We’re incredibly pumped to finally launch the full game. It’s been two years in Early Access at this point, and your feedback has helped us IMMENSELY in shaping the experience for the better.
That said, this will be the last blog highlighting build improvements - as we near the launch, we’ll just be talking about the game in its entirety and aiming to explain it to players who have only just heard of us.
That said, here are a couple of the things you can expect when the game fully launches if you’ve been playing along with us:
Gameplay Enhancements:
Equipment Scanner: This is a new tool you can find late in the game that shows what hidden unlocks are still located in each level to help out those of you trying to 100% the experience.
Navigation Drone: Some of you may have discovered the combat drone late in the game. We’ve expanded on it and actually made it the third upgrade you get to your scuba gear. Now, instead of bigger oxygen tanks, you can control a drone for the later diver sections and add combat abilities to it for those of you who thoroughly explore.
Puzzle Expansions: Several of the game’s puzzles, particularly in the final area, have been altered to provide a better experience, and several more have been added to optional areas.
Re-arranged Unlocks: We’ve altered the flow of the game so that the most difficult optional sections reward you with greater upgrades (i.e. hull upgrades over depth charges).
Art Overhauls
Level Assets: We’ve overhauled the game’s art in several respects to bring it all up to the same level and better tie everything together. You’ll notice changes from the tutorial onward, but much of these art updates deal with Biome 2 and 6.
Enhanced Cutscenes: Some of the bigger cutscenes of the game now have more animation than previously to better sell some moments.
Quality of Life Improvements:
Enhanced Saving: Your savegame will not only track playtime but also the equipment you’ve unlocked, the biomes you’ve seen, and more. Hopefully this will make measuring your progress a bit simpler.
Music/FX Overhaul: Several sound fx and musical tracks have been added/reworked to better fit into the game.
Minigames:
We’ll keep this vague, but those who finish the game with the good ending will see a new minigame on the main menu for your efforts. Just a little bit of fun from the dev team :)
We hope you enjoy all these changes when the game launches Oct 31st!
When we exit Early Access, the price will rise to $19.99, so if you know anyone who has been on the fence, let them know that these are the last months you can still get the game at $14.99.
Thank you all so much, and we’ll be in touch soon.
-The Bomb Shelter Games Team
Pax Rising, Steam Summer Sale, and the Road to 1.0
Hey Everyone,
Apologies for being silent outside of a small patch released after the finale dropped. We took a two week break to enjoy the fact that - oh my God - Depths of Sanity is now complete in Early Access.
But break time is over. The team has been back at it for the last month refining and polishing the experience to gear up for the full 1.0 launch later this year. Let's dive into that for a minute:
The team decided that unless a major bug is discovered (which, thankfully, we haven't heard any new ones from the community) we're going to just wait and drop the one big update right before we exit Early Access, rather than push out piecemeal improvements for the next few months. To be frank, it's much easier for our small team to truly test the game and iron out any kinks when we're doing it in one big update instead of smaller patches.
And what are we working on for full launch? A whole lot. Here is a quick overview:
Gameplay Updates: This includes everything from overhauling some of our puzzles as well as expanding some of the tools you'll use throughout the adventure (we'll show off more of this later, but the team decided we wanted to enhance some of the upgrades you get in more meaningful ways).
Adding "Juice": This includes updating/improving some outdated art assets, overhauling some of the sound and music design, and just making sure the adventure has more "punch" overall.
Adding Extras/Easter Eggs: There's a bunch of small stuff we wanted to get into the game (like adding a 3rd "secret ending", achievements, a hidden mini-game) and this is giving us the right amount of time to do it.
Fixing the little nitpicks that just annoy the team at this point.
We'll keep you updated as we pass milestones and gear up to market the full launch of the game.
Speaking of which, we've been picked to join PAX Rising Online July 9th-10th: a new, all-digital addition to the PAX lineup. Tune in to watch playthroughs and livestreams of upcoming indies, chat with devs, and hear roundtables on all the topics that willl interest you from the indie scene. Get more information here.
In the meantime, if you've finished the game (or are just starting your journey), PLEASE continue to give us feedback. We now have the time to make improvements across the board, so if you have suggestions, post them on our Steam Discussion Board, our Discord, or DM us on Twitter.
Talk soon!
-The Bomb Shelter Games Team
Depths of Sanity's Final Chapter is Out! Experience the Whole Nightmare Now!
For those of you who have been playing along, this chapter – The Stem – will conclude Abe’s journey. For those of you who are new, you can officially play through the entire adventure from beginning to end and experience every biome, uncover every secret, discover each ending, and more!
