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A very cogent suggestion.

Early on, there's a high level of symmetry partly because the mechanical complexity hasn't been sufficiently introduced yet to compensate for deficits in capability of "fundamental" tools, i.e. critique and shields/reflectors-- or, simply put, to make the new player experience somewhat deck-composition-agnostic. This may become less the case as the player progresses and certain distinguishing characteristics between the modes become more apparent.

Currently, there are some generalities of distinction for each of the modes which, depending on player progress, may not yet be obvious:

• Most negative status cards (e.g. Slow Burn, +Damage) require Ethos (either wholly or as a component).
• Logos has a wider variety of critique cards-- it's the only mode that has criticisms which "specialize" in all three modes (Contradiction -> Logos, False Authority -> Ethos, Misleading Affect -> Pathos).
• Pathos is the only mode that can pitch the Enthymeme toward any of the three modes, and it's also (subtly) the easiest to summon a lot of premises for (due to cards like Epizeuxis and the converter cards).

... In addition to the subtler variance in capabilities provided by "unique" rhetoric cards (e.g. Ipse Dixit, which wipes out fresh premises) and resonance effects (e.g. Probatio Diabolica, which zeroes-out all fielded premises, ignoring shields and reflectors). 

Still, I'm sympathetic to the idea that these differences could stand to be exaggerated.

Here's one possible approach: Shields and critiques progress in stages (I -> II -> III), with higher-stages having stronger effects (1, 3, and 5 HP for shields,  or 2, 4, and 6 damage for criticism). To make the three modes more distinct, it's possible that the third stage of this progression could only be obtainable for one of the three modes-- let's say that only Pathos gets Level III shields, and only Logos gets Level III critiques. This would effectively turn Logos into a criticism specialist, and Pathos into a defense specialist-- the other modes can still do these things to a certain extent, but to get the best tools in these categories would require changing your deck's color composition. 

Is that a particularly good way of going about this? I don't know yet-- I came up with this idea in like 15 minutes, after all-- but, subjective quality aside, it's definitely a solution!

Sounds bad! You may be able to get it to work normally if you disable some of the shader effects (focal blur, bloom) in the options menu or try a lower resolution— this could be performance-related. 

Fortunately, I’m already investigating a fix for a similar issue with what sounds like a common cause, so with any luck this will be addressed in the next patch.

Thanks for the report!

That could be performance-related. You could try one or several of the following video options adjustments:

- Turn bloom lighting off. 

- Disable Focal Blur 

- Reduce the blur intensity setting to "low" or "off". 

- Play at a lower resolution setting. 

Anything to save GPU cycles. Alternatively, there could be other processes running in the background on your computer that are using up resources and making the game run slower.

As per usual, you can send any screenshots for debugging purposes to support@realitylayerzero.com.

Are you using the Start or Continue button? If you don't have an active save, you gotta go through the Start option. I know that's unintuitive, sorry! (Maybe that's a future revision...)

Alternatively, this might happen if you don't have a cleared First Layer savegame.

Three fights? Keep going, you've barely even started! Here are some tips:

After four (or five, depending on how many optional ones you do) debates you get a booster pack that expands your options considerably.

Technically you can find cards during freeroam. Some of them are from spending time with important characters (anyone marked with the heart icon), some of them are behind continuing optional investigation objectives (for instance, the receptionist scene in the public affairs office, which you mentioned above), and very occasionally from inspection in the overworld. The latter category is currently the rarest, but that's something I'm seeking to address in future updates.

There certainly are bonuses to picking correct evidence in the middle of a debate, but sometimes your evidence isn't good enough to get the bonus. Depending on how you investigated, you may have entered a debate without the evidence that creates a tangible advantage for yourself. (I'm assuming you're talking about the Lucia debate? This is one example. There's an optional investigation objective you have a narrow window to pursue beforehand that gives you evidence strong enough to end the debate early.)

I'd say you should go until at least the beginning of the Second Layer before making a call on whether the rest of the game has legs. It's certainly a slow-starter (as you mentioned, not unlike Persona 4!) but many of the things you're describing here are not actually absent features!

