Another update is available for the prototype!

I’m pleased to announce the next update to the prototype, which includes some great quality-of-life improvements that I’d like to mention here.

First, the game now has a proper tutorial that shows you how to move around in the environment and interact with puzzles. This also extends to the visual novel portion of the game. It’s also platform-aware, so it will show the appropriate controls based on whether you’re playing from your iPhone or on your Mac. I’m so glad this finally got done, as it’s been a top-priority item of mine since I released the very first prototype.

Next, I’ve worked on adding images into the visual novel portion of the game. The prototype always had the support for displaying images, but the script didn’t include any events in the timeline to do so. After adding some backgrounds by Minikle that I’ve purchased years ago and some prototype sprites made in the Mannequin tool, the first chapter will finally display something instead of a black background. It’s nice seeing how Caslon works with images, despite the characters not being incredibly expressive.

Finally, I’ve spent additional time tweaking the general gameplay in the puzzle mode. For instance, each stage will now include dust particles, and you get a nice sparkly effect when you draw lines on the panels. The template for the final puzzle has also been altered slightly to be more representative of what the solution should be.

This update is available in TestFlight for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. If you aren’t already part of the TestFlight program, head over to the prototype page (https://indexingyourhe.art/prototype) to become a part of the program. In the next milestone, I plan to include support for sound effects and finally address the player sprite being a white square.