Hi guys, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! Here is our development progress for the last month of 2020.
Vlad
This month Vlad has been working on the remaining User Interface graphic art. Vlad has also finalized all levels and cinematics with sounds and music. He also worked on some new costumes for the characters together with George. Vlad is now working on the last costume while waiting for Rod to finish with the setup of the levels, or see what else needs to be done.
Rod
He is currently working on the setup of all the remaining levels, creating items, user interface code, and improving some of the previously existing items.
Eprdox
All of his tasks are complete.
Tihomir
He is done as well, all the sounds and original compositions for the game have been completed.
Shadrick
He has been working with Vlad to get the last round of item descriptions finalized and has been reviewing documents for the game.
Here is our current progress: https://www.tendogames.com/game-progress/
Developer's Journal： November 2020
Hi guys, Happy Thanksgiving!
Here is our development progress for the month of November.
Vlad
This month, Vlad worked on all required animations for the final cinematics and characters. Vlad has also finished all the levels, and set up all final cinematics. He is now currently working on some new costumes and trying to improve the main characters. https://www.tendogames.com/game-progress/
Rod
He is currently working on all level set ups, as well as checking the cinematics for errors, programming, etc
Eprdox
He finally finished the last level. He is currently working on a new prop model.
Tihomir
He is hard at work creating all the music and sounds for the cinematics.
Shadrick
He has been working with Vlad to finalize the final documents and voice scripts.
George
Currently working on some new costumes together with Vlad.
Happy Halloween - October 2020
Hey guys, as you know, this will be the last year that Them and Us will be on steam as an Early Access game, as we are very close to finishing the game. As a celebration of this milestone and to give thanks to our players, we’re offering a 40% off discount for this Halloween.
Happy Halloween!
Developer's Journal： September 2020
Hi guys, We are happy to hear that you guys enjoy the new build and the brand new demo. Here is our developer blog for the month of September.
Vlad
Vlad promised himself to take a break from game development this month, but he is still hard at work. This month he managed to finish up nearly all the levels. There is only one room left to polish up. He is currently waiting for the environment artist to finish with it. You can see the progress here: https://www.tendogames.com/game-progress/
While waiting for Eprdox to finish up the last level, Vlad has been working on a Player Manual UI. Once he is finished with that, he will move on to working on several new animations for the final cut scene cinematics and alternate endings.
Rod
Rod has been steadily working on improving the game and fixing problems while waiting for Vlad to finish up his work with the rest of the levels. Once that is done, he will work on setting up the levels.
Eprdox
He is almost finished with the construction of the last level, with only one more room left to be completed.
Tihomir
He has composed two new musical pieces and one extra track of ambiance for the new levels based on Vlad’s request.
Shadrick
He has been working with Vlad to finalize the scenes for the alternate endings, as well as working on final tweaks for in-game notes and texts for the user manual.
0.8.0 Updates / Patches
We made a few changes based on all the feedback we received so far. Thank you all for your feedback.
Please take note that all updates date are based on Japanese Standard Time [GMT +9]
Updates will take place once a week. Only important updates will be mentioned here.
In case you don't need new updates or have limited bandwidth please disable them or set the game to update only when you launch it. Following these 3 steps:
1. Right-click the game in your Library 2. Select the Updates tab 3. Under Automatic updates, choose Only update this game when I launch it
Sometimes STEAM may not update the game correctly. This makes the game to crash to some people or not work correctly. To fix this please check the integrity of files like here:
1. We added another state for life check, now there is Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red. Having 3 life states was not enough, since there are some enemies that do more damage than others. This new state helps the player to know better when Alicia is in a warning state as follow Green = Fine, Yellow = Caution, Orange = Warning, Red = Danger.
2. We added an option to turn vibration on and off for the controller 3. We fixed one of the enemy problems. 4. The main character has been updated.
Update, 26 October 2020
1. We added an important hint to one of the puzzles. 2. Small fixes.
Update, 19 October 2020
1. Map now display doors that are Locked, Unlocked or Opened by the player. 2. In Tank Control we updated the quick turn animation. Alicia can now turn faster.
Update, 14 October 2020
1. We updated some of the note's problems. 2. We made some new changes on maps like updating collisions.
Update, 07 October 2020
1. Intro video has now a larger blend time enough for you to skip the video without hearing Alicia talking.
2. To fix most of the problems we expended the player inventory of ammo quantity that can be carried to 255 ammo for each type of ammo, handgun, shotgun etc
We also fixed the problem with inventory and item box ammo pickup stacking together.
