Hello everybody. A catch-up on the status of FlashBoss over the last couple of weeks, and a report on some major improvements to the game and the content.

Every file is now signed. As of today, every executable and library in the Windows build carries a code-signing certificate, issued in my name and timestamped. New Windows 11 PCs with Smart App Control, which blocked FlashBoss outright, should now run it. If your machine still refuses to launch after the update, let Steam verify the game files once, then tell me on the discussion board. This one took longer than I wanted; thank you for your patience.

The game is faster than it has ever been. A change to the notes screen caused serious lag, and the search for it turned up several other inefficiencies. The lag is gone, the notes open instantly, launch is quicker, and rating a card is immediate. (The PiperTTS window is still there: press Ctrl+P to hear any German text pronounced, or to save it. PiperTTS also has its own launcher in the game folder, and runs as a standalone tool without Steam.)

The Roots Series has been raised. German Roots, Norman Roots, Greek Roots, and Latin Roots have all been edited to a higher standard, with regard to linking the packs and their vocabulary, and especially their synonyms. That is 3,500 cards across 181 clusters. 3,478 of them now carry synonyms, 6,940 of them in all, and 1,345 carry antonyms on top of that. 1,813 cards point at the pack that shares the word: a Germanic twin, a Norman twin, or the Latin root standing behind a Norman word.

Revision Mode. FlashBoss has a number of additional minigames that open the moment you defeat your first cluster honorably: by learning the words of the cluster and defeating the cluster boss. The games vary between packs. Generally speaking, there are games for recognizing gender, for opposites, and for spelling practice. Each language has its own conventions for the keys, explained in place. New with this update: a revision floor. You choose the lowest tier the drills draw from, so early material can be set aside once it is secure, and your position in each floor is remembered.

On the release schedule. The Swahili Pareto 1 course and the second volume of The Guide are waiting on store review.

Swahili Core and the subsequent releases will be edited to a higher standard, and the definitions of the Swahili words will be matched to equivalent vocabulary in your learning language. It's a curious case, because the words often don't map well to English, but in the early levels a descriptive definition is not the way we are choosing to press forward. Swahili functions as a lingua franca, and the early tiers are designed to get you understanding and capable of interaction. To that end, we are moving toward translations over definitions. Nothing you have studied is invalidated.

FlashBoss imports your learning materials tier by tier. This means that updates don't apply to the cards you are already studying; the updated cards begin with your next tier. The target vocabulary of the cards does not change, and this will not affect your progress. All updates to FlashBoss are free, and the game will continue to improve over time.

We have the odd administrative surprise. A prototype of FlashBoss has been built for mobile, but it comes after the desktop game is where I want it, and after I have cleared the backlog of work I have already made for myself, to the standard of quality that everybody deserves.

Please be patient as we push forward together. On a personal note, I'm progressing well into tier 11 of FlashBoss German on my own language journey. Thank you for your participation, good luck with your language endeavors, and feel free to comment or ask a question on the discussion board if there is an issue. I try very hard to check it every day. Please report errors at https://odiin2024.github.io/flashboss-site/report.html. If you have had a good experience with FlashBoss so far, or have found it useful, please consider leaving FlashBoss a review on Steam.