Nominate Shadows of Doubt for the "Most Innovative Gameplay" Steam Award!
Hey Detectives!
Today we have a bit of a rallying call! Nominations have just opened for The Steam Awards 2023, and we’d love your support! We’re exceptionally proud of the innovative gameplay Shadows of Doubt brings to the table and we hope we can count on your vote for the “Most Innovative Gameplay” category this year.
Shadows of Doubt is an incredibly ambitious game that typifies what indie gaming is all about - creativity, innovation and risk taking. Cole has really taken an idea and pushed the boundaries of the detective genre. Taking an immersive simulation approach where the whole world is constantly simulated, you can interact with almost everything and explore everywhere gives the player unprecedented agency in a detective game. The procedurally generated cases and lack of linear progression again diverge so significantly from most detective games giving players a unique and refreshing experience. It is a project 7 years in the making due to the complexity of the overlapping systems and is something everyone involved in the project is extremely proud of what has been achieved so far and there is still a lot more to come on this front!
We have also had a whole bunch of high praise from the press on this front:
RockPaperShotgun - “Shadows Of Doubt is like no other detective game I've played, and although its murder mysteries have left me spiraling, I've had an absolute riot playing it.”
GamesIndustry.biz - “It's the agency, combined with the indie game's scope and ambition, that convinced GamesIndustry.biz to select it as the winner of UKIE's UK Game of the Year prize at Gamescom”
PC Gamer - “Shadows of Doubt is one of the most interesting games I've seen in years”
GamesHub - “It’s one of those experiences you’ll find yourself shouting about from the rooftops – ‘You have to try this. Trust me.’”
GodIsAGeek - “I’ve never played anything like Shadows of Doubt before”
There has also been some amazing sentiment on this front from creators here if you want to hear more reasons for why you should consider nominating Shadows of Doubt for the Most Innovative Gameplay Steam Award:
If you can help spread the word to your friends, your grandparents, your favourite influencer and the internet at large we would really appreciate it!
Investigations #2 Your Stories & Some Info on the Modding Update
Good day, detectives and welcome back to another Shadows of Doubt round-up! This week we wanted to give you a little update on the modding update and touch on more of your personal stories and experiences you’ve had in the procedural cities solving your cases.
An Update on the Modding Update!
We are currently aiming to have the update ready for early December. Before then we may look to share the modding tools with some of the dedicated Shadows of Doubt modding community to make sure it all works and to check if there is anything else we should implement. If you would be interested in this please do join our Discord and take on the "Crunchers" role.
Now for a bit more detail on what is coming with the update. The update consists of 3 main elements:
A text editor tool - hich 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.
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
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.
There will also be a few other things coming unrelated to mods that we have been working on that we will keep secret for now
Finally - we will also be implementing Steam achievements as well! We can't wait for you to have fun with these.
Now onto your stories!
Being that Shadows of Doubt tends to be very unique (and sometimes absolutely wild) with every new playthrough and new city, you’d be surprised at the things we’ve seen and probably the things you’ve seen yourselves…
So let’s sit around the diner booth, have a Starch Kola and reminisce on some notable moments shared by you!
Have you ever been so hot on the case that you witnessed an attempted murder?
Twitter user @n0valith has. And on top of that, was able to apprehend the killer before they had a chance to claim their next victim. Well done! See the full video here: Catching them in the act.
How about THINKING you’re hot on the case until you realize you’ve broken into the wrong facility after hours to investigate a potential murderer. @pixlBandits has some first hand experience to share with you: Oops wrong place.
We suppose you could ignore all of these kind of situations if you just go ahead and take EVERYBODY out of the City Hall database. Reddit user u/Kijora_The_Duck did just that when they said “Government Who?”
That’s it for this week, detectives! Keep on the case, and keep sharing your sleuth experiences with us…we might investigate YOU next!
Shadows of Doubt V 35.07 Patch Notes
Hey detectives, thanks to the people who have been testing the experimental branch we have a bunch of fixes now available on the default branch!
New: New DLSS configuration settings
Fixed: Camera sometimes didn’t capture citizens properly (either excluding them when they should be in frame or including them when they should be out of frame)
Fixed: City Hall receptionists would not turn up to work correctly (requires new city generation)
Fixed: City Hall reception/foyer was incorrectly named
Fixed: Game could sometimes display blank text when set to non-English
Fixed: Potential fix for rare case of game not loading after ‘press any key’ screen
Fixed: Some typos in sync disk descriptions
Fixed: Removed an instance of street rubble blocking access to a spawned briefcase
Fixed: Issues with sync disks not displaying their 3rd upgrade option stats properly
Fixed: When sync disk was installed with option 3, the tooltip text on the upgrade buttons would only display the effect of the first upgrade
Fixed: Sync Disk chamber in Sync Clinics could appear invisible in some cases
Fixed: Trespasser Sync Disk option 'invisible' was not functioning correctly
Fixed: Beauty Sync Disk option 'allure' increased prices instead of decreasing them
Fixed: Status effects could still trigger even if they were turned off/disabled through an upgrade
Shadows of Doubt V 35.07 Experimental Branch Patch Notes
Hey detectives! We've got a new update out on the experimental branch now! You can find details on how to access it here if you haven't used the experimental branch before!
