Can you guess what I’m announcing? Have you guessed it yet? Well, I actually have no way of knowing if you’ve guessed it yet or not, so here’s the news.
My Beautiful Paper Smile, Chapter Three: An Untimely Departure, is releasing on October 27th.
You heard right! Chapter Three has a release date and is coming just in time to fulfill all your needed spooks for the year.
It’s been a crazy few months since the game's Early Access launch, but I’m thrilled with how this newest installment of the game is coming along. As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, this chapter will have a greater focus on gameplay, and fleshing out the world that the game takes place in. Some questions will be answered, but plenty more are still appearing.
If you haven’t picked up the game yet, the coming Chapter Three release is going to be a great time to join the club! Stay tuned as the game will be part of the Halloween sale at a 25% discount, and when you purchase the game in Early Access, you’ll get the fourth chapter as soon as it releases in the full launch next year.
That’s about all the news I have for you (and pretty great news at that). Now I’ll just leave you with some teasers to get you ready for the big day.
[previewyoutube="3ZKpdXW-z48;full"]
Another Peek - Chapter 3
Hey everyone!
Been a few weeks since my last progress report, and it’s about time that you all got another peek at what I’ve been working on. Let’s jump in!
The majority of my time lately has been going to environment design, and programming some puzzles for those environments. These environments are parts of a spooky scary place underneath the King’s village, where the Authorities do spooky scary things (I have to be pretty vague here otherwise I’m gonna spoil everything ok?). It’s been really fun making these more detailed areas of the game, but I’ve had to scrap multiple designs in the past few weeks due to how precise the environment needs to be for it to work well with the enemies I’ve programmed.
You see, earlier stealth based areas were in the outdoor world, so I had much more space to work with. Since My Beautiful Paper Smile uses a fixed camera perspective, every environment needs to take this into account and not have any objects or walls obstructing the players view at any time. Enemy AI is usually designed to follow a looping path, but when designing claustrophobic indoor areas, there isn’t enough room in a looping hallway for the camera, making things very constrained. Despite all this nonsense, I found a way to successfully create the environments so that they look nice, are compact, but still work well with the AI I’ve made.
Earlier areas of chapter 3 spend more time teaching players how to use stealth to avoid enemies, easing players into the later areas like these, where players need to juggle puzzle solving with avoiding enemies. Here’s a short gif, of some puzzling in action!
That’s about all for today's post! Overall things are still going as planned, and I can’t wait for you all to play this newest installment of the game.
Excited and honored to share that we're part of the Yogscast Games Tiny Teams Festival starting today, August 9th through the 15th! This festival is designed to highlight some of the best games coming from indie developers and studios. For the festival, the game will be available at 15% off for all Steam players. Players who purchase the game will receive all completed and upcoming chapters automatically, with Chapter 3 planned for release this Fall.
In addition to announcing the sale event, we wanted to showcase My Beautiful Paper Smile’s newest chapter still in development with some more visual shots of what’s to come besides the last update shared a few days ago, this time with little more on the story if you dare to delve deeper.
Spoilers Ahead: In Chapter 3 of My Beautiful Paper Smile, the protagonist works with a group of rebel Authorities known as Heretics to attempt to overthrow the king. Using the protagonist’s ability to contact the Lost Child, the Heretics seek help in their plot to create a new era of rule. With a greater focus on stealth, Chapter 3 aims to deliver some of the boldest, most thrilling experiences of the game yet.
Today I get to share a little bit about what I’ve been working on for My Beautiful Paper Smile: Chapter 3! I’ve been in full development for this chapter for a little over a month, and I’m thrilled to say that things are coming along really smoothly. Before the game launched in Early Access in June, I was able to program some new systems that are helping development immensely. For example, in the past it could easily take over an hour to add a single conversation between a couple characters, but I made a new dialogue system that allows me to add conversations in just a few minutes. It’s been great!
So with those improvements, I’ve been able to get a lot done on the third chapter. Here are a few goodies to look forward to.
For starters, in the second chapter I started experimenting with some larger, more open environments to explore. A lot of people really enjoyed this change, so this is something I’m trying to continue in Chapter 3.
Another big addition that this will allow for is patrolling enemies. This is something that I originally wanted to include in the first chapter, but because of the way I built the levels, there just wasn’t any way to make it possible. This is why I instead used the security cameras. So while there won’t be cameras in Chapter 3, you will see a much more interactive world, and better stealth system.
As well as working on the third chapter, I’ve recently put out a small patch update to address some bugs in the first two chapters. You can read the changelog below:
Version 5.0.1d
-Fixed bugged cranks that would prevent beating the second chapter's boss. -Added “F” as a shortcut key to equip and unequip the “Life” item. -Optimized package size. -Fixed issue of players spawning in the air after exiting buildings.
That’s about it for today's post! Lot’s of cool stuff is coming, so be sure to keep updated.
It’s been a few weeks since we launched My Beautiful Paper Smile into Early Access, and today I wanted to share with you what our plan is for the game over the next year or so.
We’ll be releasing periodic patches to address smaller issues and bugs with the game, but will also be making a couple of larger updates to mark major milestones in its development. The biggest changes in these updates will be the addition of the last two chapters, but along with the updates for each chapter, we’ll be adding some other features and improvements as well.
