Shadows & Testing 0.5.3g

 

After sharing tons of pretty nature screenshots I thought it's time I start sharing the other side of the game environment.

I'm currently uploading 0.5.3g for the testers. I tested it during 3-4 sessions over the weekend, each session for approximately 2-3 hours each. So basically we're moving towards long-play testing (even though there is no savegame feature yet)

I'm honestly a little stunned. After all the bugs I uncovered recently I didn't expect it to work this well. But it's really fun and engaging and the nights are demanding and tense. Of course once again I discovered a bunch of new problems, but none are even half as serious as the ones mentioned in my earlier posts. So those 40 hours of bug fixing and optimization paid off. I also incorporated the first boss fight, which was always supposed to be the pre-final boss fight in the game. The queen's dance is incredibly difficult, requires fast reaction times and careful study of her choreography. Her hideout is difficult to find and well hidden from view.

It's difficult to invest this much time into the game while holding down a full time job. But over the weekend I personally felt some strong validation, because I really enjoyed getting lost in the world. So even if nobody else plays it, this ... thing .... brings me peace of mind when nothing else can. And since all of the King's shadows are based on my own childhood nightmares and childhood drawings of them, it's basically self-therapy each time I go into a full testing session.

This is the list of most recent bugs that were resolved:

X - removing firewood from a campfire or fireplace breaks the tinder code

X - Implement Queen Dance Hall 

X - Adjust Queen Dancers And Give Them Wings

X - Add Feather Particle FX

X - Add additional Raven Particle FX

X - Test And Debug Everything

X - Fix GameOver FPS Issue

X - Fix Damage Issue And Time Execution Upon Game Over

X - Create Appropriate Foliage Around Queen's Dancehall

X - broader interaction volume for protection pillars

I've also created a list of bugs I uncovered and I'll add the testers results to that list as well. Once I have all the feedback gathered, I'll do a final overhaul, one last testing session and a full release of 0.5.3.