Hello there!

I've just uploaded Alpha 19, a new build that introduces Dream worlds, continues the storyline with Sera, Takar and Lorah, and fixes a bunch of gameplay issues with some plans for the future. Before I get in to it, let me just remind you of our Ko-fi: by becoming a Funder, you will not only help us keep developing this game and allowing us to be independently creative; but you also reward the goal of this game; which is to provide a comfortable, handcrafted furry-themed game with no abusive design or mechanics. I like to think of it as a return to what the internet used to be - personal and genuine; offline and online. Not to mention, if you play online, you get a bunch of special things as a reward!

Anyways, let's get on with Alpha 19.

Continued storyline: The story now picks up where the introduction lesson left off, with Takar helping you out as Sera is gone. You both run around campus to look for her while Takar gives a quick tour. Eventually, you meet her, but then scurries off again. Afterwards, you can speak to Takar and Lorah standing around the campus and look forward to their own personal quests, which are special quests that results in an increased relationship to each character. The thing is, you have to look out for the correct time and place to start it. It's meant to be an optional way to enjoy the characters in their natural habitat while waiting for the next lesson; which will be under development now.

So basically, it's an alpha prototype of how personal quests are supposed to work so I can test out how they actually work in practice. With this finished, the next story update should be the first lesson where I will prototype a "real" lesson, that will take from 20-30 minutes to accomplish.

A new NPC was also added; the final (as I originally planned) teacher: Anjraz, who now resides at the cottage house in the forest. She hangs out there most of the time, and doesn't have as much use as the other teachers. However, she does offers tea brews, which are the key to enter dream worlds. I will describe it later.

NPC schedules: Speaking of, the NPC schedules were improved and cleared up, so Merka, Onrakh, Ikt, and Retakatekt now more consistently offers the options for their services; ie. trading tokens for items (Retakatekt offers Instruments, Ikt offers books, Onrakh offers ink, and Merka offers rewards/rooms for online play). Their appearances in the map are now more consistent and the paper at the tree can now tell you where exactly they are at any point in time.

Dream worlds: Two dream worlds are now accessible: Ginge lane shai ("Waterway") (pictured) and Nakma tare ha ("Desert"). Both of them are serene, peaceful areas with wildly different design and feel from the regular campus areas; so think of them as the environments the Kemona thinks about when they dream. You can get to them by consuming the brewed teas offered by Anjraz, then finding the dream portals scattered around the forest area and luring the dream creature so you can ask it to invite you over to its dream world. Once there, you can stay there for as long as you want - peacefully existing alone or together with your friends. There is not really any gameplay advantage to them, as they're primarily meant for hosting your own gatherings or personal escapades. Perhaps interesting for roleplaying?

Anjraz can trade you two different brews in exchange for resources instead of tokens. She offers it during her wake time in the forest. The teas don't do much other than allowing you to make use of the dream portals, and giving you a strange psychadelic effect. Actually, they do replenish your your energy (and hunger to some degree) while instantly making you sick. However, travelling to the dream world cures your sickness.

Music sheet composer: Instruments now have a way of arranging and playing notes, and more than that, you can play together with other players! Just equip your instrument (remember, you can get them for 10 tokens from Retakatekt) and click "Open composer..." and start composing. The window is quite rudimentary/undocumented at the moment, but you are able to compose, share note files, and play them back. The plan is to expand this window so that it will be way easier to collaborate together with other players in the future.

Gameplay improvements: The gameplay was touched up in various parts. Drinking the foodbowl now has an appropriate animation, and the stairs are no longer strangely slippery. More importantly, the dirt plots found next to the school and Anjraz' house now offer free seeds of all kinds. NPCs should now also not despawn suddenly as you're talking with them, or at least, when you're in conversation submenus (this might need additional work). The TTS should now pronounce contractions (don't, doesn't, won't, wouldn't, etc) a bit more properly. Oh, and hats were finally changed to equippables, and you should have received them in your inventory if you have previously unlocked them. This means dogs finally can have hats again!

As for online play, sprays and sticky notes now degrade over time (currently set to being alive for maximum 90 days). You can reink sprays and stickynotes and make them last longer by clicking on them and selecting "Refresh" - this bumps them halfways towards the current date and time.

Interface updates: There's a lot of different improvements this time. The padlock on Anjraz' forest house can now list all public club rooms (locking rooms still not working yet, sorry!) so you can check out all the club rooms the funders got in Alpha 18. Pressing escape key should now always bring up the escape menu, while Backspace retains the old behavior (of first clearing your custom posing and then opening escape menu). I swapped the function of the V key to always open the equipment menu (sorry I know it's a bit uncomfortable, but better now then later). Chat height is now saved to the savefile, and the Settings now have more settings for adjusting instrument and chat talking radius.

Finally, let's recap the changes from patches 0.18.1 to 0.18.8:

• Ink mechanics were improved with ink boxes placed in the library and the art room, which are opened during events.
  • By the way, we're officially hosting the drawing and writing clubs every month, now. Check out the in-game event schedule!
• The dog and cat species were tuned to be more androgynous and specie variations were offered in the E-shop.
• Furthermore, many new E-shop items were introduced.
• An on-screen equipment menu was added which is the main way of manipulating equipment you are holding. 
• The game was made to function better offline, such as the cooking pot. The plan is to eventually make it fully playable offline, including getting tokens.

Feel free to read the previous devlogs I made that detailed these changes extensively. Oh, and perhaps check out the book event we hosted before?

Also worth mentioning is that since my goal is to enter Beta at the end of this year, work is undergoing behind the scenes of the Adventure areas, which will be a very interesting and challenging gameplay that heavily relies on co-operation and teamwork skills. I've also had my thoughts clarified on the purpose of both Offline and Online parts of the game and what I want to change moving forwards - such as refining the offline gameplay, thinking the role the player has in participating in the online gameplay and our financial stability for the future. That will be its own post. But if you're interested in reading in-depth explanation of the major roadmap goals, I would recommend reading the "Roadmap & Story" and "Roadmap & Online" posts I've written before.

So yeah, that's it. This is what I've been working on for the past two weeks. So for now, please enjoy these features I've worked a lot on; and please let yourself experience the world I love to its fullest, at your own pace, at your own will. I want you to feel happy! I know it's a long way left for the game to reach its completion, but we're getting there, week by week, day by day. And please, if you can and if you want, consider supporting us on our Ko-fi. The small gesture helps us practically in life, and it lets us know we're contributing something worthwhile to the world.

See you in the Kemoverse!