Stealth or Sledgehammer (Patreon)

Hey everyone,

I have a bit more to talk about today than usual. If you prefer the short version, there is a TL;DR at the bottom.

Chapter 13

I have made good progress on the flashback. By now I have reached exactly the point where the new system I teased a while back becomes necessary. I think it is time to reveal a little more about it.

For context: chapter 13 will feature two completely new systems overall. One is the investigation with Emma at the beginning, the other is the one I am talking about here.

As some of you already saw in the preview video, there will be a horror aspect. I looked at how other visual novels handle horror, and to me it only really works when you are the one in control. Clicking your way through a creepy environment and wondering what happens on the next click can be atmospheric and tense. But imagine instead that you steer someone walking through an abandoned city at night yourself. You decide which alley he takes. Suddenly there is that thought: I had better not make the wrong call here. That is a completely different experience from simply clicking onward.

Something along those lines is planned for chapter 13. One important point, and I am saying this upfront on purpose: it is an option, not an obligation. Without giving too much away, the main character has the chance to approach the whole thing quietly and sneak his way through, which is where the horror atmosphere comes in. Or you can decide right from the start: no thanks, I am going through the wall head first and clearing the place out. In that case there is no horror setting at all.

That said, there is a reason the main character is encouraged to try the quiet route first: going in quietly gets you something you simply will not see otherwise. So there is a real incentive to at least give the sneaking a shot. But if your reaction is "I have zero interest in horror", you can charge straight in from the first second, and the sledgehammer approach stays available to you at any point later on. In the end the only question is whether you want to engage with it or not. If not, that is perfectly fair. And if you do botch the quiet route, you end up in the sledgehammer version anyway.

One more note so nobody walks away with the wrong expectations: for now this system is a one off and stays exclusive to chapter 13. If a spot ever comes up where it fits perfectly, I might bring it back, but that is not the plan. How things continue from there depends on your feedback, and we will talk about that once chapter 13 is out.

Chapter 12.5

This is also the first post after 12.5. By now every one of you has had the chance to play it. If you have been holding back so far: play it. I would not have released it on its own if it were not a full experience. Do not let the name put you off.

About the poll

Last time I could not run a poll, for a very simple reason: the moment I upload an image, Patreon will not let me add a poll, and the other way around as well. A few of you asked in the comments why I did not just put it to a vote. That is why. So there is no image today, but there is a poll.

In the comments, option B was ahead, though some of you named A, and not everyone comments in the first place. Since there was quite a bit of feedback, I think it is only fair to let you vote on it properly.

As a reminder, here is the question. Say I make 50 images for a chapter. One of them simply looks nice(B) but does not reveal much. Another one is maybe less pretty, because there is no scantily dressed lady in it, but it tells you a lot about the story(A). Which one do you want as a sneak peek?

One important note: I do not create extra images for Patreon posts. Everything I show here comes out of my normal workflow anyway. I know devs who spend two or three hours on a beautiful Patreon image, and that is perfectly fine, plenty of people enjoy having those as wallpapers. I would rather put those two or three hours into progress for the game. Making progress on the game is what I enjoy, and when I am not making progress, the work feels off to me. So the poll is mainly for the case where I have both on hand and cannot decide. If I only have one of the two, that is the one you get.

And now for the tech part

Other than that, work is moving along as usual. There was a small hiccup, but I bridged it well.

About two years ago I bought an Intel i9 from the Raptor Lake line. Anyone who follows hardware can probably guess where this is going: those CPUs have a well known degradation problem.

I did my homework before installing it, since it was an expensive piece of hardware. Everyone I asked at the time told me the same thing: degradation is not really an issue in practice. I ran the CPU with an updated BIOS from day one and deliberately gave it less power than specified, just to be safe. It degraded anyway. After two years it got so bad that the machine would crash while Windows was still booting. Not great, considering it is my work PC.

Amazon, unexpectedly painless

So I contacted Amazon, honestly expecting a long back and forth. Instead I got a very simple answer: no problem, send it back, full refund.

For anyone outside Germany, we have two different things here that often get mixed up. A "Garantie" is a voluntary promise from the manufacturer or retailer. While it is running, you basically say "it does not work" and get your money back. The statutory "Gewährleistung" runs for two years and is stricter: past a certain point you have to prove the fault was not your own doing, and even then what you are entitled to is primarily a repair or replacement, not an automatic refund. I was in exactly that phase. Amazon simply waved it off and refunded me.

There are plenty of good reasons to be critical of Amazon. But in this case I was genuinely impressed by how smoothly it went. They even let me send back the matching motherboard, which they had no reason to do at all. Credit where credit is due.

From Intel to AMD

So I went shopping and, for the first time in my life, bought an AMD processor. That felt strange, because I have always been an Intel guy. I still remember saving up forever as a teenager for my first i5. And when I finally started earning decent money, an i7 went into my machine. As far as I was concerned, I had a Ferrari parked in my room.

I do not feel any real loyalty to the company, but the switch still took some getting used to. Looking at it more closely, though, it makes sense. After the whole 13th and 14th generation story, Intel released a new generation that was simply weaker than its predecessor. I still find that remarkable. Imagine Sony launching the PS6 and it being worse than the PS5. Why release it at all? After that came the announcement of a refresh, better, stronger, all new, launching in early 2026. We are now a good half year past that and there is still no solid information. A shame, Intel. The moment something convincing shows up, I am happy to be won back. But for now, shame on you Intel.

Some of my colleagues went straight to: "Berki, you idiot, you should have gone AMD from the start." That is easy to say in hindsight. When I put my work PC together, the exact same people told me Intel. I am not particularly knowledgeable about hardware, so I ask people who know better, and with no experience of my own I take their word for it. That is how it goes when you do not check everything yourself.

First impressions

The new processor has been very stable so far. Scenes in my studio software that used to crash my old machine reliably now just drop to a couple of FPS for a second or two, and then everything is loaded. So I am very happy with it for now. Of course, I have not had the system for long, a proper long term stress test is still ahead, and there is a lot left to try. But the first impression is good, and every single crash is gone.

All in all I paid almost nothing extra and now have a different motherboard and a different processor. I could not work at full capacity for a day or two, which I bridged with programming and writing. Some time was lost, but not much. Most importantly, I hope I no longer have to think twice before loading a heavy scene, wondering whether the character will render or whether my PC is about to die on me.

That is it from me for now. Thank you for reading, take care of yourselves, surround yourselves with good people, and see you next time.

TL;DR: Chapter 13 is coming along well, the flashback is in place, and there will be a new system with an optional horror and stealth section. If that is not your thing, you can go in head first instead. No image today, but there is a poll about the sneak peeks, so please vote and we will have it in black and white. And CPU wise I switched from Intel to AMD, which runs a lot better now. Love you all.

Berki