The Colin's Update

Introducing Colin’s, a bar run by a chap named Colin, which makes life in the Corridor just a little less miserable.

As I mentioned in the last update, I had imagined this update would double the game's size. As it stands, the word count has increased from 11,000 to over 24,000, including 7 new characters, over 140 new lines of dialogue, and 34 images. There are some clever gnomes in the background controlling time at Colin's, offering a lot of flexibility in how the scene can play out. Want to pick Colin's brain? Go for it. Just want to watch the revue show? You can do that too. In fact, there are 21 different ways to enjoy your night off from the Apocalypse.

Ego Customisation

You can now choose the watch the player wears. This affects dialogue choices and how people in the Corridor perceive you. This is very much a work in progress, but it will evolve over time. I might add a few other character customization options as the game progresses.

BinSelecta!

Played the game before and think you know what’s in the bin where? Think again. BinSelecta is an algorithm in the game's code that generates NPC paths throughout the Corridor, what they are carrying, and what bins they leave items in.

Character Stories

There are four-character backstories to find, which reveal something about the NPCs' past and Element-Zero. You will know when you have found one because a plinky-plonky bit of piano music will play. Can you find them all?

History by Stealth™

I don’t want to say too much here, otherwise, it wouldn’t be History by Stealth™. Just be prepared to learn things without realizing you've learned something.

Tenses

I've been playing around with tenses since the first release and have finally decided to settle on the first-person past tense. As branching is back with a vengeance, there's a good chance that I've missed a few bits and pieces. I hope to pick these up in subsequent releases.

Speaking of which, given the number of changes, no doubt the next couple of updates will be fixes, and God knows how many typos have been introduced. But the next major update will be ‘The Morning After,’ a mid size update, which will take the player to the end of Section 1B of the corridor.

Here are all the details on the update:

Major:

• 1 New Location – Colin's Interior
• 4 Character Backstories
• 5 New pieces of in-game music, including ‘Gold Run’ by Hans Zimmerframe
• 7 New characters – all waiting to meet you in Colin’s
• 34 New Images
• 140 New lines of Dialogue
• References to bottoms increased twofold.
• BinSelecta!
• History by Stealth™
• Ego Customisation
• More typos than if the Queen of Typography summoned everyone in her kingdom of Keystrokes to a party and ordered: ‘Tonight we feast in Typos!’

 Minor Changes:

• Fixed some typos
• Quality of life improvements – you can now see your tea at Camp Hood.

Known Issues:

• The waitress may seem to appear, but not actually materialize. If you observe this (or don't), please let us know, as I am trying to determine which path causes this.

Technical Notes:

 Both BinSelecta! and how time works at Colin's rely heavily on the implementation of the List functionality with Ink, and I am realizing, while there are some constraints with what you can do, there is also a whole new world of possibilities that I want to start exploring. I can highly recommend reading the articles on https://docs.goldenxp.com/ink/ for more information.