Full Changelog

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• Full Changelog
  • 3.3.0
    • Major New Features
    • Minor New Features
    • Fixes
    • QoL Improvements
    • Incompatible
  • 3.2.0
    • Major New Features
    • Minor New Features
    • Fixes
    • QoL Improvements
  • 3.1.0
    • Major New Features
    • Minor New Features
    • Fixes
    • QoL Improvements
    • Other
  • 3.0.1
    • Major New Features
    • Minor New Features
    • Fixes
    • QoL Improvements
    • Other
  • 3.0.0
    • Major New Features
    • Minor New Features
    • Fixes
    • QoL Improvements
    • Other
    • Renamed Variables

3.3.0

It should be noted that this new release supports Ren’Py 8.0+, which uses Python 3. It is suggested you move to Ren’Py 8+ with new games, as Python 3 offers greater flexibility.

Major New Features

Feature	Description
Automatic chatroom backgrounds	The game will automatically set up chatroom backgrounds based on the time of day the chatroom occurs at. You can override this automatic background by providing your own e.g. scene morning.
Adaptable screen size	The game can adapt to screen sizes taller than the original 9:16 ratio e.g. 9:19

Minor New Features

Feature	Description
Manually award hourglasses	Convenience function added for more control over when the player is awarded an hourglass.
Chat vs Gallery CGs	Show a different image in chatrooms than in the gallery when sending CGs.
Phone call expiry dict	A convenience dictionary to easily customize how long phone calls should be availlable for.
Email testing hub	An email testing hub from the Developer settings in-game allows you to quickly invite guests, send replies, and test the party.
VN Screen shake	You can use show shake during Story Mode (VN mode) to shake the screen. Takes into account the player’s accessibility preferences.
Splash Screen	The splash screen has been relocated and updated to make it easy to add your own image and “Tap to Start” before entering the main menu.
Award Hearts	You can provide a number to break heart or award heart to award/break multiple hearts at once.

Fixes

Fix	Description
Doc improvements	Added doc pages on deleting messages and adding greetings.
Profile picture callback fix	Profile picture callbacks still go off even if you use a text message or email popup notification to leave the profile screen.
History fix	Fixed an issue when rewatching chatrooms in the history after buying back that same chatroom during the story.
MC Profile Picture bug	Fixed a bug with the add_mc_pfp function to properly unlock profile pictures as seen.
Animated Backgrounds	Animated backgrounds move more smoothly and don’t have any stuttering lines when looping.
Guest Comment Interpolation	Guest comments in the guestbook properly interpolate variables like [name] or pronouns like [they]. There is also a dissolve transition in/out of viewing the comment.
Guest Hourglasses	Fixed an issue where players weren’t awarded an hourglass upon first viewing a guest’s information in the guestbook.
Branch VNs	Fixed an issue with branch VNs that would cause a script error dialogue for trigger times.
Background shake	Improved how background shake is set up. Backgrounds without an animated version still shake when animated backgrounds are turned on.
Timeline display	The timeline correctly displays the “5th DAY” with the suffix when opening a particular day’s timeline list.
Chat Creator	Fixed an issue where the chat creator didn’t correctly export other characters’ special bubbles.
Hack tear screen update	The hacking “tear” effect is updated for Ren’Py 8 and functions better with large numbers of sections.
Text message preview	The text message preview can handle any number of interpolated variables, as needed.
CG Gallery fixes	Fix CG gallery thumbnails with automatic cropping.

QoL Improvements

Feature	Description
Remember save page	The game remembers which save page you last used.
Main Menu Screen Actions	Common actions for buttons on the main menu and home screen have been turned into functions for easier UI modification.
Check for updates in thread	The updater launches a separate thread to check for updates so the UI is not paused/frozen while waiting for the results of the check.
gamestate	Whether the program is in a chatroom, phone call, VN/Story Mode, or text message is tracked via a consistent gamestate variable.
Available call indicator	A new dev option will add a “NEW” sign under a contact’s icon when there is a call available for them and add an Online indicator on their profile screen.
get_terms	Convenience function for using gendered terms to refer to the player.
Developer Release Options	Added a section to variables_editable.rpy which can be customized for sharing a program distribution with others.
Email newlines	You can turn off the parser that turns email single newlines into a space (email_newline_to_space).
Gallery update	The gallery has been redone to cause fewer headaches overall and requires one definition instead of two.
big text tag	There is now a {big} text tag which can be used similarly to how big is used for the msg CDS.
Popup updates	Popups have been updated to take advantage of screen tags. An infinite number of popups of any type can be on screen at any time (so, no more restrictions on how many text message popups, heart icons, or stackable notifications etc you can see at once).