Check out the launch trailer here:
If you’ve already been playing along with us, we can’t wait to hear what you think of the final chapter (and what ending you wind up getting!) But if you’re new (or just wishlisted us from our latest PAX appearance) here’s what you’re in for:
Depths of Sanity is an underwater metroidvania nightmare. You play as Abe Douglas, a Commander in the G.O.A.A. tracking down the Baroness, a submarine staffed by his old crew that went dark while investigating a mysterious signal at the bottom of the ocean.
The entire game takes place under the sea, flipping a lot of the usual metroidvania mechanics on their head. There are no double jumps to save you here. Instead, you’ll use unique tools like diver suits to squeeze through tight areas, sonar to guide you through pure blackness, and tow lines to yank you through heavy currents, and, if you’re feeling frisky, send yourself flying into your enemies.
And right now, you can get Depths of Sanity for $13.50 as part of Steam’s “Going Rogue” sale from now until next Monday! That’s cheaper than our standard Early Access price, and significantly cheaper than our final launch price (which will be $20).
Thank you too everyone who has been playing along with our releases – we literally would not have gotten to this huge milestone without your feedback.
We have a few more months to go in early access in order to add polish, and during that time we definitely still want your feedback, so while you’re playing, make sure you send us your thoughts either on our Discord, Steam Discussion Board, or DM us on Twitter.
And for real, thank you for all of your support! It’s a very cool feeling for us to finally say that Depths is now a complete game.
- The Bomb Shelter Games Team
Depths of Sanity’s Final Chapter Drops on May 2nd!
Hey Everyone,
Sorry for the lack of updates over the last 2 months – we’ve been working our butts off to hit this latest milestone and time got away from us.
But we have a hell of a lot of good news to share.
First off - Depths of Sanity’s final chapter is entering Early Access on May 2nd! This chapter – The Stem – will not only cap the game off, but will come with a slew of under-the-hood changes from your feedback, including a weapon rebalancing in order to make some underutilized ones more useful and powerful.
It’s been a long time coming, but on May 2nd you'll finally be able to finish Abe's adventure. We take a few risks with the finale, so we're incredibly interested in your feedback, and we can't wait to see which ending the community winds up seeing more of.
On top of that, to help promote the launch, we're going to be at PAX East this weekend with a new demo, showing off some mechanics from the 2nd half of the game. If you have any friends going who haven't heard of Depths, make sure to send them our way to give it a try! We’ll be at booth 17084.
Next week we’ll drop the official launch trailer for the final chapter. Until then, here are a few screenshots to tide you over:
Thank you for playing, and continue sending us feedback as you go through the game! Post it here, on our Discord, or DM us on Twitter.
See you next week.
-Bomb Shelter Games
February Chapter 6 Dev Update - Testing Our Stalker Enemy and Adding Art
Hey Everyone,
We hope you all had a great Holiday and a good start to the year!
We’ve had a busy month and a half on our team. Progress on Chapter 6 is moving along nicely, with the team currently playtesting most of the scenarios and puzzles before they’re locked for the level. The rest of the month is focused around implementing all of the remaining art assets for the Chapter, of which there are A LOT.
Unfortunately, that means that we don’t have a lot to show you for this update. Or at least, nothing that looks great lol.
However, to give you a flavor for the final area of the game, here’s one of the parallax backgrounds for the level – things have officially taken a turn for the nightmarish for poor Old Abe:
The final chapter is also going to challenge you in some new ways. One of the biggest is that you’ll be dealing with an enemy that continually stalks you throughout much of the level. Right now it’s just a giant floating red dot while we wait to insert the art assets, but here is a glimpse of it chasing us during one of our gameplay tests.
We’re still on track for a mid-to-late April release, launching right in time for our appearance at PAX East. Our March update will be very large, and we’ll finally be able to show you just what you’re dealing with for the finale. And you better believe things get weird in Chapter 6:
As always, thank you for playing, and continue sending us feedback as you go through the game! Post it here, on our Discord, or DM us on Twitter.
See you in the next update!
-Bomb Shelter Games
Chapter 6 Dev Update - Release Window, Multiple Endings, and More!
Hey Everyone,
Damn, it’s been a while hasn’t it?
Apologies for the radio silence after the release of Chapter 5 in September. A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes, and wanted to give a big Holiday update on our progress with Chapter 6 - the finale of Depths of Sanity.
First of all, we want to thank everyone who has been with us in this Early Access journey, whether you joined during our initial launch or with the release of subsequent chapters. Your feedback has been invaluable for improving Depths of Sanity every step of the way, and we appreciate seeing the reviews that say the game keeps on getting better with each chapter.
Development on Chapter 6 has been steady, though there have been several big redesigns along the way. We initially had imagined this being the longest chapter in the game, but after playtesting the early builds we decided to restructure the finale, cutting the chapter down to the best bits and refining them to make sure the pace only ramped up as you reached the endings.
