Version 1.0.1 Released: Small Fixes

I have uploaded a new version of The Mischievous Thievery Of Jessica The Cat, which is a small update to fix a few minor items. I am also working on an expansion for the game but that is still very much a work in progress.

Art Fix
There was an error in the night time jail cell art. I am probably the only person who ever noticed but once I saw it I couldn’t unsee it and would forever know that it’s there so I’ve fixed it.

Workaround For Audio That Doesn’t Autostart
Some Chrome based and mobile browsers don’t autoplay audio. I thought I had figured out a workaround for this for version 1.0 of the game but it wasn’t working properly so I looked at it again and tried a different tactic, hence the new footprint loading graphic that appears before the game’s title screen. This acts as a fake loading screen (the game doesn’t actually need to preload anything, although I might need that functionality in the future) and it needs to be clicked on to start the game, which is the crucial part – the browsers that don’t autoplay audio need an interaction from the user before audio will work.

It’s impossible to test this in every browser (although I know that the game, as a whole, doesn’t run in Vivaldi 2.7 and I don’t know why) so if you are still finding that when the game starts the title screen music doesn’t play, please leave a note in the comments (or via Twitter) with information about the browser/device and version.

Directional Paw Print Clue Confusion
Interesting and helpful feedback I received from a couple of players during the Finally Finish Something jam indicated that some people interpret the diagonal paw print clues literally and see them as only pointing in an absolute straight diagonal line rather than being an approximate indicator of direction.

Due to the constraints of pixel art I can only point in eight directions – N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW. I also don’t want to make it too easy otherwise players will have no difficulty in finding the correct tile. Consequently N, S, E, and W are direct lines (and lucky clues if you get them), while NE, NW, SE, and SW point in an approximate direction to help the player narrow it down but not make it too easy.

I have adjusted the text for these clues slightly (“a northwesterly direction” instead of “northwest”, for example), to try to indicate that it is a vague approximation to guide the player in the right direction, not an absolute, but I don’t know if it makes it much clearer. I might tweak this text some more in the future.

Changelog:
v1.0.1 20220727: Minor update release
- Fixed a mistake in the night time jail cell art.
- Designed and added a pre title “loading” screen, which should solve the problem of mobile and Chrome browsers that don’t auto play audio.
- Adjusted the text and implemented additional code for the directional clues based on feedback from the Finally Finish Something jam.
- Tweaked the text slightly in a couple of places.
- Optimised a few small parts of the code.