Entering the Arcade (U0.4)

Hi :)

You’re never going to believe this, but the wait is finally over, and we’re proud to bring you the efforts of our months and months of development: The Arcade!

We know that you’re all eager to jump in (and a lot of you probably skipped reading this and jumped in anyway and are now coming back to doublecheck what was added), so let’s go ahead and start listing what we’ve got for you.

We’ll begin with what’s most important: the Arcade itself.

Kass said at the end of Poppi’s date that she had more work for you, and she wasn’t joking.

Join Employee 20 as he straps on his headset and enters the Employee Preparedness Program: a digital training environment designed to safely onboard new employees into the Diamond Straits corporation without worrying about any pesky hazards getting in the way.

Finally, a job without anything too dangerous to worry about.

Follow 20’s journey through six high-octane nights featuring the most character variety, mini-games, and voice-acting we’ve ever implemented, and learn more about Diamond Straits and your role within it through this very immersive simulation that sometimes feels realer than reality.

(Completion of the first Poppi Date is a requirement for unlocking the Arcade. If you have already completed it please just read or skip through it again so the flag can properly set itself! ːih_saya_adoreː)

Once that’s over and done with, don’t think we’re finished with you, though. Custom Night unlocks immediately afterwards, allowing you full freedom to create Arcade experiences the way you want them, even offering some characters that aren’t featured in the campaign for your masochistic enjoyment, each with 5 difficulty options to conquer.

We’re hoping to add more characters to the Arcade custom night over time, but we think there’s plenty for you to chew on in the meantime. We look forward to hearing the combinations and horror stories you create for yourselves!

By the nature of there being so many combinations, though, please do expect that there could be some bugs or interactions we haven’t anticipated, so please bear with us and report any issues you discover so we can polish as we go! It is Early Access after all, and we’ve got a long road to full release.

Moving on from the excitement, let’s get down to some extra goodies we’ve thrown in while grinding through the content mines.

After much hard work, we’ve finally managed to put the levels in chronological order on the menu. As much as Nightclub enjoyed its time on top, it has to accept being the middle child now.

We’ve adjusted the level selection screen so that you can now view all levels at the same time without having to manually click through each one.

Them fitting so neatly on the one screen is a side effect of another change which we hinted at in our last dev log: Security Office and Nightclub have shed some of their excess fat. We’ve cut them each down to a lean 7 nights (8 including the tutorial), preserving what makes them special while trimming away some of the slog of getting through the original 12 without much going on.

But, say you’re new here, and you’re thinking “Over 20 nights? I just want to see some skin.” Or maybe you’re a returning player who never got through the Nightclub boss and just feel like going straight to the new content. Well, for all those impatient Andys, we’ve got the feature for you.

Introducing: the unlock all button!

Located in the content settings menu, the unlock all button is your one-way ticket to all In Heat: Lustful Nights content available to you with no effort required.

Now, this isn’t the intended experience, and doing so will disable any future Steam achievements that may be added one day for that save file, but for those that aren’t particularly concerned and just want to see the assets with less concern for the gameplay or narrative that might get in the way of some good ol’ fashioned ogling: we’ve got you covered. Just remember to take breaks and stay hydrated, okay, champ?

We’re not done, though. There’s even more! (It’s mostly just quality of life stuff, please check the list below for your favorite little changes that aren’t immediately obvious.)

We have, however, updated the OST! Enjoy your favorite new tracks from the Arcade alongside the rest. We’re very happy with how they all turned out.

Well, that’s about everything. If you read through this whole thing before playing Arcade, don’t let us delay you any longer. Hop on and enjoy! If you’ve already played it, and just wanted to give the notes a skim, we hope you loved every second of it! If you don’t intend to play it, that’s fine. I like to read random patch notes for no reason too.

We’re going to take a little time over Christmas to recover from all of the new content, but we’ll still be around on our socials and in our Discord community, so keep an eye out for more info on future updates there! Arcade has just arrived, but we’re not done with it by a long shot.

We at MonsterBox wish you all a very Merry Christmas, a fantastic New Year, and most importantly:

Happy Hunting!

XOXO MonsterBox

General

• Intro cutscenes will now be skipped when reloading a Level

• Updated Interactable Outlines

• Updated CCTV Static to be a bit less painful

• Fixed Character Eye differences between SFW / NSFW

• Fixed Video Audio not being tied to any of the Volume Settings

Title Menu

• Adjusted Level Selection Visuals

Nile

• Fixed Nightclub Plushie Texture

Input

• Added Switch 2 Pro Controller Support for Button Hints

Linux

• The OpenGL Build has been relegated to a "Compatibility Version"

  • Various Shaders aren't supported by OpenGL, including Outlines