Sally Face - Episode One News

Hello, everyone!

For those that missed the announcement, Portable Moose has made its first hire! Mike Thomas has joined me to help with programming and engine stuff. You'll see him on here as LoneWolf155 and can reach out directly for tech related issues at [email protected]. In addition to assisting on other games (Sally Face 2 👀) he's been fixing up some things in Sally Face that I wasn't able to on my own.

We've made a new public branch that we'd like to test a bunch of fixes on before pushing it to default branch. We've tested the game ourselves but would love to get some more feedback from anyone willing to play on this branch to help us find any potential issues the changes may have caused. Any help with testing on Mac and Linux is especially useful. The new branch is called "experimental" and you can access it by right clicking on the game in your Library, selecting Properties, then Betas, and changing the branch via the dropdown. Once we know the build is solid, then we'll release it on the default branch.

Reply to this thread with any feedback regarding this new build.

Thank you!
💙 Steve


Here's the changelog for this version:

version 1.5.43
- Added a SYNC button to achievements screen which will ensure the local achievements and the platform achievements match
- Adjusted inventory so it will now always select the last item the player was hovering over when opened
- Adjusted elevator in all episodes so it will now default selection to match the floor the player is on
- Adjusted save system to ensure steam cloud saves now contain all progression instead of having some of it exist in the player's Registry
- Adjusted Quality settings so that VSYNC is now always forced on and additionally added a cap to FPS in cases where the player disable it, these will both ensure the game does not run at very high FPS on high powered machines
- Possible fix for issue where Sal's walk animation would not play correctly
- Fixed issue where players could open/close the pause menu during certain actions
- This corrects issue where during episode 4 players could swap Sal and Larry's position or potentially softlock themselves
- Fixed issue where the game would not properly recognize when the DLC was not installed
- Fixed issue in episode 5 where 3D Sal's arm was not displaying properly
- Fixed gravestone at the start of episode 1 where the gravestone text could sometimes have overlapping text

2024 was a year of transitions, as I wrapped up several big projects and settled into my new home.


There were a lot of files to review for Strange Nightmares to make sure everything was good for release. I received early samples of the game and the merch for review as well, and signed a bunch of stuff for the Kickstarter backers. The manufacturing phase took longer than expected so shipping got pushed to January, but it’s been great to finally see the products reaching fans and how happy they are.

Check out the How to Play video I made for Strange Nightmares:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you missed out, here’s the store page for Strange Nightmares stuff:


I also finished the narrative and final art piece for Strange Boxes, which was a lot of fun to work on. I hope everyone who got the boxes enjoyed their time with them!


Another big project that came to an end in 2024 was the Sally Face art book. The files were finalized earlier in the year and the book launched in October. If you haven’t gotten your hands on it yet, it came out awesome! Titan did a great job with it. You can grab a copy on Titan’s site and it’s also on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, Target, etc.


In previous years, I had been working on a pitch for a Sally Face animated series. We got as far as signing on with two big studios and pitching to the major networks. Unfortunately, despite a lot of interest from the networks, the timing just didn’t work out. But the high amount of interest left me hopeful. In fact, I’ve been working on a movie pitch that I think is shaping up to be something great. So fingers crossed we have better luck with that avenue!



With my other team, Wither Studios, we’ve been continuing work on The House of Hamelin – a deckbuilding roguelike game where you’re searching for your missing cat in the twisted halls of an ever changing house that’s filled with horrible creatures. This game has been a ton of fun to work on and is shaping up awesomely.


We demoed early builds of the game at the Phoenix Theater in Pittsburgh, at TORG in Columbus, at the Bit Bridge Halloween Showcase in Pittsburgh, and at Cleveland Gaming Classic – where we also won an award for “Best Art Design”.


