Hey friends and welcome to Devlog No.5! This time it's been a little longer since the devlog appeared and there are a few reasons for that. I've been working alone on STCB for quite some time as my son (our programmer at AsylumLabs) is going through a career change. So it's going a bit slower, but I think the important thing is that it's going forward. Nevertheless, my son will continue to be responsible for bug fixing, just not in the ongoing development process.
So maybe bear with me if things don't go as quickly as expected. But now to the devlog, here below you can see the new features as always, hope you like it.
The back rooms (wait, back rooms, really?): Yes indeed! It's just that we don't call them back rooms, we call them "anomalies". Why "anomalies"? The back rooms as you all probably know them are creepy here and there, but does something like that fit into a game like STCB? I think NO! The "Smiley Face" from the Back Rooms alone doesn't make me shudder, but rather makes me laugh. This is not a criticism of the Back Rooms, just my opinion on it. Also not to sound condescending or snooty, no, I've just watched far too many horror movies and science fiction movies for things like The Back Rooms to scare me. After all, I'll be 44 in July, and with that age, as a film fan, you've already watched quite a few works. So why not further develop the back rooms and make them suitable for STCB? That's exactly what I did! The creatures in our "Anomalies" are very frightening, ugly, and sometimes grotesque to disturbing. I think this is spot on for STCB. The rooms and their contents are also different from those in the back rooms. Only the basic principle is the same, isn't it?..... Maybe!
Gas Mask: From now on there is a gas mask in the game. It is used in some areas and is also mandatory in the "Anomaly" areas.
Currency: From now on there is a currency in the game. It doesn't have a name yet, but we'll let you vote on it soon. You can find this "currency" in the game (it is not possible to buy this currency with real money and thus gain advantages). The currency will be found in chests, drawers, apartments, and so on. With this, you can then enter shops in the game and buy weapons and equipment. There will also be something like a vending machine here and there where you can buy food, drinks, or other useful things. With the currency, we also wanted to bring a bit of an RPG aspect into the game.
Portals: At various points in the game you can open portals and move through them. You can look into the portals before you go through them, so you have a small impression of where each portal leads. Some portals lead back to the point you went through, but others close immediately after you use them. So you have to think carefully beforehand whether you want to use the portal now or later.
Additions to Devlog 5: Of course, a lot more has been added, since I still have to prepare screenshots and videos for this, I will summarize everything in Devlog 5.5 (later this week). All in all, I hope you enjoyed the devlog and the new features, and say see you later
Devlog #4
Hello friends and welcome to Devlog 4!
This time it took a long time until the next devlog. But it was worth the wait as today we have released the Steam Scream Fest update! Download the demo and try it for yourself.
We completely redesigned the entire first stage, bigger, badder and more menacing! Additionally we added the second floor, this is also playable in the demo. The update is now live! Below are some of the key things we've changed and added.
Have fun with the demo!
Craftable lockpicks
Way better performance
4 puzzles added
Usable elevator
Added a lot of interactive things to increase the depth of the game
Full controller support
Added new weapons
Steam achievements added
Brightness panel added
Added a completely new floor (Floor 2), which is also available in the demo!
Spiders removed
Voice acting removed! We removed the robotic voices and replaced them with text, until we find good voice actors
Increased the readability of the subtitles
And many more things that you can experience, collect or use. Even an old frying pan can be used as a weapon.
Devlog #3
Hello friends and welcome to Devlog 3!
FPS limit setting in options: It is now possible to determine and / or limit the framerate in the options
Anisotropic filtering has now also been added to the options. Level x2 - x16 selectable
Inventory drag and drop and move: Now fully tested and implemented
Brightness options added: In the options (and also if you start a new game) a brightness settings screen will appear. Pretty much the same as in other games. You see three images and can adjust the brightness so that a certain image is difficult to see in order to choose the optimal brightness.
Full controller support: From now on it is possible to use a gamepad (Playstation® or Xbox). 4g3v has adapted everything for this so that there are no longer any problems playing STCB with a gamepad.
AI settings: NPCs can now behave differently. These include being friendly, aggressive, I don't care how behaved, neutral and alert. In addition, the NPCs have become much smarter and no longer act like Frankenstein or like me 😂
New feature "Syringe" added: Various syringes can now be found in the game. They differ in the color of the drug that is injected and thus in the effect. For example, red returns health. We have a little video for you below.
And also, as some of you have requested, there's now an outline on items:
And last but not least, now there is also an "outside level"!
