Methods: The Canada Files News

Some translations updated and incorrect hint count for theory corrected

File 02 has been released into Early Access, and the price will increase on Oct 6th, so you will be able to get File 02 at the current price for this week!



It took a long time, but File 02 has been written, modeled, composed, designed, implemented, tested, and translated — and now is finally in Early Access!

Please note that this update may break your saves, because I've added new systems to File 01.

Speaking of that, this update to the game comes with a few new features and improvements, not just in File 02, but File 01 as well!





As a reward for completing Hangouts, you now unlock outfits for Team Tads. Hangout One's outfit set, "Casual", is now included! More outfit sets will be released with later Hangouts.





The Hangouts now get a special menu where you can see which routes you've unlocked, and navigate to the different Hangouts in the future.





Both File 01 and File 02 have a new scoring system with rank "S" as the highest and "F" as the lowest. See how you score!





I've implemented a hearts system to the Interrogation and Theorize puzzles. Every incorrect answer loses a heart. If you run out of hearts, you get the chance to "Auto-fill" the correct answer.





I've implemented feedback from players about Viu's minigame. Now areas "focus" to highlight where you can find eyes. It makes the minigame a lot easier, especially for people who for some reason play the game with a trackpad instead of a mouse (kudos to you for dealing with that), and hopefully encourages more careful searching as opposed to randomly roaming your mouse around.





The music room is here! Listen to the soundtrack in-game, now with functionality to scrub through the track or pause it.*


Achievements have now been added to the game!

• The evidence the dummy is being asked about now appears on screen
  
• "Correct!" sound effect for when you submit the right evidence in Interrogations, select the right toxins in Anadyne's minigame, and as positive feedback for positive answers in Hangouts.
  
• Dummy icon now marks dummy interrogations
  
• Dummies will now be "locked" until you have found the evidence you need for their interrogation, so that you waste less time backtracking
  
• Added casefile summaries
  
• The amount of evidence you need to select for an Interrogation/Theorize puzzle is now simply a UI element, instead of the characters awkwardly discussing it in the hint.
  
• In Chapter 4, Larika will now only say she "almost submitted the wrong answer" if the player did in fact choose to submit the incorrect answer.
  
• Fixed Anadyne's bio.
  

Thanks for supporting the Early Access! With your feedback, I've been able to make improvements to the game.

Enjoy File 02, and see you soon for the release of Hangout Two... ;)

Best,

— LockedOn.

* Thanks to the Ren'Py Universal Player by GanstaKingofSA

Hello!! I have some very exciting news!
I'm teaming up with Erabit Studios, the publisher of 20 Minutes Till Dawn, Brotato, Star Survivor, and many other indie games! They are coming on board as the publisher of the Methods franchise!

Erabit will be helping bring the games to a bigger audience, so be prepared for the fanbase to expand soon! ;)

I chose to work with them because of their passion and enthusiasm for helping indie devs like myself. Rest assured that Methods is in safe hands! I still have creative control of the series and I'll be involved with everything to be sure it's in the spirit of Methods. And I'll keep developing Canada Files as well as Motives. With their help, I'll be able to go full-time, which will speed up development.

As you may know, I have a very open policy on fan works to encourage fans to make their own Methods-inspired creations. Erabit is all about supporting fans too, so don't worry — that policy has not changed!

We have many cool things in the works, so I hope you will look forward to more news soon.

Many thanks to Sound of Mystery for getting the ball rolling.

Here's to the exciting next chapter of Methods!

Until next time!


— LockedOn.

Hello everyone! After lots of hard work by the translators, File 02 is finally fully translated! I'm happy to announce that File 02 will be releasing within 10 days! Dive into a brand new mystery, as well as many improvements to the game!

Please note that the price will be increasing after File 02's release — but to thank all the players who have Wishlisted and supported the game, you will be able to get File 02 at the current price before Oct 6th!

I know it's been a long time coming, so thank you for your patience! I think this file is even better than File 01, and I'm glad you get to finally play it!

Until next time,

— LockedOn

The Canada Files translation continues!



Guess it was too soon to say goodbye to the graph... whoops! Anyway. To simplify the graph a bit, from now on I'm counting "Designs" and "Sprites" as just... "Sprites". Since designing the sprites is essentially working on sprites. Not sure why I counted them separately.

The translators have been working hard on File 02 and estimate having a playable build of the Chinese version by the end of the week. Of course I'll still need to create custom renders and graphics, but it will likely be released into Early Access before the end of the month.

But I'm not sitting on my hands — I've been busy working on Hangout Two so that it can be released soon after File 02. It will come with its own Outfit set that I'm very excited about. And I will be going right into writing File 03 after that!

File 03 is what I would call a "key turning point" of the story. In order to break a pattern, you need to establish one.

That's all I'll say about it for now.

Until next time!

— LockedOn.