$5+ Update 5: First alpha release, and voice actor casting call

Quite a lot's happened since the last update, even though I don't really have so much to say about it because I've already announced most of it elsewhere. But here's a few more details. Today's image Presenting Masami in all her glory! This image is from a scene that is in the first alpha release, and follows on from last week's image. So some of you will have already seen this one, but I did promise to include the follow up last week, so I'm doing it. I'll try to keep the images interesting from now on. First alpha release You will hopefully have seen if you're a $10+ patron that I've uploaded an alpha of day 1 gameplay for the game. It's buggy and incomplete (even with the day 1 stuff) but it's mostly complete and I think it looks and feels pretty good. I'm hoping player feedback from you guys will really help to shape this game into something better than it otherwise would be – I've already tweaked things a little based on player responses. Another way you could help if you wanted would be to go into the file menu in game and select "start transcript" at the beginning, then send me that transcript. It helps to know what people think to type and what they try to do at various points in the game, though I know not everyone wants to do that. Programming wise I have already moved on from this version and I'm implementing day 2 stuff, as well as plugging the holes that were in that first release. I won't put out another release until I feel there's an update worth sharing, however, and I'll probably always space releases apart at least a little bit in this early access mode. Expect there to be some bugs, although I'll take bug reports if you find them, naturally. Voice acting This week I put out the official casting notice for voice actors! I had already cast Sacci Salt as Iku, but now we will hopefully be able to see some great new additions to the cast soon. The casting process takes a lot more work than you might think it does, as I have to put together sample scripts, listen to various auditions over and over and make decisions about them, get the word out however I can and correspond with actors, letting them know whether they've got the part. It becomes much more intensive once they're cast, though!