Shadows of Doubt News

The Shadows of Doubt Closed Beta is almost here!

Hey all, we have some very exciting news to announce today, Shadows of Doubt Closed Beta sign ups will be open from today through to the 10th of November. You can sign up by visiting this page!
Participants will be selected on a first come first serve basis and are limited but hopefully most of you will get in. If you are selected, you will receive an email with a Steam key to the playtest app of Shadows of Doubt on November 10th..

IMPORTANT:

The Closed Beta will run from 10 November 2022 10:00 GMT to 14 November 2022 10:00GMT. You should be able to redeem your key and play the closed beta from as soon as you have the received the key on the 10th.
While playtesting, participants will have the opportunity to provide as much feedback as they’d like about the game. We will have a feedback form clearly within the game but it is also Here

If you don’t get selected to participate in the Closed Beta, don’t worry! There will definitely be another chance to play it in the future before we launch next year!

During the closed beta we will set up a spoiler warning channel where you will be asked to keep conversations about the closed beta restricted to that channel to avoid giving away too much to the rest of the Discord

Join the Shadows of Doubt Discord Server to keep in touch with us, and other testers whilst you play the beta!

Hello folks, it's been a while so for this update I thought I'd keep it simple this time and just write a general update for how things are progressing with the game, and also use this as an opportunity to talk about random bits and bobs of the game that don't really fit into any other themed updates.



Internally we're transitioning from 'adding stuff' to 'refining stuff', which is a pretty big milestone. It's no secret this game has been challenging to create, and it has no shortage of rough edges right now, so it's feeling really good to go through and address them.




One such thing we're refining is player progression. I haven't really talked about this a lot previously.

The biggest chunk of practical player progression comes in the form of "Sync Disks"; think Bioshock-style genetic updates that give you a choice of buffs. You won't have lightning shooting from your fingertips or anything; these upgrades are much more grounded (ha) to something resembling reality. The main idea though is for each one to have a choice of 2 or more upgrade options; making for some interesting decision-making and bringing some RPG-like elements to the game. For example, one disk will have you choosing between more health or more inventory space: That's one of the more 'standard' upgrades, but I've really tried to think outside the box a bit for many of the others: Some of them are more akin to modifiers that subtly change how you play the game rather than straightforward benefits. I want to give examples but it's probably better if I leave the discovery to you. The idea is you may want to play Shadows running through it with different builds in different generated cities.


I've recently done a 'grime' pass over a lot of the interiors


Another area that has progressed a lot in recent weeks is audio. Nick has been busy adding and refining sounds, and it's making a huge difference in how immersive the world is feeling.

One thing we've been tackling recently is diegetic music; that is music that appears within the world such as a song played on a jukebox in a bar. What's great about this one is that I had previously set up the AI to dance to anything playing (our artist Miles has done some excellent NPC dance animations). Hilariously the AI simply does not care what it's dancing to, resulting in citizens grooving away to slow melodic piano music... I guess they're just that starved of entertainment in the world of Shadows.


One of the last things to make the latest build, bizarrely, is the public lavatory setup. Before now we had the apartment bathrooms working, but the models for public ones were not yet present in the game. This resulted in a very awkward public bathroom situation that involved a single toilet and sink in a large open room that anyone could just walk into. Not that that AI seemed to care. Now we have proper cubicles. Proper ones that give the citizens some privacy. The eagle-eyed detectives may even spot some useful graffiti scrawled on the side.


One of the early limitations of the gameplay was the player not being able to kill anyone, or specifically, be able to shoot people. While this may not feel in keeping with the game's noir roots, this limitation has actually become, in my opinion, a benefit to the gameplay. Much like in a horror game, not giving the player an arsenal at their disposal makes them much more vulnerable; and this works really well with the 'creeping around places you shouldn't' vibe. And even when things do go wrong and you have people hunting you with guns, it's much more satisfying to be forced to rely on your environment: Ducking into an air duct, hiding in the shadows, or if you are committed to violence, chucking a chair in their face to knock them out as you dart for the exit. It started as a practical limitation and has ended up as one of my favorite aspects of the gameplay.



Anyway, that's it for another update. Times are very busy right now, so for the moment, the schedule of the updates is, by necessity, 'when I can find the time', stayed tuned and thanks for reading!

Hello detectives!

We’re pleased to announce that Shadows of Doubt will be available to play at Gamescom, this will be the second time we have had a build for Shadows of Doubt publicly available and the first time at a major international event!

You’ll be able to find us at the Indie Arena Booth in Hall 10.2 where you can get your hands on the game. Try your hand at detective work and see if you can solve a case. You will also have the opportunity to chat with one of our members of the team!

You will have the chance to put on your detective hats and take on the role of a private investigator as you search a crime scene for clues and decide which leads are the most important to follow. From diary entries to the victim’s call history, checking their work ID and sneaking into their workplace or tracking down the CCTV footage in a cafe from a receipt you found on the scene, the only limit is your imagination!

At Gamescom we will also have some awesome Shadows of Doubt themed goodies to give out to anyone who plays the game, we look forward to seeing you there!

Hey everyone!

We’re excited to be bringing the first publicly playable build of Shadows of Doubt to W.A.S.D - A new video game event taking place in London’s Tobacco dock from the 7th to the 9th of April!

Cole will also be attending the event to talk about Shadows of Doubt, watch some of you play and answer questions you may have. We are looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the demo as well!

The Shadows of Doubt demo offers a chance to get your hands on and try out some of Shadows of Doubts awesome features as you work your way through an opening investigation, spend your time playing the demo exploring, lock-picking, hacking, sneaking, climbing and much more!

You will find Shadows of Doubt at the Fireshine Games booth at QS5 available at all days, come join us for a chance to play, get your picture taken on a polaroid to become part of our W.A.S.D investigation, an opportunity to win an Xbox One S and more!

Hey everyone!

To celebrate being part of Simfest. We have worked hard to put together a new 25 minute video giving you a narrated overview of the latest Shadows of Doubt Gameplay.

Cole takes us through one of the many types of side missions you can encounter in the game. In this case he has been tasked with taking a photo of someone but all he has to go on is their place of work, their hair type and their age.

Cole gives a bit of a detective masterclass by sharing some of the various ways you can gather information and track down your target as well as an introduction to some of the mechanics in the game.

There is also a lot of new things and visuals to take in given this is the first video of its kind since 2019!

Hope you enjoy the stream!