Hi everybody, This is not an easy thing to write, so well cut right to the chase: After being in development on and off for almost seven years, we had to decide to postpone Escape the Loop's development indefinitely. We realize many of you will be upset, and we get that. This was not an easy decision, and its even more difficult because we know so many of you were looking forward to Escape the Loop. Youll have lots of questions, so well try our best to answer them: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What does postponed indefinitely mean? Is it canceled?

For all intents and purposes, yes. It wouldnt be fair to you to say otherwise. We may revisit it in the future. We still have everything we produced in the past years, and we still own the trademark for the name. But for now, its stuck in development hell and theres no telling when or if that may change.

Why did you cancel the game?

The simple truth is: We didnt find a publisher. This was our most ambitious project, and in turn, our most expensive one too. Most of the development so far was funded by a combination of grants and our own cash. We hoped to develop a prototype that would convince a publisher to sign with us. In the end, that didnt happen.

Why did no publisher sign the game?

Theres no way to answer this for sure, but we assume our prototype just wasnt convincing. Developing an open-world game is hard, especially one that is as experimental as ETL. In game development, you usually create whats called a Vertical Slice, a small portion of the game that looks and feels as finished as it can. This could be a single level in Super Mario, for example. Because ETL wouldve been so thoroughly non-linear, we failed to do that and had hoped publishers could look past it with enough imagination. They couldnt, and we dont blame them.

Why not go for crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding would be an obvious next step for some, but we feel its not for us. Most importantly, our budget needs are far higher than we feel we could realistically ask from the community.

What happens next?

Over the next week, well be monitoring ETLs Steam forums to answer any questions you may have. After that, the forums will be shut down. If you have any questions after that point, feel free to get in touch on Twitter, or via email.

Whats your plan now?

Were heartbroken about this decision, but life must go on. Some of you may have already heard on social media that we already have a new project lined up, and its true. Were currently working on ChromaGun 2, the sequel to our first game. Its an adventure puzzle game about color, redemption, and the multiverse. If you want to find out more, you can check it out on Steam once the page goes live in a few days. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pulling the plug after almost seven years is hard, and we all wish this couldve panned out differently. If youre looking for a way to patch that ETL-shaped hole in your heart, we recommend you try out these games:

Outer Wilds
Twelve Minutes
The Forgotten City
The Sexy Brutale
Oxenfree

So thats it. Were truly grateful for your support over these past years, and we truly wish this couldve gone a different way. Hopefully, well get to return to ETL someday. As mentioned, if you have any questions at all, dont hesitate to ask. All the best, The Pixel Maniacs team

[ 2022-07-06 14:48:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

What We've Been Up To

Hey everyone, it's some time since the last news post here. A lot has happened, so here I am older and wiser to bring you up to date with what's been going on.

A short while ago, we finally launched our previous title Can't Drive This. It's now available on all platforms, and even on disc for PS4 and PS5. "Great," you say, "why are you telling us this?" Granted, Can't Drive This is an entirely different game from Escape the Loop. Why bother mentioning it here? Well, getting it out was a huge deal for us but it was also a huge deal for Escape the Loop. For the first time *EVER*, we're working on Escape the Loop with the entire team. Up to now, only a few of us got to work on the game at a time, because the others were busy finishing up our previous titles. Now, we're finally all on the same project, and we're super pumped to finally get this ball rolling real good.

Pinewood is a small town with big secrets, hidden away somewhere in Montana. It's is a town like any other small, sleepy town in the US at least, that's what it tries very hard to trick outsiders into thinking.
It's not modeled after a real place, but it takes inspiration from several, including Whitefish MT, and the area surrounding Flathead Lake MT. If you're super curious. check out this map for places we found interesting for various reasons. Best viewed in Street View: https://goo.gl/maps/hCugPXGp6Nocrv7q6
The residents of Pinewood are a mix of people, each with their own reasons for being there. Some lived there all their lives, and just want their peace. Some came here because they were running from something, and some came in search of something. The one thing they have in common is they all know something you don't and none of them are particularly keen on you finding out.

Amelia Washington is a defense attorney from Los Angeles. She is her law firm's shining star and youngest partner, and that's certainly not a coincidence. Whatever her clients need, they know she's the one to make it happen. But as life likes to have it, like everything else, Amelia's success comes at a price. When a business trip brings her to her hometown of Pinewood, she hasn't talked to her family in years. Soon after her arrival, it begins to look like she'll have all the time in the world to figure things out...

Our New Character Controller

We replaced our old character controller system with a system known as Motion Matching. This method uses a set of pre-recorded animations and analyzes them to determine where in space an animation starts, and where it ends. Then, it uses this info to select an animation based on where the player wants to go. The result is super fluid character motion without any wonky bits when two animations blend into each other in unintended ways. Also, it's just super fun to control.

