So last month we released the alpha version of Cyber Rift Chapter 1 Part 2 and the feedback has been incredibly helpful and supportive! So far we've squashed tons of bugs, and lately have been extra focused on improving based on the feedback we've received so far. Because there were so many changes compared to 0.1.9.6, we've been taking the extra time to make sure everything has been working perfectly before we release an updated Part 1 to the public. There's still a fair amount of work needed to fully finish Part 2, and today we wanted to give a bit of info on what we're working towards right now with the current build.

New and improved Player Sprite!

New and improved Everie Sprite!

One of the biggest changes compared to the older versions besides the new dialogue system was the change in character sprites. Right now we have Everie, the player, and Elsie's sprites fully finished in the new system. One issue however is that due to the sprites having so much more ability for expression, this also meant that each piece of the expressions during dialogue has to be adjusted accordingly. The sprites are broken down into these parts: Mouth, Eyes, Eyebrows and Arms. For every single line of dialogue that involves a character on the screen we'll have to be changing these parts of the character to match the words. This process is quite tedious, but in order to really perfect the build completely we're currently going through the entirety of the game and matching each piece accordingly. We're honestly super happy with the progress, but in the meantime our artist has been cooking up the last character sprite before he gets started on the last pieces of needed art for Part 2.

Fae's sprite has been taking a bit more time than expected, but she's had quite the glow up with the new sprite system!

Two other things we're working on adding to the build right now are sounds for the UI, and different camera angles to match dialogue. These are features we've been wanting to add for a long time but didn't have a realistic method of doing them until very recently. Luckily compared to the sprites their implementation has been pretty straightforward, but for camera angles it has to be decided on a per scene basis to make sure they look correct for the dialogue. UI sound wise currently the main menu has sound effects along with the pause menu, and the phone UI. The goal is to eventually have them everywhere across the game to make everything feel much more responsive for players. We're aiming for this specific improvement to also be in the Part 1 build which we want to talk about today.

Close-ups! Along with moving the camera during key dialogue moments we want to have fun zoom ins and character close-ups during conversations.

The last things that are currently needed for Part 2 are the Fae sprite, 3 NSFW scenes and hopefully a final background. The Fae sprite in particular is very important right now since we need it to fully finish off Chapter Part 1 along with Part 2. The 3 NSFW scenes will be included along with some new dialogue sections to accompany them, and finally a last dialogue section to fully cap off the update that'll lead into Part 3. The aim for the final background is a picture of where Part 3 is going to be headed, and we're hoping to be able to include that pretty soon. We're expecting the Fae sprite to be done in the next 1-2 weeks, and ideally if things go smoothly we'll have an ETA on the NSFW scenes very soon as well.

Everie's jacket is now properly in the game along with player's one for their journey to Cyberia!

Cyber Rift Chapter 1 Part 1 will be the new and improved demo version going forward. This build will have the same story progression as the previous demo, but we'll be adding every single improvement that has been made in the latest build. This includes all the new sprites, the dialogue system, the new responsive UI, and all the various improvements that we've been making for the past few months. It'll be released on Newgrounds, Itch, and our Patreon pages as a new free version. Our new release strategy from now on will be to update in a staggered fashion. What this means is when Part 3 is released we'll be making Part 2 the new public version. Our plan is to do this at least until the end of Chapter 1, but depending on people's reception we may extend this to the end of Chapter 2.

Updated Roadmap! The Cyberia updated ballooned quite a bit and it's now going to be Parts 2 through 4 as separate and equally sized updates.

We just want to make it very clear that with all these new improvements future development on updates will be a lot smoother compared to before. Pretty much every major issue that was slowing down development has been addressed in some way and we're really aiming to get content out a lot more consistently and at a higher quality bar than before. We're extremely excited for the future of Cyber Rift and hope you guys will tag along for the ride!