Hey everyone!
Whew. Our second time at Gamescom came and went, and it’s been very exciting! We’ve met many new friends, and saw plenty of people try The Time I Have Left, which was a blast.
Over the last month we’ve been showing bits and pieces of the changes and improvements to our game, and there’s been a lot of new developments as well! We’ve been showing this stuff over on our Twitter, but it’s high time we share all that with our community here.
DELAY TO 2024
Let's tackle this first, since delays are always disappointing.
Most of you already know that we are a very small, self-funded team and (as of the writing of this announcement) still searching for a publisher. We really apologize for making you wait a little more than anticipated, but rest assured that we are giving the game our all so it is worth the extra wait!
GAMEPLAY TRAILER
We finally unveiled our second trailer on IGN's stream during Gamescom. Did you catch it? If not, it’s also live on our youtube channel!
It features some of the new gameplay features and our redesigned UI, plus hints at new enemies, boss-battles, new environments, and even more of the story.
In addition to that, we were interviewed by a few publications. Keep an eye out for them once they release!
SKILL PATHS
In The Time I Have Left, you unlock new abilities to use in combat by exploring the world, collecting clues, and unlocking story entries in our Database system.
Last time we demoed the game, progression in this front was linear, and every clue and entry was about equal: Going out of your way to find hidden clues allowed to earn skills early, but it did not feel rewarding enough.
To address this, we classified each entry as Critical, Optional, or Secret. Each category has its own progression path, with its own skills waiting to be unlocked!
- The Critical path is unlocked as you escape Colony 7. It provides the bare minimum skills you will need through your journey.
- The Optional path requires you to be attentive and take in the environment. These skills are not mandatory but will add variety and help you find your preferred play-style.
- Finally, to obtain the skills from the Secret path, you must engage and understand the ins and outs of Colony 7 and its previous inhabitants. They are your reward for solving optional challenges or stumbling into secret locations.
SKILLS LOADOUTS
To balance out the increased skill count, we introduced skill loadouts to limit the amount of skills you can bring at any given time.
You can edit your loadout at Waiting Rooms, where you can also save your game and restore your Willpower. You have limited slots, but these will expand as you progress through the game.
Skills from the Critical Path are automatically equipped and do not occupy any slots, but the rest do.
You can also save loadouts and quickly swap between them!
NEW ENEMIES & TARGETING
We've already added a couple new enemies, but plenty more are in the works!
Some enemies have body parts that can be individually damaged and neutralized by specific actions. Break them, and you will limit the enemy's attacks and abilities.
For example, one of the new enemies has powerful ranged attacks: By damaging their right arm enough, you can prevent them from using them any further.
We also started using some Motion Captured animations. We have just started using this new workflow so it's still not too evident in the game, but you can expect animation improvements in the future! Not only is this a great productivity boost, but we are also having a lot of fun with it!
MULTILAYERED DETAILED INSPECTIONS
One of our main gameplay modes is the “Detailed Inspection”, where you shift into a first person camera perspective and use a pointer to explore and interact with various items. We are still experimenting with it, designing puzzles, and expanding its functionality.
One of the latest improvements is having multiple layers of inspectable scenes: After interacting with specific objects, the camera zooms into a new position; you can zoom back out by pressing the cancel button. This lets us hide key items and other secrets.
OPTIMIZATION AND STEAMDECK
During Gamescom, our demo for The Time I Have Left was fully playable on both PC and the Steamdeck. There is still plenty of work to do, but we have made great improvements to performance that will also benefit those of you with less powerfull PCs.
We more than doubled performance on lower end systems without sacrificing any visual quality. It was really hard work!
We'll make sure to keep an eye on performance to ensure everyone gets to experience The Time I Have Left at its fullest.
AFTERWORDS
That was a lot of news! As per usual, thanks for reading! Feel free to join our Discord to get in contact with us, and follow us on Twitter to keep up to date on any news.
See you next time!