- Faster mesh generation for reduced hitching
- More detailed error messages for attempting to load games with missing city data
- Introduced a failsafe and potential fix for the falling through floor glitch (we’re continuing diagnostic work with this one as it’s unreplicable on a consistent basis)
- Fixed: x2 instances of inaccessible briefcases (requires new mission instance)
- Fixed: Error when choosing colour for citizen work uniform (requires new city generation)
- Fixed: Some minor visual glitches with rain
- Fixed: Error when picking up a key causing it to not remove itself from the world
- Audio: Minor improvements to air duct movement sounds
- Audio: Added randomisation to lockpicking sound
- Audio: Fixed fade-out on some music tracks if stopped early
Shadows of Doubt
Shadows of Doubt V 36.06 Patch Notes
Shadows of Doubt V 36.06 Experimental Branch Patch Notes
- Faster mesh generation for reduced hitching
- More detailed error messages for attempting to load games with missing city data
- Introduced a failsafe and potential fix for the falling through floor glitch (we’re continuing diagnostic work with this one as it’s unreplicable on a consistent basis)
- Fixed: x2 instances of inaccessible briefcases (requires new mission instance)
- Fixed: Error when choosing colour for citizen work uniform (requires new city generation)
- Fixed: Some minor visual glitches with rain
- Fixed: Error when picking up a key causing it to not remove itself from the world
- Audio: Minor improvements to air duct movement sounds
- Audio: Added randomisation to lockpicking sound
- Audio: Fixed fade-out on some music tracks if stopped early
Shadows of Doubt Devblog #38: What a year huh detectives?
This year we launched into early access, back in April, which simultaneously feels like aeons ago but also about a fortnight ago; I think that's because it's been amazing to see the game's success but also we have been working hard to cover a lot of ground. 24 Patches later and we're getting there! But there's still stuff to do.
Highlights of the Year
Steam NextFest
Early in the year we participated in Steam NextFest. This was the game's first public release. It was super nerve-wracking, and at the time the game was still extremely buggy, but regardless we saw that people really enjoyed our idea and it was fantastic to see how people engaged with all our hard work. It was a massively positive experience as it was the first sign that our niche, low-budget game was going to attract an audience.
EA Launch
The period between NextFest and early access launch in April was a crazy busy month and we worked really hard to fix as many reported issues as possible. We implemented our public in-game bug report system to try and get valuable data; it worked (although sorting through them is a job in itself!) Regardless, with your help, we were able to fix many bugs this way, and we continue to use the same workflow going forward.
Content Updates
We were and continue to be excited about bringing new content into the game. The year ahead will be no exception; we've got new things in the works we think you'll enjoy and that should add a lot to the Shadows experience. We're going to continue to focus not only on the 'bigger' things that you might see as update headlines, but we're very keen on adding more detail to our world. Bringing the world to life through finishing touches and detail, like the in-game TV for example, has been collectively one of the most fun things to work on, and creates atmosphere in spades. We're going to continue to do that.
Teaming Up
One of the things the success has allowed us to do is work with more people. ColePowered will remain and very possibly always remain a very small team; this is because I much prefer creating stuff to being a manager. However, it's also great to work with others and this year we've worked with a new guest writer (Premee Mohamed), a couple of different programmers have contributed massively to the codebase (Josh & Austin) and we've also received contractor help with admin tasks and achievement art (Layla & Billie). Next year will be more of the same.
The Steam Awards
To recap our biggest surprise, you've nominated us for a Steam award! This is a huge deal for us and we couldn't be prouder. If we can count on your vote, head on over to https://store.steampowered.com/SteamAwards
Over the year ahead we will continue tackling the bugs and address QoL issues that have been reported (thank you to everybody who has submitted them). We will also be continuing to add new content to the game, really excited to share our plans with you soon!
Have a fantastic holiday season detectives! See you in the new year!
Vote Shadows of Doubt for Most Innovative Gameplay!
The voting is now open for the Steam Awards so please go and vote for Shadows of Doubt in the Most Innovative Gameplay category!
It is such an honour to be up for consideration next to all of these fantastic titles and may the best game win! Thanks for all the support this year detectives - it really has been a wild ride.
Here is a festive looking murder scene to ponder over the holidays:
Happy holidays and remember, stay frosty detectives!
Shadows of Doubt V 36.05 Patch Notes
Just a small patch that we wanted to get out before the holidays because we saw the no murder bug was happening again and we managed to find a few things that could have been causing it.
- Fixed: ‘Sleeping with the Fishes’ achievement was not triggering and potentially causing other errors.
- Fixed: Pathfinding problems when a weapons dealer was located in a certain area (behind town house). Could result in a killer never acquiring a murder weapon in some cases.
- Fixed: Internal fixes with how achievements were being synced.
