Thinking Experiment posts
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Anniversary Avocado🥑
Well folks, it's officially been 3 Years since we brought Strange New Bodies to Patreon!In October 2020 we launched with nothing more than a keyboard, an expired bag pretzles, and a dream... Since then, we've learned a lot of what we could do, and what we couldn't do - without you.Our original monthly schedule kept us chomping away at the mound of work. But while we enjoyed watching SNB grow month after month, we saw the projects goalsgrow bigger and bigger too. Which is great in theory, but with so much work on our plate already, a...
May Update: "Thunder Jello"
Greetings from the year 2294!At last! Right-click now activates the main menu.DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION HERE!-Team SNB 🌌Highlights: New Mr. Gifted quest. New music and sfx. Overhaul of the engine. Old save files will not be compatible.Details: Added 2nd & 3rd Mr. Gifted quest at the Docks. Added music and sfx to Disco's second quest. Added additional sfx to miscellaneous other quests. Added right-click option to access main menu. Rebirth system now active from the start of the game. Minor adjustments to intro's progression. Engine&...
March Update!
Greetings Space Citizens!Welcome back folks! It's been a little while hasn't it? The long winter hibernation is finally over and the coffee is flowing freely. So what's in store this patch?There's a new quest for Mr. Gifted, the first of five! These are intended to be repeatable and we'll be rolling out the rest in short order. In addition, we've got a whole boatload of fixes and improvements. Thanks in particular go out to Dole on Discord for reporting a bunch of bugs!Next patch y'all can look forward to the main ba...
January Jams
Greetings Space Citizens!This month we've got a small patch focused on music! A whole bunch of side quests have gotten some new tunes that we hope you'll enjoy! Additionally we've laid the groundwork for a new core feature that should further the "flow" goals we talked about in the December patch!Literally everyone was sick during the holidays, but it was still a great time for binge-watching shows and reflecting on the bizarre year that was 2022. Here's looking forward to a new year and new adventures in the SNB univers...
December Update: "Flow!"
Greetings Space Citizens!What makes a solid game experience? Is it gameplay, story, something else? Probably a bit of all those and more, but one of the least appreciated is probably flow. The way the player moves through and interacts with a game. Does a game proceed naturally, or does it snag or slow down awkwardly? Are certain vital actions needlessly difficult to do? If the game creates a desire, can the player actually reach it?So to help the player flow through our game better we've overhauled time itself! ⚡⛈⚡The mandatory work ...
November Update : Hummus Hoopla
Nice to see you here again! Hopefully your October was nice and toasty, with lots of pie and other treats!A major issue that many game developers struggle with is getting detailed feedback. Most of it tends to be vague comments along the lines of "loved/hated it! Do more/less!" That little bit of feedback is helpful, but it doesn't really allow a developer to get into the nuts and bolts of what needs to be improved. There's also a strong negative feedback bias - which is to say that overall when people are content they tend to b...
October Update: "Phoenix Flambé"
Greetings Space Citizens!This month's update brings a special new feature! 🌟As some of you know SNB is, at least in part, inspired by the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" novels from the 80s and 90s. ...and what was the absolute best feature of those books? Why, the horrifyingly overdramatic deaths of course! Part of the fun was seeing what terrifying possibilities awaited down each path, like being shot out of a space cannon or getting sacrificed to a cult of cat worshipers.That's why you can find a number of deadly scenarios...
August Update: Panda Shake!!
Greetings Space Citizens!August's patch is a small one focused on some technical upgrades. We've switched the engine over to Ren'py 8, and along with it fully implemented Python 3! Not only that, but we've officially switched from using Atom as our IDE over to Visual Studio Code. Whew! 🔬In addition we've continued to add more music, with the introduction of themes for Sully, Disco, Paisley and Marketa! Check 'em out and let us know if the new tunes speak to you!After last month's huge patch the team has been takin...
The Sun Still Rises on a Meow-ed World
Hello Patroneers~This is just a short PSA to let you all know we're moving the posting schedule around a bit.Starting this month, all following patches will be scheduled to post on the 10th.This is a change of convenience for work schedules, production cycles, and forthcoming changes to work spaces.Not to spoil any spoilers, but upcoming patches have already been an 'ear-full' as we gradually implement music and sound into SNB.We always thirst for feedback, especially now as we attempt to create 'vibes' to the project. Drop ...
Double Carrot Cake!!!