Incompatible

• While not strictly incompatible, the gallery system has been updated to use constants rather than both a default and a persistent album variable. The game will attempt to transfer over any unlocked photos from the old gallery version into the new one. It is recommended that you update your gallery definitions to use define and the new GalleryImage class rather than Album. You can find more information in the docs on the gallery.

3.2.0

Major New Features

Feature	Description
Chatroom Creator	A visual creator to write chatrooms and export them to code or watch them as played in-game.
Update to 7.4+	Mysterious Messenger takes advantage of 7.4+ update such as matrixcolor. You will now require Ren’Py 7.4+ to run Mysterious Messenger.

Minor New Features

Feature	Description
Phone hang up callback	A special function is called when the player hangs up in the middle of a call, which you can use to alter the game state.
Manually send text messages	Manually send text messages during chatrooms, phone calls, Story Mode, or whenever you like.
Vanderwood expressions	Vanderwood has new expressions thanks to Rom
Choose profile picture	(Windows only) Choose a profile picture from your computer to use in-game.

Fixes

Fix	Description
Starter story fix	Intro chats can properly have incoming calls and don’t boot you out to the main menu.
Updater fix	Updater properly remembers ignored releases and stops checking for updates when it reaches your current version.
Skip Intro/Save & Exit	The chatlog no longer clears when finishing the starter story before exiting to the home screen.
SFX Audio Captions	Sound effects are correctly looked up in the sfx dictionary, not the music dictionary.
hide_albums fix	hide_albums function works correctly again.
Save file names	Save file names are more reliably saved using json files instead of string separators.
Fix Persistent button	Fix persistent now works with user-defined albums
Animated background screen shake	Animated backgrounds now get black bars offscreen to the left and right to improve the appearance of screenshake while animated backgrounds are active.
Tear screen fix	The tear screen feature has been updated for Ren’Py 8.0

QoL Improvements

Feature	Description
msg CDS underline	The message CDS takes optional underline or under arguments to underline text.
SFX in replay	Sound effects are included in chatroom replays.
Profile picture scaling	Profile pictures now crop and size themselves to fit the desired dimensions rather than squash/stretching into a square

3.1.0

Major New Features

Feature	Description
Missed calls callback	Phone calls can play out differently depending on whether the player is calling back a missed incoming call or not. Also supported in the History.
Phone call-only characters	Can create a PhoneCharacter specifically for phone calls who won’t show up in the player’s contacts.
Input prompts	Can get typed input from players anywhere in the game.
Profile Updates	Players can choose their gender separately from their pronouns, and enter a chatroom username separately from their regular name.

Minor New Features

Feature	Description
reset_participants	New function allows you to easily reset the participants list in the middle of a chatroom.
Link wait pause button	Dev toggle allows you to toggle the footer while waiting for the player to click a link to be the pause button.
Reversable hack effect	The scrolling hacked effects can be reversed to scroll in the other direction.
LinkJump	New action for links to jump to somewhere else in a chatroom (including menus).
IfChatStopped	New action for links that changes depending on whether the chat is stopped or not.
New backgrounds	Three new backgrounds have been added: snowy_day, rainy_day, and morning_snow

Fixes

Fix	Description
Pause button fix	Pausing chatrooms and real-time text messages has been overhauled to cause fewer issues with skipped messages.
Vanderwooo	Fixed Vanderwood’s name getting cut off in the phone contacts.
Erroneous msg CDS errors	Skip Intro and Jump to End now work properly with the msg CDS during chatrooms.
Skip Intro fix	Skipping the introduction no longer causes real-time text message to prompt you about leaving even though the conversation is over.
Participated fix	Fixes a bug so the MC’s profile picture shows up in the list of participants after playing a chatroom.
Unlocked Profile Pics Fix	Default profile pictures for characters now only unlock after you’ve seen them as part of the game.

QoL Improvements

Feature	Description
Reset Albums	You can tell the program to forget all seen images and unlocked album entries without losing other persistent variable progress.

Other

Feature	Description
Animated bg relocation	Animated background images have been relocated into their own folder inside of the Phone UI image folder for better organization.

3.0.1

You can find the docs for v3.0.1 here: https://mysterious-messenger.readthedocs.io/en/v3.0.1/

Major New Features

Feature	Description
Chatroom Links	Characters can now post links in chatrooms. Clicking a link can cause a variety of actions to occur, such as jumping to a Story Mode section or showing a CG.
Vanderwood	Vanderwood has been added as a fully-fledged character with his own profile, chat bubbles, heart icon, and more.
Additional Assets	Story Mode has new characters. Chatrooms have two new timeline backgrounds, a new secure chat background, a cracked glass overlay, and a new secure lock opening animation. There is a new red static hack effect.

