Skin Deep News

Blendo Games has publicly released the source code of its latest game, Skin Deep, encouraging other developers to build more stealth games in its footsteps—or at least to take a look at the sick game engine it built. I, for one, am shocked by a specific thing about it: It runs on a core of idTech4, which you may recognize as the engine behind Doom 3...
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[p]In this update, we have over 50+ additions and fixes to Skin Deep. Enjoy!

[/p]

• [p]Arcades now retain high score information. The arcade machines will now retain high score information between level loads.
  [/p]
• [p]Shadow optimization. We added a shadow optimization that improves performance (thank you to dhewm3 for this!).
  [/p]
• [p]Gamepad right stick will now scroll windows. When reading emails or other blocks of text, the gamepad right stick will now scroll the window up and down.
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• [p]Improved gamepad traversal on lists. The gamepad cursor now traverses lists (such as the list of savegames) better. Previously, cursor friction was being applied when the cursor was above an empty list entry. This is no longer the case.
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• [p]Increased maximum gamepad cursor speed. The gamepad maximum cursor speed is now higher. This is accessed via Options > Gamepad > Menu Speed
  [/p]

[p]
[/p][h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• [p]Fixed bug when throwing an item downward in space. We had a bug where throwing an item downward when in outer space would result in a wonky throw trajectory. This was due to the item getting snagged in the player's collision box.
  [/p]
• [p]Skullsaver interest bug. When the skullsaver yells out, nearby enemies will now correctly hear and react to it.
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• [p]No bashing while in mech. You can no longer do a melee-bash with a carried object while piloting a mech.
  [/p]
• [p]No item inspecting while in mech. You can no longer inspect a carried object while in the mech. Nina does not have 3 hands...
  [/p]
• [p]Controls legend is now hidden while in mech. The player cannot interact with carried objects while in the mech, so we now hide the controls legend for carried objects.
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed bug with entering a hiding spot while lying down. If you lied down and entered a hiding spot, the camera would go bananas.
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed memorypalace usage while in front of GUI screen. The GUI screen has logic to allow the player to move an arrow cursor on the screen, and this was conflicting with the memorypalace.
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• [p]Hull mine blast radius increased. The blast radius of the hull mine was relatively small, resulting in situations where it seemingly wasn't affecting things near its blast.
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• [p]Fixed hackgrenade interaction with vents. We had an unintended reaction with vent doors being directly opened with hackgrenades.
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• [p]Fixed postgame spectate camera. When a mission ends, the player becomes a spectator camera. There was a bug where if the mission ended while the player was inside a vent or hiding spot, the camera wouldn't work correctly.
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• [p]Fixed bug where skullsaver was sometimes interrupting itself. Some skullsaver VO barks are long, and the skullsaver was sometimes interrupting its own bark before it was finished.
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed tablets getting erased. We had a bug where the text on tablets was sometimes getting erased when it was sent to the lost and found.
  [/p]
• [p]Notification for tablets lost in space. The event log was missing a notification when a tablet was lost in space.
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• [p]Fixed tablet missing spark hazard label. The crew tablet was missing the art for the spark hazard label.
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed tablet interestpoint. Tablets were sometimes creating interestpoints at incorrect times.
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• [p]Fixed issue with player squished by boarding ship. If the player sandwiched themselves between the airlock door and pirate boarding ship during the docking sequence, this sometimes resulted in the player exiting the map bounds. The player will now correctly get squished or pushed out.
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed pickpocket invincible items. Pickpocketing sometimes resulted in the pickpocketed item being invincible.
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• [p]Fixed bug with envirospawner occluder. The envirospawner spawns asteroids and other hazards in space. We have an "occluder" that prohibits it from spawning things in certain places.
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• [p]Fixed bug where exiting cat pod sometimes put player inside geometry. If the player positioned themselves in an open doorway and then entered a cat pod, they'd sometimes exit stuck inside the now-closed door.
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed bug where player leaning was affecting some story sequences. The player lean was sometimes conflicting with some story sequence logic.
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed vent traversal bug. In certain vent setups, entering the vent would result in the player getting pushed out of the map bounds.
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed event log sizes for all languages. The event log box width now calculates correctly for all languages.
  [/p]

[p]
[/p][h3]Levels[/h3]

