Neyyah
Journey Modes - Play Neyyah YOUR way!
With Journey Mode, you can also decide how tight the 'hand held experience' through Neyyah's world should be - or if you require it at all ... [/p][p][/p][p]You can be 'Guided by the Ancients', which gives you the most assistance throughout the game (with various prompts, and automatically sets your Traveller's Guide Notifications to on within the Options menu, so whenever a new observation comes through, you'll be notified!). Hear some 'Whispers in the Wind', cutting back on a lot of prompts but making sure you stay orientated with location and map update notifications, or shape your own adventure with 'Master Your Own Adventure' - it's just you, a mouse, the ability to point and click around a vast prerendered world, and you won't be bothered with any pop ups / prompts or notifications. This harkens back to a very OG Myst / Riven experience. [/p][p][/p][p]You will, however, have access to your Journey Tools in whatever Journey Mode you select, where you can find maps, Traveller's Guide (to see what you have interacted with, etc) and the ability to change your Journey Mode at any point during the game![/p][p][/p][p]Neyyah is a world which should be enjoyed by all types of adventure gamer types! 'Jouney Modes' provides this![/p][p][/p][p]A small add with BIG impact ...[/p][p][/p][p]As well as this, a new feature will be added very soon. [/p][p][/p][p]It will be a 'Main Goals' listing, which automatically updates as you encounter 'core elements' of Neyyah's world which in turn will send you on your main goals to finally completing the game. There won't be many, as the idea is to shine your attention on what it is you could be aiming towards when playing Neyyah. The Traveller's Guide gives you numerous observations. The 'Main Goals' will provide you the areas of focus you can play towards, and eventually, tick off to complete Neyyah.[/p][p][/p][p]Take it, or leave it. The option is always yours.[/p][p][/p][p]You'll be able to play Neyyah YOUR way![/p][p][/p][p]I'm excited to see what directions you take in this complex vast world, but also how you shape your adventure![/p][p][/p][p]Until next time ...[/p][p][/p][p].YY.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]
Neyyah reaches over 20,000 wishlists!
Neyyah has just hit over 20,000 wishlists on Steam!
This is a really exciting and proud moment for Neyyah.
I remember when I hit that first 1000 wishlists back a few years ago, and I was around 2.5k in wishlists when I went full time with MicroProse.
Thank you to the team at Defy Reality Entertainment for helping bring my vision to life, and a huge thank you to everyone who has helped make this 20k wishlist mark a reality!
Exciting developments taking place in the realms of Neyyah, with location by location work continuing to refine the game in all areas you can imagine (graphics, sound, music, UI, features etc). I've been looking into renders a lot lately, too! Photoshop has been on my PC continuously!
Thanks again to everyone getting back Neyya! Exciting times :)
.YY.
Thank YOU for playing the NEYYAH DEMO!
Have you met this guy yet? Seems to be wanting to tell you something ... Maybe you'll find out more in the Neyyah demo!
I feel like Neyyah has reached a new chapter in its story. Releasing the demo just before Steam Next Fest was a huge milestone, and the feedback I received from you all, after having jumped through the portal to get that first exciting taste of Neyyah’s world, has been super valuable! Entering Neyyah into the Steam Next fest void and seeing it do well was insane!
I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has played the demo! Nothing is more rewarding to me than finally being able to hear your stories, read your feedback, watch your encounters, after over six and a half years of development.
It’s been a joy returning to certain locations that I created over the years, and remembering the stories of where I was in life – back when I was modelling the Heater Servers, or filming the FMV for Vamir, or fitting in the Traveller’s Guide observations and Action Highlights, enabling more accessibility to the game world.
This is just the beginning …
Ok, let’s get onto the feedback and how this will help strengthen the Neyyah experience.
One of the biggest areas of feedback I received was how there is an overwhelming amount of exposition and lore revealed to the player way so early in the game. These ‘first steps through the portal’ areas of the game are crucial, and I believe the ability to explore, to get the fires of exploration ignited, are vital.
