Year three, day one - all over again

So… here we are.

This weekend was… nothing short of chaotic. To the point where yesterday I woke up and freaked out, thinking it already was today.
Bugs popping out of lines of code I didn’t even remember writing.

As Pvt. Hudson would say - "They’re coming outta the goddamn walls!"

And yet — here we are. For real this time.

REC/REW turns three. About time for a fresh start.

Just like three years ago, I’m rolling out a web version with the first five days of the visual novel - but this time, with a few key improvements:

Improved writing and story structure

The breadcrumbs are now arranged into something resembling a coherent path.
It’s not about throwing everything at the reader anymore. This will become more evident as the game progresses - especially once I start tackling the second story arc.

A fully customized GUI

Not just a textbox stitched onto Ren’Py’s default skin anymore - it’s something that actually fits the title. The interface is now consistent, minimal, and less intrusive. NVL mode handles introspective moments, giving them their own rhythm and tone.

Reworked character sprites

They now make full use of Ren’Py’s layered image system. Still a bit of that Koikatsu-ish vibe, but with a personal twist.

Also, no more CG-scene overload - special CGs will show up only when they matter.

When everything’s "special", nothing really is.

A few neat effects to make the world feel alive

The "crowd effect" from previous builds is now used extensively and - more importantly - consistently: background characters move, random chat snippets drift across the screen.

The world goes on, even when you're not looking.

Now, the bad news.

While the game’s been tested on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, there’s still one non-critical bug I couldn’t kill.

Sometimes, you’ll see a message overlay complaining about “invalid IHDR data” from libpng.

It doesn’t break the game, nor the visuals — it just breaks my nerves.

It would seem that the latest version of GIMP (together with the "Batcher" export add-on - since the old "Export Layers" plugin no longer works on GIMP 3) can randomly mess with image metadata.

So the engine sees the file as valid, renders it just fine… yet still thinks something's off.
In the next days I plant to try out whatever's left in my arsenal to get rid of this stupid warning message.

Or, as someone once said:
"Measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences."