Tunguska: The Visitation - Enhanced Edition News

[p]Dear Ghoul Hunters,[/p][p][/p][p]Happy Autumn! I have received some great feedback lately, so I added some gameplay improvements to Tunguska: The Visitation.[/p][p][/p][h2]Improvements[/h2]

• [p]Fixed a bug where if you crouch next to any of the large size enemies (like Scythe), he can't see you no matter when and where.[/p]
• [p]When you see an item to a trader, that item will now be available for buy back until the trader's inventory is refreshed. For a higher price, of course.[/p]
• [p]In Slaughterhouse mode, each time you complete a wave, the item unlocks for that wave will now show in your journal. This way you can open your journal and refer back to the list. The list can be empty for a wave that's too short to have any unlocks.[/p]
• [p]The pistol next to Artyom is now a special one, "Artyom's Pistol". If you take it, you can now give it back to him in the dialogue. And then later when you are interacting with him again for a side quest (not gonna spoil anything here), you'll get a new dialogue branch that is affected by your earlier actions. I did this to add a little more player agency.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h2]Soul Searching[/h2][p][/p][p]With that out of the way, I was reflecting on Tunguska 1 and thinking how to make the sequel better. There has been a lot of comparison between Tunguska 1 and other games, such as:[/p][p][/p]

• [p]STALKER (obviously)[/p]
• [p]Project Zomboid (for the top-down view and survival aspect)[/p]
• [p]Fallout (for the UI, dialogue, and RPG elements, and of course the top-down perspective)[/p]

[p]Here's the problem: I have tried to borrow a lot of elements from different games that I love, but none was done in great depth. The whole game is pretty light and casual. Not that there's anything wrong with being light and casual, but it may come off as bland and boring to seasoned gamers. [/p][p][/p][p]For example, Tunguska tries to be like STALKER, but couldn't achieve the horror and tension of STALKER due to the top-down perspective, where you can see clearly everything around you. It tries to have a good story like Fallout, but my writing is not on par with professional writers, and the quests are quite homogeneous due to various technical limitations, and the RPG elements, skills, stats are very light. It included a lot of crafting and survival mechanic, but they aren't "hardcore" enough to satisfy the survival game enthusiasts. [/p][p][/p][p]Of course, Tunguska is not without its hooks, which I believe are mainly with looting, hoarding (doesn't sound very healthy, I know...), and problem solving, which are the most prevalent praises I receive in the reviews.[/p][p][/p][h2]Making Tunguska 2 More Awesome[/h2][p][/p][p]I really want to make Tunguska 2 stand out in at least one aspect, so much so that it becomes a high bar which other games try to look up to. [/p][p][/p][p]Horror is probably not a good direction, because it's very hard to make top down view gameplay feel scary, since you are well aware of all your surroundings. [/p][p][/p][p]Story and writing are also not my strong suit. Sure, I did learn a lot from developing Tunguska 1, but there's just no way I can compete with teams of professional writers available to other game studios.[/p][p][/p][p]That leaves survival and crafting. These are more accessible to me because they are just features that I can code. However, survival and crafting have already been done to the extreme among all the indie games, and I'm not quite confident whether I can invent something that makes everyone go "wow". [/p][p][/p][p]So I felt defeated.[/p][p][/p][p]But then I realized that it's not always about having the coolest features. It's more about the unique emotion the game brings to the player. So what's this emotion I want for Tunguska 2, and how should I achieve it?[/p][p][/p][p]For Tunguska 2, I changed the color space. So instead of the bright, colorful sunsets of Tunguska 1, the new game will look more solemn, moody, and ominous. This screenshot captures this feeling perfectly, in my opinion:

[/p][p]The much larger, less crowded maps of Tunguska 2 allows me to incentivize exploration, and with exploration, comes risk and reward. During normal state of the world, players will discover lots of environmental story-telling, numerous hidden side quests, and loot/hoard to their hearts content. [/p][p][/p][p]And then when the Whitefall hits, the world turns deadly, with undefeatable Dimensional Beings roaming around, their Shadow approaching and engulfing the map, and the player must stay hidden from them while combatting empowered mutants and other fully armed humans, managing resources to survive the extreme cold, and finding the most treasured artifacts - the reason everyone puts up with the Zone. And then at the end, fight their way to the extraction point before it's too late. [/p][p][/p][p]This is the core experience I really want to deliver in Tunguska 2: Whitefall. Does it sound familiar to you? Have you played any game that feels like it? Let me know, maybe they'll inspire me :)

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[p]Dear Ghoul Hunters,[/p][p][/p][p]Hope you are having a great day! I'm happy to announce that the development of Tunguska 2: Whitefall has reached an important milestone: the 10-month-long 3D modeling/texturing/level building for the demo has been completed! Now I have a better idea of what can be included in the demo for Tunguska 2, and a timeline for it to meet the world.[/p][p][/p][p]This is what I have in mind to be included in the demo:[/p][p][/p][p]Maps:[/p][p]Iskraprom - previously a metal work factory, now the base for the Vanguard faction. [/p][p]West Petrovsky - A vast stretch of rural region contested by multiple factions.[/p][p][/p][p]Quests:[/p][p]Procedurally generated contracts and some side quests. Main storyline will not be included to avoid spoiling.[/p][p][/p][p]Features:[/p]

