Hurricane Beryl be damned, I got the update finished on time anyway! The next Early Access update for Clash: Blue Mirage is now available! The main focus of this update is the addition of Chapter 5, examining the aftermath of what went down in Chapter 4. There's also a variety of fixes and revisions that have been introduced. Take a look at the patch notes: TRUE NEGATIVE UPDATE PATCH NOTES [list] [*] Added Chapter 5 - True Negative! [*] Added three in-game achievements and one gallery image [*] Added minor sound effects/voice blurbs at various stages of the game [*] Minor narrative flow and spelling revisions made to chapters Intro-4 [*] Fixed broken stat changes in Chapter 2 [*] Fixed broken achievement in Chapter 2 [*] Fixed broken Clash sprite in Chapter 3 [*] Fixed Nathan's name displaying as 'Nicole' in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 [*] Fixed broken stat changes in Chapter 4 [*] Fixed looping investigation glitch in Chapter 4 [/list] ISSUES STILL PRESENT IN EARLY ACCESS VERSION [list] [*] Gallery shows multiples of the same image. This is a temporary placeholder and will be fixed at the full release! [*] Scene transitions are not smooth. This is a known bug and will be worked on for the next update! [*] Further narrative flow, spelling, sound effect, and musical revisions are needed. This will be worked on for the next few updates! [*] Developer turned 34 years old. Nothing we can do about that. [/list] ~*~ So what's next? Well, for one thing, my day job starts up again...but it's a new job and it might be less energy-draining that what I've been doing. Currently unknown how much it'll effect the dev cycle, but let's all be prepared for Saturday-only devwork again. But the next update I've already decided is called The Branching Paths Update. Besides revisions and fixes, this update will add Chapter 6...which is actually more like five chapters. Each chapter branch reflects the stats you've built up over the game. There's some key story points that will be the same with each branch, but I still want each one to feel like a different path before they re-converge a little bit for Chapter 7 and the endings. Speaking of endings, I figured out what they will be (which is more I had earlier this year). But it's just a matter of getting there. So there we are. We have a new update and the promise of a next update coming whenever it comes. And I have my birthday to celebrate. :-) But don't let my celebration stop you from reporting any glitches or bugs you encounter as you play! And I'll see you all for the next round, whenever it may be.