SenS update: Explore Darkness
Hi dear NaissanceE fellows ! After another long pause, I've been able to resume development on SenS and the work done for the last few months is now available and playable in this new update . If everything is still in early state and subject to multiple changes along the develop
Hi dear NaissanceE fellows ! After another long pause, I've been able to resume development on SenS and the work done for the last few months is now available and playable in this new update.
[previewyoutube="LkpJJgpW_Qo;full"][/previewyoutube]If everything is still in early state and subject to multiple changes along the development, it is now possible to experience some layers of the exploration gameplay. The game systems currently available allow to explore the Unstable Zone, areas that may change when in shadow, and so open or close the access to others parts. Using the Luces, small ephemeral pick-able sphere of light, you can navigate safely in the Unstable Zone. Enlightening your path and keeping track of your progression to be able to come back, or else you may get lost into the Darkness and eventually disappear...
At the moment, you mainly can discover a few unique safe places hidden inside the Unstable Zone, but if everything goes fine there will be a lot more things to discover in next updates. New places and objects to collect, some making the exploration easier, some others giving player new capacities or giving information about the world and history. Many other game mechanics are planned.
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[/carousel]As a solo developer, and with very limited resources, it's complicated to keep on regular updates with significant improvements and new content, but as always, I do my best to make this game come to life. I hope I'll be able to progress enough to publish more updates, more often (it should be easy considering the last update was over a year ago :). There is already new Unique Places waiting to be added into the game, but it also takes time to build an interesting level design to reach those, as well as coding and debugging new features to improve the gameplay up to what I have in mind. That's why I eventually didn't included these others places, I had too much things to fix and to adjust, so it would have taken a few more months for that update to be ready. Apart from that, I would love to improve the visual quality on the level art, effects, sounds and music, but it's also very time consuming and I prioritize the work on the overall game experience, living the game art in unfinished state for now.
Note that the game systems currently available and the ones to come are still in prototype stage, that means they may not always work correctly and some bugs can be expected. That also means on some aspect I didn't code them the way they should be, I sometimes fake the intended behavior, in order to test them, to make adjustments them and to have a better overview of the asset and features required in order to later be able to properly develop these systems as they should be.
Here a list of known issues in this build:
-the level streaming method may cause some stutters and micro freezes.
-Luce "nest" (spawners) are placeholders.
-Light detection in the Unstable Zones is only done based on the light radius, for now it doesn't take account of occluding geometries so the player and places in darkness may be considered as enlightened.
-Luce thumbnails in the inventory are currently bugged, they don't reflect the actual level of energy remaining.
-The game don't yet save progress, it would be irrelevant at this stage considering the amount of playable time and the fact that game systems will evolve a lot. But as long as you don't come back to the main menu and you don't exit the game, your progress are kept so you can reach the end of the "demo" even when you die.
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I'm curious about your experience, whether you enjoy or not the new elements in the game, don't hesitate to give some feedback and ask questions on Steam forum and on Discord. It really helps a lot !
Thank you very much for playing and supporting the development ! You can help even more by talking about it, sharing news, or offering the game as present to your friends.
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