Certain cuts have been made to dialogue and exposition pieces that appear within the demo space of Neyyah. This thins out the information you receive in the starting areas of the game, while leaving you to explore more and find out things for yourself. Having tested these changes myself, I do feel like this harkens back to a more original view of how I saw the game playing out, and understanding that with the size of the game world, there are so many more opportunities for the player to uncover lore and backstory.
Nonetheless, I am also considering the different ways players want to experience Neyyah, and observing streamers / content creators get stuck into the gameplay was not only incredibly rewarding and amazing, but gave me some valuable insights into how Neyyah is received and understood.
I want to share with you is a new ‘Journey Mode’ I will be designing into the start of the game.
Upon NEW GAME, you will be presented with a choice: how you want to play Neyyah … Do you want to go Guided Mode or Adventure Mode?
- GUIDED MODE
You might require assistance at certain points of the game. You’ll be notified on when you have arrived in new areas, when new maps are available, and you will also be shown a selection of text pop ups very early on in the game which will help familiarise yourself with Neyyah’s controls and features.
(This is how the demo has played out so far).
ADVENTURE MODE
You are left to devour the complexities of Neyyah’s world at your own pace. Get out the pen and paper. Take notes and build an understanding of Neyyah’s world through your own observations and thought processes.
Please note: Access to MAPS and TRAVELLER’S GUIDE options are available in both journey modes.
On topic of the maps in Neyyah, it's so great to see the amazing love and surprise for these hand-drawn artworks! I put off making the maps for a long while, knowing I'd need to put some good time aside outside the already giant heap of Neyyah dev work that needs doing to make the maps really amazing - looking at full renders / top down views at first, then realising this wasn't going to work too great ... with the render times and pc power to get the entire sets in shot etc. My quick fix yet seemingly more effective plan was to create the basic outline of the worlds as pen drawn maps, photoshopped to make them feel like they were drawn into the parchment / ink UI that shows up a lot in Neyyah.
With regards feedback, I will also look into quicker access to the MAPS, so there isn't so much clicking around - and this goes for the Traveller's Guide too. Action Highlights (a spacebar option that flashes a blue glow over anything on screen what can be interacted with) currentlt only show buttons, levers, etc, within the demo, but I have started adding more into the game. These can show up in areas of a scene you can zoom in to (which may lead to a button or inventory item), notes you might be able to pick up, and also areas which may require an inventory item or where one can be obtained.
Bugs have been noted and will be investigated, too.
Overall, I am pushing Neyyah to be that ultimate delight to behold, wonder to discover and treasure to keep.
With the changes coming in, the demo experience won’t fully represent what Neyyah will be upon the final release, so it will only be available to until 12/03/2025 9pm GMT/ London UK Time. It has definitely served a purpose of bringing to your screens a world screaming to be explored, and what makes this all the more wonderful is having amazing, fantastic adventurers like yourselves putting aside the time to play it. I also understand if you want to wait until the full release to get that first look into the finished Neyyah world.
‘In the name of Fezalta’ … I’m excited to get the full game out there for you all to play!
Thank you!
Aaron Gwynaire
NEYYAH DEMO - OUT NOW!
Wow! It's happening! Neyyah enters the Steam Next Fest next week, and I am so proud of where the game has come, the work that has gone into making this project a reality, and of course, the love and encouragement from all of you amazing adventurers out there!
As you take your first steps onto Neyyah, remember to look around everywhere, and take your TIME as you explore. You'll have features such as Traveller's Guide and the Maps at your disposal, should you need a little bit of a reminder on some of the interactions you've made, or feel like you need to orientate yourself.
Of course, writing down your own notes is also encouraged!
Make use of your keyboard too! Quickly open your inventory with 'I' or see what you can interact with the glowing visual aid of the Action Highlights feature using your spacebar.
This demo of Neyyah is an open portal into a world that has been in development for over six and a half years, starting in July 2018. I haven't looked back since. Please feel free to take a look into 'A Message From The Creator' on the main menu screen, and delve into the CREDITS book!