Yes, that is plural. Something we've kept quiet previously is that Depths has multiple endings. We’re going to keep things vague because honestly we want players to discover what they are/how you trigger them on their own, but a lot of work is being put into making the finale great no matter what ending you get.
So, what can we show you? Well, here’s a glimpse of the final unlockable weapon in the game, the Implosion Cannon. It’s a short range weapon that absolutes anything that gets too close.
Here’s us taking it for a spin in our test room: [previewyoutube="davGSAjMdf8;full"] And while we can’t show you much of the level yet, we can safely say that our enemies are at their deadliest in the finale. While there are several entirely new monstrosities for this last chapter, here is a glimpse at the new and much meaner sprouted versions of the pufferfish, isopod, and swordfish: [previewyoutube="g-wVCpr7_Kw;full"]
Development of the finale is taking a bit longer than the other chapters, but progress is steady. Our aim is to release this final Chapter in Q1 of 2022, likely launching right before or during the newly announced PAX East.
We’ll be resuming a more regular posting cadence here and on our social media shortly, now that we’ve moved to the point where we can actually show a bit about what we’re working on. We're also going to be discounted during the Steam Winter Sale for those of you who have been keeping up with us but haven't decided to take the plunge yet.
Thank you for playing, and continue sending us feedback as you go through the game! Post it here, on our Discord, or DM us on Twitter.
Happy Holidays, and we’ll see you in the New Year!
-Bomb Shelter Games
The Descent Continues: Depths of Sanity Chapter 5 is now in Early Access!
Hey Everyone,
Big News: Chapter 5 of Depths of Sanity has arrived in early access, and it brings Abe to the biggest and most horrific environment yet – Whale Fall – and includes plenty of new enemies, weapons, ship upgrades, and more. Check out the launch trailer here:
[previewyoutube="DEQ6LwjqjXc;full"]
If you’ve already been playing along with us, we hope you enjoy the penultimate chapter! But if you’re new, here’s what you’re in for:
Depths of Sanity is an underwater metroidvania nightmare. You play as Abe Douglas, a Commander in the G.O.A.A. tracking down the Baroness, a submarine staffed by his old crew that went dark while investigating a mysterious signal at the bottom of the ocean.
The entire game takes place under the sea, flipping a lot of the usual metroidvania mechanics on their head. There are no double jumps to save you here. Instead, you’ll use unique tools like diver suits to squeeze through tight areas, sonar to guide you through pure blackness, and tow lines to yank you through heavy currents, and, if you’re feeling frisky, send yourself flying into your enemies.
The full game will be 6 chapters, and Chapter 5 not only brings an all-new environment to explore, but also quality of life and balancing improvements across the game.
It’s a giant update, and this week only, you can get Depths of Sanity for $13.50. That’s cheaper than our standard Early Access price, and significantly cheaper than our final launch price (which will be $20).
Thank you for all of your support! The Bomb Shelter Games Team
Chapter 5 Releases September 28th - And Contains a Major Game-Wide Update!
We have A LOT of updates regarding Depths of Sanity’s fifth chapter.
First is that we now have our official launch date – September 28th. In a few weeks we’ll drop the official trailer alongside a list of what the Chapter brings, and we can’t wait for you to see it.
But the reason we’re putting this blog out is because we want to talk about another change coming with this update: we’re doing a massive game rebalance.
In all the feedback we’ve received, one thing we’ve continually heard is that the game is a bit too easy after the first two chapters, and if you’re exploring thoroughly, it’s possible to get too powerful too early in the game.
At the same time, on the dev side, we’ve been having our own issues when it comes to balancing player rewards. In the back half of the game, we’ve been running out of ways to reward players who thoroughly explore, relying too heavily on torpedo and depth charge upgrades as collectibles. And when we looked at the scope of the Chapter 5 and Chapter 6, we realized that players who explored every nook and cranny would be wildly overpowered by the end of the game.
So Chapter 5 is instituting a game-wide rebalance: hull upgrades now come in pieces. With the exceptions of boss fights, you will never find a full hull upgrade on its own anymore. Instead, you’ll find pieces of them, and you need 3 in order to actually add a hull upgrade to your ship.
This does a few important things:
It rebalances the game so that the power curve is much more gradual.
It allows us the ability to really reward the players who are spending a lot of time exploring the levels, since hull upgrades are so important.
If you’re new to Depths of Sanity, or haven’t gone past the first 3 Chapters, you will be able to just jump in and have a blast without noticing the change.
However, if you’re deep into the game, this will alter your experience. Due to how hull upgrade data is saved and how we had to redistribute the unlocks for the hull, torpedoes, and depth charges, two things could happen:
1. If you back track, it is now possible to pick up more hull upgrades then you have health slots (health is hard capped, so you won’t actually gain any max life beyond the 16 available hull slots).
