Its time for a big update. With a new area, hardcore mode and other improvements!

NEW STORY AREA

After the part where you get your second ranged weapon, a new path appears! You suddenly realize a mysterious building next to you. Will you walk inside?

This area adds roughly 10 minutes of gameplay to the story, and rewards the player with a unique item.

Im personally very proud of the voice acting and atmosphere I managed to put into it, so feel free to check it out!

HARDCORE MODE

After clearing the story for the first time, or obtaining 20 crystals from earning achievements: A challenging variant of the story can be played! This mode aims to bring players a completely different experience to the normal mode. Where every bullet and step counts!

• Exploring the bonus area introduced in 1.1 is now mandatory, granting access to a special item.

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• Ammunition is now scarce.

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• Zombies may notice you if you stand too close for too long.

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• Zombies now roam around even when you havent been detected for a more fun stealth experience.

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• Melee combat is more challenging and intense.

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• Some levels have been altered for a more intense experience.

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• Special achievements are available for progressing in Hardcore mode. This brings the total number of achievements/challenges up to 77!

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IMPROVEMENTS

• The alternative Controls and Guides have been added to the pause menu. This menu contains controller instructions, as well as small gameplay tutorials to refresh your memory. You can even change what kind of control scheme should be displayed in it: Mouse & Keyboard, Keyboard Only or Gamepad.

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• Zombies now have footstep sounds. This was added to make sneaking more fun in hardcore mode. However, the footstep sounds can also be heard in other game modes.

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• Menu sounds: Navigating the menu now feels more responsive, and will indicate things like being at the end of a menu, activating something, or switching page.

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• When achievements are earned inside the story, a sound will now indicate this. I hope this sound didnt turn out cringe, but it will be very useful nonetheless.

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• Added an easter egg :)\n

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FIXES

• Fixed a bug that has plagued the game since early betas where the inventory could start speaking multiple lines at once using built in TTS.

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• Changed the Read with NVDA button on controller inputs to be the button labeled X on XBOX controllers. (Square on playstation controllers). This is because I did the embarrassing mistake of assigning the same button to skip text and Read with NVDA

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• The pickup in tunnel mode will now have a lower pitch when behind, just like all other sonar sounds.

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As mentioned in the previous post, this small update focuses on better NVDA support. I wasnt able to add the UI sounds as planned as of yet. Im getting sick but I want these other QoL updates to come out as soon as possible, so here they are!

• Press N on keyboard or select on a controller to read the current subtitles through NVDA. This can also be done during the pause menu. Previously, there was only an option to copy the subtitles to clipboard, but now you can read it directly.

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• Because of the above functionality: The pepper spray button on controller has been remapped to only work on the controllers specified back button (A button on xbox), but I doubt many will miss the option to press Select to use the pepper spray, since it was quite clunky.

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• You can now copy the story intro cutscene subtitles to your clipboard. This copies all of the subtitles at once though. No better way of doing it, since its a pre recorded video where the subtitles are baked into the movie file.

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• Melee combat difficulty has been reduced slightly

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• Some specific messages are now read through NVDA if available. There are still some that go through the built in TTS (Like ammo count) but most of it is directly through NVDA now.

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Hello! Here is a bit of info regarding an update planned for the weekend, as well as the next piece of content coming in the near future!

Im currently working on a quick QoL update. This update mainly focuses on further improving NVDA mode as well as UI.

Previously you could copy the current subtitles to the clipboard, but you couldnt read the subtitles through NVDA directly. Now you will be able to press N key (or select on your controller) to do just that! Since this will be mapped to the select button on a controller, the option to press Select to use the Pepper spray item will now only be mapped to the controllers back button, but considering how cumbersome it was to reach the select button for this, I doubt many will miss that, since the back button is a lot easier to reach with your thumb.

I will also add some sounds to the UI navigation, as requested by someone from the audiogames.net forum. It is indeed a bit strange that the game doesnt have this, considering many commercial non-audio games even do this. It just never crossed my mind. Hopefully this can add some feeling to the menu navigations!

Speaking of sound effects: One user reported not being able to hear the heartbeat sound of zombies. Im struggling to repeat this odd behaviour. However, I changed a bit in the zombies sound logic that might mitigate this strange issue.

Im also considering adding a sound effect when a challenge/achievement is cleared during the story mode. I say considering because I havent figured out what this sound or verbale queue could be, but the coding for it is implemented as of now. If you have any idea of what sound or verbale/TTS you would like those to be, feel free to comment down below!

Next bit of content

A bit further ahead, the next piece of content will be a hard mode for the story. This would need to be unlocked after clearing the story for the first time. It will be a lot harder As some might have noticed, the ammo system isnt really doing much right now, because you will essentially never run out of ammo unless you shoot random walls for no reason, but in hard mode, ammo will be a lot more limited. Zombies will also be a lot more aggressive: They will detect you if you sneak close to them for too long. They will also hit a lot harder, and might kill you in one hit if you miss a melee attack (Maybe there will be a bonus item that lets you tank an extra hit added?) Zombies will also be faster to balance the OP strategy of nevermind! Im not giving away that hint~ There might also just be more zombies, maybe even some new area or a different kind of zombie!

This mode will surely be worthwhile for completionists, as major milestones in the story will give the player crystals for clearing them.

Btw, these crystals you gain from clearing achievements/challenges in the game might be useful for something in the future. But that might be discussed in a post for another day!

Thanks for the feedback so far! Take care~

After many twists and turns, the game is finally here! Im excited, but also nervous to hear how people will perceive the experience!

As a thank you (And a sort of sorry) for the many delays, Ive decided to put the game on a 20% launch sale!

If you were part of the old Patreon that supported the project early on, check your messages there, I would like to send you a copy of the game as a thank-you for the support.

Thank you to everyone who followed the project, tested, gave feedback, or just believed in it. I really hope youll enjoy the full release and Id love to hear your thoughts and feedback! Please report any bugs you might come across on your deadly vacation to Gari Island, and Ill get to patching them asap!

Noah, Developer of Blind Survival

P.S Known bug(or is it): The game has 68 challenges/achievements, each achievement gives one crystal. However, a short time after completing the story for the first time, a secret crystal can be obtained... Which allows you to have a nice total crystal count if you 100% the game at launch :)