While its rich environments and captivating music and sounds will lull you further down the path of discovery, there's so much more to see and explore in the full version of the game. This demo gives you just that right amount of revelation and discovery into what Neyyah is all about.
Any feedback you wish to leave during or after your journey, please feel free to use the community forums right here on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1289720/discussions/. I will be watching over this area, especially with Steam Next Fest happening next week ...
I can't WAIT to enter Steam Next Fest with Neyyah's demo.
Thank you again to the team of talented and amazing individuals who have helped bring this vision to life, and to YOU for supporting this game, picking it up and taking the time to step into a world which has been craving for discovery and exploration ...
Enjoy!
- Aaron Gwynaire / Defy Reality Entertainment
Explorations Brought To Life
Work on Neyyah continues to push on, with a lot of work recently in making sure features such as the Traveller's Guide is implemented and updated nicely in-game. The Traveller's Guide is an image based, automatic observations system, which will definitely aid you in your explorations, compile and organise your discoveries, and keep you orientated in the game world, and enable you to recall where you were last time you played ... A big world to explore, so much to find and learn. You may need that nudge to get you back on track! More on this feature at a later date!
INSERT IMAGE FROM TRAVELLER'S GUIDE INTERFACE / MAIN MENU HERE
Anyway, location by location work continues.
Wearing many hats to get various tasks completed for the game, Faster Travel has come rushing back on the scene. This was a feature I covered a while ago in one of my dev logs in greater detail, which is available here:
In Neyyah, you traverse the world by pointing and clicking in the direction you want to go. A node system is set up for the player to be able to make progress through the 3D world, which is delivered in-game as prerendered images. You can change transitions within the game to suit your desired style of traversal (OFF resulting in snap/cut no transitions between movements, through to RELAX which has the biggest fades between scenes and gives more of an impression of traversal).
However, you can also FASTER TRAVEL to get to where you want FASTER in Neyyah, and this little snippet of recent developments showcases just that. You'll see me placing faster travel nodes into the game world. Each scene needs them, as at any point, the player could enable faster travel (either with F on the keyboard, or manually enabling within Options Menu). This little video shows a quick of example of how I plan out these nodes and where they can best fit within the game world, plus making sure either forward, forward right or forward left faster travel cursors are showing at every given time, which gives you more of a sense of what direction you'll be facing once faster travelling there!
My girlfriend had a lot of fun with this feature in a recent play test. It serves as a way to get around faster to where you want to be, and can be enabled at any time - which certain areas are locked until you've gain access there.
.YY.
Animation has been at a forefront in two different styles which Neyyah heavily relies on to bring its world to life.
One of these is WATER. Yeah, Neyyah has a lot of it ...
While Neyyah is prerendered and doesn't rely on realtime technology, certain VFX such as moving portal plasma, traversal through portals, steamy / smokey effects and fireflies can be generated for Neyyah's world, making it feel more real and immersive. And so, water is animated and brought to life!
This is a big task and is still ongoing. It's been great seeing Neyyah's ocean bring more depth and dimensions to Neyyah's world (whether shallow, close up, or high up, looking across into the vast horizon beyond)
I create masks in Photoshop, which are then brought into Sqirlz Water Reflections, giving me a great tool to create some realistic looking water ripples. Neyyah's water isn't meant to be crashy or stormy. The placid water effects work fine for Neyyah's world. This small pond area featured in this video requires more of a shimmer, a subtle ripple. You'll see a brief insight into my work here ... Stick to the end for the in-game result, along with sounds which I produced / arranged myself, and mixed in the game engine, Visionaire Studio 5. Some sounds were recorded by myself, others from freesound.org and edited as needed.
.YY.
While VFX are fun to generate, using Photoshop, Wondershare Filmora and Adobe After Fx, I also generate a lot of Neyyah's dynamic elements within Blender too. I use Blender to generate all of Neyyah's 3D world. While more of my time is in the construction of the game nowadays, building the environments was one of my top favourite tasks of building Neyyah, and with game dev in general. I spent a long time making Neyyah's environment feel as real, beautiful and immersing as possible.