2. If you collected every upgrade in Worlds 1-4 you may find a location in World 5 where there should be an upgrade present but there isn’t. This is because in your previous playthrough, you picked up that upgrade and we then relocated it to World 5 to make room for the added hull pickups. This will be most obvious with torpedo unlocks as we dramatically reduced their numbers.
Again, these are only issues if you are resuming a playthrough from earlier in Early Access. None of these issues will prevent you from progressing and finishing the game, and they will not be present if you decide to start a new game.
This is a pretty big change, but we wanted to implement it now because we think it will make Depths of Sanity a better, more balanced experience.
The next time we give an update we’ll list everything coming in Chapter 5, and will likely have the official launch trailer.
Talk to you then, The Bomb Shelter Games Team
Chapter 5 Aiming for a September Release - Details Inside
Hey Everyone,
We hope you’ve been having a good summer!
We’re back for our monthly Depths of Sanity dev update. Last time we told you Chapter 5 takes place in the grossest, strangest environment yet – Whale Fall – and introduces several new obstacles, like deep-sea pressure that can crack your hull and kill you if you stay in areas that are too deep for too long.
Right now, the entire team is really working through the nitty gritty of the chapter, replaying the build each week and giving feedback for improving the puzzles, tuning the obstacles, and generally making sure the pace of the area really sings. Our goal is to get all those tweaks done by early August so we can do bug runs after.
For a peak at a new obstacle, enemies are continuing to mysteriously transform in worse ways. Here’s the new version of of the rock shrimp you’ll be facing off with in one of our test environments:
[previewyoutube="p4xNKZLJ1os;full"]
Meanwhile, our artist Bennett is currently repainting the chapter and adding in “set-piece” visuals to bring the art quality up to its releasable form.
(For example, adding in the very gross thing that this character is supposed to be reacting to that currently doesn’t exist lol)
Based on our rate of progress, it looks like Chapter 5 will launch in mid-September, and we’ll have the official date for you in our August update. It’s later than we wanted the chapter to release, but we had to work a bit out of order with the addition of a new baby to the team, so thank you for bearing with us.
In the meantime, please continue to leave us feedback on Steam, in our Discord, or on Twitter to help us keep improving Depths of Sanity as we go along!
Thanks, The Bomb Shelter Games Team
Chapter 5 Development Update and Steam Summer Sale!
Hey Everyone,
It’s been about a month since our last update and A LOT has happened.
The biggest news is that we welcomed the very first development baby to the fold! Our programmer Jim was graced by a beautiful baby girl a few weeks ago, and we’re incredibly happy for him and his wife.
On top of that, because we worked ahead in anticipation of Jim’s baby, most of Chapter 5 has already been designed gameplay-wise, and much of what we’re working on now is art/sound/story related.
Chapter 5 takes place in the grossest, strangest environment yet – Whale Fall. A Whale Fall occurs at several of the deepest portions of the Atlantic. When a whale dies, its corpse falls to the bottom of the sea, where it’s body and bones decompose and become hosts for other organisms. Eventually, their entire carcass becomes a thriving ecosystem for hundreds of other sea creatures.
And in Chapter 5, you and Abe get to make your way through it.
This area will bring a lot of new dangers to deal with, along with some environmental hazards you haven’t experienced before, like deep-sea pressure that can crack your hull and kill you if you stay in areas that are too deep for too long.
We don’t want to show you much yet (since so much of the art is unfinished) but here is a quick glimpse of a portion of the area:
[previewyoutube="KFglLSDFsfE;full"]
On top of getting Chapter 5 in order, we’re also working on some overall game improvements for the next patch, as well as finalizing a secret weapon that some of you may already be on your way to unlocking, which we’re currently calling the Swarm.
Here’s a glimpse of an older version of it.
[previewyoutube="CeEBwd7Q51I;full"]
We’re hoping that next month we can give you a firmer date for the Chapter’s launch.
The last order of business is the Steam Summer Sale. If you’re reading this and haven’t joined us in Early Access yet, we’ll be on sale at 10% off throughout the Steam Summer Sale. It’s the perfect time to jump in, get up to speed on all the previous chapters, and give us your feedback before Chapter 5 drops. We can't tell you when that is (dates are not officially released by Steam yet) but uh...keep your eyes open :)
We also want to thank those of you who have been playing and have been kind enough to leave a review – each one helps us so much, and we’ve seen wishlists slowly increasing every week with each new review, so thank you!
You can expect more frequent updates in the coming weeks now that the bulk of the development of Chapter 5 is done. Follow us on Twitter for more, and in the meantime, enjoy your summer to the fullest!