We’re aiming for an Early Access release sometime this year. No exact date yet but we’ll announce when we’re ready. In the meantime, wishlists are extremely helpful to securing a successful launch. So any wishlists are greatly appreciated!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3233300/The_House_of_Hamelin/


As a personal update, I’ve been exploring alternate options besides surgery for the herniated discs in my neck but I haven’t found a good solution yet. I’ve also been having some other mysterious health issues that I’ve been getting a lot of tests on, but with no luck. I’m hopeful that things will improve, it’s just been a bit of a mental weight on me this past year.

I’ve also had a lot of various household projects, with the new house. It seems like there’s always something to fix or work on, but that was to be expected. At least it’s usually rewarding work (I even replaced a full sink on my own and it works and everything!). It may have taken me until my late 30s to be able to afford my first home, but I’m proud of it and feel fortunate to have this nice spot to settle down in.

Speaking of feeling fortunate, I was able to do the annual Halloween Road Trip with my good friends again and it was such a great time. We hit 6 haunted houses and 2 escape rooms in 3 days. I’m already looking forward to next Halloween!



I was able to get more done on Sally Face 2 in 2024. Though, progress has been slow with all of my other projects. So it’s going to be a little while still and I thank you all for your patience and understanding.

I don’t like to give release estimates until I have a time frame I’m more confident with. If we look at the first game, it took about 8 years of development (2015-2019 for the episodes, 2020-2022 for console ports) and besides writing the script for SF2 while working on other projects, development didn’t really start until 2024.

That said, I’m still planning to hire a couple people to help speed things up significantly. I know I’ve mentioned this before but I was too quick in bringing it up and wasn’t ready as soon as I thought I’d be. But I’ll definitely be putting the call out this year sometime. So if you’re interested, get those portfolios ready! Just please wait until I make the announcement for job openings before emailing me.


If you’re itching for more Sally Face merch, here are some neat new things:

YouTooz pre-order (today is the last day!)


Sal Slippers


Sally Face Pajama Pants


SF Socks



Back when we were doing the Kickstarter for Strange Nightmares (in 2023!), I released a few little Sally Face bonus lore bits. I came across these again recently and I thought it'd be nice to share them again for those who haven't seen them!



Thank you all for continuing to support the world of Sally Face as it expands beyond what I could have ever imagined it would. It’s been a tough road, full of ups and downs, and at times, has felt very overwhelming. Yet, the fans have made this journey feel worth it.

Keep fighting the darkness

💙 Steve

👉 CLICK HERE TO ENTER 👈

To celebrate the 8th anniversary of Sally Face: Episode One, Strange Neighbors, I'm giving away a huge bundle of Sally Face stuff to one lucky winner! In order to enter the giveaway, you must complete the survey by following the link above.

Thanks for 8 great years! During that time, I released 5 episodes on PC, ported the game to consoles, added localization, created an art book (coming soon!), developed a Sally Face board game with Maestro Media (also coming soon!), connected with a lot of great merch partners, and much more.

The future of Sally Face is bright, with exciting things on the horizon 💙


MORE DETAILS

• The giveaway is open worldwide to anywhere USPS delivers.
  
• A random winner will be chosen on August 30th. This is also when the survey will close.
  
• A mailing address will only be collected from the winner and only used to ship the prize.
  
• Multiple entries will be cause for disqualification.
  
• Good luck, everyone!
  

[h2]Sally Face: Strange Nightmares is now on Kickstarter[/h2]
Sally Face goes co-op in this tabletop adventure game! Back the Kickstarter early to get exclusive merch and join in on the 30 day party we have planned. It's gonna be a lot of fun!

[h3]For Pittsburgh area fans![/h3]
We're hosting a game night at Bold Escape Rooms on March 9th. Come hang and play games with us. You'll get a change to try out Strange Nightmares and also play some escape rooms. Tickets are limited! Click here for tickets and info.

👉 StrangeNightmares.com 👈 Don't miss these awesome FREE exclusives for early birds!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12PYJuB-vuo
💙 Steve and Maestro Media