Periphery Synthetic News

I’m excited to share another round of improvements for Periphery Synthetic. These focus on improving the accessibility of its navigational audio cues by increasing their clarity, especially for extremely vertical spaces. Importantly, the filtering of many sounds now reacts to the look angle when vertical look is enabled. Similarly, there are some specific improvements if you had trouble navigating certain enclosed spaces. A few extra changes from the upcoming expansion have found their way here too.

Enjoy!

[h2]v3.2.9 changes[/h2]

• Core Gameplay
  
  
  • Increased effects of wheels axes upgrades.
    
• Core Audio
  
  
  • Improved clarity of scan destination guide sounds.
    
  • Applied filtering to collectable sounds based on vertical look.
    
  • Filtered out collectable sounds when idle.
    
• Alpha Periphery B
  
  
  • Prevented artifacts from spawning under solid ground.
    
• Alpha Periphery C
  
  
  • Added silent sweet spots for underground collision detection sounds.
    

Greetings surveyors!

I’m excited to share another vertical slice of improvements for Periphery Synthetic. The main objective for this release was to improve its hearing accessibility. It adds new sliders to the audio mixer for changing the stereo width and loudness of each ear. It also makes several enhancements to the audio mix to clarify important navigational sounds. These improvements are paired with a variety of smaller changes made during the development of the first free content expansion.

Enjoy!

[h2]v3.2.8 changes[/h2]

• Core Gameplay
  
  
  • Allowed New Seed Plus to be resumed from Prototype seeds.
    
• Core Interface
  
  
  • Added stereo width slider to the Audio Mixer.
    
  • Added left and right volume boost sliders to the Audio Mixer.
    
  • Removed the toggle for stereo or mono output from the Audio Mixer.
    
  • Removed unnecessary focus memory on the New Seed screen.
    
• Core Audio
  
  
  • Improved clarity of collectable sounds.
    
  • Improved clarity of navigational cues.
    
• Core Graphics
  
  
  • Animated portal effects while time is paused.
    
  • Improved wrapping of particle effects on Alpha Periphery B.
    
  • Fixed graphical pop-in of collectables at lower draw distances.
    
  • Improved sun glow on Alpha Periphery B and C.
    

Greetings surveyors!

I'm excited to announce that Periphery Synthetic has been nominated for the Notable Achievement in Accessibility category at the first-ever Indie Game Awards. It joins five other independent titles which pushed accessibility forward in 2024 by prioritizing inclusive design. The inaugural event will be livestreamed by IGN on Thursday, December 19, 2024 at 6 PM CST. I'm looking forward to the final results—and learning who takes home their prestigious Game of the Year award.


While I'm proud of my personal accomplishments with Periphery Synthetic, the EP would not have been nominated without the help of the larger community. From all of your feedback and the continuous improvements made throughout its development, to its inclusion at this year's Access-Ability Showcase and GAconf USA, it has surpassed all of my original expectations. As you might suspect, I don't care for the constant hustle of networking and marketing on social media, so it's deeply humbling when the project finds itself in places beyond my limited reach. Thank you—sincerely—for your contributions that led it to this nomination.

By the time the event airs, I will be finalizing a special trailer that I'm preparing for the GAconf Awards in January 2025. The trailer will reintroduce the EP to the award show audience, ending with a significant reveal of the two new worlds releasing with the upcoming Side D expansion. I'm excited to surprise you with the secret fifth world soon!

Cheers!

Greetings surveyors!

As I work on the first free content expansion, I’m continuing to make improvements to the core experience based on your feedback. I’m excited to share a vertical slice of those with you today, including: a new dark mode interface, a toggle for stereo or mono audio, and many improvements to the How to Play screen.

Thanks for playing!

• Core Gameplay
  • Spawned caches at exhausted artifact locations in New Game Plus.
  • Fixed an issue with the destination name generator.
  • Fixed an issue with the trinket name generator.
• Core Interface
  • Added a toggle for a dark mode interface.
  • Added a toggle for stereo or mono output to the Audio screen.
  • Added a focus outline to the manual on the How to Play screen.
  • Added a button to open the manual in a new window.
  • Improved how focus is managed on the How to Play screen.
  • Increased speed of scrolling with the gamepad.
• Core Audio
  • Improved spatialization of portals when charging up.
• Core Video
  • Increased particle densities on Alpha Periphery B and C2.

Greetings surveyors!

I was delighted to be invited to speak virtually at GAconf USA on October 28, 2024. The conference was filled with a diversity of perspectives covering topics such as inclusive design, assistive technologies, and behind-the-scenes looks at accessibility in games. It was an incredibly informative experience which reminded me that people are awesome—and we have so much to learn from each other. I'm deeply grateful for the organizers who produced this must-see event.

You may find more talks from the conference in the GAconf USA 2024 playlist.

I’m excited to share more details about the upcoming free content expansion with you soon. There is a lot more to it than I’ve revealed. Enjoy!

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