TLDR: Bugs getting squashed, build on track for public mid February

Today we're excited to talk about the current status with the patron build, and when everyone can expect a public build for Cyber Rift. Currently we released v0.1.9a which was the first technical build for the conversion to an adventure game, and feedback has been pretty great so far. This build was primarily focused on letting patrons experience the mechanics early, as well as garner feedback for the new systems in case we missed anything major. Biggest source of criticism was lack of player direction, so that's why today we're gonna talk about a big new feature: Objectives!

It'll look a bit prettier than this in the future, but here's the WIP!

Since we improved the new mechanics to get the player to engage with the environment more, we also felt like we need some form of guide in case players get a bit lost. We do have a walkthrough, but now with this system players will be able to have a direct note for what they are currently doing in game as well as a picture of the location that they need to go. We'll also have a small button to toggle objective text on the main screen, currently we're deciding how we want to implement but here's another WIP:

The squid is purely to get it working though!

The hope with this new system is for players to be able to naturally explore, and hopefully figure out where they need to go without consulting the walkthrough. Patrons have also been showing us places that need a bit of work, and we're continuing to try and fix every major bug we can before we go public. Currently we want to get the NSFW scenes finished before we start showing it off fully, but the build is pretty stable in comparison to previous ones. We're working on getting all the new dialogue and scenes fixed up as well, and we also have a whole new writer to help fix up future dialogue. When the build goes public we're very excited to see how people react and play this whole new version of Cyber Rift!

Our artist is still plugging away at even more new backgrounds!

Currently the aim is to get the finished build for middle of February. What this means is it will include every feature we're aiming for. We're very much on track to meet our goals, and we're very focused on fixing all the small issues currently. To get a picture of how much content there will, here's the current list of WIP features we're working on:

New Features:

-Full conversion into a point and click adventure
-Ship has been redesigned from top to bottom to allow for exploration
-Inventory system and puzzles using new items
-Redesigned character interactions and story progression
-Over 20 new backgrounds
-4 New music tracks
-Brand new UI
-Foundation for reworked story (this will be heavily iterated on in the next 3 weeks)
-New WIP Currency and Phone UI buttons with access to shop (shop is still WIP)

Our current focus:
-Removal of placeholder dialogue and fixing existing scenes
-Finish new maps for all three floors on the ship
-Finish all backgrounds across the ship (cockpit hallway, hangar hallway, and others)
-3 NSFW scenes (currently in progress and our artist is focused on finishing them to the highest standard)
-Several new character expressions and poses
-Fully reworked dialogue (will be a huge focus)
-Several backgrounds need to be fixed resolution wise (bathroom hallway, bathroom, recroom)
-Adding a lot more character dialogue throughout
-Basic UI shop through phone (in the game but needs work)
-Objective system and way to track progress
-More dialogue across the various interactions
-Gallery accessible through player's room
-Cyberia Teaser

February is going to be a very big month for Cyber Rift, and we're extremely excited to let you guys see what we've been cooking up these past few months. Once the build is done we'll also be doing a retrospective on how much has changed as well as a clear timeline in when the next update will be. Hope you guys are as excited as we are!