Retrace Side Story is Out + New Game on Kickstarter!
Hello everyone! We'd like to announce three things today:
Retrace is on sale again! If you've been waiting to pick up the game, now's a great time to. If you've already played Retrace and loved it, we appreciate your reviews too!
We've published a side-story featuring a certain character from the game, answering some questions and providing a new perspective. It's called A Heartfelt Confession. We're working on getting it into a Steam-friendly format, but for now you can check it out for free in-browser at that link!
If you already follow our Twitter at @SpiderLilyGames, then you already know that we've been working on the studio's next game titled Schrodinger's Catgirl. While the game isn't an outright horror game like Retrace was, you'll find strong characters and narrative with a dash of humor in it as well. The Kickstarter campaign for it begins today, so we'd like to ask you to check it out and tell your friends about it too!
As always, thanks for your support!
Major Content Update! [Update-update: 17/4]
Hello, everyone! Let's get right into it!
New content! That's right! If you've played the game, you may recall a certain door you couldn't enter close to the end of the game, one shining with golden light. For this and that reasons, it was closed to you, but now you can explore it at your heart's content! New secrets and conversations await you!
Achievements...Less borked?! Well, Steam achievements were generally okay, but the in-game achievement tracker was notoriously finicky. It should be more reliable now.
Bug and polish fixes! The Library softlock on Owen's route should be thoroughly squashed, and we took care of some weird sprite behaviour in cutscenes. You might still notice some odd things here or there, but the experience should be a lot smoother!
We hope both those of you who've completed the game and those playing for the first time will enjoy the extra content! Incidentally, if you follow our Twitter at @SpiderLilyGames, you'll be seeing a lot more content for both Retrace and our next projects. Thank you for continuing to support us!
17/4/21 ANOTHER UPDATE There was a bug in the update but I fixed it. Sorry!
Cursed Brooches and Console Releases
It's been a while, everyone! I hope you're all doing okay. Let's get right into it...
There were a few cases of the Miowen end not triggering because the Brooch item was entering the inventory before the cutscene where Freya receives it. I'm going to be honest, I have scoured the code and I cannot find any reason why this would be happening, but there is now a safety check in place that should take any illicitly-obtained brooches from your inventory, should you somehow acquire one. If you still encounter this bug, I would be greatly, greatly appreciative if you would go into your C:/Users/[User]/AppData/retrace folder, grab the retrace.save file and send it to contact@spiderlilystudios.com. Seriously, this is keeping me up at night. Game's haunted.
The "Gore" setting button now changes colour as well as position to indicate whether it's toggled.
Onto more exciting news, Retrace will be available on Xbox 1, PS4 and Nintendo Switch from Feburary 24th! And as a result, I'm about to put through a price change for Steam as well. It's always an awkward thing to talk about, but basically, I learned a lot about selling games in the past year and I think this is the right thing to do.
As always, I really appreciate everyone's support, and I hope you'll continue to enjoy Retrace and look forward to Schrodinger's Catgirl!
Update: Fast Forwarding! (and some bugfixes)
Update time! This is a really exciting one...!
Fast forwarding is here!
Just press the "F" key and you'll toggle fast forward mode on and off! It'll skip through dialogue, pausing at choices! I really thought coding this would be beyond my skills, but it seems I improved even in the time since release. I'm really glad I could bring you all this feature, because I know it's something a lot of people have asked for. If you run into any problems please let me know!
Bug fixes
The infinite knife has been defeated!
No longer softlocked if you retrace to Owen's starting room after beating the puzzle.
A door in Claire's route that wasn't working, is working again
Gore button now has a slight red filter to better indicate when it's set to "true".
A certain CG that didn't have its own window, now has one!
There's a known bug that happens in the Lucen path, to do with being sent to get something that you already have. I'm still tracking that one down, so if you encounter it, could you send a copy of your save to contact [at] spiderlilystudios [dot] com, please?