(As an aside, I should point out that the extent to which you fumble the interaction at the Public Affairs Office is partly dependent on which dialog options you end up choosing. I do like the suggestion of making the player handle it better if the receptionist background has been chosen, though!)

My intention is to leave any development materials posted online available indefinitely, so both "old" mixes of Rival Theory will remain publicly available, although the video titles might change. I plan do do something similar with v0.3.2.1, the last build with the "beta art" still visible.

Also, technically I didn't get rid of all the tree billboards, just the ones you're able to walk near! Some of the 2D trees will still be visible in the backgrounds of 3D scenes, to save on polygons.

Ah, I suppose I should have emphasized that it wasn't added merely to act as a cliffhanger! The bulb-- and what's inside of it-- were originally going to be introduced near the beginning of the next layer, so if you can believe it, this has actually been planned, as a narrative element, reasonably far in-advance. I'm just sliding it in a little earlier, here... To build tension!

As far as what it is goes: "Alien" is an interesting interpretation, but certainly more science-fiction than what I'm ultimately angling for. I'm hesitant to explain exactly what my intentions are, both because I don't want to give myself credit for writing I haven't published yet, and because I think that doing so would somewhat spoil the act of interpretation from the standpoint of the reader. I can only offer you assurance in my belief that this is a necessary step toward the resolution of at least one thread in the story's tangled web of metaphors. 

Pretty sure I fixed it. Fortunately, it seems to be a pretty isolated issue. I was able to replicate the crash and apply sensible remediation measures. Look forward to those when v0.4 releases! Thank you very much for the report.

(The current build will crash consistently if you try to manually save toward the *end* of the last scene of the First Layer due to an effect instance not cleaning itself up properly. As stated previously, the game autosaves very shortly before you can trigger this crash, and as far as I can tell it only happens in these specific circumstances, so it should be minimally-disruptive to player experience. Still, a fix is coming!)

I will investigate! EDIT: As a note for other readers, the game does autosave very closely prior to when this crash was encountered, so it's unlikely to interrupt progress if you also happen to encounter it.

Fantastic!

Slow Burn subtracts from fresh premises first (or at least, it should!), so you can still accumulate accepted premises even while it's active, provided you're summoning more than one premise to the field at a time. 

... Of course, it's undeniable that it's a little overpowered at the moment. Still trying to figure out the right balance, there.

I may be inclined to admit that I have actually paper-prototyped a "pure gameplay" mode not entirely dissimilar to what you're envisioning here. The day may come when I undertake the effort to implement that mode... But for now, I'm focusing primarily on finishing the main story! 

It's all sort of intertwined with itself, though-- I'm still getting tons of actionable feedback about ways the core debate mode can be refined and expanded, so if this theoretical mode eventually does come to exist, I expect it'll be built on a more solid foundation than what exists currently.

Slowdown on Steam Deck is interesting-- I would expect it to have no problems. If it was just in the last debate, that could suggest I may need to simplify the geometry of the background, or perhaps the lighting configuration of just that scene. I'll look into it-- thanks for the tip!

Potentially. The exp awarded by a debate is distributed evenly across all participating arguments. If failing to present evidence causes you to use more cards in the debate, more cards will get exp. However, the total amount of exp awarded remains the same. It depends entirely on if you want to distribute that exp to more arguments or not.

Should be pretty easy, in fact. All of the in-game text is stored externally in JSON and tsv files and read-in at runtime. You should be able to find them in the zip file in the "Languages" subdirectory, if you want to have a look at what's in there. 

As for the actual process of making a new language package (and subsequently testing to make sure it works), that's probably a bit too complicated to explain in an Itch comment, so shoot me an email at developer@realitylayerzero.com if you're still interested and I'll walk you through how to do it.

Once you're in the predebate menu, your arguments are "locked-in". You gotta change 'em prior to invocation.

The days remaining are partially replenished at the beginning of each part, although not necessarily by a fixed amount. You have my guarantee that you'll be given enough time to complete said part, even if you run the clock down to almost zero in the prior one.

There are ways to get more money. One, you'll encounter without doing anything particularly fancy, so just keep playing and you'll find out.

The first thing you mentioned sounds like it might be a bug. I'll need to investigate that. Sorry about the annoyance, there!

