Hi all! Artem Netyagin is with you today! I'd like to give you the development report. I won't talk much, though. We delivered a great deal of new content for you to check out! We hope you're going to like it. We're creating more volume and adding details to the game world.
Follow the link to read and view more on our Steam page. In addition, starting April, we're going to publish the The Uncertain: Light At The End news only on the Steam page. The page of part one will no longer see any development updates on part two!
However, we'll keep publishing the most important news on both pages. Add part two to your wish list to follow the development process!
Dear friends, we'll be honest. We've been feeling very jittery since last night. Delaying the launch was a tough call. We were ready to take your rage. We prepared to explain our decision time and again, and to face your discouragement. We held our breath and followed your comments on social media and Steam. We were on pins and needles even before the first comment arrived. We got even more excited as we received more of them. Your support made us so happy. There were no rejection or denial, and it was so amazing to see!
And today we would like to thank each and every one of you. Those of you who expressed their support. Those of you who liked and shared our post. And those of you who left bitter comments! We were ready for the fury but received your encouragement and appreciation! We acknowledge even your silent support. Your unspoken presence makes a difference!
Our team, consisting mainly of tough bearded men, forwarded each other messages in our online workspace: "What a wonderful supportive community we have! It brings tears to my eyes!", "I've read the comments, tears came to my eyes, too!", "Isn't it nice to have such an acceptance!" We are forever grateful for your encouragement and approval.
You're the best. Your kind support truly warms our hearts!
The Uncertain: Light at the End Release Postponed, New Release Date: Spring 2020
We would like to announce the delay of part two of our project. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but it is final. We believe it would be fair to explain our reasoning behind the delay.
Release dates and porting to consoles
Being a small independent team, we find it important to draw the maximum attention to the game release. Besides, you deserve to play the game wherever you feel most comfortable. We're planning to finalize the game by July 2019, and port it to consoles until Spring 2020.
You can say, porting isn't a time-consuming process. You're right. But a number of AAA games are released in autumn, and winter is the traditional off-season. It's full of holidays, sale offers, Black Fridays, and it's Christmas in Europe and New Year in Russia! People play good old games, purchase discount games on their wish-lists, run their errands, vacation... long story short, a winter launch isn't a timely launch!
Testing
We can tell you more about the development process, game features, and most importantly, fully test and optimize the game before releasing it. We want to make the best glitch-free game we can and not put out something we know might have issues. We really look forward to your support! However, even with the delayed release, our Beta testers will see the game this summer.
The Ins and Outs of Game Development
Let's be honest. Things aren't always going swimmingly. We have replaced three leading 3D modellers lately. We also wrote a complex system for Unity, the Adventure System script editor, and implemented a lot of smaller technical solutions. A professional game designer and a screenwriter, Alexander Tsvetkov and Sergey Chekmaev, are working on The Uncertain: Light at the End. Quite a different team developed part one.
Changes in the team, the increased gameplay time, new elements, animation, and characters' voices, game engine customization—it takes time. We're at the finish line. The path was longer than we'd planned. We apologize for that.
The Good News
To sum it up, we're releasing The Uncertain: Light at the End on PC and consoles in Spring 2020. The gameplay will become longer and more sophisticated, and the story will be more interesting, compared to part one. We continue the testing stage, starting the end of April. Our most passionate players will have a chance to see the game!
We'll start working on another game in The Uncertain universe simultaneously with porting part two to consoles. The work will begin in June, and the final prototype will be ready by the end of July. We'll keep you posted about parts two and three, the team life, and our future plans.
We appreciate your support and kind understanding! Do you have a question? Feel free to ask it in the comment section. Stay tuned!
Meet Emily Hales
Hello, dear friends! We'd like to tell you more about characters of The Uncertain: Light At The End. Let's start from Emily Hales.
Age: 24
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 133 lbs.
Emily is a former spatial designer (it's a more complex profession than a 3D modeler and visualizer, focusing on VR and AR). She knows the city very well because of her profession. She may act as a guide in a group or go out on reconnaissance missions. Not only she is interested in survival—she also deeply cares about the whole population. While on a mission, she's always on the lookout for things that others may need.
She survived during the incident by coincidence: she passed out in a laundry room at home, and the robot cops couldn't find her. She came round to find out that all people were gone. She returned to her place. Her bot went mad. It was talking nonsense about the disappearance of the humankind years before. She went to her sister's home but didn't find her. Emily realized that all of it was the work of robots, so she was forced to leave the city center and hide from their increased activity in the area. She didn't meet so many people over long months. She changed several shelters and groups, but luckily, never got caught by the cops and always managed to get away from the chase.
Emily is very powerful and determined, no stranger to sadness—and it takes time to get back to normal. Kind and considerate, she may get cynical if she has to fight injustice. Some issues are dealt with hastily, and Emily gets to concentrate on her own thoughts. Emily's actions sometimes result from player's choice, which adds another layer to her character, making it unique during every new game you start.
