As we continue to read your valuable feedback on the game, it has become clear that some of you wish to experience the story of Empathy without any kind of in-between interactions. In order to address that, today's patch introduced a new game mode which allows players to opt out of the syncing puzzle mechanic to focus on story. The new game mode is called "Memento mode" and can be found in the settings menu.
We are also introducing a Field of View setting and ability to disable the persistent cross-hair in-game (it will only pop up when mousing over interactive objects).
We continue listening to your feedback, if you have any questions or issues, don't hesitate to contact us here on the forums.
We hope you enjoy the update and stay tuned for more.
Cheers,
Surtur
Empathy: Path of Whispers Save System Update
Hi everyone! We've been following all the feedback, and it been great seeing that many enjoy the game. However, one of the things that became apparent is that our old automatic save system didn't hold up to the player's curiosity in the Empathy's open world.
We want to thank you for your patience with this, and today we're introducing an update that brings manual saves and save slots, allowing players to backtrack and load from any point of the game. The automatic saving is still there too, to keep player's progress up to date, but now writes to a new slot up to 15 at any time, overwriting the oldest ones. The only current limit to manual save slots is disk space. Please note that game always saves on selecting the exit option.
If you are continuing game from older save, "load/save game" will at first be unavailable until several auto or manual saves are created after continuing from old save.
We continue listening to your feedback, and you are welcome to contact us either here on the forums, or on contact@empathygame.org with any questions or issues!
Changelog:
New save slot system, supporting manual saving and loading, as well as multiple save slots.
Fixed multiple narrations and sounds that were incorrectly playing upon load game.
Wooden hatch down to the tunnel should properly display as open when ladder is possible to interact with.
Lower quality settings no longer affect screen resolution setting, resulting in better graphics on low settings.
Fixed "The fall" achievement tracking.
Partial controller support, menu still requires mouse, but game is playable with controller only.
Fixed Journal's database, so it correctly counts character entries, which earlier resulted in few incorrect character total dialogue count.
Got rid of a weird symbol in English subtitles.
Empathy: Patch of Whispers Patch 1.0.1
Hello everyone,
It is great to see poeple are enjoying Empathy: Path of Whispers, but for those who had some issues with the game, we've just release a patch for Empathy: Path of Whispers. This brings the game up to version 1.01.
The Patch contains the following changes:
Adjust spawn location in second mountains memory for better sense of direction.
Locked one of the doors in cliff town for better direction flow.
Slightly increased running speed.
Based on feedback, slightly adjusted difficulty of scanner syncing.
Added an additional dialogue on Artem memory's end.
Blocked off an area around elevator in tutorial that users can get stuck on.
Fixed an untranslated "invert mouse" string in Russian menu.
Adjusted clipping of a word in Russian menu.
Removed an incorrect extra character entry from Journal’s act 5.
Increased lighting around wooden bridge’s lever to better draw attention during memory sequence.
Collectible achievements are reset on starting a new game (mementos, documents).
Journal tutorial closes itself after 30 sec.
Fixed typos in credits.
Inventory should no longer pop up for half a second during memory fadein.
Music triggers wont play music if another musical track is already playing.
Basic controller support. This is still not officially supported, but should be playable.
Added support for left-handed play, controls bound to arrows, left CTRL/shift, and numpad.
Improved collisions around cottage roof to disallow players getting stuck on it.
Improved journal scrolling response.
Properly hiding inventory tutorial when a controller is used.
EMPATHY: PATH OF WHISPERS OUT NOW
Developer Pixel Night and publisher Iceberg Interactive announce the release of their first-person adventure game, Empathy: Path of Whispers. Players can now purchase this surreal and atmospheric experience at an SRP of $19.99, through Steam and other digital retailers.
To celebrate, Empathy: Path of Whispers will have a 20% discount for the week of launch.
In addition, the soundtrack to Empathy: Path of Whispers, composed by Nicolai Patricio and featuring 16 tracks, is available as free downloadable content through Steam.
“With Empathy we set out to seamlessly integrate environmental narrative storytelling into a first-person adventure game.” says Anton Pustovoyt, lead developer at Pixel Night. “You actively need to find, decipher and experience memories left behind by people long gone, in order to unlock the secrets and mysteries of this strange and monumental world that once was. As a player you’ll be led through a rabbit hole and end up more curious than Alice was.”
Pustovoyt continues: “We especially focused on building Empathy’s surreal world, creating multiple areas with a distinct look and feel to get lost in. We want our player to feel charmed, unsettled, intrigued, haunted by their own theories of what could’ve happened. Experiencing a beautiful and evocative environment that’s completely and utterly devoid of life is something we sought to highlight and, hopefully, accomplished with Empathy: Path of Whispers”.
In Empathy: Path of Whispers, players must explore a seemingly abandoned world through the emotions and memories of the people who once inhabited it, trying to restore the world’s lost balance as you journey through its past. With a strong focus on storytelling and exploration, players will find themselves in a strange world created from people’s emotions and memories, which can be manipulated and explored. Those lost memories are the key to rebuilding the crumbling world back to its former state, discovering its mysterious past and halting an impending apocalypse. Through its innovative narrative mechanics the game will challenge the player to explore and gain an understanding of the weird world they are traveling through.
Stay up-to-date with the latest Empathy: Path of Whispers news and information on the official website www.empathygame.org, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/empathygame, Twitter at https://twitter.com/Empathy_Game and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/iceberginteractive
Empathy: Path of Whispers Heads For Release On Steam May 16
Developer Pixel Night and publisher Iceberg Interactive are proud to announce the release of their first-person adventure game, Empathy: Path of Whispers - releasing on Steam and other digital retailers May 16, 2017. A new trailer released today offers a glimpse into the surreal and atmospheric world that awaits players of this unique adventure game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WobnonHZC6A
In Empathy: Path of Whispers, players must explore a seemingly abandoned world through the emotions and memories of the people who once inhabited it, trying to restore the world’s lost balance as you journey through its past. With a strong focus on storytelling and exploration, players will find themselves in a strange world created from people’s emotions and memories, which can be manipulated and explored. Those lost memories are the key to rebuilding the crumbling world back to its former state, discovering its mysterious past and halting an impending apocalypse. Through its innovative narrative mechanics the game will challenge the player to explore and gain an understanding of the weird world they are traveling through.
“We can't wait for players to experience the intriguing world of Empathy, which we've been crafting for the past few years.” says Anton Pustovoyt, lead developer at Pixel Night. “It's an accomplishment we’re extremely proud of, and we hope players enjoy the unique experience they're about to embark on."
We are closing the signup for now as we have plenty of testers already. Thank you for your interest! If you are selected, you will hear back from us.
Best,
Surtur
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Original message:
Publisher Iceberg Interactive announces that it has opened a Closed Beta program for its upcoming first-person, puzzle adventure game Empathy (PC/Mac). Development Studio Pixel Night is calling out to fans of the adventure genre to enter the Closed Beta program and to help and support the developer in a controlled test environment.
“Crafting narrative heavy experiences is an interesting challenge, as there’s always many angles to consider. After two years of development, we feel that we’re at the final push, and need the players’ invaluable feedback for polishing and finishing the experience to achieve the best result”, says Anton Pustovoyt, lead developer at Pixel Night. He continues: “If you are a dedicated adventure gamer, who genuinely likes contributing feedback, and would love help iterating on different experiences, then we’re looking for you. Empathy is currently a bit rough around the edges, but with your feedback, we are going to polish it into the story we’ve all envisioned.”