By the way, if you enjoyed the game, I'd really appreciate it if you took the time to leave a review. I'm still working to make Retrace the best experience it can be!
Patch Notes: 1.1
Hello, everyone! There's even more of you since we last spoke! I hope everyone's enjoying Retrace!
Today, I'm bringing you ... version 1.1! Now with a shiny new feature!
In-game Achievements are here!
Find them in your Diary, on the last tab.
Click on any that you've successfully obtained to see their name and description!
The first time you open it, the game will attempt to update any that you've already unlocked on your current save. However, due to the way the code was originally written, the Gold and White ends, as well as the achievements "Until I Return" and "Retraced Days", weren't saved internally. "Until I Return" can be triggered if you have a save that's currently in the second half of the game, but the other three will need to be completed again. I'm really sorry about that!
There's also now a counter underneath the "Merry Bad END" achievement tracking the number of bad ends you've found! This should be compatible with old saves automatically. Do your best!
Incidentally, I uploaded the Concept Art Booklet! It contains not only the original concept art, but a bunch of extra character information and design notes from yours truly. You can purchase it for $2 at our Ko-fi store here. We also have stickers, if you like those! They're cute chibis of Freya, Lucas and Claire. (I want to do the other characters, but I need to sell all these ones first. You know how it is.)
Thank you again, everyone! If you enjoyed the game, it would mean a lot to me if you left a review. Spider Lily Studios is only a micro-studio, but I want to keep making meaningful and thoughtful games, without crunch. Your kind words will help us prove to publishers that there's an audience for this type of game, as well as helping more people find Retrace on the store!
As for the future, I'm currently working on Hope Sustains, which is a farm sim with a botanical art aesthetic, Mendelian genetics system, and a focus on restoring the land and building a community through sustainable farming! ... It's a bit different to this game. But don't worry, because there's also a Secret Project that's much more Retrace-like in plot. It's a bit early to talk about the details, but I'll keep you posted as we move forward!
Post-release update (and bug fixes)
Okay, first, let's go through the fixes!
The achievement "Merry Bad End" is no longer bugged, but does now require one extra end that was missing (eight in total now).
Various instances where the wrong text would play have been fixed
The items for the Magpie puzzle no longer respawn
Lucas no longer follows you during the dungeon section of his route, preventing him from getting stuck. We're still working on preventing other NPCs (*cough* Mia
cough*) from getting stuck, so please accept our apologies while we do!
With a team as small as ours, it was pretty much inevitable that there would be bugs we couldn't find between us on release, but we still deeply regret that you all had to see them, so from the bottom of our hearts, we apologise, and thank you for your patience and reports!
We didn't end up writing a release devlog, mostly because Els got stressed out and busy with the actual business of releasing the game. There are so many buttons to press and boxes to check! But, the response has been really great...! Every heartfelt review has filled us with warmth and a determination to do even better! We'll keep providing fixes as much as we can. We're also going to upload a spoiler-free guide, since a few people have requested it. Els will go write that now, actually...
For more frequent updates, the best place to go is our Twitter page. Otherwise, until next time, everyone!
Release Date Announcement!
Hello, everyone! Lead dev Els here with your November update on Retrace! It’s quite a big one!
First off, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who pre-ordered so far! Your support means the world to us. You’re probably wondering something like, “When will I actually get the game?”, so I’m excited to say I have an answer! The release date for Retrace can finally be officially announced! It’s ...
There’s a few reasons for that date. In the first instance, we really wanted to release in October because it’s a spooky game and it seemed appropriate. But it became clear that in order to do that, we’d have to crunch quite significantly, and I wasn’t willing to put the team through that, nor to risk releasing the game too early and having it be buggy or unpolished. But the thing is, as I’m sure everyone reading this already knows, all the big studios release their games in November and December. Simply put, no-one’s going to have time to play or review Retrace when they’ve got all those big games to get through. So, we’re going to take our time and make a really wonderful and polished game for you to enjoy in January, when everything’s settled down. I know it might seem like a long wait (trust me, it’s a long wait for me, too), but it will definitely be worth it.
