Go and get it while it's 15% off, for one week only.
Remnant Records
Remnant Records is out NOW!
Go and get it while it's 15% off, for one week only.
Beta 1.6.0 is up now
- Entirely reworked the runner's exorcism. Explore around when the candle is blue to find out what's changed, but be careful... the runner is listening.
- Added multiple new objects and story elements (and many more coming in the next updates)
- Added a new special condition (warning: for experienced investigators only!)
- Changed the behavior of the dolls during the orphan's exorcism
- Changed a specific behavior of the orphan when it cries to make it more difficult to manage
- Changed the way stories are generated to make sure all ghosts have the same chance of appearing (including the orphan)
- Changed the way custom difficulty works to encourage logical storytelling (ex: getting orphans with childrens' stories)
Adjustments
- Increased the base duration of the shusher's, mannequin's and runner's successful exorcisms
- Adjusted the order of unlocking of tips in the exorcist diary
- Reduced the frequency of the ticking during the exorcism
- Reduced the sound made when walking and when crouchwalking
- Increased the kill power of the mannequin
- Reduced the distance at which the mannequin needs to be to play its approach sound
- Changed the trap talisman so that ghosts stop their movement animation while trapped and stop keeping track of their targets
- Increased the duration of the trap talisman
- Reduced the size of the electrician's HUD
- Increased the size of the cartomancer's HUD
- Reduced the spawn rate of toys
- Increased the hitboxes of some small objects
- Changed the display of text on newspapers
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a radiator that was culled too early
- Fixed minor typos in some texts
- Fixed a bug where one of the souls released by the shusher during the exorcism wouldn't move
- Fixed a bug with the v-sync button
- Fixed a bug related to the orphan's dolls animations
- Fixed a bug where it was possible to start a game without selecting a role and it would cause a crash
- Fixed a bug where orphans could cause some lights to stop working
Enjoy!
Join the Discord to discuss the game and share your feedback: http://discord.gg/Uf8EpWsFts
Release Date Announced!
You only have to wait one more week to play the game.
See you on the other side, exorcists!
Beta applications closed
In the meantime, do check out these wonderful videos made by Nuzzgard that showcase the game. The first one has a nifty overview of the game that explains what it's all about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDHZX3XKoFc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfNxyx7yy2U
The game is coming out in Early Access this July.
Stay tuned for the release date!
Beta 1.5.0 is up now
- Completely reworked the mannequin exorcism phase
--> Similarly to the shusher, the exorcism phase is now much longer and entirely different. As soon as the candle lights up in blue, you'll find out what's changed.
--> The behaviour of the mannequin has not changed when the exorcism fails (red candle)
- Replaced the cartomancer's "cover" talisman with the new "helper" talisman
--> The helper will guide you to something useful for the investigation that you haven't found yet.
- Successfully completing the new reworked exorcisms now grants an experience bonus
- Some special conditions now grant an experience modifier
- Added more information on the game end screen and detailed the experience earned
Adjustments
- Removed the level requirement to unlock special conditions. They can now all randomly appear on contracts starting once you reach level 5. Once you've played one through, it will become available on the "customize difficulty" screen.
Note: One major bug could not be reproduced: the exorcism table appeared without its totems and was unusable. If someone encounters this bug again, please use the ingame feedback tool to report it (Escape -> Submit Feedback).
Enjoy!
Join the Discord to discuss the game and share your feedback: http://discord.gg/Uf8EpWsFts
Beta 1.4.0 is up now
- Completely reworked the shusher exorcism phase
--> The exorcism phase is now much longer, and has entirely changed... Explore around during the exorcism, and maybe you'll find interesting things.
--> The behaviour of the shusher has not changed when the exorcism fails (red candle)
- Changed all ambience sounds
--> The ambience sounds now slowly get more intense with time
- Changed the game end screen to have more details on the mission
--> More statistics are going to be added later
--> Don't hesitate to suggest statistics you'd like to see on this screen!
- Added a button on the escape menu to reset all objects to their original position (to use in case of a game-breaking bug)
Adjustments
- Changed the order of ghost types in the exorcism diary to be the same as the one in the "customize difficulty" window
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where the contract pin would appear red instead of yellow ingame
- Fixed a bug related to the shusher's detection of players in the dark
- Fixed a bug where objects spawned behind the attic mirror in Rock's End Farmhouse
- Fixed a bug where the "unlock all" button wouldn't get disabled after unlocking something
- Fixed a bug where the grass in Gamara Villa would not have the correct footsteps sounds
- Fixed a bug with pathfinding related to the "one soul in two ghosts" special condition
Note: One major bug could not be reproduced: the exorcism table appeared without its totems and was unusable. If someone encounters this bug again, please use the ingame feedback tool to report it (Escape -> Submit Feedback).
A "stable" branch has been added on Steam, that contains the previous version of the beta (currently B-1.3.0). Use this branch if you encounter game-breaking bugs in the game (but don't forget to report them!)
To switch to this branch:
1) Go to your library on Steam
2) Right-click the game, click on "Properties"
3) Go to "Betas"
4) Select the "stable" branch
Enjoy!
