In October, we focused on our application for the CODE Kickstarter Grant. It is always hard to pull yourself away from active development, take a step back and look at your game objectively from a higher level. However, it is always a very productive thing to do to help align your goals and milestones. We further established our target audience, a go-to-market strategy, and what we could do to make Out of Sight feel like a highly polished game.
Now that we’ve done that with the application, we can make a start towards the polished body of work for our demo. We’re calling it Demo 2.0. This demo will be a high-quality 30-minute vertical slice of gameplay, which we will then use as a proof of concept to pitch to publishers.
Player Animations and Features
Maneuverability
Out of Sight is a Stealth Action game, and we're eager to lean into the action. We've introduced new animations and features to make players feel like nimble ninjas. These additions include animations like sliding and rolling, enabling players to slide under and over lasers. We're also exploring how pressing up against walls, which enhances the game feel, can be integrated as a gameplay feature, such as shimmying along ledges or evading enemies when players find themselves in a 'squeeze' (pun intended).
Verticality
Out of Sight is a top-down 2D game, and adding verticality to the levels can be tricky. However, we understand that verticality is fundamental in stealth-level design, offering the player more freedom in their approach. We're still working on the technical aspects of this, but we're committed to including height in our level design to keep the game engaging.
This image shows how adding verticality helps to make the room designs more complex and gives players additional options. For instance, players can knock or push objects from ledges to temporarily incapacitate enemies or escape from enemies who cannot climb ladders.
Ragdolling
We've recently integrated ragdoll physics into our player's death sequence to inject humour and diversify the death animations without handcrafting an extensive range of keyframed variations. We still plan to include incorporating keyframed death animations, such as the player turning into a pile of ash when burned by a laser or revealing the player's skeleton and 'frizzed' hair when electrocuted, among other possibilities. However, we don't intend to implement these animations immediately; they will be part of our polishing phase for the new demo, as our current focus is on enhancing the overall game feel.
Discord
Join us on Discord to get access to our early prototypes and have a say in the development process. Your voice matters!
We're in the process of applying for CODE funding, aiming to secure a $40,000 seed fund. This financial support will be instrumental in enhancing the quality of our demo, making it more marketable when we approach potential publishers.
We're making good progress on incorporating player art and animations into the game. Our goal is to have this ready in time for the Remote Play Together Fest on Steam in February 2024.
Narrative
Some time ago, Out of Sight was purely a co-op game. This proved challenging for development and market viability. Stealth games are niche, and requiring a partner added an extra barrier. So, we added a single-player mode, transforming it into a single-player first experience.
As a result, we've adjusted the game's narrative to align with this change. We've been experimenting with AI text-to-speech in Unity, utilizing this asset from the Unity Asset Store as a placeholder to help us refine the game's dialogue and assess its overall pacing faster.
Ultimately, our goal is to have a voice actor for this part; however, this depends on our studio's resources. We are also taking precautions to avoid any copyright licensing issues associated with using AI in games.
Demo Beta Builds
If you've read this far, it's clear you're interested in our progress. We greatly value your input and thoughts. To try out the current demo and provide feedback on gameplay mechanics or anything else, please join our Discord community. We look forward to hearing from you!
You can access the latest content in the "Beta" channel by going to the properties menu of the game in Steam. Please refer to the screenshot below for guidance:
August was all about art in Out of Sight. We've been wanting to give it an artistic overhaul for a while. Tilemap perspective posed challenges, and characters/enemies lacked fidelity, resulting in blurriness when zooming in for trailers/screenshots. Additionally, the protagonist's design didn't feel "mascoty" enough.
Many of these realisations dawned on us while working on our new project, "Buy My Snake Oil." With a fresh start, we got to play around with different techniques and smoothly integrate high-quality Spine characters into Unity. The lessons we picked up from "Buy My Snake Oil." can now directly benefit "Out of Sight."
CODE
With the nationwide expansion of CODE funding, we've expressed our interest in the $40,000 Kickstarter fund. This marks an initial step in the larger application process. We're optimistic that in next month's newsletter, we'll be able to share positive developments on this front.
