This update includes in-world computer screens, meaning that using a computer doesn’t take over the screen and instead is done from in game, in the world. The update is live for Windows, with Linux to follow in the next few days.
In-World Computers
The computers have moved in-world! This makes it a little easier to support controllers, but also makes it a more immersive experience. The newspapers are now available as email attachments on the computers.
Advances in Door Technology
See video: https://twitter.com/AlanEdwardes/status/957400020902469632
To date, Estranged: Act II only had one door, which was used everywhere. While this is fine for a small game, it was getting a little bit ridiculous to have the same door throughout the game in vastly different environments.
This update introduces a few different door variants and more for future use, and door handles now jiggle as they did in Act I.
Buoyancy
See video: https://twitter.com/AlanEdwardes/status/959181916980305921
Something Unreal doesn’t have out of the box that Source did have was buoyancy. I spent a bit of time this week adding a component to add this to anything which needs to float - you’ll notice this in the sewer level, as the barrels now rise and fall with the water.
Streaming Tweaks
I did focus on streaming a few updates ago, however for some players will slower hard drives it was still possible to see levels “pop in” as you got to them. In this update, I have traded memory for fewer loading points - so more is loaded at one time, and not just the next level, but the level after is loaded before you get there. This should further minimise frame rate drops due to streaming, and make it so no-one will ever see a level pop in.
The side effect of this was that I had to tweak how sound works in Estranged, so all areas have seen an overhaul to their ambient sound. Please let me know if there are areas which need work on that front.
Estranged in HTML5
https://iamestranged.com/distribute/html5/index.html
As an experiment, I created an HTML5 version of Estranged, including the prelude level, and the shooting range level.
As ever, let me know in the in-game feedback, forums, Steam reviews or directly at alan [at] alanedwardes (dot) com if you have any thoughts on this update, or the game in general!
Thank you for playing Estranged,
Alan