Hello community,

Its time for an update on what the Hinterland team has been busy doing since the last dev diary in March.

First off -- most of you probably know that we released a substantial update to Survival Mode, called STEADFAST RANGER, in May. If you happened to miss it, heres a ~10-minute video that outlines the new content and changes introduced in that update. The most significant new item is the Revolver, which is an important tool in Episode Three. Having STEADFAST RANGER out in the wild, so to speak, has given us some useful player feedback on the Revolver and our revised shooting mechanics, and this feedback goes directly back into improving Episode Three.



EPISODE THREE

Im sure youre mostly here to get an update on Episode Three. Im happy to say that its been progressing really well. Since were not giving public release dates anymore (reasons outlined here), Im hesitant to put a label on where were at with progress, but I will say that the main story and mission content is mostly in place and were heading into deeper playtesting and bug-hunting now.

In terms of overall process, nows the time where I go in and start doing deeper dives into the episode and making hundreds of editorial refinements to how everything plays -- does this event happen at the right time, is there enough time between these two big narrative beats, does this conversation flow naturally based on choices the player has made, do we need to add some dialogue to help clarify this characters motivations, does this music sound right for this moment, does this part of the episode feel too empty, etc. Theres always a lot of fine-tuning to be done. For this process, I play through the episode from start to finish, trying as much as possible to see it with fresh eyes, as a player would, and I also play through it with my leads team so that we can workshop the episode as a group. The test team also starts doing a more thorough pass on things to make sure everything is working correctly -- save files, mission objectives, no content is missing, etc. This part of the process is a bit different from the rest of the episodes development which tends to be more piece-meal. Now that we can see the overall structure and flow of the episode and test the content as its intended, we can see how well everything is (or isnt) working. Its the part of the process that can really make or break the quality of the experience, I believe.

A lot can still change with the episode during this part of the process -- for example, this was the part of Episode Two (Redux) development that we felt the Bear Hunt gameplay fell kind of flat and as a result we conceived of the Bear Cave section, to give the bear a more impressive ending to the story Jeremiah introduced us to. So, its still possible that significant things can be added or changed at this point.

Its probably also worth recapping for you the things weve already shared about Episode Three to date: the episode takes place in Pleasant Valley, the core story and mission path will take about 5 hours to complete, and there is probably an additional 2-4 hours of side mission content. Of course, as with our other episodes, theres a lot of variability in this play time based on how you choose to approach the game and missions, but were pretty sure Episode Three should come in at about the same length as Episode Two, maybe a bit longer.

Were not ready to spill too many details on the Episode Three story yet, but I asked the team to pull together a few pieces of content they wanted to share with you, with the promise that it wouldnt spoil too much. Please check the captions for more info:






Caption: In Episode Three, you might notice a new predator stalking you along the Pleasant Valley horizon line. Timberwolves are a lot tougher and smarter than the average Wolf you may have become used to tangling with. And they dont usually hunt alone.





Caption: New threats mean youll need new tools to defend against them. The Blue Flare casts an unearthly glow on the landscape as you risk exploring at night.





Caption: Thomsons Crossing. Most of Episode Threes story takes place in this former mining town, and the surrounding area. Itll take all of Astrids skill as a doctor to navigate what she finds here. What survivors will she encounter along the way, and what stories will they have to tell?



Caption: A warm fire within a sheltered hall. But who stands watch here, and why?



NEXT SURVIVAL MODE UPDATE

In my last dev diary, I mentioned were working on a new region that might be released in the next Survival Mode update (the next one after STEADFAST RANGER). I dont have much to offer as an update to that yet except to say were still working on it. Were trying something a bit different with this region, sticking with the approach of using each region to support a different play style or gameplay theme. The Survival Mode team is working on some other cool stuff but I cant talk about it yet or they will [redacted].



NINTENDO SWITCH

Some of you may have seen this shared on my Twitter feed (where I often share unofficial tidbits of news and info about the game, when I can sneak it by the community team), but we recently managed to get the game running pretty well on Nintendo Switch. Its taken a small group within the dev team several months to get to this point, so were pretty happy to finally be here. Performance is not great -- mostly the game runs around 15 frames-per-second, which can feel pretty choppy at times (30 frames-per-second (or 30 FPS) is the minimum needed to get smooth performance) so were still working on it. Weve been working closely with engineers at Unity, the people who make the game engine weve used to build The Long Dark, because a lot of the issues weve encountered can only be solved at the engine level, and theyve been super helpful and were making slow but gradual progress. Well keep you up to speed on how things develop but this is the first time weve been able to run the game properly without it crashing constantly so its definitely progress!



WRAP-UP

Looking over this dev diary, I feel like I havent shared much. I think its because most of what weve worked on since the last dev diary has been very spoilery stuff related to Episode Three and I just cant tell you about it right now. As we get closer to launching Episode Three, well begin teasing out more details and will release a story trailer at some point so that hopefully youll get properly hyped for the episode. We know its been a long time since Episode Two, particularly for those who didnt try the REDUX re-release from last December (which, I must say, you really should play, just for all the new content and major improvements made over the original release of Episodes One and Two). I know at this point it feels like news is a bit few and far between, but please know that the team is hard at work on Episode Three and while its not as close to shipping as you may think, its not as far from shipping as you may think either.

If youd like to ask questions about the game or our development process in general, I invite you to participate and read the (more or less) weekly Milton Mailbag column I do in the official forums. Ive answered dozens and dozens of questions in over 36 individual dispatches over the past year, and while I try to stay away from spoilers there too, there are definitely some nuggets of gold hidden within some of my answers there.

I hope youre enjoying these first early days of Summer. Well keep you posted and expect to hear from me with another developer diary in a couple of months.

Thanks, and stay frosty out there!

- Raph