Greetings Everyone!
So today we are dropping
the 6th Early Access update for
Project Downfall. ---
Before I start I'd like to take this opportunity to give shout-outs to:
-Shigeki Saito: for the valuable feedback as well as recommendations/hookups… which hopefully might result in new languages being added soon!
-Sebastian: As mentioned in the previous announcement, due to time constraints and other obligations, Sebastian will no longer be able to work on the game. Many kudos for his work and being with the project from the start till now! He made a really diverse selective AI (based on sight, hearing of weapons, hearing footsteps, hearing screams/deathyells and much more) which opens up a lot of possibilities for the levels (albeit due to this the levels need respectively more work due to this since every enemy is manually tweaked to work/react to offer the best/challenging experience balance). Also the superkick effect on doors and objects, blood decal spray logic, the initial FPS controller as well as work on the new one (which is still WIP and will be added in future update), the initial Switch build/exports... And a heck of a lot more. This will be the last time we will be signing the announcement as a trio, since it is just Dawid and myself now.. :( Thanks, Seba, so much for your hard work and being there from the start!
---
Now, going back to the update: The game finally has its first achievable endgame. New content, fixes and tweaks. The next update (ETA early October) will now focus on tweaking and refining existing content and branching out other endgame possibilities. We will still be addressing issues/bugs and the like and going along with our robust to-do lst. Due to the dev team dropping from 3 to 2 this will obviously impact development time and delayed the planned key remapping, but otherwise we are still on track.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to new branching paths and conditions, there might be unlock logic conflict(this will usually turn up at the apartment with lack of mouse look/bugged movement). This could possibly happen if your last progress was before the rectum level (and not finished it yet) .Best way to avoid this is start a new game, which would still be recommended otherwise you will miss out on some of the new levels. Hopefully the new save game slots will make this easier from now on.
We tested as much as possible, but due to the game getting noticeably larger with each update this is getting very time consuming. I just tested one of the new routes up to the Crossroads level and all seemed to be well. If you would happen to find obvious bugs, issues, lack of new stage unlocking, let us know and we will get on it asap!
---
And finally, before we move on to what's new, we would very much appreciate your input in the following matters:
1. We will be finalising the new First Person controller. Most likely it will work a bit differently from the current one. So before we implement it we would like to Beta-test it. If you would be interested in this, let us know and we will send you an invite to the private Steam beta. We would very much value your feedback here, since we only would like to replace the controller if we are certain the audience prefers it over the old one.
2. A pretty touchy subject. One of the new levels features neo-nazis and related chats and events. One story related chat, goes around some racist remarks (they are neo-nazis after all). And they would call a specific person the „N” word, which would be believable (just like the other thugs are using racial slurs to the player), but I know this specific word is a rather sensitive topic to many. I left it out at a neutral version, but there is no denying it sounds a bit off. If you could let us know, if you would be okay with changing this to the stronger word, or what your opinion is on the subject, we'd appreciate it!
---
So that's it for the starters, let's move on to the main course;)
NEW FEATURES:-ALPHA to BETA. The game now has its first achievable endgame and can be finished. The Madkiller ending. It is the earliest endgame, however certain conditions have to be met. As fot the other endgames: The main branches are all more or less in the game right now. Now its a matter of adding final level endgame branches for the other endings.
-Achievements! 15 of them currently are available. Hopefully they will be an indication if you discovered most alternative routes/levels. More will follow soon.
-Save Slots! Choose new game to create new save slot, continue to kick off on your last saved progress, and load game to load up a specific save slot. This will still be updated, with visual status of mental health, level unlocks, details etc
-News levels:
-Blowhard: (2 stages)Alternative to the Call of Duty level. Visit the pleasuredome district to let off some steam. This one has a little Street of Rage easter egg. Axel also wanted to join the fun, but...yeah, you'll see;) If you want this level, make sure Ali is alive and answer his call after completing the journeyman level. Be warned, finishing either Call of Duty or Blowhard, will progress the timeline, locking out the unfinished level and its follow up.
-Fill her up: (1stage)the level precedes the rectum level. You will run out of gas en-route in the lower level underpass. Something is fishy about the gas station... You''l have to make a choice after completing this level how you will proceed.
-Going places: (2 stages). Find out who is behind the underpass ambush and make your way up to street level. This level will also eventually feature another branching path if certain condition is met (hint: old capitol)
-Passing through: (1stage) inspired by 80's Bronx flics (ie Turnbull AC scene from „The Warriors”). You arrived in Peltons Gaw. The neo-nazi Cranston clan is making moves here... what are they up to?