A creative person, Emily is reflective but impulsive. She can give a snappy retort to any ordinary question, but at times you can find her patiently explaining something to the anxiously yelling Alex. She's not uptight, never hesitates to ask a question or speak her mind. Always in motion, she may freeze for a moment to enjoy the beauty of a ruined house in a sunset (we can see that in the game via the holographic watch). She's a pet lover, she always feels sorry for the strays.
In the English localization, she's got a British accent.
Developers Diaries. February
Hi all! Artem Netyagin is with you today, and I give your our monthly development report. As we planned, February brought some advancements to our teamwork organization, and things began to improve.
The tasks we set out on a path are mostly tedious, I don't want to bore you with these. In a word, we're still setting up locations and game logic, making puzzles and minigames, refining gameplay, and fixing glitches. But we made a bunch of new stuff that I'll show you below!
Now we work on Steam Audio, the plugin that makes all effects sound more natural by recreating the interaction of sound waves with the virtual environment. In other words, it makes everything sound very real. It improves immersion and enhances the game atmosphere.
We finally furnished our Moscow office, now we can throw ourselves back into the project! Some good work was done over the recording room. It's perfectly sound-proofed—now we can use it to record tracks and voiceover artists! On the upside, in case things don't work out with the game development, we can always build a career of reparation and maintenance team or assemble furniture for money :)
"Cushy job", they said!
A quadcopter manufacturer's logo (may in remain nameless) will soon be replaced with our new logo.
Here's a little something for you:
The subway station you've already seen is now coming to life in 3D.
Emily's morphs, or blend shapes, used to make various emotions.
Alex, the most mischievous character. We're sure you're going to like him.
Ember, a holographic helper from the geek shop. We chose the iteration number one. Which one do you like most?
There are survivors' graffiti on many buildings of the abandoned city. Can you find them all?
The game features a lot of magazines. You can read them to learn about the world or unlock an achievement.
The text here is just a placeholder, but you will find real interesting magazine articles in the game.
Sewers with added details.
The new subway train (work in progress). We're keeping the old trains but refining them.
***
That's all for now, but we'll see you again very soon.
Developers Diaries. January
Hey there! I'm Artem Netiagin, and today I'm going to tell you about the work we've done :)
January is over. It's time to sum up everything we did. We took a good long holiday, which left us with just a few working days. But the work we did last month was really great. The thing is, we don't have that much time left until the release. The whole team is racing against the clock. As we planned, the team faced a change (for the better), and the reorganization allowed us to prioritize the tasks that were falling behind, such as gameplay and animations. Major changes are ahead, and we're very hopeful about the future.
The abandoned warehouse is coming to life: people will return to it.
We've been perfecting the diagrams that represent the game logic and store all characters' cues. 3D modelers and artists are slaving away at the last levels: the sewers, the warehouse, and the subway. Several team members are integrating the logic and applying sound effects. Since we're almost done with the coding, programmers have switched to other tasks, such as game interfaces and good old puzzles. The characters are ready to be animated and get their facial expressions, and it's a major breakthrough! We're working on each character's basic emotions right now.
And of course, I can't ignore the recent Beta! We'd love to thank all of you, who took part in it! Together we found and fixed a considerable amount of nasty bugs, and implemented a ton of improvements. We hope, during the next testing stage you'll be pleased to see that we followed your feedback and reports. By this stage, we're planning to add another level, along with some polished and finalized animations and gameplay features.
Here are a few screenshots for you to enjoy.
Game logic in diagrams. Many events and dialogs are based on your actions in previous levels.
Sewers, basic geometry. There's a lot of work to do, but the future level energy is already in the air.
We're finalizing and introducing another aerocar.
A drugstore scanner; you'll need to avoid its rays in a QTE.
Emily looks livelier with her improved facial skin texture.
Just wait until you see her facial animation, expressions, and eye movements.
The Uncertain couldn't exist without a plasma cutter!
Abandoned subway. Doesn't this art make your skin crawl?
Valves here are totally sci-fi!
Subway station. The architectural style reminds us of the former greatness of those who have long gone
Intercom updated interface. Now featuring HDR! :)
***
That's all folks. Stay tuned!
The Beta test ends on January 21!
There's only one week left till the end of The Uncertain — Light at the End Beta. We've received tons of useful feedback, ideas, and suggestions from you.
If you haven't had the chance to try out the Beta version, you better hurry — all access keys will be disabled as soon as Beta ends. We also have a favor to ask of you. There's a link to a feedback form in the same e-mail, which contained the Beta access key. Please, take a minute and fill it in. It's the best way to share your impressions of the Beta version.
Do you prefer to keep your mailbox clean, and have erased the invite? No worries! We're sending you another e-mail with the link as you read this post! :)
We'd like to thank all Beta test participants, all our fans and supporters! We'll make a great game together!
New CBT stage!
Dear friends, the next CBT stage is about to start. As you requested, you no longer need to download any files. We sent you Steam activation keys instead. Please, check your e-mails. If you filled in a participant's form, but you haven't received a key, please, check your spam folder. If you entered your e-mail address correctly, you should have it.
Follow the instructions as shown in the GIF animation below. After you activate the Beta version, it'll appear in your library. It'll stay there until the testing stage is over.
New Beta version features
You need a Steam client to launch the game.
