Protractor / Map puzzle

- Hag only appears once and an error message and sound play instead when incorrect angles are entered.
- Protractors rotation now snaps to the red line when correctly positioned allowing for a more accurate read of the angles.

Blue puzzle box

- You can now open your diary when examining the blue puzzle box.

General game fix

- Interactions and menus are locked to prevent them from interrupting some auto saves.

Hello, Poopsy here!

I collected a bunch of questions I get asked regularly and made a small article out if it.
I hope you find it interesting!


Q: Is The Lies We Tell Ourselves a horror game?
A: It's not properly a horror game, at least in terms of constantly startling the player.
The game is mostly a narrative-driven experience: the story isn't just a backdrop for random scares, it's the beating heart.
I like to think of it as a supernatural adventure that can be enjoyed by both horror and non-horror fans, provided they're kind enough to tune their relative expectations accordingly.

Q: It's not a horror game, but it's meant to be disturbing. Care to elaborate?
A: Mind you, there's nothing wrong with jumpscare-heavy games with little to no story, I enjoy them myself!
However, for my own I tried to evoke a slightly more profound emotional response, touching on themes that ideally will resonate at a deeper, soulful level.
For me it's not about scaring the player, it's about building the right atmosphere and sequences so that eventually a bunch of even scarier introspective questions will naturally make their way into the player's mind.

Q: Puzzles serving the story? Is this some sort of pretentious intellectual bullshit?
A: Sort of. Every puzzle is intricately woven into the fabric of the story. Even the most abstract ones have an actual meaning and purpose.
Solve them, and you're just progressing in the game.
Interpret their meaning in the context of the story, and you're actually unlocking a deeper layer of the story itself and what it's actually about.


Q: Choices, consequences, adult personality... Is this game preachy?
A: Hopefully not! At least I'm not actively trying to be preachy or patronizing.
Let's be clear – The Lies We Tell Ourselves is a fictional supernatural story. It doesn't claim to provide all the answers or even be accurate in exploring life's complexities.
The game has no specific moral message nor is it meant to: every player is free to and should come up with their own interpretations.
At best, it's a weird cautionary tale, meant to offer little moments of reflection for the more introspective players.
At worst, it's creepy and there's monsters and shit.

Q: Is this game going to be political? Is the game about [social issue I care about]?
A: Nope, not political nor a social commentary.
However, If you think it is and feel the urge to fight about it on social media, feel free to but hopefully I won't be part of it.

Q: How long is the game?
A: Difficult to say, I'm working on a 4hr experience. It might be more, very unlikely less.
Clearly, since the game relies heavily on puzzle solving, part of the perceived length will vary according to how quickly players will figure them out.
For context, I consider the demo to be about 35min long. However, the majority of players took way more than that.
What I'm trying to achieve is a dense interactive experience with no artificial lengthening.
Basically, no walking through a really long corridor for 15min where nothing happens, just to make the game longer.

That's all for now, if you have more questions, please feel free to comment below!

Take care,
Poopsy

Minor improvements(:

Thank you all for your feedback on AI Difficulty!

This update adds some customization of the AI's behaviour, allows having matches in the training gym and addresses a variety of other issues.

• Menus: Added an arena selection that allows choosing from the default arena and the training gym.
  
• Menus: Added a Custom AI mode that can be selected in the Player Setup screen and allows for tweaking some AI parameters via the Customize menu.
  • Counters – Scales the overall AI counter success chance.
    
  • Striking / Grappling – Tweaks the fighting style of the AI.
    
  • Decisions – Sets how fast or slow the AI takes to decide what to do next between actions.
  

• AI: No longer attempts to block running strikes but will instead dodge.
  
• AI: When outside and in a hurry (e.g., due to an impending count-out), AI will now run towards the ring even when close to it.
  
• Arenas: The Training Gym has undergone some changes to allow for entrances.
  
• Counters: To an extent, the chance of successful counters now scaled with the wrestler's Energy. This should make counters less common towards the end of the match.
  
• Dodge: The dodge animation speed now depends on the wrestler's Speed attribute and current condition.
  
• Grapple: Sanitized grapple and lock-up positioning.
  
• Moves: Disabled depenetration for Suplex once the victim is lifted.
  
• Menus: When going back from the ready screen, only the last wrestler is unselected now and no longer all.
  