• [p]Fixed Tutorial particle spam. Some rooms have logic to instantly reset. There was a bug where the room reset wasn't correctly working, resulting in a particle effect being called too many times.
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed Tutorial out of bounds situation. During one scene transition into a crouched vent space, the player was sometimes getting kicked out of the map bounds and into the void.
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed collision bug in Portunid. There was some geometry for cables that players were getting snagged on.
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed hub next-mission text. In the hub level we had a logic bug resulting from re-interacting with the teletext balloon multiple times. This was confusing the logic for unlocking the next mission.
  [/p]
• [p]Fixed wood cutout texture. There are some wooden cutouts in a VR training room that had bad texture alignment.
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• [p]Fixed soft lock in gun tutorial. We now allow the player to spawn more ammo in the gun tutorial to prevent a possible case of the player exhausting their ammo supply and getting stuck.
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• [p]Fixed soft lock in Celestial Penthouse level. If the player pressed door buttons in a very specific way, they were able to lock themselves in the room and prevent further progress.
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• [p]Fixed out of bounds bug when exiting VR visor. We had a bug where exiting the VR visor would sometimes result in the player exiting the map bounds.
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• [p]Fixed spotlight collision in the Castle. There was a spotlight model that had wonky collision.
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• [p]Fixed out of bounds bug in Lighthouse. The player was able to clamber into a space that resulted in them exiting the map bounds.
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• [p]Fixed floating button in Lighthouse. In the lighthouse cabin, there was a button that was seemingly floating in the air.
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• [p]Fixed Barreleye gears issue. The player was able to use the player body to block the gears, which was causing some logic issues.
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• [p]Added missing localization box to Library. There was a room name on the wall that was missing a localization box.
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• [p]Fixed bug where airlock warning label appeared before applicable. The airlock warning label was sometimes displaying information that was not applicable to the level. These labels now only appear in the correct levels.
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[p]

[/p][h3]Mods[/h3]

• [p]Mods can now load custom GLSL shaders. The game will now try to load custom shaders it finds in a mod.
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• [p]Fixed mod save/load. Players can now save/load while playing a mod.
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• [p]Fix render issue when loading a mod. This fixes a bug where loading a mod would sometimes result in a neon green or black screen. The game engine restarts when loading a mod, and some render states weren't being cleared/reset.
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[p]
[/p][h3]Graphics[/h3]

• [p]Fix for text render issue. On Steam Deck / AMD video cards, this fixes an issue where text in the world was sometimes not rendered correctly.
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[p]
[/p][h3]Crashes[/h3]

• [p]Fixes crash with skullsaver. We had a crash relating to save/load of skullsaver particle effects.
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• [p]Fixes crash with interest point. We had a crash relating to the save/load of interest points (these are the disturbances that enemies investigate). This crash was related to how we were saving the list of enemies investigating a point.
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• [p]Fixes interest point crash. This fixes a crash that was sometimes happening when an interest point was investigated.
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• [p]Fixes crash with cat cage. This was a crash relating to the player using a hack grenade on a cat cage multiple times.
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• [p]Fixed crash with electrical box. There was a crash related to damaging the electrical box.
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[p]
[/p][h3]Cat[/h3]

• [p]Fixed Fortinbras' hat. There was a texture issue with the back of Fortinbras' hat. This is now fixed.
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[p]
Thank you all so much for finding and reporting issues in the game, it helps us a lot. Thank you all for the support!

To view past game updates, click here.[/p][p][/p][p]We found an issue that affected some people, where the game crashed on game start. This is a random issue that sometimes happened and sometimes did not.[/p][p]We will be looking into this issue and have a fix on the way. In the meantime, we'll be reverting to the previous version of the game. We apologize for the inconvenience. We'll try to get things fixed as soon as possible.[/p][p][/p][p]We fixed the issue! Update02 now works correctly and is live (again). Thank you for your patience. 🙏[/p][p][/p]

Hi all, we're releasing this hotfix to address a couple crashes we've noticed.

(spoiler-text'd in case you don't want to know how the Swordfish works)

When the Swordfish robot is in its death throes, it will automatically aim toward "juicy" entities (i.e. a Pirate) and fly toward them. There was a crash where if the target entity no longer had a physics component, the game would crash. This is now fixed.


The Healthstation has an announcer that plays a little sound when it detects an entity nearby that is below maximum health. Similar to the Swordfish crash above, when the target entity no longer had a physics component, the game would crash. This is now fixed.

Hi all, we have some new releases for Skin Deep!

[hr][/hr]

New release! The Skin Deep design team has made a series of maps that take you on a guided tour behind-the-scenes of the game. This tour will explain how various things work, such as lighting, clambering, scripting, and more, in a variety of interactive exhibits. This is a free workshop item.

[h2]👉Click here to check out the Mod Museum![/h2]




New release! The Skin Deep design team has written up a guide for getting up and running with making mods for the game. Some of us got our game development start in modding, so we're very happy to continue the tradition here.

[h2]👉Click here to check out the guide![/h2]




New release! This tool allows you to upload Skin Deep mods to the Steam workshop. This tool is free and available to everyone who has Skin Deep.

