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!
Friends, it's time to get you closer to the characters of The Uncertain: Light at the End. We'll start, of course, with Emily.
Age: 24 years. Height: 171 cm Weight: 60kg.
Emily has worked as a space designer in the past (a sophisticated version of a 3D Visualizer Modeller, with emphasis on VR and AR) and by virtue of her profession she knows the city very well. In a band she often acts as a guide or takes part in trips to the area. Emily is interested not only in personal survival, but also in the whole group. During the outings she always tries to find useful things that can help someone.
She survived the incident thanks to a simple coincidence: she fainted while in the laundry room at her home and the police robots did not find her. When Emily woke up, she found that all the people had disappeared. When she returned to her apartment, she saw her bot, who had gone mad and carried some nonsense about the disappearance of humanity many years ago. She went to the house where her sister lived, but she found no one inside. When Emily realized that what was happening was the work of the robots themselves, she was forced to leave the city center because of the increased police activity in the area. Over the months, she hadn't met many people, changed a few shelters and groups, and fortunately, until she was caught by the cops or managed to escape the chase.
Emily is a strong and determined girl, but sometimes she can also get depressed, after which she needs some time to get back to normal. Emily is an attentive person, always trying to be kind to others, but sometimes behaves a little cynical, especially if she faces injustice. However, some questions she has hastily resolved in order to focus on her own thoughts as soon as possible. It is also worth noting that Emily's actions often depend on the choice of the player, which imposes an additional layer on her character, making it unique for each pass.
As a creative person, Emily is a thoughtful but impulsive person. Can sharply answer the most banal question, or can patiently explain something nervously screaming Alex. In communication, Emily is quite free, does not hesitate to ask questions and say what he thinks. Always quite active, but can suddenly freeze to death admiring the beauty of a half-destroyed house against the backdrop of sunset (in the game we mostly transmit it through a holographic clock). Loves and feels sorry for animals that are left on their own, without their owners.
In the English localization of the game Emily will have 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).
As you might have noticed, we recently updated the game info both on our website and on Steam. We removed the word "episode" from the description, and there's a reason for that. We gave up on the idea of episodes.
More specifically, we gave up on it a while ago. The new description just dots the i's and crosses the t's. When we started developing our very first game, we'd planned to make it episodic: first game first, continued story in the episode two, and the grand finale in the episode three. However, the highlights shifted in the course of the work. There are three reasons why the Light at the End became the second story of The Uncertain rather than episode two.
Gameplay changes
We gained experience. The industry has changed. Our team became bigger and passed through some replacements. The second game will inherit and develop the ideas of the part one. Yet still it's a distinctive project featuring new puzzles, a different story, and enhanced graphics. While preserving the game universe and familiar atmosphere, we retrofitted almost all game-specific aspects.
It is not a sequel
Part one narrated a story about a world without people and a lonely robot-explorer. Part two, albeit connected with the storyline of part one, is complete in itself. This is a game about the few people, who survived after the robot uprising against humanity. Is it okay to play the second game without completing the first? Most certainly. Will the comeback to the familiar universe make the experienced player happy? We hope so.
Non-linear narrative
As we worked on The Uncertain's story, we realized that it's absolutely impossible to keep the narrative linear. Arti can never understand the human survivor's logic. He's physically incapable of human emotions. On the other hand, Emily can never understand Arti. She's accustomed to things that he perceives as twisted and weird. Revealing the world's planes one by one would've taken us too long, failing to produce a solid and distinct image.
So we decided not to take the Telltale way. We followed Terry Pratchett's footsteps instead. We're bringing you several independent stories that take place in one universe. We have more freedom in terms of the storyline, and you can learn about the universe of The Uncertain in any order. Do you want to play only one game? Or complete both games as they are released? You can also wait for the release of game two, and learn about Arti's story after you've completed it. It's up to you to decide. The two stories might overlap. Or not. Only time can tell.
Will our decision affect the development time? In no way. As we announced, we are releasing The Uncertain: Light at the End in 2019!
Hello, everybody, and welcome back! Artem Netiagin speaking, and it's time I tell you about the things we did in the past few months. As you'll recall, by the end of September we completed a Kickstarter campaign, which consumed a lot of effort and resources. Despite this, we tried hard to keep the development momentum and make it. The winter is coming. We're still working hard, warming ourselves by our system units heat. What we achieved, you ask?
Our biggest accomplishment is the game levels we've been building. Aside from fine details, the locations are 70% ready! We also took a new look at the visuals. We don't just aim for an ambient post-apocalyptic look, we try and give every level its individual taste, a little something to remember it by. In addition, we've been adding more chaos and destruction to make the environment look even more worn down. As a result, it isn't just selected corners that will attract players' attention, but whole locations, each of them featuring its unique style and atmosphere well within the general concept of the game.
Major and minor details also occupy our minds: we're delivering heaps of decals, level objects, vehicle models, objects of interest, and many other things for you to fiddle with. Fallout 4 is still a long way off if you look at the number of objects, but on our scale, there's a whole lot of them for every taste.
Character models. Now, most of them are ready, except Olga and Claire, and prepared for their rigs and a hair shader. In the meantime, our animators are prepping their mockups for the first cutscene shootings. We never got to use this technology in the previous episode, but now that there are people in the game, it's an absolute must for realistic movements and a cinematic picture. It'll be our first. To tell you the truth, we aren't entirely clear on what's it going to be like in the game, but we're very curious, and can't wait to see it all! Apart from that, the first facial gesture and lip sync validation is just around the corner. We want to capture and convey characters' emotions and match their lip movements to what they're actually saying.
The artists were constantly distracted by the secondary objectives, such as Kickstarter campaign, social media posts, and Steam page design. Nevertheless, they're trying their best, and in terms of game art completion, they're neck and neck with the modelers. 70% to 80% level concepts are ready. We have a ton of minor textures, such as holographic signs, banners, magazines, and books, ahead of us.
Base coding is completed. What we're doing now is polishing, bugfixing, and working on puzzles and mini-games. Gameplay creation feature is fully functional. Character controls are working smoothly. There are some perks, too. For instance, we copied one of Detroit features, where a character is kind of pulled and dragged into a doorway for an easier fit. Game saving feature is up and running. As you requested, we're introducing saving slots, where you can save your game manually at any point. Localization package has been delivered, and it's still to be tested. To top it off, basic QTEs are ready. They're waiting to be adjusted for the gameplay.
The content is by and large ready. Game logic, animations, and sound effects are still to catch up. To speed them up, we adjusted our work organization. Today we're preparing the first level of the game for closed beta testing, which will start on December, 17. Stay tuned! There's a lot more coming!
