So you may have noticed on our store pages we have a little piece of text that says we donate 10% of all of Epiphany City's profits. Well it took us awhile to decide where to donate the money, but as promised we have done just that, and we've settled on donating the money to specialized adoption coalitions.
Why Adoption?
There are many places our money could have gone. In the past we've donated to BLM initiatives (specifically BLM Chicago), feeding the homeless initiatives, and human trafficking prevention among many others. However after doing some research we've decided that our money would have the highest beneficial impact if we aided the adoption of orphans.
There are many reasons for this, but the bottom line is, almost any problem in society you want to improve can be solved by adoption. Homelessness, education and drop-out rates, drug and alcohol abuse, crime and prison overcrowding, unemployment, financial instability, illness and mental health, obesity, early mortality, you name it, adoption probably has it covered.
In addition, there are a whole host of debilitating issues that occur in children without loving parents. Growing up without a father figure increases school drop-out rates by 71%, delinquency and crime by 85%, homelessness by 90%, teen pregnancy increases by 5-8x, drug and alcohol abuse drastically increases, and even 60% of all youth suicides are from fatherless homes. Of course, growing up WITH attentive parents provides an immeasurable amount of benefit as well, including 55% more likely to enroll in college, 130% more likely to hold leadership positions, and tons more. I don't need to go into too many details as this is stuff anyone can google themselves, but it is one of the most debilitating circumstances to have to grow up without loving parents.
However, solely providing support for adoption agencies alone results in a whole new host of challenges, as there are unfortunately many families who sign up for adoption or foster care solely to reap extra financial benefits. So with that in mind, we've donated $2,000 to Foster the City, which is a coalition that works with licensed foster and adoption agencies to both pre-approve and support families that can provide the loving care that orphans need. We've also donated $366.58 to Berean Community Church which runs its own internal adoption agency that does almost the exact same thing.
We chose these two adoption organizations for 3 reasons. First, as we said, both are very diligent about which families qualify for adoption, as there are many aspects to consider when finding a proper home for an orphan. Second, our funds are relatively limited, so giving a small(ish) amount to a gigantic corporation may not only barely make a difference in their bottom line, but may also be used less efficiently, as there can be much more red tape to work through and friction/interference from various levels of government. And third, I have personally met with or spoken to people from both organizations, so I have been able to personally scout out and verify the people in charge and how they operate. Foster the City in particular had a base out in the Northern California Bay Area (Foster the Bay), which is where I was located for the majority of Epiphany City's development, so I wanted to aid that location as well.
Also I shouldn't have to say this, but just in case I do want to note that I am not personally affiliated with either of the organizations or benefit from any of their operations, so it's not like I'm just paying myself in a roundabout way or anything.
Last but not least, Epiphany City is at a limited time discount of 25% off! This is the deepest discount we've had EVER, so if that's what you've been waiting for, now's the time =)
Thank you so much for reading this particular email as it means a lot to me, and I hope you have a wonderful week. - Dave
Español & Português Translations Are LIVE!!!
Spanish & Portuguese translations are in the game RIGHT NOW!!!
It's also coupled with a 20% discount, so be sure to pick it up while it lasts =)
To access them: 1. Be on the Title Screen 2. Go to Settings 3. Click on the arrows around "ENGLISH" and all words should automatically and immediately change!
Some important notes:
Keep in mind the language can only be changed from the Title Screen, not the in-game pause menu.
There are a couple places where the text hasn't been translated, most notably the early social media sites and posters, as some of the graphics and text is baked into the art itself and cannot be changed without re-drawing a lot of the piece. However, this should not affect your understanding of the story at all.
The Spanish translation is in Neutral Spanish, so it should be accessible to both Spain and South American countries. It was done by Punda Translations - Lisandro Johnston & Mariana Cabot.
The Portuguese translation is specifically for Brazilian Portuguese. It was done by Enzo Costa.
Also, now that we've done all the groundwork allowing language switches, adding more languages should be a much easier and quicker process! Relatively...
Please let us know if there are any lines or text that doesn't make sense or is incomplete. We did our best to get this ready for our inclusion in BIG Festival 2022, so it's possible we missed something!
And to anyone who has enjoyed Epiphany City enough to tell their non-English speaking friends, you are the real MVPs.
Thanks! - Dave
P.S. French, Simplified Chinese, and Korean are up next!
How I Used GMTK's Boss Keys To Design My Puzzle Game
Disclaimer: This isn't exactly an announcement about Epiphany City, but rather just a piece I've been wanting to write for a long time and had nowhere else to put it. Note that this does contain spoilers for Epiphany City- however most of these images were made at the start of development so there have been many changes to each area since then. Of course, the core concepts remain the same.
