Following a great deal of work in the summer, I have significant upgrades for the demo of Transaction, titled "v2" (apologies for the double-post of the new build; as soon as you think you're done, you find new things to fix)! Although there is very little new content to progress to in the new demo, nearly every aspect of the game has been polished, and behind the scenes, the game's structure is ready to play through as much additional content as I include, which is good for moving forward!

If you would like to see and hear many of the changes between the first and second demo, here is a video summary highlighting most of them:

The video video includes changes made between March 23rd, 2023 to July 31st, 2023, while the current build is from September 25th, 2023 (with very little actual development time and few noticeable differences between the two, but some minor fixes and additions have been made).

Here is the full change log in text:

• Base game content is functional for all 6 chapters.
• The cursor has been updated:
  • A pointing hand icon has been added to replace the default mouse cursor.
  • When it moves over an interactive entity, it highlights the entity with a yellow outline and plays a modulated sound effect.
  • Right-clicking on an entity will create an information bubble with a short description of what the entity does.
• A game menu has been added, which can be opened with a button in the top-left of the gameplay screen, or with the "P" or "Escape" key.
  • It includes the ability to resume, reset, quit, open audio settings, view game credits (which are the same as the .txt file included in the game files). Game settings are visible as an option, but are not functional yet.
• An audio settings menu has been added, which can be opened by clicking the earbuds in the bottom-left of the gameplay screen, or from within the game menu.
  • You are able to increase or decrease the volume of music, sound effects, and voice effects separately on a 0 to 100 incremental scale.
  • You can mute music, sound effects, or voice effects separately from their current volume.
  • Music play modes are visible as options, but are not functional yet.
• Social experience points have been added to the game and are displayed with an icon next to the money counter, although they are not yet functional.
• The money counter is displayed next to a new icon, rather than being formatted into a sentence.
• When the goal, current thought, mood gauge, money, or social experience counter updates, it responds with a unique visual effect and a sound effect. 
  • Quickly advancing from one action into another may skip the update effects, though it seems this is simply a matter of highly precise inputs after controls are re-enabled post-cinematic and before the effects activate. To maintain fluidity and allow people to mash through things speedily, this may simply go unresolved.
• Voice grunts are played with each thought:
  • There are 4 variations of sounds per emotion, plus a special grunt that plays for moments of weariness, such as after a phone call, and going to sleep.
  • In the audio settings, voice grunts are classified as voice effects, not sound effects; for example, muting sound effects would prevent sounds like clicks and cinematic noises from happening, but voice grunts would still play.
• Each item has a new unique thought that appears when first adding it to the wish list, which previously only happened for the Chiffon Blouse. 
• All phone apps have had their icon colors adjusted, and icons have been created for the currently unusable camera and settings apps.
• The texting phone app has received several changes:
  • The call phone app has been merged into the text phone app, and will show a notification to indicate it is ready to be used when the mood gauge is at 0%. Since calling was only possible in this state, this is functionally the same, just without the ability to click it to attempt calling while mood is above 0%.
  • All text responses have a set positive increase with no random variation.
  • The delay time to receive a text has been adjusted: texts will always arrive after 1 to 2 days have passed, never arriving immediately the day after sending a text.
  • Received texts (not sent texts) will add 1 social experience point.
• The social media phone app has received several changes:
  • Social media posts are simplified to a 50/50 chance between a +5% mood post or -5% mood post, rather than having a randomized set of effect ranges to pick from.
  • 1 social experience point is added every time social media is used, which means it is faster for gaining social experience than texting at the risk of mood decreases.
• The shopping and mail phone apps have received several changes:
  • Shipping has a much shorter range of days needed to pass before the item arrives: it will arrive either the very next day, or the day after. This makes chain reactions of shipped items less punishing, though I may choose to have chain reaction items always default to in-store if it still seems too frustrating.
  • Currently, there is very little use for using the shopping app, but I am hesitant to make it equally as useful as in-store shopping. If nothing else, it will serve as a statement, but I do dislike the feeling that it only exists as a trap. I will do my best to think more about balancing along the way.
• Completing an outfit will immediately refresh the mood gauge to its current possible maximum, the same effect as a phone call.
• The mirror no longer resets to a face corresponding with the current mood gauge amount after a certain amount of time, instead keeping the facial emotion of the most recent thought.
• Although this will rarely be found, the day counter stops incrementing at 999, at which point the number is visually scribbled out.
• Genderfluidity is functional, though normally not unlocked in the scope of the demo (the final chapter will include me identifying as transgender genderfluid, one of my true-to-life autobiographical moments in the game).
  • Genderfluidity serves as the game's "invincible" mode, with the mood gauge always maxed out and unaffected by events.
  • It will be available from the very start of the game as an option for players who would rather not manage their mood gauge, and for now, can be toggled by pressing the "N" key (this also means players who enjoy managing their mood gauge can undo the genderfluid status at any time if they prefer).
• Certain aspects of design have been finalized:
  • The full list of required and optional items (and their attributes) is complete. Although required items may appear out of order, no single chapter's set of required items exceeds $100.00 in flat costs (accounting for the hiked-up base prices of some items which will only appear as being available online). Ideally, this means that any given chapter will take no longer than 2-3 weeks of in-game days to complete.
  • Gift items received from the text phone app have also been finalized, along with optional items that are added to the wish list from the social media phone app instead of regular shopping methods, though they may be subject to change for various reasons.
• A unique graphic has been added as an end screen for the demo, replacing the generic instructions screen.
• Credits have been updated, including a running list of games which influenced the creation and design of Transaction.
• Minor known bugs:
  • Intermittently, an item will not properly show its name in the event log when added to the wish list, defaulting to [SET NAME]. This may have to do with online items and input timing.
  • When cinematic graphics end while the mouse cursor is on an entity, they may not highlight.
  • After a phone call home, the next day's thought may comment that you have shaved and recently bought something, which may not be true. This is due to the game resetting the day counters for shaving and buying things (which normally cause the increasingly harmful mood drops with each new day) after a phone call.
• Some new content has been built in, although it is not yet functional. This includes:
  • game settings.
  • music play mode.
  • mirror "reflection" of identities (and social experience tied to it).
  • camera phone app.
  • settings phone app (which will redirect to the game settings menu).

There are more features that I would like to integrate into the vertical slice before extending the amount of content for playable purposes (such as game settings, unique graphics for each new completed outfit, a dress-up mode using the phone's camera app, and a tree of dream identities the player can access using the Mirror and progress using the new social experience points), so I appreciate any followers' patience while I attempt to find time for those bigger content updates. I do intend to make a horizontally complete version of the game before finishing all of my goals for the game (things like full voice acting for each thought can wait)!

Thank you for playing and offering moral support! Although development will once again be at a slowed pace, I feel even more inclined to see this game reach its full potential!