Hey there, adventurer!

It's Rubn from Aruma Studios, and I'm excited to share some fantastic progress on both our demo and the full game development!

Demo Update: Smoother Than Ever

We just dropped a fresh demo update that's going to make your gaming experience so much better. The biggest change might fly under the radar: we've completely rebuilt our engine from the ground up. The result? Lightning-fast performance that uses half the CPU and 30% less RAM (as tested on my development machine).

There is a very good reason behind this rewrite. We're preparing to bring the game to new platforms beyond PC, and the old engine architecture was getting in the way. However, if you're gaming on your Steam Deck or laptop, you'll love the extended battery life this brings.

But we didn't want it to be just about performance. Here are a few more exciting improvements packed into this update:

• Hold down the left mouse button and glide through longer screens effortlessly. You can even combine it with double-click to run.

• The Atrium of Amnesty puzzle has been fine-tuned so you solve it through clever thinking, not happy accidents.

• For multi-screen players, there's now an optional cursor lock setting (off by default) to keep your mouse right where you want it.

• Conversation navigation just got an upgrade with much better focus highlighting. It's perfect for those who navigate dialogue with the keyboard, even if they use the mouse for everything else.

• Our particle system got a boost! Check out the intro zoo scene, now featuring water droplets on many more surfaces.

We've put this new engine through its paces with extensive testing, but we'd love for you to take it for a spin. If you spot anything unusual, just give us a shout in the community hub.

Full Game Development: Racing Toward the Finish Line!

I think it's about time we told you what's happening behind the scenes.

Art: Emilio, our incredibly talented lead artist, has wrapped up designs for every background, character, and inventory item. He's now deep into animation work, and we're already 40% done with all animations.

Music: Juan, our composer, is back in the studio creating the soundtrack that will accompany you through every new location.

Voice Acting: We've secured funding for full voice-over work! I'm holding off on updating the Steam page until we can include voiced dialogue in the demo, just to avoid any confusion, but this is going to elevate the experience in a big way.

Localization: Silvia is working her magic on the Spanish translation, and it's already 70% complete.

Other areas: Our script, puzzle design, programming, and Steam achievements are all locked in. We recently ran a playtest of the entire game, made some final tweaks, and are now calling it done!

The Home Stretch

In summary, here's what's left to bring this adventure to life:

• Complete the remaining animations.

• Finish the musical score.

• Wrap up localization.

• Record and implement voice-over.

• Professional QA.

We've got five months to hit our 2025 release target. The voice-over funding took a bit longer than we anticipated, but we're still confident we can make it happen. The timeline is tight, especially with all the audio production work that follows VO recording, but the team is more motivated than ever.

Thanks for being part of this incredible journey with us. We can't wait to share the finished adventure with you all!

If you haven't already, consider adding Shadows of the Afterland to your wishlist. You will receive a notification when the game is released and we will get extra visibility from the mighty algorithm. Win-win!

[dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/2506100/Shadows_of_the_Afterland/"][/dynamiclink]