New: New DLSS configuration settings
Fixed: Camera sometimes didn’t capture citizens properly (either excluding them when they should be in frame or including them when they should be out of frame)
Fixed: City Hall receptionists would not turn up to work correctly (requires new city generation)
Fixed: City Hall reception/foyer was incorrectly named
Fixed: Game could sometimes display blank text when set to non-English
Fixed: Potential fix for rare case of game not loading after ‘press any key’ screen
Fixed: Some typos in sync disk descriptions
Fixed: Removed an instance of street rubble blocking access to a spawned briefcase
Fixed: Issues with sync disks not displaying their 3rd upgrade option stats properly
Fixed: When sync disk was installed with option 3, the tooltip text on the upgrade buttons would only display the effect of the first upgrade
Fixed: Sync Disk chamber in Sync Clinics could appear invisible in some cases
Fixed: Trespasser Sync Disk option 'invisible' was not functioning correctly
Fixed: Beauty Sync Disk option 'allure' increased prices instead of decreasing them
Fixed: Status effects could still trigger even if they were turned off/disabled through an upgrade
Investigations #1
Good day detectives!
We wanted to start doing a semi regular community update sharing fun little things behind the scenes, community content, potentially news about competitions and other bits and pieces with you all. Welcome to the 1st of our investigations.
Freecam mode and more!
Cole wanted to share something that might be fun for those of you who want to mess around with the game a bit: You can enable the developer cheats mode in Shadows by launching the game with the -uncleeden parameter! You can do this in steam as shown below.
If done correctly it should enable a 'developer' section in the settings menu where you'll have access to a bunch of developer cheats we often use. It's especially noteworthy as it features a free cam mode, which I know a lot of video makers especially have wondered about. Disclaimer: As these are intended as a dev tool you can break the game this way, (you may not see fixes for anything broken in them, and especially not anything in-game that was broken by using them). Have fun!
Community Case Boards
Since the Cheats and Liars content update, the cases have been rolling in and City Hall can barely keep up. You’d be surprised how many cheats and liars there are out there in the city. The Dove app. Must be raking it in.
While on the subject of case files, over time, we’ve seen some of the most elaborate, wild case boards and some of the most organized. Investigate a few of these and see if you follow:
If you have a case board you are particularly proud of please do share it so we can see the madness!
Gamescom
We’ve also been on the case IRL recently at Gamescom and gave out some goodies to some sharp detectives on the scene. We may have some more goodies for our fans in the Discord in the near future along with competitions! If you haven’t joined yet, come investigate!
Some of you may recognise the case we had people try and solve below:
That's all for this one - let us know if there is anything else you would like to see included in this kind of Steam post as well!
Shadows of Doubt V 35.06 Patch Notes
We have a whole host of fixes this week that we had been testing out on experimental branch! Thank you to all the experimental players for testing out the build to check the stability for us!
Fixed: A bug that stopped cases from being processed properly
Fixed: AI could get stuck in a loop of picking stuff up and putting stuff down. This was causing some employees to skip work!
Fixed: Baseball cap item could not be inspected or picked up
Fixed: Problems with taking a key to the hotel from the kitchen
Fixed: The player can now drink at the water cooler
Fixed: No footstep sounds would play if the player was carrying a physics object
Fixed: Cancelling a custom created string could cause some errors
Fixed: Missing collider in the new townhouse exterior model
Fixed: Money ticking animation would always start from 0 upon loading a game
Fixed: Hole in floor and ceiling at the top floor office of the chemical plant (requires new city generation)
Improved spatialisation for gramophone
Improved bed get in/out sounds and bed spring probabilities
Carpet footstep sounds slightly less sticky
Venetian blind open/close sounds added
Shadows of Doubt V 35.06 Experimental Branch Patch Notes
Hey detectives! We've got a new update out on the experimental branch now! You can find details on how to access it here if you haven't used the experimental branch before!
Fixed: A bug that stopped cases from being processed properly
Fixed: AI could get stuck in a loop of picking stuff up and putting stuff down. This was causing some employees to skip work!