Securing this fund would enable Gareth to dedicate six months to full-time art development, resulting in significant visual improvements in Out of Sight. Our goal is to enhance the quality of our demo, making it more appealing for pitching to potential publishers. This would set the stage for obtaining further funding to transition Out of Sight into a full-scale production phase, targeting platforms like Steam, Switch, and Xbox.
New Tile Map
The enhanced 4K tilemap design now features a classic top-down view. This replaces the previous 'angled/slanted' wall approach, which led to perspective issues, with square-edged wall ends for improved consistency. However, due to this redesign, we did encounter a situation where we lost a tile on the vertical/y axis of each room. This prompted us to tighten up some levels while staying faithful to their original layouts. Importantly, players and enemies can now go behind walls. To enhance visibility when players and enemies are obstructed by walls, we're planning to implement silhouettes or outlines.
New Player Art
We're fully embracing Out of Sight's 'action-stealth' theme with the new protagonist design. Shifting from the original character models' simple and vulnerable look, we're embracing a sleek and sci-fi-ninja aesthetic to amplify players' sense of empowerment as they outwit the enemy. To make the player feel more agile, we're considering animations like rolls and slides, and we're also contemplating the addition of a Metal Gear Solid-inspired ability that allows players to press their back against walls for strategic manoeuvres. The character model in Spine has been upscaled to double its in-game scale, ensuring high resolution and visual fidelity when zoomed in. This added flexibility sets the stage for potential in-game camera zooms and streamlined footage editing for our upcoming game trailer.
Support Us
You can help support us tremendously by wishlisting our other games as well. It's free for you and helps us a lot :)
Stealth Fest just finished, and our sprint to polish the demo was very successful.
During this phase, our primary focus was on the final boss encounter. However, the analytics indicate that only a few players made it that far, and we remain proud of what we achieved within the two-week timeframe. This experience has bolstered our confidence as we continue to develop Out of Sight.
Boss Improvements
Previously, our boss scene lacked excitement, urgency, and music that accurately reflected the gameplay occurring on the screen.
Introducing a proper introductory sequence allowed us to experiment with FEEL and utilize Unity's Timeline, amplifying the boss's impact.
The boss music has now been made dynamic, adapting to match the boss's stages and gameplay intensity. The transitions are synchronized with the beat, and while some improvements can be made to smoothing, it is still a significant enhancement from the previous version.
Wishlists
During the festival, we gained 77 more wishlists, bringing our total to 1235. Although we expected higher numbers based on previous festivals, it's possible that the Stealth genre might not be as popular.
Nonetheless, we are content with the current amount of wishlists, although we still have a long way to go before launch. Our focus now shifts to preparing for Steam Next Fest in September, hoping it will attract more interest and wishlists.
Future Plans for Out of Sight
Exciting news! We have planned our Early Access launch for Q1 2024, specifically in March. 🥳 Due to the constraints of not being able to work on the game full-time, we have become even more committed to completing phase 2 of the game and proceeding with the Early Access launch as planned.
Phase 1 is the currently released demo. Phase 2 will involve a series of rooms after the demo content, leading up to the second boss. Players will have the opportunity to obtain more gadgets during this phase, and we are designing set pieces where they can save more NPC crew members.
We are aiming to have at least 2.5 hours of playtime and to sell the game for $9.99 USD.
After the Early Access release, our plan is to continue creating more content for Phase 3 and ultimately conclude the full game. However, to achieve this, we need to start generating funds, and releasing to Early Access will hopefully help us towards that goal.
Art Overhaul
In our April article, we mentioned an art redesign, and we are now fully committed to the process. We have started rolling in new assets, focusing on the Tile Map first to ensure proper room scale. After rebuilding the demo rooms with these new tiles, we will move on to playtesting. Next, we'll work on the character design, which involves redoing all animations. The game's visual improvements are taking shape as we roll in the new assets! 🎨🚀
Overhauled Menus: Streamlined menus for easy navigation.
🎮 We're so excited to be a part of Steam Stealth Fest and can't wait to bring you some heart-pounding and fun-filled stealth action! 👀
Join us on Discord as we work towards our full release in Q1 next year!
