hype train last call

this is your captain speaking.

we are beginning our descent.

please fasten your seatbelts and all that shit.

stay tuned for this important safety presentation.

Q: why is your safety presentation a Q&A?
A: idk! i expect that there's a certain set of things that need to be explained and/or questions people have, so this is just a quick and to the point way of addressing them.

just imagine that i'm rapidly switching between flight attendant and captain uniforms throughout this.

some questions are also reminiscent of comments made on previous devblog posts.

consider this an encouragement to not be like those people.

Q: why don't you just release the game already

A: because we're still adding stuff at the last minute!!!!

i'm gonna be honest the most frustrating part about this being the final release is that we keep having all of these ideas and can't be like "well, we'll just push this off to the next version."
there is no next version!!!!!!!!

there's a strong possibility of a non-content related update coming sometime in the future, but let's be real reggy nintendo just has to look at us funny and that won't happen. so we want to make this as good as we can before release.

but believe me we want this out just as fast as y'all do.

Q: when's e19

A: probably in may? idk! we've got to do the open beta (community release) first, and then we'll move on to the actual real final release of this video game.

Q: when's e19 community release

A: next weekend!

we have a date in mind. i don't want to say which date it is in case something goes wrong on our end and things have to be pushed back. we're not a big game company with a corporate HQ and millions of dollars in funding. we're just two bitches and a cat in an apartment. sometimes we oversleep. you never know.

just keep an eye on the sidebar.

Q: how do i get the community release?

A: be in the community! ie have a forum account.

Q: i am only here for free shit and i don't want to do work. do i have to report any bugs?

A: well, technically no! bug reports are definitely appreciated but are not mandatory.

Q: i found a bug! should i dm every developer about it at the same time?

A: no. 

for real, if you do this, we hate you.

please make a thread on the forum if you catch a bug! if you see a bug, assume that it needs to be reported.

Q: you made the game too easy and i hate it now.

A: that's not a question! it's also a pretty bold thing to say about something you haven't even played.

if the game is now ruined for you then i don't think there was ever anything we could've done about that.

we're sorry for your loss, though!

Q: where should i start to make sure i don't run into problems?

A: a pokemon center! or hardy's gym room. then head to calcenon.

you won't miss it.

Q: help i'm conflicted. i really want to see the new content right now, but i also want to see what's changed in early game.

A: so i don't know if there's a perfect way to handle that. a common strategy of the playtesters has been to complete e19m and then start over. personally, i still think that starting from the beginning is the best idea: a lot of character interactions have been reworked and seeing them before getting to e19 will only make the new content that much stronger. the early game changes have been universally praised.

Q: i'm the person from the last question. also i never want to see the magic square ever again, i'm tired of the starter quest, and i've caught every stupid pokemon in this stupid game. what do i do?

A: oh man i have some good news for you! 

one of those last minute things we're throwing in is some limited new game plus functionality. it'll let you skip some of those more time consuming quests.

just load up a save that's already completed them and my hawt new code will take care of the rest.

Q: hey there i have a suggestion for another new game plus thing do you want to he-

A: no!

like, listen, i'm sure you have a great idea.

every idea ever posted in the comments has been a good idea.

we just don't have time.

Q: i want to replay the game but then i would have to see ace and they've bloated the cast and ruined the game.

A: so that's a pretty bold thing to say about someone you've never met. if the game is now... well, you saw the answer earlier. 

i'm pretty sure that every since person who's tested this game has liked ace. 

and c'mon. an uncontroversial main antagonist? in this video game?

that man's comment career is over.

Q: can i activate passwords on my current save file?

A: yes! someone in calcenon can help you with that.

Q: i am SO excited about this like you have no idea. like srsly i am losing my mind. i have to tell everyone about my game.

A: so this also isn't a question but i don't have a great way to segue into this.

so discord has this hot new feature called "threads".

threads have been great for playthrough liveblogging. for real. if everyone was just dumping their comments in one place, all of our channels would look like a hellfuck nightmare. it's also great for devs because we can just see how people's thoughts evolve as they progress through the game.

this is me telling you to use a thread.

Q: what if i'm in the middle of the game when i start e19?

A: uhhhhhh that's a great question. we don't quite know.

if you're in the middle of a game, you should probably start from the beginning. we don't know what kind of weird interactions will occur as a result of switches being missing, events being skipped, etc.

just to be safe, you should probably start from the top.

if you have a save file from an older version of the game, we'd expect that it'll be fine as long as things were fine during e18.

Q: i downloaded the game and clicked the exe but it's not working! what do i do???

A: okay, so, this is just a total shot in the dark.

but you unzipped it, right?

Q: how do i unzip?

A: ...i am so concerned for your computer. i'm calling computer protective services.

you are now banned to the outdoors. say hi to bambi.

Q: hello. i am a hypothetical person from the future. i have a very loud take on this video game and/or one of its characters and i want to make a very loud post filled with hot takes about this. is this a good idea y/y?

A: please give your takes a moment to cool down! hot takes are a fire hazard and the building code requires you to only have them in the comfort of your own home with people in the room with you.

also i hit back.

Q: OMG I CAN'T BELEIVE THAT AT THE END OF THE EPISODE SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE

A: that's also not a question! what is wrong with you people

also you definitely don't want to go around spilling story secrets like that. 

spoiler locking for e19 is going to be a little weird since so much has changed.

all content before the champion is going to be spoiler locked for a month after the final release.

all content.

this is going to really trip up returning players who are already familiar with the major story beats. there's two big reasons for this: the first is that the early game changes mean that people replaying through the game may not know what is/isn't new between episodes, so it's best to spoiler everything to be safe; second, there's a whole swath of people out there who have been waiting for this game to finish before playing it, and they've got a lot of shit to catch up on.

for everyone's sake, we're treating all content as new content.

postgame is going to be spoiler locked for three months- potentially less depending on how quickly people get through everything.

this game is really fuckin long. y'all are gonna have shit to play for literal months. even if you played the game for 4 hours a day, every day, i'd still expect it to take about four weeks to beat.

now i'm sure that people are going to no-life the shit out of it, but this ain't about them.

we gotta give people a chance to play the whole thing.

Q: is the website gonna crash on release day?

A: well we're sure hoping it won't! got a hot new server upgrade and everything!

but yeah, probably. we're sorry :(

Q: wait, you wrote this post yesterday? how'd i miss it???

A: i started it yesterday and posted it hidden to make sure nothing got lost. don't worry!

now, i also polled the current testers for things they thought i should add. here's the highlights:
"save often! like, really really save often."

"pace yourself! e19m is still pretty long."

"don't forget that you can turn speedup off."

"there's a puzzle you might want a pen and paper for."

"the game is still hard people jfc"*

"the episode slaps and you're in for a ride."

*this comment includes some editorializing from myself.

hype train will arrive soon!