Greetings Space Citizens!Does the possibility of being rewarded with a shiny gold sticker sound enticing? How about signing high-priority documents all day? Are you, in fact, terrified of being promoted?Well, you're in luck! In July's update, we've got all your strange career fantasies covered! 💼There's now a whole slate of new misadventures to get lost in. Each of the career paths now has 10 quests, ranging from small repeatable ones to major promotions! We focused heavily on adding more cross-character interactions so a who...
June Update: "Angular Appetizers!"
June heralds the onset of Summer, but also - Quality of Life improvements! We've implemented a whole bunch of much requested tweaks and little additions. Also, notably, some terrifying bugs have been properly smashed. Huzzah!Some of these changes required pretty deep rewrites of the engine. For example, you can now deselect an item by clicking it again! It's a pretty basic feature in most games, and in our case - only meant fundamentally changing how shops handle inventory items. No biggie, right? 😅There are also a lot of under-the-h...
April Update: "Fruit Punch!"
Greetings Space Citizens!This time we're bringing in some classic RPG goodies in the form of... random encounters! Combat in the game has now been hugely expanded and now you can come across all sorts of enemies while exploring the ship! 💥These can range from your old friends the Psychic Mushrooms (easy!) to ShipGov patrols (super hard!). Some of them are enabled by completing certain quests, and others depend on which group or faction is controlling a location. To help you get through these tough alleyway encounters we've also added...
March Update: "Extra Noodles"
Greetings Space Citizens!The Great Overhaul Part II has arrived! DOWNLOAD ON ITCH.IO!There's a ton of stuff in this patch, including two big new features we're super happy to introduce to everyone.First of all, there are some new interactions at the Ramen Den, Membar and Memorial Wall. You can now get a drink, snack on some tasty ramen, or even donate to charity! These interactions will give you a temporary stat buff or debuff, or alter your reputation. Buyer beware, it's a post-apocalyptic world and some of the ingredients might be...
Days of Delays
Hi everyone!We've decided to delay our regular patch, meaning February's content will now come in March. We usually work hard to hit our monthly release but covid finally got the team, and then a whole avalanche of other craziness happened. When it rains, it hurricanes? ⛈⛈⛈With that in mind, we decided a break was needed so everyone can get healthy and recover. Next month we'll have Part II of our rework, and then on to the future! Thanks for understanding, and all your awesome support!We'd love to hear from you too. Feel ...
December Patch!
You can find our big update for the month and the patch notes here.See you next month!-The SNB Team
November Beta!
Greetings everyone!We've got our 1st of the month beta ready to go. Included are rough drafts of the last two quests of Act I - featuring Paisley and Niobe!We'll have more for you next week with the public release. Till then!xoxo,-The SNB TeamGet it here: November Beta 0.2.9Major: Niobe's first quest! Paisley needs help?Additional: New function that allows us to set smarter quest triggers for your progress. Increased the number of available background layers to allow for more complex scenes. Fixed a ctd from "Mr. Gifted" Adj...
November Patch
This month's build is released! Check it out here:SNB November Update!
October Beta!
Greetings Space Citizens!For this beta we're rolling out Disco's sequel quest - and we promise you won't have to answer a quiz this time. This also means we've also finally implemented combat - so unleash the fury, go ahead and insult those mushrooms!The Vending Machine also makes another appearance. What can we say, except that we hope you'll be able to live with the consequences.There's some more content that will be rolled into the final release in a week, including everyone's favorite rpg trope from the 90s - ran...
September Public Patch
Greetings Space Citizens!Our most requested feature has finally arrived! There is now a progress tracker that will tell you exactly how far along you are in the game's current content. Not only that, but we've included a bunch of quality-of-life enhancements that should make discovering companion quests much easier!This patch also wraps up the War of the Words questline with a grand finale, and we've also overhauled parts I and II! There's a rather neat reward at the end of the series that should prove pretty useful at the shops...
September Beta!
Greetings Space Citizens!The War of the Words quest series is now complete!. Part III has been added, and the other parts have been heavily overhauled. Check it out by heading over to the Shoporium in the Market!We're also happy to announce that our most requested feature has now been implemented! In your DataPad you will now find an indicator letting you how close you are to completing the current content in the game. For the moment it only tracks major quests, and we plan on adding in sidequests soon.In addition to this we're experime...
August Technical Patch (Beta release!)
Hello everyone!This month's patch is a rather strange one, as we have no active content to release for the current beta. Fear not, it's all for a good cause!The major push this month was on finishing the initial code for our combat system - version 1.0 is now complete! This is huge news for us as it means that we're done with adding new systems! That doesn't mean that you won't see huge improvements in your gameplay experience going forward. Rather, it means that devs that were previously focused on creating systems will now...
