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(Comment contains spoilers)

Let me immediately begin by thanking you so much for your determination and patience! It means a lot when I see someone trying to see the secret ending. You've put in more than enough time than I expected and you deserve clarity! I must admit I think I've made this secret ending too hard/convoluted to get. Multiple oversights on my part. I haven't heard of anyone getting it in comments or videos, so I'll give you some hints and hopefully others will benefit from it too.

Based on what you've figured out, you're not far from getting the secret ending. From my experience with puzzles, being told the answer is never as rewarding as figuring it out yourself, so this comment will not spoil it entirely (but will get close). Feel free to stop reading if you get any ideas. But I also understand that's not how everyone likes to play games, so if you want the answer straight up please let me know and I will be happy to provide in further comments! I spent a solid bit of time on the secret ending so I hope it's worth it.

To get the secret ending, there is a certain action you have to perform at a certain time. The advice has two important parts to use.

1.                      The first is the group of 4 underlined words, forming an idiom. In the entire game, there is only ONE other time that idiom is used. You can only get the secret ending when the paragraph containing that idiom is the one you're currently "reading". That is to say, the second it shows up, wait for any automatic text to finish and do NOT press space! If you press space, the next paragraph will start typing and the chance is gone. I know ... very unforgiving. (This is what "only in that very moment" tries to imply).

Oversight by me: The idiom only shows up the second time if the game knows you've received the advice during THAT playthrough. Originally it would show on every playthrough, but that left open the possibility for people to accidentally stumble upon the secret ending without experiencing the bad ending first (which would narratively make no sense). So, it only shows if you have the advice, which you can only get after the bad ending. Not the best idea in retrospect because people might not realise this and without a save system the game takes a long time to play.

That leads me to my next oversight: the idiom doesn't show up at the most convenient time - it's not at the beginning of the game, nor in the middle ... sorry. It's not during the bad ending either, so never click "It's no use. There's no way out.". You also have to have given the old lady her painting.

2.                The second important part is the action you have to perform. Hitting the X to close the window isn't the answer: Due to the way the game is currently programmed, no information is retained when the game window closes (hence why there is no save system). When the game is reopened, it has no knowledge of what you did on previous playthroughs.

There will be an indication when you perform the right action - you should notice something different. If you stop at the right moment and don't hit space, you should eventually find it.

If only there was some functionality implemented into the game that seemed redundant. As if the entire game could be perfectly playable without it, but for some strange reason … it's there.

Hope this is enough and good luck! I'll respond if you want further hints or the answer. Use headphones to get the most of the secret ending. :)

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed.

Yes, I use Unity (for now...). The glitching component of my shader works by displacing (tiny) square regions of the image by a random amount, at random intervals. The locations of the squares are determined by random translations of a texture that is fed into the shader (they are not procedural). 

I did base mine on Yames' one but I know for sure mine doesn't replicate theirs exactly. When designing it, I drew on the shader examples from Shaders Laboratory (which is an amazing free resource in general). At least to me, programming shaders through code is difficult, so if it's any consolation, I made mine with heaps of trial and error. Maybe if you're using the shader graph it might be a bit easier.

Left a comment on your channel - thanks again for playing! I do understand that the text adventure isn't like the usual ones (e.g., commands like north/n, use, take, inventory/i). That's definitely one of the things I'd change if I made another text adventure, but I probably won't make one for a while (I think most people prefer the visually-oriented ones). I'm planning the next game to be of the sort. Glad you enjoyed the slow-burn horror!

I'm excited for you to play it! And yes, the hint is intended to make no sense in isolation haha. I will also not confirm nor deny your sneaky suspicion.

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Thanks a bunch! Yes, this was very much a change in focus, with narrative being #1. I mirror your thoughts about game mechanics exactly - they were designed secondary to the story, so I can see how they feel a bit separated.

I agree that there isn't much in the way of branching possibilities - the idea that you may not be able to change your fate is part of the story, so many events have to happen. And yes, this adventure has certainly taught me text adventures are hard to code!

I hadn't even realised the release in America would be so fitting, so lucky me. Good luck for the secret ending! Don't forget there are hints in the usual place.

Thanks for playing! I watched your playthrough a couple weeks ago. As for allusion, there are loads of hints (some maybe too subtle...) that contribute to the underlying story, including: the colour of the people, the lack of bird sounds/fish/insects, the notebook, effects congruent with cordyceps, the propensity of the tribe members to use tactile descriptors, the way Arthur has an idle animation but tribe members don't, etc. Glad you enjoyed! 

Just watched your playthough! The secret ending answers some of your questions (but it also raises a few of its own haha). Thanks for playing!

Thanks so much!

Thanks for playing!

(spoilers)

Yes, that's intentional. The game is deliberately designed so that you can't satisfy everyone. So don't worry if you can't catch some! Additionally, there is some leniency to it, so you can even miss some fish and still be alright.   