3. In the main hall there was a problem with one of the fixed cameras. This is now fixed.
4. We added a new hint to one of the objects.
Update, 30 September 2020
1. On Dark Forest we updated some of the dynamic and fixed cameras since were not well placed for alternate mode players.
2. The programmer made a couple of new changes on the other maps and in the AI.
3. We added a small eastern egg/homage to the first survival horror classic game that appeared in 1992, that inspired everyone to this day. Probably without it, the classic fixed-view camera system and per-rendered graphics style will have appeared much later or never.
4. Problem with a specific location crashing the game has been fixed.
Update, 17 September 2020
1. We increased the save game slots from 8 to 20. Please take note that Slot 1 became now Slot 8 [the auto save]. You cannot save on this slot anymore.
2. We removed some of the enemies in the halls.
3. Only one gear is now necessary to use on the elevator.
4. To not be any problems one of the small areas has been restricted to drop items in it. We had to update 2GB for this.
5. A new sound for the wheelchair has been added.
Update, 1 September 2020
1. One of the fixed cameras from one of the levels has been updated.
2. Probably you have noticed that some of the newer zombies could not be dismembered. Now they are.
3. All zombies now that remain with no arms will not grab Alicia anymore.
4. In Controls options there is a button named "Inverse Run Type". This button, if enabled, will allow all players that prefer to use a mouse and keyboard to not hold the run button anymore since it turns the walk into a run. The same goes for the controller.
5. We added knock-back animations for the dogs and a new death rollover animation (if shot by shotgun or other powerful weapons).
Update, 25 August 2020
1. Radio can now be turned off / turn on at any time.
2. We fixed a few errors that we had with the grass and some small stuff throughout the levels.
3. We added an important new cinematic that explains the lore of the dark ones and the spiritual essence.
4. Crossbow normal arrows critical hits knocking out the enemies have been reduced since its not a firearm weapon.
5. We modified/changed/added some of the pickup items.
6. The programmer fixed some other small problems that had to be fixed.
Update, 20 August 2020
1.We fixed some of the interior level details problems.
2. One of the main enemy "possible health glitch" if leave the battle area, have been fixed.
Update, 18 August 2020
1. The player is now able the unlock a higher difficulty after clearing the game of 0.8.0 build.
2. We fixed some very small check messages from the backyard area.
3. One of the barrels could not be broken by knife since was outside of collision, this problem is now fixed.
4. One of the puzzles has now a camera pan zoom cinematic, to show you more details, like if something is missing.
5. The extra game mode is now unlocked after finishing the 0.8.0 build, we look forward to seeing you on leaderboards.
0.8.0 Major Update
We made several new changes and added over 10GB of new content. Alicia’s journey is soon coming to an end, with only one more small update left. Thanks to all our players and supporters for making this possible!
There is now a free demo for everyone to play, test before buy! If you enjoy this game development and would like to see more games like this from our team please consider supporting this project.
Update Changes:
1. We updated all the visual effects for each level, including fog, lighting, as well as improved the textures for subtle things like the street pavement, cars, windows, etc.
2. All zombie animations have been updated, there is now more detailed knockback animation for each part of the body.
3. We also created another grab animation for the zombies.
4. We completely updated all the zombie sound effects. Now each class has its own unique voice. This alone goes a long way in making the game more atmospheric.
5. We added several new weapons.
6. We added several new cinematics.
7. We added several new enemies and bosses, each of which also come with their own voice, attacks, and animations.
8. All the mansion locations have been added to the game and can be explored by the player.
9. All of Fog Island is now complete and ready to play.
10. This is a spoiler/surprise. Read with caution!
Since the cemetery level was way too big for fixed camera style,, we created one more completely new cemetery level for people that prefer to play fixed camera mode
11. Several new, unique puzzles have been added to the game.
12. On Easy/Normal difficulty some of the puzzles have been removed or are easier to solve.
13. Some of the puzzles from the mansion have been updated to have more clues to aid the player.
14. For people who like the story and want to know more about Alicia and her journey, we have added several new documents that shine more light on her past including what happened on Fog Island. We also included a few new memory journal entries.
15. We added several new music tracks and background ambiance to make the game more atmospheric.
16. Character hair PhysX is now improved.
17. We added several new achievements.
Since we have included a very large content, more than 10 hours of new gameplay we’ve decided to increase the price of the game a small amount.
NOTICE!- Due to the size of the update and all the major changes that have taken place, we are unable to import old save files. Attempting to do so might crash the game or cause serious bugs/glitches. Sorry for any inconvenience!
Please use the forums for any questions that you may have. Also please report any problems that you may find in here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/915600/discussions/0/1734343428033270290/
We look forward to your feedback!
Thanks, the Tendo Games Team.
