Star Wars: XtormTroopers

Chapter 1 - Issue 2 What's in this Issue? Gameplay Time: ~30 minutes (at "auto" speed) Director's Cut: ~10 minutes of exclusive commentary Extras Time: ~20 minutes "sneak peek" preview Lore & Dialogue: ~21,000 words (Narration + GUI) Renders & Videos: 355 renders (+1 video) Minigames: 4 fully playable experiences 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)