So, of course, outside of static camera angles to display your windows into Neyyah's world, having some cool crafts to ride and operate, levers to pull and elevators to traverse up and down makes sense, right? Here's an example of some elevator magic in Neyyah ...
Although I don't show the complexities of its modelling process in Blender, or the animation or rendering process itself, I do show some Adobe After FX work ... I splice two parts of an animation together in order to create a seamless animation for one of the elevator rides. While errors occured in one part of it, it was then re-rendered and I could salvage the first half. All artwork is modelled and rendered in Blender by myself, using Cycles rendering engine. This prerendered artwork is then brought into Visionaire Studio 5.
This 'cool elevator' consists of going up two floors in a building. You'll also note the different designs for buttons to show which level you can go to once you're at the middle section. All sounds were recorded mainly by myself, too - with a bit of freesound.org thrown in ... I mixed, arranged, and produced the sounds in Sonar Cakewalk.
I also showcase the animation being placed into Visionaire Studio 5 game engine, which is used to create Neyyah. It's fantastic for point n click adventure game development! I then showcase the elevator in action by playing this segment of the game.
.YY.
I'll be delving into some sound design for the rest of today, which is going to be fun! Outside of Neyyah's world sound design, I also have to focus on UI elements which have been progressively getting better along the way. With some new in-game 'high tech computer console artwork' now in place, I am generating the mouse hover and click sound magic, plus some other cool sounds as you
delve deeper into Neyyah's vault of scifi tech goodness ...
Here's a quick peek at a recent upgrade in such interfaces:
I'll be aiming to provide a lot more Youtube content over the next while, as I build the channel, exploring my practises in game dev and Neyyah's work - and eventually, other projects in development!
Definitely check out provided videos, and subscribe to the channel to be up to date with the best visual and exciting way I can convey my journey in game development.
Thanks for taking the time to stop and read up about some cool Neyyah stuff!
- Aaron Gwynaire
The FAST WAY to create player interactions!
Excited to kick off the new year with a new devlog!
In this one, I explore the ways in which I generate changes within the prerendered world of Neyyah, cutting out any big long Blender render times and using Photoshop magic to get the job done!
I didn't expect to record this video yesterday - although I had the idea come to me in the morning, due to one of the 'many hats' of solo game development I was wearing at the time: creating states / changes within the environments of my game, and how best to do this, making use of prerendered graphics (which Neyyah is comprised of: 3d modelled environments which I create in Blender then render out using Cycles rendering engine). These images are then edited in Photoshop and brought into Visionaire Studio 5, the game engine I use to create Neyyah, and which I delve into in this video (plus many more on my channel ... links below).
Enjoy this trip into the evolving world of Neyyah. You'll see how I cut down the render times for a specific scene in Neyyah, making use of Photoshop to generate changes in the environment or how I like to call it 'player interactions' - anything from a lever being pulled (as I demonstrate here) or even a lid on a strange pole-like contraption which the player might decide to close (or leave open). While doors may automatically close behind you in other areas of the game, once moving forward ( creating ALL various changing states in one environment could easily turn into a logistical rendering nightmare) I do like adding some more prominent interactions which the player will undoubtedly make, and seeing those changes appear in different views from the game world ...
Thanks for taking the time to check out this update!
It would mean a lot if you subscribed to the youtube channel, as I'll be updating it a lot more this year with Neyyah related work, discussing more about going full time game dev after Neyyah's release, and, of course, exploring more of my future work on other projects I have in mind! :)
'Til next time!
.YY.
Neyyah enters 2025!
I thought it would be great to get a video uploaded, showcasing features and options work I have been developing over 2024!
Neyyah has been in development now for over 6 years! It's been a journey!
Over the course of Neyyah's progress, I have reworked and added so many things into the game - changing environments to make more sense with Neyyah's story and world design, and creating some very cool options and features which can aid and enrich the gameplay for Neyyah.
Viewing 'Options' in Neyyah
In this video, I cover a few of these exciting additions, showcasing some gameplay along the way and voicing my thoughts on the process behind them. I will endeavour to record longer devlogs in the future, which go further into the design and implementation process of these features and options.