Thank you! It's in the works.

Much appreciated!

Yeah I knew it was a risk trying a 'real-time' system, and my intention was to instil a sense of panic/stress, but at the same time I can understand how, when combined with the randomness of the fishing, players could find it tedious/annoying. Thanks for the feedback.

Thanks! Just watched your video. There is a secret ending that doesn't leave you in the dark. You don't have to complete the entire game again to get it, but you could alternatively just search up someone else's playthrough and watch it. I liked your interpretations of the characters' voices!

Good to hear! Unfortunately it's likely I won't continue this story. I think how I want to approach game development is to have each game explore a different idea, considering I have accumulated many ideas that could become games and I only have so much time to develop. I think I want all my games to be one collective anthology. (As a bonus, I'll never have to worry about under-delivering on a sequel, haha.) And no, I haven't read that story of his (but I am aware of other things he has written). Thanks for playing!

Thanks!

Hmm... it says you can't be messaged. You might need to check the 'allow messages from everyone' option in settings

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Thanks again for playing! Made this game before I knew that the Last of Us featured the same fungus, so you figured it out quite quickly haha. The combination to the locked box can be found in two places; it's in the text file included in the zip file, but the Morse code is also played as audio in the background during the credits of the normal ending. You might get a DM from me soon!

(comment contains mild gameplay spoilers)

Thanks for your comment - I consciously considered whether I should make the player's "fatigue" a visible statistic to the player. You can actually tell how tired your character is by the speed at which the bar fills up when you're reeling in. (Slower speeds = your character is more tired)

However, I do understand why it might be frustrating because there is a fair bit of randomness to the fishing mechanic; you can be fairly well rested and still get super unlucky with the fish. Although, I knew this when I was balancing the difficulty, and the game is designed to make you fail to meet everyone's needs, but will still let you survive. I wanted players to feel like there were going to lose - it adds stress and guilt. 

Thanks for playing!

Glad you enjoyed!

Woah that is so cool! Thanks so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you for your feedback! Left a comment on your video as well (hope it comes through - been having some problems with commenting for some reason).

It was my intention to tweak the amount of customers & fish to put the player in an uneasy position. Nice work with the puzzle as well! I realise it wasn't clear, but the box was supposed to be something the player would chip away at from day to day (the information within was written thinking the majority of people would read it after the meeting).

As for the story, it was meant to be a mystery at first that slowly resolved as you play. I wanted players to respond with "goal? what is my goal?" and wonder about the fisherman & his son until things fell into place, but I can see how the mayor's final visit is a little anticlimactic for that part of the story. I think there's a horror to the way a massive, harrowing realisation could come to someone not through an extreme moment, but passively sneaking up on them. Although, that might not have been the right fit.

I'm surprised you want to know more about the town! I spent months planning the complexities of the story, and thought that if I added anymore it might seem a bit overwhelming. There should be enough detail hidden in the game so that you can solve the mystery of the fish & what's going on, but I kept background information to a minimum. (AlphaBetaGamer's video has a few comments and there are some real detectives in there if you wanna browse through people's theories!)

I tried an ambiguous ending this time, hoping that the feeling of being left in the dark after the normal ending would serve as motivation for the secret one. I'll consider going back to making both have some degree of satisfaction in the future.

Unfortunately there seemed to be a visual bug (not impacting gameplay) for the UI on your playthrough. My guess is the game window was beyond the vertical limits of your monitor? Sorry about that. It looked like it resolved itself at 50:14. Also my bad with the exiting the game, it should say "hold Escape to quit".

Thank you playing!

thank you!

Just watched it, what a great playthrough! I've known your channel for a while, can't believe I'm finally on it haha. 

Portal Emulator is a framing device, part of a meta-narrative between my games. 

Alright, should be fixed now - you can press F11 to cycle between screen sizes. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Thank you! Currently no; while testing, changing the resolution (1200x1200) caused certain UI elements to lose their place, and the game is built around a square aspect ratio. I hadn't considered that this wouldn't accommodate 1080p, so I'll start working on a fix.

I think I found the bug you got, and it completely prevented the second ending from working... I don't think anyone who downloaded v1.0.1 got to see the second ending, which is a bit sad. All part of learning to be a dev. It's fixed now.

Love to hear when people enjoy my stuff!

Thanks! Worked as intended.

Thank you for checking it out! I'm super grateful for the attention I've received from the Horror Games Community twitter. I'm sorry to hear you encountered that bug! I've been sick & haven't been checking this regularly, but I'll look into the issue. I hate that you went out of your way to get the second ending and it didn't work. I'll let you know when it's fixed if you still want to see the ending.

Not the first I've made but the first I've released. Ideas for my next one are in the works haha

Thanks, glad you liked it! Is there any way I can watch the stream?