Abducted
Alien boss, alien rig, alien cloth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSvYfrO3Bcw
Beta 1.06 now available
The major new feature in 1.06 is a working version of the Arm, now done as a in-world 3D dialogue system. This will have a number of improvements over the old 2D version, like in-line images (displaying maps and visual clues) and have a contextual database system (new topics are added directly to the list as you discover them). This is a brand new, completely custom system. This is a first implementation, but its the basis for what's coming.
There are also a number of visual improvements as well as new content that will be coming in shortly. "The Great Unknown" has better looking and faster rendering foliage and trees among other visual improvements, improvements that are permeating to other levels.
Finally new and original high quality content continues to come into the build as artists can make them. Our heroine will have a special selectable outfit available to her for the endgame and a 2nd playthrough, all of which will tie into the story in a very unexpected way. Very likely the next build, 1.07, will focus more on implementing new art and content, completing levels and bringing the story into focus now that the fundamental systems are nearly all present.
Final Abducted price coming up
If you purchased the game recently or in the past, thank you. Consider the price point you got the game at as a discounted price, a reward for being an early adopter and supporter. I do appreciate everyone willing to invest in helping to make this game happen. And the current $4.99 price will continue for a couple more weeks at least, quite possibly until either the next update or the one after that.
The full price of the game is probably going to be played with a little bit, as I try to figure out what works best. I've said before the price range I was looking at was in the $12-$15 range and that hasn't changed. The game is expanding quite a bit, and offers (and will offer) quite a bit more quality and content than originally envisioned. This is also a chance for anyone interested in the subject of pricing to provide their feedback and questions.
Again thank you for being involved and helping me. If you're interested in the game and want a deal, now is the time to buy. ːsteamhappyː
Beta 1.05 is up!
The latest beta has a number of changes and improvements:
NPC conversation. There are a couple of test points (Drowning and Going Home) where you can talk to the aliens with some friendly conversation at the beginning. Like everything else this is very WIP.
Weather and day/night cycles. For the level Great Unknown. There's functional precipitation: if the clouds build up enough moisture it will start to rain. Eve will be required to rest every so often on this level.
Arm WIP. This continues to develop, it will have some functional similarities to the aforementioned NPC conversation. These systems will build on each other.
Postprocess and Texturepool improvements. Comic shader removed for the real world, toned down in the dreamscape. Texture pool is fixed to 1GB on Mac/PC. This continues to evolve.
Shadows can be turned off in the prefs giving a sharp boost to performance on low end systems. In some situations this will look bad, but if you want maximum framerate set Shadows to "low".
A number of small and random level improvements, art improvements on most levels. These range from optimizations, to new areas, some cosmetic additions and new assets. Its basically a little bit of everything as more details come in.
Beta 1.04 Available for download!
Beta 1.04 is now up for PC and Mac. Major changes are:
All game chapters are now in place. Many of these are simple frameworks and not complete maps, but if you want a preview of where its going you can see that. Warning: These are not spoiler free. Elements of the story will get exposed if you look at these chapters, but depending on your interpretation, not much. Just be forewarned.
The chapters are listed in order of how they will be played. The most complete level in terms of gameplay and story is still the first one, The Prototype. But every chapter after that still has something interesting to offer.
At the same time, all testmaps are removed. With framework maps now in place, testmaps are no longer needed in the release builds. They can be a time-sink for me to keep them up to date with new game functionality and testing as it comes online, so removing them from the project build helps put more focus on the actual shipping levels.
In addition to new maps, there are 3 big rendering feature changes in this build: Realtime radiosity, professional grade color management and postprocessing, and optimizations to the texture pool.
The realtime radiosity is achieved by a combination of rendering features, but basically it amounts to radiosity lighting. In addition some levels are now using geometry accurate real surface reflections, so you can see yourself and other things in mirrors, reflective floors, etc. Performance overall will either be the same or slightly better, as the new dynamic lighting solution allows for less placed lights and shadow casting lights. Shadow casting lights are the biggest cost in terms of dynamic lighting, minimizing them will help a lot. As with everything else performance tuning is a WIP and there will be improvements and more options as we go.
Pro color grading is on every chapter and results in some impressive looks. There will be more to do with this later but this is a good start.
The texture pool optimizations should allow for faster loading times and better use of GPU. This is really just to get ahead of some memory and perf issues that are coming up. Tech note: If you get any error messages related to texture pool usage, the likely workaround is to (unintutively) increase your texture prefs to Epic, as this makes the texture pool bigger.
There are other new content and graphics additions/improvements all over the build. The project got a little bit bigger as more new stuff comes in.
As I noted before, the next Beta 1.05 will have some new gameplay features namely Discoveries. The idea is like before in the old Radiance build, but with more of an in-world, holographic interaction. You can find and discover things in the alien world to talk to the Arm about, which in turn will unlock new info and possibilities for your character. A lot of work has been done already on gameplay systems and in the coming weeks even more will be coming online. Stay tuned guys!
