"Try to Fall Asleep" Community Transmission #3 - October 2020
Good evening players,
Welcome to our Community Transmission #3 for October of 2020! In this one, we’ll talk all about the special Halloween Update which arrives today - just in time for the spookiest week of the year!
Let’s dive into CT#3!
As October is heading into its final week, the Halloween Update is what you seek!
[h2]So, what exactly is the Halloween Update? [/h2]
Well, the truth is that October 31st was supposed to be our original release date for night 4, but unfortunately, we won’t be able to hit that date as we still need a bit more time to work on it. That said, we still wanted to release something for you all on Halloween, so we decided to release a nice update for the first 3 nights of the game. It’s still a pretty considerable update, which consists of tons of improvements and bug fixes, as well as a few new features that we think the players will really enjoy.
[h2]Let’s take a closer look at what’s in the Halloween Update![/h2]
There are many small and big things that we've done since the last update, but for this CT we'll mainly focus on the most notable ones.
[h3]Performance and stability improvements[/h3]
Some of the most notable improvements are in the game’s stability and performance. We went through each level and cleaned up the scripts and optimised the meshes for a better performance and stability of the game. We hope that after this update, players won’t experience as many crashes as they did before.
[h3]Volume slider.[/h3]
Yes, FINALLY! :’)) (Available through the settings menu)
[h3]HUD clean up[/h3]
We took a more minimalistic approach with the Heads up Display and refreshed the HUD to be as simple and unobtrusive as possible. With a new font, it’s different from the game menus, so that the player can easily differentiate what’s part of the gameplay and what’s a game menu element.
[h3]Visual improvements[/h3]
Optimising the game’s performance allowed us to increase the visual fidelity on the Pinetree Island, so once again the entire island has been updated with new tree and bush models, better grass and terrain textures. On top of it, we tuned the post processing effects to be slightly more realistic and more coherent across all levels.
[h3]New sounds and more effects[/h3]
There is a new sound effect that plays when you get one stress bar and on the 2nd dream phase we added a few more creepy ambient sounds to make the island more haunting. For the falling asleep sequences we added a scanline effect that works as a visual cue for when the stress is getting too high. Voiceover also gets a slight update with a few retakes, which improve the overall narrative of the game.
[h3]New footstep sound system[/h3]
For the second dream phase there is a new, more advanced footstep sound system that can detect on which texture the player is currently standing on and change the array of footstep sounds based on that. Additionally, we’ve added a few more footstep sounds when walking on grass, sand and rock.
[h3]Improved 2nd dream phase mechanics[/h3]
One of the biggest changes that we’ve done for this update is for the 2nd dream phase. We know that for many people the 2nd night was their least favorite night, so we decided to do something about it! For the most part, the 2nd dream phase still will work the same - you’ll have to find pages based on clues that were left in the previous pages. But, as soon as you’ll pick up a page, the whole level will go pitch black, including your flashlight. Your only guide will be a strange light that will unpredictably try to flee from you. If you lose it, you’ll be left in the dark and whatever was chasing you from behind will get you more effortlessly. It will be interesting to see what people will think of this new change and we’ll tune it based on player feedback.
[h3]Improved minigames for the 1st dream phase[/h3]
In this update you’ll get a chance to try out the new reworked level of the reach the end minigame. With more side rails, better platforms and lighting, we have improved one of the hardest and most frustrating parts of the game. The “Close the Doors” has also received some minor detail improvements.
[h3]Game update versions explained[/h3]
Sometimes some people by mistake have thought that the game has had a full release, so in order to reduce the confusion in the future, we decided to slightly change the way we mark the versions for the game updates.
Here’s how the version numbers work:
0.3.4.a - changed from 1 to 0. 1 means that it’s a full release and 0 means that it’s in early access. And just in case you were wondering, yes, the game is still in early access.
0.3.4.a - This marks a significant update to the game, such as a release of a new night. Currently, we have 3 nights so the number is 3.
0.3.4.a - This marks a normal update that doesn’t always bring new content. It’s mostly used for updates with big improvements and new features.
0.3.4.a - And this one is used to mark patches and hotfixes.
[h2]One more thing… October 31st[/h2]
For the spookiest day of the year, we will have something special to share on 31st! It won’t be night 4, but it might be something related to it. What is it? Well, the 31st around the corner... ;))
And that’s it for this CT - Thank you so much for reading it! For us, the developers, who are on such a small team, it feels really bad to keep pushing things back. But, on the bright side, it will really help us to reduce our stress and with the extra time we’ll have more time to polish everything and put out an amazing night 4. We really, really appreciate your patience and we’ll continue our hard work to make the wait absolutely worth it! :))
Goodnight.
