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Hang in there! Remember, your health and well-being are top priority. Appeasing horny strangers on the internet is, like, ninth or tenth priority. I think.

Also, since you can't exactly survive off of well-wishes and good intentions, I'm just going to casually reiterate to everyone that Pudding has a Patreon if you want to put some money in the tip jar: https://www.patreon.com/TwistCumet/about

Keep your chin up! Believe me, you have nothing to apologize for. You were optimistic about how long it might take to make some seemingly minor adjustments to the game, but it's not like you were being deceptive--the key word is optimistic. You made a big change by quitting your dayjob (which I fully support, that work schedule sounded atrocious), and that gave you a good feeling about your ability to focus on the game and make things happen. You took charge of your life, which gave you an optimistic outlook, and that's a good thing.

I'm sure it was really unexpected and discouraging when you realized that you have to basically recode the AI from scratch, and I know how easy it is to focus on the negatives when a brick wall like that happens--negatives like not meeting deadlines you'd proposed, and lunatics on the internet saying awful things. By all means, take a little break and remind yourself of the positives in your life: your friends, your fans, stuff like that.

Sorry for slipping into Preachy Life Coach Mode. The key takeaway is: you've done great, and you're still doing great. You wrapped up Part 1.1.1 very quickly when you went full-time on it, and it looks to me like you're making excellent progress on making the AI more readily modifiable. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed if more coding issues come up--just remember that's the nature of the beast.

Hang in there! Stay optimistic!

As a fan of the series, I just wanna say you've got the Ace Attorney-style banter absolutely spot-on. All the little touches like sound effects and music stings, too.

I'm sorry to hear about your health issues, and I hope you aren't pushing yourself too hard to meet a 12/31 deadline for part 1. Take care of yourself, first and foremost.

Fun fact for people having trouble: since Ari doesn't show up until Night 4, nothing really prevents you from just keeping the security doors shut the whole time for Nights 1-3. They don't automatically open at zero sanity like in the previous builds.

Sure you won't be able to hear anything except your own breathing, but if you just fix stuff on the camera as they break and check the office occasionally for the bomb doll, there's no real risk of a game over.

Here are my far-too-wordy thoughts on the new demo:

THE GOOD

• Having low sanity result in deafness is an interesting idea for a game with so many audio cues. It also appears to make the camera transition between rooms more slowly, so it creates kind of a snowballing effect where things just get worse and worse the more you ignore your sanity--I like it. It really emphasizes that you need to watch that meter.
• The game's presentation looks great. Character models look really good, the environment's getting fleshed out (and having everything be well-lit really helps show that off), and the VA's are doing a stellar job.
• I like the new gimmicks quite a bit, by which I mean Sammy getting in your face, Poppy's bomb doll, and Nile killing cameras if she feels like she's being ignored. It gives each of the girls something to do besides trying to break into the control room, while also emphasizing their individual personality traits. (I do kinda miss the hypnosis thing Nile used to do, but mechanically speaking the bomb doll covers pretty much the same "think fast!" role so I guess I'm just averse to change. Also, quick idea for the next NSFW update: maybe switching to Nile's dead cameras can play some of those "bonus" videos. As a distraction.)

THE "BAD" (this is subjective, ignore at your leisure)

• I know I just said I like the gimmicks, but not when they all happen at the same time--which is far too often. It's surprisingly common on Night 4 to see girls at both windows, while Sammy's in your face so you can't interact with anything, and the bomb doll is at the ceiling, AND the stress doll's been stolen when you weren't looking, AND the light is red so you have to fix stuff on the cameras ASAP, except none of that stuff even gets a chance to kill you 'cause your sanity dropped below 25% so Ari decides to barge in and bop you on the head. Maybe only allow one gimmick in the room at a time? And have some kind of universal cooldown for gimmicks so seeing one at least means you have some time to breathe before the next one happens? Just throwing some ideas out there.
• I feel like 25% sanity is a bit soon for Ari to start showing up. Considering that sanity now drains passively, and that so many things already prevent you from regaining your sanity (losing the stress doll, Sammy getting up close and personal, or just getting caught up in fixing stuff on the cameras), it really feels like 25% sanity is just kind of early to start worrying about an unstoppable one-shot from a character that doesn't even seem to announce herself like the others do. And even when you can use the stress doll, Misty will one-shot you if you use it too liberally, so it can really take a while to get your sanity at a healthy level, and the entire time Ari is at risk of taking you out. My idea for a solution: hold off on Ari showing up until your sanity is at 0%. Then she can show up at the window and start tapping the glass, which can be her sign that she'll bust that door down in 30 seconds if you don't get your sanity back. Anyway, I'm just trying to make suggestions instead of sitting back and complaining. You're the developers, and it's your show.
• Just some minor bug/balance stuff, like characters attacking after being against the window for less than two seconds, or going from being against the window to being in their pre-window positions with no cooldown. I also got a softlock once, while the bomb doll was in the room when the night was close to finished. Maybe the doll blew up and the shift ended at roughly the same time and the game got confused?

Sorry for the massive wall of text, I just wanted to offer some feedback. And the major takeaway from that feedback should be: the game's coming along really well. There are some wrinkles that can be ironed out, but that'll come with time and playtesting. You're doing great, can't wait to see more!