We know you've been waiting for this game for a long time, and we know it's hard to wait. This makes it all the harder to not be able to predict when the game is coming out. We'd love to tell you that we have a date, and to deliver on that promise. The truth is, we can't. If you'd like a deeper dive into why the game has been in development for as long as it has, feel free to read this deep dive into our previous snafus. And please don't hesitate to ask questions, we're always happy to answer them! What we can tell you, is where we're at, and where we'll be going from here. As detailed above, until a while ago, we hadn't been working on the game with the full team. That slowed progress down immensely and to make matters worse, we didn't have a single programmer on the team. That changed, and we're now driving this baby full speed ahead. We're now working on getting all systems up and running, and fleshing out the game's art. Once that's done and the game is completely playable from start to finish, we'll keep on iterating until it's done. That means polishing art, fixing bugs, rewriting dialogues, reworking level layouts, etc.

You've been asking a bunch of questions over the past months, and we're incredibly happy that you are. Seriously. It shows you care, and it means the absolute world to us that you do. So here are some of the questions we've been hearing a lot, and answers to them if we have them:

I've been waiting for this game forever. Is it canceled?

Absolutely not! On the contrary, even! We just started working on it with more team power than ever before.

Is this game a scam?

There is no way to buy or pre-order the game, so it would be a pretty crappy scam if you ask me.

When will it come out?

We hate to say it, but we don't know yet. Certainly not before 2023, even though we know that's a tough pill to swallow.

Can we pre-order?

No, there is no option to pre-purchase Escape the Loop as of this time. If you find Escape the Loop available for purchase somewhere, it's not real Please let us know via the forums immediately. We'll let you know once we set up a pre-order page, but that likely won't happen until we have a release date.

Can we play the alpha build?

Currently, there is no alpha build, and there are no plans to deliver early builds at all. However, we may very well be looking for QA testers at some point in the future, so keep your eyes peeled on the forums for updates on this.

Isn't 5 Minutes is too short for a time loop?

We don't think it is, there's plenty you can do in 5 minutes, and the game will definitely play with the fact that you only have such a limited time. That said, the 5 minutes are not set in stone. If we notice it's not enough, we'll increase the time as necessary.

Is it episodic now, or not?

This was the plan at one point, but no. Escape the Loop will not be an episodic title. The entire story will be playable on launch day without having to wait (or pay) for multiple episodes.

Why don't you post updates more regularly?

Well, for one, writing updates takes time not only writing but also deciding what to write about (at the very least to avoid spoilers), creating gifs and screenshots, etc. Needless to say, this takes time away from actually developing the game. The bigger problem is, we have certain contractual obligations. Some things we simply won't be able to show or talk about, until the game is out. However, we'll try to keep you up to date as much as possible. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Well, that's it for now. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post, and thanks to each and every one of you for being active on the forums and for not losing hope in us. We can't wait to deliver this game to you all, and we promise it'll be worth the wait. Take care,

[ 2021-07-02 07:05:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Characters and Gameplay

Hey all, as mentioned last month, we've been preparing an update, to show you our progress on Escape the Loop. There's a lot we did we unfortunately can't show you, because of spoilers. Here's some of what we did that we can't talk about:

A completed storyline for Episode 1
The main plot for Episodes 2 and 3
The layout of the town
Level design of all important sections
Blockmesh for most level sections

And now for the stuff we CAN talk about:

Characters

First off, I'd like to introduce you to our protagonist: Amelia Washington. She's a lawyer in LA, who comes back to her hometown of Pinewood because of a family matter.

Here's Tony Russo, the owner of a run down Motel in the small town of Pinewood. He's a an annoying macho, but seems to know more about the town than what he's letting on.

This is Scott Preston, a local car mechanic. He keeps to himself and doesn't seem to repair a lot of cars. Wonder what he's doing in his shop all day.

Rosa Castillo only recently arrived in Pinewood, and she never really leaves her house. Sometimes, the FBI shows up at her door to talk to her, but she always manages to blow them off.

Gameplay

We're getting really close to having implemented all the features necessary to begin adding content (like character models, conversations, environment art, etc.). If anything below looks really terrible, don't worry we know. We're finishing up the barebones of the logic, which will get better with iteration over time. Also note that Amelia is colored in some of the footage below. That's a super rough texture we're using to test. The model above doesn't have that texture, because up close it's really, really terrible. Also, she has no pupils, which is creepy AF.

We can rewind, and loop time. Neat.

The item inspection and carrying mechanic is still pretty alpha, but it works.

One of our devs had a little too much fun with it.

We're procedurally generating buildings, which will save time in the long run. (The colors are just to highlight different rooms we're not doing clown homes)

A row of houses with debug textures, to see how the procedural generator performs.

Here's a stress test of some blank NPCs running around, effectively displaying their running-around-skills.

