- Version 1.1c - 10 March 2022
Changelog This update got a lot bigger than initially anticipated. There is a wide range of improvements. I tried to incorparate feedback and add quality of life improvements, better guidance and more. Chapter Uncertainty received a lot of adjustments and feels a lot better but in general all chapters were improved. Added Gameplay Reminder to Prologue since I feel like people expect a different game and don't pay attention to the story, notes or objects to examine and get stuck Added Objectives to Journal, I thought the hints through voice over would be enough but I kept seeing people stuggle (works with old saves) Added/Repositioned some lights to give better guidance, also to side areas Added prompt reminder to open journal when a new note is being added Added journal notes highlighting for new ones Added journal notes to Chapter Within, to clarify more of the story. Added Next Big Up…
- Dark Space #2 - Plans For v1.2 - 7 March 2022
My Plans for v.1.2 View On The State Of The Game Version 1.1 already added quite some improvements to the game but still.. So far the game is not doing too well in terms of people being interested in it and from what I saw, I think quite a few people had other expectations and not that this game is about story. I saw them just trying to "run" through and then not knowing what to do. Not reading a single note or anything. My conclusion is that a horror story like this doesn't work too well and is hard to market too, atleast for me with limited reach and capabilities. The expectation seems always to be favored towards just hardcore jumpscares or a flashy killer which the main story isn't really tailored towards. Idea I already expressed the idea of a more horror oriented game mode but I feel like I have to push it further than my initial idea, Martin's Story, to generate any kind of inter…
- Version 1.1b - 6 March 2022
Based on the first feedback I got. I increased the voice over volume by a fair bit, should be a lot better now. If you have anything, let me know. I will try to further improve the game. Cheers, Leon Drace
- Version 1.1a - 5 March 2022
Changelog For this update I went through all scenes, in editor and game build. I resolved all the loading issues which were due to a bugged iterative event. I also made numerous improvements to existing events, viusally, technically or just in terms of story. In case you had problems, I hope they are all resolved. Chapter - Prologue I felt like the balance of the Prologue was somewhat off, too much reading too little gameplay. So I added a bit more gameplay to break it up. I also just felt like adding another good looking scene. Chapter - Voices You don't need to read the note to find the hidden stash, so players who forget to read that specific note are still able to progress Only voicelines regarding the stash now require reading them Repositioned a note and the hidden stash, I felt like it was out of place Chapter - Within Extended a lot of Events to make them more interesting and me…
- Dark Space #1 - What's Next? - 28 February 2022
I want to keep updating and improving the game. The main story is done but I feel like in some areas I could add maybe another event or voiceline, improve visuals or whatever comes to mind. At the same time I'm also working on a Side-Story which will focus mostly on Horror. Don't get me wrong I love telling stories and connecting them, so it will still be relevant to the main story but probably no voice over, more gameplay and horror. More regarding all of that in the next post. I hope you are with me on this journey to create something unqiue. Cheers, Leon Drace
- The game is out! - 25 February 2022
I'm proud to say the game is finally finished. Sorry for releasing the game so late. The last few days were rough, as a one man show, it is hard to estimate time and when there are bugs they need to be fixed. So I kept on playing and polishing the game and I'm quite happy with the result. Intro It has been quite a journey of changes, mistakes and struggles but last but not least not giving up and constantly improving. All of this resulted in a game which is quite different to most horror games. It's not just about horror but also about people, experiences, life and hardship intertwined with the origin story of my Dark Space Universe. Game Idea I got inspired by Firewatch. Telling a story of a believable character. In my case named Michael, who isn't a superhero, just a normal guy, trying to find his friend Sara. But encounters a whole new world of challenges thrown at him. He finds hims…
- Upcoming Release - 24 February 2022
The game will be out on February 25th. As of right now you will be able to play the first three chapters, atleast a few hours before release. Down below more about the development. I will talk about the development process and why I decided to do it this way and also what the game is going to be like. Game Idea On of my first ideas was to make a more like survival experience merged with story but I felt like this wasn't really what I wanted and the truth is, it wasn't really good either. So I went back to the drawing board and back to my initial idea. Making a horror game that focuses entirely on story and atmosphere. (Inspiration Firewatch but just way darker and set in my own universe) You may wonder why I didn't do this right from the start. The truth is I felt like I wasn't able to pull it off back then. But I said to myself: "I rather work on something I really want to make no matt…
