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Oh, If you're talking about the WASD camera movement, then I can probably do something about that.

Demon Time scales the engine time so everything becomes faster without breaking systems like hunger or fatigue. I think the main issue players are having right now is performance, but even if Demon Time instead granted Haste (which does what you’re suggesting), it still wouldn’t fix the issue. I already tested this by giving myself a large amount of Haste.

I’m starting to think the problem isn’t in the game logic but in something visual, possibly a shader or the nodes themselves. (Those aren't 2d sprites but are actually vector graphics generated with code.)

I didn't plan for mobile/tablet, but my goal is to make the game playable without keyboard input. The bookmark feature is a nice idea, I'll look into it.

That icon means it's a dead end.

Alright. I’ll implement that in the next update.

They all give +100% total damage, but there isn’t any order-specific content currently.

It's after “Write Academic Papers,” which can be accessed after taking the Hydrostatics Exam.

Nice. Still, I guess the current implementation of the Alchemy system takes quite a lot of effort?

It’s meant to take a long time, so there are incentives to do evil things and actually kill the spiritfolks.

That’s intentional. I’ll make the text clearer.

I could move "Regain Power V" down so the +100 attribute nodes are accessible directly.

There will be more ways to reenter the Crypt in the future, but I can see why it’s confusing. I’ve reworded it to make things clearer for now.

I’ll keep this in mind when I complete the UI rework!

Thanks. I actually had a theory that the bug happens because the "purchase unicorn" is the 256th node in the array. If this bug happens on other nodes too, then I’m back to square one.

I did some tests and found that Demon Time doesn’t really affect FPS when idling. Its impact is only noticeable when a node is completed quickly, so it’s either some inefficient code running on node completion or the number of text popup gameobjects required exceeds the pool size, causing the game to instantiate them rapidly. The latter is much easier and safer to fix for now.

It’s a problem on the PC version too, but it’s more bearable than on the web version. One optimization that can be done quickly right now would be to disable the text popup while Demon Time is active. That might save some frames.

Perhaps I’ll make it so that Erudition Order students can just buy alchemy ingredients outright. That would make it less tedious and help make each Order more unique.

I’ll see if I can do it. That would help mitigate the save problem some players have been facing too.

Thanks! I didn’t realize the Vagrant’s Sword would be that powerful. The Demo Lord is definitely not supposed to be beaten that easily, haha. The lemonade minigame is meant to be something you let run in the background while you do other things over the course of the game, but I guess I could try adjusting the curve a bit so there’s less downtime. As for the newspaper, I might remove it soon, it turns out to be more obscure than I thought.

Hmm. So it’s a personal laptop. I can’t test on a Mac, but I’ll keep an eye on the issue.

That’s pretty crazy. I’m starting to doubt if 32-bit integer can even handle the rest of the game. Were you going for a specific build, or did you just get lucky with mandrakes?

Noted. I'll try another color.

The new update should address most of your concerns. There are more raw materials now, and you can get the Mysterious Invite after defeating a certain calamity. The only thing still unresolved is the Purchase Unicorn bug. I’ve confirmed it exists, but I’m not sure what’s causing it yet.

That might be it. School admins sometimes reset PCs when they’re installing updates or new programs.

I’m sorry to hear that happened. Is there a chance your cookies were cleared? I’ll investigate this further and see what I can find.

There’s no difference from the previous versions. You have to reincarnate mid-run, but permanent progression are saved.

Frequent updates will just break saves, so I figure it’s better to bundle changes into a larger release. The next update should be finished soon and will include all content for the first academy year.

Thanks! I'll include the fix in the next update.

That's a plausible explanation. It's possible to manually save between each step, so you could technically spend a really long time hitting 10 0.6% chance. However, I probably won’t balance around this strategy, because it’s only possible on the web version, where saves aren’t triggered automatically on exit.

If that’s the case, then there must be some quirks in the random number generator, because getting 6–7 screaming mandrakes shouldn’t be feasible with a stated 0.6% chance. Even 6–7 normal mandrakes would only be around a 0.55% chance. I think having 1 screaming mandrake triggering +9999 vitality (0.03% chance) then getting 500 virtue combined with a good run should already be enough.

