The DLC will be an addendum for AUTONOMY, though technically fully stand-alone. A bridge between the old and new. Made in Unity.
Take a look at this: Same people, different times.
A technical prototype
InvAsion tries to recreate AUTONOMY's look and atmosphere as closely as possible, while utilizing Unity's strengths at scalability.
As you can see, the RPGMaker-esque blurriness on higher resolutions is gone. This means that everything looks a lot sharper and clean. In most cases for the better, for worse in a few. But that's where polishing comes in. Same people, same times.
A narrative appendix
Of course, it's not just about showing off new tricks. Because the technical side is just a vessel to tell a story.
For that matter, the chief goal of this DLC is to answer some of the questions left over from the main game. This includes a lot of things. Whether it's narrative gaps or emotional send-offs – InvAsion's got it all.
And obviously – this means that a good bunch of established characters will take the stage again. Same people, same place.
An interactive play
As of today, InvAsion is fully playable, barring two scenes. A first build has also been released as an internal Alpha.
It's still kinda hard to gauge how long it's going to be runtime-wise, but I'm aiming for around 45 minutes to an hour, give or take. And yeah! It's going to be chock-full of dialogue, essentially scrapping the exploration bits to fully focus on the narrative.
In other words, this is me trying to play into the strengths of AUTONOMY, without the filler in-between. For that reason, I'm taking great care for every single line to be meaningful in some shape or form.
But of course, that's not all. Same people, different place.
A one-way trip
There's a storm coming. And we want to have all our bases covered when it hits. Which brings us to the final – and probably most important – reason for InvAsion to exist. It's role as a bridging element.
Simultaneously to putting the finishing touches on AUTONOMY and creating InvAsion, I've spent a lot of time trying to conceptualise the future of TRACHI. I won't go to deep into this, as we don't want to get ahead with ourselves, right?
So let me just say the following: Take a good look at these faces. And think about a world without them. With that, I'll come to a close.
There's around 2 1/2 weeks left on AUTONOMY's clock before it stops. After that, I'll put my full attention on InvAsion until August 26th.
Accompanied by regular updates along the way. So if you'd like to keep track of where we're at, feel free to have a look at the DLC's store page.
And if you'd like to actively participate in development yourself, you are more than welcome to join the official discord and/or shoot me a message either there, here or through any of the other channels.
In the meantime, I wish you the best of days and weeks to come. And remain – as always – a deep admirer of yours.
Much love nory
Nostalgia
Hey party peeps, friends - and potential future roommates!
As you've probably noticed, the beta branch has been updated. So let's take a quick look at some of the things that changed.
Black & White
The build includes a whole bunch of bugfixes, qol improvements and - most importantly - revised credits scenes for Act 1-3.
I'm slowly crawling my way through all the scenes from start and finish, so expect most of the current changes in the earlier half of the game. Which is kinda fitting, since we're a bit more than halfway there.
In other words, we've got about 48 days until June 20th. Until then, I'll primarily focus on Act 2 & 3, while trying to hunt the last few bugs remaining. So if there's anything you noticed, both in terms of gameplay and performance, please do feel free to let me know.
As for everything else: I kinda forget what I've already announced, lol. So please don't be too hard on me if I repeat myself.
In any case, I think I might as well just drop it here.
Loose Ends
That's right, ladies and gentlemen We're in for some DLC.
Releasing on August 28th 2022, InvAsion will serve as wrap-up for AUTONOMY, with a dedicated focus on clearing up a lot of questions in regards to what the fuck happened before, during and after operation arteria. For that matter, it'll fully forego the exploration parts and instead present you the story as is. Think of it more like a play than interactive fiction.
And of course, you'll get to see some of your favourite characters again.
The idea is to fill in a bunch of the blanks and touch upon the deeper intricacies that dominate both the narrative of AUTONOMY and TRACHI as a whole. In that sense, it's both the conclusion to AUTONOMY, but also the bridge to what comes afterwards.
I'll give you more details - especially in terms of technical features - shortly after the release of AUTONOMY's last build on June 20th. From that point onwards, I'll fully focus on InvAsion and its aftermath.
Although some things never change... Nothing will ever be the same again.
So before I rant on, let me thank you once again for giving this game a chance. I appreciate it tremendously and regard it as one of the biggest reasons to keep pushing TRACHI beyond what it already is.
If there is ever anything you'd like to share with me or want to become involved in the project, please feel free to drop me a DM either here or through Discord.
Anyways, I hope you have a great time. See you on June 20th, at the latest.
Much love nory
arteria
Hey friends.
A hundred days
On the 20th June 2021 - TRACHI: AUTONOMY 1.0 was released. One year later, operation arteria will conclude. And with that, the first game in the TRACHI series is laid to a peaceful rest. To sleep, and to never wake up again.
In non-cryptic words: The final build of AUTONOMY, 1.5 (arteria) will be released on June 20th.
It's not a huge update. More of a last sweep, before the lights go out. The biggest change comes in the shape of a few new BGM pieces. Or to be more precise, some tracks had to be replaced due to licensing uncertainties, especially in terms of sustainability. For that matter, there is now also a full license document included.
The title screen has also been updated to be more in line with the new branding:
Smooth, isn't it?
