Overhauled Demo Build
We have gotten quite a lot of feedback on Project Absentia over the past month, and quite a bit of it has been helpful in shaping the project to be better. We wanted to share some of what we have in store.
First, this update is massive. We suggest uninstalling/reinstalling the demo, as many default settings have changed.
Abby's initial voice actress - our friend Sins - was a divisive call. Some people liked her, others didn't. After careful consideration we decided to redub Abby with a new VA - one of the artists on the dev team, Rita, has taken up the role of Abby. This was in no way meant to be a slight against Sins, and she is in good spirits about this, and we're going to keep her for another possible role.
We also dropped some of the more cringy one-liners and came up with some new ones. We also raised the default time between one-liners firing away. You can adjust this in the menus.
We are looking into redubbing some of the other work if necessary.
[h2]Speaking of redubbing...[/h2]
One of the VAs for the prototype game, Scoot Hard DX, was let go for a multitude of reasons that are beyond the scope of this announcement. That said, Phoenix has had a new VA for some time - our own composer, and purple enthusiast, Metal Neon. He does a pretty good job of playing the hammy effeminate corporate dictator.
Many people were concerned about the art direction. Most of the sprite art was being done by one person who admittedly isn't the best at animation, so we'll take the L there.
Fortunately, there is good news!
The sprites are going to be completely overhauled. Rita (who drew the current Steam cover/title pic art) and Sunray Central have been brought on as artists, and they have started work on replacing the sprites, gore and all that. Most of this isn't in the demo yet, but it will be in a matter of time.
Also the cutscenes will be completely re-done. For now, the intro cutscene has been disabled until we have that done.
[h2]New Sprites Thus Far[/h2]
However, Abby's player sprite has been redrawn - each frame was drawn by Rita, with additional details by Sunray.
There's also been a few props and textures done by both Rita and Sunray.
[h2]Reworking the models[/h2]
The old voxels converted to models are slowly going to be changed to proper 3d models. Some of the armor and the new weapon we have should demonstrate the look and feel we're going for.
[h2]Redrawn HUD[/h2]
We also redrew the HUD weapons and elements to be much nicer. The HUD has also been completely overhauled, complete with better default (on most monitors) scaling.
There's going to be a new cover art/steam boxart. When you fire up the game, it's the current titlemap. However, Sunray is still working on it, but I wanted to get some feedback on it. We think it's awesome even if it's not 100% finished!
[h2]New Character Designs[/h2]
Also you might notice Abby's design has been overhauled too. All the sprites are going to get that treatment eventually. They'll be much more recognizable apart, in terms of size, silhouette and overall look and feel.
The Boomstick™ (Patent Pending by the Orkan Corporation) is a double barreled shotgun that has a chance to gib enemies. Some people wanted a shotgun, and rightfully so!
Primary fire shoots one barrel at a time. Alt-fire, with both shells loaded, fires both at once. It's currently found in a few secret areas, be on the lookout!
There's been a plethora of optimizations, improvements and bugfixes on top of this. There might be a few we missed, so please report away.
One issue we've seen in other GZDoom based games is sometimes multi-monitor setups can be tricky, especially with fullscreen mode.
Not all hope is lost. If you or a loved one has been affected by this, there is a possible easy solution.
try changing vid_adapter to another number. You do this by activating the console (tilde ~). Not sure what number to type after? Use vid_listadapters to get an idea of what screens you should use.
For example:
vid_adapter 2 will change it to the secondary screen
After that, close the console by hitting ~ again.
We've been working hard to make Project Absentia a weird, quirky little game made by some equally quirky peeps. We try to listen to everyone and get a good cross-section of what we need to do to improve. We know the art style has been the biggest point people have made, so over the next few months we're going to be working on replacing the sprites and gore decals and floor splats to make them better.
Thank you for everyone who has played the game!
First, this update is massive. We suggest uninstalling/reinstalling the demo, as many default settings have changed.
New Voice Acting Direction
Abby's initial voice actress - our friend Sins - was a divisive call. Some people liked her, others didn't. After careful consideration we decided to redub Abby with a new VA - one of the artists on the dev team, Rita, has taken up the role of Abby. This was in no way meant to be a slight against Sins, and she is in good spirits about this, and we're going to keep her for another possible role.
We also dropped some of the more cringy one-liners and came up with some new ones. We also raised the default time between one-liners firing away. You can adjust this in the menus.
We are looking into redubbing some of the other work if necessary.
[h2]Speaking of redubbing...[/h2]
One of the VAs for the prototype game, Scoot Hard DX, was let go for a multitude of reasons that are beyond the scope of this announcement. That said, Phoenix has had a new VA for some time - our own composer, and purple enthusiast, Metal Neon. He does a pretty good job of playing the hammy effeminate corporate dictator.
New Art Direction
Many people were concerned about the art direction. Most of the sprite art was being done by one person who admittedly isn't the best at animation, so we'll take the L there.
Fortunately, there is good news!
The sprites are going to be completely overhauled. Rita (who drew the current Steam cover/title pic art) and Sunray Central have been brought on as artists, and they have started work on replacing the sprites, gore and all that. Most of this isn't in the demo yet, but it will be in a matter of time.
Also the cutscenes will be completely re-done. For now, the intro cutscene has been disabled until we have that done.
[h2]New Sprites Thus Far[/h2]
However, Abby's player sprite has been redrawn - each frame was drawn by Rita, with additional details by Sunray.
There's also been a few props and textures done by both Rita and Sunray.
[h2]Reworking the models[/h2]
The old voxels converted to models are slowly going to be changed to proper 3d models. Some of the armor and the new weapon we have should demonstrate the look and feel we're going for.
[h2]Redrawn HUD[/h2]
We also redrew the HUD weapons and elements to be much nicer. The HUD has also been completely overhauled, complete with better default (on most monitors) scaling.
There's going to be a new cover art/steam boxart. When you fire up the game, it's the current titlemap. However, Sunray is still working on it, but I wanted to get some feedback on it. We think it's awesome even if it's not 100% finished!
[h2]New Character Designs[/h2]
Also you might notice Abby's design has been overhauled too. All the sprites are going to get that treatment eventually. They'll be much more recognizable apart, in terms of size, silhouette and overall look and feel.
New Weapon!
The Boomstick™ (Patent Pending by the Orkan Corporation) is a double barreled shotgun that has a chance to gib enemies. Some people wanted a shotgun, and rightfully so!
Primary fire shoots one barrel at a time. Alt-fire, with both shells loaded, fires both at once. It's currently found in a few secret areas, be on the lookout!
Optimizations and Bugfixes
There's been a plethora of optimizations, improvements and bugfixes on top of this. There might be a few we missed, so please report away.
GZDoom mutli-monitor issue
One issue we've seen in other GZDoom based games is sometimes multi-monitor setups can be tricky, especially with fullscreen mode.
Not all hope is lost. If you or a loved one has been affected by this, there is a possible easy solution.
try changing vid_adapter to another number. You do this by activating the console (tilde ~). Not sure what number to type after? Use vid_listadapters to get an idea of what screens you should use.
For example:
vid_adapter 2 will change it to the secondary screen
After that, close the console by hitting ~ again.
Thank you for all the feedback, positive and negative
We've been working hard to make Project Absentia a weird, quirky little game made by some equally quirky peeps. We try to listen to everyone and get a good cross-section of what we need to do to improve. We know the art style has been the biggest point people have made, so over the next few months we're going to be working on replacing the sprites and gore decals and floor splats to make them better.
Thank you for everyone who has played the game!