Dark Fracture News

[h2]We have something special for all composers, musicians and DJs![/h2]

If you missed the last announcement, it talked about our big event, Feardemic’s Fear Fest 2022! It takes place on March 15 at 7 pm CET, and will feature a new trailer from Dark Fracture. But! Of course, we wouldn’t be writing to you just to remind you of FFF now, would we? That’s right, this time we’d like to announce a new event. A competition. Black Summer Remix Competition.



What exactly is the Black Summer Remix Competition? To explain that, we’ll have to acquaint you with Black Summer first. Feardemic has its own band, The Feardemic Orchestra, and it’s been known to, from time to time, create amazing songs for their published titles. Black Summer, a piece created specifically for Dark Fracture! Listen to it below.

[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/C8tscVmjIHI[/previewyoutube]

We’re organizing a Black Summer Remix Competition, where you can put your own spin on the track and get your remix featured in the game Dark Fracture and on the official soundtrack!

[h2]How does it work?[/h2]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

First, you head on over to https://fearfest.online/bsc and download the stems (that is, the song separated into tracks by instrument), then you get to work on your masterpiece. The song has to include at least ONE (1) element from the track. There are absolutely no conditions, genre requirements, or length restrictions except that it must be ‘G’ rated, meaning no nasty words. Other than that, you are free to include extra lyrics, raps, or other cleared samples. Once you’re done, you save your file using the format YOURNAME X FEARDEMIC ORCHESTRA – Black Summer and use the form on the aforementioned site to submit your entry. You have time until March 5, 11:59 pm CET to submit your work. After that, all the submissions will be evaluated by a panel consisting of judges from Twisted II Studio, Feardemic, and The Feardemic Orchestra themselves. We will announce the winner of the competition at the end of Feardemic’s Fear Fest 2022, so don’t miss it!



If the prospect of getting your song in the game is not enticing enough, we have good news. In addition to the prestige that comes with your work appearing in Dark Fracture, the winner, as well as the 2 runner-ups, will each receive a set of world-renowned GRADO GW100 wireless headphones worth 249 USD each.

That’s it for this one, Fearfolks! We very warmly invite you to take part in the competition, if not for the prizes, then for the fun and excitement of it. We’re really looking forward to hearing what you guys cook up, and can’t wait to hear your takes on Black Summer!

Cheers,
Twisted II Studios & Feardemic

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1268790/Dark_Fracture/

[h2]Hello, fearfolks![/h2]

Strap yourself to the chair or you just might fall out! It's our pleasure to announce Feardemic’s Fear Fest 2022! Our special event scheduled for March 15th of this year and hosted by one and only Hunter Peterson of SCP Explained fame - it's gonna be a great opportunity for us to showcase our sizable lineup of upcoming games, and there’s some amazing stuff in there.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Among others, FFF is going to feature news about the icy cold turn-based adventure Terror: Endless Night inspired by the infamous expedition to the Arctic Sea from the former Frostpunk 2 devs, The vibrant action-filled metroidvania Cosmic: A Journey Among Shadows, and of course one of the most anticipated horror games of 2022, the terrifying and mind-bending Dark Fracture.

Find out more: https://fearfest.online/

Be sure to join us!
Cheers!

Originally posted by author

TL;DR version:

• We talk about the 'Underworld' - what is it?
  
• An update on the latest developments
  
• A recap of the industry events we have attended over the past month and a half

Imagination is a powerful tool: since the dawn of time, humanity has used it to bend the laws of logic and nature to escape reality in the only place in which none of them apply - the mind. But what if there is a place in which thought takes a physical, tangible shape? Today, we want to take into consideration such a possibility by talking to you about the most mysterious part of Dark Fracture!




In the last couple of devblogs we have talked a lot about the body farm — an eerie but actually real kind of research facility, as well as the workplace of Dark Fracture protagonist, Edward. The body farm is not the sole environment Edward will explore in the full release of Dark Fracture. Those of you who have played the Dark Fracture: Prologue demo till the end had a glimpse of some very obscure and unearthly place that looks like coming straight out of a Beksiński artwork (that's not accidental - more on that later). For the sake of the conversation, from now on we will refer to that place as the 'Underworld'.

The Underworld is a place (is it though?) in which inanimate and living matter seem to merge together in forming shapes and surfaces that resemble nothing like the world we know. The laws of physics are bent, environments do not follow euclidean principles, and its creatures and objects look alien to us.



While so far we have hinted at the possibility that the Underworld is the fruit of whimsical imagination, we cannot avoid asking ourselves why someone would fantasize about a place that is so terrifying and dangerous to themselves. Sure, the world is full of people with unusual kinks, but that doesn't seem to be the case with our protagonist Edward, whose life has been harmful enough to not need to make it more miserable.



Moving from hypothetical to factual information, the visual representation of the Underworld is inspired by multiple creative sources: the biomechanical designs of Swiss artist H.R. Giger, the surreal & melancholic landscapes of Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński, and some of the otherworldly locations described in the horror stories of American writer H.P. Lovecraft.

While the creations of these artists are very different from each other, all of them possessed a very vivid imagination, which they used to introduce terrifying thoughts in our collective minds.

By using these sources of inspiration, we aim to blend proven concepts of terror with our vision of the Underworld, a place that might or might not be real - but that's for you, the player, to decide when you will venture into the release version of Dark Fracture, coming in 2022.






