Hi, everyone!
This is Julian from DigiTales. As we do every year, we'd like to once again commemorate Lacuna's release anniversary in some way. The game came out on PC five (!) years ago today, and holds a special place in our hearts as our very first project.
However, unlike the previous years, this commemoration comes with a major addition to the game, easily the most requested feature ever since it came out: a chapter selection menu!
What we've been up to
I gather some of you are wondering why this is being added now.
It's Been 84 Years
We didn't initially add chapter selection because it goes somewhat against the game's core philosophy that your choices matter and that the playthrough you get is your unique story. However, a lot of people just want to play the game differently and explore various branches. The absence of the feature also made the lives of achievement hunters unnecessarily hard. Ultimately, adding it does not take anything away from those who want to play Lacuna once from start to finish, and without going back.
The other reason for the timing is that DigiTales was in rough shape at times over the past few years. For a long time, we didn't have the resources or head space to look into things that didn't immediately save the company from going under. Luckily, things are much better now.
That being said, I do not know if or when we can bring this feature to consoles. Doing it for PC was a comparably low-hanging fruit because I could do it on my own, so I finally went for it.
New DigiTales Games!
As part of our comeback, we've already made two big announcements that you may have missed.
First, we are working on a new detective adventure called From Ruins. It should be right up your alley if you enjoyed Lacuna, The Case Of The Golden Idol, or Return Of The Obra Dinn. You can already put it on your Steam wishlist:
Second, we are venturing into publishing games made by other studios and recently signed our first title: The Great Sassanelli, an interactive novel about a travelling circus in WWI Europe, developed by our friends at Forking Paths Gardening:
How chapter select works
In a game with branching content, the ability to go back to an earlier point in time requires some design decisions. Here's how we made them!
Chapters are tied to profiles
The beginning of each chapter lies exactly where the save points have always been, i.e. as soon as you see the save icon on the screen, you've entered a new chapter (for example every time Neil steps out of the train).
The availability of chapters is tied to your profile – the savegame you select right after the game is launched. Every time you reach a new chapter in your save, it immediately becomes available via the new "Select Chapter" option in the main menu. (Careful: If you delete your profile, you delete the saved chapters along with it.)
Loading previous chapters
Loading a previous chapter restores the exact state from when you last started it. From there on out, you essentially start a new thread: As you reach subsequent chapters again, the game saves their states to the chapter select menu, overriding the last time you reached them.
In other words, there are no duplicates of chapters: If you reached the same chapter multiple times, it is only listed once – and its state corresponds to the last time you reached it.
Your "current playthrough"
Whenever you load a chapter on your profile, the game sets your current playthrough to that chapter. This means that when you press "Play" next time, you will continue on that new thread, in the earlier chapter. It also means that the progress indication on your save file is lower, corresponding to that earlier state.
That being said, worry not: Loading a prior chapter in itself never deletes any later chapters. Once you've reached a chapter, it stays available in the list permanently for you to jump back in any time.
Existing progress
Since the chapters are essentially snapshots of your specific playthrough, this unfortunately means that any chapters you've reached prior to this update will not show up in the chapter selection menu. Apologies for this inconvenience.
Any chapters you reach from now on will immediately be added to the chapter selection menu, whether you start a fresh playthrough or continue one that's already half-way through the game.
We hope you enjoy this update, and that you'll be part of our journey going forward. We have more exciting announcements in store for you in the near future – both regarding From Ruins and The Great Sassanelli, but also – possibly, maybe – another project. Follow us on our socials to stay in the loop!
Thank you for five years of playing our games, of leaving kind words and helping us out with constructive criticism. Here's to the next five!
– Julian from DigiTales
Patch Notes v. 1.4.0
Added chapter selection feature
Improved the progress % tracking accuracy on profiles (savegames)
Added a missing chapter name string
Fixed a mistake with UI render render in main menu
Improved layout of news widget in main menu
Corrected a Simplified Chinese translation regarding Lower Precinct apartments puzzle
Updated Unity to 2020.3.49f1