Area Man Lives
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AREA MAN LIVES is on sale for 20% off!
Patch 1.2.4 - Skip!
This is our newest feature release specifically to add a “Skip” feature in our Pause Menu that allows players to skip parts of the story they’ve already experienced. We’ve heard that our replay mechanic in certain story moments can cause some frustration, so hopefully this will alleviate those frustrations. I will go into more detail about the new feature below!
Feature Details
- This release focuses on a “Skip Current Section” feature we’ve added to the Pause Menu.
- The “Skip” option will only be available after the initial setup of the story and only if you’ve already played through a section at least once (since the patch released).
- If you haven’t successfully completed a puzzle section, you’ll skip to the beginning of the puzzle section.
- If you’ve already successfully completed a puzzle section, you’ll skip the success branch of the puzzle section.
- If you’ve already completed an ending, you’ll skip to the news report (room with the printer).
Known Issues we’re looking into (contains potential spoilers)
- Sand dunes outside the window during the beach sequence are white instead of their intended shade.
- Holding items in the comic book shop, persist into the radio station.
- Attempting to record a commercial during the call-in-show causes the call-in-show to not progress. If you get into this state, just reload your save and you should start right before the call-in-show.
- Sometimes subtitles do not clear when a character is done speaking and sometimes they do not update with the last line of text.
- Sometimes one of the hands stops being able to target objects with the laser pointer. Usually picking the object up directly with that hand and dropping it will reset the hand and allow laser pointing again.
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Patch 1.1.6
Hello Taylor’s of the Area Man Lives (AML) Universe! This is Mike Perrotto (@SirMrCl3an), Producer and Developer on AML at Numinous Games. We are dedicated to making AML the best experience it can be for all of our players regardless of headset, controller or platform.
This is a small release specifically to address a stutter problem we’ve been seeing when using the Meta Quest via Air/Link Cable.
Fixes
- We’ve corrected an issue our players have reported specifically with the Steam and Rift platforms. Every time the game would ask for the player to speak, a 1-2 second stutter would occur causing a very jarring and uncomfortable experience. Players experiencing this issue should be able to play the game now using their Meta Quest via Air/Link Cable as a Rift.
Known Issues we’re looking into (contains potential spoilers)
- Sand dunes outside the window during the beach sequence are white instead of their intended shade.
- We’re adding a way to skip certain sections of the game if the player has already completed them once. Please note that some sections are similar, but not exactly the same, and may hold clues as to what to do or where to go next.
- Holding items in the comic book shop, persist into the radio station.
- Trying to record a commercial during the call-in-show causes the call-in-show to not progress. If you get into this state, just reload your save and you should start right before the call-in-show.
- Recording a commercial does not complete the “Record New Commercials” on the To-Do list. This is also preventing 100% completion status of the game.
- Sometimes subtitles do not clear when a character is done speaking and sometimes they do not update with the last line of text.
- When repeating the shortened version of the first part of the game, there is more dialog we’d like to remove on subsequent playthroughs to make it less frustrating.
- Sometimes one of the hands stops being able to target objects with the laser pointer. Usually picking the object up directly with that hand and dropping it will reset the hand and allow laser pointing again.
Patch 1.1
Below are documented fixes, features and known issues we’re currently working on. We’ve broken the fixes into two sections; “Spoiler-Free” and “Potential Spoilers”. For those of you experiencing the story and puzzles for the first time, we wanted a way for you to see improvements to the game if you so choose, but also not spoil your experience.
Fixes (Spoiler-Free)
- We’ve made the height more uniform, regardless of standing or sitting. If you’re height feels or looks off, try snap-rotating or teleporting and it should resolve the issue. If the height remains to feel or look off, try toggling the “Adjust Height” setting by opening the Oculus dash, then go to Settings -> Accessibility -> Mobility. If that fails, try restarting the game.
- When the Area Man Dies, the incorrect Anchor audio was playing.
- Fixed various subtitles that did not match the audio that was being spoken.
- Cleaned up a number of audio cues and dialog to better match the story beats.
- Fixed an issue with text being low-res on some of the papers hanging on the bulletin board on Steam, Viveport and Rift versions.
- We now hide the players in-game hands when bringing up the Universal Menu on Meta Quest and Rift.
Fixes (contains Potential Spoilers)
- After failing or reaching a false ending, we’ve removed a lot of the repeated dialog as to get the player back to the decision points much quicker. In many cases, this removed minutes of repeated content that was very frustrating.
- During the “Mech” sequence, audio was not properly ducking when characters were speaking.
- The reverse beeps audio could get stuck in a loop. This has now been fixed.
- Removed the flashing lights while the phenomenon was happening. Both together were too much and an eyesore.
- Made it so certain objects can be interacted with properly earlier in the story.
- Made it so the player cannot enter the truck before the phenomenon, which would have resulted in the player being spun around, causing potential discomfort in the experience.
Known Issues we’re looking into (contains potential spoilers)
- Sand dunes outside the window during the beach sequence are white instead of their intended shade.
- Holding items in the comic book shop, persist into the radio station.
- Trying to record a commercial during the call-in-show causes the call-in-show to not progress. If you get into this state, just reload your save and you should start right before the call-in-show.
- Recording a commercial does not complete the “Record New Commercials” on the To-Do list. This is also preventing 100% completion status of the game.
- On the PC builds, we are getting reports that when the game starts to detect speech input, it can stutter for multiple seconds. This seems to be localized to a Quest/Quest 2 headset connected to a PC via link cable. Rift S and Viveport headsets seems to not have the stutter. One workaround is to change your microphone to your PC mic (or a mic connected to your PC) instead of using the headset’s mic.
- Sometimes subtitles do not clear when a character is done speaking and sometimes they do not update with the last line of text.
- When repeating the shortened version of the first part of the game, there is more dialog we’d like to remove on subsequent playthroughs to make it less frustrating. That change will be modified in our next patch.
- Sometimes one of the hands stops being able to target objects with the laser pointer. Usually picking the object up directly with that hand and dropping it will reset the hand and allow laser pointing again.