Hey! Zak here 👋
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comments. You actually brought up something I hadn’t really considered before: the overall file size of the game, especially from a mobile player’s perspective. That’s super valuable feedback.
When I first started working on the images, I decided to use PNG format so they’d retain more quality… but now after reading what you had to say, I’m definitely thinking of switching to webp, since it keeps almost the same quality while reducing the file size a lot. So that’s already something I plan to change moving forward.
I also took this oportunity to take a closer look at the files… and to my surprise, the bulk of the weight isn’t actually the images, it’s the music and sound effects. 😅
Right now I have over 50 music tracks already in place for content up to version 0.3, and even though some aren’t used yet in 0.2.5, they’re still bundled with the build.
On top of that, the ambient sounds and nightclub tracks (which alone are over 3 hours long) take up a lot of space.
I’m already using .ogg format for most audio files, which from what I understand is one of the more efficient ones but I’ll double check to make sure I’m compressing things the best way I can.
So yes, I’ll definitely start converting all future images to .webp and also go through the soundtrack to see where I can reclaim some MBs.
If I manage to shorten a few tracks, especially the long club ambient loops, I think I can cut down 100–200MB right away.
As for the content:
Yes, the current public version (0.2.5) ends right after the first beer pong match.
It’s still early days for the game overall but there are multiple paths that can lead to that scene with variations that unlock more or less content depending on your choices both before and during the match. That branching might make it feel like there’s less content at first glance, but it was a design choice: I wanted to encourage exploration and replayability.
That said, I totally get how it could feel short, especially since most of the narrative buildup happens before any big payoff.
Starting from version 0.3, things become more structured and story-heavy, so I think that feeling of progression will come through more clearly.
(For reference, the current content for 0.2.5 adds up to around 70,000 words so far.)
Also, just a quick heads-up:
There’s a bug on the mobile version right now where the speaker bars aren’t updating properly (they’re supposed to change color depending on who’s speaking).
It’s not critical, but it definitely makes it harder to follow conversations.
Marc (our GUI dev) will be looking into this soon, so thank you for your patience there as well!
I really appreciate your message. What you said about file size is something I’ll start tackling right away before the game grows too much to optimize easily.
And PS: I’d love to hear your feedback once you get to try version 0.3! It’s currently on Patreon for Tier 3 members, but it’ll be free for everyone in about a month and hope I hear from you by then💙
Thanks again and take care!
— Zak