Added the intro, start menu, and a cut scene.
You may play and complete the demo level, but just like the previous version, it lacks QTEs, and its animations are draft quality.
Improved the English and Russian localization of the menu, starting cut scene, and the level.
Added most objects that you can check out and interact with.
Fixed camera shake effects.
Added gamepad controls.
Optimized the game.
Fixed a lot of bugs and glitches.
PLEASE, NOTE: this is a test version of the game. Animation, performance, and many other aspects are not finalized. Please, do not stream or let's-play it, or publish screenshots.
We will greatly appreciate your feedback and bug reports! They will allow us to polish the game and make it perfect for you.
Happy New Year!
Today the year 2018 is ending. Can't wait for 2019! It'll bring us the Uncertain: Light at the End! Before we proceed to the wishing part, let's take some time to reminisce the past year.
We spent the first half of the year in silence, but it was a busy time. We were developing the game and preparing the Kickstarter campaign. We recorded a trailer, built the demo version, interviewed the team, developed the advertising campaign—and the game development never stopped!
Before starting the Kickstarter campaign we run the alternate reality game. Emily's adventures lasted for more than a month. As one of the players pointed out, she "lost our world". It was our first experience, which didn't go entirely smoothly, but we enjoyed it anyway. The new year might bring the fans of online puzzles a new game from us! Stay tuned.
Finally, we launched the Kickstarter campaign. Even though we didn't raise enough, it was a very important lesson. We rehearsed the release, optimized our team's resources, told you our story, and learned yours. You may find all Kickstarter updates regarding the development process here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1321269974/the-uncertain-episode-2-light-at-the-end/updates.
The New Year's eve is the perfect time to thank all of you, who supported us through this amazing experience.
Our relatively small team faced some staff turnover this year. The 3D head was replaced three times, and this affected the deadlines. Despite all hardships, we entirely finalized the 3D objects. We still need to record or embed most animations, but the Uncertain world, still and motionless, is almost finalized.
We keep showing you the game. First, you saw the demo version during the Kickstarter campaign, today you can check out the closed beta-test version. We deeply appreciate your feedback, comments, and opinions—and use it to improve the game.
By the end of the year, the vector of the development process is as user-oriented as it can be. We did a stream and recorded two podcasts. It's not too much, but it's an important first step. Not only some team members started the conversation with our gaming community, the whole company did! After all, the development process is very complex. One specialist alone can never give players a good idea of it. We're planning to go on. The new year will bring you more podcasts, news, streams, and lotteries! We also have a personal message from one of our studio's founding fathers Artem Smirnov:
Dear friends!
2018 was the year of our firsts. We organized our first Kickstarter campaign, developed and run the ARG, shot our first trailer with real actors, held our first (very hearty and warm) stream with the developers, and recorded our first podcast. If there's a trial, there's an error. We couldn't avoid mistakes, and that's natural. We had some faulty planning and staff turnover (three 3D leads in four months!). The desire to fix ALL glitches of episode one led to delays in the development process. Then the Kickstarter campaign failed and the ARG saw a bad start.
Despite all that, we shall remember 2018 as a crucial year. We bonded with the gaming community, and this was the best gift for me! We're planning to keep it up in the year 2019. More streams, more podcasts, two more testing stages — all of it to make the development process as transparent for you as we can. We want to get more feedback and use it to improve the game even further.
I wish all of you great love in the coming year. May you feel love in your everyday life, and love the most important people in your life. May feeling overwhelm us all and make life fuller and brighter! We'll continue to develop the Uncertain with love, and you will play it with love in 2019!
Thank you for being with us the whole time. Happy New Year!
Our team wishes you a happy New Year, too! Our game is futuristic, and the real world reminds the one in the game more and more each day. May the year 2019 bring you joy and happiness. May no apocalyptic visions overshadow your life! After all, the humanity creates technology for triumph over the world, not vice versa.
Happy holiday — and stay tuned!
The first stage of the CBT The Uncertain: Light At The End
Hello, dear friends! We are glad to launch the closed beta testing finally. It will consist of several stages. During them we will collect a feedback from you and our own testers, analyze it, fix bugs and upgrade the game with a large number of new features.
At the first stage of the CBT we present you a part of the game from the very beginning of the game. Its gameplay is almost ready. All characters already know their cues (only in the form of subtitles). But they may still change. The voices will be recorded at later stages. The graphics are close to the final, but it will be refined. We’ve added several soundtracks and sound effects.
What the game does not have yet is the puzzles, the intercom interface. Animation is ready in draft form, no facial expressions have been added yet. QTE will also appear in later stages of testing.
Important: we urge you not to stream, do not post in the open access video of the gameplay from the demo and also the test build itself, since this could harm the reputation of the game, which gamers will see far from the final quality.
To start playing, check your email, find a mail from us, download the archive of the client from the link, unzip it and follow the prompts:
Please do not judge us too harshly. We specifically launch the CBT with a pretty “raw version” to start receiving your feedback and advice at the earliest possible development stage, before complicating of the gameplay. So after you have played enough in the demo version you may share your impressions, suggest something or tell about the bugs using special form (link to it is also in the mail).
