Finally, right before Halloween and nearly two years later
It was a great journey and pleasure to work on Absinth together with you, our community. We laughed a lot together in 2017 when we started with the Live Streaming Events for the Pre-Alpha. After one year working part-time on Absinth (just us both founders) we released at the end not a releasable EA product. Today we know that this was a typical developer mistake: You want to do everything big and great until you realize that you have limited ressources&time available. So we changed mistakenly the whole concept constantly while developing so it became bigger and bigger. Today we understand that this is something that many studios face. Fos us it was a big lesson to understand how much you can actually do "great" with limited ressources&time.
So we learned a lot of how Early Access titles should be released. Also we got a lot of angry responses of disappointed players and to be honest we totally felt what they meant. After that we continued to work on Absinth by delivering various content updates to improve performance and quality. Yay, we´re happy that today a stable version is available for everyone where almost all pain points are not existing anymore!
Then 2020 came into the lands and Corona, you probably heart about this piece of Banana, also reached us as a small indie studio and to be honest we thought that´s it this time, Absinth is going to line up to one of those thousands of dead titles no one cares about anymore.
BUT! Good for us, that we never worked 100% only on our own games. So you maybe heard about... as an indie you have usually always some kind of work for hire in parallel to pay your rent and buy some food :=) That was exactly what saved us at the end and few months later we were able to continue again.
In summary we can say that our promise to the community in 2017 was one of the most important things, what made us working on Absinth so long and continuously. Without that promise back then, we probably would never have continued the development of Absinth, as no one where paying us for it. So taking response for what you have promised even when it´s a financial disaster, is something what was really important to us. Of course we enjoy also the videos of people playing Absinth.
Therefore, today we are proud to announce that we are going to leave the EA in about two weeks. This is a big milestone for us and we can´t wait to celebrate it together with you!
Feel free to join our Discord, we probably have also still some seats free for the next Live Streaming Event again!: https://discord.gg/Ww7upNz
Kind regards, The entire blackHound Team
Patch Notes 1.0ea
Dear gamers and Absinth fans,
It´s been a long time and we´re glad to be back. Unfortunately we had to delay this Update regarding COVID19. For our 5th Update we read every community feedback since today and fixed as much issues as possible! Also we are very happy to announce you that the next Update will be the final release. Yes, we´re leaving EA!
Update 1.0ea Notes - Added new character animations for Act I and Act II - Fixed dozens of UI bugs - Increased the range of max and min brightness you can set - Fixed an issue where the mouse cursor does not appear anymore sometimes - Fixed issues where the player was not able to move while playing - Fixed an issue with the AI in Act II where characters where stucked - Deleted section "Change Log" in main menu - Updated Website file for the riddle - Fixed a dead spot in Act II where players got stucked
@everyone Thank you again for your amazing support! We´re looking forward to release the final content of Absinth soon and hope that you play after each update Absinth again to discover the new content!
Best, Your blackHound Team
Patch Notes 0.9
Hello everyone!
We hope everyone have/had a great summer! Today we are very happy to announce you our 4th patch and new roadmap for Absinth.
New Roadmap
Update 0.9 Notes
Level Design for Act II
Added new FX sounds
Optimized light calculation
Changed from old Unity version to latest.
Added "Change log" to main menu
Deleted "Support" in main menu
Redesigned options in main menu
Redesigned options in in-game menu
Added controls image to in-game options menu
Updated intro scene in Act II
@everyone Thank you again for your amazing support!
Section 1: Main Menu / In-game Menu
- Added 4k resolution support.
- Added Community Invite Link for Discord
- Deleted "Credits" section and added "Support" section instead
- Added a label to show the current game version
- Added 40 FPS limit without Vsync to reducde hardware workload
- Fixed issue where 2k resolution has set 1080px of height and not 1440px.
- Updated at the very end of the game the credits scene
- Deleted some of the Intro where the official Unity and blackHound Logo were showing up for few seconds.
Section 2: Act I - Police Dept.
- Reduced difficulty of very first riddle
- Deleted Laptops which were playing creepy videos but also producing too much cpu performance.
- Changed position of the car key to a visible spot
- Changed position of Zane file
- Changed position and size of Chief Inspector note (number part)
Section 3: Act II - Redwoods
-Optimized general performance within the level by reducing the amount of rendered objects at the same time
- Replanced blue sky with dark sky and a decent fog.
Absinth | Patch Notes V0.82
Hello everyone!
Happy belated new year 2019 to everyone! We are very happy to bring you our 2nd patch, which is now live.
This January patch includes mainly bug-fixes, improvements on our quests and other general improvements to revamp your experience in Absinth.
As usual, we'd like to thank everyone for your continual support!
-Added an epilepsy warning in the loading screen image.
-Fixed an issue where the loading screen showed too many decimal places such as ''1.926157%''. Now there are integers like 1%, 10%, 50%.
-Fixed other general minor issues.
-Improved the main menu ''options'' section to include 3 tabs: ''General'', ''Graphics'' and ''Controls''. Note that the controls cannot be changed.
-Re-adjusted the brightness scroll bar in the graphics menu. Previously it only had 2 'effective' brightness levels, now it has up to 10. The maximum brightness it can go up to has increased slightly from patch 1 (still not recommended to increase it unless strictly necessary).
-Added some context as to why you are unable to wield the weapons on the floor. More to come in the following patches.
-Added a new feature where you no longer require internet to complete the game. Instead, all files necessary are now saved locally as part of the game.
-Improved the AI pathing of the main monster. Now it does not get stuck on some random objects which sometimes prevented it from chasing you.
