Dev Diary - November 2018
Hello community, I have some news and a progress update to share on how things are going with various parts of the game, and the studio. Some of it is good news, some of it will be disappointing. I hope that for the vast majority of you, the news is mostly good.
Some of you might be clued in to recent industry turmoil and a spate of closures, Telltale being the highest profile of these. A bit lesser known, but really big news for our local Vancouver game dev community, was the complete shutdown of Capcoms Vancouver studio. About 200 people lost their jobs, and in the weeks following we scrambled to interview people to see if we could help them, and to see how we could build up our own development strength. Fortunately for us, we already had several ex-Capcom Vancouver people in the studio, so we were able to identify high performers who would fit in to our culture well. As a result of the Capcom situation, along with some other people we were interviewing at the time, weve hired six new team members in the last month. This is Hinterlands most significant growth in the past five years. One area we were really able to bulk up was animation, which has always been a challenge on this project. Our current animation team of three has been able to do some truly incredible technical and creative work over the past 18 months, but weve always been limited on how much content we could produce and thats held us back in some areas of the project. For example, the decision to ship unvoiced dialogue scenes in the original Episode One and Two. We just couldnt produce all the animation needed to support full voice over. For Redux, we adopted some new facial animation technology, and things have improved significantly, to the extent that were able to ship Redux Episodes One and Two with full voice-over and fully animated characters. I think this really elevates the quality of the narrative presentation in the game.
We were also able to purchase Capcom Vancouvers nearly new motion capture studio (or the equipment from it anyway). This purchase gives us a 36-camera set-up which will be more than enough to carry us through the next few projects. Having our own motion capture equipment means we no longer have to plan our production around a motion-capture studios availability, which will give us a lot more flexibility to shoot, iterate, reshoot, etc. In addition to the two animators, we also hired two new programmers, a new user interface/visual effects artist, and a new tester. Were also interviewing additional people who may end up joining us, including some folks from Telltale and other studios that specialize in narrative experiences, all people whove been recently let go and are looking for a new home. This is a great opportunity for us to build up our team in anticipation of future work on The Long Dark, and our next game. This team growth means were big enough to seriously consider splitting the current team into two production teams -- one focused in WINTERMUTE, and another focused on Survival Mode. Weve long struggled with trying to produce enough content to keep both Story and Survival sides of the project fully resourced. So Im feeling pretty hopeful for the future of The Long Dark, and our update progress moving forward. Being able to have two dedicated teams will help ensure we can make more consistent progress in both areas of the game.
Suddenly having access to all this new development talent and the motion-capture gear makes a huge difference to what we can accomplish in Episode Three. Ive decided that Id like to be able to use these new resources -- along with the new motion capture equipment -- to add more content and polish to Episode Three. This means it wont be ready for us to ship in December. Theres not much more to say about that at the moment. I know this will be disappointing.
This may be bittersweet after the Episode Three delay news, but well be delivering the updated Redux versions of Episodes One and Two in December. While the high-level narrative of these episodes remains the same, the details and the implementation of the missions and narrative content is significantly different from what you played last year. Everything has been re-written, re-recorded, and re-animated. There are also new mission beats that didnt exist before, things that flesh out the experience and story of WINTERMUTE. In December, youll be able to play these Redux episodes and get a great sense of what to expect in Episode Three and beyond, as these now serve as the template for how well approach all our mission and narrative content moving forward. This also means that with the December Redux update, well be deleting your old WINTERMUTE saves. They will no longer be compatible with the game after the update, as so much has changed. So, if you havent already started playing WINTERMUTE, we suggest you wait until our December update. And if you really want to finish your current WINTERMUTE playthrough, we recommend you do it soon! If you finished the original Episodes One and Two and want to roll right into Episode Three when it launches, you can also do that, although we hope youll go back and experience Do Not Go Gentle and Luminance Fugue again, as they are much changed and improved since their original iterations.
Just so that we dont leave you without something entirely new to look forward to before the end of 2018, were releasing another free update to Survival Mode this December. I dont want to spoil the contents yet -- that deserves its own dev diary -- but I can say the update will include the following: New Craftable Hat, New Challenge Mode, New Condition Buff, some UI fixes, some gameplay tweaks, and general bug fixes as well. There may also be a few other surprises in there, if we can get them finished in time.
Remember: we are deleting all current WINTERMUTE saves with our December update.
Well release more info about the December Survival Mode update when we get closer to launching it. Thanks for reading, and if youd like to discuss this dev diary with other members of the community, please jump into the conversation here in our official community forums. Thanks for reading! - Raphael
[ 2018-11-08 01:05:42 CET ] [ Original post ]
HINTERLAND GROWTH, EPISODE THREE DELAYED, WINTERMUTE REDUX & SURVIVAL MODE IN DECEMBER, SAVE WIPE!
Hello community, I have some news and a progress update to share on how things are going with various parts of the game, and the studio. Some of it is good news, some of it will be disappointing. I hope that for the vast majority of you, the news is mostly good.
