Dear Akamori Enterprise Employees,
We're progressing fast and we're progressing good. This post covers the achievements of April 2026 - and I gotta say: I'm quite proud of how things are taking shape. Let's dive in!
Entering the ECHO SPACE
Ever since the core mechanics of the game were set, the travelling times between the stations felt long, empty and essentially boring. This changes now.
When starting the train ride, the train essentially teleports to a new in-between location called the ECHO SPACE. The purpose of this area is to give the players some room to breathe, calm their senses, and prepare for the next expedition. And yes, maybe even enjoy the peace for a glimpse.
From a technical standpoint this approach also comes with great benefits for the games performance. We're no longer generating endless tunnels and the stations we're arriving at are not placed at the end of those tunnels anymore.
This allows the game to use some of the engines features to treat level objects statically, which enhances the render time and effectively boost framerate and stability.
Visual improvements on Train Upgrades
One of the essential parts of the game is improving and upgrading the train as you progress. The old system was rather "simplistic" I'd say - simply clicking a button and the upgrade is done. The greatest problem was the missing feedback on that upgrade. Playtesters didn't seem to understand if an upgrade was unlocked or not.
To improve the readability and the feeling of these upgrades, this system received an entire overhaul. Here is how it looks:
This system is not entirely finished yet. I'm planning to add some short preview clips for every upgrade on the bottom right corner of the screen, so that players can really see what the upgrade is changing in the train.
Scanning the environment
So far it was a rather tedious job to find out which items in the game world are actually interactable and which are not. That usually involved having experience or going right next to the item to see if the object highlighter is reacting. But no more!
The game now has a scanner-function that checks the terrain and environment to see if there are any items of interest. This is being triggered by a simple right-click so far. No more guessing!
Project Funding
As the last post suggested echo//shredd is attempting to get into another round of funding. Since the monetary amount of this funding program is much bigger than the previous one, there are definitely going to be more people working on this project. I'm talking mostly about 3D-Artists, Animators and Audio Engineers.
This will of course greatly improve the games quality - and at the same time widens the time we need to get the game into a releasable state. We're not changing the release-window "just yet" - but it is likely that we need to push the release into 2027. More to that later.
Attending IGF - The Indie Games Fest in Cologne
In exactly a week from now, I'll be attending the Indie Games Fest in Cologne, Germany! We're going to have a booth with echo//shredd being playable - so if you're nearby, please come over, have a chat, and play some games.
And thats if for the April News!
Thanks you so much for reading. please take care, and have a wonderful time.
Cheers!