-Improved the 'screen shaking' and 'sound effects' trigger zones, especially when there was no real ''event''.
-Improved some of the jump scares in various ways (no spoilers!).
-Increased the speed of the main monster. Good luck!
-Fixed an issue where sometimes you were unable to run.
-Fixed a labeling issue where one of the shelves in the interrogation room said ''locked you need a key''. This label has now gone.
-Improved the intro scene. It now introduces the AR glasses better.
-Improved the scenery for one of the initial scares.
-Improved the scenery inside the church and its surroundings. The clues have also been improved as well as the capabilities of the shovel to improve the realism.
-Improved trigger zones for several dialogues. Now it will only trigger in places where it makes sense.
-Improved the wording of some of the notes.
-Improved slightly the lighting of certain objects inside houses.
-Fixed an issue with the side-quest. Before, you were unable to enter the room if you got the key before interacting with the door to open it. Now you can complete the side quest without issues.
-Fixed a labelling issue where some house doors were not supposed to be interactable.
-Fixed a variety of other minor errors.
-Removed the 'RSS' icon when using the AR glasses that had no meaning or use to improve the visuals.
Updated Absinth roadmap (13 Jan 2019)
Hello everyone, hope you all had a great weekened!
Two small adjustment has been made for the Absinth roadmap.
Unfortunately, we removed the streaming event this summer as our research suggested it would not be cost/effective and we would like to fully focus on Absinth's development. Please find below the actualized version.
Good news is soon we will post the patch notes for the upcoming patch. Stay tuned!
You can always find our latest roadmap here:
http://absinthgame.com/en/roadmap.html
Your blackhound studios team!
Absinth | Patch Notes V0.81
Hello everyone!
We've been working very hard this past month and are delighted to bring you a new patch, live now.
This Christmas patch includes many bug-fixes, improvements in performance issues and in our puzzles as well as other general aspects of the game.
We'd like to thank everyone for your support and for providing us with your valuable feedback! We truly appreciate it!
Section 1: Performance Improvements
Section 2: General
Section 3: Main Menu / In-game Menu
Section 4: Act I - Police Dept.
Section 5: Act II - Redwoods
-Improved light calculations which had a huge negative impact on performance.
-Improved performance slightly by deleting non-visible objects.
-Prepared more objects for the following CPU performance boost update Patch #2 coming on late January 2019.
Overall, this is a significant perfomance boost, specifically for the CPU usage (which was a big concern). The game should now be playable with high mid-range systems on 30-60 fps such as AMD RX650 or GTX 1050.
Section 2: General
-Changed the in-game menu from [Tab] to [ESC].
-Added camera shaking effect to some events in both acts.
-Main character sent to the gym: +1 run speed duration.
-Fixed (removed) a visual bug that showed a zoom label when observing an item.
-Fixed the issue where you had to press [Tab] [Tab] to fix mouse problems when you tabbed out and back in.
-Fixed a multitude of spelling mistakes in both acts.
Section 3: Main Menu & In-game Menu
-Built-in Unity configuration window that appeared upon the game's start-up has been deactivated.
-Reduced the sensibility of the brightness bar. Additionally, maximum brightness was reduced.
-Resolutions can now be changed within the main menu, including:
-Added a loading progression bar in the loading screen.
-Added an image with the controls in the main menu.
-Fixed an issue with the 'Exit button' within the in-game menu. It now leads to the main menu instead of exiting the whole game.
Section 4: Act I - Police Dept.
-Redesigned second riddle to be more logical and rewarding to figure out instead of feeling ''random''.
-Redesigned the website for the first riddle to be in dark mode to avoid 'blinding ' people.
-Improved the trigger mechanics for the main quest log. It now triggers in up to three different cases.
-Introduction scene is skippable now after viewing it once.
-Added motion sensors to the lights. Now they will turn on when you are close enough to an emergency light.
-Fixed an issue where sometimes the main enemy did not spawn.
-Fixed a visual issue where you were able to interact with the Rifle cabinet through a wall.
-Fixed a visual issue where books in the interrogration room where overlapping on each other.
Section 5: Act II - Redwoods
-Improved slightly the hints for the quest to enter the final house.
-Improved overall trigger and behavior mechanics for the AI in the event of the final house.
-Improved the labels on the top right of the screen when using the AR view.
-Fixed the sound range of the TV in the side quest to seem more realistic and accurate.
-Fixed an issue where you were not able to click the 'Exit Button' in the menu on this act.
-Fixed an issue where the "interact" label was still showing up after deactivating the interference signal.
-Fixed an issue in the final house where a door was showing up twice.
-Fixed an issue where a character in the side quest was sometimes glitched inside the floor.
-Fixed a visual issue where some objects had an interactable sign but were not supposed to be interactable.
-Fixed a visual issue with several tables and chairs in the final house being disproportionately big.
-Fixed a visual issue where objects appeared to be inside walls.
Absinth is coming to Steam this November 21st 2018!
Absinth is launching on Steam, November 21st at 6PM EST / 11PM GMT +0 for PC
We would like to thank every ambassador who has helped us through our journey in the Pre-Alpha (PA) from 2017 until now, the Early Access (EA) release! We are very excited to be launching Absinth on Steam!
Eyüp and Alex are the founders and (the only) two developers of blackHound Studios. Currently we are a team of 5. We really look forward working with the community and hearing what you think to help make Absinth a great game for you throughout this Early Access, and make sure you love it as much as we do.
As gamers ourselves, we know it can become rather disappointing when good games never find their way out of EA, so we decided from the very beginning not to follow this scheme. We want to show you that we are fully committed and passionate about Absinth. So please check out our current roadmap for Absinth!