Join the Discord to discuss the game and share your feedback: http://discord.gg/Uf8EpWsFts
Devlog #1
đź’ˇ Reminder: Remnant Records is a coop horror investigation game. You enter haunted places, try to understand what happened to the people that lived there by gathering the clues left behind, and finally exorcise them.
The beta has now been out for more than two weeks. How have you been enjoying it? If you still don’t have your beta key, it’s not too late. Join our Discord and head to the channel #request-access to get yours: discord.gg/Uf8EpWsFts
This is the first devlog for Remnant Records. It gives some insight on the behind the scenes of the development process.
THE EXORCISM PHASE
One of the most common criticisms we’ve received on the main gameplay loop was the exorcism phase. It’s pretty cool for the first few times; players anxiously light up the candle, sigh with relief when they see it turn blue, then hold their breath again trying to survive the inevitable pursuit. However, this system has some glaring problems.
First problem, it gets old fast. Once you’ve learned that the optimal strategy is most of the times simply hiding in a closet, you just do that and wait for time to tick. You either get caught or you don’t, but it feels more like a luck-based situation than a tense gameplay segment.
Second problem, this mechanic is apparently very confusing for some players. I’ve watched a lot of friends and acquaintances play the game, as it gives me very interesting insight on how new players perceive the game. When their first exorcism succeeds, most players freeze. I would have thought their survival instinct would kick in and they would either try to run away or hide somewhere, but no: the vast majority of players freeze right around the exorcism table and wait for their demise. When I first witnessed this, I was a bit baffled. But when it’s happened to such a large number of people, it obviously means it’s a bad design and not simply user error.
So, what’s the solution? We’ve been thinking about this for a good while, and here’s what we got:
EXORCISM BOSS FIGHTS
Well, not really. You still won’t be able to fight back against spirits, and you still won’t get a gun. But it appeared that giving the players an objective during the exorcism was crucial. We decided to give each spirit type a unique objective to fulfill during a successful exorcism.
But how to communicate what to do to the players? The game has an extremely minimal UI, and we definitely didn’t want to add text instructions on screen as if it was a WarioWare minigame. Another solution was adding it to the tutorial, but…
- That means adding four whole parts (for the four spirits), and even more in the future! That’d make for a super long and bloated tutorial.
- People already do not read the tutorial in its entirety. From what I’ve seen, it seems most people mentally skip every other line of text. Sometimes, they even invent things they believe they’ve read in the tutorial! It’s kind of impressive, but I, too, have a very short attention span, so I get it.
In conclusion, it’s best to keep tutorials short and to the point.
So, in the end, we decided to let players trust their instinct, and not give any text instruction. Will that work out? Well, we’ll see. Maybe it’s a big mistake, and we’ll have to change everything again. But it’s an interesting experiment!
🤫 Warning: Light spoilers on the new exorcism phase of the shusher below. If you want to discover everything by yourself when it comes out in beta (very soon!), stop reading now.
THE SHUSHER’S REWORKED EXORCISM PHASE
The shusher is the very first spirit we designed. She’s gone through the most reworks, so it’s only natural she gets to have the first brand new exorcism phase.
We started brainstorming, and had lots of ideas, but all of them felt a bit unnatural; as if we were suddenly adding a Zelda-like puzzle in the middle of an otherwise immersion-oriented horror game. We knew that even though lore isn’t central to this game, this exorcism phase had to be well integrated in the ingame world so as not to break immersion.
We ended up giving the shusher a lantern that only lights up during the exorcism, letting her patrol around looking for prey. When the lantern lights up, as the shusher is weakened by the exorcism, the souls of her victims escape and scatter in the house. Maybe they’d be willing to help you? That’s for you to find out.
The shusher has a lot of unique features, but her most memorable one is right in the name: she can mute players to stop them from talking with each other. It does not, however, stop them from communicating: I’ve seen players “talk” when muted by flashing their torches quickly, jumping around, shaking their head…
Because of this, we decided the shusher’s exorcism phase also had to have a focus on communication.
So, let’s sum this up… we’ve got a patrolling spirit, potentially helpful escaped souls, and a mission to fulfill that’ll put your communication to the test. Sounds like a good time!
The new shusher exorcism phase will be available very soon on the beta (v1.4.0). Your feedback will be very helpful to know whether all of this is too cryptic - or just cryptic enough - and what we should adjust. Other spirits will also get their own exorcism makeover later on.
I hope you enjoyed reading this devlog. More will come in the future, so let me know if there’s a specific subject you’d like me to tackle. You can come and discuss this devlog, the game, and anything else you want on our Discord: discord.gg/Uf8EpWsFts
Yours truly,
EraKles
Play the beta now!
Missed out on the registration? It's not too late!
Fill this form to apply: https://forms.gle/rPHpQmtJnKYQ97gx5
We hope you'll enjoy this beta. Do not hesitate to post your feedback on the Discord server (discord.gg/Uf8EpWsFts) or on the Steam forums.
Apply now for the Beta!
There's a little announcement at the end too: you can now apply for beta!
Simply join our Discord and fill a form to get access to the beta once it launches.
Discord server: discord.gg/Uf8EpWsFts
Or access the form directly: https://forms.gle/rPHpQmtJnKYQ97gx5
We hope you'll enjoy this trailer, and the upcoming beta!