Outfit customization will be coming online soon, and will be a story-driven element having to do with the end game. These are preliminary, but it shows some of the kinds of choices you'll have at the right point in the story of the game.
Different meshes and color options will be a part of this.
And just to be clear on the issue of paid customization: that's not what this game will ever be about. Character changes and additions like this will be part of the game itself. You don't have to worry about this game turning into some crazy thing of paying $5 for a hat, we're not gonna go there. ːsteammockingː
Abducted Beta 1.10 is available for PC and Mac
The latest 1.10 Beta release of Abducted is now available for Windows and Mac! Lots of content updates in this build, features include:
Completely in-world feedback. No health bars or shield timers on the screen, you know what's going on because of what you can see and hear in the world.
Right now your shield can be used for 15 seconds maximum. As it gets used, your suit energy will visibly drain. All the glowing yellow bits will drain to black and then your shield will disable itself. Then you'll see their glow come back, and after the amount of time you used it for it will flash bright to let you know its fully recharged. In this game your personal force field can be used as often as you like and will stop most (but not all) attacks and damage, but it can't be used continuously or nonstop. You must use it wisely.
Major updates to chapters like Drowning and The Ancient One. More NPC interactions, more conversation trees and chatting it up with aliens.
Lots and lots of visual updates to get the game closer to a final look. While the game is still in Beta and early release form, its making great progress towards the goal of being visually spectacular.
Thanks and have fun!
Looking for Linux testers
One of the goals for this game has been to make it available to Windows, Mac and Linux gamers. Pretty soon we're going to be generating Linux builds, and I'd like to get testers together who can help us confirm it works on their Linux boxes.
Anyone who tests the game for us in this way will obviously receive a copy for free. It's the least we can do and thank you for helping us make sure it works. If you want to test the game or know someone who can, do the following:
Send an email to crow[at]sunsidegames[dot]com with the subject "Linux testing" in the title.
Include your PC specs. CPU, vidcard, video ram, system ram, storage space, monitor setup (multi or single and display resolution). There's no minimum spec that we're concerned about here, lots of different hardware will be considered.
Include your OS version. Ubuntu or Mint? We want to know! =)
That's it! We'll get to you with either a steam key or other means for running the Linux build.
Much appreciated and as always have fun!
Mac 1.09b is up
It took an extra day, but the latest Mac version of the game running the same codebase as windows (Unreal 4.17.2) is live. Normally the Mac and PC builds are kept completely in sync, but occasionally the Mac build will lag a bit. Trying to make sure this doesn't happen too often, in my experience when all your platforms are working and up to date at the same time, it helps to keep other problems that come up later to a minimum. Usually they're much easier to solve.
Also this does update the game to use the latest version of the Metal Renderer, some of the high end rendering features are experimental. But looking to future proof the game as much as possible, and being on the cutting edge of rendering features is important to the project. Thanks and have fun!
Abducted Beta 1.09b is up
The major feature here is: latest code. This runs using the latest 4.17.2 Unreal 4 codebase.
This also cleans up some UI elements, fixes some UI bugs and tweaks character movement to be more responsive. It's still not where it could be yet, but its getting there.
There are a number of behind-the-scenes build improvements in this version. While the content updates are small this time (hence the 'b') the performance tuning, code refinements and bug squashing is real.
Oh one more thing, better support for uncommon display resolutions are in this build. Here's some ultrawidescreen images for your enjoyment!
Beta 1.09 available
Abducted Beta 1.09 is up, and the major feature here is story.
Keep in mind, the story is not near complete. But certain chapters, namely "The Prototype" and "Drowning" have had a considerable amount of narrative and story added to them.
You can interact with a lot more NPC's than before, explore some conversation and see how the story is taking hold. These 2 chapters begin to flesh out your purpose and some of the overall themes of the game.
At the same time, these chapters are getting much more fleshed out than before. The environments are becoming more final (although nothing is quite final yet).
Additionally this build includes refinements to your abilities. The Pulse blaster is refined to be more useful, and the overcharge ability is pulled back (temporarily) to make it part of a story driven upgrade system. The Flashlight is much more useful, illuminating surfaces better and following your eyeline better.
Also note that in the overall flow of the story, not every level will be as conversation heavy as "Drowning". This chapter is a bit of a special case, coming at the midpoint of the game, and in terms of flow is a chance for the player to take a break, learn some backstory and something new about the characters that inhabit this world.
Additionally there are other places in the game where you can interact with alien characters and have conversation. I don't want to spoil any of these bits, but they're scattered throughout.
Hope you enjoy, more updates coming quickly.
50% sale on Abducted and Crow for the next week!
Abducted and Crow are on sale for the next week. If you haven't picked up the games yet, now's a good time. 1.09 Beta of Abducted will be out shortly, and Crow is a great, unique adventure game worth playing.
Crow can be gotten here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/323430/Crow/
Enjoy! Lots of new stuff coming soon. If you're a supporter or new to the games thank you!
1.08 Beta, endgame content and connective tissue
I can't really talk about this update.
It contains spoilers, primarily work on the endgame levels. It might be like this for a little while as building up and refining the endgame is a big focus. In many ways this is further along than the old Radiance version of the game, which is great. I just can't talk about it without spoiling the hell out of the game.
There are refinements to core gameplay, event timings (generally snappier, more responsive gameplay events) and movement controls.
There's the beginning structure of 'connective tissue'. You reach the end of one level, and it will load the next. No level has a proper ending right now, or a complete narrative. But if you start with the first level you can play through to the last level, even if its not currently obvious how/where or why a level is ending. More on this very soon (possibly within a week).
Nonetheless, here's a teaser image of the new or refined game content that's in this build. Enjoy, it makes for a great ultrawidescreen desktop image. ːsteamhappyː
Beta 1.07 is live
Beta 1.07 is live! Major additions in this build include the following:
Improved 3rd person camera system. Basically, camera behaves better in-world, and we do fancy graphical things like having our heroine go translucent if it gets too close to her.
New content and boss fight for the endgame. This does get into spoiler territory, so avoid if that's important to you. There have been major additions and revisions to some of the final levels (Dissected and The Ancient One). The boss fight is on "The Ancient One" and you can see that here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMGMc6aUxFQ
It's obviously hard to post about endgame content without bringing up minor spoilers, so I'll say as little as possible. But its important to get this gameplay in as soon as possible to work out how combat is played and make it smooth and effortless. Combat generally is at an alpha stage, it can be much better and more fine tuned. All that will be coming in, in the meantime enjoy the artistry. ːsteamhappyː
3rd person camera improvements coming
3rd person camera improvements that will be in the next build, 1.07. Doing depth based translucency on the main character up close, and the camera is fixed to stay in the world much better than it used to be (no more clipping through walls and other bugs).
