Star Wars: XtormTroopers

Content so far (Total): Gameplay Time: ~40 minutes at "auto" speed. Director's Cut: ~15 minutes of exclusive commentary woven between scenes. Extras Time: ~20 minutes of a "sneak peek" preview into what lies ahead. Lore & Dialogue: ~23,000 words (Narration + GUI Elements). Renders & Videos: ~435 renders in total (+1 video). Minigames: 4 fully playable minigames 100% completed. Thank you for your patience and feedback. Every bug reported is a step closer to the cinematic experience I envision for this game. Chapter 1 - Issue 3 New Features of this update: Codex for the Clueless Overhaul: Rewrote it from scratch. You now have a lore guide that doesn’t read like a municipal zoning manual. The entries are slightly longer, yes, but they’re now packed with dry wit and appropriately lewd asides that actually make you want to flip through them instead of skipping to the next scene. The old Codex took itself far too seriously; the new one knows it’s supposed to be entertaining.​ Holonet Diary Rewrite: Now it feels like reading the MC’s personal log, instead of a corporate newsletter. I’ve rewritten the Holonet entries to match the protagonist’s thoughts more closely, injecting a healthy dose of self-aware humor. It’s less “official record” and more “what I actually thought at 3 AM after too much synthetic coffee.”​ Save System Stabilization: Your progress will NOT spontaneously combust the moment you patch the game to a newer version. Previously, the old save system treated any minor scene tweak as a catastrophic event, corrupting files and forcing you to replay dialogue you’ve already endured. I’ve replaced it with a four-tier fallback system that automatically routes you to the nearest safe checkpoint.​ Localization Pipeline Cleanup: Future language packs will actually work without breaking the interface. When I built the v0.1 GUI, I assumed it was translation-ready. I was wrong. Naninovel’s localization handles dialogue beautifully, but custom UI elements were left orphaned in the wild. I'm now wiring every button, label, and menu element into the localization framework. It’s invisible to you now, but it means the game can finally speak your language... once I translate it.​ Things I'm working on... but you can't yet see: In-Game Analytics (Still Disabled): We now have cleaner progress tracking and fewer mysterious bugs, with zero privacy invasion. I’ve been quietly optimizing the event tracking system to strip out any personal data and focus purely on development metrics. The goal is simple: catch errors faster, understand how people actually play, and eventually feed anonymized stats back into your profiles so you can watch your own journey unfold. Still disabled and your session is not sending any data, and it'll be like this until I feel 10,000% sure about it.​ AVN Market Analytics: To track better pacing, smarter update schedules, and potentially more collabs down the line. As a solo dev in a niche market, it’s easy to feel like painting the town while blindfolded. So I built scrapers that pull public data from major aggregators into an offline database. Now I can benchmark against similar projects, track lifecycle trends, and make decisions based on actual market signals instead of guesswork. It’s less about chasing trends and more about knowing whether to keep rowing or change course.​ Custom DAZ Asset Manager: Your scenes will feel more unique and less like a recycled asset catalog. DAZ’s official manager is a bureaucratic nightmare that wastes more time than it saves. So I built my own. Yes, it’s overkill. No, I don’t regret it. With the AI bubble still not popping, I’m locking in my pipeline of tools. Knowing exactly what I own, where it lives, and how to combine it means richer environments, tighter composition, and fewer moments where you’ll think, “Wait, haven’t I seen this model before?”​ Workflow & Toolchain Upgrades: You’ll notice a subtle but real jump in audio and video quality, with fewer hiccups overall. I’ve renamed the “Balance Engine” to the VN Variable Tracker, made it more resilient, and locked in stricter development protocols. I’ve also stress-tested new AI voice models, LORAs, and video workflows. The result is cleaner output, faster iteration, and a production line that actually respects my time.