I've been a fan of Mark Brown's Game Maker's Toolkit for over 4 years now. One of the earliest videos I remember watching was one of his famous Boss Keys videos, where he elegantly laid out the design of each Zelda dungeon. I was thus inspired to use these learnings in my own indie game, and as a Patreon subscriber I also got access to the icons and layouts that he used in his videos. So here's the general design sentiment behind each area of Epiphany City.
^Click here for one example of Mark Brown's Boss Keys series. You probably want to watch one of these first to understand the graphs in this article.
Ocean Dungeon
Initially, Epiphany City only had 3 main gameplay areas, which are basically outdoor dungeons. We wanted them to not only scale in complexity, but offer more freedom and rewards for exploration. This made sense as not only would the player get more comfortable with the game, but also Lily, our game's protagonist, would improve and grow her world-manipulation powers.
Mark Brown states in his Boss Keys videos that a wider graph suggests more freedom of exploration, as it allows the player to tackle obstacles in almost any order they wish. On the other hand, a tall and narrow graph suggests linearity- there is no way forward except to get the first key first, then the second key second, and the third key third.
So with this in mind, the first Ocean area starts narrow, and slowly widens. There is only one way to solve the first section and it requires you to get what you need in a specific order. But the second section allows the player to equally choose one of two paths to go down, and the third is a complete release of linearity as the player can tackle any piece of the final puzzle in any order. This not only adds variety as the player progresses, but matches their comfortability with the game and puzzles as they increase in skill.
Regardless, the layout of the Ocean is rather simple, and it serves as a good opener for players to explore.
Sky Mountain
Originally named very simply as just "Town", this area adds more complexity into the mix. Not only does it introduce an evolution of the game's main puzzle mechanic, but splits the map into two sections. Either section can be completed in either order, and as long as the player reaches the end in both sections they can unlock the final screen.
Lastly, we come to the "Park", which is absolutely freeform, with almost no linearity at all. The player is able to do any screen in basically any order, and can even leave one halfway through to complete another if they so choose.
However, those of you who have played Epiphany City already will know that this isn't quite the same in the final game. This is due to the fact that early playtesters often got lost, confused, and frustrated as they didn't know where they were supposed to go or what parts of the map led to other parts. I am positive a better designer than myself could've still made all of this work, but alas, I was young and inexperienced, so I simply gave the area more structure. And it all seemed to work out anyway, as Bloom National Park is generally regarded as the best area in the game.
Well, tied with Sky Mountain at least.
Now, we did end up going back and adding one more area, which ended up being the perfect demo / prologue to the main game. It had all the creative, out-of-the-box puzzles and meta-level surprises that the rest of the game had, but it did so without any confusion or interruptions to flow statedue to its extremely linear design:
If you want to experience that for yourself, you can play our Prologue for free here:
So that's how Epiphany City started, almost 4 years ago. Thanks to all our players, we have tons of ideas on how to improve and evolve our designs, our puzzles, and our "dungeons" if we ever make another game. So with that, thank you to our players, thank you to Mark Brown, and thanks to yourself for reading this far. I'll see you in the comments of the next Boss Keys video =P
Sincerely, - Dave
Week 1 Patch Notes & Current Work
Hi. Thank you all so much for playing or even just being interested in Epiphany City. There is much more I could say about all the kind words and encouraging reviews we've received, but for now, let's just cut to the chase.
Future Plans
Here are some of our next steps and patch notes we've done since the game came out.
Epiphany City's Original Soundtrack will most likely be available in a week. It is 47 tracks, including 13 bonus tracks and will cost $4.99.
Epiphany City is currently being translated to 5 out of our 8 priority languages, with more to come.
We plan to add some thematic art to the sides of the screen to replace the black bars.
Working on obtaining the Switch dev kit asap... not sure how much that matters to Steam folk but if you have friends that don't use Steam then you can let them know.
When we start to receive some of the money from Valve we will talk about where our donations will be used.
Bug Fixes
These are some of the major changes made since launch. They are not all part of one update, but rather just a log of things that got fixed since the game came out.
Fixed a bug where you couldn't return to Bloom National Park if you left its first screen.
Fixed a bug where the sides of the screen would turn white after certain cutscenes instead of black
Math puzzles now solve properly even when many objects are moved and reset multiple times
Many adjustments made to the Math puzzles in general
Fixed a bug where framing a security camera and then getting seen by a different one would move the framed camera
Fixed a bug where you couldn't drop the empty frame in a certain spot in the second security camera room
If two camera lights are triggered simultaneously, the game will no longer trigger the 'caught' event twice
The painting in the security camera area now properly resets its rotation upon triggering a camera
An area towards the ending of the game no longer has a completely black screen
Framed objects should appear on a layer above unframed objects more consistently
Not a bug, but deleting or uninstalling vJoy has so far fixed most controller issues. 3Dconnexion was affecting the rest of the controller issues.
