The Corridor

Headlines
Here are some headlines (note that my tracker is broken, so take these with a pinch of something):

The game is now 75,699 words, making it 36% bigger
Over 1000 lines of dialogue, a 70% increase
Over 250 images
New music
New characters lots of them, how many I don’t know due to said broken tracker. But lots
Typos fixed
More typos introduced

Known Bugs
Check the watch from the menu is not currently working
Audio cues — some may seem a little off. If you come across one, please do let me know
A rare bug in the Disco at Colins — if you roleplay as someone inebriated, it actually works. Whether this is a bug or a feature is open to debate.
And at last, you get to enter and explore Mad Jack's — a flat roof pub sitting at the heart of an industrial estate, located in the exotic setting of Thorpe Heasley

Notes
Eagle-eyed players might have noticed that this planned update was also meant to include Wooley Estates, and that was the plan. But I have had to take the decision to split them into two updates.

My intention for originally releasing them as one was two-fold. The first — Mad Jacks (and for that matter Wooley Estates) covers the darker, more mature parts of the world's lore, while pushing the dark humour to its darkest. Which, in the context of what I have planned for the world of the Corridor, works — as long as it's in context. But I am concerned that splitting them has pushed it too far, making it out of kilter — a bit too James Herbertesque than intended. All I can do is ask for your patience. Both paths would also have marked the end of the second act and set up the final act. Without spoilers, one path is canon, the other rewards you with lore. So, it feels a bit incomplete as an update.

However, I had to split because of the following. First, due to the day job I have been, and continue to be, extremely busy writing — I am doing a PhD, and analysing cultural history is a key part of my PhD; while making up cultural history is a key part of the Corridor. It is very hard to switch between the two. Second, both paths come back and bite you on the bottom when it comes to decisions made throughout the game. To give you some context, out of the game's 75,000 words, 5000 of those sit behind actually stepping into the entrance of Mad Jacks, just to make sure it unfurls true to the player's choices. Finally, the size. The biggest update before this was approximately 13,000 words — the Colins update — which was manageable, just. This has been a bloody nightmare to keep track of and manage, hence the internal tracker breaking and the watch not working under the sheer strain of complexity. So, I took the decision to split it into two updates, of which this is the first. Wooley Estate to follow.

I’ll be the first to admit that The Corridor has been neglected of late. There are two reasons for this, both an extension of what I mentioned in the Bunker Busting update.

First, I’m doing a lot of writing in the real world at the moment. For the most part, it’s very serious and academic, and it is very hard to find the time to get out of that mindset and back into the world of Corridor. The second reason is that the planned Mad Jacks and Wooley Estates update is blooming complicated. Every decision in this game starts to bite you—hard—and every decision you make there bites you even harder. For my own sanity, I’m going to break that down into two more manageable rollouts instead of one big update.

The Booze and Fags Update
I wanted to push this out, slightly smaller than intended, just to get back into the game and the whole process of updating the files, which is a beautiful house of cards behind the scenes.

This update includes rewrites of all the encounters that take place inside Colins. As I spoke about in the Morning After update, I wasn’t happy with what was there. I got a bit carried away with the use of AI in some of those scenes, and I absolutely detested them as they weren't my voice. These scenes have now been rewritten from scratch and hopefully fit the world better.

Here are the changes in full:

You can now see the table you sit at inside Colins.
There are a few images of the patrons you can meet.
A few new items to find in the bins (make sure you search!), including a packet of Silky Cigarettes.
As usual, a few typos have been corrected and a few more introduced.

Continuing with the minor updates, this is a refresher of all the bunker scenes in the game to date – hence the title, as I am sure some of you eagle-eyed readers would have guessed, and a tidy-up on the arrival at Mad Jack’s.

This update changes nothing major, lore-wise; it is more about taking advantage of the game’s character traits and keeping the game interesting for those of you who are returning (welcome back! – you’re the best!). There is also a bit of minor ‘weaving’ going on in preparation for the main Mad Jack’s update.

A big change– and you might not notice – is that searching bins is about to get much more important.

Here is what is in the update.

Fixed some typos
Refreshed the secret bunker and the bunker at 1C
Refreshed the arrival at Mad Jack’s
Tweaked the introduction
SCREAM!!! An exclusive, full-length interview with Dave Steam.
One new Cola company promotional giveaway to find
Two tatty Abraham Mint collectables to discover
New quiz questions – brush up on your Astra Quest knowledge!!
One new book to find.
Introduced some more typos

This update also marks a couple of milestones. The game is now over 50,000 words in size. And though planned for the Mad Jack update, the 200th image has also been completed.


The following minor update is to refresh Colin’s. In the Morning after update, I mentioned that I got carried away with AI. I hate it — it’s not my voice — so I want to rewrite those scenes. Part of me also wants to rewrite Colin’s in its entirety for technical reasons – it’s uber complicated in how it works, and to allow for easier integration of new content. Still, time constraints mean this is unlikely to happen. I don’t feel too bad about this; as for the planned sequel –– you heard it here first ––Colin’s will return.

There is one further minor update planned after the Colin’s update. It’s a bit of a pickle pot scene-wise, but as with the other minor updates, it is just to refresh some scenes and do some weaving in preparation for the main Mad Jack’s update.


On the planned Mad Jack’s update:


Graphics-wise, all the images — 62 of them! — are nearly done. The writing, however, is proving a bit of a challenge.

There are two reasons for this. First, complexity — all those decisions you made earlier in the game will either come back to bite you on the bottom or carry your behind to victory. So, it’s a lot of writing, checking, and rewriting — hence all the weaving going on in these minor updates.

The second reason is that I’ve been on three different writing courses this year (including a very interesting one by a psychologist on procrastination and writing anxiety). I’ve written some 20,000 words outside the Corridor. But this has all been academic. Now my brain is stuck in ‘academic mode’ — always asking, ‘On the one hand…’, ‘Where’s the footnote?’, or ‘What’s the evidence for this?’ But hey-ho! Footnote or not, the update will get there.