It is the utmost christmas tradition down here in the boonies, that every version of the mod that ends with a .5 must also be released while the mod's teethering on the edge of discontinuation.

More on that after the changelog, but for now, let's open up with some good news first. It's Ribbit's 4th anniversary! And though this was not in my plans at the beginning of this month, I took these last two weeks to whip up a kind of apology update for what will surely be a prolonged wait on version 3.0. While two weeks isn't a lot of time, it's enough to have imported a number of quality of life changes that were previously meant for 3.0's release, most prominently, new toggleable spritework for the enemies among them! I haven't done an extensive update like this in a while, and playtesting this by myself felt really scary, but... hopefully I was thorough enough. Let's get to business.

• Bootup load times should've been notably improved (thanks colin!) If you want them improved even further, remove the splash.png file out of the game folder. (splash.png is just that commodore 64 reference you get when you boot the game up, but it also adds about a second or two more towards the game's bootup load time)

• Nearly all MOTHERSPAWN enemies were given redesigns by Devilredd. Generally, all work on this was heavily supervised by me (I was particularly strict with Bad End's design), though some enemies with looser interpretations were given a lot more freedom to radically change, or expand on their meaning, while still doing our best to preserve their secret. You can toggle the previous designs back on in the Accessibility settings. If you're curious, but don't feel like reinstalling the game, I'll be showcasing these designs + concept art on my Bsky about a week or two from now.

• A difficulty toggle has been added in the Accessibility settings.

• A few minor details have been added onto New Game+ runs (secret.....)

• The Dark World configuration menu has been added into the save select screen. Consequently, this makes it so your config settings now carry over across save files, and are even retained when starting a new run. This may result in minor issues with pre-2.5 save files where your settings may reset to default by themselves, but just try re-adjusting them again and it should fix itself.

• The save select screen has been given a new coat of paint to fit with Ribbit's recent emphasis on moody neon aesthetics.

• Difficulty name "DEFAULT" has been rebranded to "DESTROY" (literally when am i going to stop fiddling with this)

• Player's default name if CONTACT scene is skipped has been changed from "GAMER" to "PLAYER". This change makes more sense within 3.0's context of encouraging at least one NG+ run, but still, I figured it's just better if the player isn't forced to wield a terrible name.

• CONTACT scene skip is overall a lot faster than it used to be.

• If Photosensitivity Mode is on, you are given the option to skip the Future fight, turning it into a condensed summary that then leads into the ending scene.

• You may fast forward text in the EarthBound sequence by holding [X]. Due to a bug I haven't had the time to figure out yet, this feature is disabled on a small handful of text instances.

• Fixed a bug (more like "thing i just haven't bothered to correctly adjust until now") where triggering an EarthBound text box while in the middle of moving decenters the text.

• Updated Morshu's "not enough money" voice line to refer to YOU by their actual name (in the style of a 2008 YTP)

• Dagger bullets (thrown by Widow & those two spawns when you're close to the lodge) have been redrawn into flower bullets.

• Inserted a new motion blur effect when you're about to fight Bad End for the first time.

• King Noyno's speech before the final boss was somewhat rewritten for NEW writing style. I've been re-reading this part of the game for many months now, and each time, I felt like I understood what it was trying to say less and less... In the end, I chose to bring back some of the older lines, while replacing other ones with something that resonates with me better.

• The final boss background has received some visual and palette changes to make it feel a little more interesting, and better fit Ribbit's purple-pink color scheme

• New Game+ and the Future Ending no longer unlock via Violence Route, doing the Remains Uncertain ending is now required for that.

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All in all, it may not be worth it to play 2.5 if you're just fresh off a recent playthrough, but to anyone who feels like it's been a while, and Christmas season's got you in the mood to pop in some oldies, well, perhaps the spirit of Christmas has some other form of solace for you to take comfort in when met alone, in the darkness of a fulfilled night...

By the way, this is an apology update in the sense that it also doubles as a sorry to all the guys that just started their playthrough like, a week ago. I kinda fucked you guys over a little lol

And speaking of things that have felt like they've been precariously fucked these past few weeks, let's give you the run-down on how Ribbit 3.0 is going! Some of this is info I've already covered on Bsky, some of this covers some details that have emerged more recently, either way, best to give a full breakdown for those who don't keep up with me that much.