​ Bug Fixes & Technical Polishing: (Major) Minigame Exit Freeze Resolved: The “End Minigame” button on the final scene was silently failing to trigger the next routine. Fixed. You can finally finish a minigame without the game deciding to take an unscheduled nap. (Medium) Legacy Scene Optimization: Older chapters run smoother and load faster. I’ve rewritten and streamlined a lot of the original scene logic and dialogue trees. Less spaghetti code, more actual gameplay. ⚡ (Major) Actor Visibility Corrections: Characters will actually appear when they’re supposed to. Several sprites were failing to render in specific contexts. They’ve been fixed to show up on time. ️ (Medium) Missing Voice-Overs Patched: The audio experience is now consistent. A handful of lines were accidentally left unvoiced during earlier builds. They now have proper audio files attached. (Medium) Background Music Triggers Fixed: The atmosphere will stay intact. Certain dialogue sequences were accidentally dropping their BGM. The music now plays when it’s supposed to, without skipping a beat. (Minor) Director’s Cut Auto-Advance Disabled: You can read the commentary at your own pace. The Director’s Cut lines were previously set to auto-advance, which defeats the whole purpose of sitting down with a virtual beverage and chilling. You should now be able to control the scroll. (Major) Input Method Button Mapping: Your controls won’t randomly swap when you switch between mouse, keyboard, or controller. The dialogue menu buttons were remapping themselves on input change. They now stay put. (Medium) Audio Volume Normalization: No more sudden silence or volume whiplash. I’ve corrected missing music triggers and balanced track levels so the mix stays consistent from start to finish. ️ (Minor) Typos & Grammar Cleanup: Reading is easier on the eyes. A handful of grammatical stumbles and spelling errors have been smoothed out. The prose now flows without tripping over its own shoelaces. ✍ (Minor) Comic Bubble Alignment: Text will no longer overlap or float in awkward places. Dialogue bubbles from earlier issues have been repositioned to match the correct screen framing. (Medium) File Size & Load Optimization: Save +50% of disk space and load in-game scenes faster! All without sacrificing a single pixel of that crisp 2K art. I ran the entire asset pipeline through a targeted compression pass. The result is a leaner build that cuts the .zip size in half, eases the burden on your VRAM, and boots up quicker. A proper hat trick, if I do say so myself. (Minor) GUI Refinement: Your interface will feel tighter and cleaner. I’ve spent the last few days micromanaging margins, padding, and text box widths to give the GUI a more polished look. I’ll admit a few elements still nag at my aesthetic sensibilities, but those will be ironed out incrementally. ️ (Medium) Double-Confirmation UI Layer: You won’t accidentally open your default internet browser or quit the game due to a missclick. I’ve added double-confirmation prompts to every button that exits the game or opens an external link. A digital seatbelt for your attention span. ️ (Minor) Devlog Overhaul: Reading these updates will finally be easy on the eyes, with consistent formatting across every past issue. I’ve rebuilt the devlog template for better readability and gone back to fix the styling on all previous entries. Because nothing says “immersive narrative experience” quite like scrolling through a changelog instead of actually playing the game. Chapter 1 - Issue 2 New Features: The Save-File Continuity In Issue 1, any modification to a scene would invalidate save files, forcing you to restart from the latest unmodified scene. Since I'm very much against technical limitations punishing the player's progress, I have restructured how scenes are handled to ensure your journey persists across updates. Furthermore, I am pushing myself to treat every single release as a "final version" of its content; once a scene is delivered, it should be a final "polished piece of art".​ Audio Feedback in GUI Implemented a new auditory response system across the Graphic User Interface. Every interaction now provides a subtle, satisfying audible feedback.​ While this may seem like a minor detail, it required a complete overhaul of the previous audio architecture. To give you total control, I’ve added a dedicated GUI Sound Slider , allowing you to mute these effects without affecting the background music or atmospheric sounds.​ Mac Support Leveraging the new scene architecture, I have implemented the necessary standards to bring the experience to Apple devices. This "Issue 2" is the inaugural Mac version . As with any first step into a new ecosystem, there may be unforeseen frictions. If you encounter any anomalies, please report them via Discord.