Features covered include: 'Action Highlights', where you can press spacebar to highlight certain interactable areas within the game world. 'Clearer Text' - enabling you to simply click on certain harder to read / handwritten note or journal texts within the game and changing it to a simple font, so you can read and absorb Neyyah's deeper mysteries and hidden clues much easier!
Options highlighted in this video include the amazing 'Traveller's Guide' system, which acts as an automated 'observations' capture log for the player to review and help piece together Neyyah's world and puzzles. Again, this is an OPTION within the game.
Traveller's Guide in action!
Neyyah is an experience where you travel the world at your own pace, and are recommended to write down your notes and make sense of everything through your OWN observations. However, this 'observations' systems helps form a support base if you do get overwhelmed or stuck at any point!
I hope you enjoy this insight into Neyyah' evolving world.
I'm so excited to finally release Neyyah next year! For now, I'm going to jump back through the portal and continue all the work I still have to get done!
You can follow progress on Neyyah on
Twitter/X: https://x.com/NeyyahGame
Facebook: www.facebook.com/defyrealityentertainment
Instagram: www.instagram.com/defyrealityentertainment
Patreon: www.patreon.com/defyrealityentertainment
Youtube: www.youtube.com/AaronGwynaireGameDev
Over on the Youtube, I explore more of Neyyah's developments, and I'm aiming to release more videos, exploring work prior and after Neyyah's launch, as well as some cool insight / tutorial work on the design process and tools I use to create this world.
Until next time! Let's get ready to enter 2025!
.YY.
Music used in the game:
Neyyah OST / Composed and recorded by myself and Zaedyn Turner / ZeditYT
Neyyah New Release window
We've decided to move our release to Q1 2025 to ensure the best possible game experience. This extra time will allow us to deliver Neyyah as a complete and polished 1.0 game, filled with intricate puzzles, rich environments, and captivating storytelling.
Thank you for your patience and support. We can't wait to share Neyyah with you in early 2025!
Happy exploring!
The Neyyah Development Team
Early Access Date Announcement for Neyyah
'We are thrilled to announce the date for the Early Access release of Neyyah is August 27th. Your journey begins now, and we couldn't be more excited to have you join us in uncovering the secrets and stories hidden within these strange, secretive islands.
Welcome and Feedback
As we embark on this Early Access adventure together, your feedback is invaluable to us. Starting from August 27th, we invite you to share your thoughts, experiences, and suggestions as you delve into the peculiar landscapes and intricate cultures of Neyyah. Your input will help shape the future of the game, ensuring that it becomes an even richer and more immersive experience.
What's Coming Next
In the coming months, we have a series of exciting updates planned for Neyyah. These will include new areas to explore, additional puzzles to challenge your wits, and further enhancements to the game's graphics, sound and music design. Our goal throughout Early Access is to continuously refine and expand Neyyah, making it a place you'll want to return to again and again.
Latest Video Devlog: "Creating Portals in Neyyah"
To kick off our Early Access journey, we're excited to share our latest video devlog, "Creating Portals in Neyyah." This video offers a behind-the-scenes look at the development process, focusing on the intricate portal machinery that plays a crucial role in navigating the islands. You'll get to see how these portals were conceptualized, designed, and integrated into the game, adding another layer of depth to your explorations.
Thank you for joining us in Neyyah. We can't wait to hear about your adventures and discoveries. Together, let's uncover the mysteries of this enchanting world and make Neyyah the best it can be.
Happy exploring!
The Neyyah Development Team
What to expect in 2024!!
Enjoy this video I've put together, delving into some upcoming work for Neyyah in 2024 and a recap on how 2023 has been!
Also take a peek into the adventure game world - see what amazing titles are being developed for 2024 with some exciting releases too! Fantastic to see all the awesome adventure games being developed right now - with exciting things taking place this year for 2024! 🙂
Be sure to check out, support and wishlist the other amazing titles coming up 🙂
- Aaron Gwynaire / Defy Reality Entertainment