HINTERLAND GROWTH
Some of you might be clued in to recent industry turmoil and a spate of closures, Telltale being the highest profile of these. A bit lesser known, but really big news for our local Vancouver game dev community, was the complete shutdown of Capcoms Vancouver studio. About 200 people lost their jobs, and in the weeks following we scrambled to interview people to see if we could help them, and to see how we could build up our own development strength. Fortunately for us, we already had several ex-Capcom Vancouver people in the studio, so we were able to identify high performers who would fit in to our culture well. As a result of the Capcom situation, along with some other people we were interviewing at the time, weve hired six new team members in the last month. This is Hinterlands most significant growth in the past five years. One area we were really able to bulk up was animation, which has always been a challenge on this project. Our current animation team of three has been able to do some truly incredible technical and creative work over the past 18 months, but weve always been limited on how much content we could produce and thats held us back in some areas of the project. For example, the decision to ship unvoiced dialogue scenes in the original Episode One and Two. We just couldnt produce all the animation needed to support full voice over. For Redux, we adopted some new facial animation technology, and things have improved significantly, to the extent that were able to ship Redux Episodes One and Two with full voice-over and fully animated characters. I think this really elevates the quality of the narrative presentation in the game.
We were also able to purchase Capcom Vancouvers nearly new motion capture studio (or the equipment from it anyway). This purchase gives us a 36-camera set-up which will be more than enough to carry us through the next few projects. Having our own motion capture equipment means we no longer have to plan our production around a motion-capture studios availability, which will give us a lot more flexibility to shoot, iterate, reshoot, etc. In addition to the two animators, we also hired two new programmers, a new user interface/visual effects artist, and a new tester. Were also interviewing additional people who may end up joining us, including some folks from Telltale and other studios that specialize in narrative experiences, all people whove been recently let go and are looking for a new home. This is a great opportunity for us to build up our team in anticipation of future work on The Long Dark, and our next game. This team growth means were big enough to seriously consider splitting the current team into two production teams -- one focused in WINTERMUTE, and another focused on Survival Mode. Weve long struggled with trying to produce enough content to keep both Story and Survival sides of the project fully resourced. So Im feeling pretty hopeful for the future of The Long Dark, and our update progress moving forward. Being able to have two dedicated teams will help ensure we can make more consistent progress in both areas of the game.
EPISODE THREE DELAYED
Suddenly having access to all this new development talent and the motion-capture gear makes a huge difference to what we can accomplish in Episode Three. Ive decided that Id like to be able to use these new resources -- along with the new motion capture equipment -- to add more content and polish to Episode Three. This means it wont be ready for us to ship in December. Theres not much more to say about that at the moment. I know this will be disappointing.
EPISODES ONE AND TWO "REDUX" IN DECEMBER
This may be bittersweet after the Episode Three delay news, but well be delivering the updated Redux versions of Episodes One and Two in December. While the high-level narrative of these episodes remains the same, the details and the implementation of the missions and narrative content is significantly different from what you played last year. Everything has been re-written, re-recorded, and re-animated. There are also new mission beats that didnt exist before, things that flesh out the experience and story of WINTERMUTE. In December, youll be able to play these Redux episodes and get a great sense of what to expect in Episode Three and beyond, as these now serve as the template for how well approach all our mission and narrative content moving forward. This also means that with the December Redux update, well be deleting your old WINTERMUTE saves. They will no longer be compatible with the game after the update, as so much has changed. So, if you havent already started playing WINTERMUTE, we suggest you wait until our December update. And if you really want to finish your current WINTERMUTE playthrough, we recommend you do it soon! If you finished the original Episodes One and Two and want to roll right into Episode Three when it launches, you can also do that, although we hope youll go back and experience Do Not Go Gentle and Luminance Fugue again, as they are much changed and improved since their original iterations.
SURVIVAL MODE UPDATE IN DECEMBER
Just so that we dont leave you without something entirely new to look forward to before the end of 2018, were releasing another free update to Survival Mode this December. I dont want to spoil the contents yet -- that deserves its own dev diary -- but I can say the update will include the following: New Craftable Hat, New Challenge Mode, New Condition Buff, some UI fixes, some gameplay tweaks, and general bug fixes as well. There may also be a few other surprises in there, if we can get them finished in time.
STORY MODE SAVE WIPE IN DECEMBER
Remember: we are deleting all current WINTERMUTE saves with our December update.
- If you are just starting WINTERMUTE and dont mind waiting a bit, we recommend you wait for December so you can play the revised and much improved Episodes One and Two.
- If you have an in-progress WINTERMUTE game youd like to finish before we wipe the save, please finish it soon! Pre-Redux (Predux!) WINTERMUTE saves will not be compatible with the game, post-update.
- If you completed the original Episodes One and Two, Episode Three will be unlocked for you when it releases.
- This save wipe has ABSOLUTELY NO EFFECT on Survival Mode games. We will not be wiping those. If you play Survival and dont care about WINTERMUTE, simply carry on.
Well release more info about the December Survival Mode update when we get closer to launching it. Thanks for reading, and if youd like to discuss this dev diary with other members of the community, please jump into the conversation here in our official community forums. Thanks for reading! - Raphael
The Long Dark
Hinterland Studio Inc.
Hinterland Studio Inc.
