Playtest Update 0.8.0a
Your Feedback Is Shaping Obscura
Since our first longer playtest sessions, we've done much more than simply fix bugs.
Several parts of Obscura: A Sleep Worth Dying For have been substantially reworked based on player feedback.
We're not only listening to what testers tell us — we're also watching where players hesitate, misunderstand something or encounter a mechanic that technically works, but doesn't feel quite right yet.
That has turned into a surprisingly substantial playtest update.
Major Changes
New Save & Campaign System
Obscura now features multiple Save Slots, dedicated difficulty selection, and additional control guidance when starting a campaign.
The Save Slot, difficulty and confirmation menus have also received a major visual overhaul.
Tighter Controls & More Precise Movement
Obscura's stopping distance has been reduced, making movement feel more responsive and giving players more precise control over jumps and small positioning adjustments.
The game can now also always be paused using ESC, in addition to the player's configured pause binding.
Major Tutorial & Onboarding Improvements
Many tutorial hints have been rewritten, extended and repositioned to communicate important mechanics more clearly.
Relevant tutorial information can now appear again after death, so one failed attempt doesn't permanently hide something important from the player.
Chests and other interactive objects also received new prompts and visual feedback to make their interaction more obvious.
A Fairer Shadow Hunter
The Shadow Hunter still remains difficult to see while stalking and retains his stealth identity.
However, he is now slightly more visible while hidden — and once he detects Obscura and begins his hunt, he fully reveals himself.
He remains dangerous, but players now receive a much clearer visual warning before the attack.
Cleaner Transition From Tutorial to the Real Run
After completing the tutorial, the Fog of War now correctly resets to the intended starting value of the actual level.
Resources and the transition into the real run now behave much more consistently.
New Look Up / Look Down Camera
Players can now scout above and below Obscura.
The camera smoothly shifts in the selected direction, making it easier to inspect platforms, hazards and possible routes before committing to them.
Equipped Sais Are Becoming Part of Obscura's Visuals
We've started rebuilding Obscura's character animations so that the currently equipped Sai type is actually visible on the character.
The first new animations are already implemented, with more currently in development.
More Improvements
Obscura's quips and speech bubbles now remain correctly attached to her while moving.
More UI text and control prompts dynamically adapt between Keyboard/Mouse and Controller.
Leaving an active run for the Main Menu now requires confirmation, preventing accidental run abandonment.
Story pages without available voice-over now allow significantly more reading time before automatically advancing.
Increased the volume of the German voice-over.
Controller threshold/deadzone behavior has been technically adjusted, and its description now more clearly explains that it affects controller input rather than keyboard controls.
Corrected the travel/start screen text and added the appropriate control hint.
Fixed portal sounds.
Expanded and improved translations in several areas.
Numerous additional UI, input and general polish improvements.
Most importantly:
A large part of this update came directly from your feedback and from watching your playtest sessions.
Sometimes it's something a tester tells us directly.
Sometimes it's simply watching someone stand in front of a chest for two seconds because the game didn't communicate clearly enough that it could be interacted with.
Those moments matter.
If something still feels unfair, unclear, awkward or simply strange after this update, please keep calling it out.
That's exactly what this playtest is for. \\m/
Thank you for helping us make Obscura: A Sleep Worth Dying For better, one step at a time.
— Hü Hü Hü Studio