- Pre-Release v1.0 - 24 February 2022
The first three chapters. Saves will be compatible. A more detailed overview will be in a seperate post. (Upcoming Release) Cheers, Leon Drace
- Dark Space Friday#6 - Major Update Coming - 9 July 2021
Vision It has been really long since the last update but I wanted to focus on a major update that improves every aspect of the game since the initial version of the game was quite far off from my original vision. You now may ask what this original vision is and quite frankly it is all about story and atmosphere. So that is what I focused on. Right from the start you will get an impression of who you are, why you are there and what you are trying to achieve. Story I not only expanded but also reworked every area as well as added new ones which are now split into chapters to give some kind of deeper meaning to where you are going. There are also various side-stories that will give further insight of what other people experienced in this area. On top of that the main story will revolve around the Crystal Woods rather than just the castle - intertwined with the story of the protagonist. Ove…
- Dark Space Friday #5 - 1 January 2021
Happy New Year. I hope you got through it somewhat well. Overview Today I wanna talk about my plans for the castle in the next few weeks and how the start area is coming along. Alpha 0.4 Over Christmas and New Years, I wasn’t able to get as much done as I hoped but it is getting there most things are in place and I’m currently testing everything and adding some smaller things here and there. So, productivity will be back to normal next week and this part should be ready in a bit. Castle Underground First of I want to change and expand the castle underground since it is the area you “arrive” and it could use some more space since I feel like it also has a better atmosphere at the moment than the upper keep anyway. In addition, it is also super story relevant in terms of actually opening up the lower layers, which currently near the ending point is blocked off, and then progressing furthe…
- Dark Space Friday #4 - 25 December 2020
First things first, Happy Holidays and welcome to the fourth edition of Dark Space Friday! Overview Today I want to show some of the new additions coming to the game and the first alpha version coming next week. For the most part I will use some pictures to carry today's episode. More Interactions And Things To Do With the next update I want more items and objects with which you can interact or in fact have to interact to progress. At the same time it will help to guide through the game. For example you will find a door with planks which you cannot open by hand. And you need a crowbar first to get rid of those planks, handy that there is one nearby. I also wanted more complex objects like a generator which other elements require like lights and gates. So you have to figure out how to turn it on. This item might be helpful in that regard. And last but not least this will be something qui…
- Dark Space Friday #3 - 18 December 2020
Overview Today I want to talk about why the update is not out yet and marketing. Current Update The current update takes a bit more time and instead of smaller updates I want to also provide more content. I will explain why further down below. For example, there will be some more information about what is going on with this area shown below. I also want to adjust the transition to the castle and the castle in general to make it more interesting, like new enemies and more diverse ways to progress than just finding a key or atleast make it more than just picking it up from the ground or table. The next two updates will definitely favor gameplay. Marketing So let’s start with the main topic today. The project as of right now, in terms of new players, is kind of dead. This means I have to think about marketing the project more than ever. Small Updates are development-wise really hard to kee…
- Dark Space Friday #2 - 11 December 2020
Overview Today I will talk a bit about the upcoming Woods update. The update will add a new building, items and a storyline which will tie everything a bit more together. Progression The new addition is mandatory to further progress. You will also need to find a bunch of items and put them to use like fuel and a generator to turn on the light inside. Therefore I also implemented a small system that essentially lights are controlled by light switches and these have the requirement of electricity coming in this case in form of a generator. This system can be reused in various ways, light switches and generators could look, work and be animated differently, it could also mean in the future multiple generators or levers are required to turn on electricity somewhere. I will probably add more of that in the next updates so that there is just much more to do and find. At the same time I always…