Developer's Journal： June 2020
Hi guys,
Here is our developer blog for June.
Vlad
This month I worked on many new animations and did some mocap for the last scenes. Vlad has also worked on 3 new cut scenes and updated all sounds of zombies enemies since now we are introducing each zombie class with each voice sound, thanks to our voice actors. Vlad has also worked on a new special enemy, which is now part of the story. Vlad has also edited some of the maps to work better with fixed cameras and fixed some of the puzzle props and notes. Now he is working to place all-new enemies and ambient sounds in the scenes.
Rod
He has been very hard at work, working on all-new levels (which are a lot) doing all the puzzles for them and code. Rod has also started to work to improve the map display, making to show doors condition on it. And working on the new sound system for the enemy. Last but not least Rod has been working on improving the public demo.
Eprdox
He is currently hard at work on the last level.
Tihomir
He recently created 3 new music tracks and some unique sound effects for our new enemies.
Shadrick
This month he's been waiting for a task. He is going to work shortly on all items' names and descriptions.
We hope you enjoy our 25% discount and look forward to our biggest update shortly. We can't wait to show you our progress. Meanwhile, we will show you this in-game screenshot. We always wanted to make the mansion much bigger than other fixed camera old school games. We think this place is colossal.
A new and improved game demo will be available to all people shortly.
Developer's Journal： May 2020
Hi all,
Before we mention what all the team worked on this month, please take a moment to check out our latest patch update: https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/915600/view/1711864755146764555
Vlad
I’ve finished up all the documents and general planning for the next update. I worked on several new enemy animations since we are going to add a couple of new, unique enemies. I’ve also worked on some new cinematic animations, but I still have a bit more work to do before I can say that all the cinematics are done. Lastly, I finished with a few new character’s rig/skin/engine import. Only one more character left to add to the game after this, but, is not required for the next update.
Rod
He has continuously been working on improving the game characters and enemies, recently he finished with the setup of a few new enemies.
Rod has also started to work on setting up all the levels according to Vlad’s planning.
Last but not least, he prepared everything that’s needed for language localization, as mentioned we will start to localize the game support based on the country you bought the game in:
(Russian and German - in this picture - is "google translate", => just for testing/show purpose <=)
He recently created many unique sound effects for our new enemies. Currently, he is working on three new music tracks.
Eprdox
He is currently working hard on finishing the last level. Based on his last update he is doing a fantastic job.
Shadrick
He has been working with Vlad to edit some of the older game notes to fit the complete storyline and recently finished up some dialog scripts for the voice actors.
Developer's Journal： April 2020
Hi guys First of all, we want to let you know that our team is doing fine, working hard on the game. Here is our developer blog for this month:
Vlad
This month I’ve been very busy working on all UI/GUI such as maps graphics, documents, items, etc. I have also updated and created new animations for a few new enemies and weapons. Currently I’m working on some new animations as well, preparing the upcoming documents and plans for the programmer, so he can start to setup everything that’s been completed.
Rod
He is continuously working on improving the game characters and enemies, as well as working on other components that will be included in the next update. He has also recently finished all the map graphics and documents code.
Tihomir
He created some new sounds for our new enemies. Now he is working to complete the remaining enemies sounds.
Eprdox
He is currently working hard to finish the last level.
Shadrick
He is currently writing new in-game notes, updating Alicia’s memory journal and writing more dialogue scripts for the voice actors.
Developer's Journal： March 2020
Hi guys,
We all know well about the current situation that is happening right now in the world. We wish everyone to stay safe and in good health! We have decided to do a 20% discount for the game for 2 weeks.
Here is our developer blog for this month:
Vlad
I am extremely happy to announce that the whole mansion area is now finished, all the locations and more will be available to explore. We can’t believe how huge this place is. Now I am working on polishing all the remaining levels for the next update. Here is the progress: https://www.tendogames.com/game-progress/
I have also worked on a new character, and improved some character shaders, mostly the eyes, for a more realistic look. Last but not least I finished with all the planning for the upcoming update and puzzle assets.
Rod
He has been hard at work placing all the cameras for the new levels, as well as working on the new puzzles. Rod has also finished with all material physics. We can now add more effects and sounds for the weapons and footsteps.
Eprdox
He is currently hard at work on the last level. Based on his update he is doing an amazing job.
Shadrick
He has been working on character dialogue for the voice actors for the cinematic scenes, creating more game notes, and editing the previously written game notes to fit a few plot changes.
On another news, we want to let you guys know that we have changed the name of the game app, here on steam, to Them and Us instead of Them & Us, due to the (&) steam search problems and link incorrect display.