Continuing into the third part, whenever it releases, will work much the same as continuing into the second part from the first did. Each new version will read from the same save data location as the current version (%localappdata%), so all of your old saves will still be visible-- assuming they weren't deleted, and that you're using the same device, that is. Just hang onto your cleared saves and let the magic of mildly clever programming take care of the rest!

Thank you very much for pointing the issue with the students out! I've just applied a fix for that and a few other issues. You can find that update in version 0.3.2.1!

A native Linux port is certainly somewhere on my to-do list. It should also work seamlessly with Proton (for Steam users). 

You don't? As far as I know, even in the most extreme case, you should be able to switch to a Logos/Ethos deck, or an Ethos/Pathos deck. Swap one of your non-Ethos arguments with Law and Order. 

Tricolor decks are still workable, but they're tricky to wrap your head around.

You can save in the middle of cutscenes, so I'd recommend doing the following:

1). Sometime before the debate begins, create the deck you intend on using.

2). Use the "save" feature to write to a new save slot while in the scene immediately before the debate (closer to the end, if possible). Remember the number of the slot, in case you need to reload.

3). Use the shift key to fast-forward through dialog you've already read.

4). If things are going poorly during the debate, press escape to bring up the forfeiture prompt. Re-adjust as necessary.

I'd also highly recommend bringing cards that specialize in criticizing Pathos, if you have any. 

I hope that helps. You can do this! I believe!

That delay sounds like it could be a bug, or perhaps hardware-related. Would you say your PC is underpowered? Does the game appear to be lagging otherwise? (I may have gone too crazy with the lighting in some of the debate stages...)

An hour?! Whew, that's... That's quite a bit. I guess I need to consider further balance changes...

Something that might help with dialog length is using the "fastforward" button-- which is mapped to "shift" by default (the same key as the run button). You can use this to skip through text, which is useful if you're not interested in re-reading.

I appreciate you asking!

Sure, I can explain. 

Rhetoric doesn't level up, but you can find level II and III critique cards just by playing normally. Depending on your choices, you may already have some! Otherwise, consider pursuing some optional objectives, since that's a consistent way of finding new cards. That being said, level I critique cards are less expensive than the higher-level variants, so they tend to maintain a certain usefulness even with the higher-level variants available to you.

The Enthymeme is a means of passively accruing premises. Its "pitch" (or color) determines what kind of premises you gain at the start of your turn, and its tier (or level) determines how many you get (up to +3). The pitch also somewhat increases the weights of arguments that use premises of the same color/mode. The Enthymeme is symmetrical, so its effects apply to both sides equally.

Debate Pace simply refers to how many actions-per-turn each side can take. At a pace of one (the default), you can only perform one "action" (e.g. playing a card, resonating an argument) before your turn ends. At two, you can perform two actions, and so on and so forth until the cap of 3 actions-per-turn. Debate Pace will reset to default after a certain number of turns since it was increased pass.

Proposal slots determine how many proposal cards (e.g. shields, reflectors, status effects) you can have active at the same time. Run out of proposal slots, and when you try to play a new proposal, you'll have to replace one of your old proposals, thereby losing its effect. You can increase your number of proposal slots by simply progressing the story, or by using certain pieces of equipment. 

There are some horror-adjacent themes, like the occult elements intrinsic to the invocation ritual, as well as some influence on my own writing from writers known for horror-- specifically Lovecraft and Ryukishi07. Beyond that, it's mainly an aesthetic label. 

I think it's really easy to get carried away in horror and create something that ends up being just kind of gross. That's something I'm consciously trying to avoid here. 

Subjectively, I would not say Reality Layer Zero is particularly scary, although there are certainly tense moments. It's my hope, as well as my intention, that the evocations of horror are more in the vein of "gothic horror"-- magnificent and gloomy, perhaps, but not scary in a way that might meaningfully put-off a contemporary audience sensitive to such things. Your mileage may vary, of course.

There is a way, Quayle is an optional debate.

Not yet! I can only confirm that development will continue, and that the next part of the story will release as a free update on June 1st (in about 2 days).