Fixed: Baseball cap item could not be inspected or picked up
Fixed: Problems with taking a key to the hotel from the kitchen
Fixed: The player can now drink at the water cooler
Fixed: No footstep sounds would play if the player was carrying a physics object
Fixed: Cancelling a custom created string could cause some errors
Fixed: Missing collider in the new townhouse exterior model
Fixed: Money ticking animation would always start from 0 upon loading a game
Fixed: Hole in floor and ceiling at the top floor office of the chemical plant (requires new city generation)
Improved spatialisation for gramophone
Improved bed get in/out sounds and bed spring probabilities
Carpet footstep sounds slightly less sticky
Venetian blind open/close sounds added
The Fireshine Games Publisher Sale is Live!
Hey Detectives!
Just wanted to give you all the downlow on an awesome Steam event happening right now!
So if you’re looking for a new Steam game, check out the Fireshine Publisher sale. From award-winning co-op games to spooky underwater puzzlers, there’s a whole range of indie titles at great prices made by small devs just like us!
There are also plenty of hot upcoming titles as well that Fireshine Games are working on that you can show your support for by wishlisting them as well!
Shadows of Doubt is also going to be 20% off to celebrate the launch of the Cheats and Liars update as part of the Publisher Sale as well!
The new FREE update to Shadows of Doubt is here! Cheats and Liars is the first major content since the early access release and there’s a good handful of new bits to cover. You can find the full patch notes here and some more information below
The update comes with some great new features in the form of case types, citizen interactions and a new building, the Grand Hotel. You will now have infidelity cases to work on and catch cheating partners along with smaller side cases in the form of “Lost and Found” Where you’ll be searching out lost items that citizens have posted in apartment building lobby board
Along with these new cases, you’ll need to use some new detective techniques to help solve the cases. Cheats and Liars is introducing a means to give items to citizens
The ability to give items to citizens is now available and will be the way to complete Lost and Found cases. Plans for this feature to be expanded upon are being discussed internally. You can also now accuse citizens of murder. They may just acquiesce OR you may anger them and blow your investigative cover, making the arrest harder, so choose wisely.
Finally the Grand Hotel. Sitting high above many of the apartment buildings within the city, This posh building features a beautiful entrance and lobby complete with jukebox music, multiple bars and even a highrise balcony seating area. If you’re looking to post up closer to a case or just need some time away, you can also rent available rooms from the Hotel.
Also, we have fixed the Twitch integration now so you should be able to connect to your Twitch so members of your chat can populate the world!
Please do join us on our early access journey and join our Discord to get involved in the conversation
Shadows of Doubt V 35.04 Patch Notes - Cheats and Liars Update
Hey detectives! Please find the full change list for the Cheats and Liars update below:
New: Hotel building
New: The player can rent hotel rooms from the front desk
New: Investigate affair side mission
New: New dialog, NPC conversations and v-mails
New: You can now give items to citizens through a new dialog option
New: Lost items listed on notice boards around the city; get rewards for finding them
New: 4 new music tracks
New: Some new exterior building details for City Hall
New: Some new exterior building details for the tenement block
New: Support for dynamic resolution and Nvidia DLSS
Reworked Twitch integration: Audience citizen names are now possible again! (Unlike before you have to connect the game to a twitch account you have access to)
Localisation Update: Previous text changes implemented since EA launch are now localised properly
Some menu UI tweaks
Save game data optimizations
Fixed: Some spelling errors
Fixed: Various geometry bugs (in some cases this requires new city generation)
Fixed: AI pathing issue to do with stairwells
Fixed: Some minor visual glitches caused by texture compression
Fixed: Some item/furniture clipping issues with spawn positions (requires new city generation)
Fixed: Sword could spawn floating in mid air
Fixed: Some bugs to do with strings not being displayed properly when needed
Fixed: Some bugs preventing the successful hand-in of some optional objectives
Fixed: Interaction text would sometimes not update properly
Fixed: ‘Talk To’ action no longer displays when citizens are fleeing
Fixed: Route location would stay onscreen after arriving at the destination
Fixed: Added missing first person item model display and summary description for office Name Placards
Fixed: Removed multi-line control action descriptions for better on-screen readability
Fixed: A sitting citizen would play their standing up animation for a split second after the player had finished talking to them
Fixed: Possible soft lock when being crushed by an elevator or falling into one; did not relocate player to the hospital
Fixed: Error that resulted in a messed up air duct configuration if a ceiling and wall vent were placed too close together (requires new city generation).
Fixed: ‘Park’ was included in the city directory multiple times
Fixed: Upon loading a game, all active case buttons were highlighted
Fixed: Television show sprites were not updating
Fixed: Player could appear in city directory even if they didn’t own an apartment
Fixed: Flooded basement water could appear irregular on buildings close to the edge of the map on largest city size
