Songs Of Silence News

We think you love strategy games as much as we do – otherwise why would you be here?
Ah, because you really, really like Songs of Silence. We understand, we love it too!

That’s why we’re so happy to be participating in TactiCon2024!
Tacticon is a digital showcase on Steam celebrating strategy video games, organised by publishers Hooded horse and Firesquid🥳. Because we want to share the joy of playing Songs of Silence, we are hosting our 1st ever official SALE for the event!

For the next week, from July 18th to the 25th, you can save 25% on Songs of Silence, as well as our epic Soundtrack and Digital Goodies DLC.

Along with our sale of 25% for Songs of Silence, we will reveal worldwide exclusive footage for Campaign Map 5, the next section of our narrative campaign. So, make sure to tune in, grab your discount and join the exclusive announcements on July 18th, 7.30PM CET / 10.30 AM PST on Steam!



But that's not all! We will also reactivate our Demo, where you can play Campaign Map 1 before you decide to buy the full game. And remember, getting the game now in Early Access also means you will get the full version on release without any additional costs!

Thank you for supporting us!💖 We are a small independent studio based in Munich, Germany, we are sitting together every day, reading your Feedback on Steam, Discord and our Features page, and implementing it in the best way to keep our vision and align it with yours. And we already know you have some great ideas:



[h2]We’re also live on Twitch every week! [/h2]

Join Community Management hero Ilcin and a special guest when we play Songs of Silence Multiplayer with the Community every Thursday (also today!) at 8PM CET.
(Starting a bit earlier this week 😊)
Drop a follow 💜 👉here to not miss out!

Cheers!
The Chimera Team

You know how the saying goes: Recycle, Reuse, Optimize the environment pipeline. Wait, what? You heard right. Let’s talk environment. This has been overdue for way too long.

Songs of Silence is more than your average 4x strategy game (which is by the way the perfect game to play in one evening with your friends).

Songs of Silence is also a beautiful and aesthetically pleasing game. You probably already noticed our art nouveau style illustrations, and last time we covered some VFX by our Technical Artists. But what about literally everything else you see on the map?

Have you ever taken a moment to appreciate the beautiful environment where you let your armies march all over? These lush forests, spiky mountains and calming atmosphere? (Unless you’re running into a battle, of course.)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



You might think: “Why are we talking about this? The Game designers tell the environment team what they want, the team creates the maps, and that’s it.”


Ah, we wish it was this easy. But no worries. We made it this easy. Kinda. You see, our Game Design team wants full control over the design, but having to add changes each time Game Design tested a map and realized they did want to change it, was just too much overhead. Our Lead Environment artist is also working on battlegrounds, biomes, colors, assets… he kinda does everything. And he came up with an amazing idea:
Optimize and automize the process for Game Design to create maps by simply using a 2D image that looks like the one on the left:


Some of the hardcore Songs of Silence fans might even recognize it. This is our Campaign Map 1, where Lorelai meets Hauser and searches for a new home. Can you see the similarities?

You might ask: “How does that 2D image turn out to become this pretty 3D map?”

Good question! Let’s dive deeper into what our Lead Environment Artist has set up. Here’s a breakdown for the pipeline:



And from the moment Game Design paints their maps, up until bringing everything together, everything is automized. Crazy, right? Let’s dive into each step one by one so you can see what happens behind the scenes:




Our Game Designers work in a specific Photoshop file, where each layer is assigned a different color. They paint a Gameplay map, which you can see above, and a biome map.


Each color has a different meaning:

• Red: Mountain region (Gameplay element)
  
• Blue: Water and rivers (Gameplay element)
  
• Green: Forests & trees (Gameplay element)
  
• Purple: Locations (Gameplay element)
  
• White: Roads (Decoration element)
  

No, not the magician. The program. We have a Houdini server that utilizes .bat files to generate the maps, once it has the layers in the correct place in the Unity folder. Game Design executes the .bat file, and in 10-15 minutes the adapted terrain is available in unity.

And this is what’s happening in the background:


The first thing that happens in Houdini is the creation of the mountain. Its erosion, height, noise and terrace are calculated with highly complex and fast mathematical operations that could not be executed by a single person (It probably could, but it would take forever). These calculations define the shape of the mountains based on our parameters, to give it the Songs of Silence Art Nouveau look.



