Hi LakesideMiners!
Thank you so much for the incredibly detailed feedback and kind words. It is awesome to hear that you are digging the vibe. Seeing someone "get" the atmosphere is exactly why I am building this.
To answer your questions:
- The Soundtrack: That is actually just me messing around on my mini synth at home! I do not have official plans for a release right now, but since you mentioned it, if enough people enjoy the "vibe," I will definitely look into putting it together for a proper download down the road.
- Inspirations: I actually have not seen Pantheon or heard Find Us Alive, but I will have to check them out now! My personal DNA for the game's weirdness comes more from being a massive Welcome to Night Vale and Dungeons and Daddies (Season 3 especially) aficionado.
- The Cat: I wish! That adorable girl actually belongs to a friend of a friend, but she definitely deserved a cameo in the I.T. world.
Regarding your feedback:
- Ticket Variety: Glad to hear the RNG finally balanced out for you! I am looking into ways to tweak the "weighting" so the repeats do not clump together quite as much in early loops. But game balancing is harrddd - its ony my list though I swear.
- Background Visuals: Totally agree. Adding some life like coffee steam or screen flickers is on the to do list to make the office feel less static. Probably won't happen in the immediate fuiture but I really do want a largish overhaul of the look of the game before Steam launch in 2026.
- Chat Notifications: I have heard this from a few players. I am looking into making the pings a bit harder to miss so Riley does not get ignored!
- Performance: Thanks for the heads up on Firefox Nightly. Browser engines can be finicky; I will add a note to the page recommending Chromium based browsers for the best performance. The Steam release luckily/hopefully won't struggle with this at all, but for ITCH purposes I get what you're saying.