Beta 1.03 PC/Mac now available!
Beta 1.03 for both PC and Mac is now available, the major addition in this build is customizable inputs. When I say customizable, I mean it. Set them in the menu, during gameplay, after you die. Adjust inputs for everything! The defaults have changed, there are alternates for game controllers (tested working for Playstation and Xbox gamepads). Side note on that- there's a mapping conflict in the gamepad defaults in this build, but you can set it to whatever you like to resolve it.
Beta 1.03 includes a rebuilt-from-the-ground-up Dreamscape mode. The end result is similar to what was there before, but with a ton of little improvements. Graphically its been tweaked and improved. You can access the menu and set preferences from the Dreamscape. You'll notice little touches like the ability to rotate your camera after you've been killed, and auto-returning to your body. Performance is better, controls are more responsive. All around it should look and feel better, and with the new customizable inputs it uses all of the same controls and preferences as the main character. As the Dreamscape Avatar expands with more powers and abilities, this will start to make more sense.
The main menu has been expanded and refined. It now reports the current Beta build and the Unreal 4 engine code Abducted runs on. There are links in the menu (as with the old Radiance version) to DLC and other Sunside Games projects. Some notes on this: Both the Mac and PC version of the game run identical code and everything. They both use the same latest Unreal Engine codebase, 4.16.2. And the latest Mac build has been shrunk by almost 800MB due to some important build refinements.
As a bonus, the first implementation of the Arm is in as a framework on the game maps. There's nothing to do with it yet, but its a simple preview for where it might go. The goal is to do more in-world stuff, rather than the old 2D interface. Almost all of the Abilities for the main character are in place, the next steps will involve expanding them, building in story oriented progression and unlocks, and improving them with more final looking graphics and gameplay.
Beta 1.02 now available
- New chapter added: Drowning. This is just the skeleton/framework of the map, but you can see where it's going. This chapter will include a lot of interactive elements, conversing with (mostly) friendly aliens, and some rpg-lite bits.
- New shield effect. The old shield eggshell is gone, the new effect is more visually advanced and personal to the character. As a side note: one of the shield upgrades, "low mass", is currently active by default just for testing purposes. When your shield is active your mass is cut by 2/3, so you can super jump and fall great distances. Eventually this will be an upgrade in the story, for now you can see what it feels like.
- Various bug fixes and performance tweaks. Most of these have to do with the interface, better response to button clicks and preference saving. This is a catchall "tuned things up" notation.
Abducted OST Available as DLC
The Original Soundtrack to Abducted, all 49 ambient tracks, are available as DLC on Steam. You can describe it as moody, as atmospheric, or as ambient, its all that. If that's your thing, you can get it here. The tracks are 256k MP3s and are DRM free, but if there's sufficient demand they can also be supplied as Ogg or any format that the kids are into these days.
As a reminder, you don't have to buy the album to enjoy it. It's currently available on all the popular services (streaming or otherwise) like iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Pandora, etc and so on.
You can check it out at its landing page here:
Abducted Original Soundtrack
It's a great site to be able to preview each track.
Mac Beta and Radiance Abducted now available
Also available is the (old) Radiance version of Abducted as DLC. It is of course free to anyone who purchased the game.
Beta 1.01 is released!
Beta v1.01 is available and has a number of changes big and small. The goal will be to do these pretty rapidly (holidays and family events notwithstanding) and each update will likely contain a range of new updates and features. This update mostly touches the first level (the Prototype) but does a range of things generally:
Dreamscape/Avatar
- Fix arrow keys for dreamscape avatar
- Make it so dreamscape avatar sprints as often as you like
- Make 2nd glyph puzzle in Prototype easier, better, more appropriate
- Fix Red Guardians to only impact dreamscape avatar
- Various scripting refinements and responsiveness
Performance
- Better defaults for performance (still adjust them to whatever you prefer)
- Performance pass on The Prototype (less fillrate used on lower end systems)
Map Specific
- The Prototype: Overall gameplay pass, visual pass
- The Prototype: Structure map with story triggers from beginning to end (first pass)
- The Prototype: Refinement and addition of all tips and arm notifications
- The Prototype: Correctly implement shield and pulse to trigger from gameplay
- The Prototype: Move all remaining gameplay elements from Beast testmap (now deprecated)
- The Prototype: Now has a minimally functional ending that leads into Falling once completed
Other
- Fix onscreen tips not aligning correctly in certain resolutions
- Better checkpointing both visually and functionally, restore previous states better
- Uses latest Unreal code 4.16.2
The next update will include refinements to the abilities, a more final first level and a Mac build at a minimum. That will probably release by next weekend if not sooner. Happy 4th (Americans)! ːsteamhappyː