The biggest challenge here was to make sure the mountains are exactly in the space Game Design painted them in: only in the red area of the 2D texture. Otherwise, our units can’t pass.
The next task is calculation the water bodies and the terrain underneath, considering coasts, beaches and smoothened erosion.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Once we got the mountains and the waterbodies, they’re put into a block in Houdini, which then gives us the needed masks for Unity as an output. These are:

• Heightmap
  
• Flowmap
  
• Detailed map
  
• Texture masks
  
• Normal maps
  

These masks are then imported into Substance to visualize the texturing. Here, through complex nodes being put together (really, ask our Environment Artist for details, this looks like magic) and using only the output from Houdini, we create new textures to be used and imported in Unity.
Here we put in Biome color, street textures, Lightveins for the Darkside, Snow and more!



Fun fact: Did you know: Lightvein positions are random - but also not? They depend on the mountain’s erosion and are placed randomly in a place that makes sense. Those are crazy details to consider!




Once we have all the textures and maps we need, we import them into Unity.


Finally, we have something visible. A displacement map is generated by the heightmaps. The normal maps and textures give it the final polish to become a beautiful terrain. So, what else is left? You’re right! Assets!



Unity is where the population pass happens. Based on a Generation Script written by our developers, our Environment Artist can set up a Config file, where – taking the map design by our Game Designers into consideration – parameters like amount, radius and weight are defined.



In short: This script spawns the assigned asset (e.g tree) based on the magical numbers our Environment Artist determines is best for each biome.




After finishing the terrain and being happy with it, our Environment Artist can go in and do another pass to create the decoration textures and import them into Unity. This “decoration pass” is a procedurally generated VFX layer based on the decoration texture. This way we can define where random props are placed, where beaches are or, where fishes spawn in the ocean, or where gusts of wind are allowed.
Thanks to our Config files, these assets (fishes, leaves in the wind, stones & rocks, etc.) can all be Biome specific. Makes sense, right?



Take your time to have a closer look at our strategy map and its environment. You will always find details. Promise!





That’s a huge pipeline. A lot of time and effort has been poured into making this a reality, to give our Game Designers something easy to work with.
Our Lead Environment Artist has been working on this since the first prototype of Songs of Silence, and we could not be prouder of this accomplishment. It allows us to work independently while keeping the visual style and artistic vision set by our creative and art director.

Songs of Silence is truly a project of passion and immensely skilled individuals, which made this huge project a reality. A big thank you to the team!



Let us know which other details you can find on the map in your playthrough! And as always, stay tuned for the next news!
Cheers!
The Chimera Team

It’s happening, we’re doing another beta! For the duration of Early Access, this one helps us test out new features together with a dedicated section of our community. If you want to join, make sure to read our Steam News! (*)

In this Update, we overhauled and improved Campaign Map 02 completely!

• Adjusted the placement of neutral armies on the map.
  
• Improved exposition of the hiding mechanic and the tutorial
  
• Improved Murnau’s army – he is awaiting you with a little surprise 😉
  

[h3]BUGS TACKLED:[/h3]

• Fixed a bug where AI armies did not re-enter their own locations to manage their supplies, armies, cards and more
  

See you all on the battlefield!
Cheers!
The Chimera Team

(*) Disclaimer - Once you join this private branch, DO NOT revert to the default branch:
- It will create conflicts with your save files.
- Due to the increased version number, the private beta players won't be able to play multiplayer with other live users, unless they are on private beta too.

This private branch will be the most up-to-date one, and a dedicated space for the players who want to help us improve and shape the game as we try out new things. If you do switch back to the main branch, we do not guarantee a smooth experience. When ready and community-approved, this private branch will be migrated to the main branch and become the “new” public version. Seamlessly for you. Thanks for understanding!

We’ve been teasing it for a while now, huh? But, what is this talk about Update 0.5.6?
Oh, that? Nothing major, just the fact that we overhauled Map 02 completely!

