Project Absentia News

A new update to the Beta branches of Project Absentia Episode 1 and the Demo has been released. Get a taste of what's to come with some quality of life fixes. It's a major architectural change for the game with lots of under the hood changes, map fixes, engine fixes, and more. These changes are to help facilitate modding.

One of the new features bespoke to Version 2 is the function to auto-duck most audio during one-liners. This is an optional feature and can be fine-tuned (the ducking is a multiplier) or disabled if it's not to your liking.

We got big announcements on the horizon. Stay tuned!

A few bug fixes to Version 2 Beta 1 have been made. They're on a separate branch. Give it a try if you want the bleeding edge experience.

The branch is ep1-v2beta4. The other branch will continue to exist for those currently in progress.

Hello everyone!

Project Absentia Episode 2's on it's way, and shaping up very nicely.

We've been hard at work on tightening up both the engine and the game itself.

To tide people over, Project Absentia Episode 1 has a new beta branch that allows people to get a head start on the engine changes. Based on a bunch of feedback, we've reworked how keybinds/button binds, cutscenes, and other such quality of life and accessibility stuff is handled.

Due to major architecture changes to Project Absentia - both the game code and the engine - you'll have fresh settings on this branch. That said, we've worked with some testers (and general feedback) to make the defaults more accessible, and the menus easier to browse.

Let us know what you think. Test it out on the beta branch tab and select ep1-v2beta/EA Episode 1 Version 2.0 Beta branch, and have fun.

Major changes include:

• Reworked engine, defaults, the whole nine yards. Project Absentia now requires Griddle. (Source code below).
  
• Vulkan rendering is now default. though power users can enable it using the +vid_preferbackend 0 command and the command line.
• Major internal refactoring of Project Absentia in preparation of episode 2
• Cutscenes and heavy in-game dialogue are user skippable. Cutscenes can be skipped using any key other than escape or the start button, while in-game dialogue can be skipped by pressing the use key/button. This is done differently from the current version, as many of these features are in the engine proper, not relying on hacky event handlers, making them more reliable.
• New default settings, many moved to the executable for other projects
• Overhauled menus, complete with sound sliders showing percentages, and better layouts.
• new pain sprites for many enemies, to make them more reactive to damage
• rewritten one-liner system for better mod support
• Bosses' scripts are now done in-level, and can be altered in the map editor on a per level basis.
• Updated Abby's hairstyle to be nicer. She's gotta look nice.
  
• Small changes to the HUD. It's still a WIP until Episode 2 comes out.
  
• Allow automatic pickup of weapons to not swap to the new weapon automatically. This is a user toggle option under Gameplay Options, and isn't on by default.

Notice we're said map editor? Modding? Yup, we're working on that. It's definitely in the cards to offer Ultimate Doom Builder configurations and tutorials. Many people have requested modding tools/documentation. We'll do what we can, but it's gonna take time.

A lot of these refactors were made to allow better modding support and a more robust API to work with.

If you're interested in Griddle's workings and changes, check it out below.

Griddle on GitHub, under GPLv3

Thanks for your support, feedback, and such. Have fun guys, gals, and enby pals!

Fix HUD not appearing when enabled after disabling it.