jockeys make the most.

  • This was done so that players could have an easier time getting money, but still allows for self-imposed challenges.

• The triggers for which sprites show up in the Notebook now match the triggers for sprite display in-game as well. So no more sneaking ahead to huge sizes, just in the notebook.

What's next?

There are 2 more questlines in need of writing. They're not as run-aroundy as the other ones, but as a consequence need more clever trickery in making the scenes work, as well as some manually flipped sprites and so on. While I've had these scenes written out for quite a while, plugging it all in and making it work was too daunting for this month. As noted above, these will be the focus of next month's update:

• Alex and Clover's friendship will be able to be rekindled when both have a high enough friendship level with the player and certain interests are unlocked on both sides. This will tie into a secret ending where Clover can be convinced to quit her job and become a programmer. This will result in a passive weight buff for both characters.

• Clover and Margot will be able to learn to stop fighting, and Margot will convince Clover to start pulling her weight around the coffee shop. This backfires predictably, adding to a passive weight buff for Margot, and a passive weight nerf for Clover. This will be important into accessing Margot's secret ending sprite

Afterwards, Generic endings and their seeding/structure will be the primary focus. That's not going to be very fun, but writing the endings will be.

Secret endings may be able to be a part of that too, depending on how much I can get done.

Finally, the polish will be the last thing I do before sending this baby out to play. Things like sound-effects in conversation, zooming in on stomachs and more descriptions of what we're all here for.

And then, after that, I'm done.

As stated earlier, I have a rough goal for this game to be done by January.

I'd like to take a moment to thank all of you, but especially my discord members. We have a fun little community there, and they keep me going in a lot of ways that is difficult put into words. I truly don't think that Coven of Calahree or Cicada Springs, or so many of the stories I post, would not be possible without them cheering me on.

But it's Halloween - you're not here for sentimentality, you're here for treats :)

Without further ado, here is your latest download.

[Download page.]