TL;DR We're on indefinite hiatus due to fifty thousand complications. But things are looking up, we're hopeful that we can resume work on 3.0 in just a few months, and in the meantime, we're looking for new team members, but only people we know and trust on at least some marginally mutual level.

Now here's the TL;WRA (Too Long;Will Read Anyway)

2024, last year, I finished writing the script for Ribbit 3.0, and all the content it'll entail. 2025, this year, I've coded roughly 90% of the update's cutscenes into the game (the remaining 10% is for cutscenes dependent on currently unimplemented gameplay mechanics). In its current state, the update is unquestionably unreleasable, nearly every part of it is chock full of placeholders. But, you can play it from start all the way to the credits like how you would a normal video game, with most dialog implemented, and a general idea of the pacing firmly in place. This was an important milestone to hit, as now my small team can understand the full scope of what they're dealing with.

Unfortunately, all the way through this, it felt like I was trying to ignore that the project was silently smouldering. Redd, the lead sprite artist, was caught between multiple personal dilemmas, like finding a new job, moving back to their old house, and just generally being too busy with life to focus on creative works. We managed to finish the enemy redesigns, but with considerable delays, and by the time we were meant to start on the cutscenes, the flow just completely petered out. Only two animations were made for two cutscenes, all the way until November.

Then on that month, things went from gravely concerning to just straight up grave, as Redd's mother was scammed out of all her savings, leaving Redd and their little brother financially stranded. In spite of a donation fund being set up, by December, they were ready to accept they might end up homeless. That's the point when I made the message on Bsky regarding 3.0 potentially being cancelled. Shit was dire enough that I was ready to release it an unfinished state, as watching my friend struggle all these months, I fell into a state of defeat, and the project seemed to stop mattering altogether.

We were only lucky enough that more people saw the desperate position we were in, and significant donations were made to Redd, enough to sustain them for at least the next 2 months. Although they are not out of the water just yet, your help gave them the time to continue hunting for a better paying job, and the hope that they'll be able to return to working on game projects once more sooner than we may think. Thank you to everyone who made this possible!

Also, if you'd like, you can still donate to Redd's donation fund. This page will stay up either until the full goal has been met, or Redd is confident enough that they no longer need it.

Meanwhile on my end, a day after I put out the sad message on Bsky and the crazy donations started popping in, a shift in mood happened. Even though I was supposed to wait until the 22nd to decide whether the mod was cancelled or not, I already started yelling in the Ribbit team group chat, in a kind of "baby didn't get her toy" voice, "i don't want to cancel 3.0, i don't wannaaaa!!!" Redd concurred, that once they establish a good routine in their life, - hopefully in just a few months - they'd like to return to finish the project too. SKL, our support artist, also voiced they'd be super down to help out once things calm down. It was clear that we simply could not make a certain choice under an uncertain situation. And so, we're making a much safer choice instead. As of now, further Ribbit content is on an indefinite hiatus.

A hiatus is probably for the best either way, as I've already mentioned in the past Bsky message that working on the cutscenes the whole year severely burned me out, and I'm not sure if I have the willpower to start programming a bunch of ambitious gameplay stuff all by myself right after... I could probably really use a break where for the first time in like, 6 years, I'm not just fixated on Ribbit all the time. Maybe I can use this chance to do a small side project?? I haven't done that since like the Bed Lump Mod, so that'd be fun!

During this break, I can also take the opportunity to try and find more team members for Ribbit. As of now, it's just me, and two presently busy sprite artists, but it'd be good to find at least two more artists, as well as two more programmers so the load doesn't constantly rest on just one person. One of my coder friends recently reached out and offered their support, so that's good, and I've recently hit it off with a highly skilled illustrator who specializes in detailed large-scale artwork, and we've already agreed that we'd love to work together on doing some crazy stuff with 3.0's presentation.

So, that leaves at least one more programmer to find, alongside an artist who specializes in pixel art... and that someone has to match the quality standard that Redd set, they oughta like Ribbit (i mean, what's the point in working on a passion project you don't resonate with?), they oughta be consistently available, and most importantly: They must be someone I or a close friend of mine bumped shoulders with at least once, and mutually went "ayyyyy" at each other. I mean, no offense to all the strangers, but project teammates are more than just their talent, and I've had the years to learn the importance in choosing who will create some of your fanwork's most important moments...

Within the current state of unpredictability and mystery, this Schrodinger's shit is either going to be the hardest or easiest task of my life.

But that's for me to think later about. Enjoy the update, everyone.