• Netplay: The match join timeout time has been increased and scales with the number of wrestlers to be loaded.
  
• Reactions: Heavy strikes now interrupt lock-ups, grapples and ongoing moves.
  
• Settings: Settings are now saved in the file Preferences.json in the game's data directory and no longer in the Windows registry.
  
• Settings: The Entrances setting from the arena setup is now memorized between game sessions.

• CAW: Fixed negative weights being possible by setting an absolute minimum weight of 30 kg (~66 lbs).
  
• Input: Fixed grappling, striking and running input being accepted prematurely while standing up, causing unintendedly rough transitions.
  
• Match Setup: Fixed the result of matches declared unsanctioned being counted anyway.
  
• Menus: Fixed back button in the ready screen being unclickable if there are many wrestler renders showing.
  
• Menus: Fixed ring names not being localized.
  
• Netplay: Ensure that connecting players receive a remote controller after joining. This should fix cases where joining players cannot control anything.

• Added what Swing and Hide do to descriptions
  
• Fixed music cutting out during Advisor scene
  
• Fixed NPC in City 1 not having talksprite
  
• Fixed bug where music is slowed down and quiet after talking to raccoon
  
• Fixed bug where Tetrimaster sprite changes when talked to from different directions
  
• Redrew menu arrow to make it custom
  
• Changed Damage Sponge boss theme to "THE MECHANICAL"
  
• Changed guard fights in Prison and Ape Sanctuary to allow escaping
  
• Fixed bug where you can walk over Ape Sanctuary entrance door
  
• Changed dialogue to make walking past Worm to Ape Sanctuary more obvious
  
• Made Ape Sanctuary chase sequence less unfair
  
• Removed door shadow during Ape Sanctuary chase sequence
  
• Made Ruiner Beast corpse appear after boss fight
  
• Added dialogue mentioning you can run from Damage Sponge boss fight

This will mark the end of Harvest Island V 2.0 development! I won't be doing V 2.0 Harvest Island since porting to the new engine is a massive task and requires more budget than I realize. After 3 weeks into the development in V 2.0, I needed to seek advice from other devs to see if this was the correct approach and it's not. One of the biggest advice I got was that porting requires a large fan base and you do it when you have it.

Even though V 2.0 is a great idea for the community, it's a horrible decision as of right now for me.

There's just not enough support for V 2.0 unfortunately. My fan base needs to be bigger.

Right now, the community for Harvest Island is extremely small, very niche size. There's not much support in Harvest Island V2.0 after it's been announced. After three weeks of development, I've decided to stick with RPG Maker. And Maybe in the future, I will make a 3D version of Harvest Island instead. A remake. As of now, I'm very happy how this game turned out. It's complete.

Oh! And I added steam achievements! That's the last big update!

Harvest Island is great as it is. it tells a compelling story and succeeds in making you fall in love with the characters. The characters are very well written. There's enough horror in this game to make you feel extremely paranoid. A new experience for gamers.

There are 0 bugs in Harvest Island. I've supported every key aspect in this game and tried my utmost best to make this game as best as it could be with the given tools I have. A lot of people liked Harvest Island. Steamers who played and followers who watch their favorite streamers play, loved the story.

I can't stress enough how great of a game this is in terms of storytelling. A lot has changed since the release and I've listened to every feedback the community has to offer and fixed the problems (With the exception of UI). Current fans are happy with how Harvest Island turned out. And I'm happy they liked the game.

I've supported Harvest Island for 4 months, and I believe it's time to move on to a new project. I will continue to keep this relationship with the community and be upfront with all of the development things I do. I thank you guys for purchasing Harvest Island and I am deeply appreciated for the community support. Along the way, If I have any ideas that'll improve Harvest Island, I'll be sure to update the game and let you know.

I will leave the price of Harvest Island to $15. I truly want people to experience this Horror farming simulator. It's a very must try experience.

And now, I present you my next game I've been developing for three weeks now. It's called, A Journey's End.

I am doing a kickstarter for this project and if you like to support this new game, please follow the project. Here's a sneak peak of what I'm working on.

-update various fixes and tweaks

-Added Steam Achievements
-Improved Performance
-Further fixed spelling errors

name of server:
Game 4 server
opening time:
2024.1.27 10:00 (UTC+8)

Please join us. If you have any questions, please contact customer service, QQ: 1595584560

A temporary update to optimize the guidelines and display