We are aware of other issues and are working on them alongside our next steps.
___________________
Thank you for reading. I always thought this was super cliche, but everyone who has played the game really is my hero. You don't know how much everything has meant to me and how much everything helps us support our families.
Thanks again, - Dave
Release Notes & Future Roadmap
Epiphany City is OUT NOW!!!
What are you waiting for? There is a 10% launch discount available for 1 week, so take advantage of it! And thank you so much for following us throughout this entire journey <3
However, there's both good news and bad news. Brace yourselves (I am already bracing myself for the backlash).
#1 - Mac
Bad news first. I know we had a Mac build for the Prologue but for some reason it is only building in 32-bit, which Apple no longer supports. In order to build a 64-bit build we'd apparently need to transfer all our files to a Mac and build it with the same version of Unity... but we are having trouble finding someone we know with a Mac capable of doing that (aka a Mac that's not a work laptop and not 8+ years old). Apparently there are some ways to play 32-bit games on a Mac still but I know this isn't ideal.
TL;DR - Mac build may not be available on release. I am really, really sorry. If anyone has any ideas for how else to get it done, please let us know.
#2 - Controllers
Steam input isn't fully integrated, so the control scheme is currently set as follows (the image is of an Xbox controller but it should work for Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch controllers):
Technically you can remap the face buttons of a controller by clicking "Controller Configuration in your library, but you have to remap them to specific keys on the keyboard for it to work.
That also means there are only mouse & keyboard button prompts in-game.
We couldn't get joystick controls working for certain parts of the game, so for now only D-pad is enabled to reduce confusion and mid-game switching.
#3 - Resolution
You can change your resolution, but for now it must be adjusted in the Unity pop-up window before the game starts.
#4 - Settings
At the moment, you can only access the settings menu by pausing during active gameplay (aka, if you pause during a cutscene you won't be able to access it). So if you want to adjust volume right away you will have to quit to the main menu.
Post-release roadmap:
#1 - Porting. Our priority of which platforms to port to is in this order:
Steam Deck Verified (3 months)
Nintendo Switch (1 year, pending approval)
Xbox Game Pass (unknown)
#2 - Localization. Translations will heavily depend on how well Epiphany City sells, but if we can afford it we will prioritize these languages:
Portuguese (Brazil)
Simplified Chinese
Spanish (Spain & Latin America)
German
French
Japanese
Korean
This is due to data that showed which countries were most interested in playing Epiphany City.
#3 - Accessibility options. We would love to add the following if possible:
An option to change stylized fonts like the Prophecy and Rose's post-it note into a more standard font.
An option to add a font easier to read for people with reading disabilities (something like Open Dyslexic or Dyslexie).
Additional accessibility options for people with motor disabilities.
You can already change your keybinds using the Unity settings window that appears before the game launches, but it would be nicer to have it available in-game.
Same with the screen resolution.
#4 - Original Soundtrack
We plan to add the full soundtrack on Steam soon.
#5 - DLC
We initially planned to have bonus character backstories and even a post-credits scene that unlocked after completing the game, but we have run out of both time and money so they will need to be added in later. If and when they are added in, they will be included for free.
-----------------------------------
I am so excited for you to experience the full game of Epiphany City, and can't wait to see what you all think. Although no creative work is perfect, I believe Epiphany City accomplishes everything we initially set out to do, and we hope that everyone appreciates it as much as our private playtesters who have completed the full game.
Thank you so much for coming along on this journey with me <3
- Dave
1 Week Until Launch!
Epiphany City officially launches in 1 week!
April 12th, 5:30am PT
It'll be $8.99 ($9.99 with a 10% discount) (and Steam will set whatever is appropriate for your currency)
It'll be the end of our 4 year long journey developing this game.
And I believe it'll be an experience that will change your life (at least, it would be great if it did).
- Dave
(nervous and terrified)
Epiphany City officially launches April 12!
Epiphany City will be released on April 12, 2022, at 5:00am PT (Pacific Time)!
As much as we wanted to release the game by March (and even though we probably could), we want to take a little extra time to do one last round of QA testing and iron out all the little bugs and things to make sure the game is 100% awesome on release. Add that to the crazy amount of high profile games coming out in March and we realized it was best to hold off until early April.
You can also check out the Official Release Date Trailer (although you might recognize it if you've been to our Steam page lately).
