We want to preface this by saying it is an UNFINISHED version. Even though the performance and overall feel is miles ahead of before, not all the character sprite poses are done or in game. We’ll rapidly improve the build every 2-3 days for the 3 weeks minimum.

Been a little while! From our initial release of Cyber Rift we’ve been very keen on adding brand new content and planets to explore, new girls to meet, and brand new story content to the game. Due to issues with our initial implementation we were slowed to a crawl, and we really had to dig deep and comb through the build to make sure everything was up to snuff. We can happily say the build is now better, faster, and full of brand new content!

Big Changes and Fixes:

Naninovel has been removed

-With our initial build since we weren’t as confident in our skills we used a tool called Naninovel for all of the dialogue throughout the game. After realizing that this was a big mistake since it created a ton of conflicts with how the engine ran on top of our Adventure Creator tool, as well as slowed down the game dramatically, we decided enough was enough and now was the time to remove. We can confidently say with its removal the game is dramatically faster and overall much better feel

Character Sprites have been improved

-In our old format for sprites they were originally just a solid piece with the face as masks. This wasn’t an awful way of doing things, but we realized we could do so much more. Our brand new sprites are built from the ground up for easy movements and changes during dialogue. Each character has several arms, eyes, eyebrows and mouth poses to allow for much better expression during dialogue. They’re also now layered characters with all the pieces on top, which will let us give players the ability to change outfits in the future. This build does not have any alternative outfits besides the Cyberia jackets, but we’re excited to be adding whole new ones in the future.

Whole new dialogue system

-Even though we’ve built the primary way of talking in Adventure Creator we actually went one step further! Our new tool is able to directly convert text into usable gameplay in seconds. What this means is when we’re creating brand new content it’s a hell of a lot faster and it’ll make future updates take a lot less time. To put it in perspective, pretty much all the dialogue for the Cyberia update (all 41 pages of it) was built using the new tool and was implemented into the game in 3 days. We had to take the time to make sure everything was working correctly and wouldn’t mess up with the initial versions, but now we’re extremely confident for future content.

UI has been improved

-With the old build we were bouncing between Naninovel and Adventure Creator for the dialogue, but now it’s a unified and cohesive experience. Every single interaction and menu in the game is built in Adventure Creator. This makes everything much faster and smoother overall, and we’re hoping people enjoy the new UI elements.

Title Screen has been improved

-We wanted to improve the overall feeling of the game by fixing up our title screen and making everything feel smoother. We’ve also added a new “Start from Patch'' option to let people not have to play through the entire game just to see new content. This button will be up to date every single update so you’ll constantly be able to skip ahead if you just want to see the new stuff. You’ll be able to experience for yourself, but we really do think these new improvements to the menu will feel better the moment you start the game

All of the NSFW scenes have been converted to the tool

-These were a bit more of a pain compared to a lot of the fixes, but now you can view the replays anywhere on the ship (or offworld) and it’ll look exactly the same as if you were experiencing it like the normal story. We’re going to be adding all the new scenes once they’re ready to replays as well, and with each update this will continue to get added.

Transitions between Scenes have been improved

-Previously there was a jarring effect when you switched rooms. Now we’ve updated the game so each time you switch rooms there’s this smooth transition. We’re hoping it’ll improve the overall game feel for people but we definitely want to hear what you guys think!

Brand new Junky Minigame!

-In the earlier build Junky used to say he’ll have work and then just give you money. Not anymore! Fly up into Jukarya’s atmosphere and shoot some junk to find all the valuable bits.

Improved Shop

-The shop used to be more of a suggestion than a functional store. Now we have a much better implementation that’ll be very expanded upon in the future. Purchase the jackets and get started with the update!

Windowed Mode!

-Previously the game forced fullscreen in order to keep resolutions consistent. Not anymore! Now you can play the game and resize the window to your heart's content (definitely need feedback tho!)

New Content:

-New planet Cyberia -3 New backgrounds
-Brand new character: Elsie
-All character sprites redone in new sprite format
-New panning background (this will be expanded on as well!)
-New dialogue system that's more responsive
-New sprite system (blinking sprites as well!)
-Tons of new interactions throughout (double if you use DD-9 on them!)
-3 New music tracks
-New Junky minigame
-and much more...

Features that are still WIP that will be added in the next 3 weeks:
-3 NSFW scenes (Planned for initial but the sprites took much longer to fix and will be added once the’re ready)
-Music tracks will be improved a bit
-Smalls bits of dialogue needed to be added after NSFW scenes are implemented
-Windowed mode has small issues resizing (fixed by toggling fullscreen in options)
-Notifications for everything game related (pinups, objectives, items, etc…)

Known Issues and Stuff we’re going to fix

-During conversations with characters in scenes it is still possible to play certain animations
-Not all character portraits/poses are in every scene and will be fixed quickly
-Fae sprite has not been fully implemented
-Player name during specific dialogue sections does not show up correctly
-Animations for blinking with all the characters is still being fixed and added
-Various character positioning during dialogues will be improved

Since there are so many changes to the game we really need your help to make it the best game we can make! Please try and break the game, do weird stuff, just do whatever you can to mess with it and tell us how you did it. We want to fix as many of the issues as possible. If you have any feedback on the game, or simply want to let us know what you think just comment here or tell us directly on our discord!

We’ve really appreciated everyone giving the game a chance, and even though this version isn’t perfect we wanted to give you guys an experience sooner than later. After the build is fully polished and all the assets are in, we’ll be updating our public builds to have all the improvements. The public will remain one version behind gameplay/story wise, and you’ll have either buy the game on Itch or subscribe on our Patreon/SubscribeStar to get the latest content. Our plan is to do a staggered release at least until the end of Chapter 1 (each chapter is 4 parts), and we’re hoping everyone will enjoy the new content. Welcome to our refined vision Cyber Rift and hope you’ll join us on the ride!