​ ️ Bug Fixes & Technical Polishing (Major) DirectX 11 Stability Patch (Windows): Fixed crashes on systems forcing DX12 by implementing an extra shortcut that forces the game to initiate via DX11. (Medium) Visual Correction (Issue 1): Fixed a continuity error when Jules was removing the helmet. (Medium) Audio Restoration (Issue 1): Re-processed the voice line "Do not cause problems for us already" to remove errors. Thank you for your patience and feedback. Every bug reported is a step closer to the cinematic experience I envision for this world. Chapter 01 - Issue 01 I've had to fundamentally redefine how I release content. To keep the momentum alive and ensure you always have a reason to return, I’m shifting away from technical conventions (v0.x.y.z) toward a narrative release system. While this is more user-friendly, it is also a way to commit myself to deliver regular updates What's in this Issue? (Total) Gameplay Time: ~20 minutes at a normal pacing(+ hours with the minigames) Lore & Dialogue: ~15,000 words with content (Narration + GUI Elements). Renders & Videos: 271 renders in total (+1 video) Total Characters: 7 unique individuals. Minigames: 4 playable minigames 100% playable. How the new release naming works: Issue: Ideally, each issue would provide a MINIMUM of 15min of gameplay. I aim to release an issue every two to three weeks. This structure serves as a visible pulse of progress, a consistent rhythm instead of months of silence punctuated by massive releases. Each Issue will deliver a "ready-to-enjoy" new content. Some will be brief; others may span multiple scenes, creating continuous micro-narratives... and the more I can focus on content and less on development, the longer the issues will become. Chapter: A Chapter is a deep dive, a major collection of Issues that forms a cohesive narrative arc. Think of it as an "act" in theater, or a "volume" in comics. Episode: Following the tradition of sprawling science fiction, an Episode represents a complete, massive undertaking... Would be like "a movie" or a "videogame" of itself. The fact that it says "Episode 3" does not mean that there are any previous games... yet. I'm just keeping the possibilities open for both expansive sagas and short, poignant "intermission" pieces along the way. Bug Fixes & Improvements: Cinematic Quality Leap: My relentless pursuit of cinematic quality begins in "Issue 1". I am still manually composing every frame to ensure that the experience is exactly as it should be. This has meant infusing each render with deeper lighting and richer texturing. A commitment born out of stubborn refusal to settle for mediocrity. Dialogue Speech Bubbles now stay on screen: I spent countless late nights battling the chat bubble elements. They kept floating away during critical narrative moments, a constant, frustrating visual failure that broke immersion. These intimate moments of character vulnerability now hold steady, exactly where they belong. Code Improved to ensure a smooth experience: The original opening was cluttered and inefficient. The code was demanding more resources than it shouldn't have. I had to tear down huge parts and rebuild them from scratch... a messy, painful effort. This new structure is resilient, built specifically to withstand the tidal wave of content we are adding next. The Gentle Camera: The camera transitions were improperly configured; simply flawed code. I spent time refining those Ken Burns movements, aiming for something organic... a gradual breath of cinematic motion that allows you to FEEL the narrative unfolding. Legal Text: After much effort, I have finally created all the required legal text and the introductory pop-up to ensure every user is of age and is aware of what they may find during the game experience. Translation-ready GUI: I set up all GUI in a proper way so it allows multiple languages... Now I only need to create the different languages... So far I'm thinking: Russian, German, Spanish and French. Analytics: still no proper analytics system, but I started working on it... Things I'm working on... but you can't yet see: The Balance Engine: I built a comprehensive tracking tool that logs every variable in this world (stats, reputation, currency). This is my way of guaranteeing balance. It allows me to map the absolute limits of your journey, determining what happens when you succeed flawlessly or fail utterly. This was a week-long effort that stopped me from creating content, but it ensures no choice in the game has an impossible path; it guarantees quality without endless beta testing. Visual Workflow Mastery: I have invested heavily in learning complex workflows for image and video production. The jump in quality, especially in this issue shows this commitment. Every single scene is still composed manually (from character poses, outfits to scenarios) and I'm using these new workflows only to polish the final result, giving me the speed I need for future content. Translation-Ready Game: The game's GUI is now translation-ready. I have set up the structure to allow multiple languages (Russian, German, Spanish, French, or any other). Analytics System in WIP: A proper analytic system is also in development; a system that keeps FULL ANONIMITY and will use only to guide my own design decisions, and relevant data to (1) fix bugs/crashes, (2) understand what works or not, and (3) allow me to pivot my focus in what really matters to you..... But so far, this is only a WIP, so your feedback is the only metric I still have. v0.0.1b TLDR; no content, just