Howdy, folks!

I hope you've all been enjoying the game so far! It's been really heartwarming to see how much people are resonating with it, and I am genuinely appreciative of the love that's been sent the game's way.

However, the game has also received a few fair bits of criticism, most of which I agreed with. The game could definitely be better. To improve the game based on the feedback that I've been given, v1.3 will be a huge overhaul for the Story Mode's core gameplay that changes things up quite a bit! There are a few minor spoilers below, so only read on if you're comfortable with that or have already beaten the game.

So, in the current version of the game, puzzle pieces play no real role in the grand scheme of things, other than just being something random you need to collect to beat the game. They otherwise have no value in the game's story or sense of progression. This was a mistake on my part.

Now in v1.3, puzzle pieces have been given an in-world reason for existing, and that reason is because the wormhole levels will be locked by default as a "security measure", and in order to be granted clearance you need to collect a certain amount of puzzle pieces to open each one.

Not only does this give the puzzle pieces actual meaning, but it also gives players a much better sense of progression, which is always a good thing.

Next, the sidequests. I've been told that they feel useless since all they do is provide you with some G. This is also a fair point. So now, sidequests have been renamed to "Tasks", and they all now provide something actually useful or interesting!

For example, doing Bratty and Catty's task will be the new way to get the shed key (since they'll find it in the trash that you collect for them), which is required to reach one of the wormhole levels. Therefore, that task has now become mandatory for beating the game, and gives it a lot more value overall. All of the other tasks will also give you something useful, whether it's access to a brand new area in Hometown, or a much-needed hint on where to go. There will be 6 tasks in the game; not all of them are required, but some of them are.

Third, the cutscenes. At the moment, the dialogue scenes with him and the first memory cutscene have no visuals, which is kind of a bummer. So now, these cutscenes have brand new artwork created by SuxMenner and Pixel from the DF team, so now they'll be a lot more interesting to look at!

Finally, Hometown will now be populated with more NPCs to make it more alive and interesting. Specifically, some people were curious about where Toriel is, and why she isn't in the game. The answer is that she's meant to be in the school, but since it wasn't open you couldn't go see her! But now in v1.3, it will be possible to enter the school after completing one of the tasks, and get to see Toriel! This adds a bit more to the game's world-building, and I hope it's something you'll all enjoy, even if it's a minor addition overall.

And that's it for the Story Mode overhaul! I hope these new additions will make the game that much more enjoyable. Your old save files will still be compatible with v1.3, but the sidequests you did will be reset to accomodate for the changes made to them, so if you're aiming for 100% you can go back and do those if you wish.

Now, I mentioned a brand new third mode, and I've been teasing it a little bit on my Discord (link to which is in the description by the way!), and now I'm able to reveal it. This brand new third mode is called "RANDOMIZER", and can be accessed from the main menu!

In this mode, you can play Chapter 1 of Story Mode (future chapters to be added) with the locations of the wormholes and puzzle pieces completely randomized! The goal is to get all 10 soul pieces as fast as possible, and aim to get the best time!

This mode is perfect for speedrunners or people who are just looking for a fun way to replay the game! I hope you'll enjoy it when it releases!

Anyway, that's it for this devlog. Thank you to everyone for your continued support while this game gets made. I hope you're looking forward to Chapter 2, because production has already begun ;)