I’m very excited to announce The Utility Room has been invited to feature in the Venice Immersive Best of section, at the 80th Mostra Internazionale
d'Arte Cinematografica (80th Venice International Film Festival).
I’ve made a few changes to the project in anticipation of its display on the Venice Immersive Island (Isola del Lazzaretto Vecchio) that I’ve now also made to the Steam build. Here they are! They are mostly regarding sound and music but there have also been some changes to the 2 playable modes and some of the environments.
Main
New Track: The Finale of the Reprimand now has new music more befitting of the climax. I felt the last one was too cosmic and corny. Big props to the games composer Nicky Vella for sorting that out.
The Chase Redesign: The sequence in the reprimand where Binman chases you around his brutalist lightning-storm hellscape has been redesigned with glitchy rocks, glitchy sound and a glitchy Binman.
New Modes: Classic and Journey have been replaced with Classic and Extended. These now refer to two new ways of playing the game.
Classic: The concise, focused journey. Features minor gameplay elements. Around 60 minutes in length.
Extended: Features additional gameplay and 3 extra chapters. Around 90 minutes in length.
Extended is the original and what you’ve all been playing. I implemented the shorter Classic Mode as I believe it plays better in one sitting with some of the fat trimmed. Classic omits The Ravine, Half of The Causeway and The Canyon.
New Sound: The Adjudicator, Binman and The Wanderer all have new sound. The chapters The Cathedral, The Overpass and The Reprimand all have rehauled environment sound. An easter egg in The Run now has its own hum.
Tutorial: The Leap tutorial at The Door is more comprehensive and easier to understand. Animations will now also appear to indicate how grabbing works if players are stuck and indicators for leaping now appear if players take too long in case they haven’t got to grips with it.
Snap Turn/Smooth Turn: Toggle has been moved to the Main Menu/Pause Menu.
Other Changes
Menus
- The Kinglumps intro has been changed and now features the Biennale logo for this year's film festival.
- The menu has been improved. The sculpture park has been moved to Chapter select.
- Continue and Main Menu have been swapped in the pause menu.
- You can no longer teleport in the Main Menu area.
Chapters
The View/View Ravine
- The View’s first two cave chambers have been removed.
- Classic mode now features an alternative Ravine (head fly-by section) that leads into The Cathedral.
The Cathedral
- The Cathedral now has an environment/ambient loop.
- The Primordial watchers now have sound in The Cathedral.
- All leaps except the final one have been removed as I felt they were unnecessary.
The Computer
- Only extended mode requires you to jump from the Cable avoiding the aggressive slug. Classic lets you teleport.
- The Final leap has been changed to make it easier. This leap was far too hard.
The Maze
- The Maze now appears with a hint if you die more than 5 times.
The Graveyard
No Changes
The Run
- The music has been fixed so the transitions are smooth and loops no longer pop.
- The Easter egg known as “The Human” now has sound.
The Bowl
No Changes
The Boulder
- The Death respawn for the leap is no more forgiving.
- The Fog transition to The Causeway is cleaner.
The Causeway
- There are now two versions of the Causeway. Long and Short. Long is the original and reserved for classic mode. Short has the cave about midway through.
- The Boulder Smash Event triggers earlier.
- Some of the pillars move in a more forgiving way.
- The Wanderer vista sequence triggers earlier.
- Some of the Jumpers don’t throw you as high into the sky.
The Overpass
- Overhauled sound for the main cave chamber and new sound for the Wanderer.
- The leap has been removed as it was too small to merit something more than a teleport.
- Teleporting outside of the map at the beginning has been fixed.
The Adjudicator
- The slide has been removed.
The Forest
- The Predator coming straight towards you at the end and killing you is less of a death sentence. You can now see him coming earlier and avoid him.
- You are no longer required to leap at the end before grabbing the orb but it may still help to do so.
- The Predator will surprise you if you’re dumb enough to try and go into the cave he comes out of after his first appearance.
The Canyon
- The Canyon only appears in Extended mode.
The Mouth
- Two versions of The Mouth exist now. One now has the chamber cave from the beginning of The Canyon should the player play Classic Mode.
- Bin Man is much bigger and blocks out the ‘sun’ for longer.
The Pendulum
No Changes
The Bottom
- New sound at the beginning for the rubble and destruction landing around you.
The Meeting
No Changes
The Reprimand
- New cave sound.
- The glitch where the area is pitch black is fixed. This was unfortunately game breaking so my apologies for anyone who experienced this. A restart fixes it but it's frustrating nonetheless.
- The Gong sound has been removed just before you are banished.
The Finale
- The credits have a much nicer fade to them.