While there isn't currently a built-in UI for deleting save files, you can delete the save files manually in the Reality Layer Zero subdirectory of your %localappdata% folder to help reduce some of the clutter. Kind of a lame solution, but there ya go. Meanwhile, consider in-game file management taken as a feature request!

The choices you make at the beginning determine three of the four arguments that appear in your starting deck (the fourth is chosen when you first visit the Garden), as well as your starting rhetoric and equipment. There may also be some minor changes to dialog depending on your chosen background, but nothing very elaborate (yet). Thanks for playing! 

Good feedback! Top of my list of gameplay improvements for the next major update is to "mellow out" the opponent AI a little bit, to reduce that unfairness and increase how in-control the player feels, so consider that totally noted. 

As for Pace Up (the resonance effect on the big card "Clockwork"), I also agree it's a skosh problematic at the moment. It's possible that mechanics which show up in future chapters may help dial-back how off-the-rails it feels, but if not, it may need a rework. I'm thinking of either "localizing" the Pace Up effect for each debate participant such that it functions more like a Haste status in a more traditional JRPG, or perhaps decoupling the debate pace and acceptance rate mechanics somehow, so that only the "activating" player gets the "increased acceptance rate" benefit (at least at first). I'm open to suggestions on this one.

Hey, fair enough, I'll see if I can reproduce it. Thanks for the tip!

EDIT: I have managed to reproduce the error. I'll add a fix for this issue as well as some of the others you mentioned here in the next update. For now though, for yourself and those who might be reading, if you've got a card "grabbed" while in the deck editor, DON'T back out of the editor! Drop the card first!

EDIT 2: Should be fixed as of version 2. I also went ahead and addressed the other two things you mentioned (accidental text skipping and finding the isolated guard). See Patch Notes #1.

Do you have any more details? (For instance, where the crash occurred?) 

Depending on several factors, you may be able to bypass this error if you reload. 

Thanks very much for the feedback. You can find the guard down the alleyway as pictured here. Might have made him a little *too* out of sight, heh heh... 

Gonna totally figure out a better way to prevent accidental text skipping, but for the time being, if you miss the last little bit of text, you can press tab (or L3) to view the text backlog. Should alleviate some of the annoyance!

https://act-novel.itch.io/reality-layer-zero

Mystery! Occultism! Card games! I made this in Game Maker Studio 2!!

The above trailer features heavily the "adventure system". You can check out the "debate system" by viewing the below trailer.

The game was inspired by Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric. Eagle-eyed gamers in the audience might also spot a passing resemblance to Ace Attorney. Purely coincidental, you understand. I am very original. I've actually never played a videogame before.

You can download it right now! It's free!! The game currently contains the first of six planned chapters. Golly gosh, I hope it doesn't crash the instant it hits your computer machine! (if it does, please send me an email at support@realitylayerzero.com so that I can address the issue)

You can follow the Twitter account for vague, wordless updates that might be tangentially related to ongoing development efforts: https://twitter.com/RealityLayer0

Or if infrequent updates delivered straight to your inbox are more your cup of tea, consider signing up for the mailing list on the official website: https://realitylayerzero.com/

Thank you very much for your attention. Here are some pretty screenshots.

Thank you for your kind words; I'm glad you enjoyed it. 

I considered the payment-optional model early on, but something about it just didn't sit right with me. 

Instead, please consider supporting my future endeavors. I would greatly appreciate that.

Hey, thanks! Glad to hear you liked it. Good luck with finding secrets.

A submission: https://crunchysoft.itch.io/applewood

It's a free game, so this will be the only thing I'm submitting, as requested.

I really need to get around to playing the Prince of Persia games. Thank you very much for your kind words. 

It's probably not bugged. Something that's potentially not obvious for the upper-left ghost is that the phrase only uses 7 notes, not the full 8. The other thing that might not be obvious is that you can place the pebbles on the bars, not just on top of them (or, in other words, you have access to EGBDF in addition to FACEG). 

Timestamped video solution.

If you can give me a place to send it, I can give you a key directly.

https://itch.io/t/67604/how-to-get-a-steam-key-from-your-itchio-purchase

Follow the instructions in the thread linked above, and that should do it for you!