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[Mahn]

I really admire people who keep a regular devlog, I just don't have the motivation to do the devlog these days, I'm so close to the end, I really want it to be done as soon as possible.

Sure, don't stress too much about it, an update every other month or so is fine, specially when you are this close. Getting it done is more important that rambling on a devlog at the end of the day

[nt]

So what did I do all this time? what is coming?

In the past few months I've been busy chipping away at this game, slowly progressing, making puzzle, improving old ones, making better art etc.  Things take much more time than I anticipated, classic. I had a hard time working on all the code not game-play related which is a part that people don't talk much about. Gamepad support, platforms API support, better menus, better sound management, cut-scene system, etc...

The game improved so much since last year when I showed the game at PAX East, before the Kickstarter and everything. I recently played a build from summer 2015, what a mess that was. The control of the player improved dramatically,  the user friendliness of the menu and control is much better, the first couple of tutorial levels are so much more intuitive. When you work on something everyday you don't see the progress you make so much until you compare it with an old build and boy did the game chance in all this time. I didn't talk much about the development in the last year because there wasn't anything super technical or extraordinary that nobody has done that I felt was wort talking about. I will probably talk a lot more about the development once I'm done with it, a sort of post mortem about the good and the bad things I came across during the development.

So the game is a bit late, obviously, my first release date was around December 2016, which I didn't make. It is now planned for April which I hope I will hit, but still no official date.


PAX East 2017

In other news, I will be showing the game at PAX East 2017. This came as a surprise since I had literally zero budget for this and I even talked about it on my Kickstarter a while back. So one of my backers saw that post and contacted me in January about helping me go to PAX. He offered to pay for the whole thing, all my expenses; hotel, car, booth, etc. 

So yeah, that happened. Crazy right? I couldn't be happier. It is very motivating to see someone who believe in your game as much and want to help out. Going to PAX is always a super cool opportunity to meet players and the press and I cant wait to be there again.

So that's it for now, release date coming soon! stay tuned!

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

congrats~ that's some awesome news

[Alex N.]

Glad to hear you're still alive and kicking. Congrats on the offer and hope to hear more about the game/process. o7

[acatalept]

IMHO, it's more worth it to take your time and release when it's ready, than rush it out the door when you're not happy with it: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2012/apr/27/shigeru-miyamoto-rushed-game-forever-bad

I haven't looked at this in a while, but it keeps looking better and better -- good luck at PAX!

[Hephep]

Glad to hear from you, Keep going doing your best!

[TonyManfredonia]

I'm amazed at the friend / backer who supported your trip out to PAX East!

It's quite heartwarming to realize that kindness still exists in the world <3

[foofter]

The monsters are so cute! I like when the big one gets pushed back by the light...awww. And the way they transform into helpful things, and the general playful vibe.

[nt]

Thanks for all the great comments guys, like always.

In The Shadows is now in beta!

Last week I released the beta to my Kickstarter Backers and started receiving feedback from players. Lots of unforeseen bugs I have to say. It's kind of crazy how many weird bugs you can get on different hardware. Considering I'm using Unity I was expecting something more stable.

Optimisation

My development hardware is 7 years old, it was a pretty good computer at the time but now it shows it age. I was expecting it to be the lowest specs I would support but apparently laptops more than 2-3 years old are having a hard time with the game. I will need to make some more optimization. At least there is a couple of "expensive" things I know I can optimize a lot, but it's not the kind of code I'm use to do and will need to look into that further. I feel like I talked about this before but I'm too lazy to read all my old posts.

One of the expensive things in the game is lighting. Everything in the game is 3D meshes even tho it looks 2d, and all the lighting is in real time. Lots of lights casting shadows. So this should be the easiest to do, just bake all "static" lights.

Look at this mess...

The other place I can optimize is the mesh tiles. This design decision was to make it easier for me to make level art but it turned out to be expensive. Right now Unity automatic batching makes a basic job, but I really need to merge all meshes and make a giant texture UV map for all the static tiles in the levels, also remove any unseen or overlapping triangles. 90% of the tiles use the same shader and identical material properties so It should be pretty straight forward. I looked into this way back already, but it was not working at all and was kind of stumped so I put it on the side for a while, but I guess it's time for me to revisit this.

TigSource Beta

I will soon expend the Beta to more people, and having some fellow gamedevs feedback would be good. So for those who have been following me here for so long, you can PM me your email address and I will add you to the next beta list. There is a couple of keys I will distribute for TigSource members. You will receive a Steam key to get access to the beta, which include the first 11 levels of the game.

Anyway, that's it for now!

[ANtY]

sent you a pm, very excited to try this one out 

[io3 creations]

Last week I released the beta to my Kickstarter Backers and started receiving feedback from players. Lots of unforeseen bugs I have to say. It's kind of crazy how many weird bugs you can get on different hardware. Considering I'm using Unity I was expecting something more stable.

