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Thanks for the feedback! Definitely makes me happy to see people being so enthusiastic about the series.

There are a couple of hidden things in BZ2. There's only one guaranteed phantom encounter on each playthrough - the toilet one. Two additional phantoms appear at 11PM. There are six in total, so you'd need to replay at least three times to see them all (they are randomized upon starting a new game, so simply reloading a 10PM save would not work). If you found the mailbox letter and called the "ICB Hint Hotline," the mascot will tell you something else that relates to the phantom encounters. This letter is different when playing with a completed playthrough, for the record. Batty also comments on most four letter curse word combinations when using the phone, and I put a self cameo in the game if the player dials my name.

Also, the character "Don" in the basement is actually based on a real person that plays in a band where I live. He also coincidentally worked at the arcade which was "featured" in BZ1. Just a little "behind the scenes" trivia. His band is called Squander, and they are awesome:

The Western Nightmare Continues... | Squander

-RAMBLING AHEAD-

I don't want to reveal too much about the future of the series, but originally I had considered XOXO XMAS as a simple "reskin" of the first game's art assets but with a new story. If you check the original game's page you can still see a Christmas post I made two years ago with a picture of Batty wearing an early version of her Christmas outfit. This was roughly when I had started the idea for a holiday spinoff, and during that time I was already planning a more "ambitious" sequel taking place in a totally different environment. Needless to say, the Christmas game evolved into a much more critical entry, but the ideas I had already written for Batty in a new environment are still being worked on for the third chapter. As of now, I only have three games planned.

Here are a couple of "prototype" screens I mocked up for that original version of XOXO XMAS, if you're interested. Clearly the final game became a wildly different beast: