🎉 MindWare 0.1.9 (Supporters-Only Beta Release)

Supporters can download the new beta release here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/mindware-0-1-9-120389327

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First of all, I would like to apologize for the slow start of the year — my job has been extremely demanding for the last two weeks, and I'm seriously burned out. Fortunately, this is only temporary, and things should go back to normal in another two weeks top.

In my previous post, I stated that my main goal for 2025 was finishing Chapter 1. New Chapter 1 content will be released by the end of this month, but before we get there, there has to be this beta update, which makes several significant changes to how the game plays (and also adds some new content, but only to the first in-game week).

From this update forward, certain actions will be mandatory by default. These actions include:

• Completing accepted hacking jobs.

• Reading IM messages.

• Reading emails.

• Going to work in the morning.

• Talking with coworkers (when new dialogs are available).

This update implements the changes for the first in-game week, and the next update will implement them for the rest of the game as well. (If you want to see what's new/different, you only need to play the first week of the game—you can continue with your old end-game save when the next update is released).

I decided to implement these changes to address the issue of messages/conversations making sense narratively only when players actually engage with them in a timely manner. It also allows me to significantly reduce duplication of work since now I know exactly when players experience in-game events and don't have to write multiple conditions for all kinds of different paths or (much more realistically) live with the fact that certain paths are not accounted for.

In summary:

• Story events (quests) now unfold in their intended sequence

• Relationships with main characters develop naturally through consistent (unskippable) interaction

• Interactions with one character can influence interactions with another character in a way that makes sense

• Time-sensitive plot points actually feel urgent and meaningful

• The narrative pacing remains cohesive regardless of playstyle

Of course, you will still be able to make quest/relationship choices, but they will (for the most part) happen on predetermined days. There will also be entirely optional activities and side quests, allowing you to decide what you spend a large portion of your action points on every day.

This is the only way (I know of) how I can develop the kind of game I want to develop: one where you're engaged in a story that feels alive and responsive to your choices, where characters remember and react to past events consistently, and where your decisions have meaningful ripple effects throughout the narrative web to further elevate the enjoyment created by the game's spicy content.

I know this is a significant departure from the more sandbox-style approach, but I believe the trade-off between absolute freedom and narrative coherence will be worth it. The game will still be about your choices shaping the story (and sexual content) - I'm just making sure those choices happen within a framework that lets me deliver the most impactful and well-crafted narrative experience possible.

By the end of this month, I'm also going to release an updated walkthrough that reflects the new structure of the game.

Full changelog: 

• Fixed (again): Top menu buttons sometimes not returning to the correct passage.

• Changed: It now takes three days without novel sexual stimulation for player's sexuality to decrease by one instead of the original one day.

• Fixed: AVA infection sound trigger passage.

• Changed: AVA resist minigame duration decreased to 20 seconds.

• Changed: AVA resist minigame now automatically ends.

• Improved: PC button glows when new hacking target is added.

• Fixed: EroSphere music can be permanently disabled.

• Changed: Certain actions must now be completed to leave specific passages and sleep.

• Added: Chat with Trix about EroSphere.

• Added: Chat with Cipher about EroSphere and Trix.

• Added: Chat with Drake about first week.

• Added: Chat with Cipher about first EroSphere visit.

• Added: Chat with Trix about first EroSphere visit.