A contest entry for The Future 2124!

The company has called on you to investigate the now silent Installation Echo. Initial field reports mention sightings of strange latex-like creatures who appear to have taken over the facility.

Search for the truth in a secret research facility while braving peril and unknown creatures that threaten to change your entire identity every time you face them. Seek out allies, in any form that they may take to help you navigate the depths of Installation Echo. Animated scenes, and a unique blend of extraction looter and text based gameplay accompany a dark storyline about corporate secrets and unethical research. Keep an eye out for collectable weapons and upgrade materials, you'll be needing them to truly survive and even thrive as you carry out your mission.

The storyline will see you dive deep into Installation Echo, where you'll encounter various aliens that all are able to corrupt and transform others. Initially, you'll likely be resistant to these changes, but as you go deeper, will the advantages to the changes outweigh the risks? Additionally, the game has an intentionally light cast of side characters, focusing instead on repeating combat encounters that can all lead you down various paths, both in terms of long reaching decisions and short term gratification.

Finally, the game is much more focused on a linear story direction, and while there will still be a large freedom of choice, the intent here is that you are always moving towards a clearly defined goal, which for the most part will be your initial missions resolution. Various events and situations along the way might change you and your companions in ways you couldn't dream of, but at the end of the day, you are still an elite operative sent in to get the job done, no matter what it takes.

Featuring animated scenes, a unique blend of extraction looter and text based gameplay, the game revolves around a dark storyline about corporate secrets and unethical research. Keep an eye out for collectable weapons and upgrade materials, you'll be needing them to truly survive and even thrive as you carry out your mission.

It's been a lot of fun for us to work on this thing and we're glad we finished something playable and decent in time for the contest's deadline. We're looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback!

Preview

Version 0.3.1

This release adds new content to the game and fixes some issues found in the previous release. Due to the amount of work involved in adding proper support for the new corruption levels, the development of the artifact wing has been moved to the next update.

- Content: You can now access the first room of the Artifact Wing.
- Content: Corruption levels 5 and 6 are now available.
- Content: Added 2 new sex scenes.
- Content: Added 8 new fem MC specific sex scenes.
- Change: Bleed damage type now bypasses armor.
- Change: Healing has been overhauled. HP gets restored at 100% rate, but AP gets restored at 50% rate. Healing effects have been buffed to account for this.
- Improvement: Added support for corruption levels 5 and 6 to all Chapter 3 scenes (about 20+ scenes).
- Bugfix: The slimegirls can now be properly tamed later on if you lost to them the first time. Thanks to Grimm for reporting it.
- Bugfix: Fixed a missing door on Chapter 3's minimap. Thanks to Emmeken for reporting this.
- Bugfix: Fixed a couple of visual issues with the slimesuit variant of the Xeno Bodysuit. Thanks to ZombLemur for reporting it.
- Misc: Optimized a couple of videos to reduce performance issues in some sex scenes.

Version 0.3.0

This release adds new content to the game and fixes some issues found in the previous release.

- Content: The first area of Chapter 3 is now available.
- Content: Added 8 new sex scenes.
- Content: Added 5 new enemies.
- Content: Added Emilia's first corruption threshold event.
- Content: Added Ava's first path of stage 2 evolution.
- Content: There is a new unique item available at Chapter 3's GWEN station.
- Bugfix: Lina's MC-4 Power Core will now be properly removed from the inventory upon completion of her personal quest.
- Bugfix: Fixed a few cases of Ava's custom name not being correctly used in scenes.

Version 0.2.4

This release adds new content, features to the game and fixes some issues found in the previous release.

