While we've been hard at work on our latest game, Aground, Patrick Jacquemont has been hard at work translating I Can't Escape: Darkness to French! A big thank you to Patrick, and for all of you who've been waiting to play the game in French, now is your time!
Howard! Stevens! This is also a good time to look back on I Can't Escape: Darkness, which is still one of our top games! Since this blog post, we've had over 5k sales, and the game still holds up playing now, 3 years later! Maybe we'll have to resurrect the sequel after Aground...

[ 2018-08-11 17:11:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

I Can't Escape: Darkness is in Billerica's Premiere Bundle for the next 13 days! If you haven't picked it up yet, this is the perfect chance to get it for $4.50 along with four other premium games (like Smugglecraft and Mars 2030), a music album by Noah T, and a $1 groupees coin.

[ 2017-07-23 19:32:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

I Can't Escape: Darkness is in Billerica's Premiere Bundle for the next 13 days! If you haven't picked it up yet, this is the perfect chance to get it for $4.50 along with four other premium games (like Smugglecraft and Mars 2030), a music album by Noah T, and a $1 groupees coin.

[ 2017-07-23 19:32:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

You may have noticed an update a few weeks ago. It was mostly a few minor bugfixes, but I might have added a few extra surprises as well. Perhaps you will notice a few of them if you are lucky, and perhaps changing your date to Halloween might cause weird things to happen. That's all I'll say about this for now.
Also, if you haven't gotten I Can't Escape: Darkness yet, it is currently on sale for $3.50 (the lowest price so far) on Chrono.gg! This is a 24 hour only sale, so check if out. Finally, we have another surprise in the works that we will hopefully be ready to announce at Halloween this year. Until then, have fun, and escape... if you can!

[ 2017-01-29 21:52:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

You may have noticed an update a few weeks ago. It was mostly a few minor bugfixes, but I might have added a few extra surprises as well. Perhaps you will notice a few of them if you are lucky, and perhaps changing your date to Halloween might cause weird things to happen. That's all I'll say about this for now.
Also, if you haven't gotten I Can't Escape: Darkness yet, it is currently on sale for $3.50 (the lowest price so far) on Chrono.gg! This is a 24 hour only sale, so check if out. Finally, we have another surprise in the works that we will hopefully be ready to announce at Halloween this year. Until then, have fun, and escape... if you can!

[ 2017-01-29 21:52:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sound has always been a vital part of I Can't Escape: Darkness, it sets the mood and creates the immersion that makes the game effective. There were a lot of sounds we had originally planned for the game, but couldn't add in time for release, but with this update, all of those sounds have been added. Yes, all of them - I think our composer and sound designer, Chase Bethea, needs a big round of applause for finishing them so quickly! In this update, we have added 146 sound effects for items, weapons and all sorts of interesting events in game. So give it a try, and prepare to be enveloped by all of the sounds of darkness. Also, for this update, Chase has written a letter to the fans of the game, and shared a documentary - which is very interesting to watch especially if you've ever had any interest in how sounds for games are made!

Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8RcGwY2Qw0

Chase's Letter to Fans

Dear Players, It has been a great pleasure knowing that you have enjoyed the experience for I Can't Escape:Darkness. The sound and music was extremely important to me and I wanted you all to have the best experience possible. There were many days that I doubted myself and didn't think that I could do it. I racked my brains and thought, "How can I make this music and sound effects more immersive? How can I make it better than the first score?" I tried to put myself in your shoes as the player and see what would be too much? What would be too annoying? I did a lot of research by playing old games such as Silent Hill 2, Theif, Dead Space and the first Tomb Raider. I strengthened my atomospheric sound through this research and tried new techniques that I have never done before such as layering and binaural mixing. I balanced and tested the volumes. I tweaked the parameters of the reverb for the reflections. I went through numerous iterations of playback balancing ensuring that you would not be distracted from a monotonous loop. I spent sleepiness nights, sometimes eight days straight or more, to create every single sound you hear in the game from scratch. Whether it was synthsized or recorded with my own hands with my own props in my own custom made Foley stage that I specifically built for the project. There were nights that I have awoken out of my sleep to record custom sounds in the mini Foley for the game because there was not enough silence in the day or a milestone deadline was upon me. I remember sleeping one night and waking up around 5am hearing a whirring sound in the room. At first, I thought I dreamnt it, but I didn't. After a week, I discovered the sound was coming from my vent when the air was on and as it turned off, it made that whirring sound. That sound inspired the sound you hear when the player begins to see the lucid mushroom vision. I bought PS4 games and ripped the sound from them so that I could make A/B comparisons to the quality of a AAA title to match an Independent title. Then, I would go play the game to see how the implementation was done. But, to know that when you all are playing, that everything you touch, pick up, encounter, drop and interact with has a sound indidcating that there is a connection and that you are in that maze. That there is no hope and that you can't escape. I know how much you, the gamer, care about the sound and that is why I gave it my all. I am a one man team for the audio. I did all the 271 sound effects by myself. Originally there were only about 50-75 sound effect assets that were needed but the game grew. I must say, as the asset list grew I felt like I wasn't going to escape making sound effects for the game haha. However, I did. For this sound effects update, after working 9 days straight, and with little sleep, I finished on 12/30/2015 at 10:33am. These are the sound effects that I meant to have completed by the time of initial release. I apologize. I try to live by the standards of the old school. When a game ships it ships with no holes & no pockets. Everything is tight. For those of you reviewed the game who felt that the sound was not fully complete, I apologize. My expectation was for everything be as top notch quality and have solid implementation for the full purpose of immersion. I assure you that now that the sound is better. I created, implemented, tweaked, and tested everything. David also double checked my work for quality assurance. If you still feel that the sound isn't good enough then I don't know what to tell you. I'll try harder next time. Just remember that it was only me doing it all part-time. I did my best to the very last possible moment and I take full responsibility and pride in my craft. For the gamers and fans that do love it, Thank you so much!!! You are the reason that I worked as hard as I did with the sound. Why I gladly lost sleep. Why I stressed out about the polish. Why I tried new techniques that I haven't done before musically and technically. I wanted you guys to really love it and be even more lost than the prequel. This is my personal letter and HUGE THANK YOU to you all for giving the game the chance, playing it over and over, caring and being involved. Game on!

[ 2016-02-02 17:34:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sound has always been a vital part of I Can't Escape: Darkness, it sets the mood and creates the immersion that makes the game effective. There were a lot of sounds we had originally planned for the game, but couldn't add in time for release, but with this update, all of those sounds have been added. Yes, all of them - I think our composer and sound designer, Chase Bethea, needs a big round of applause for finishing them so quickly! In this update, we have added 146 sound effects for items, weapons and all sorts of interesting events in game. So give it a try, and prepare to be enveloped by all of the sounds of darkness. Also, for this update, Chase has written a letter to the fans of the game, and shared a documentary - which is very interesting to watch especially if you've ever had any interest in how sounds for games are made!

Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8RcGwY2Qw0

Chase's Letter to Fans

Dear Players, It has been a great pleasure knowing that you have enjoyed the experience for I Can't Escape:Darkness. The sound and music was extremely important to me and I wanted you all to have the best experience possible. There were many days that I doubted myself and didn't think that I could do it. I racked my brains and thought, "How can I make this music and sound effects more immersive? How can I make it better than the first score?" I tried to put myself in your shoes as the player and see what would be too much? What would be too annoying? I did a lot of research by playing old games such as Silent Hill 2, Theif, Dead Space and the first Tomb Raider. I strengthened my atomospheric sound through this research and tried new techniques that I have never done before such as layering and binaural mixing. I balanced and tested the volumes. I tweaked the parameters of the reverb for the reflections. I went through numerous iterations of playback balancing ensuring that you would not be distracted from a monotonous loop. I spent sleepiness nights, sometimes eight days straight or more, to create every single sound you hear in the game from scratch. Whether it was synthsized or recorded with my own hands with my own props in my own custom made Foley stage that I specifically built for the project. There were nights that I have awoken out of my sleep to record custom sounds in the mini Foley for the game because there was not enough silence in the day or a milestone deadline was upon me. I remember sleeping one night and waking up around 5am hearing a whirring sound in the room. At first, I thought I dreamnt it, but I didn't. After a week, I discovered the sound was coming from my vent when the air was on and as it turned off, it made that whirring sound. That sound inspired the sound you hear when the player begins to see the lucid mushroom vision. I bought PS4 games and ripped the sound from them so that I could make A/B comparisons to the quality of a AAA title to match an Independent title. Then, I would go play the game to see how the implementation was done. But, to know that when you all are playing, that everything you touch, pick up, encounter, drop and interact with has a sound indidcating that there is a connection and that you are in that maze. That there is no hope and that you can't escape. I know how much you, the gamer, care about the sound and that is why I gave it my all. I am a one man team for the audio. I did all the 271 sound effects by myself. Originally there were only about 50-75 sound effect assets that were needed but the game grew. I must say, as the asset list grew I felt like I wasn't going to escape making sound effects for the game haha. However, I did. For this sound effects update, after working 9 days straight, and with little sleep, I finished on 12/30/2015 at 10:33am. These are the sound effects that I meant to have completed by the time of initial release. I apologize. I try to live by the standards of the old school. When a game ships it ships with no holes & no pockets. Everything is tight. For those of you reviewed the game who felt that the sound was not fully complete, I apologize. My expectation was for everything be as top notch quality and have solid implementation for the full purpose of immersion. I assure you that now that the sound is better. I created, implemented, tweaked, and tested everything. David also double checked my work for quality assurance. If you still feel that the sound isn't good enough then I don't know what to tell you. I'll try harder next time. Just remember that it was only me doing it all part-time. I did my best to the very last possible moment and I take full responsibility and pride in my craft. For the gamers and fans that do love it, Thank you so much!!! You are the reason that I worked as hard as I did with the sound. Why I gladly lost sleep. Why I stressed out about the polish. Why I tried new techniques that I haven't done before musically and technically. I wanted you guys to really love it and be even more lost than the prequel. This is my personal letter and HUGE THANK YOU to you all for giving the game the chance, playing it over and over, caring and being involved. Game on!

[ 2016-02-02 17:34:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

For this Halloween, I have a special treat for you all - a free update with several new features and additions that will only be visible on October 31st! I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but some of them are very obvious, and some of them are more subtle.
None of the Halloween-only features can help you escape, so don’t feel like you’re at a disadvantage if you’re not playing on Halloween, but several of them are pretty cool, and now that there are date-sensitive events, the game will really seem different on different days (especially on Halloween). HINT: If you want to see the Halloween updates, and it’s not Halloween, simply change your computer’s date! There are 5 secrets/changes that happen only on Halloween, one obvious one is shown above. Also, if you didn’t hear about the big v1.1 update, you can read about it here: Major Update 1.1. I Can’t Escape: Darkness is on sale for 33% off around Halloween, so now is a great time to pick it up! Happy Halloween!

[ 2015-10-29 20:21:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

For this Halloween, I have a special treat for you all - a free update with several new features and additions that will only be visible on October 31st! I dont want to spoil the surprise, but some of them are very obvious, and some of them are more subtle.
None of the Halloween-only features can help you escape, so dont feel like youre at a disadvantage if youre not playing on Halloween, but several of them are pretty cool, and now that there are date-sensitive events, the game will really seem different on different days (especially on Halloween). HINT: If you want to see the Halloween updates, and its not Halloween, simply change your computers date! There are 5 secrets/changes that happen only on Halloween, one obvious one is shown above. Also, if you didnt hear about the big v1.1 update, you can read about it here: Major Update 1.1. I Cant Escape: Darkness is on sale for 33% off around Halloween, so now is a great time to pick it up! Happy Halloween!

