A build is now live on Steam for Windows and Linux! The second update of 2019 brings brand new story and level content, polish and more.

Brand New Radio Messages

After receiving feedback about the radio scenes with John, and thinking about what and how story should be discovered by the player, I have re-recorded all of the radio scenes with John. Since finding a radio and talking to him directly is a little too convenient to be believable, you can now listen to John as he broadcasts out in an effort to escape the Arque signal jammer. There are 7 radio messages to listen to in all, with a few more planned for future content.

Death Poses

The human enemies now play animations just before death. This is an effective way of making the death look more realistic, and prevents the "flop" into physics simulation, which looks very unnatural. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcg_3D7L13E

Rubber Duck Technology

There have been a few visual tweaks to the Prelude level, including the addition of high tech rubber ducks! There may be an achievement around these eventually, however for now they're just fun to play with. This is my personal favourite part of this update!

Pacing Tweaks and Level Additions

The forest infected ambush has been tweaked slightly, and the Fisherman no longer encounters the lone Sokol guard at the train tracks. Instead the guards are introduced later on. In addition to the changes above, there's now a small lab section in Arque East's lower level.

HUD Tweaks

Previously the health and battery displays would hide a section of the health and battery, so between 85-100% and 0-15% health was not visible. This has been fixed, along with some changes to reduce fall damage. Subtitles have also been revamped, now scaling with the screen resolution as the other HUD elements do, and now have some sleeker animations. The subtitles also hold for an extra second after dialogue finishes, to provide an opportunity to continue reading it.

CEO Bear Cheat

CEO bear can now be spawned using the cheat "spawn bear"! This will never be part of the game itself, but this Easter egg allows you to spawn in a strange looking furry friend, who will run around in areas that include AI.
As ever, thank you for playing Estranged, and thank you to those who are involved with the project - whether it is providing feedback, translating or just playing through. Join the Discord! https://discord.gg/estranged Alan

[ 2019-01-27 16:41:40 CET ] [ Original post ]