bugfixes NEW CONTENT: Nothing, this is a very "small" update to fix bugs that have been reported. If you played the previous v0.0.1a you can skip this one. BUG FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS: A button labeled "Patreon" that did not lead to Patreon has been hidden . - No monetization exists yet, no page to link to, no financial relationship to solicit. A misconfiguration changed the label of one button. It said "Patreon" but it went nowhere. A label on a door that opened onto a wall. I have removed the door. I'm keeping the wall. You are free to play without the sensation of being hunted or predated. Jump. Run. Explore. Nothing in this version wants your wallet. Scenes and characters now display with accurate, vivid colors. - A post-process tint was silently darkening the entire game experience. Everything was being processed through a filter nobody asked for. Now DirectX 11 is forced on the Unity graphics, and you should see reality as it was meant to be. Welcome to the "not-so-dark" side. Faster loading times and smoother scene transitions. - Unity's default pipeline was dutifully initializing depth prepass buffers, shadow cascades, and occlusion culling structures... all of them designed for 3D geometry that does not exist in this game, has never existed, and was never planned. The renderer has been relieved of its unnecessary obligations. Closing the game now fully closes the game. - EXIT button now properly closes the app, and an Application.Quit() is now called to complete engine deinitialization. You should not experience any background threads running unattended in your system. If you still do, that's unrelated to this game. If you still do have them, your PC was already haunted before you launched this game. Whatever is lurking in there is not a bug I can patch. Confirmation pop-ups now appear on top of everything and can be interacted with. - The modal was instantiating on a canvas layer beneath the existing graphic user interface... present in the scene, invisible to you, waiting in silence for an interaction that was structurally impossible. Now this modal has been promoted to the correct layer. It can be found. It can be interacted with. Skip mode now works without interruption on all dialogue lines. - Auto-advancing interrupt sequences (dialog lines that require no player input) accidentally contained hardcoded "wait commands" of up to 1000ms. Unskippable. One second of enforced stillness with no narrative justification, which is precisely long enough to start noticing the passage of time and forming opinions about it. This has been fixed, and you may now skip continuously, all the way to the end, experiencing nothing. This is your right. Choice buttons no longer bleed into minigames or break them. - When a minigame was triggered from the menu, while a choice dialog was active, the choice UI remained visible and interactive on top of the minigame scene... clicking those choices mid-minigame corrupted the game state in ways that were creative, varied, and entirely unwelcome. The choice layer is now properly dismissed before minigame initialization. Each system gets its turn. The Pong minigame now runs at a consistent speed regardless of your hardware. - The minigame was running on raw hardware acceleration (no frame cap, no delta time normalization) which meant its speed was determined entirely by how many frames your machine could produce. On capable hardware, playable. Running on potatoes, a disaster. The minigame now scales to screen resolution and quality settings. If it still misbehaves on your system, lowering the in-game quality setting should correct it. The "New Stepmother" is now correctly identified as "Aunt". - When you are adopted by your uncle, his wife does not become your stepmother. Unfortunately, this is how kinship works. The MC's family tree was silently violating this convention assigning a maternal role to a woman who had not assumed one (by any legal, biological or emotional mechanism). I regret the confusion (I regret it less than I would have regretted leaving it in, though). The MC is now, correctly, motherless. Closing the contraband screen from the main menu no longer corrupts the title screen. - Closing that menu triggered incorrect GUI layers to surface on the title screen, blocking every interactive element underneath. This has been fixed, and now the in-game layers are aware that the main menu is not their jurisdiction. The save/load menu now accurately reflects the actual state of your saves at all times . - Deleting a save slot was being processed visually but not propagated correctly to the "save and load" menu. This has been corrected. Deletions are now real. What you see is what exists. Save slot thumbnails now capture and display correctly. - Thumbnails for save slots were rendering black. You were navigating your save history by