Hey everyone!
We all thought that October was busy, but November blew that out of the water. Our team has been working so incredibly hard this month between consistent updates to the demo (which was a massive success) and finalization of the Episode 1 build.
Let’s take a look at what we’ve been up to!
Development Progress
Demo Updates:
Our team is hard at work polishing and adding content to the Subliminal Demo using all of the feedback from our amazing community! We’ve pushed quite a few major updates here and are working on version 1.3 that will be out soon.
Bug Fixes:
Our in-engine team continues to thrive in this area, fixing many small bugs to ensure that Episode 1’s experience is amazing on launch day.
Playtesting Wrapped:
In November, our team also wrapped up playtesting on the full Episode 1 build, which was incredible to experience. The feedback we received was super valuable and will help us polish the full game just that much more.
Final Modeling & Ending Polishes:
As development begins to wrap up, we have been making a few final passes in regards to modeling and ending scene optimizations. We’re working hard on these environments, especially to bring the atmosphere to life – and we believe you’ll enjoy all of the ways Episode 1 can come to a close.
Overall Visual Improvements:
Our team has also been working on some final passes throughout the entire game, making quite a few visual changes to improve the experience. Recent work includes improvements to lighting, post-processing, materials, textures, and scene density, all while keeping performance stable, if not better!
Behind the Scenes: Water Working?
Another outcome based on user feedback here, but this month we’ve been working to update water physics in some of the levels, including WaterWorks.
Originally, we had plans for real-time water physics implementation throughout the entire game, but this turned out to be incredibly taxing on performance on most hardware, so the idea was largely scrapped until it was suggested by a few users over on our Discord server! After quite a bit of testing and bug fixes, we think we’ll have real-time water physics included in the next demo update for everyone to enjoy. During testing though, we had one issue in particular that allowed for the entire WaterWorks level to be flooded with water, which made for quite a bit of fun for the team.
Spotlight: Demo Responses
Without wanting to get too emotional here, all we can say is WOW. The global response our team has seen from fans and streamers alike has been unimaginable. We’ve had an outpouring of emails, direct messages, videos, and livestreams sent to us throughout the month and we are grateful for each and every one of them. Although we might not respond, we try our best to read every message and watch every stream or video sent our way. It is such a surreal feeling to see so much positivity surrounding the project, and we’ll continue to work tirelessly to bring our vision to life for everyone out there.
Looking Ahead
That said, as we look ahead into December and the future beyond, we are filled with excitement for what is to come.
Development of Subliminal: Episode 1 on our end here at Accidental Studios is wrapping up very quickly, and we will continue to update everyone as we get more information about releases, etc. Though we cannot control the timelines for other teams involved, nor ultimately set a release date, as that decision lies on our publishing partners, we are still very hopeful for a December release date! As soon as we receive confirmation on a set-in-stone date, we will be sure to let everyone know.
Closing Remarks
We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity that each and every one of you has given us to turn this passion project into a career with very ambitious goals. Though the development of Episode 1 may be coming to an end, there is so much more to our story that we plan to tell. Accidental Studios is not going anywhere, and the past few years of hardship are testament to that. We hope you are excited!
As always, thank you for reading, thank you for following, and thank you for being patient with us as we continue to make Subliminal the best it can be.
– The Accidental Studios Team