Purple Noise Echo
Purple Noise Echo is officially OUT NOW!
Purple Noise Echo is officially released today !
Purple Noise Echo was born from the desire to tell the story of wandering in a hostile environment, the need to understand to cross the world.
Its references come both from literature regarding the notion of group whose members have particular skills, but also from board games where the environment is built and changes in front of the players.
The first prototype was in fact a board game.
The design of Purple Noise Echo has never been guided by the needs of the market, it's the fruit of a free and personal path which in the end produces an experience that mixes genres and that I myself have difficulty classifying.
Developing a game alone, next to my daily work and my family life, was not an easy task. It required me to know how to question the ambitions of the game, its scope, to rationalize its design. I had to focus on the core of the game, to make it stand on its own and offer the player the experience I was hoping to share.
It's been a long road, with a lot of questioning, learning about my own way of designing a game alone from start to finish. I think that, more than any other project I've done, this is the one where the design was most shaped by its constraints. It's been a slow shaping, and at the same time I don't see how it could be any other way today, so I figure I've got something there.
The numerous exchanges and meetings with the indie developer community, as well as the contact with the players, helped me a lot to understand how to go through this process.
The game is far from perfect, it could perhaps benefit from more complexity content, but I believe I have managed to reduce it to its core. And, by building from there on a reduced scope, to give it a unity, to make it a whole that I am satisfied with.
Anyway, this project represents something very special to me, and I hope it will be appreciated for what it is.
If you do so, please let people know about it, and share your feedback.
Enjoy the game!
Purple Noise Echo - Release Date
Progress has been slow, but step by step I have reached this special moment:
I'm pleased to announce that the game is now in its final stage and will be officially released on May 25th!
update 0.43
This is probably the biggest update I've done so far.
I've been working on a lot of bugs, but I've also improved and completed all the systems of the game.
There are new effects, feedback improvements, animations, sound effects, new meshes... but most of all the game is playable from start to finish, only the final level is not fully implemented.
We can say that the game is really in beta stage.
This is a really important step for this side project that I've been working on alone for a while now.
The next steps, which separate the game from a full release, are the implementation of the save system, a qualitative improvement of the whole game and of course a ruthless bug hunt!
I hope that the game experience will be up to the expectations, and even more than usual the comments and feedbacks of beta-testers are important in this final stretch!
update 0.42
Quick patch this week.
- Fixed the GameOver screen where interactions can sometimes get stuck.
- Some minor corrections.
Thanks
update 0.41
0.41 is a general update of the game, with lots of bug fixes and improvements on all game systems.
And a special focus on the UI of the HUD and the menu.
As always, don't hesitate to send me your feedback and comments!
Thanks.
Update 0.40
It's been a long time since there has been an update, too long... The last few months, my work as a solo and freelance developer has taken up all my time and energy.
The new update is finally here.
In this one, I've been chasing the inevitable bugs that are hiding in every corner. And I focused my attention on the game's handling and understanding. Purple Noise Echo is and will remain a game that requires you to understand by yourself its universe and its mechanics. But I tried to simplify it wherever possible, in order to find the right balance. So there are essentially changes in the interface, and in the units behavior.
In addition, because an indie game should remain accessible, I optimized the code as much as possible and I changed the rendering of the game, so that it runs well, even on a small configuration... hopefully.
It's a work in progress, but I'm starting to see the finish line on the horizon!
Thank you for the work!
Update 0.39
This update adds some UI improvement and some effects. But most importantly, I've changed the way the game is rendered. So the lights and post-effects are much better. There is a cost, which I hope is not too high. I have to fine-tune it to be fully satisfied with the colours and lighting, the atmosphere of the environment is something important in the game.
If you have an opinion on this graphic change, let me know!
Now that all the features are in the game, I will spend all my available time to bring it to a decent quality level! Fixing bugs of course, improving the effects, adding sound effects and background music, adding some animations and integrating the narration!
It's still a huge amount of work!
As you may know, I'm working alone on this game, and I work full time as a freelance game developer and I have to take care of my family. So sometimes it's hard to find the time and energy to work on the game the way I want, and my estimate for a full release seems to be constantly being pushed back, and doubt is everywhere!
So if you have any comments, feel free to send them to me!
The whole point of independent gaming is to share an experience with players, so if you think this game is interesting, please spread the word! :)
Thanks!
Update 0.38
Today, I'm happy to announce that all levels of Purple Noise Echo are now into the game! This means that all the mechanics have been integrated!
I still have one main feature left to put in the game, but on that point I won't say more for now... :)
I will now focus on the sound design, the visuals and of course the debugging.
Thanks to all of you for your support and comments that allow me to improve my game and hold on as a solo developer.
See you soon for more news!
Update 0.37
I added several levels with new challenges, new units and skills. Saying more about them will spoil the game. They're here to be discovered!
Besides, I fixed bugs, cleaned up some code and tried to improve some systems.
I'm still focusing on level design, code and systems for now... It's almost done, just a couple more updates!
Then I'll focus on the visuals and sounds!
As usual, any feedback is more than welcome. As you may know, I'm working alone on this project next to my freelance work, so the more feedback I get, the more problems I fix!
Have a good game!
Update 0.35
It takes more refactoring of the code than I thought, but now datas are handle in a more efficient way and it lead the path to the save game system.
Now that its done I expect to deliver updates on a more regular basis!