Yeah, that sounds a bit strange.  Do you mind sharing a few bugs and what caused them?  It could be useful for me and others if dealing with similarish code/approach as you.

My development hardware is 7 years old, it was a pretty good computer at the time but now it shows it age. I was expecting it to be the lowest specs I would support but apparently laptops more than 2-3 years old are having a hard time with the game.

I'm guessing that your computer has a graphics card and the laptops don't.  That can make a big difference. Plus, there's a wide range of laptops and not all are intended for CPU/GPU intensive applications/games.

At the end of the day, if you can optimize then more people should be able to enjoy it.

At least the console versions have less of this kind of "variety" bug issue.    Though, those may have their own peculiarities...

[nt]

Yeah, that sounds a bit strange.  Do you mind sharing a few bugs and what caused them?  It could be useful for me and others if dealing with similarish code/approach as you.

It might be caused by lower end hardware and me using fixedupdate/update where I shouldn't. I realize that sometimes physics stuff get dropped if you don't do it where you should. I have to look into it more. I got some weird bugs with audio too, in levels with lightening, audio only play when the lightening sound plays, this one I can't figure out.

I'm guessing that your computer has a graphics card and the laptops don't.  That can make a big difference. Plus, there's a wide range of laptops and not all are intended for CPU/GPU intensive applications/games.

At least the console versions have less of this kind of "variety" bug issue.   Though, those may have their own peculiarities...

Yeah I have a 5800* Radeon, and also tested it on a GTX 285 so thats my base line. Laptop with an Intel HD 5000 should be able to work well.  For console there are some specific things I have to do, but nothing too crazy, current gen consoles can play the game very well in its current state but it would be nice if they could play it at 60fps constantly.

[io3 creations]

It might be caused by lower end hardware and me using fixedupdate/update where I shouldn't. I realize that sometimes physics stuff get dropped if you don't do it where you should. I have to look into it more. I got some weird bugs with audio too, in levels with lightening, audio only play when the lightening sound plays, this one I can't figure out.

Hmm. Those really do sound strange. I'd be curious if you can find a solution for them.

[rIKmAN]

Looong time lurker here - your project and overall development story made me sign up just to tell you how awesome I think this whole project is, and to congratulate you on persevering through the hard times, ups and downs and the for the commitment you have shown to bring your idea to reality... it's very inspiring and motivating.

The results that your your art pipeline gives (PyxelEdit > Qubicle > Engine) has given me some ideas on things I would also like to try myself for a few prototypes I have been tinkering with recently which I am excited about.

Thanks for doing the devlog, it's the best I've read since Rain World - I wish you a trouble free release (yeah right, right?) and am looking forward to being able to play it.

Congrats again!

[0XPgamedev]

Wow, what a gorgeous aesthetic and unique idea. I love the contrast between the adorable star collectibles and the horrific shadow creatures.

Also a bit fan of the background and foreground work; it's rare to see such detail in them but it's superb. I'm excited for this.

[Tomas (Yawarjelo)]

I remember playing this at GDC last year I think! I remember the vibe was surreall-y exquisite! =D

Happy to see how is evolving!

I just remembered the music was AWESOME too...

[io3 creations]

Since you mentioned spreading the word, I'll bump your thread.

In The Shadows is coming to Steam and GOG, Friday Oct 20th!
https://twitter.com/6502b/status/919306730319892481

[nt]

Has it been this long already.. jeez the time, where does it go

So yeah, I neglected tigsource for a while. I have a hard time managing my time and I get overwhelmed with things.

In any case.. like you said io3

In The Shadows is out today on Steam and GOG.com! crazy! I actually finished this game. I started posting here back in 2014, I had a different life then. I was living between Montreal and NYC, thinking I would make a game that I would just sell by myself on my website or whatever, not event thinking about Steam or anything.

Turns out I ended up going with IndieMEGABOOTH at GDC2016, then got a deal with Sony and Microsoft to release on their platform, then I did PAX East 2016 and got a successful kickstarter, then a whole bunch of other conventions, depression, questioning why i am even doing this, being broke, having friend pick me up, messing up two relationships, getting some financial help, getting back on my feet, and finishing the damn thing, and here we are!

I couldn't be happier, and I want to thank everyone on this thread who followed me and supported me. I have been silent for long period of time but, all your comments and everything, it means a lot.


So here we are, some links about the game, here is the launch trailer :



Steam page : http://store.steampowered.com/app/470580/In_The_Shadows/

GOG page : https://www.gog.com/game/in_the_shadows

Webpage : http://www.intheshadowsgame.com

you can also follow me on www.twitter.com/6502b or the facebook page www.facebook.com/colorspcestudio

: )