Hello! I've just uploaded Beta 1.1, featuring a ton of polish, features, and other changes to make it the Beta that should've been. The previous version, Beta 1.0, was mostly a label slapped on to summarize all of the Alpha builds and to follow my original schedule. Well, Beta 1.1 is now here, and it's got some cool features! Let me tell some of them...

Emote and poser wheels

There are two new wheels to express your character! The emote wheel is used to combine and perform a variety of charming emotes, and the poser wheels are for posing your arms, head, and body. These replace the previously bulky windows that weren't controller friendly. The Emote and Poser wheels can be accessed by pressing the Q and E keys or LT and RT on controllers.

So not only do they look cool, but the emote wheel has a new unique feature! You see how there are two rings? Well, they can actually be independently spun, which means that you can create some interesting emote combinations! The outer ring picks the animation and motion itself, while the inner ring picks the facial expression and its associated effect. Play around and make some happy rages, playful crying, or whatever else you can think of. It's really fun and charming. Oh, and yeah, some of those emotes are new, so go and try it!

Proper controller/handheld support

Gamepad support is now properly added to the game! Various parts of the interface has been checked and double-checked to be able to navigate with the controller, including the character creator. A "target mode" was added when holding Left and Right bumper - this changes some buttons for additional features, such as being able to target/interact with nearby things and zoom in/out.

Though, there are sometimes when you have to enter text (character creator, chatting of course) but if you are using a device with a touch/physical keyboard, the experience should now be much better. As I recall, some have played with Steam decks in the past, so this update should bring a lot of improvements!

Oh, and I haven't forgotten about that Android build - you can check out a preview build here, as it just needs a bit more polish - but I believe Beta 2.0 should see the return of the official Android build for you to play with! And oh my, there will be some delicious story content too. You don't know what's coming.

Environment and TTS changes

Spring is in full bloom, thus finally bringing completion to all four seasons in the Kemoverse! And as with almost all of the features of the game, it works offline for all eternity! Can't say that, modern gaming, can you now? I miss those times. But anyways, coming along with that, you can now also plant tulips and poppy flowers with your shovel/at the private gardens... somehow I had missed that intended feature! Mushrooms were tweaked, animations were smoothened, and other smaller things.

TTS also had a bunch of changes: Contractions (don't, won't, hasn't, etc) are now mostly pronounced correctly, backslash \italics\ is now heard in the TTS, and for our Russian speaking players, the TTS now pronounces cyrillic in its broken accented style. Звучит по глупому, знаю, но довольно забавно. Speaking of funny, you can now also apply TTS effects to yourself - type "/ttseffect <style>" where style is either: call, evil, echo, robot, whisper, wobble, or off, and then try to say something. That's funny.

Oh, and I added a LAN play window - this allows you to host a temporary network session yourself to invite others over an offline network. It's like those old DSi games! Imagine you're stranded somewhere without internet but with your friends... launch the game and play LAN on the local hospot. So you can play online, but offline. You know, the comfort of Kemoverse Online.

Funder/online content changes

A lot of things has changed behind the scene to become platform independent! I've added the ability to subscribe as a funder directlythrough Paypal on our Kemze HQ website (it might be buggy, if you struggle please contact me), along with a summary of what perks you get in return! I've also added pages for contact and roadmap for formal details on how to get in touch with me for support and feedback and my plans for the future. Look at that timeline, it's been so long, so many releases, so much work put in... and yet the future is still bright! I'm happy...

Anyways, yes, with the website and Funder improvements, my goal is to decomission Ko-Fi support eventually. For now, if you still are a Ko-Fi supporter, you will still get your Funder account updated. I would also like to offer Itch payment option in the future that will automatically give you a Funder account.  But for now, I take PayPal payments on my website. If you can't use/don't want to use PayPal, you are free to buy the itch game and contact me! I will register a funder account for you. :)

Speaking of, Funder account has had many changes that I will list:

• You can now log in as Funder on any character you want and get rewards on all of them.
• The maximum number of characters when logged out is three, and when logged in, unlimited.
• Logging in as a Funder unlocks all species for you to create a new character with.
• Work uniforms are not enforced for funders anymore, and can use casual clothing as they wish.

Besides the usual other perks and features of Funder, I have also decided that preview builds of the game will now be playable by anyone. That's because the development cycles will take longer during Beta, so if anyone wants to try out new features before they're released, feel free to jump over to the unstable builds.

Complete changelog

Beta 1.1 (0.21.1) changelog

• The last season, Spring, is added and the game now features all seasons of the year.
• Poppy and tulip flowers can now finally be planted again (my bad!).
• TTS system is improved. 
  • Cyrillic letters and words are now pronounced with a... unique accent. 
  • English contractions (can't, don't, won't, etc) have better pronounciation. 
  • TTS effects are now available. Type "/ttseffect <effect>" where effect is: call, evil, echo, robot, whisper, wobble 
  • Backslash italics are now emphasized in pronounciation. 
• Several performance improvements are done. 
  • The game should start up much, much quicker and load scenes faster. 
  • Less memory will be consumed as less things are loaded on startup.
  • World collisions and shaders are optimized in various areas. 
  •  New optional performance settings are added.
    • "Use simple shaders" disables advanced shaders on characters/world.
    • "Use simple sky" disables clouds and reflection probes.  
  •  GLES3 support toggle is removed.
• Gameplay aspects are improved and fixed.
  • Incorrect bugtrap/sticky/spray placements are fixed.
  • The bugtrap now shows a message when it runs out of uses.
  • Fixed incorrect dissolve/fade when ui scaling was applied. 
  • Cutscene endings now fade out less harshly. 
  •  Resolved a crash that would happen when quitting the game.
  •  Local plants duplicating and having weird dirt colors is fixed.
  • Soup pot synchronization is fixed.
  • Mushrooms were repainted to fit better with the world theme.
  • Some player animations were smoothed out and improved.
• The user interface is now sleeker and much more usable. 
  • The interface should now be much more accessible with gamepad.
    • Most interfaces can now be navigated with on-screen guided gamepad buttons.
    • Holding LB+RB enables "target mode", allowing you to interact with objects.
    • The escape menu controls now features a visual guide for gamepad play.
  •  The outfit selection menu now presents the player better.
  • The Emoter, Poser, and Animator windows are removed and replaced with full-screen popups.
  • Various windows are changed some were removed, and the "Room editor" is replaced with an "Area edit" window.
  • The character picker is tweaked to better adjust to different screen sizes and support for gamepad.
• The Poser wheels and Emote wheel are now introduced. 
  • The Poser wheels (Q or LT) can now pose body, arms, face and hands, just like the old poser, as well as changing animations. 
  •  The Emote wheel (E or RT) was changed and now allows you to put any emotion on any of the 18 emotes.
• LAN local play is now available, accessible through the top menu.
  • LAN play is a way to play together on wifi networks without connecting to the internet.
  • It is limited, in the sense that only players will be shown to one another, and nothing more.
  • This means that rooms, sprays, plants, and all the other 'online' stuff will not be available in LAN play.