Minor New Features

Feature	Description
Character definitions condensed	Players now only need to define a ChatCharacter for a new character, and their vn_char and phone_char fields will be automatically defined.
Auto-defined Story Mode window background	Users can now supply a character’s definition with the window_color field to automatically colour the dialogue background in Story Mode.

Fixes

Fix	Description
Phone call replay	Replaying a phone call always begins with the phone audio playing automatically.
Bonus profile pictures	There is better error checking for bonus profile pictures. Characters without a greeting image can still use their profile picture next to the number of hearts earned with them.
Saves track the next day	Save files now track the name of the next day when loading in real-time.

QoL Improvements

Feature	Description
Tutorial Day Introduction	If you hold Ctrl (Skip) during the introductory phone call on Tutorial Day, you will automatically go directly to the home screen, skipping the introduction.
exclude_suffix	Can now exclude the automatic “Day” suffix appended to RouteDay objects.

Other

Feature	Description
Guest grade update	The images used for your guest grade after all party guests have arrived have been updated.

3.0.0

Major New Features

Feature	Description
StoryMode	Story Mode sections can exist separately from chatrooms and take a trigger time and a title. This also replaces the previous VNMode class.
StoryCall	Phone calls can appear in the timeline and be mandatory for story progression. If a story call expires, the character will leave a voicemail. Story calls can exist on their own with a trigger time or can be attached to Story Mode sections or chatrooms. Only one story call per character is allowed, but multiple story calls with different callers can exist on the same timeline item.
msg CDS	A new way of writing chatroom and text message dialogue. Automatically adds text tags and parses emojis as images. Can also add new speech bubbles and fonts to work with this CDS.
text backlog CDS	Allows messages to be added as “backlog” to a character’s text message conversation history. Can manually set the date/time the message appears, relative to the current date/time.
compose text CDS	Replaces calls like call compose_text(r) and call compose_text_end(“menu_a2”). Makes it easier to set up and write text messages, and even schedule when they should be delivered.
Choice paraphrasing	Can turn paraphrase_choices on or off on a global, per-menu, or per-choice basis to dictate whether or not the program should automatically make the main character say the dialogue in the selected choice.
Bonus profile pictures	Characters have bonus profile pictures that are unlocked based on user-defined conditions or when seen in-game. NPC profile pictures cost 5 heart points with that character to unlock, and player profile pictures cost 1 hourglass. These values are modifiable.
Profile picture callback	When the player changes their profile picture, a special function is called that allows the characters to comment on their profile picture choice (e.g. by phoning them or sending a text message)
scene and show extention	scene and show have been extended to allow chatroom backgrounds to be set with scene morning instead of call chat_begin(‘morning’). Most other effects, such as banners, can be shown via show commands like show banner heart or show hack effect.
timed menu CDS	Timed menus are now typed like regular menus. The dialogue before the first choice will dictate how long the timer is. Choices are shown on-screen while the characters continue messaging. A preferences option turns timed menus into regular menus, and a slider allows for timed menu “bullet time” so that the chat speed can be fast but timed menus slow down to give players time to read.
Email system improvements	Email chains can be of an arbitrary length with any number of replies. Failing an email can still continue an email chain. A string parser makes using triple-quoted strings to type emails much more readable. Players can choose to reply to an email later after clicking Reply.
call chat_begin / jump phone_end-style calls removed	The program handles the setup and cleanup of all timeline items. All labels can simply begin without further ado and all labels can end with return.

Minor New Features

Feature	Description
add_to_album function	Allows you to append a photo to an album after the game has begun.
hide_albums function	If set, allows you to hide albums from the Album screen unless they have an unlocked CG in them already. Takes a list or a single Album.
_branch for parties	The Party can exist on its own with a trigger time, and may have a _branch label which will execute when the player enters the party.
Guestbook Hourglasses	The player is awarded 1 hourglass (HG) the first time they view a guest in the guestbook.
invite guest CDS	Replaces call invite(guest).
award heart and break heart CDS	Replaces call heart_icon(s) and call heart_break(s), respectively. break heart can also be written as heart break.
enter chatroom and exit chatroom CDS	New way of writing call enter(s) and call exit(s) respectively.
Custom speech bubbles	Can use provided functions to set custom speech bubbles or do things like let Unknown use Ray’s speech bubbles.
was_expired variable	This variable is set before the game executes an after_ label. Allows you to change dialogue depending on whether or not the associated item was participated in or if it expired.
-b and -thumb for album images	You can now define thumbnails and -b variants on thumbnails for gallery images. These variants will be used for bonus profile pictures.
History screen customization	Can now add backgrounds to routes in the history screen. A rectangular image will automatically have the corners cropped to fit the button. Can also add prologues through a special variable in variables_editable.rpy.
.webp and .ogg conversion	Most images have been converted to .webp to reduce file size. Some audio files have been converted to .ogg for similar reasons.
call answer removed	call answer is no longer required before a chatroom or text message menu.
custom_route_select_screen	Can easily switch between a custom route select screen and the default one. Default route select improved to have additional graphics.