Feb '23 Update - Two New Games
We're making a monthly progress update on Mainframe Games as a studio and we've just posted our February update:
Subscribe to our newsletter on our website to stay up to date.
Or even better, come join our Discord and get updated with progress as it happens. Be a part of the development progress and play the game early before anyone else!
Demo Update And More
General Update
It's been a few months since our last demo update mainly because we're now working towards the full game production.
As we only work on this game in our spare time we're currently applying for funding via government grants as well as a private investment so we can move into a full-time production cycle.
Testers Wanted!
We'd really appreciate people helping us out by testing our new material and giving feedback on our Discord. If you're interested come join us on Discord and we can give you a Steam Key.
Future Games
We've also been conceptualizing new game ideas, one of which Buy My Snake Oil, is already in the early development phase and is available to wishlist on Steam
This update is probably a bit boring as we've really only been working on post-demo material and features. However, there have been some fixes that do apply to the demo version of the game e.g improvements to player selection and controller support.
Known Issues
The opening cutscene is a bit borked. Due photoshop package update. Should have that fixed up soon.
We're very much looking forward to next year and the future of Mainframe Games!
Have a great Christmas and New Year and we'll see you in 2023! 💪
Full Change Log
Fixed end of demo ending. Stops player from going to full game now.
Added hacking/distraction trajectories turning green when locked onto target
Added helper text to tell people to connect a controller if none connected at player select screen
Fixed gamePad controlling both players in selection screen.
Added analytics id to custom slack post
Added FMOD builds to source control
Added `roomEvent` for unity analytics
Added Steam Signin. Probably wont use it.
Turned Unity Audio back on. Just using FMOD for music for now.
Updated engine
Updated Photoshop package
Added FMOD components to start menu and cutscene
Added FMOD studio session to source control
Added FMOD Unity plugin
Improved connector click behaviour in room graph scene
Removed unused packages
Updated build config
Fixed radial menu issues in co-op
Updated engine
Added some wait time to Sparrows in room 15. Improved look angle when waiting.
Hooked up Door networks in room 16.
Hooked up airlocks to buttons.
Updated jetbrains package
Added colliders to GardenPots. Added lightswitch. Modified Feareds waypoints.
Improved waypoints for Feared and Sparrow in room 16.
Added TheFeared and Sparrow waypoints.
Further changes to room 16.
Removed sparrow attacking player
Removed itchio from build process
Removed demo target from build process
Added door to left side of escape pod room.
Removed sparrow from room 14. Now just single sparrow.
Added sparrow to room 15. Rearraged room slighly to have exit on left.
Added patrol animation to sparrow behaviour
Improved sparrow animation logic
Fixed sparrow material
Worked on room 16 layout.
Added Sparrow Patrol animation.
Updated build script to latest unity version
Added flashing lights to sparrow nest when alarm is activated
Fixed radial menu going off screen
Added UI cooldown to invisibility
Improved logic for penalty while invisible
Added gravity trap pickup to Room 14
Extending on more complex behaviour of the sparrow enemy
Added Sparrow Nest PSB. Added to Sandbox.
Fixed sparrow not picking up distraction device
Fixed sparrow not getting trapped in gravity trap
Added sparrow to new room
Added timer UI to gravity trap
Added scene conntectors to more rooms
Forgot to save scene commit
Added airlock release behaviour
Added alirlock audio
Added airlock particle effects
Fixed player respawn if caught in airlock
Added airlock sucking things out into space behaviour
Added AirLock behaviour
Added first pass on new Sparrow enemy behaviour
Fixed issues connecting via steam remote play
Added 'gameName' to build script
Updated project settings
Fixed argument out of range exception in player select screen
Changed invite modal to use SteamRemotePlay specific one
Removed Steamworks.Facepunch
Added Steamworks.Net
Fixed wrapper compile errors
Fixed camera hacking exploit when moving away as hacking
Added disabling mouse cursor when both players using gamepads
Moved cut scene file into scenes root folder
Added cut scenes to scene graphs
Spaced out skip prompt buttons for cutscene.
Increased font size on cutscene dialogue. Made square behind dialogue more opaque to help readability.
All cutscenes fixed. Turned off compression for all cutscenes.
