Hello fans of Birth ME Code! Patch 1.3.0 is finally out after such a long time. There's not a lot to say despite it all. It's a few bug fixes that have been a long time coming and some new content. It is not a lot, or very long content, but it's been missing for a long time and I'm very happy to finally be done with that. A future patch will follow to deal with some more bug fixes, and I'm tentatively thinking about an eventual overhaul patch to catch up the game's quality with the level at which I'm at while developing Decide 4 God, but don't expect it until that game comes out at the very earliest.
Patch Notes
General
The final bonus segment is now included into the game. It contains small spoilers for Head AS Code, so you would do well to play that game first before reading it. You don't have to, but it would be preferable to do it. This segment is the final missing link between Birth ME Code and Decide 4 God, the upcoming finale to the Abime Series.
Visual novel
Several little things were fixed in the visual novel segments.
Flowchart
The second bonus segment is now accessible.
The key should now properly show up on a specific locked segment.
Save files
The save files screen should now display something properly once the game's main story has been finished.
Known issues
Due to the difference in GameMaker versions and new hardware, testing has unveiled that some things now have improper timing (the Deduction beginning animation for one, the end of puzzle animation for another) and they will be fixed in a future patch.
The game may also be slightly laggy due to the aforementioned issues. Someday, this will be fixed too.
Steam Trading Cards and Character Bonuses added!
Hello, fans of Birth ME Code. Today I have the pleasure to announce that the game has qualified for Steam Trading Cards and will, from now on, reward those as you play!
In total, we have 8 trading cards you can collect and from those, 8 backgrounds and 10 emoticons available as drops from finishing badge levels. Most of the emoticons are centered around ME, the titular avatar of the mastermind, though there is also an elusive and rare Cool S emoticon...
Onto the news for the game, here are the patch notes for version 1.2.3:
Character-specific bonus segments were added for all your post-game save files. You don't have to do anything special to unlock them; they are accessible as soon as you see the True Ending splash image at the end of your game file.
Note that all of these character-centric bonus segments focus on each of the main cast, as they are asked questions that were submitted on Patreon. Thanks to all our patrons, you have made this game even more worth making!
For the future, there remains one major patch for the game, which will contain the final plot-centric bonus segment along with (hopefully) a quality overhaul for the visual novel segments. My apologies over the time it's taking to make it. It's a very difficult endeavor given the amount of text and events there are in the game, and I'm juggling development with Decide 4 God too.
Decide 4 God has been announced!
I'm proud to announce the eventual release of Decide 4 God, the final entry in the Abime Series.
In this game, you will follow two different viewpoints: a woman who is investigating to find her missing brother from 20 years ago and a man who is attempting to escape a high security prison. You can expect even further twists and turns including the re-contextualization of a lot of what you thought you knew about the Abime Series.
Please note that the screenshots and the info on the Decide 4 God Steam page are subject to change later, though the fundamentals of both are set in stone.
The final chapter in the Abime Series. Decide 4 God contains the entire truth behind the events of both Head AS Code and Birth ME Code. Familiar faces return and new faces emerge to complete the unfortunate cast suffering through over a dozen endings due to the misdeeds of Empathy Systems.
Two sides of the story. You will be able to follow multiple characters as they live out their terrible tale. Side A and Side B have wildly different events making up opposite parts of a whole story.
Interactions are your choices. The companions you choose to explore with determine what you find, and what you find determines your fate. You can examine rooms alone or with others, and their involvement will change how the story unfolds.
Knowledge is a powerful curse. Everything you learn in your trip through Complex Twelve becomes a permanent part of your journey. The data transfers across playthroughs, but autosave means your information retention is permanent. Be careful of what you learn, as some of it may not be good for you...
A linear yet malleable flowchart. The game's flowchart sorts your available paths and allows you to combine them in various ways to achieve new endings. Can you find your way out of this labyrinth of information and reach a Permanent Ending?
Version 1.2.2 patch notes
Hello fans of Birth ME Code! Patch 1.2.2 is finally out and I'm so eager to bring to you all of the quality of life updates I wanted to give this game for the longest time. Without further ado, let's go over the patch notes. This time, there's too much to list in here, so I'll leave some of it as a surprise.
Patch Notes
General
The entire game structure has been overhauled. The looks of the settings, save files menu, extras and even the flowchart have been updated.
The game now has Social Media icons on the main menu. Follow and/or join for information about upcoming games or updates to this one!
Visual novel
Every segment's code has been reworked to allow for smoother pacing based on the text speed that you've selected.
Every Deduction room has been modified in many ways.
Deduction rooms no longer have the UI in the way while exploring the room.
Some Deduction rooms have had their overall flow modified. It is now necessary to use items together to progress at some point. As this is not obvious sometimes, some text lines were added to point out that some objects might be better combined with another later.
Items now show their description near the mouse when hovered and can be clicked to combine together. If it's not a combination conductive to anything, the inventory will loop back to itself.
Deduction #4's final deduction has been completely overhauled and a second deduction has been added to stand in as the "actual" deduction you have to do in the room.
The ladder achievement has been made less automatic and now requires you to investigate very specific pieces in the relevant rooms.
Achievements related to finding all the flavor text in each Deduction room have been adjusted and are now easier to complete.
Hotspots now glow red instead of blue when you finish getting all their flavor text. This can be either for all flavor text, or all flavor text "during the stage of that Deduction room" (before acquiring something crucial to proceed, or after).
Some text in the game has been modified to be more flavorful or fit better given the circumstances.
When you reach an ending, a special message will play to let you know the tutorial has been unlocked.
Two other endings have had a special message added to let you know what you have to do at that point better, or to tell you about additional content being unlocked.
Flowchart
The entire flowchart's UI has been overhauled. Buttons have been condensed together.
A tutorial has been added to better illustrate how the flowchart works. It should light up after you go through an ending. If it's not lit up after the save file conversion of this patch, go through any ending.
Segments on the flowchart now show the name of the segment if you hover over them.
TRUST values on the flowchart now show the name of the related character if you hover over them.
The flowchart can now be zoomed in or out.
Bonus segments are now on the flowchart.
The bonus content that previously had Patreon answers in them is temporarily gone. In its place, other character-specific bonus segments will appear in another short patch soon (in about a month or two).
Bonus segments for characters and the second bonus segments are visually present but will remain locked until their corresponding patch.
Settings
You can now adjust game text speed in the settings.
You can now select to skip only read text or all text.
Save files
Save files now sort their data completely differently than before, which allows for multiple global save files named Viewpoints. The difference in data sorting will hopefully deal with a save file issue that prevents the game from launching without manually fixing the file.
Viewpoints now have an indication on them to show your overall story progress. A hexagon of the corresponding character color will show up as you find their NAME segments, and by finishing the story, the overall shape turns cyan (red when highlighted). If you finish all the secret solutions, a Cool S gets added on top too.
When you reach an ending, each separate file will be cyan (red when selected) to better illustrate that file is at an ending.
Each save file now has its own little deletion icon. No more uncertainty on what you delete, and the icons for deleting Viewpoints are clearly outlined.