- Content: The chapter 2 interlude is now available. You can access it from the previous "End of Content" screen.
- Content: Added a new mystery character in Chapter 2. You can find them in the Robotics Lab.
- Content: Added a new aegis skin to obtain in Chapter 2.
- Content: Added 2 new small talk options with Emilia in Chapter 2.
- Content: Added 2 new small talk options with Victoria in Chapter 2.
- Content: Added 2 new small talk options with Ava in Chapter 2.
- Content: Added 2 new small talk options with Sylvia in Chapter 2.
- Content: Added 3 new small talk options with Lina in Chapter 2. Availability may differ depending on the chosen upgrade path.
- Content: Added 5 new hairstyles to the hair pod.
- Content: Added one new patron exclusive outfit.
- Feature: You can now set squad members as inactive from the squad management page. Inactive squad members will continue to follow you and participate in conversations as normal but will not participate in combat encounters.
- Feature: Added a hair pod in a new location of Chapter 2, granting you the ability to alter Agent 36's hairstyle. Requires Corruption 2+.
- Feature: Added new corruption management capabilities in the cheat menu. You can now add, remove and lock/unlock corruption gains.
- Feature: Added a "font size" option in the accessibility section of the settings menu with three options to choose from.

Version 0.2.3

This release adds new content to the game and fixes some issues found in the previous release.

- Content: The campaign has received new content. You may now complete Chapter 2!
- Content: Added two new sex scenes with Victoria.
- Content: Added two new sex scenes featuring Victoria and Sylvia.
- Feature: You can now ask Victoria to swap between a wearable slimesuit form or an independent form after completing the quest "Knee Deep in the Goo". Requires Corruption 2+.
- Feature: Implemented ultimate abilities.
- Feature: A surrender button is now available in the sidebar during combat encounters. It will lead to loss variant of scenes.
- Change: Some consumables like health and armor items will no longer generate notifications upon use.
- Improvement: Music tracks have been normalized as best as possible. There should no longer be tracks much louder than others.
- Bugfix: Fixed a missing image in Sylvia's initial encounter. Thanks to Kass for reporting this.

Version 0.2.2

 This release adds new content to the game and fixes some issues found in the previous release.

- Content: A challenge awaits you in the Training Room, with plenty of rewards and a unique skill for players who complete it!
- Content: Sylvia can now be recruited as a squad member after completing the events of the Experimental Lab.
- Content: Added 4 sex scenes for Lina.
- Content: Added 2 sex scenes for Emilia.
- Content: Added 2 sex scenes for Ava.
- Content: Added 1 skin for Emilia. It can be found in the clothing lab.
- Content: Added 1 skin for Victoria. Talk to her in the security room to acquire it.
- Content: Added 1 skin for Ava. It can be found in Alix's office.
- Content: Added 1 patron exclusive skin for Ava.
- Change: You can now purchase 5 extra Stamina and Dexterity boosts from the upgrade station after completing Chapter 1.
- Balance: Lina's Heavy Flamer skill has been buffed to 80 damage, from 40.
- Feature: A new setting option named "Fast Combat" has been added to the game. Turning it on will cause combat turns to be played at 200% speed.
- Feature: Added skins support for squad members.
- Bugfix: You should no longer teleport from Chapter 2's breakroom to Chapter 1's breakroom in very rare occurences.
- Bugfix: Brave Browser will no longer throw errors when enabling keyboard navigation on Itch.io online play.
- Bugfix: Lina's codex pages will now show the proper content after an evolution has been performed.
- Bugfix: Fixed minor naming inconsistencies.
- Bugfix: It's no longer possible to call Ava in some of Chapter 2's encounters when she was left behind. Thanks to Oliver for reporting this.

Version 0.2.1

This release adds new content to the game and fixes some issues found in the previous release.

- Content: Added the christmas event to the game. You can start it by selecting the "A fever dream" option in Chapter 2's security room.
- Content: Added 3 evolution paths for Lina.
- Content: Added new quest "I can fix her".
- Content: Quest "Knee Deep in the Goo" has new content.
- Content: Added new interactibles to the Storage Vault.
- Content: Added Aegis armor skins. You may acquire two of these skins from Gwen.
- Content: Added one patreon exclusive aegis skin.
- Feature: A new setting option called "Content Warnings" has been added to the settings menu. It will be used to display additional hints for unavoidable TFs and other kinds of special scenes, for players that feel the need to have such warnings.
- Bugfix: You can now equip clothes in Chapter 2 as soon as you reach Corruption level 2 if Emilia was left behind. Thanks to Smallfrie for reporting this issue.
- Bugfix: Fixed inconsistent text in the canister scene in Alix's office. Thanks to Emmeken for reporting this.
- Bugfix: Corruption 4 is now properly displayed in Sylvia's paizuri scene.
- Bugfix: Emilia will no longer show up during Chapter 1's boss encounter if she isn't meant to be there.
- Bugfix: You can now only repair Lina in Chapter 1, as originally intended.

