I wanted to start a thread here to keep you all updated on the remaster. I am working on it, and after playing it again I am still proud of the work we did on it, but it needs work for sure! I'm not entirely convinced I can turn it into hit, but I owe all of you who paid hard earned money to play it at least an attempt at making it right.
I'll leave a few stills of the graphical updates here, I can't show in screenshots the work I'm doing to make Harper move better, but rest assure I am working on it. I'd like to explain what I think is the issue...
We used a technique called root motion on Grey Skies, which basically means the movement of the player comes entirely from the data in the animation, so, for example, when you point in a direction other than the one you are facing, the players character model is told "hey, the player is trying to go in this direction" so an animation would be played in line with this, Harper will turn to face the direction of desired movement and then start to move in that direction according to data burnt in to that animation, this is the same approach that huge games like GTA and Red Dead use, to increase realism. I've come to learn that realism doesn't neccessarily mean fun. And because you are always waiting for Harpers animations to catch up with your input, it feels clunky as hell.
I've tried to add some movement in addition to the animation data, but I'm still not sure it feels any better, so I might need to completely remake the player character in a traditional "boxed" manner. If this turns out to be the case, it'll take me a fair while, but please know that I am trying and I am committed to at least attempting to make it right.
If I release the remaster and everyone hates it again, I will accept I made a bad game and carry on with Beyond Hanwell, but I stand by the game we made, and in the style of Robbie Williams and RudeBox, I will die on this hill haha.
Anyway, keep an eye on your library for Grey Skies Remastered, it will pop up without notice and I hope it is better than this (admittedly) hot mess.
Addressing the poor reception of Grey Skies
After a couple of years of crippling personal issues that kept me away from development, I came back to find that Grey Skies has issues, and has been reviewed extremely poorly. I was unaware of just how bad it was until recently.
I came back to it with fresh eyes after more than two years and completely understand the issues most people have taken with it.
I still think that underneath these issues we made a decent game. So I am remastering the game with new technologies that have become available, and my own improved knowledge of development. I will read through all the concerns carefully and address each one, paying close attention to the most common complaints, such as clunky movement and frustrating stealth elements.
I really appreciate each and every one of you that took a chance on it. So the remaster will be automatically added to any library that already owns the original Grey Skies, free of charge of course. The original Grey Skies will soon be removed from sale.
I hope it will go some way to rectify mistakes we have made on this and that some of you might be willing to give it another go. I'll give an update on this as soon as possible.
Thanks, Nathan
Play the demo!
Hey everyone!
Now it's quite obvious this game has people divided, we're majorly disappointed that we have a “Mixed” review score, but we try to keep in mind that mixed doesn’t necessarily mean bad.
So, to give people on the fence a chance to make up their mind we’ve released a free demo. The demo takes place a couple of hours into the game, with a few upgrades already unlocked and dropping you straight into a moderately challenging part of the experience.
We really hope the demo helps some of you make a more informed choice when deciding whether you would like to play it or not.
Thanks for the support!
Hotfix 1.02
We had reports of an achievement bug which has now been fixed.
If you completed the game it should unlock automatically in the main menu. Otherwise it'll either unlock at the correct point, or when you complete the game if you already past it.
Thanks!
Update 1.01
Hi Guys!
Firstly, I want to thank the people that took a chance and supported us!
We've just pushed the first patch which is available now. Addressing the most important issues.
Changes
Made changes to Harpers collision response, she'll no longer suddenly stop on hitting objects. This was causing her to get stuck on corners and props. This change makes the controls feel much smoother and far less clunky.
Fixed a bug where the reverb system could potentially cause crackly audio when Alt+Tabbing.
Added a quit button, this one shouldn't have been necessary, it slipped us, we're really sorry about that.
Fixed a potential bug in the Visitor Center that would cause Jack to stop speaking and halt progress, requiring a restart.
Generic optimizations to world geometry, including draw distance optimization where appropriate and new LOD's.
We'll be keeping an eye on the discussion board for any other big issues that need resolving!
We'll also think about how we can engage people earlier on, it's come to our attention a lot of people are being turned off early due to the slow start.
