Cicada Springs, v0.9.4.0 | Special Menu Strikes Back

Once again I find myself coming in hot on the deadline. August was supposed to be one of my busiest months this year, so I decided to commit hard to getting everything I needed to done.

There's one last commission left in my slate, I've jammed the release schedule for the back quarter of this year, and I'm planning on opening up commissions in around a week or so.

Let's hope that these trends continue.

Version 0.9.4.0

Will I need to start a new game? 

I highly recommend doing so. Do not transfer over old save files, as that might break your game.

Are there any bugs that I should worry about? 

There are no known major bugs at the moment. If there are any made apparent, I will update this section of the post with as detailed of a write-up as possible

Preface 

At long last, the questlines have returned to us in full force! Every character except for Kendra (who only has a "stage two" quest) now has a recurring interaction that can be accessed weekly throughout the games. Further below is a detailed description of where these interactions are located, and how they may be accessed.

In addition to major "visible" changes, there have been a lot of "invisible" changes made as well. Both of these topics are equally important to this update, and the change in organization is too significant not to mention. For those who simply want to go to the download page, you may wish to scroll to the bottom of this post.

This is a rather large update, so let's get to the good stuff.

Gameplay Changes

Rather than be on a scale of 10 and 20 respectively, Friendship and Weight meters have been raised to 20 and 40 respectively. This was going to have to happen sooner rather than later. As friendship and the quest counters become more important in guiding a character's story, this count should prove juuust challenging enough to be novel rather than taxing.

However, this is heavily reliant on feedback from players and bugtesters. If you should feel that these numbers are too high, please feel free to shoot me a message over in the Community tab of Patreon, or on my discord channel.

• tl;dr, Friendship and Weight weight bars are now twice as hard to fill up. 

QOL Changes

I've changed the theme music. I want this to have a much more mellow feel to it, since unlocking all of the endings are going to take some time and replay value. These have been sourced from copywrite free sites. Unfortunately, I forgot to add them to the stereo system in the player's apartment, but that's a relatively minor fix that can be patched in later.

In addition, all 500+ instances of weight being a factor in portrait display have been converted to less than 20 switches. This should greatly reduce the amount of "flickering" between sizes that some characters do, as now all measurements should be uniform and are decided through a Common Event.

Margot's Blueberry Frappe drink is no longer bugged and should be fully giftable to other characters. More details below.

The monkey in sunglasses in the developer's room can now change friendship amounts, while Bobo behind the counter changes weights. This should be very useful in any bugtesting.

• tl;dr, New music, sprites shouldn't lag as much or flicker between weights, the blueberry frappe exists, there's a monkey in the developer's room and you should talk to him.

The [SPECIAL] Menu

This is the menu that will be used to access the sorts of decisions that will impact where the characters end up after the thirty day mark. For now, the special questlines are simple, but will get more complex in future updates.

Each character, except for Kendra, has a recurring weekly quest that you can activate after having met a modest 3 points in friendship. Certain personality traits and career options will unlock them earlier, as 3 will unlikely be the minimum requirement moving forward. For now, here is where they may be accessed:

• Alex will be available to study in the Bean Machine on Sundays in the evening. Her quest will take the remainder of the day, effectively costing you one evening. However, this will increase weight and friendship points.

• On Tuesday mornings, only in Cutie Pie's, Charlie will ask you to buy her something from the Bobo's cart. This will act as an extra gift on top of whatever else you may want to give her that evening, and does not trigger her "at work" rejection. This was done to mitigate the challenge of Charlie's picky eating habits and the scaled weight values.

• On Wednesday mornings at the Bean Machine, Clover will ask if you have a Breakfast Plate on hand. Should you, this will act as a similar "extra" gift and will stack with your normal offering.

• On Saturday nights, Margot will give you a free Blueberry Muffin Frappe. This is among the highest calorie drink in the game, and will bump characters up halfway to a new weight stage. As of right now, only a select few will drink it. But after a minor tweak, this will be an item that all characters will consume.

Notable Bug Fixes

• There was a significant bug that caused the friendship meter not to rise past a certain point. This was found and addressed in the adjustment of friendship values.

• There were minor inconsistencies with the Mocha Frappe, Cheeseburger, and Breakfast Plate items, registering as giving players the wrong items. This has been fixed.

• Four instances of Alex mistaking Margot (at her huge size) for Charlie have been fixed.

What's Next?

Story storylines to be expected are:

• Alex and Clover's friendship and how it reinforces bad habits in Clover

• Kendra needing help at the shop, with either Clover or Charlie pitching in

• Clover wanting to quit her job at the Bean Machine

• Charlie's hopeless crush on Margot

• Margot and Clover patching things up.

These will likely be chunked into groups, with values weighed and changed as needed. This is the bulk of where the game's development is going, but also our final hurdle before epilogues, endings, and finally getting out of beta begins.

Days like the one I spent today hunched over my computer, crossing my t's and dotting my i's, remind me of why I started doing things like this. I firmly believe that this game has made me a better game-maker. I also firmly believe that this game has considerably shortened my life, but I'm here for a good time and not a long one.

As always, I am forever grateful for your continued support. Without you, there is no Cicada Springs. I love doing what I do, and I'm so happy to get to do it for you.

And now, without further ado, here is the latest version of Cicada Springs:

[Download Page.]