Hey, Contractors,
Lex here.
It’s been a hot minute since the last proper update, but I’ve finally finished gutting and rebuilding huge parts of the demo. Being a solo dev means some days I’m a coder, other days I’m a lighting artist, and most days I’m just confused by my own math.
Anyway, v 0.47.01 is live. Here is the breakdown of what's actually changed.
The "New" Demo Experience
I already gave you some details on the reasoning behind why I want to change the demo. I realized the old tutorial was—to put it mildly—a bit of a drag. So, I scrapped it. It’s gone. In its place, I’ve added Mission 0. It’s a dedicated training mission that feels like part of the world rather than a pop-up checklist.
While I was at it, I also:
Nuked the Intro: You can jump straight into multiplayer now. No more waiting around.
Simplified Saves: I removed the multiple save slots. You get one slot now, and if you want a fresh start, you can just reset it.
The Lobby Glow-up: I reworked the lighting in the lobby (it’s much moodier now) and finally got the room binding system working properly.
Free Drip: Since I took away the tutorial, I moved some equipment and the new Outfit system into the lobby for you to mess around with.
Mechanics & Polish
The "4-cycle" limit always felt a little arbitrary to me. I’ve changed the demo limitation to 5+1 missions, each lasting 15 minutes. On average, you’re looking at about 2 hours of playtime now.
Other "quality of life" (if you can call it that in a horror game) tweaks:
Audio: Proximity voice chat is much tighter now, and I added a noise gate setting so we don't hear your breathing.
The Bestiary: The Codex and Bestiary have been completely reworked with unlockable entries.
Visuals: Added a volume meter to the UI and fixed about a thousand bugs that were crawling around the missions.
Lobby Secrets: There’s a working shower now. Why? Why not. Also, there’s a new riddle hiding in there and some Christmas decorations to keep the existential dread festive.
The Schedule Shift (A.K.A. The "Tough" News)
I have to push the release date back. I was aiming for January, but realistically, we're looking at late February or early March. As much as I want to get this out, I need that extra month to actually listen to your feedback and polish the edges. Shipping a half-baked Early Access experience is the last thing I would like to do. I want my Early Access as playable as I would expect as a player, myself.
A New Partnership
On a much bigger note, I’m no longer flying entirely solo on the publishing side of things. I’ve teamed up with Proteus Interactive, a new indie publishing label. They’re taking over the heavy lifting for the promotional side of things, as well as Steam release management, which lets me focus 100% of my brain on making the game actually good.
Go check out the update on Steam, and let me know if I broke anything else in the process.
Stay safe in the forest. Or don't. It's more interesting that way.
— Po Kolu
PS. Please remember to wishlist the game!