Welcome to this update post (22) for "a ghostly desire".

THANK YOU for your interest in this project!

- (back to more) Open world (again)
The basic idea, in the earlier days, was to create kind  of an open world
game for people who like to adventure through the game
without "just following quest lines".
This ambition has fallen into oblivion (at least a bit) due to finding
a good way, to make a game, that people like and a game
that I wanted to make initially!
But(!) I noticed the issue, thought about how to find a way
back to the roots and got it straight again!

>The travel map will now be open all the time!
The beginning of the game has changed!
After the trainride intro sequence, the player starts now on the
new travel map! Including a small tutorial for the map.



(if you like, after this..) ..exploring the city and all of the visitable Locations
 before you even exchange the first word with Dayna, or just
go straight home, meet Dayna and continue with the story!

There are now several "door-events" for every day/night.
"Use the doorbell"  or don't .. it's your choice!
(based on development progress for the different locations)
Rebecca, Larissa, Violet's Rise Bar and the (new) Police Dept.
got events already.

- Additional to that:
Based on, if it is "night" or "day" the different
locations are open or closed now.
> Violet's Rise Bar (only open at "night")
> OLP Bank (only open through "daytime")

(Of course, this stuff isn't necessary at all,
but it's fun to explore, even if it doesn't matter mostly
for the main story.. it's just about the gameplay feeling)


Due to the missing "night-version" of the travel map,
there will be a text information panel on the lower left corner
(this info will not be able to be switched off)



The different locations are now inspectable for more details
if the mouse hovers over them!
(this will be explained in more detail, within the map-tutorial)



- Collecting / Gathering
A good point&click adventure (at least for me) needs to be explored!
I really missed this point in my latest way of developing the game!
Inspecting something and find items that are useable for a later quest,
or just combinable to achieve a new item to work with.


Also collectable with alpha 0.5 are pictures of characters
> 2x Larissa - got her modelcareer (already integrated [alpha 0.4] with a hint in Violet's Rise Bar)
> 2x Dayna - looks like she had a secret shooting..
> 2x Emma - has always loved selfies
> 2x Rebecca - (currently in progress)
(all of this pictures are created individuelly for that and aren't used anywhere else)


(..with further develpment progress there will be more photos for the different
characters and more photos to collect over all ..)

The pictures are, like you can see in the preview above, regular "items"
in the inventory and every picture is seperate clickable (LMB) within the
inventory, to get a preview for the collected picture.
The items itself are also interactive in MCs room, at the desk, in the photo-gallery.
Based on "how many" you collected already, you'll be able to "unlock slots"
to place a spycam for the character you collected a picture for.

e.g.
--> collected 2x larissa: unlock first slot on her location to place a spycam
--> collected 4x larissa: unlock second slot ... and so on..
(just for the basic idea, how exactly the math is behind this system, will be elaborated)


- Autosave
With alpha 0.5 there will be a hidden autosave function!
In case you get stuck in any location for any reason:
e.g.
Sitting on the travel map and entering shed!
Doing something in the shed and get stucked..



AltF4 -> load autosave -> continue again..
..in shed but on the point you entered the location before
the action/error..
That gives the possibility to avoid the previous error and
continue playing afterwards (in best case).
It should fix (or help) eventually with scaling issues of MC,
for some systems on some screens.

- Music
All (new 0.5) storyparts (interact-image-sequences & openworld events)
 are now supported with music.


- Text
With 0.5 players are able to choose between
>"auto-scrolling-text"(auto-continue & click to skip like in alpha 0.4)
> "manual-clicking-text" (everytime to continue manually to the next part)


- THANK YOU!
Overall .. a lot of stuff is done, but there is still a lot stuff to do!
I am happy about, having finally the feeling to get back on the track
with the game I wanted to make initially and the progress is good.
Even if I have the feeling this alpha 0.5 takes forever.. but that is just
the way it is I guess.. :'D



You can still use the development progress preview,
to track the current state:
(daily updated tasks)
https://trello.com/b/UJheZYEv/a-ghostly-desire

Like always! Thank you guys for being patient!
I really appreciate that!
Make sure to join Discord, Patreon or Subscribestar
if you like and we'll 'read' each other again soon!

best <3
~Sitho
www.sitho-entertainment.com