Second devblog already! We’ve made a good chunk of progress since the first devblog, so thought it was time for another one. Over the last few days, we’ve run some very useful playtests that we’ve used to fine-tune the player experience a bit, and iron out some narrative kinks in particular.

Let’s get down to the breakdown, again separated area by area:

General:

Outlines have now also been added to interactable objects like NPCs, elevator, Machines, and posters!

Our Quest system is now fully hooked up within the build! If an NPC gives you a Quest to sabotage a specific machine, the game will track if you accomplished the task, and all characters’ dialogue will change accordingly.

Main Menu/Outside:

The player now has a choice at the start whether to Go to Work by entering the factory doors, or Quit the game by moving onto the intersection behind them.

Newspapers

Newspapers now have fully reactive images to match their headlines!

Breakroom

Breakroom size has been expanded to accommodate for grid-based movement, and more set dressing has been added.

Variant dialogue has been added to breakroom when talking to coworkers under certain conditions to avoid continuity errors. Too many to list, so just try out doing some funky stuff and watch your colleagues react to it.

Onboarding Elevator

Tutorial dialogue can now also be skipped for repeat players.

Factory Area

Posters have been added to each Machine on the factory floor. They currently show a clear layout of the puzzle grid, along with numbered receivers for each puzzle.

• Plan going forward is to assign each Machine a clear name, and designate a Function for the receivers as well, to be used in narrative quests for observant players.

Machines have been clearly numbered in the level, and arrows have been added on the floors indicating the direction of each machine, to make the space easier to navigate.

Lighting feedback has been added to the puzzles to reflect their completion state – green when fixed, red when broken/sabotaged. Receivers now also turn fully black when sabotaged.

HR area has also been added so the player can access the ending sequence. In-between dialogue has also been added for Midge purely for fun reasons.

Puzzle machines have also received a visual revamp to look more tech-y, and fit better within the current grid spacing.

Fixed a long-standing player experience issue where you could exit a puzzle while a receiver was being sabotaged. Now, you can’t exit the puzzle until the receiver is destroyed.

Factory Exterior

Visual issue fixed where trees were hovering above the ground

All exterior Machines in the factory now affect the environment! We’ve added toggleable smoke stacks, and water pumping machines. Try turning on Machine 3 to see filthy water pour into the lake.

The exterior has also undergone a visual revamp, with the contours of the lake area changed, and smoke effects added to emphasise the player’s impact on the environment.