• [p]Updated AI system that allows many NPCs to be present on the map, who will be roaming around and carrying out emergent objectives[/p]
• [p]New survival mechanics during Whitefall state[/p]
• [p]Updated crafting and cooking mechanics[/p]
• [p]Updated UI[/p]
• [p]New types of anomalies[/p]
• [p]Maybe - one or two new mutant type[/p]

[p][/p][p]In terms of release date, I'm aiming for one of the Steam Next Fests in the first half of 2026. In a few months I'll have a better idea.[/p][p][/p][p]Now, let's take a look at some new screenshots of West Petrovsky from the past month of development![/p][p][/p][p]First of all, don't forget to wishlist and follow Tunguska 2: Whitefall so that you don't miss any updates from me :) I also uploaded a new video showing the northern portion of West Petrovsky. Check it out![/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]This is the main road that runs across West Petrovsky. (Took me some effort to figure out how to put paint marking on it :P) A faction took over this intersection and built a stronghold to control the map.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This is a small radio station that had sunk into the ground due to a past Visitation event. In the demo, it'll be littered with dangerous anomalies and serve as the location for an important side quest.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This is a windmill farm that can be used to process plants into more refined ingredients.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This is the heart of the old Petrovsky villages - the Petrovsky Cathedral. It'll be heavily fortified![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This is a tiny hideout in the woods. There are several locations like this throughout the map, for small NPC expedition groups to set up camp temporarily to rest before moving on.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][h2]Tunguska 2: Whitefall Development Progress Update[/h2][p][/p][p]Ghoul Hunters and Future Predators![/p][p][/p][p]It's been a month and as promised, I'm excited to show you what I accomplished thus far! I was able to complete two more Points of Interest on the Petrovsky map: a commercial strip with a diner (called "Roadside Cantina"), a grocery store, a couple of water towers, and a warehouse; as well as a smaller village with fancier houses with a nearby pond filled with garbage - a potentially highly radioactive area. [/p][p][/p][p]There is a pasture field between these two locations which will later become a highly contested area due to the presence of inter-dimensional crystals used to power or seed specialized equipment.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]I posted a new set of screenshots, as well as a new "walk-around-the-map" video to Tunguska 2's Steam page. Come check it out, and wishlist the game :)[/p][p][/p][p]Also, I realized that someone had created a request on GOG for Tunguska 2, so if you are interested, please give your vote so that one day it can be released on GOG :)[/p][p][/p][p]https://www.gog.com/dreamlist/game/tunguska-2-whitefall[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][h2]1.94-5 Patch for Tunguska: The Visitation[/h2][p]
For Tunguska 1, I just uploaded patch 1.94-5 to fix a few minor issues:[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Player might get stuck inside the water tower in Station 11[/p]
• [p]Added more variety of names for Celestial Sisters to avoid potential name overlap during assassination quests[/p]
• [p]Corrected some German grammar[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Giving Back to The Community[/h2][p][/p][p]Recently a sad tragedy happened to four children near me. Their mother, who took her family across the world to seek refuge from Communist persecution, passed away from a car accident, leaving four orphaned children whose father had already passed away a few years ago while fighting for freedom. They had been on the move for years, running away from harassment and deportation, and just started to get their life together this year, and then this happened. [/p][p][/p][p]So I joined a friend of mine in helping raise fund for the orphaned children so that they won't be separated into orphanages, and continue to live in their home with the help from the local church. I also donated 500 dollars to them, which isn't much considering the hardship they'll have to face for years to come, but I couldn't do this without all the continued support from all of you :) Thank you![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Dear Ghoul Hunters (or should I say, future Predators!),[/p][p][/p][p]Hope you had a great summer! I'm very happy to show you some nice update on the development of the sequel :) This summer I worked on building two maps: Iskraprom, the home of Vanguard faction, and West Petrovsky, a very large map of rural land, villages, forests, and water bodies with roads leading to other locations. [/p][p][/p][p]The work included making 29 new tree models and 8 new mesh grasses, all animated to swing back and forth in the wind (finally, no more frozen trees and flat billboard grass!), sculpting the terrains, placing the vegetation and painstakingly hand painting the terrain with texture. The terrain is also capable of gradual transition from normal state to the beautiful Whitefall state, which I took some screenshots of :) [/p][p][/p][p] [/p][p]I'm still only half way done with building West Petrovsky because I realized that I need to make more content to fill up the empty spaces, so it'll take me probably another month to fully finish. [/p][p][/p][p]And then I'll work on character models and hopefully adding ragdoll animation to them.[/p][p][/p][p]Regarding the update 1.94-4 for Tunguska: The Visitation - this update fixes the hand/weapon alignment problem of the playable characters, which was recently brought to my attention.[/p][p][/p][p]I took a lot of screenshots of the completed map area, as well as a video of me running around West Petrovsky, and uploaded to the sequel's Steam page. Come check them out, and don't forget to Follow and Wishlist :)

[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p]

This patch fixed a bug with Controller: when using the motorcycle to travel, if the cursor was in the inventory grid and user presses Y button to confirm travel, after loading the game will freeze with a broken UI.