So recently, Broken Minds was released on Steam. You can find it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/746420/Broken_Minds/
Already, people are playing it, which is very exciting! However, it's also brought to light some of the lingering plot holes/weird inconsistencies/mistakes that I somehow left in the game. I think it would be pretty negligent of me to leave these in.
Part of the reason these mistakes are there in the first place is that, in the beginning, the game was going to be extremely short, so I was just making it up as I went along. I had the main mystery and idea in mind, but it wasn't fully thought out yet.
However, I later decided to expand the game and added much more complexity to it, in the process creating plot-holes and illogical dialogue. Much of this I later thought through more and fixed, but in the early parts of the game, there's still some stuff there that I added as set-ups for things that ended up never happening, etc. I also never really went over the game with a fine-toothed comb after I completed it, mostly from burn-out. I'm regretting that a lot now, haha!
That's why I'm excited to announce a new patch that will hopefully fix as many of these things as possible, and make it a more accurate 90s experience as well. I'm not sure when this patch will be completed, but I've moved it to be the next thing on my agenda, and all of these changes will be in the next update to the game.
Here is a quick list of things I'm planning (SPOILERS!):
Add parents to apartment during fire. (I was originally going to, but for some reason I thought it wasn't necessary). Add dialogue to fire CG explaining what happened in more detail. Forward arrow will pulsate near the window so it's more obvious that you need to go there. An icon to indicate where you need to go next on the map. "Cross-reference my handwriting with the letter" contradicts the Logic Train later. Ambulance is still there for some reason. Also, Noa's house was originally in a strange empty field of grass, which I later replaced with a surrounding neighborhood. However, the CG of the evidence bins still shows an empty field. Why are they wearing just their socks in the therapist office instead of slippers? Remove the yukata reference at the window (for some reason I thought Noa was wearing a yukata, when she clearly isn't). Poison scar is weird. Why not have Noa taste the lipstick to prove it isn't poisoned instead? Ume's motive is so bad that even lampshading it doesn't work. I will change it to be better. I'm going to replace the computer screens in the therapist office with my own interface. This was another inaccuracy. I'm going to replace all the cellphones in the game with beepers. Lower transparency on Uzumaki bookshelf so you can see the books inside. Reread and look for more inconsistencies. I'm going to cut down on redundant fallacies in the Wheel of Fallacies. Right now there are just too many options. I'm also going to change the code so that it will run a bit faster. "Can't find episodes of my favorite TV show on the internet" — no streaming video on the internet in the 90s (how did I mess that up?)
You will be able to skip a Logic Train that you played if, for whatever reason, you loaded a save from before you played it.
"Continue to explore?" option in the YPDA instead of jumping you into the dialogue.
These are, of course, just some of the changes. I don't think not having any of these things outright ruin the game, but they will definitely improve the experience and hopefully make it less frustrating.
I will also be on the lookout for any more Let's Plays to see what sort of problems players are running into, and I'll do my best to include fixes for them in this update.
A game developer's work is never done!
— LockedOn.