feel, by memory, or by a kind of archival intuition that no player should be required to develop. The capture pipeline has been corrected. Slots now show exactly where you were when you saved. The DevLog button in the Extras menu now opens the DevLog. - It did not before. The button existed. It was labeled correctly. It was reachable. Pressing it produced nothing... no text, no record of any change ever having been made. A button whose entire purpose was to surface this document was, until now, incapable of doing so (the irony!). All prior announcements listed in this changelog were, technically, unannounced. Quick save and checkpoint slots expanded from 16 to 96. - The previous limit of 16 slots was not enough for the needs of the most adventurous AVN players. That number is now 96 for both cases. If that ever turns out to be not enough, I can always expand the number to 999. KNOWN BUGS: All reported bugs so far have been fixed. If you've experienced another bug, don't be shy, report it here or via Discord! v0.0.1a New Content: - Full Prologue playable from start to finish, including opening crawl, character introductions, and first interactions with 5 of the 8 main characters - Complete End-of-Version screen with guided tour of all current features - Setting established: a space station under construction, pre-Year Zero BBY, with multiple interior environments already built New Features & Fixes: Voice Over System: Organic, scalable voice acting pipeline. Every line is recorded and integrated Music & Sound Design: Full audio layer combining original score with adapted Star Wars music, plus contextual sound effects. Each scene has its own audio identity Ken-Burn Effects: Custom-built background motion system. Not video, not traditional animation Main Menu: Fully functional with complete feature access. Clean, navigable, no distractions Save System: Multiple save slots, autosave, and scene checkpoints. The universe remembers everything... but if you need to go back and try again, the infrastructure is there Director's Cut Mode: Toggleable annotation layer, accessible from Extras. Adds creator commentary to scenes. Already implemented in the intro Point & Click Interaction: Clickable objects and areas hidden inside scenes. Rewards exploration with inventory items, hidden achievements, alternate dialogue, and exclusive story paths Hidden Messages: Environmental storytelling baked into scenes. Clues, easter eggs, and rewards for players who actually look at what's in front of them Achievement System: Fully implemented. Tied to exploration, decisions, minigame performance, and story paths Pet Names System: Unlockable address system for main (and some secondary) characters. Names earned through reputation and story decisions. Specific events generate specific names until overwritten Advanced Decision Tracking: Every player choice stored and queryable at any future point in the script. Includes a developer tool to calculate maximum achievable score per stat per playthrough Player Stats Screen: Two alignment axes (Rebel/Loyal and Traditionalist/Progressive) that evolve based on decisions. Separate skill track tied exclusively to competitive minigame performance. Training damage stats for ego purposes Inventory System: Functional item collection. Items serve as dialogue keys, character gifts (reputation boosters), and interaction requirements for specific GUI elements Girls Menu: Relationship tracker for main characters. Shows reputation scores, current status, and pet name aliases Holonet (Contact Directory): Character registry that updates dynamically based on your decisions. Same entry tells a different story depending on what you've done Scene Replay System: Unlocked scenes saved and replayable at any time. Tracks per-playthrough unlocks Contraband Gallery: Unlockable spicy content tied to items, decisions, and specific story paths Codex: In-universe encyclopedia. Has an entry explaining what the Codex is, which is exactly as meta as it sounds Sith Holocron: One per chapter. Find the code from in-game clues. Requires the physical Holocron item in inventory to open. Grants access to everything missed in that chapter 4 Fully Functional Minigames: Procedurally generated, each with modifier powerups configurable à la carte. Two modes: Training (unlimited, no stakes) and Competitive (triggered by character challenges, one attempt, results affect Skills). Characters have strengths and weaknesses across games Tutorial System: Gradual feature unlock designed to onboard mechanics organically as the story creates space for them Feedback Screen: End-of-version interactive sequence with sentiment tracking and F95Zone integration prompts Known Bugs: - Do not try to delete saves... I'll fix that soon. - Button to exit the game may not 100% work. (That's because I love you and I want you to play forever... Alt+F4 still works, though)