Thanks Twigster! Hundreds of bugs have been fixed and a lot of mechanics improved thanks to all of you. Moving forward, I'll be focusing more on creating assets like a proper logo, a new game cover and additional QoL improvements. New contents will be added too (along with all the possible new bugs).
As a Devhunter/headhunter for a major publishing company/developer studio...I just want you to know that this is one of the best games I have ever played. I actually got yelled at today for sitting quietly at my desk in my office playing this game. My boss: "DID YOU FINISH THE CALL WITH":
(*Insert our newest prey's name here........the young man has no idea that he was hunted and stalked before he sold his soul to my company's CEO. The talented indie developer exchanged his personal life and free time, when he agreed to be poached from his former place of employment. They offered him a pay raise of .32 cents an hour, if he agreed to stay with their company; and our CEO destroyed them by offering to pay the eager lad, a raise of 32 dollars an hour MORE than what he was currently making, at his now past employer. How could he say no right? The man now believes after signing 8 NDA's, and the hiring agreement packet, that he will be working his dream job, having fun, and yucking it up. I heard the proud tone in his voice, as he gushed to his parents via FaceTime; about how he is now earning roughly as much, as an attorney or doctor. No, no....he will work 7 days a week at the company's beck and call.....too bad he didnt read the packet he signed. Otherwise, he would have understood, that he will spend the majority of his time, being blinded by a monitor or laptop screen, more often than he will be blinded by dollar signs.*)
Sorry for that overly long story above, but yes, I was caught being several different turtles instead of working lol. I know you could put this game on a platform like Steam or GOG, and make a ton of money. I would pay over 10 dollars for it in a heart beat. You are amazing at frequent updates and communication with the players. Consider it and try some of those platforms out for yourself. You will see...I promise you. You have the makings of something great in the future. Something special that isnt seen too often, you have the total package when it comes to everything an Indie Dev should have and needs to be a rising star. Please keep the game going on I cant get enough of it lol. I have not found a single bug yet btw, and I have only one complaint to bug you about. I was a sad girl when I went to play the game again and realized my save file didnt work anymore and I had to start over today. I had most of the game completed already and spent an obscene amount of time grinding out everything the game asked for. So, I was wondering if there is a guide or somewhere to find out things to make this go a bit quicker for me. If I had a wiki or guide explaining all the secrets and things to know that will trigger everything to happen...and how to go about getting things in a strategic way...I would feel much better. Of course, after I realized all my progress was lost, I did what a woman with my skill set does. I looked through all the game files and coding, to find the hidden (and always present), "developer sandbox area/cheat mechanism" that is used to aid a dev, while he/she is testing things out, or fixing bugs. Ive always seen them in a Json file or notepad type file. Or it could just be a few button/key presses in the proper order, allowing some really fun stuff to appear on the screen.
(I'm thinking back to the days when I played co-op games with my daughter. There I am, farming and crafting for my life, realizing I am all alone for some reason, until I see my daughter's character, go flying past my own character, now buried in bushes and logs. That was always the moment when diamond pickaxes, and diamond armor would fall from the sky onto my massive materials pile. This flying act of generosity, was always followed by a line of text in the chat bar, in all caps lock: "YAYYYYYY!! YOU DONT HAVE TO THANK ME MOMMY, YOU'RE WELCOME! GRAB THAT SHIT I JUST GAVE YOU.....WE ARE GOING THROUGH THE PORTAL NOW!" I accept her offer, not sure if I should scold her for talking like a sailor at 8 years old. But what I AM, absolutely sure of, is that I can't spend another 200 hours chopping trees and rocks, as she dances around me with her sword, demanding I build her a Minecraft Barbie Dream House.)
Sorry this is so long winded, but you made me a very happy lady with this game. Let me know about the dev secrets please, I was doing so well before lol.
Thanks so much for the praise and for taking the time to write such a thoughtful comment. It really made my day. No it's not long winded at all, I genuinely enjoy reading everyone's stories and feedback, and that is a huge part of what keeps me motivated to keep developing the game.
About the missing save file, do you know if you recently cleared your browser cache, browsing history or switched browsers (E.g. Chrome to Firefox/Safari)? Serenitrove stores its save data directly in the browser, so clearing the cache would remove the save as well. Another possibility is if you switched from the browser version to the offline downloaded version. In that case the save needs to be exported from the itch.io browser version and then imported into the offline copy.
As for secret codes or "Konami code" input, I am afraid there is nothing like that implemented in Serenitrove. I do use internal debug tools during development to unlock resources or test features, but those are removed from all official releases.
That said, if your save is truly gone and you REALLY don't want to replay everything from scratch, I am more than happy to help. If you can roughly remember your progress or what you had unlocked, I can try to craft a replacement save file for you.
Thank you again for the incredibly kind words and encouragement!