Hi everyone! This past month has been focused on getting a new version of the demo out and filling in the remaining “gaps” for the completed game. Both have now been completed! The completed game is definitely still a first pass, with plenty left to polish and improve, but it is now playable from start to finish. Let’s dive into what changed.
Biome Progression
Progression into the Flooded and Methane biomes had already been sorted out, but progression into the Lava biome was still missing. This has now been addressed.
Without giving away any spoilers, here’s a little teaser.
Checkpoints
After numerous changes to address player feedback around dying, checkpoints have now been added.
When the player dies, checkpoints allow them to continue from the beginning of the level they died on or from their last save, whichever is more recent.
Checkpoints are not persisted, so quitting or restarting the game will remove them. There are still some decisions to be made around whether checkpoints should depend on difficulty or have a gameplay option to enable/disable them.
As the demo now includes checkpoints, feedback on the checkpoint system is welcome!
Environment
The lighting and post-processing have been updated to improve visibility. Areas closer to the player are now lighter, improving the visuals without negatively affecting the darkness and limited visibility in the distance.
Additional
After adding water purification, cave generation now ensures at least one room with water is available in the Default biome.
The Over Caffeinated affliction is now applied after drinking 3 different coffees, previously 2.
Improved bat audio and debris behavior so they now reliably trigger when the player is within range.
With the addition of station storage, camp storage no longer auto-expands.
Added time played to save/load disk slots.
Added 3 more hints.
Added 2 new rooms.
Fixed locker and support box doors pushing the player when opened.
Numerous bug fixes.
Thank you to everyone following this journey. If you’d like to support the project, you can follow along on itch.io, Steam, YouTube and X.
Sean
It’s My First Day Studios