- Fixed: In very rare cases citizens could get stuck just outside their apartments
Award Season! Vote for Shadows of Doubt on the 21st of December!
This is just a quick one today to celebrate a few awards that are being announced at the moment. It has been truly humbling being even nominated for these but we wanted to share them with you all as well.
There are also 2 awards we have been nominated on so far that you can vote for:
- The Steam Awards - Most Innovative Gameplay (Voting opens on the 21st of December so mark that in your diaries detectives!)
- IndieDB - Indie of the Year. You can vote for us here following this link if you would be so inclined!
Then here is a snapshot of the awards/roundup inclusions we have received so far:
- Dreamhack Beyond - Best Gameplay Design
- GamesHub - Best Games 2023
- Gameranx - No.8 for Best New Adventure Games 2023
- GameSpot - Best PC Games of 2023
- SassyGamers - Best of Early Access
- GameGuide - Writer's Game of the Year
Thanks for all of the support this year, I hope everyone has a great holiday season! We will be looking forward to rolling out new content and squishing more bugs in the new year 🕵️
Initial Modding Support Update + Shadows of Doubt V 36.04 Patch Notes
The modding update is now live which includes:
- A text editor tool - You can download it for free here.
- An in-game city editor
- A mono build version of the game - which you can access following these instructions
- Achievements!!
- And More!
All the documentation for how to access and use the modding content is here. You can find people's text pack creations here and you should be able to access this from within the game as well.
You can see the full patch notes below:
- New: Dialog editor tool; allows you to write your own dialog, v-mails, newspaper articles etc.
- New: Mod support with Mod.io integration; download and manage mods from in-game. The official mod support currently includes potential for language mods, text systems and custom cities (see our documentation for more info).
- New: Mono steam branch access (see our documentation for more info).
- New: Foggy weather
- New: 32 Steam achievements
- New: Some more newspaper articles
- New: ‘Toggle Run’ option; when enabled pressing the sprint key will toggle between running/walking for your character. This is now enabled by default.
- New: ‘Always Run’ option; when enabled your character will sprint by default and the sprint key will instead switch to walking pace.
- New: ‘Permadeath’ option; when enabled if your character gets knocked out, they die and you will be exited from the current game.
- Fixed: Open Finished Audio Event now firing at the end of the transition duration.
- Fixed: Door opening state now coincides with animation event.
- Fixed: Some glass materials were not receiving fog properly
- Fixed: Text input filtered out valid non-English characters
- Fixed: Emissive material stuck on lit on some ceiling lights
- Fixed: Increased CCTV capture field of view (could cause the game to stop loading in the ‘Simulating Previous Events’ phase in some rare cases)
- Fixed: Bug with citizens disposing consumable items too early
- Fixed: Issues with items not being removed from citizen hands
- Fixed: Fixed an error occurring on loading in an old save game
- Fixed: Citizen could get stuck in a loop of turning off their bedside light upon loading a game
- Hi-Fi Cabinet Turntable Lid open/closing sound added
- Bloodhound Tracker place/ping sound added
- Closet Slat Door open/close sounds added
- Bandage sound updated
- Game now launches on first start in a maximized window
- It’s now possible to scroll independently of the selected button while a scroll view is displayed while using a controller.
We can't wait to see what people get up to with the mono build and with the text editor tool as well!
Do join the Discord to get involved in the discussion and if you want to hear more about Fireshine Games please do sign up to our Newsletter
Investigations #3 Modding Update Out on Experimental Now + "SoD Cribs"
Starting off with some exciting news - the bulk of the modding update is now available to play on the experimental branch which includes:
- A text editor tool - which you can use to add new text to the game for new citizen chatter, conversations, v-mails and more. Different dialog can be triggered based on citizen traits and situation. This is actually what we use to get text in the game. You can download it for free here
- An in-game city editor - for now this will only give you the ability to rename buildings and streets and decide where you want to place the buildings but we hope to expand it in the future
There is documentation on how to use the above and more, that we will be continuing to expand upon whenever we add customisability to the game here. We also encourage people to share the text they create on Mod.io so that others can engage with your awesome creations too. The Shadows of Doubt page is here.
Along with a bunch of other updates including:
- Permadeath option
- Ability to toggle on/off running
- and a host of other bug fixes adn QoL updates that you can see in the patch notes here
The full modding update will hopefully be out on the 13th of December!
We are hoping that as long as we encounter no major issues that all of the above will be live on the default branch next week on Wednesday the 13th of December along with:
- A mono build - we are going to make a mono version of the game available on a separate open Steam branch so that players can mod the game to their heart's desire. The mono version willl have slightly lower performance so we didn't want to put it on the default branch but hopefully you will be able to have some fun with it.