Fixed cutscene 4.
Update to cutscene 2.
Fixed Cutscene 3.
Fixed Cutscene 2 and reimported cutscene PSBs.
Updated project and packages to latest
Updated build scripts
Fixed remaining things to hook up scenes to new scene graph system
Improved position of new room graph node
Added scene spawn index to save data
Changed room graph node settings to show on double click
Cleaned up all the scene connectors in the scenes
Added bounds offset for incoming spawn position away from scene trigger
Further work on Room 16.
Further changes to syncing scene changes
Starting piecing the room graph data into the scene play time logic
Cleaned up room screenshots for room map graph
Got basics down of room mapping scene graph.
Added airlock release PSB and worked on room 16 level design.
Added clamping room connectors to screenshot rect
Added SetDirty and SetClean for save dirtying
Started redesign of airlock room.
Removed capturing exceptions. Gets annoying from Editor
Added pot plants to project. Add WallPotPlant to Airlock scene.
After much discussion about the accessibility of Out of Sight, we have decided to include a single-player mode. This wasn't an easy choice as we only work a few hours a day outside our day jobs towards development. However, with some early experimentation, it turned out it was going to be a little easier than we thought to implement. Well worth our efforts as now you can enjoy the game without the barrier of needing a partner to join.
MacOS
What it says on the tin. We now support macOS M1 and Intel. However, we only have an M1 MacBook to test on so Intel may not be as reliable.
Future Plans
Mobile Ports
Since the single-player mode is now available this has opened up more opportunities for us. Since the game was co-op only and we sadly can not dedicate enough resources to online co-op, mobile ports were out of the question for us previously. Thankfully this is no longer the case and we have already put in motion demo builds for iOS and Android.
Full Game
This release announcement concludes the production of our demo. We will no longer be adding any new features or providing updates. However, some updates may be backported as we work towards the full game. We feel the vertical slice communicates the hook of what we are trying to achieve with Out of Sight. We are also ready to move on and start introducing new enemies, player abilities, and room puzzles.
Console
Currently, we have our eyes set on releasing Out of Sight on Nintendo Switch and Xbox. So far the only update on this is that we have applied for and been accepted as developers. The next phase is to gain access to development kits and start testing on those platforms.
Help Wanted
Discord
If you would like to be a part of the development process and help us playtest the full game come and join our Discord. Steam keys will only be given out to active Discord members so be sure to join us!
Patreon
If you really love what we do and want to help financially, consider becoming a Patron. We're not 100% sure what to do for our Patreon supporters but you will definitely have a more direct influence on the future of this game.
https://www.patreon.com/mainframegames
Wishlist
Wishlisting our game really helps us. It tells the Steam algorithm that people are interested in our game and when it comes time to launch it gives us a better chance of being featured on the front page!
- Happy Gaming Mainframe Games https://mainframe.games
Patch Notes
Added transform as default listening pivot if no overrides are set
Fixed area issues with enemies
Fixed a part of the time problem with grid area issues for sinew.
Removed x86 version of steamworks
Fixed ios app id
Prepared project for mobile builds
Improved (hopefully) throwing device into Sinew when its on a back wall
Fixed area issue when trying to hack sinew
Moved RoomGraphData to streaming assets folder
Multiple improvements to room graph scene
Removed UIFlippable for UI Extensions version. Fixed prefab instances where it was used.
Made a start on room graph scene
Removed discord sdk. Wasn't actually using it
Missed a thing from discord sdk
Fixed issue with discord sdk
Added mobile controls placeholders
Adjusted camera FOV length in Room 11
Improved device trajectory clamping logic.
Added save slots for supporting multiple saves. co-op/solo
Fixed stage 2 sinew not chasing player
Cleaned up MG_Steam class
Fixed player select screen not showing steam invite in co-op
Fixed discord sdk build issues for mac and linux
Fixed issue with radial menu reference after changing scenes
Fixed input issues with controlling mutliple radial menus in co-op
Fixed bug in radial menu defaulting to north button.
Updated Discord SDK
Fixed issues with boss due to bug in debounce method
Fixed issue with red door already being opened in NPC room
Fixed radial menu showing when Y button pressed
Removed leaderboard button from start menu
Tidied up new cables in NPC room.