-Ethnic cleansing: (2stages) Alternative to Rising High level. Takes place before the turf war breaks out (the player actually has his role in that;), mentioned in the news before rising high. Break into the Cranston Clan compound and FSU. Oh, and the first stage is inspired by the freeway leading to Vegas in BR2049.
-All new levels have new dynamic dedicated tunes and enemies (tweaker variations, clubber variations, fat skinhead/neo-nazi variations)
-Cinematic endgame Credits roll.
GENERAL UPDATES:-increment game ver 0.8.5.4->0.9.6.0
-added light and fog tween/dynamic to rectum sauna/baths.
-added fog tween to sauna in rising high brothel, also adjusted AI at end of second corridor
-dynamic fog and post trigger event on entering rectum finale mini-boss room
-new fist attack animation (workaround WIP-test. Will need complete overhaul once hands are separate. Current version will need to updated for spritesheet to avoid artifacts in shading with normalmap). TLDR: this is not final and will look better with coming updates
-updated apartment for first endgame condition (madkiller)
-added connection from apartment (if madkiller) to madkiller lev select, to madkiller description outro, to credits, to apartment
-Move bloom, scanlines and pill settings to Graphics tab. (we will likely revert this one soon, since we think after some testing that it worked better before. Unless you like it, then let us know!)
-Weapon pickup stuns enemy when thrown.
-Add no mandatory non npc flag. Used for multiple AI. ie Janusz in final package stage. He will behave as he should now.
-added new tune for work/office
-Add played time monitor (shows up in save slot)
-Quite a bit of new assets (animations, adverts, props, prefabs, sounds etc)
-Multiple events for new levels
-updated unlock conditions (NOTE changes apply to existing levels ie RECTUM due to new branches)
-updated levels with appropriate conditions for new unlocks/branches to avoid plot unlock conflicts
-Implement time trigger for delayed or looped events. This opens up lots of new possibilities for events and has been used frequently in the new levels.
-Project cleanup using Zenject
GENERAL FIXES AND TWEAKS-Big tweak to First Person controller. Players are less likely to get blocked by dead bodies or have “invisible” obstruction during movement. In other words, movement should be noticeably more fluid (this should be easily visible in the RUN level). Please note: this is not the new FPS controller mentioned on earlier occassions. That is its own separate thing and we are still working on it
-Mutliple fixes to AI:
tracked issue with enemies not attacking through doorways and fixed (ie first stage of rising high). Since this has to be manually adjusted, if you would notice the issue still being present elsewhere, please let us know and we will introduce the fix there asap.
fixed issue with enemy locking up in shoot animation and not attacking (ie Providence final stage with tweaker on top of intial staircase)
tracked issues with AI getting stuck in/shooting at corner. As above this has to be adjusted manually. We fixed mutliple instances, but if you would happen to notice issues of this kind, let us know and we will fix it.
-Fixed double door hinge super kick. Now the super kick will kick out both doors instead of 1.
-Fixed mutliple typos and similar errors in text (still needs work and will be updated soon)
-Fix fog tween restoring default fog settings.
-Fix enemy melee attack. Separate enemy melee attack from player logic. Last build made enemy melee attacks too easy to avoid and omitted data of range attack for specific weapon. Fixed now, hence harder.
-Set AI sight range to weapon range to attack if sight range has lower value.
-Fix red dot raycast matrix.
-Fix input hints for change pills
-Fix "lossy scale is not (1, 1, 1)". Was caused by Unity local rotation bug which changes scale a little. Bug also doesn't appear if PlayerView doesn't have parent.
-Fix throwing weapon bug (still WIP)
-higher penalty for killing idle cop
-fix old fan (alfred bigelow) chat in package free (need to update text in future and variables)
-witness static navmesh fix (enemy shooting at corner or going through wall)
-fix enemy minigun idle placement position
-Fix condition editors marking asset as dirty. What this means is that sometimes changes were not saved properly and would not show up ingame. Fixed and should work fine now.
-tweaks and fixes to level select hub (ie notice to accommodate new level conditions ie notice on backdoor additionally for blowhard)
-slightly lowered machete enemy range
-Fix loading player prefs for settings.
So that's more or less everything. Hope you enjoy and let us know what you think! Thanks for sticking around and your support,
Till the next one!
The Downfall Team,
Mike, Dawid, Sebastian