- Dark Space Friday #1 - 4 December 2020
Overview Today I will start a format that will function as a weekly update on the game. What I'm working on, how the next update is coming along and what I'm overall working on. I will try to split it into different topics like: general direction of the future of the project, technical aspects as well as some story teaser. To kick things of I will talk about the things I learned and want to improve on. One Week After Release The project is now one week live and received already a few updates fixing a bunch of bugs and also adding some smaller events here and there. Hopefully improving the initial problems a bit. Other than that the game did not receive much coverage yet, so I will see if I can improve on that over the next weeks as well, with a better trailer and description of the game. First I want to add some more content to the game. Current Update 0.3.8 This update delivered some m…
- Version 0.3.8.2 Released - 4 December 2020
In this update I added a simple AI that can walk around, chase and kill the player and some smaller improvements. More regarding the next update please read the first edition of Dark Space Friday #1. Added First Iteration AI (can walk around, chase, kill player) currently only used for event triggers, technically would work everywhere but needs balancing, not enough hiding and ways to avoid - needs more testing gate/lever mechanic (only used once in the castle so far) Improvements wall detection: check to the right side to improve clipping through walls customisation of interactable objects to show any text adjustments of audio zones Changes: level loading, should cause less problems and potentially increase performance in castle Fixes: Lord Key now has 2 uses again which caused to not be able to end the game LOD: Candle cull distance LOD: Fern cull distance
- Version 0.3.7.2 Released - 30 November 2020
So what I got as feedback so far is about the start being boring and some bugs. I also did quite a bit more testing and hopefully resolved most bug related issues. Savegame: I was finally able diagnose the savegame issues. I'm using a pre-implemented solution to save data which does work fairly well but the issue was that when I add new objects that should be saved they have to be added to the list of saved objects. The problem that occured, which took a bit to find out, was that the id which is used to find the reference to the object on load where all the data is given to, was not staying the same, so the system wasn't able to find it. So I added a check which makes sure when I search for all objects, that should be saved, that all the existing ones copy over their old id so that it always stays the same.. no idea why this is not by default a thing but oh well.. atleast it should not…
- Version 0.3.6 Released - 29 November 2020
Fixing a critical loading bug and some smaller improvements that I already had ready. Tomorrow evening potentially another update, this time with some new events. improvements - made start path more obvious - keys are now auto removed after use and show usages - showing item pick up in the bottom left corner only for key items so far - hint when arriving in castle to use flashlight changes: - removed leaning and changed examine to Button "E" (hoping it is more intuitive by default - reminder: you can rebind any key under options/controls!) - slightly increased walk speed fixes - after loading - game world not loading in correctly - used items after loading weren't initialized correctly
- Small Update 0.3.5 - 28 November 2020
Added sanity death animation (still rough but better than before) added a system to show ui hints on pickup - currently used for finding the zippo and to teach how to counter going insane Improvements adjusted transition event at the end of the woods renamed some ui elements reduced the amount of sanity loss incresed time till sanity death is triggered close to death effect is more obvious reduced the amount of bineural sounds playing and decreased some of the volume Fixes various small world glitches fixed sanity death camera problem
- Early Access Release - 27 November 2020
My initial plan for the project was to deliver bigger updates with more content but I think it would be better to frequently release updates. My current plan is to push out an update every friday, there might be exceptions if it is something bigger and mandatory but for now that is my goal to improve the game week by week. I'm more than open for any feedback, ideas and things you want to see in the game. My current ideas are, now that we have a working foundation, to focus on adding more unique sci-fi content to the game. I also want to add more gameplay elements. I'm experimenting with something revolving around the flashlight to give it more meaning, it already has the 2 mode switch integrated so that is a good start. And at the same time dial back the sanity and bineural system a little bit. I will post more about that in a couple of days and how these tests turn out. Cheers, Leon Dr…