And we’re bringing this change to a beta branch. For the duration of Early Access, this helps us test out new features together with a dedicated section of our community, making sure it is understandable and not game breaking, before rolling the update out to the public. If you want to know how to join, read until the end 😊

In this Update, we completely reworked Map 02, with the goal of improving the general pacing and hiding mechanic. This includes: adjusting the introduction sequence, rehauling the map terrain, rethinking the placement of neutral armies and story triggers, and adding a little surprise to Murnau’s army.
Since this is such a big change, all your “In Progress” saves for Map 02 will be outdated! (*)
For this change, we will open up a private Steam branch for Beta-testing.

You want to join? Great! Join our Discord server, we will share the access code there.
Discord: https://discord.gg/p3eEBrWaCj

Once you got the code, all you need to do is:
Rightclick on “Songs of Silence” in your Steam library > Properties > Betas > Private Betas > Enter your Code.

(*) Disclaimer - Once you join this private branch, DO NOT revert to the default branch:
- It will create conflicts with your save files.
- Due to the increased version number, the private beta players won't be able to play multiplayer with other live users, unless they are on private beta too.

This private branch will be the most up-to-date one, and a dedicated space for the players who want to help us improve and shape the game as we try out new things. If you do switch back to the main branch, we do not guarantee a smooth experience. When ready and community-approved, this private branch will be migrated to the main branch and become the “new” public version. Seamlessly for you. Thanks for understanding!

This private Update will also tackle some other bugs, which will later be brought to the main branch.



[h3]BUGS TACKLED:[/h3]

• Fixed a bug where AI armies did not re-enter their own locations to manage their supplies, armies, cards and more
  

As always, we’ve been working hard! It took us a bit more time, because we received so much feedback on Map 02 and balancing (yes - Arbiter is OP - we heard you!) that we first had to work through it. Also, playtesting the changes and getting it through QA takes its sweet time. How do they say? “A game is not made within a day” – or something.

But enough of that, here’s what changed!

[h3]PATCH NOTES[/h3]
Rebalanced Old Race Faction
To bring the Old Race up to par with our other factions, we increased the power for some units, and reduced cooldowns / costs. You can find more detailed patch notes here

Rebalanced Crusade Faction
Ah, the Crusade. We overhauled the Crusade economy and adjusted power levels and cooldowns of Crusader hero cards. To improve gameplay on the map, we reduced building costs. We also took away some of Arbiter’s powers, and hope he is now more enjoyable to play. For more patch notes, check here.

Rebalanced 1000 Kingdoms Faction
To make sure the 1000 Kingdoms can keep up with the other factions, we also buffed the archers and Monster Hunters, as well as Acolytes of Rites, Divine Spark and Divine Intervention. Check out detailed patch notes here.

Automatic building upgrade when upgrading building card
This is a major improvement for your resources. 📈 Now, whenever you upgrade a building Strategy card, the buildings which have already been placed on your locations will automatically be upgraded to that level. Have fun with all the gold!

Multiplayer Quick Join improvement
When searching for a match, the “no match found” notification popped up immediately. With this improvement, the game searches for a game for a defined period and renews its search in the background, before any new popup opens.

Increase number of Autosaves recorded + add parameter in Settings
In the settings, you can now determine how many autosaves you want to record as you play a map. This works for both single-player modes (Campaign & Skirmish) and multiplayer.

And of course, we got rid of some nasty bugs!



[h3]BUGS SQUASHED[/h3]

• Fixed an issue where autosaves of other chapters were deleted when finishing a campaign map.
  
• Frame rate cap video settings are now saved when closing the game.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Multiplayer match didn’t end after defeating all other players.
  
• Resolved an exploit allowing players to obtain the quest achievement by reloading just before completing a map.
  
• Changed the Luckstone artifact display of digits.
  
• Monodika “Scion of the Wild” hero does not start with 2 units on the same slot anymore.
  
• Fixed an issue where the last autosave broke after exiting during the world turn
  

[h3]KNOWN ISSUES[/h3]

• The Void Effigy building card displays Void as income instead of building material while giving building material. It should display building material.
  
• Kantor “Void Herald” starts with a purgatory level up available which does not work. The level up should be removed.
  
• Unit formations become distorted when they are moved many (many) times between 2 ally armies on the army exchange screen.
  

And now - enjoy the new update and let us know what you think with a 👍!
Cheers!
The Chimera Team