Mysterious Concept Art

We really can't tell you what these are, but we can show them to you and let you speculate:

As usual, let us know what you think! And don't hesitate to ask any questions. - Steve

[ 2019-06-19 18:10:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's Officially Official

Hey all, we know it can be a bit frustrating to read news about this game, that don't really show any progress That's why we really want to show you what came in the mail today a definitive proof that Escape the Loop is in fact a thing, and we're not just stringing you along on a project that will never be finished. After two years of waiting, battling contesters, and countless work hours invested: Escape the Loop is now officially Escape the Loop.
We also started creating concept art for characters and environments, planned out the layout for the town, and will be starting to block out the world in Unity pretty soon. Take care, Steve

[ 2018-12-18 09:16:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Characters Almost Done

Hey there, as part of the aforementioned rewrite of Escape the Loop, the characters and the story needed a lot more work. As the lead writer, I've been doing a lot of reading, and a lot of writing in the past few months. Of course, I can't share any of the details with you (no spoilers, right?).
At this point, I'm happy to announce two things: 1. The character arcs are mostly done, as well as is the main story arc. So with that pinned down, we can start going into production of deeper game- and level design topics, as well as artwork. 2. Our previous project is nearing its completion, with artists and designers slowly starting to switch over to Escape the Loop. We're not done yet, but the coming months we'll be seeing a steady transition. For you, that means you can expect new artwork to pop up around here. Well, that's all for now. Just thought we'd give you a short update. As usual, don't hesitate to throw any questions at us. Take care, Steve

[ 2018-11-05 14:17:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

We Went to Montana, Here's What We Learned

Hey there, so recently, I went on a trip to Flathead Lake in Montana, to get some inspiration for the level design of ETL. We did had some specific things in mind, but I wanted to make sure we got everything right whether it be the people's attitude, the weather, or even just the foliage. I talked to a lot of people, and took a ton of photos for inspiration and reference, and we thought we'd share a few of them. :redworker: None of this is in-game, but we thought you might be interested to see what direction we'll be taking with the town. Also, no guarantees that anything you see here will end up making it into the game.

As always, feel free to ask any lingering questions. :) Take care!

[ 2018-09-26 08:28:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have a Timeline

Hey everybody! Just wanted to give you a short update, and some new info about ETL. We're currently putting together an application for funding for Escape the Loop (fingers crossed!). For this, we put our heads together and did some calculations for a development schedule: ETL is currently in Pre-Production, while we're finishing up Can't Drive This. If everything goes as planned, we will begin development of the first prototype by Q4 2018. This gets us to an estimated release date of early 2021. I know this might be tough to hear, and I realize we told you we'd be finished by now. When we wrote that, we believed that to be true. But, as I mentioned before, things changed, and the scope of the game became so much bigger, and the game became so much better than it was ever supposed to be.
We're working hard on Pre-Production, to make ETL absolutely amazing. Our game design document currently has 75 pages, and it's getting fatter by the day. I hope you understand and if you have any questions, or want to talk, feel free to ask! We will now start to actively moderate the forums here, and hopefully leave no question unanswered (aside from spoilers). Take care, Steve

[ 2018-02-14 11:21:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have a Timeline

[ 2018-02-14 11:21:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

The New Escape the Loop

Hey everybody, it's been pretty quiet around here, and there's a good reason for that. We've been hard at work on the design of ETL, and today, I'd like to introduce you to some of the changes.

Escape the Loop is now Episodic

We've completely revamped how ETL is going to be built up. We're not going to do an Early Access release of the game. We feel Early Access is great for some types of games, but story-driven titles are not among them. Instead, we're going to release Escape the Loop in three episodes. Let me explain why that's good for both us, the developers and you, the players: What you've been expecting from ETL A story-driven adventure about a time loop, set in an open world American suburb is not going to change. In fact, everything we had originally planned for the game, will be there in Episode 1. However, we felt that our original plan didn't offer enough time to tell the story we really wanted to tell. So, by adding two more episodes, we found that we could tell the whole story. All three episodes will be open-world, set in the same town but they will be vastly different. They will explore different takes on the time loop theme, giving you all the time in the world (relatively speaking) to explore.

New Art Style

We thought long and hard about all the changes we made, and the art style was among the toughest decisions. I want to be completely transparent here, moving to stylized artwork was influenced by our aim to create a game that is beautiful, but also runs smoothly on many machines. Creating realistic graphics is nice and doable, but making them perform well costs a lot of time, and a lot of money none of which we have a lot of. So we thought long and hard, working through many different types of artwork. In the end, we're confident that we found a style that looks fantastic, and will suit the game's theme. We'll be posting some preview images of this soon.

Any questions?

If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to ask! Ask us here, in the comments, or send us emails. We're looking forward to answer any questions you might have. Take care, Steve

[ 2017-10-02 09:51:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

The New Escape the Loop

Hey everybody, it's been pretty quiet around here, and there's a good reason for that. We've been hard at work on the design of ETL, and today, I'd like to introduce you to some of the changes.

Escape the Loop is now Episodic

New Art Style

Any questions?

If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to ask! Ask us here, in the comments, or send us emails. We're looking forward to answer any questions you might have. Take care, Steve

[ 2017-10-02 09:51:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Escape the Loop
Pixel Maniacs

Developer

Pixel Maniacs

Publisher

Release

Indie Adventure Singleplayer