[h2]Events[/h2]

In the real world (the actual one), over the past month and a half we have been quite spreading awareness about our game in different events, both physical and digital ones. It all started in early October with EGX in London, our first physical event since the global pandemic began. Visitors had the chance to play the Dark Fracture: Prologue demo in person and win Dark Fracture merchandise by completing the demo in less than 25 minutes - which turned out to be such an attractive opportunity that by the third day of the event we ran out of t-shirts. Nevertheless, people kept coming in, and we received some very positive feedback from most of the players.

After that, Dark Fracture appeared on the physical show floor of Busan Indie Connect in Korea (unfortunately we couldn't be there, but Dark Fracture: Prologue had a booth), followed by the digital ones of Indie Live Expo and Megamigs. On the latter, Dark Fracture has received a nomination for Best Audio & Soundtrack - while that isn't an award, having been only one of the few games selected for competing for that prize among dozens of participants was certainly a privilege.



[h2]Production[/h2]

Given these circumstances, the development has been slowed down a bit, but is proceeding nonetheless. These are the main highlights:

• We have continued to focus on accessibility, for example by adding the settings option to interact with doors & drawers by either using drag 'n' drop movements or the simple click of a button
  
• We are improving and testing the language of missions & objective scripts to make them clearer to anyone and avoid confusing the players
  
• 2D images & art in the game are being improved
  
• New pieces of equipment are getting implemented, including but not limited to a compass, a walkie-talkie, and some more mysterious and deadly tools...
  

[h3] Until our next devblog post, we remind you, as usual, to add Dark Fracture to your wishlist to not miss any updates 👇 [/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1268790

[h3]If you enjoyed Dark Fracture: Prologue, please consider writing a review and inviting your friends to play it 👇 [/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1389160

[h3]Lastly, if you want to get directly in touch with us, join our community on Discord (click the image 👇)[/h3]

Dark Fracture will be part of the showcase of this year's edition of MEGAMIGS, an online industry event for developers and players alike.

Participation at the event is free for the general public. On top of having many different games demos to try, participants in the event have the chance to support their favorite developers by voting their games for the People's Choice Awards.

[h3]Will you help us win this year's MEGAMIGS Festival People's Choice Award? Take a second to support Dark Fracture by voting for it on the "Under 5M category"![/h3]

Cast your vote on 👉 the official voting form of MEGAMIGS

Originally posted by author

TL;DR version:

• Dark Fracture is at EGX
  
• The body farm is getting bigger
  
• New movement features
  
• UI and interaction with objects has been improved
  
• Physics is being enhanced
  
• Implemented full controller support
  
• New accessibility options
  
• Prologue localization is almost here
  

Happy Spooktober, and welcome to the 11th development blog of Dark Fracture 🎃

As the virus-that-shall-not-be-named is loosening its grip on the world, things are slowly getting back to normal, and physical events are making a comeback. For the first time in almost two years, Dark Fracture: Prologue is playable at a physical location, more specifically at the show floor of EGX in London. If you happen to live in the capital of UK, don’t miss the chance to visit the event and grab some free merch at our booth!

Of course, we haven’t made a whole devlog just to tell you we are attending some event around the world. The last month has been quite intense for the development of Dark Fracture, and we want to share with you some of the highlights.



One of the most morbid yet fascinating aspects of real body farms is how many different “decomposition scenarios” are prepared to allow scientists as many different case studies as possible – bodies are placed on grass or dirt, unearthed or semi-buried, submerged in water or mud, exposed to insects and fauna or partially protected, and so on.

This variety allows for multiple scientific disciplines (forensics, biology, and entomology just to name a few) to be involved in the research, thus requiring appropriate laboratories to be available on the site. Add to that the metaphysical nature of Dark Fracture and how isolated our body farm is, and you can imagine how fast grows the need for virtual space for the characters of our game.

All of this is to say that the body farms environment is getting bigger and more facilities are being added to it. The teasers we released so far no longer do justice to what the body farm is becoming, and you can expect some very interesting shots in the future.



We often ask ourselves: how can we make Edward’s life more miserable (and scare the player more)?

Lately, we have figured that claustrophobia could be a fantastic way to achieve that, and while open-air environments remain a staple of the body farm, crawl spaces are now a thing. Take a look at this gif and observe Edward dragging himself through a twisted vent:



Moreover, as we want to raise the quality bar of our game and make it distinguishably superior to the original Dark Fracture: Prologue, characters movements are being enhanced, the UI is getting an overhaul to be more pleasant to the eye, and more interactions are being added.

For example, doors and drawers can now be physically moved using the mouse:



Physical objects trajectory is getting improved, and we have also added an option to drop them:





We cannot stress enough how much the feedback we received on Dark Fracture: Prologue has been helped us to understand the players' needs. That is why, due to popular demand, we added a lot of new game settings to give better control to players, including but not limited to a customizable field of view, chromatic aberration, brightness, crosshair size, subtitles settings:



Last but not least, full controller support has been fully implemented:




As we have mentioned in our previous devlog, the localization of Dark Fracture: Prologue (coming in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Chinese) has proven to be quite labor-intensive. That doesn’t mean is not ongoing, and we are looking forward to releasing the update by the end of the year.


[h3]Don't forget to add Dark Fracture to your wishlist to not miss any updates 👇 [/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1268790/Dark_Fracture/

[h3]If you enjoyed Dark Fracture: Prologue, please consider writing a review and inviting your friends to play it – it’s free 👇 [/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1389160/Dark_Fracture_Prologue/

[h3]Lastly, if you want to get directly in touch with us, join our community on Discord (click the image 👇)[/h3]