You read that correctly, there will be "something" in the game that will teleport you to another "world". Unfortunately we can't give you any more information about why and how we did it, otherwise we would reveal too much. But what we can tell you is that it will be AWESOME!
Devlog #2.5
Hello friends and welcome to Devlog 2.5!
This time we have prepared some new things for you. The first would be the in-game textures. We have completely revised these, they now appear more natural and have a higher resolution. You can see that in the before and after pictures. Despite the better-looking textures, we didn't see any performance drops in the framerate, on the contrary, the game now seems 1000 kilograms lighter and smoother. We have also finally been able to part with the unrealistic blood. We managed to add real volumetric blood to the game! This is expressed in terms of the better looks, as well as the much more realistic behavior of the blood. Blood can now splatter on the wall, floor, and also stains the victim. For this we recommend the short video in this post. We have also worked on the settings. We added anisotropic filtering in the options where you can choose between 0-16 levels. Likewise, there is now a frame limiter function in the options. Here you can choose between 0 (no limit) and 400 frames. Furthermore, there is now a map computer in the game that shows you the floor you are currently on (top view / 3D view and also freely rotatable). Interesting destinations, POI and other important and relevant things are also displayed in the map computer. Well then, we hope you like the new things and look forward to your feedback!
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Devlog #1
Hello friends and welcome to the first official devlog! From now on we will inform you every week (every Monday) about the current progress of Sometimes They Come Back. We can always discuss news, fixes and new content here after the new devlog. Of course we've been working on the game continuously for the last week. All of your suggestions have been incorporated. The new update is on its way already! So then, here comes devlog number 1, week 25:
Fixes:
HelixOS event system bug FIXED (Special thanks to Sami) Here there was the problem that the login screen could no longer be unlocked.
Some items wasn't dropable FIXED (Special thanks to Sami) On drop item, the item just vanished but didn't drop
Fuse drop bug FIXED (Special thanks to Sami) Fuses dropped on the floor could be duplicated indefinitely.
Toilet animation bug FIXED (Special thanks to Merlin) Kinda a funny bug, if you had an item equipped such as the flashlight and you used the toilet, a second arm appears waving around with the same item.
Corpse Colliders FIXED (Special thanks to Paul) Not really a bug, but when you looted the corpses you couldn't start the loot process if you aimed at the head.
Collider bug in the gaming room FIXED (Special thanks to Jo aka Joseph) It was possible to just walk through the wall right next to the locked door
New features:
Inventory drag and drop Now you can just drag items out of inventory to drop them. You can easily drag and drop items in inventory, and it is now possible to drag and drop items from inventory to storage boxes. So you don't have to keep accessing the context menu and choosing "Drop" or "Store".
Demo Update
Here is a short overview of what we have fixed and improved in the last few days:
Storage Boxes FIXED & IMPROVED
Weird storage box sound effect that played randomly FIXED
Flashlight FIXED & IMPROVED
The Phone FIXED & IMPROVED:
We designed a new animated model, it's now more of a multimedia monitor than a phone. <*>New display screens and also some new functions. <*>Pandas Kitchen no longer repeats itself if you call several times, then something else comes up.
Subtitles ADDED to every conversation (different colors for each actor)
Not available in the demo text FIXED
Tablet usage FIXED
Timer from one conversation to another IMPROVED: The waiting times are now reduced from 180 seconds to 90 seconds
Jukebox FIXED & IMPROVED We've added Surround Sound to it, the sound comes now directly from the jukebox, also conversations are very good audible if the Jukebox is playing music.
Food-O-Matic App ADDED
Food-O-Matic Machine ADDED
Weird Can't move anymore (Alt key to move again) FIXED
Main Menu, Pause Menu fully new design and improvements (Background Sound and Loadingscreens too)
Lot of performance optimizations
Meet Brutus
Another progress update from Sometimes The Come Back developer:
Said and done!
At the moment we are working on a German Shepherd that will accompany you in the game. He can attack opponents and thus also protects you. Not everything is ready yet, but 4g3v is making very good progress.
It's always very hard when you lose a pet, and unfortunately we too had to experience this in real life not too long ago. Therefore, our "buddy" will not be able to die in the game.
He will only be exhausted and slow down, also he will no longer attack or defend when exhausted. However, this can be brought back into shape with a tasty bite of dog food.
You're probably wondering why we call him "buddy". That's because we want to include you all in the naming process. I will create a vote for this today or in the next few days here in our channel, but you can already post names here where you think they would fit.
Then we make the vote. Whoever posted the name, which is also chosen in the end, will receive a special thanks in the credits including the name in our game! We hope you like the idea! Here's an in-game picture of our "buddy"