Thank you so much, we are almost done. - A very weary yet excited Dave
__________________________________
For those of you who have been asking how best to support Epiphany City:
(Don't feel obligated to do these if you don't want to! This is mostly for close friends and family who have been asking how they can help)
In order from most important to least important:
#1: Buy Epiphany City the day it releases Why: To help us get on Steam's "New and Trending" list
There will be a discount on release, so please take advantage of that! Some of you have told me that you'd prefer to buy the game at full price just to help us out, but trust me when I say that buying the game during the launch wave will make a MUCH bigger difference than paying that one extra dollar =P
#2: Leave a review ASAP Why: Steam actively hides games with less than 10 reviews
Even if you're not done with the game yet, you can still write something like "Loving [this part of the game] so far, will update this review when I've beaten the game!" and it will give us a gigantic boost on Steam's algorithm. But don't feel obligated to write a positive review, as either negative or positive reviews help get us toward that 10 review threshhold.
#3: Click Wishlist & Follow Why: To help get us on Steam's "Popular Upcoming" list
#4: Tell everyone you know about Epiphany City! Why: To help with #1-3
Post about it on your favorite gaming subreddit, send people our trailers, tell your friends to wishlist Epiphany City, and/or have them sign up for our mailing list! Every little bit goes a long way and we never know which actions will become the difference maker in the end.
We can do this! <3 - Sincerely, a very thankful Dave
New Year Update!
Hey I haven't posted an update in awhile so I thought I'd let you know what everyone's been up to since the new year:
Art: Currently getting the VERY last batches of art assets done. We brought a handful of extra artists on board to help us get these done in time, so theoretically we'll have everything completed by the end of the month!
Music: Romeo's developing Lily's Main Theme and adding all the leitmotif variations for every scene it'll play its part in.
Programming: Cameron is currently filling out the supplementary things, like the pause menu, volume options, saving and loading, controller support, achievements, and everything else in-between.
Design & Writing: As of Dec 29th, 2021, the entire game has been playable from start to finish! Which has been super fun. Technically we had a full build awhile ago, but it was super sketchy and unfinished and full of temporary "Google Image" assets that ended up being taken out. But right now the game actually looks pretty good!
However, there's still a ton of work left. Once we've got every single asset we need in the game, we'll take the entire month of February to polish everything up (it takes a lot longer than you'd think). Every little animation, sound, visual effect, word of dialogue, timing of appearances, etc will need to be tweaked so that every part of the game is up to the level of polish that the Prologue had.
(This little pond animation is just one example of all the stuff we have to add)
That having been said, progress has honestly been going much better than I expected. Implementing a lot of the auxiliary stuff on the programming side has been going really smoothly (so far), so hopefully that means we'll actually be done by MARCH 2022.
So yeah, that's honestly it! Thanks so much for reading and following along on this journey... I know I've said that multiple times now, but that's because I really actually mean it!
You're the best, - Dave
Final Beta Test in 1 Week!
Hey everyone, we are getting SO close to finishing Epiphany City, and as such we are doing the FINAL beta test before the game's official release!
Sign up for it on our website. We will send out a build through our newsletter when the beta opens.
You'll also receive free soundtracks, exclusive wallpapers, character bios, and a lot more bonus content by signing up. We won't spam you and you can cancel at any time.
Thank you and see you soon!
- Dave
Epiphany City is 86.85% complete.
Hey everyone, I know the next beta is ultra late (but you can sign up for it here), so I at least wanted to show you where we're at and even show you some behind-the-scenes concept art.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Keep in mind that not all screens are equal as some are long cutscenes and some you just run through once. For example, the Museum had 14 playable screens (but 4 of which you just ran through quickly) + 7 cutscenes (which is much more than most areas besides the Opening and Ending). So theoretically there is a ton more gameplay in the other 4 middle sections of the game compared to the Museum.
About the beta- we haven't been able to complete it because our artists are so talented that they were stolen away by more prestigious work (not better work, just more prestigious =P), so the the last 3 screens in Sky Mountain and the last 1 screen in Bloom Park were left unfinished. However, they are currently being created now by the amazing Adorabelle & Cindy. They were always our primary background artists, but they were busy filling out the rest of the game, and have only recently been available to work on these. You can see one of the in-progress screens below:
(I especially love the way they did the lighting on the black and gold color scheme)
The last thing I want to note that since the next beta will be such a large portion of Epiphany City's gameplay, we are only opening it up to people who specifically request to play it, especially through our very awesome newsletter. But don't worry about this for now, as I'll give you more details on this when the beta is ready.
As always, if you have any other questions feel free to reply or email me directly and I'll definitely get back to you. Thank you for being so patient and staying with me and my team on this journey.