Version 0.2.0

The first half of Chapter 2 is now available, with new campaign content, new enemies, new allies, locations, items, sex scenes and more to find!

The combat system has also received significant changes, with 9 damage types instead of 3 for an improved experience. Some skills have also been rebalanced or given new damage types, making them interesting picks in different situations.

Our next updates will be focused on adding content to the new locations in Chapter 2. Feel free to give us your feedback about the changes and new additions of this update!

- Content: The first half of Chapter 2's campaign is now available. Trouble awaits!
- Content: Added corruption levels 3 and 4.
- Content: Added a new unique event in Alix's office. Requires Emilia to be a squad member.
- Content: Added a special event with Ava when resting in chapter 2.
- Content: Added a new companion to find in chapter 2.
- Content: Added two new outfits to find in chapter 2.
- Content: Added new enemies and sex scenes in chapter 2.
- Content: Added one new hairstyle to find for corruption 2+.
- Content: Side Quest "Unlikely Alliance" has a new stage.
- Content: Added one new patron exclusive weapon.
- Content: Added one new patron exclusive outfit.
- Change: Skills and damage types have been reworked. There's now 9 damage types instead of 3. Check the bestiary codex entries to see the enemies' updated weaknesses.
- Change: Piercing Shot and Grenade Toss are now piercing type abilities instead of physical.
- Change: Added a new upgrade tier for the Personal Shield Module.
- Change: The slimesuit variant of the Warrior Nun outfit now also benefits from Aegis upgrades.
- Change: The base armor of the Civilian Outfit has been buffed to 50 armor instead of 10.
- Change: The upgrades for the Civilian Outfit have been removed from the game in favor of a new upgrade tier for the shield module. With this change, we hope to reduce commitment to single outfits and make swapping between outfits more enticing.
- Change: Bonus resin gains are now consistent and will always amount to 50% of the base gain.
- Change: You can now have sex with Ava more often. (15 rooms > 10 rooms).
- Change: You can now have sex with Emilia more often. (15 rooms > 10 rooms).
- Feature: You can now disable music from the settings menu.
- Feature: You can now hide helmets from the settings menu. Only works for corruption level 2 and above.
- Improvement: Added a darker background to technical locations like the workbench and recycler. This should greatly improve the ability to read text in these scenes.
- Improvement: Keyboard navigation hints will no longer sometimes appear multiple times.

Version 0.1.5c

This release fixes a few issues that made their way into the previous release and adds a few additional enhancements to the game.

- Improvement: Added a tip in the lab sequence after reaching corruption level 2 about Agent 11's armor.
- Improvement: Added a tip after the first combat encounter, making the consequences of killing the drones clearer.
- Improvement: Updated the paperdoll visuals in preparation for Chapter 2.
- Improvement: Hovering on an enemy's status bar during combat will now highlight it.
- Improvement: Updated the display of the workbench on mobile devices. Thanks to Arso Claim for reporting this issue.
- Improvement: Viable squad members will no longer be forcefully added to the squad prior to Chapter 1's boss fight. The point of no return message has been updated accordingly.
- Balance: Divine Hammer now costs 200 resin, up from 100.
- Balance: Plasma Accelerator now costs 200 resin, down from 250.
- Balance: Base damage of the Plasma UMP-69 has been raised to 40, up from 20.
- Bugfix: Fixed an issue where removing a squad member would sometimes remove other squad members as well.
- Bugfix: Fixed the Aegis Integrated Suit upgrade incorrectly showing a check mark if the player didn't have enough money to purchase the upgrade. Thanks to Agent069 for reporting this.