"Come closer, come closer, look into the scrine..."
Next week we expect to release (a closed pre-alpha of) the very ever first playable build of Travelling At Night!!1!
This extremely early vertical slice takes Spencer to the Sanitarium Aujourd'hui, both day *and* night versions. It includes samples of most major systems; prologue narrative; demo tracks from our as-yet unannounced composer; and the first five fully animated outfits of the gentleman once described as 'the best-dressed man in the Suppression Bureau'.
You'll also be able to talk to a number of NPCs, including the game's first possible companion, Vincent Chraibi.
The names of the first 20 people to play the game Have Been Chosen (!), but we'll send the emails next week. Please note that these names were chosen entirely at random from the list of people who signed up to test, so if you're not one of the lucky few this says nothing about how much we like you For anyone not in the alpha (99.99999999% of people on the planet), we'll almost certainly be adding additional testers in the new year. You're still in the running for future rounds of testing.
And if this is the first you've heard about pre-release testing and you're going OOH OOH ME, there's still time to sign up for those future rounds.
For now, please entertain yourselves with two new outfits for Spencer: one recalling his brief time as a priest of the Church of the Unconquered Sun, and the other from his time as 'Father Brass', his semi-successful stage magician persona.
Spencer looks handsome in *everything*.
Just for fun, here’s what my screen looks like when drawing Spencer’s clothes. Glad I have an ultrawide monitor! And an excuse to look at David Niven a lot.
In non-Travelling news, next week also marks the beginning of the BOOK OF HOURS in-game advent calendar. From Monday 1st December, presents will appear periodically on Reverend Timothy's Christmas tree next to the Rectory in Brancrug Village. When in-game winter rolls around, you'll see Christmas decorations appear throughout Hush House and beyond and you'll be able to open your presents at the Rectory. (Please note that you can't get advent calendar gifts during in-game spring, summer or autumn, and won't see the Christmas tree or decorations during those seasons eiether). All items remain on the tree for you to collect at your leisure any time from the first of December to midnight on New Year's Eve. The advent calendar ‘ends’ on Christmas Day, but you have an extra week to collect any missed items after then.
Look out for a new Skeleton Songs episode going live this same coming Monday. We'll see you on the other side of this build...