Dear Community,
I would like to start this update with clearing out a few questions that came up on various platforms:
*********************************************
Quote: "Any expected release date? "
Yeah, about that... while I usually bring up september, lets be honest here. I dont get
nearly as much work done on this or anything else as I anticipated so it might drag on until winter.
However, I still aim to get it done in late september.
Quote: "Is this in any way related to frictional game's "Amnesia: The Dark Descent""
This came up in some Euthanasia reviews as well...one lets player even summed it up as "a free Amnesia". Except for the "ia" in the titles which must confuse some people, its both not even remotely related.
Quote: "Will there be a free demo?"
Sure!
A 5 or 3 Level Demo.
****************************************
Alright, lets get the update going.
Bad news first: I had to delete 6
entire levels. Yeah! there is a lot of work going straight down the drain. Those maps where simply not working well, went too hard on the memory cap or wheren't fun to play. If you are working in a wierd setting like this where there isn't that much realism to hold on to, you still need to give the game some sort of grounding and sense of danger or you hit the player over the head and the game ends up being boring. You can also not string together 4 levels of pure puzzle solving and story elements or you lose the folks who are not that invested in the storyline, not yet really into the setting or just want some relieving action. You gotta get the player to get chased by something or the entire hostile athmosphere gets lost. There is a lot of work involved to get a game like this working in fpsc.
Bottomline, I had a hard cutback on progress but it made up for better flowing- and more coherent gameplay.
I got to work on the health system which invites to explore the level (we'll get to that later). It strongly relies on the use of various chemicals and items you can find and you can carry 3 flasks (healthpotions) with you.
In fact, there is a passive inventory (keys, puzzleitems and ingredients) and 2 active inventories: (Weapons and Potions).
Things you carry and can consume are allocated as icons on the left side of the screen (very small and stylish icons...dont worry, I wont overload your HUD with crap) In Fact, the health-o-meter isn't visible at all and can only be triggered by pressing a button. You'll see what I did there once its finished.
I've been thinking about adding a few more weapons. It has 3 so far and since I clear the inventory of any tools and documents you dont need anmyore there is room for infinite guns. If you got a stellar idea that would suit the setting, feel free to air your mind. ...I've been concidering a crossbow btw.
You will also get mechanical puzzles to solve...this is not part of one of them. In fact, thats just there to spice up the first chapter's scenery.
I really like this room. There will be a lot going on in it aswell
Don't worry, I won't overuse windows as much as the screenshot reals might make you think
That thing is... I dont know what that is either
Well, you get a lot of readingmaterial in here too...but hey, in other games you just get a screen full of text, here you can run around with it. 
Thats from the "desperation" subchapter...its very minimalistic
I finally have a good setting for the dogman character...so in your face! He has new sounds too.
If you have followed this thread, you might have remembered me designing a stalking ghost where I left away any shader magic and went with a simple texture...
these are the shader designs that I will recycle into something cool later on.
I would also like to use this update to thank
Ross tra damus,
The Cosmic Prophet and
Doomster as they really helped me and provided a lot of artistic material to forge the look and feel of this game.
Alright everybody!
Thanks for reading! Opinions, feedback and ideas are appreciated!
Additional images on
my blog
-Wolf
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes, art is knowing which ones to keep.
