Dear employees of Akamori Enterprise,
I’m happy to announce that the development of echo//shredd continues with solid and steady steps!
Recently, the new TRAIN has been completed! After spending far more time on it than I’d like to admit (mostly inside modeling and texturing tools), the fully finished train has finally made its way into the engine. Take a look!
With the established workflow and pipeline, future changes and additions can be handled smoothly as well. That being said, it should be clear that future updates are on the way. There’s still a lot of customization and upgrade options to implement that can be unlocked during playthroughs! The image shows the barebones train, without any upgrades applied.
BEYOND THE TRAIN
With this milestone reached, the focus now shifts toward further work on the game’s locations, improved enemy AI, deadly traps, sound design, and - most importantly - overall game feel. One key element for delivering a strong experience is a fitting user interface. The current UI is functional but lacks important qualities such as readability and style.
The first element to receive an upgraded interface is the Scrap Monitor. This device is used to melt your hard-earned, hard-shredded scrap into Iron Coffins, which must be delivered to Akamori Enterprise outposts.
This design sets the artistic direction for the interfaces of echo//shredd. Other tools and gadgets in the game will follow a similar style.
Beyond visuals, the game has also seen massive improvements under the hood. Performance is steadier, framerates are higher, effects are improved, and the codebase is more solid - enabling a much more flexible and effective development process moving forward.
PLAYTESTS
Two weeks ago echo//shredd also started its semi-private Playtesting session. Interested people from the community were included to play and test the current stage of development. Lots of issues were noticed and many features got requested. Obviously not everything is going to make it into the final game but its interesting to see what players expect or wish for.
PRESENTING THE GAME PUBLICLY AT A CONVENTION
Earlier this year I attended the Indie Game Fest in Cologne, Germany. Me and my buddy worked on a video about that event, so in case you're interested and wanna check it out, here you go:
NEXT UP!
I know many of you are thirsty for a publicly available demo to see how things are shaping up. For those waiting for a perfectly stable, enjoyable, and horrifying experience: it’s still going to take a while :(
But for those who don’t mind a few bugs (okay, a lot of bugs) and want to actively help shape the development: we're going to have another round of playtests very soon!
If you want to be informed firsthand, I’ll be sharing details on how everything works in the Akamori Enterprise Discord Server.
Akamori Enterprise Discord Server
The plan for now is to frequently update the available playtest (maybe every two weeks—we’ll see), gradually transitioning into a feature-complete demo for everyone. I’m not sure yet how or with whom I’ll be testing multiplayer functionality, but I’ll share more as soon as I know.
There’s actually much more I’d love to show and talk about, but this isn’t the right format for going too deep into details. What matters is: the game is progressing, and everything is on track.
Thank you for reading this update! Please take care of yourselves, and see you next time.
IrregularHuman