It's been great to see all the feedback these last few weeks (mainly on this page), I feel like Level 4 hit the mark and my plan is to continue with that approach going forward. I.e., multiple characters, plenty of H content, enemies to not completely dominate the gameplay, side-missions to keep things interesting, secret stuff to find, and a continuation of the storyline. I put together a rough gameplan for level 5 a few weeks back that I think will work well, and I'm looking forward to delivering on that.

However, during final testing before the Level 4 release, I went back and played the game from the beginning to make sure I didn't break anything. And I gotta say I didn't like what I have with Level 1. It was too hard (even for me), arduous AF, not very interesting, and clunky. I can leave it as is, but my concern is new players will try the game, find Level 1 to be crap, and then abandon the game. I'm sure everyone wants a whole new level with new enemies and everything, but it seems wise to make Level 1 better asap, and I think you folks will like the new changes as well.

So the next version will have a new Level 1 and I'm going to try and make it like Level 4. It will include most if not all of what's there, but with the following changes:
- It will be easier: Val will start with 2 grenades and will have a 50% faster rate of fire. There will also be fewer zombies and more time between spawns in certain sections.
- Existing dialogue will be improved: I'll make it a little less 'cheeseball'
- New characters: I plan to add 2 new NPCs
- New animations: I plan to have at least 4 new H anims
- A new side mission
- A new secret or 2

I've begun work on a lot of this and things are moving along well. Given my schedule I'm giving myself until the end of Sep to release the next version but I'm hoping to get it out sooner.

Would love to get your thoughts on any of this, feel free to post a comment.