During that time, we’ll be playtesting the game over and over, making sure everything’s perfectly polished and bug free, plus finishing up the CGs. We're even going to post some sneak previews of those in the next two months, so keep an eye out for those. They're amazingly beautiful!
If you sign up for our mailing list here or follow us on Itch or Steam, you’ll get an email letting you know when the game’s out. And of course, if you preorder, not only will you get your Steam key delivered to you the moment it releases, you’ll also get the special concept art document! Whoa!
I can also confirm that you’ll be able to purchase the soundtrack by harmonicblend when the game releases! Trass and the team did an incredible job, so be sure to pick it up! You can actually listen to the vocal opening theme on YouTube right now! Usachii’s passionate singing still makes me tear up.
Throughout the next two months, I’ll be posting about the process of designing the game on Twitter. The first thread, about how I wrote the queerness in the game, is right here! Please look forward to the rest!
Update: Oct-Nov
This is going to be a short update because we're all super busy with the final bug fixing push. You might think, "how many bugs can there possibly be?", but with a game that has so many choices and possibilities, we really have to test everything thoroughly before we can show it to you. So please cheer us on!
Here's the approximate completion amount for the game! Script (English): 100% Script (Simplified Chinese): 100% Art: 99.5% (one CG remaining) Content implementation: 100% Bug testing: About 90%.
That last one's hard to quantify, but to put it simply, if we can get past this one complicated section, everything else will be smooth sailing.
Also, we visited EGX last month, and since then, we've reached 1000 wishlists! Thank you so much! We won't let you down, everyone!
Don't forget to follow our Twitter as well! You'll be able to see even more updates, and maybe even a special giveaway...?!
Thank you again for your patience and kindness. Please look forward to a wonderful game!
We're pleased to announce that Retrace will be available in Simplified Chinese at launch, and you can now play the demo in Simplified Chinese as well! To our Chinese fans, thank you for your patience and we hope you enjoy!
This update also includes a lot of fixes. We had to work hard, but the variable tracker (turns out in a game where you're constantly rewinding time, there are a lot of variables to track!) is a lot more robust and reliable now, so please enjoy this lovely and elegant death game even more~
State of the Game: July!
It's been about a month, so I thought I'd share with everyone where we're at!
Backgrounds finished! Starting CGs...?! We finally finished adding all the backgrounds to the game! There are some really special and beautiful environments for you to explore that aren't available in the demo, so we hope they'll be a special surprise~
And that means we're starting on CGs! I am under strict instructions from @rustorange not to post even the storyboards so that we can maintain the mystery, but I used my special talent as a writer and programmer to give you a sneak peek...!
Yeah...!
By the way, the more you support the development of the game via Ko-fi, the more wonderful paintings we can add. I feel awkward asking, but I wouldn't just ask for money without giving anything back! Not only will you enabling us to add more content, by donating at certain levels to our Ko-fi, you can get your name in the credits, access to the secret beta build, or even receive special artwork and personalised thank-you from the team!
Bugs, go away! Special QA team, assemble! Thanks to the support we received already, we've been able to form an amazing QA team! Already we've reduced game-crashing bugs by at least 80%, and our next plan is to improve collisions and continue hunting variable bugs!
As you can probably imagine, a game like Retrace tracks a lot of variables. How else can you be sure Freya will remember things correctly between retraces? So there are a lot of ways things can go wrong! But even so, with the power of QA behind us, we're going to eliminate all the bugs and bring you a wonderfully polished final product! Please cheer us on!
A Secret Plan...? We've had a secret plan in the works for a while now that I haven't really been able to talk about ... Or rather, less that I can't talk about it, more that I'm waiting for the right moment. "That person" is insistent that I make sure everything is perfectly polished before I release that special plan ... But it's just another thing that we've been juggling while getting the game ready for release.
Thank you for reading, and please continue to tell your friends about the game! We can't wait to share it with you all for real!