Welcome to our Community Transmission #3 for October of 2020! In this one, we’ll talk all about the special Halloween Update which arrives today - just in time for the spookiest week of the year!
Let’s dive into CT#3!
As October is heading into its final week, the Halloween Update is what you seek!
[h2]So, what exactly is the Halloween Update? [/h2]
Well, the truth is that October 31st was supposed to be our original release date for night 4, but unfortunately, we won’t be able to hit that date as we still need a bit more time to work on it. That said, we still wanted to release something for you all on Halloween, so we decided to release a nice update for the first 3 nights of the game. It’s still a pretty considerable update, which consists of tons of improvements and bug fixes, as well as a few new features that we think the players will really enjoy.
[h2]Let’s take a closer look at what’s in the Halloween Update![/h2]
There are many small and big things that we've done since the last update, but for this CT we'll mainly focus on the most notable ones.
[h3]Performance and stability improvements[/h3]
Some of the most notable improvements are in the game’s stability and performance. We went through each level and cleaned up the scripts and optimised the meshes for a better performance and stability of the game. We hope that after this update, players won’t experience as many crashes as they did before.
[h3]Volume slider.[/h3]
Yes, FINALLY! :’)) (Available through the settings menu)
[h3]HUD clean up[/h3]
We took a more minimalistic approach with the Heads up Display and refreshed the HUD to be as simple and unobtrusive as possible. With a new font, it’s different from the game menus, so that the player can easily differentiate what’s part of the gameplay and what’s a game menu element.
[h3]Visual improvements[/h3]
Optimising the game’s performance allowed us to increase the visual fidelity on the Pinetree Island, so once again the entire island has been updated with new tree and bush models, better grass and terrain textures. On top of it, we tuned the post processing effects to be slightly more realistic and more coherent across all levels.
[h3]New sounds and more effects[/h3]
There is a new sound effect that plays when you get one stress bar and on the 2nd dream phase we added a few more creepy ambient sounds to make the island more haunting. For the falling asleep sequences we added a scanline effect that works as a visual cue for when the stress is getting too high. Voiceover also gets a slight update with a few retakes, which improve the overall narrative of the game.
[h3]New footstep sound system[/h3]
For the second dream phase there is a new, more advanced footstep sound system that can detect on which texture the player is currently standing on and change the array of footstep sounds based on that. Additionally, we’ve added a few more footstep sounds when walking on grass, sand and rock.
[h3]Improved 2nd dream phase mechanics[/h3]
One of the biggest changes that we’ve done for this update is for the 2nd dream phase. We know that for many people the 2nd night was their least favorite night, so we decided to do something about it! For the most part, the 2nd dream phase still will work the same - you’ll have to find pages based on clues that were left in the previous pages. But, as soon as you’ll pick up a page, the whole level will go pitch black, including your flashlight. Your only guide will be a strange light that will unpredictably try to flee from you. If you lose it, you’ll be left in the dark and whatever was chasing you from behind will get you more effortlessly. It will be interesting to see what people will think of this new change and we’ll tune it based on player feedback.
[h3]Improved minigames for the 1st dream phase[/h3]
In this update you’ll get a chance to try out the new reworked level of the reach the end minigame. With more side rails, better platforms and lighting, we have improved one of the hardest and most frustrating parts of the game. The “Close the Doors” has also received some minor detail improvements.
[h3]Game update versions explained[/h3]
Sometimes some people by mistake have thought that the game has had a full release, so in order to reduce the confusion in the future, we decided to slightly change the way we mark the versions for the game updates.
Here’s how the version numbers work:
0.3.4.a - changed from 1 to 0. 1 means that it’s a full release and 0 means that it’s in early access. And just in case you were wondering, yes, the game is still in early access.
0.3.4.a - This marks a significant update to the game, such as a release of a new night. Currently, we have 3 nights so the number is 3.
0.3.4.a - This marks a normal update that doesn’t always bring new content. It’s mostly used for updates with big improvements and new features.
0.3.4.a - And this one is used to mark patches and hotfixes.
[h2]One more thing… October 31st[/h2]
For the spookiest day of the year, we will have something special to share on 31st! It won’t be night 4, but it might be something related to it. What is it? Well, the 31st around the corner... ;))
And that’s it for this CT - Thank you so much for reading it! For us, the developers, who are on such a small team, it feels really bad to keep pushing things back. But, on the bright side, it will really help us to reduce our stress and with the extra time we’ll have more time to polish everything and put out an amazing night 4. We really, really appreciate your patience and we’ll continue our hard work to make the wait absolutely worth it! :))
Goodnight.