The first major update will be the Chapter 3 Update, coming in Late 2020! Here’s a list of the main things to look forward to in this update:
The complete third chapter (hence why this is titled the “Chapter 3 Update”)
Support for multiple new languages
(Hopefully) Controller support
The next major update will be when we transition from Early Access and will be our Full Launch Update, coming by Summer 2021! Here’s what we have planned for the full launch:
The fourth and final chapter of the game
A total of 12 supported languages
Mac port
Controller support (for sure this time)
As many bug fixes as are humanly possible
There you have it. The plan is pretty straight forward at the moment, but we'll be posting about our progress and finer details as things come along. Also, remember that your input matters! Throughout the development of the game, be sure to let us know what you’d like to see changed, fixed, or improved upon. I’m listening to whatever you have to say, and everything, at the very least, comes into consideration.
Thanks for reading, and hopefully this gives you a better idea of what we have in store for My Beautiful Paper Smile.
Until next time! Keep smiling :) Don't forget to join our Discord or follow our Social Media for more updates along the way.
Today is a very big day. On this day, June 19, 2020, I’ve released my first major commercial project, and V Publishing has released their debut game, My Beautiful Paper Smile. While this is just the Early Access launch, it’s a massive milestone to have finally reached, and we’re so excited to finish out the rest of this journey with you!
My Beautiful Paper Smile has been under development for almost three years. Things started slow, and as the game grew and matured, so did the interest around it. I want to give a huge thank you to everyone that has been looking forward to this release and has been supporting its development. It’s a dream come true to make it this far. There are lots of exciting things that we have planned for the future, and we’ll be sharing more as time goes on.
To celebrate the launch, the game will be 10% off for the next week! That'll bring the price down to $13.49. When you buy the Early Access version of the game, you’ll get instant access to the first two chapters, and you’ll get the rest of the game for free once it’s finished. We’ll also be doing a live stream later today right here on the Steam store page! Come stop by the page at 5:00 PM EDT (2:00 PM PDT) to chat and watch us play the first chapter of My Beautiful Paper Smile. It’ll be lots of fun, so hopefully, we’ll see you then.
As well as the sale and live stream, until the 22nd you’ll be able to download our demo! If you’re still a little unsure and want to get a feel for the game before purchasing, you can play the first half of Chapter 1 to see what all the fuss is about.
That’s all for now folks. Thank you all so much for reading and checking out the game!
My Beautiful Paper Smile is a psychological horror-adventure game that has you take on the role of a child trapped in a facility and raised to be “perfect”. You will be puzzling your way through nightmares as you sprint to escape into the world beyond. Stick to the shadows to sneak past obstacles and avoid the Authorities, but don’t go too long without a light. The deep darkness will end you, just like the faceless monster that pursues you.
[previewyoutube="0n8HmN4XYAg;full"]
Please join us on our ‘Ask Me Anything’ and ‘Live-Stream’ to help answer questions, along with checking out our demo.
We’re Almost There...
Hey Everyone,
It’s release week! My Beautiful Paper Smile is coming to Steam Early Access this very Friday, June 19th! To say that we are excited would be an understatement.
Before that we have a few things planned though. Thursday we have an AMA scheduled and there’ll be a thread on the Steam forums. Then of course there is the live stream that is happening on the day itself, Friday at 5:00PM EDT.
We also wanted to share a sneak peek of our release trailer. [previewyoutube="GhDxb9_77CU;full"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhDxb9_77CU[/previewyoutube]
We deeply appreciate all the support you have given us during development and we hope you’ll stick around during our time in Early Access. As always you’re more than welcome to join us on our Discord, and follow on our social media.
Game on and, you guessed it, Keep Smiling!
Ask Me Anything Session
Hey everyone!
Quick update as we had to do a reschedule with the changes of the Steam Summer Festival reschedule. Our AMA for My Beautiful Paper Smile is now set for Thursday, June 18 from 4 to 6PM eastern (1 to 3PM pacific)!
We’ll be holding the AMA right here in the Steam discussions forum for My Beautiful Paper Smile, and I’ll be answering all your burning questions about the game (and other things too I suppose!). I’ll field questions like: Just what was the inspiration for this game? Why are these blog posts so great? Are you an alien? Am I an alien?
The festival will now be running from June 16th through the-22nd, and during that time you’ll be able to take My Beautiful Paper Smile for a test drive... if you dare. We’ll have a free demo that’ll include the first half of the first chapter, so you can play for yourself and see what the game is really like. Trust me, it’s a very immersive gaming experience
But in any case, be sure to put June 18th from 4-6PM EST on your calendar. I’m excited to chat with you all then!
Until next time! Keep smiling :)
Gameplay and Smiles All Around
Hey everyone!
Change of schedule due to recent reschedule of the Steam Summer Festival, Our live-stream of My Beautiful Paper Smile has changed to Friday, June 19th at 5:00 PM EST!! instead of Friday, June 12th.
We’ll be playing through the first chapter and giving you all kinds of glorious insight about its development while chatting with the community.
The festival will be running from June 16th through the-22nd, and during that time you’ll be able to take My Beautiful Paper Smile for a test drive... if you dare. We’ll have a free demo that’ll include the first half of the first chapter, so you can play for yourself and see what the game is really like. Trust me, it’s a very immersive gaming experience
So be sure to put Friday, June 19th at 5:00 PM EST (2:00 PM PST) on your calendar. Hope to see you there!