Thanks for the feedback! Questions like these are very helpful during development because it reveals what players think. I’ll try my best to address all of them.

Is the business permit useless?

At the moment, the business permit is mostly useless (aside from a score boost). However, I’m already working on lemonade stand content for the next update, which will require it.

How do you get demerits?

There used to be more ways to earn demerits, but currently the only options are trying to flirt with Liebeth then fighting the disciplinary committee.

Screaming Mandrakes are hard to get

Based on feedback from other players, the most effective way to obtain Screaming Mandrake right now is simply refreshing the page and trying again, since autosave only triggers once every 30 seconds in the web version. Alchemy is intentionally difficult at this stage of the game, but it will gradually become easier and eventually become your main source of Screaming Mandrake.

How do you get gold?

Gold is primarily earned by selling items on the map. The 1 million gold requirement may seem excessive, but it’s intended for players doing a Business Club run, which will provide access to significantly more gold. For now, without the lemonade stand business, the only way to reach 1 million gold is by selling Screaming Mandrake.

Inviting all three NPCs to the cabin feels useless

NPC interactions such as “Practice magic with Liebeth” are leisure nodes and do not progress the calamity. Their usefulness depends on your available food and sleep. Also synergizes very well with certain builds.

Gathering 2000 Calmness to calm the demon

Reaching 2000 Calmness to calm the demon should already be possible by following the meditation route.

Are more Shadow Comprehension bonuses planned?

Yes. I plan to increase Shadow Comprehension rewards so players can access more power earlier in the game. Maybe fewer nodes but larger rewards when you do find them.

Boss fight clarity / tutorial or journal

I plan to do a polishing pass after finishing Year 1 content for the Steam demo release. This will likely include a UI rework and some form of onboarding tutorial, journal, or glossary.

Is the highest recorded damage saved across runs?

No. It is only recorded for that specific fight.

What do the other stats do?

You can view what each stat does in the Summary tab. If a stat does not appear there, it likely does not directly affect gameplay.

Red and yellow text seems inconsequential

Those colors are mainly used for emphasis. That said, certain final endings (not here yet) will be locked or altered depending on choices such as defeating or sparing a hero.

What is the criteria for remembering an action?

Once an action is revealed (shown on your screen, whether activated or not), it will persist and appear in subsequent runs with the appropriate upgrade.

Thanks again, very helpful!

Multipliers from the same source stack additively, while multipliers from different sources stack multiplicatively.

The 600k score is more than a week old at this point. At the time, there was no alchemy and only one hero available. Cheesing for 9 screaming mandrakes seems absurd to me. That's like (0.06 x 0.05)^9 (probably a little less rare since the correct calculation would use a binomial distribution?) Even 3 screaming mandrakes is already super rare, having all those 3 trigger +9999 vitality is just so astronomically unlikely... unless I made a mistake and accidentally set the chance to something like 95%. (Yeah, there will be a recruitable hero in the future.)

It's just 1 point per basic stat. Calmness, Vitality, Manipulation is 0.1, 2, 10.

Then there are multipliers: +10% for each unique Status, +5% for each unique Resource, +2% per Skill level, +1% per point of Virtue. +50% for each Hero defeated. Then divided by 10 at the end.

A lucky screaming mandrake would only give like 20k points on its own, but with multipliers it can go pretty high.

Hmm… the server may have gone down for a bit, or it may have ignored new entries since it’s been over the 1,000-entry limit for some time now.

I probably won’t be adding key rebinds, but I can change the Alt key. I’ve actually been planning to do that for a while.

You can find more mandrakes from the 'Search Loggers’ Belongings' node. It's still random, but the chance you don't get any in a single playthrough is rather low.

In that case, you could try manually reincarnating. It should try to upload the score again. You don’t have to fully reincarnate, the upload happens on the end screen before the leaderboard loads.

Might be a web thing. Have to play around with it more to verify.

I'll check again, but it shouldn't affect the stats you've already gained.