Fixes

Fix	Description
History cleanup	RouteDays without content don’t show up in the History. Single-day routes are centered in the screen.
buyahead	Buying 24 hours in advance while playing in real-time will continue to unlock items up to the 24 hour mark after proceeding through a plot branch in the middle of the purchased 24 hours.
Text message preview	Text message previews can properly handle text tags such as special fonts or sizes.
Sign screen	Sign screen doesn’t show hourglasses/heart points if the player was just replaying it or the item was expired.
Pronoun fixes	Capitalized variants of pronoun variables are automatically defined.
Observing improvements	Replaying Story Mode/phone calls during a playthrough now only presents you with the choices you made on that particular playthrough.
Screen shake	Screen shake now works with animated backgrounds. It can be shown via show shake.
Profile picture flexibility	Profile pictures can now use solid colours or cropped/transformed images.
Messenger Error screen	The program will try to catch operational errors and award the player an hourglass if something fails but it is able to recover.
Viewing CGs	Viewing CGs full-screen while on the messenger or viewing a text message now simply halts the game state while it is being viewed instead of manually pausing the chat.
Home screen grid fix	The home screen now properly calculates how many pictures it will be showing so the grid is not over- or underfull.

QoL Improvements

Feature	Description
play music and play sound	New CDSs replace call play_music() and call play_sfx(). Can be typed and used the same way as the regular Ren’Py function, but is now compatible with audio captions.
Custom ending screens	Can now define your own ending image and pass the whole string to the ending variable upon ending a route.
create_incoming_call	Easy way of creating a new incoming call; intended primarily to be used in combination with profile picture callbacks.
Keyboard shortcuts	Space bar selects most chatroom footer options, like play/pause/answer/save & exit and the Sign button. Left/right arrows decrease/increase the chat speed.
TimelineItem class	All timeline items (chatrooms and VN mode) have been switched to inherit from a base TimelineItem class. The new classes allow for more flexibility such as standalone story calls and story mode sections, and the individual items in a chain can all have a separate after_ label.
String to filename conversion	Guest names and album names can be converted to a filename which the program can search for to find images associated with that name. all_albums definitions can be modified to reflect this.
persistent.testing_mode improvements	Activating Testing Mode from the Developer options will now show a button to instantly end a chatroom. It also removes a lot of the confirm-style message and allows you to right-click an item on the timeline to instantly mark it as played for testing purposes.
persistent.unlock_all_story	An option, Unlock All Story, in the Developer options will make all timeline items immediately available. Plot branches can be proceeded through without playing all prior items.
Save slots	Save slots are now paged rather than one long list.
add_choices for spaceship thoughts	Can now append a new choice to a list of spaceship thoughts.
main_character variable	A character defined as the main character will say non-paraphrased dialogue automatically and be moved to the right side of the messenger.
persistent.pv	pv (for chatroom speed) is now persistent and will carry over across playthroughs and on the history screens.

Other

Feature	Description
Folder restructure	Engine code has been moved to the 01_mysme_engine folder. Modifiable code, or code that is expected to be added to by the user, is directly inside the game/ folder.
Casual and Jaehee Route	A stub implementation of Casual Story and Jaehee Route is implemented as an example. Allows for easy testing of real-time mechanics and demonstrates a complete route definition with branches for multiple endings.
show_empty_menus	Can choose whether timed menus with no choices (e.g. all choices have conditions which evaluate to False) should show their dialogue or be skipped altogether.
Script error screen	The program will try to detect when you have made an error in your script and notify you or direct you to an appropriate wiki page rather than crashing.
missing_label and missing_image callbacks	The program will try to correct and/or recover from missing labels or missing images without disrupting the program.
use_timed_menus	persistent.autoanswer_timed_menus has been renamed to persistent.use_timed_menus. The preference option is titled Timed Menus.

Renamed Variables

Old Name	New Name
post_chat_actions	reset_story_vars
persistent.completed_chatrooms	persistent.completed_story
plot_branch_end()	execute_plot_branch
num_future_chatrooms	num_future_timeline_items
chatroom_hg	collected_hg
chatroom_hp	collected_hp
chat_archive	story_archive
.chatroom_label	.item_label
most_recent_chat	most_recent_item
current_chatroom	current_timeline_item
screen chatroom_item	timeline_item_display
screen chatroom_item_history	timeline_item_history
screen chatroom_timeline	timeline
next_chatroom	check_and_unlock_story
next_chat_time	next_story_time
chat_24_available	make_24h_available
screen chat_select	day_select
screen day_select	day_display