Just search your Steam Library for: Skin Deep workshop uploader




New release! We've made a new trailer video that shares some of the nice things being said about Skin Deep. Thank you all for your support!

[h2]👉Click here to check out it out![/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[hr][/hr]
Thank you all so much for your support. We have more updates and fixes on the way. Stay tuned!

To view past game updates, click here.

Today we're happy to share over 50 additions and fixes to Skin Deep. We have more on the way in the following weeks... stay tuned!

• When exiting the game, timestamp of last savegame is now displayed. When you are about to exit the game, the game will now display how long it has been since your last save game.
  
• Items consumed by trashchute now play a particle effect. Items consumed by the trashchute were simply blinking out of existence. We've now added a particle effect to make it more readable:
  
• During mission replay, player can now return to the hub level. If the player is killed during the mission replay, they now have the option to return to the hub level.
  
• Can now traverse through trashchutes during post-mission report. During the post-mission report, Nina can now move into the trash chute and exit outside the ship.
  
• Can now traverse through shuttered windows during post-mission report. Similar to trashchutes, Nina can now move through shuttered windows.
  
• Eventlog cleanup for fuel lines. The eventlog was rapidly displaying many messages for the fuel line gas cloud. This has been cleaned up to limit how often the message displays.
  
• Eventlog cleanup for pepper bags. Similar to the fuel line eventlog messages, pepper bag messages have been limited to make the eventlog more readable.
  

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• When in zoom-mode, the placer disc is now hidden. When in zoom-mode, the weapon placement disc (such as for TNT, wiregrenades) is no longer visible.
  
• Scene transitions now handle player in lie-down state. There was a bug where the player would not correctly stand up when a scene transition happened.
  
• Fixed issue where pickpocket continued after an enemy died. There was an issue where the enemy's death didn't end the pickpocket. Death now stops pickpocketing.
  
• Fixed issue where pickpocket continued after entering a vent. When Nina slurps herself into a vent, any active pickpocketing is now interrupted.
  
• Fixed issue where pickpocketing from a hidden spot would freak out the pirate. This was a mix of various issues, but was largely because the pickpocket point of interest for the pirate would spawn in unexpected or invalid place.
  
• Fixed player not playing splits animation. Nina can do the splits. The animation for it wasn't playing if the player was actively moving while activating the splits.
  
• Fixed some leftover splits behavior. In an older version of the game, Nina used to be able to flip upside down while doing the splits. This unused behavior was causing problems, so we've now fully removed it.
  
• Now has more sensible view angles when in a cargo hide. Nina can hide in certain spots, and the default camera angle they used was awkward. It now uses more sensible angles.
  
• Pirates no longer have 2 overlapping weapons. Under the hood, pirates simultaneously hold 2 weapons, and we hide/unhide them depending on what weapon they're supposed to use. We had a bug where both weapons were sometimes appearing simultaneously.
  
• Fix bug with fuseboxes being audible through walls. Each object has a specific point on it where audio emits from. The fusebox was sometimes emitting sound straight into the wall, resulting in its audio being heard everywhere.
  
• Fixed cassette names. Some of the cassette name information was mislabeled.
  
• Fixed player phasing through door. Certain locked doors do a jiggle movement when you interact with them. The player was able to stand very close to a jiggling door and 'phase' themselves through the closed door.
  
• Fixed pod appearance. A supply pod in one of the maps ('Angler') used an obsolete pod type. It now uses the correct appearance.
  
• Highlighter now shows bullet type. The freeze-frame highlighter now displays the correct label for bullets.
  
• Spectator mode now hides unneeded elements. When spectator mode is activated, the enemy interest points and player last-known-position elements are now hidden.
  
• Fixed spectate camera angle. The post-mission spectate camera was sometimes tilted to the side, noticeably when the end of the mission ended with an explosion or damage.
  
• Fixed airlock regulator label inspection. The label zoom-inspect was still useable after the label was destroyed, resulting in the player zooming into nothingness.
  
• Fixed unexpected zoom. There was an issue where pressing left-click / right-trigger while peeking through a door would result in wildly inspecting something else in the world. This was due to the zoom system not correctly "forgetting" past things it had inspected.
  
• Fixes issue when lying down and entering a hide point. If the player was lying down and entered a hide point, this resulted in the player getting stuck inside geometry.
  
• Fixed autopistol secondary aim point. The autopistol secondary aim point was the center of the character model. We've changed this so that we have control over where the point is, and moved it to the chest.
  
• Potato chips are now crunchier. We've tuned the potato chip sound radius to be wider.
  
• Fixed bug with extra Skullsaver. The game had an internal system that limited how often enemies could be gibbed. Under certain conditions, this resulted in an extra Skullsaver being spawned.
  
