Hey everyone!
Halloween is one week away! You know what that means... update time!
Before I dive into today’s content, I want to take a moment to acknowledge that it’s been a while since my last update. A lot has been happening on my end, including some personal challenges that have required my attention. Balancing work and personal life can be tricky, and I appreciate your patience during this time. On top of that, I’ve been dealing with some technical issues related to the recent problems affecting Intel’s 13th and 14th generation CPUs. If you own one of these processors, I highly recommend checking to see if yours is impacted by the microcode issues. Updating your BIOS could make a significant difference if you haven’t done that yet - in saying that, please inform yourself before you do anything.
Alright, let’s get into the exciting content! This update is packed, featuring a variety of changes, fixes, and most importantly, a host of new additions that I think you’re going to love. In this update, you can expect a range of enhancements that improve both performance and user experience. I’ll be detailing all the new features and changes, so there’s a lot to look forward to! As always, if you prefer to cut straight to the chase, the full changelog is available at the end of this post for your convenience.
I’m thrilled to announce the addition of a brand new level: Shift 5! This shift takes you through the entire front of the store, filled with a variety of exciting surprises and experiences for you to discover. I can’t wait for you to explore everything it has to offer! Additionally, I’ve made significant improvements to the mannequin AI, enhancing their behavior for a more engaging gameplay experience. I’ve also implemented various changes across existing shifts, with the most notable update occurring in Shift 2. In this shift, I’ve revamped the way you access the maintenance area and removed the black key, streamlining the experience for players.
As promised — and even a bit ahead of schedule — you can now load into saved shifts! The game automatically saves your progress at the start of each shift, allowing you to easily revisit any saved game as long as the save file is there. I’ve received a lot of feedback regarding the absence of this feature, and I totally understand how important it is for your gameplay experience. That’s why I decided to prioritize it for this update and roll it out sooner than initially planned.
Performance has been a key focus for this update, and I’ve made a variety of adjustments to enhance your experience. To give you more customization options regarding performance, I’m excited to introduce the ability to enable DLSS in The Night Shift. This is a basic implementation for now, but I plan to continue refining and improving the integration as much as possible. If you have an Nvidia GPU that supports DLSS, it will be automatically enabled for you. However, you can easily adjust the settings to your preference in the options menu. Additionally, when DLSS is enabled, you’ll also gain access to Nvidia’s Image Scaling feature, providing even more visual enhancements. Beyond these new features, I’ve made numerous updates to performance under the hood, ensuring a smoother gameplay experience overall.
First up is localization! Although this wasn’t originally on the roadmap for this year, I’ve noticed a significant increase in wishlists and purchases from non-English speaking countries. In response to this demand, I’ve localized over 12,000 words into 11 different languages. You can now enjoy The Night Shift in the following languages: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Maori, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Ukrainian. I do want to note that while I’ve put in a lot of effort to ensure accuracy, you shouldn’t expect 100% perfect translations. Some translations might not be completely accurate or could come across as awkward. If you encounter any issues, please don’t hesitate to reach out—I’m committed to making improvements where I can!
As more players join from all over the globe, it’s important to ensure that everyone can enjoy the game, including those with color vision impairment. To accommodate this, The Night Shift now supports various color vision types. You can choose from the following options: Normal, Deuteranope (approximately 6.5% of males, 0.4% of females), Protanope (about 1% of males, 0.01% of females), and Tritanope (around 0.01% of both males and females). By providing these options, I hope to enhance the experience for players who may face challenges with color differentiation. Your enjoyment of the game is important, and I’m committed to making it accessible for everyone.
There are plenty more changes and fixes in this update, you can read the entire patch notes below.
Changes
- Added localisation for 11 languages.
- Added Nvidia DLSS 3.0
- Added accessibility options for those with colour vision impairments.
- Added save and load. Saving occurs at the start of each shift.
- Added tutorial message to show how to use the remote from the safe.
- Added tutorial message to show how to access camera.
- Added new type of mannequin.
- Added version number to the main menu to identify bugs on specific versions.
- Added one new level - Shift 4.
- Added initial support for Steam Deck.
- Pressing the Journal button when its open now closes it.
- Updated and improved Mannequin AI.
- Updated way to get into the maintenance area on Night 2.
- Updated various objective items spawn randomly now.
- Updated layout of maintenance area near kitchen.
- Updated Electronic Cleanup quest to include picking up game cases.
- Updated visuals of placeholder game cases and posters in the electronics area.
- Updated visuals of notes.
- Updated various visuals of the overall store.
- Updated main menu with visual and audio changes.
- Updated the game and application intro with music.
- Updated dialogue recordings.
- Updated visuals of the safe.
- Increased size of batteries slightly.
- Removed the need for the black key to gain access to the maintenance area.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed being able to inspect pants on Night 1.
- Fixed mannequin getting stuck on the fallen chair on Night 2.
- Fixed occasions where movie cases have the incorrect inventory icon.
- Fixed using the remote as the first way to trigger alarm not counting towards task.
- Fixed theft alarms missing audio.
- Fixed unable to see some items when inspecting them.
- Fixed buttons in settings not showing the text when they are the active/pressed button.
- Fixed mannequin movement audio continuing to play when it is stuck.
- Fixed mannequins sometimes not animating.
- Fixed some of the 'you are here' icon on the maps showing the incorrect place.
- Fixed various grammatical errors.
- Fixed lightning sometimes showing through the world.
- Fixed inspecting movie cases behaving incorrectly.
- Fixed various movies not showing the correct descriptions.
- Fixed certain audio continuing to play when leaving the bathroom on Night 2.
- Fixed certain audio not looping on Night 2.
- Fixed mannequin collisions messing with depth of field in specific situations.
- Fixed store front ceiling being partially see through from a certain position.
- Fixed various UI images showing placeholder images.
- Fixed dialogue audio not being effected by the dialogue volume slider.
- Various performance and optimisations improvements.
Report any bugs or issues on the Steam Discussion board, the Discord, or the website.
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Chat soon!
Marty