[ 2015-10-29 20:21:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

I Can't Escape: Darkness v1.1 is out, and the dungeon is now even more alive! This is our first major update, and it includes a lot of changes, from improvements to combat to new secrets and traps. Even those who have already escaped and think they know all the secrets will be quite surprised. Here's the changelog:

• Many new tricks, traps and secrets (won't spoil them here).
• Combat is improved, with enemy stunning and damage direction indicators (so you know what side you're being attacked from).
  
• New abilities and secrets when on mushroom/ghost vision.
  
• More moving walls (because the ones in the Living Wall Maze weren't enough)!
• The ghostly messages only appear when you "listen" to them now - so they don't block the screen (especially on new games after you've already seen them).
  
• Added a glowing sword that both counts as a light source AND can permanently kill the vine blobs! But of course, such a powerful weapon is very hard to get (harder even than escaping)!
  
• Many other minor tweaks, bugfixes and improvements...

Old Save Files will still work, however, they will not include many of the new features, so we recommend you start a New Game. I hope you enjoy these updates, and feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions for future updates!

[ 2015-10-20 18:04:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

I Can't Escape: Darkness v1.1 is out, and the dungeon is now even more alive! This is our first major update, and it includes a lot of changes, from improvements to combat to new secrets and traps. Even those who have already escaped and think they know all the secrets will be quite surprised. Here's the changelog:

• Many new tricks, traps and secrets (won't spoil them here).
• Combat is improved, with enemy stunning and damage direction indicators (so you know what side you're being attacked from).
  
• New abilities and secrets when on mushroom/ghost vision.
  
• More moving walls (because the ones in the Living Wall Maze weren't enough)!
• The ghostly messages only appear when you "listen" to them now - so they don't block the screen (especially on new games after you've already seen them).
  
• Added a glowing sword that both counts as a light source AND can permanently kill the vine blobs! But of course, such a powerful weapon is very hard to get (harder even than escaping)!
  
• Many other minor tweaks, bugfixes and improvements...

Old Save Files will still work, however, they will not include many of the new features, so we recommend you start a New Game. I hope you enjoy these updates, and feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions for future updates!

[ 2015-10-20 18:04:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

I just released update 1.0.40! The change log is as follows:

• Improved Dead-Zone handling (controllers)
• Added Cursor Sensitivity option (controllers)
• Added Dead-Zone size option (controllers)
• Added play tutorial prompt for new players
• Allowed multiple events per cell (bugfix)
• Killed events on touch heart (bugfix)
• Other minor bugfixes

So, for those of you who have been having trouble playing with a controller and switched to keyboard/mouse, I'd give the controller another try and change the cursor sensitivity and dead zone settings as appropriate for your controller. Also, if you haven't, play through the tutorial with the controller, as it will show you a few shortcuts that make it easier to do common actions without moving the cursor.

[ 2015-09-26 01:40:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

I just released update 1.0.40! The change log is as follows:

• Improved Dead-Zone handling (controllers)
• Added Cursor Sensitivity option (controllers)
• Added Dead-Zone size option (controllers)
• Added play tutorial prompt for new players
• Allowed multiple events per cell (bugfix)
• Killed events on touch heart (bugfix)
• Other minor bugfixes

So, for those of you who have been having trouble playing with a controller and switched to keyboard/mouse, I'd give the controller another try and change the cursor sensitivity and dead zone settings as appropriate for your controller. Also, if you haven't, play through the tutorial with the controller, as it will show you a few shortcuts that make it easier to do common actions without moving the cursor.

[ 2015-09-26 01:40:05 CET ] [ Original post ]