Hello people of the Unseen!
It’s that time of the month again where me, the overstressed game developer working the job of a middle aged man at the wrong age.
But anyways, how’s your year been? It’s the final month of the year, in fact as of writing New Year’s is only a few weeks away, which is terrifying!
To think one of the craziest years of my life is coming to an end is sorta sad, but enough being sappy.
Before we go diving, I wanna preface by saying an enormous thank you to those who have supported Depths Unseen recently, it’s been really heartwarming to see people excited for what the future holds!
So thank you all so much, Depths Unseen wouldn’t be the same without you.
Anyways, I think it’s time we stop putting it off any longer, and make the final dive of this year.
THE SHOWCASE
So, let’s start with a bang!
This video showcases some exciting stuff coming to the game in Chapter II!
Which speaking of, Chapter II will be releasing some time in 2026, most likely around the end of Spring if things go according to plan.
I’m also actually ahead of schedule, so the likelihood of it releasing earlier than expected is quite high!
But as always, things can change quite fast, and the chapter could very well be delayed until who knows when!
So take my word with a pinch of salt… but not too much salt because otherwise you’ll make everything too salty to eat, like that one time my mother accidentally poured an entire bottle of salt onto a turkey… ah good times…
Anyways, let’s actually go over what’s in this video… including two new experiments who are both welcome to your presence… and hungry for your flesh, as well as a new area full of relics of the past.
BUTTERED BEANS
So, let’s take a look at the resident marketable character, Butterbean!
This feisty little thing is a small round friend found at the very end of the Maintenance Tunnels, sitting upon a slightly uncomfortable box.
You can pet this small creature to receive… absolutely nothing!
But hey, apparently cats can like… increase your lifespan or something, so maybe in the future I could add the ability to cheat death by petting Butterbean… we’ll have to see.
But… Butterbean isn’t the only new experiment, as nearby is an elevator that’ll take us to not only the next area… but the feeding grounds of a new foe…
WATCH YOUR HEAD
The roofs of the rooms have just gotten a lot more… bitey? Gnawing? Whatever, Protosnares have decided to set up shop in this new area!
Awaiting prey, these things love to sit still and wait until someone unfortunate enough touches their tongue, at which point the snare will violently grab onto their foe, slingshotting them right into their mouths at high speed.
However, these snares can be used to your advantage, their weak grip means that most of the time they won’t pull with enough force to get their meal, instead catapulting their prey up higher! Which can result in some pretty cool (and dangerous) parkour!
But, where do these things reside exactly? That’s what I’m about to answer in this next section.
THE NEW AREA
Welcome to the Training Grounds, a hostile environment where the ceilings are lined with teeth, and the echoes of the past still haunt your every step.
This place, as the name suggests, was once a thriving and productive training area for an exceptionally profitable experiment, one that was capable of chasing down any foes that need… eliminating…
Unfortunately, halfway through the project, the folks behind them had to switch focus from this experiment, to work on something much more complex… and possibly even something that could revolutionise the robotics industry as a whole…
So, these droids were left behind here, and in the second training grounds deep beneath The Lab.
But who knows, though the ones here are all long gone… perhaps some survived…
p.s. that black bit behind the windows isn’t there in the game, it’s just the way I took the picture made the parallax scrolling misaligned.
OTHER THINGS
Okay, let’s end off this dive by taking a look at something I mentioned a while back in the very first Dev Dive, as well as another thing that’ll make Depths Unseen really pop!
Chapter Select is now in game, and fully functional!
It features of handy dandy displays such as chapter length, where the halfway, quarter way, and final… way… points are, as well as the name of the chapter, and some buttons to play the game from these points.
There currently isn’t a “proper” save system as I don’t think it’s completely necessary right now, but later down the line I may decide to try and implement one, but we’ll have to see.
Now, the other thing…
You probably noticed how different Depths Unseen looks in the photos than it does currently.
That’s because of a handy dandy little thing called Post Processing in Unity, which allows me to add bloom and chromatic aberration, which make the game look a lot more polished!
Anyway let’s move on.
FUN FACT
So, to end off this dive I want to share a fun fact related to one of these features.
I thought about mentioning how Protosnares were designed after a mental breakdown, or how the Training Grounds was renamed last minute, but both felt quite… small?
They didn’t feel “good enough”, so instead I decided to pick between two facts about Butterbean, and one stood out best.
Did you know:
Butterbean is voiced by two different real life cats!
Kipper, the one in charge of the purring sound, purred loud enough at me to get a spot in the future credits.
And the other, Berlioz, has a tendency to… sing? Yeah we’ll go with that.
Whatever he does, he does it… loudly.
But we love them both all the same… like how we love the other ten odd cats… no that’s not a joke we have something like ten cats, I’ve lost count of all of them.
But anyways, that ends off this final dive (for this year) into the unseen.
I want to mention something before we end off though, I’m going to be having a break from the 24th to the 31st.
I want to unwind from all this stress, and I want to feel normal again, this year has been… a lot, and it’s been… so chaotic.
Taking a short break is the best way to avoid possible burnout.
But, this isn’t the last time you’ll see me, as there’ll be a “Merry Christmas!” post coming on… well Christmas, which could be tomorrow for some of you if you’re reading this.
I’ll also continue to be active on the Discord, which you can join using this little link… https://discord.com/invite/W8xFqxBcmb
Anyways, thank you all so much for reading this brick of text, every bit of attention this project gets makes me so unbelievably happy, and I’m so grateful for all the people who support Depths Unseen, and it’s devastatingly chaotic development.
See you all next year, hope you all enjoy the holidays.
Have fun with Depths Unseen!