Changed NPC room a bit to suit solo/co-op
Removed unused properties on IFloorController
Added new tutorial prompt to player prefab for network cards
Fixed ability menu prompt showing after already completing
Fixed change of animation names
Implemented new radial menu asset into game
Added new radial menu asset
Fixed male throw device animations. Added two animation variants for aiming while walking and idle.
Made it so invite button always shows for co-op when steam is valid
Fixed not being able to switch input devices for solo mode
Added ability input prompt tutorial after second ability is obtained
Improved feel of selection from radial menu
Fixed player footstep glitch when aiming ability
Fixed debug save issues for sandbox scene
Updated full screen asset
Fixed opening cutscene subtitles being overlapped by Skip prompt
Fixed game saving on opening cut scene
Fixed issues with ability index for co-op play
Stopped error on steam sdk already inialised
Fixed player ability index persistence
Added scale to selected ability
Made ability icons larger.
Visual improvements to ability selector
Added darkener behind ability icon to help it try stand out more
Added debug bool to set all abilties on
Updated app bundle id for mac
Added all screen ratios to settings
Fixed tutorial input prompt showing after non-player destroyed in solo mode
Fixed dialogue UI scale
Put custom achievement card to bottom left of screen
Fixed issue with tutorial window
Speed up player animation mix durations
Fixed issue when debugging without controller connected
Fixed getting under desk in room 5
Added new ability icons to radial menu
Moved all art assets into Art folder
Fixed player inventory issues in co-op
Added gadget icons for radial menu.
Fixed getting unique skin when debugging
Added UniTaskEx for easier delays in seconds
Fixed controller vibration time.
Fixed issued with player controller connection
Optimised getting all players
Added macos to steam vdf files
Reverted PSB importer packaged. Was messing with cutscene stuff.
Fixed font sizing for cut scene subtitles
Set up mac build config json
Added rider idea to ignore
Added build/deploy configs to repo
Removed ignoring the ignore conf
Fixed discord sdk double up
Put co-op button at top in main menu.
Added co-op button disabled for mobile.
Set better orth camera size target
Improved screen orth size value setting based on screen ratio
Fixed issues with Facepunch for mac/linux
Updated Unity and Packages. Because this version uses apple silicon
Fixed ability key ids for distraction and hacking device pickups
Removed the runtime IS_DEMO check in favour for pre-processor #ifdef
Updated dialogue system asset
Updated dialogue system asset
Updated Packages
Added Fullscreen editor asset
Achievement Intialised!
We now have achievements
We have implemented a few achievements for you to try and conquer! More will come in time so keep an eye out for future updates.
If you have any cool ideas for achievements come and let us know on our Discord server
https://discord.gg/pap4Jjr
Future Plans
In future, we will also add a Speed Run Mode with Leaderboards for the demo. However, this will be a wee ways off yet. Stay tuned.
Change Log: 1129
Added first pass on steam achievements
Added crouchidlehack, crouchhackequip, and crouchhackloop animations. Added MG Spine animation mixer componenet to SpineTests Unity scene.
Added boss swallow and laser prewarm animations to game
Redid scene 3 cutscene animation.
Added prewarm into lasers Boss animation.
Potential fix for when player is downed in locker and you cant get back in it.
Fixed floor switches not triggering when entering from one to another on same frame.
Fixed lasers in room 10 so you cant hide in the corner
Improved text wrapping in UI Speech Prefab. Cable Connector is now layered behind player.
Added Boss Stage 2 Swallow animation.
Fixed resetting initial states for achievements when restarting game from player select screen
Demo Is Live!
Out of Sight Demo Is Live!
After 3 years of playing around and dabbling with ideas then a solid focus for 15 months of getting up at 6 am every day to work on the game for a couple of hours before work, we finally have a demo out!
Many more tweaks and bug fixes to come for the demo but now it's time to start working on the full game!
Be sure to help support us on our journey to our first commercial game by wishlisting Out of Sight. Wishlisting the game helps let the Steam algorithm know that people are interested in our game and give us a better chance of being on the front page of Steam for launch.