• Added missing normalmap to fusebox. The fusebox was missing a normalmap texture. The fusebox's details should now be clearer and better defined.
  
• Fixed eventlog showing invalid names. In the eventlog, some damage-related events were showing invalid names for objects.
  
• Fixed issue where held lighter was igniting gas clouds. Under certain circumstances, a held lighter was igniting gas clouds. This was not intended.
  
• Fixed issue where throwing an object at a trashchute exit would teleport player. Thrown objects will interact with other objects they hit. This was resulting in the player being able to throw something at the trashchute and therefore 'interacting' with it from afar.
  
• Added catkey failsafe. Asking a catcage for the catkey location will do a failsafe 'fix' for any cat keys that have somehow ended up in an invalid location.
  
• Mech body parts now have localization boxes. When inspecting mech body parts, a language localization box will now appear for them.
  
• Fixed respawn issue in re-pressurized rooms. Respawned enemies in rooms that were de-pressurized and re-pressurized were getting confused on what gravity they were supposed to use.
  
• Fixed issue with taking weapons out of VR tutorial rooms. Weapons that exist in VR were not intended to be taken into the real world...
  
• Pressing Attack while in Memory Palace was firing the weapon. There was a controls/logic bug that allowed the gun to fire while the player was inside the Memory Palace.
  
• Fixed rendering issue with extra outline silhouettes in space. We have an blue outline silhouette we render on enemies, and it was mistakenly also appearing in the reaches of outer space.
  
• Fixed issue with lying down and entering the mech. This was resulting in some animation problems.
  
• Added effect for wooden door destruction. The wooden bathroom stall door will now play a shatter effect.
  

[h3]Levels[/h3]

• Added Tutorial failsafe for keys. We've added a failsafe for the tutorial in case the key somehow ends up leaving its intended area.
  
• Fixed bug where Gus wasn't respawning correctly. In the 'Barreleye' mission, Gus wasn't able to respawn due to a missing Regeneration Pad.
  
• Fixed gap in geometry. In one of the maps ('Angler'), there was a gap in a bench that visually looked like it could fit the player, but was too small. This gap has now been blocked off.
  
• Missing signal lamps. We have a design pattern of always having signal lamps near windows and airlocks. This is now fixed in the 'Stargazer' map.
  
• Fixed softlock in gun training room. If the player managed to blow up their gun in the gun training room, this resulted in the player being stuck in the room forever.
  
• Tutorial elevator note now displays correctly in memorypalace. The elevator note was not being lit correctly in the memorypalace.
  
• Fix clipping issue with tutorial signage. The tiny Sotnick tutorial signage was sometimes clipping at specific angles.
  

[h3]UI[/h3]

• Memory Palace notification now appears correctly. When inspecting a note, the notification for the Memory Palace was sometimes not appearing.
  
• HUD adjustments. Some HUD elements were not using the same consistent style as other elements.
  
• Fixed heal buttons not resetting correctly. There was an issue where the heal button text color wasn't correctly resetting to its default color.
  

[h3]Other[/h3]

• Added console 'help' command. Typing 'help' in the developer console will now give basic tips on how to exit the console.
  
• Added command-line workaround for video drivers. Adding this command-line argument will enable a workaround fix for certain AMD video cards: +set r_AMDWorkaround 1
  
• Usernames with '..' are now allowed. We fixed an issue where the game wouldn't cooperate with Windows usernames that had certain characters in certain parts of their name.
  
• Fixed warning message regarding glass cleanup. Certain actions will 'clean up' glass shards in the world, and we fixed some logic that was resulting in stray warning messages.
  
• Fixed a New Game issue. Starting a New Game will now correctly clear out all player/campaign information.
  
• FOV setting is now saved. We had a bug where the FOV setting was not being saved between sessions.
  

[hr][/hr]

Thank you all for your support!

To view past game updates, click here.

[hr][/hr]
[h3]Edit 5-16-2025:[/h3]
We've learned some of the changes in this update broke compatibility with some savegame files:

• This issue only affects savegames manually made by pressing the "Save Game button" button at Info Stations.
  
• This issue only affects savegame files made prior to this update (5-15-2025).
  
• Automatic savegames at the beginning of each level are unaffected and still work fine. These savegames have "AutoSave" in their name.
  

We're currently investigating possible solutions.

In the meantime, if you try to load a savegame and see the error message "save game script program did not match", the workaround fix is to load an automatic savegame file:

1. In the Main Menu, select Load
   
2. Load a savegame that has the word "AutoSave" in it.
   

This will allow you continue in your campaign.

Thank you for your patience, and apologies for the inconvenience.