- Steam achievements
We know these are highly asked for features so we hope you are all excited to check that out on the 13th as well. In the meantime see this post to access the experimental branch if you haven't done so before. We really appreciate all the feedback there so the launch to default can be as smooth as possible!
An Episode of Shadows of Doubt Cribs
This week, we investigate the places you’ve built that your sleuths call home when they are off the case. With so many options available, we don’t think we’ve ever seen the same setup twice. While some of you have embraced the neo-noir techno side of things, some of you have opted for a more classic, relaxed vibe. No matter what style you’ve chosen, they’ve all been a pleasure to see. So without further ado, let’s dive into an “open-house” edition of Shadows of Doubt!
First up is this amazing cyberpunk meets scifi noir apartment done by Dorohlez. With inspiration pulled from The Matrix, are you ready to see how deep the rabbit hole goes? Check out the video tour here
Even if you haven’t been able to afford a high-rise apartment, some detectives have even made the Fathoms look cozy. Shadows of Doubt Discord member, Dominic has created a cozy space right in the depths of the city to piece together the cases. Take a trip down to the slums here
What’s a detective to do when they can finally go off duty? Hang out in their custom game room of course! Discord user Eirin has everything needed to have a relaxing night at home complete with music, vending and games. Take a load off here, detectives!
To give you an example of how much freedom you really have with furnishing and creating your apartments, Discord user GerryPhilbane has shared their transformation from what they bought to how they decorated and changed the entire space into the perfect noir detective flat. See the complete transformation here, from start to finish. HGTV, MOVE OVER!
That’s it for our Detective Home Edition of the bi-weekly update. Remember sleuths, you’ll always need a place for some R&R between cases so spend those crows and get decorating! We wouldn’t want to see you living in anything less than the best…or, yanno, a house that looks like a mustard explosion…(CC Discord User Local God)
Shadows of Doubt V 36.03 Experimental Branch Patch Notes (Mod Content Update)
- New: Dialog editor tool; allows you to write your own dialog, v-mails, newspaper articles etc.
- New: Mod support with [mod.io](http://mod.io) integration; download and manage mods from in-game. The official mod support currently includes potential for language mods, text systems and custom cities (see our documentation for more info).
- New: Foggy weather
- New: Some more newspaper articles
- New: ‘Toggle Run’ option; when enabled pressing the sprint key will toggle between running/walking for your character. This is now enabled by default.
- New: ‘Always Run’ option; when enabled your character will sprint by default and the sprint key will instead switch to walking pace.
- New: ‘Permadeath’ option; when enabled if your character gets knocked out, they die and you will be exited from the current game.
- Fixed: Open Finished Audio Event now firing at the end of the transition duration.
- Fixed: Door opening state now coincides with animation event.
- Fixed: Some glass materials were not receiving fog properly
- Fixed: Text input filtered out valid non-English characters
- Fixed: Emissive material stuck on lit on some ceiling lights
- Fixed: Increased CCTV capture field of view (could cause the game to stop loading in the ‘Simulating Previous Events’ phase in some rare cases)
- Hi-Fi Cabinet Turntable Lid open/closing sound added
- Bloodhound Tracker place/ping sound added
- Closet Slat Door open/close sounds added
- Bandage sound updated
- Game now launches on first start in a maximized window
- It’s now possible to scroll independently of the selected button while a scroll view is displayed while using a controller.
Shadows of Doubt V 35.08 Experimental Branch Patch Notes
- Fixed: Added dynamic font atlases for support of various non-ENG characters not in the game’s text files
- Fixed: Apartment numbers on doors could appear inverted/backwards
- Fixed: It was possible to generate multiple cities with the same name, seed and size if they were generated by different versions of the game. This caused save games to potentially load the wrong city, resulting in a lot of weird things happening on load-in.
- Fixed: Possible error with citizens choosing which weapon to use
- Fixed: You can now always talk to handcuffed people, even if trespassing
- Fixed: Picking up a placed door wedge resulted in the creation of a ‘used’ one
- Fixed: The commercial oven door now opens downwards instead of to the left
- Fixed: The modern kitchenette oven doors opened inwards instead of outwards
- Fixed: Hands are now interactable after knockout. (Printing and handcuff releasing was previously broken after a citizen was KO’d)
- Fixed: Microcruncher database apps do not launch blocking UI elements (Case board/Inventory)
- Fixed: Microcruncher database apps no longer listen to keyboard inputs when game is paused.
- Fixed: Microcruncher database app search text no longer “disappears” when players input long strings.
- Fixed: Interaction area with Microcruncher is now bigger and properly includes the screen.
- Fixed: Not being able to print V-mails if you scrolled past the listed page they were on.
- Fixed: Was possible for file boxes to spawn in air ducts, blocking player movement. Requires new city generation.
You can join the Discord here and sign up to our Fireshine Games Newsletter here.