Lastly, a couple of character names have been adjusted:
Terence Prawnfield -> Teron Pravoskos
Johan Fairclough -> Ioanis Fero
Laurits Farnswood -> Laurits Faber
Rupert Starling -> Rupert Sternlein
This is mostly for authenticity reasons and to ensure continuity. A few lines of dialogue have also been slightly polished, and one area more or less revamped.
Regardless of all these things, I want to make one thing abundantly clear: If you've played through TRACHI 1.4, there's no need for you to go back and replay it for story reasons.
However, and here we get to the second point: It's a great opportunity to replay it, if you haven't.
Beta
Because I just pushed the beta build. So whenever you feel eager to dance again, you can opt in through the usual Steam procedure. Savegames should also be compatible.
So with all that being said - I have a proposal. If you play the beta and find a bug or something, let me know. And I'll put you in the credits. Yeah, just like that. And since I won't touch AUTONOMY anymore after June, it'll stay there forever.
In any case, the offer stands. And I'd be delighted to hear from you. If not, I'll see you on the 20th June, at the latest. Where we'll also talk a bit about AUTARKY and what else is coming when.
Until then, have a great time, everyone of you.
Much love nory
arteria
Hey friends.
A hundred days
On the 20th June 2022 - one year after the release of TRACHI: AUTONOMY 1.0 - arteria will conclude. And with it, the first game in the TRACHI series is laid to rest. Not to sleep, but also to never wake up again.
In non-cryptic words: The final build of AUTONOMY, 1.5 (arteria) will be released on June 20th.
It's not a huge update. More of a last sweep, before the lights go out. The biggest change comes in the shape of a few new BGM pieces. Or to be more precise, some tracks had to be replaced due to licensing uncertainties, especially in terms of sustainability. For that matter, there is now also a full license document included.
The title screen has also been updated to be more in line with the new branding:
Smooth, isn't it?
Lastly, a couple of character names have been adjusted:
Terence Prawnfield -> Teron Pravoskos
Johan Fairclough -> Ioanis Fero
Laurits Farnswood -> Laurits Faber
Rupert Starling -> Rupert Sternlein
It's mostly for authenticity reasons and to ensure continuity with future titles. A few lines of dialogue have also been slightly polished, and one area more or less revamped.
Regardless, I want to make one thing abundantly clear: If you've played through TRACHI 1.4, there's no need for you to go back and replay it for story reasons. However, and here we get to the second point: It's a great opportunity to replay it, if you haven't.
Beta
Because I just pushed the beta build. So whenever you feel eager to dance again, you can opt in through the usual Steam procedure.
Savegames should also be compatible. If you copy the files from your 'save' folder in the game's root directory and copy it in the beta build's folder, you should be able to access all of your saved from the stable build.
So with all that being said - I have a proposal. If you play the beta and find a bug or something, let me know. And I'll put you in the credits. Yeah, just like that. And since I won't touch AUTONOMY anymore after June, it'll stay there forever.
In any case, the offer stands. And I'd be delighted to hear from you. If not, I'll see you on the 20th June, at the latest. Where we'll also talk a bit about AUTARKY and what else is coming when.
Until then, have a great time, everyone of you.
Much love nory
Helios
Hey friends!
I've just deployed a new build. It's a relatively minor update, mainly focusing on bugfixes and some other stuff.
Most notably, I've restored the option to turn off Lighting effects for machines with lower specs. The setting is found in the options menu under the "visual" tab. If you've run into performance problems or experienced slowdowns on certain maps, I recommend turning these effects off and see if the issue persists.
As always, I'm very eager to hear your feedback. So please do let me know if you're experiencing any issues with the game.
On a related note: I've received reports that achievements won't unlock for some people. There's a chance that the issue has been fixed with the newly released build. However, since the problem didn't seem to affect everyone, it's hard for me to isolate the cause of the issue.
Around half of the achievements are unlocked in the course of a regular playthrough. In other words: if you've finished an act and didn't get an achievement, it's reasonable to assume that you're affected by the issue, too.
In any case, I'd very much like to hear from you whether you've run into any troubles in that regard. So please feel free to share your experiences either directly with me, or in one of the discussion boards.
With all that being said, I want to thank you again for your interest. I'm a bit between projects at the moment and have to expend a significant portion of my brainpower to resist getting sucked back into working on TRACHI full time. On the flipside, the broad outline of the sequel is getting more and more pronounced, each day.
I've outlined a preliminary roadmap in the latest devlog on trachi.net. So please feel free to check that one out if you want to know where we're going.
In any case, I do hope you have an amazing set of holidays and I'm looking forward to speak to you again in 2022.
Much love Nory
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Changelog
- Fixed several layering and tile issues, along with some typos - Player inputs are no longer added to the message log - Fullscreen setting in the options menu can now be toggled by pressing the OK button - Added option to toggle Lighting effects
InaugurAtion
Hello peeps,
now that the game is officially out, it's possible to nominate it for the yearly Steam Awards.
And since I'm feeling exceptionally bold, right now... We might as well give this a shot and see how far we can take it.
So without further ado, I'd like to ask those who have seen and liked the story of TRACHI to cast their vote.
And if you don't feel like it's quite there, yet: Don't worry. Because you can be sure that this won't be the last release of a game set in the TRACHI universe.
Until then, I wish you the best of time. And hope that you'll enjoy the game as much as I did making it.