2017-08-01
Indie Strategy Simulation Singleplayer
Game News Posts 244
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
🎮 Full Controller Support
Very Positive
(92113 reviews)
http://www.thelongdark.com
https://store.steampowered.com/app/305620
The Game includes VR Support
The Long Dark Depot (Linux) [2.24 G]TLD Dev Depot (Linux) [5.42 G]DLC01Linux [721.27 M]The Long Dark: Wintermute Linux DLC [8.16 G]The Long Dark: Tales from the Far Territory Linux DLC [728.71 M]
The Long Dark: Tales from the Far Territory
The Long Dark: WINTERMUTE
***THE LONG DARK IS AN EARLY ACCESS TITLE. THE SANDBOX IS IN A CONSTANT STATE OF IMPROVEMENT, AND IT ISN'T FINISHED. BUYING THE LONG DARK ON EARLY ACCESS SUPPORTS OUR ABILITY TO CONTINUE IMPROVING THE GAME. FOR MORE INFORMATION, REFER TO THE EARLY ACCESS INFORMATION ABOVE.***
With an average of 3-4 updates per month, The Long Dark is in a state of constant improvement. We have released over 75 updates since bringing the game to Early Access. Updates typically include new gameplay, tuning, new areas, items, and visual improvements. We are constantly improving the game based on our iterative development process, with input from the community.
Please note that the Early Access price provides immediate access to the Sandbox Mode, and includes the cost of Season One episodes of the Story Mode, the first of which will be available at the game's full launch.
The Long Dark is brought to you by Hinterland Studio, an independent game developer comprised of industry veterans with significant credits on many renowned series including Far Cry, Red Faction, Saints Row, God of War, Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Company of Heroes, and many others. The Long Dark is the team's first attempt to create a unique and thought-provoking independent game that pushes the boundaries of the medium.
We appreciate your support of our efforts!
What is The Long Dark?
The Long Dark is a thoughtful, exploration-survival experience that challenges solo players to think for themselves as they explore an expansive frozen wilderness. There are no zombies -- only you, the cold, and everything Mother Nature can throw at you.Current Game Features
The Early Access version of The Long Dark features the game’s non-narrative Survival Sandbox mode. The game will leave Early Access one we launch Episode One of our Story Mode. All Season One episodes are included in the cost of Early Access.- No hand holding! The game challenges players to think for themselves by providing the information but never the answers. You have to earn the right to survive.
- Permadeath! See how long you can survive, check your standing on the global Leaderboards, then head back in and push yourself to survive longer.
- Monitor your Calorie count, Hunger and Thirst, Fatigue, and Body Temperature. Maintain your overall Condition if you want to survive. Let yourself weaken and any small threat may lead to your death.
- Over 30 square kms of wilderness to explore (and with more regions coming!). Mystery Lake, Coastal Highway, Desolation Point, Pleasant Valley, and more, all interconnected and each with dozens of explorable locations.
- Dynamic weather, wildlife, and time of day, all with an impact on how you choose to survive.
- Over 100 gear items including clothing, tools like hatchets and rifles, first aid equipment, foodstuffs, light sources like lanterns and flares, and firestarting equipment.
- Hunt Deer, Snare Rabbits, and watch for Crows as they can signify the presence of animal, or human, corpses that can be vital sources of Supplies. Wolves are territorial and will defend their territory, or stalk you if they catch your scent. If you let them get too close, you may find yourself in a desperate struggle to survive. Be on the lookout for Black Bears, as they roam the landscape in search of food.
- Harvest Wood for fuel, maintain your Gear and Clothing, and keep your Knife, Hatchet, and Rifle in top shape as they will save your life!
- Harvest Medicinal plants like Old Man's Beard Lichen, Rose Hips, Reishi Mushrooms.
- Deep First Aid system featuring many afflictions including: Sprains, Blood Loss, Infection Risk, Infection, Food Poisoning, Dysentery, and more.
- Craft Snares, First Aid items, Repair your Clothing and Tools, and Harvest raw materials from the environment, as you do your best to become self-sufficient.
- ...and much more!
Ongoing Development
With an average of 3-4 updates per month, The Long Dark is in a state of constant improvement. We have released over 75 updates since bringing the game to Early Access. Updates typically include new gameplay, tuning, new areas, items, and visual improvements. We are constantly improving the game based on our iterative development process, with input from the community.
Please note that the Early Access price provides immediate access to the Sandbox Mode, and includes the cost of Season One episodes of the Story Mode, the first of which will be available at the game's full launch.
The Hinterland Team
The Long Dark is brought to you by Hinterland Studio, an independent game developer comprised of industry veterans with significant credits on many renowned series including Far Cry, Red Faction, Saints Row, God of War, Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Company of Heroes, and many others. The Long Dark is the team's first attempt to create a unique and thought-provoking independent game that pushes the boundaries of the medium.
We appreciate your support of our efforts!
MINIMAL SETUP
- OS: SteamOS or Ubuntu 16.04 or 17.04
- Processor: Dual-Core Intel i5 CPU @ 2GHz+Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Intel 4xxx Series w/ 512MB VRAM or better
- Storage: 7 GB available space
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