TLS 0.18.0 Release (Patreon)

It's done, I'll be sending out the messages shortly after this post. ^-^

Usually I give my caveat about late pledges here, but in theory with the new system it doesn't matter? If you should have gotten a link and didn't, or pledge after this post and want your early release, just send me a message.

Several notes about this release. This one is definitely the most involved under the surface to date. People who only want to play through once, this would be a very good update to wait for the 0.x.1 release. It's unlikely that I didn't screw up SOME of the invisible variables involved.

Those of you who write walkthroughs or guides, please start this section with a disclaimer. Lots of things can progress differently based on previous decisions and this isn't always obvious. The mechanics also get tangled underneath the surface - intentionally, but I realize it's going to be ugly to try to describe.

I have an interesting reflection from this production cycle. Usually I do it in more steps, but this time it involved a lot of work going through each stage in the process at the same time. Because I spent so much time editing at the end, I decided to keep track of the kinds of changes I made.

I started with a complete update I thought was close to done, but I still found five game-killing bugs. That's actually not bad, given everything going on. What interested me more was the number of small changes I made: nearly 200. These are non-essential things like rephrasing lines, adding extra animations, and so on. The game would have been fine without any of those, but I think it's a better experience with them. No doubt there are more opportunities I missed that you guys will tell me about, though. =P

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys the release! The next section will be about the extended consequences of the invasion - there's way too much to include in this release. It'll be a less driven, more sidequesty update. After that, the characters will be off to a new part of the continent!