July Public Patch!!!
Greetings Space Citizens!The full release for July has arrived! There a whole new side-quest to enjoy and we're introducing the debt system!"War of the Words" sees the player get rather familiar with the literary ambitions of the Galatea's two merchants, and it starts off in the Shoporium. Fair warning: There are a lot of puns.We've also introduced a whole new way to buy stuff! You can now take out a loan if your reputation is positive! However, you'll need to pay it back within a week or there will be "consequences&...
July Beta Patch
It's amazing how storytelling has evolved so much. First there were tales told around the campfire. Then came finger paintings on cave walls. Then we invented the amazing process of scribbling squid juice along plant flesh with the help of a molted bird-hair.AMAZING!But those burdensome days of ‘Physical Literature’ are long in the past. Nowadays It's all about cramming our skulls to maximum capacity with electronic bits of light and sound! Now that's entertainment!Right…? Well maybe. Maybe not. Wanna find out? Take our survey...
June Update! (Full Release)
Greetings Space Citizens!The full release for June has arrived!This month we made a huge push to improve the gameplay of SNB, especially with items and mods. The whole system has been overhauled, although with a ton of bug fixes and quality of life changes. Also, we've updated debug mode (cheats, basically) and now almost every asked of the game can be tweaked on the fly.For the next update we're going to introduce the final Act I quests for both Niobe and Disco as we prepare for making Act II! There will only be one or two more technic...
June BETA Patch! ( Patrons )
Greetings Space Citizens!The beta for our June update has arrived! This month we focused entirely on overhauling and tweaking how the game functions. There are a ton changes!The vast majority of these were focused on making items and mods work in a buttery smooth way. Along with that we overhauled how shops work! While you might not find any massive alterations in your game experience it should now run a lot smoother and be far more stable too!Lastly, and in some ways more importantly, many bugs were smashed! We fixed all sorts of long-standing...
May Public Patch!
Calling all space citizens, the full release for May is up and running!Download the latest version HERE (Mega Link), and tell all your friends!A huge THANK YOU to our Patrons who took part in Wednesday's Game Dev Stream. It was a hit with all the cool cats. Some of the suggestions from the stream made it into this public build, so it really is the truth when we say our BFFs are integral in making SNB into the game that it is.We've also begun to branch out with our postings to other sites and we'll be posting to Itch and Reddit over ...
May 1st - Patron Beta Patch
Hello fellow travelers of space and spirit! I’d like to say a few words in commemoration of the many sacrifices made these last weeks… I’m speaking of course about the many brain cells that died during the creating of this months Strange New Bodies content patch! After all is said and done, this development team may never be sane again!There's some spooky surprises in store this month, as Sullivan, the titular BFF of our story, hires our Speaker hero for a super simple, walk in the park, part time job. In space! Not to worry though. E...
April Update (Public Release!)
This is the public release of our earlier Patrons-only build. Enjoy!-----------Meow-Meow, Mo-wow-wow...*ahem*Sorry about that. We’ve been spending a lot of time playing with cats lately and…well you know how it is. Or at least you will know how it is with this hot new drop of the Strange New Bodies March Update!This month we revisit the swindling merchant Marketa, who has returned to the scene of the crime. She’s back to her old tricks selling some very shady goods, with her follow up quest taking place in the Ramen Den. It's a double...
April Update (Patron Release!)
Meow-Meow, Mo-wow-wow...*ahem*Sorry about that. We’ve been spending a lot of time playing with cats lately and…well you know how it is. Or at least you will know how it is with this hot new drop of the Strange New Bodies March Update!This month we revisit the swindling merchant Marketa, who has returned to the scene of the crime. She’s back to her old tricks selling some very shady goods, with her follow up quest taking place in the Ramen Den. It's a double dose of furious fraudulent flourishing!Not to be outshone, the Monster cat Mim...
March 2021 Update (Public Release!)
This is the public release of the monthly patch we do every first of the month! Enjoy!----------------------Greetings space citizens!February on Earth was cold! Thankfully, there’s no weather in space! No blizzards, no snow, but there are some social penalties… Without the weather to complain about, all water cooler talk devolves into a staring contest between a bunch of people drinking from paper cups.So while you contemplate whether ice storms or awkward social situations are worse, here’s the March Patreon Patch to make up for your col...
