Radiotext UPDATE: New NPC and Secret Answers Added!

Hey again, Alp here

Starting this project the idea I had in mind was, "what if there was a game which makes the player feel the joy of tinkering with computers in a matrix-like universe".

Then 1 year ago, a (still ongoing) dire political tension started in my hometown. That triggered the cogs of my slow brain, thinking of a -not so distant- dystopia where communication without intrusion required radio-waves (inspired by meshtastic). When I combined the 2 ideas in a quick prototype, allowing the player to type in a terminal screen and receiving answers, just like the scene at the beginning of the matrix, I had a base to build on top of.

Sending players to an empty computer terminal without any guidance was of course wasn't logical so I wanted to make it more like an rpg and added options. But since the early days of development, my initial desire was letting players go off the script. For this I've been working on a secret answer mechanic released with this update.

There has been two issues regarding this new feature.

First: In order to let players who wouldn't like to go off-script, the displayed options are prioritized. To compensate for the typos, typed answer checking logic uses similarity() function (Sørensen-Dice coefficient) of GDScript dialed to 60 percentage. This also allows players to somewhat customize the options fitting to their role play before sending the messages. Unfortunately checking similarity instead of an exact match of the word, sometimes conflicts with along "secret answers" and "terminal commands" so player discretion is advised for occasional bugs ':D

Second: In a game where I've put immersion above almost everything else, making a tutorial for the player -which shows they can try answers that are not shown- is a real difficult challenge. Making immersive tutorials throughout the game has been difficult from the beginning but this has been the real challenge.

To wrap up: this update introduces the "secret answer" mechanic. There are some hidden options (mostly words-terms or phrases) that trigger additional dialogue messages, sometimes help/guiding the player, sometimes revealing lore and hopefully in the full version resulting in even different endings (for individual NPC stories or a secret ending).

Changelog

New Content

• New NPC RumoR added

• New Secret Answers triggering new dialogue options

• NPC Reactions regarding other NPCs when mentioned added

• More FreeDictionary entries

Improvements

• Pop up notification showing the camera controls

• More and better guidance from NPCs when installing the plugins

• Alternative options for various puzzles and secrets

• Removed “binary numbers” explanation from FreeDictionary to avoid confusion

• Various grammar and spelling corrections

QoL Updates

• Typing speed “ultra fast” no longer causes audio issues

• When Radioman is met, morse code on the Specter disappears

• When "name color" is changed with using the "name color ..." it is no longer without feedback.

Fixed

• A bug where “connect”  command triggers twice while a terminal message is typing.

• Displaying tags making dramatical pauses de-synced (tags are displayed when the message ends now)

• Terminal dialogue “display tags” jumping to “kill terminal” message.

• Terminal dialogue “ultra fast” typing out “super fast” in the message.

• Various lines not continuing the next line without input.

• Some FreeDictionary entries conflicting and not showing (cypher-cypherpunk)

Small teaser and a spoiler for those, who decided read this log, Thank you for reading. This is for you:

Some characters will have more romance options in the future. Such as Sky, Flynn and chrome. Feel free to comment other NPCs you'd like. If you try to ask about Radioman to other NPCs, someone might now something.

I love science fiction stories and was inspired by many as I developed/wrote this game. I've tried to reference many of them throughout the story, will also try to list them down (as much as I can). Feel free to point out the ones you think I missed or you've noticed.

Terminal Aesthetic: The Matrix , The Alien (Mother)

Connecting and Schumann Resonance: Serial Experiments: Lain

Brain-lock and Chrome ideas: "Dogfight" and "Burning Chrome" from Michael Swanwick and William Gibson

Cyberpunk Lingo such as; "Cyberspace Cowboy" and "Deck": Neuromancer from William Gibson

3D Environment and looking around: S.P.L.I.T by Mike Klubnika. I started this project as 2D game, then about 3 months later S.P.L.I.T was released. I wanted to make it 3D so players would be less intimidated by the text but didn't want to be a direct copy of S.P.L.I.T. In the end I decided to use it only for the environmental storytelling. Also many thanks to my dear friend Emre Çetinkaya for the 3D scene.

Some players considered it a Blade Runner 2049 reference When chrome says "I can fix that". I didn't intend that but it's canon now.

Long live the players!

Thank you,

Alp

Bluesky

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