Hey everyone!

I just published the last public demo update, containing the ending to Effera's route and everything leading up to it! This makes the Demo almost its own entire game and way longer than any Demo should reasonably be, but I don't care! I hope you enjoy the ride!

Unfortunately, that means all future routes will be locked behind the Beta until the game is closer to completion and ready for an official Early Access release. Please keep in mind that given how slow of a writer I am, this is likely still years away, but I will try my best to make the long wait worth it!

(As always, any support on Ko-fi is truly appreciated, as it makes it slightly less necessary for me to work my regular job and lets me focus more on game development — which in turn will make the game come out faster!)

I really hope you enjoyed what you got to experience so far, and are looking forward to the rest — as there truly is a lot, lot more to come! 

For Beta Players

Since this update was focused on polishing Effera's finale, there is no new continuation for the Beta, but one look at the CG gallery might reveal that there still is new stuff to see: Specifically, new CGs have been added to the electronics escape room. And overall, a ton of flavor text, hints, and puzzle improvements were added, so a replay might still provide a good time. I hope you enjoy, and thank you so much for your excellent contributions during the writing and drawing streams!

Patch Notes

• 4k new words. (200,000+ in total)*
• A new CG for the electronics escape room!*
• A new chibi CG for the electronics escape room!*
• New CG variants for an existing CG.*
  
• New CG variants for Effera's ending.
• A new bad ending before Effera's true ending.
• Added puzzle hints to the electronics escape room.*
• Added a puzzle solver option to every puzzle in the electronics escape room.*
• An updated music track by Zaxcess.
• Added plenty of sound effects to Effera's ending.
• The "Track Affection" Filter on the flowchart adapts to your current perspective.
• "Continue" from the main menu now loads your newest save. To manually select a save, choose "load".
• Saving the game in an escape room should now accurately retain which sub-room you were in.
• Fixed a bug where the laser puzzle wouldn't reset.*
• Added a manual reset button to the laser puzzle.*
• Added the "Solver" module to the symbols puzzle.*
• Added proper game covers to the game shelf puzzle.*
• Added a setting that allows you to disable timed choices.
• Fixed a bug with stackable escape room items (for real this time).
• Fixed a bug where items would be selected but unusable after combining.
• Reduced the game's file size by compressing backgrounds.
• Slightly improved assistive self-voicing in the settings screen.
• Removed an accidental duplicate line.
• Replaced a sound effect.
• Fixed typos.

*Beta only

Sincerely, thank you to everyone for supporting Artificial Selection so far, whether financially, sharing your theories, or by telling a friend about it! Every little thing truly makes a difference and makes working on this project so much more fulfilling!

My next steps for 2025 are finishing the Loye route, and of course, starting a new one! I'll be hosting a poll in my Discord server when that decision comes around, so make sure to join us if you want to help shape the game!

With all that sappiness out of the way, see you in the next one, and happy new year!