private alpha is now public and story rights updates

Alright, if you want to just skip to playing the alpha release of the game, the file download is attached to this post. Warning before playing, since this is the private release version (made public since I sliced my thumb open and wasn't sure when I'd be able to work on the game again) it is lacking in gameplay and is probably (most likely) going to have bugs. Some parts are also unfinished (such as the save feature). I was sending out the private alpha to my friends for play testing so I can make the atmosphere better and find out about any major bugs before releasing the alpha to the public. So, I still plan on making an actual "public" release of the alpha (with more content, an actual save feature and some more stuff to make the gameplay "prettier") but I have no idea when this will actually get done. My hope is to get back to working on the game before Christmas and have the alpha done around January 30th or by the second week of February.

So, with the alpha stuff done, let's get on with progress on story rights. I have obtained the rights to two stories. One story is a secret and the other is "I'm Never Dog Sitting Again" by ColourBlindness (you can read the story on their reddit account. The story was posted on r/nosleep). I have also attempted to contact the writer for "Confessions of a Deep Sea Diver" but they sadly haven't used their reddit account in a couple years and I have no leads on other forms of contact. I'm also working on an idea for adapting aproyal's story "We were forced to search for something in the static". I really liked this story but it would be pretty hard to adapt it into a game as is. I have a small idea I'm working on which would deviate from the source material quite a bit but would keep most of the original elements. For stories like this where I want to deviate from the source material, I want to have an actual outline of my deviations so the original creator has a full understanding of how I plan to adapt their story. I'd rather have full approval for the usage of someone's story than to surprise them with a game that only shares elements of their story. One final story I'm looking into getting usage rights for is "Distorted Warning Signals" by thethingthatwill. This is a true favorite of mine from r/nosleep and I already have ideas on how I will adapt it (staying pretty much 100% to the source material).

As already stated in my first devlog, I will keep you all updated on which stories I have gotten rights for. Although, as the days pass, the likelihood of me getting usage rights for Ted the Caver seem less and less likely. DAMN YOU TED! Why are you so hard to get a hold of? All jokes aside, worse comes to worse I'll keep the Ted the Caver stuff has a free-to-play demo of the game and replace it with a different story. Thanks to everyone supporting this game and a special thank you to all the horror story creators who have contacted me about using their stories. It means a lot to me that people enjoy my game and see potential in the idea.