We're getting close to wrapping up building the game and entering the next phase: bug fixes. But! Before we get there, we wanted to give you a little update on how it's going. So let's get started!
We're working on a new trailer!
You might have noticed that the Unbound trailer on the steam page is a bit dated. There's no shame in admitting that, it was made a long time ago when our skills weren't as sharp and our team wasn't as big. As such, it's now getting the remake treatment. However we're being REALLY picky this time since the trailer is literally the first thing you see when you come on our steam page, so we want to give you a feast!
That being said, here's a cheeky sneaky peaky:
So how is dev going?
Like I said we're in the final stages but what does that mean? Well, if you follow the Steam news closely you'll know that level design is done! https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/814680/view/3058478454614068413 The main mechanics and done, the platforming feels good, the animations... are not quite there yet, we still need to properly animate a few more monsters since they kind of behave weird right now, and we might need to make a tweak or two to the map screen so it properly resembles the level.
Disclaimer: Not 100% sure of the map thing, maybe Sergiu just gave me an old build to troll me. Wouldn't surprise me...
Have your say!
Sooo we've started a thing on discord, and it might catch your fancy. There is now a polls channel and every week we make a new poll that helps us figure out which direction to take the game in. Sometimes it's very impactful:
"Do you want to have your character aesthetic change as you unlock secrets in the game?"
Sometimes it's not as impactful:
"Does this cutscene look better normal or mirrored?"
And sometimes it's downright stupid:
So join the Unbound discord server to take part in the fun!
Conclusion
We are on the right track, and that's a really good thing to say considering the crazy amount of moving targets we've had during this game's development: Pandemic, cancelled gaming events, taking on new team members, growing expectations, all of that.
It feels good to be on schedule, it feels good to be in control, ONWARD!
Hope you are all really well! We have new exciting announcements and updates on Unbound: Worlds Apart!
Game level design complete
This means a couple of things:
The game level flow is ready. So the game is finally playable from start to finish.
Quests and characters complete. That means the story and the lore are ready along with all the dialogues, all characters designs and animations as well.
All the portals are ready. We don't want to spoil how many portals there are in the game, but we did our best to make each portal interesting and special.
All the game mechanics are set in place. Portals + Soli's abilities = Love. Combine them and there are lots of interesting puzzles to solve and challenging platforming sections.
Secrets. Well, secrets are secrets waiting to be discovered.
There is still some work to be done on the final boss because we want to make sure it is challenging, engaging and terrifying at the same time.
Environment Art Update
Creating assets for 2 worlds, placing them in the engine and making sure the game feels right and looks amazing is very time-consuming. We welcome Gézu Molnár (one of the creators of WarriOrb) into our art team. He is going to help create some awesome environments and VFXs for Unbound. Here are some scenes created by Gézu:
Spooky:
The desert:
And the portal:
With Olga, Alex, Mircea and Gezu working full time on the game, we will have all the art in place in time for our still unannounced launch.
Music and SFX Update
We are super happy to announce that we are working with Alexey Nechaev and Igor Chernyshev on music and SFX for Unbound. They both worked on awesome games like Inmost ("Best Audio Design" - LT Game Awards), Time Loader, Punch Club 2 etc. With ultra detail sounds and almost one hour of magical soundtrack, the world of Unbound is becoming even more alive!
For cutscenes we decided to do them in a traditional 2D fashion and David Chambolee with his team is helping us achieve that. We are really happy with the progress and we'll have a sneak peek in the upcoming updates.
Community Manager
Justin Popa (Taranasus) is a guru when it comes to wide-reach social media (like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Imgur) and will help us get the word out of the game before launch, as well as entertain you in our discord server. He likes making memes out of anything so... be prepared for that, as well as leaking various bits in chat without our permission. So if you want to see more behind-the-scenes stuff, join on our discord server, he's usually around talking about interesting things :).
Taranasus is behind the mountains, but you cannot see him
Taranasus's note: If you understand the joke above, can you leave a comment explaining it to me please? I am still confused and Sergiu refuses to explain it to me
In the next update we hope to show you our new trailer with updated graphics, abilities and new portals.
It's been a looong ride, and it's nowhere near over, not for us, but for Unbound, it's closer to completion than ever.
And as we near completion, it's cool to look back and see where we came from. Luckily, we made videos! So let's have a gander shall wee:
2016 - Didn't really know what we were doing, but we wanted portals! And portals is what we made!
2017 - Was all about world building. The basis of the atmosphere were forming. Unbound was coming into a rough shape
2018 - We were getting better. Understanding the engine better, polishing our skills and overall just ramping up the quality and polish, and yet it still wasn't enough!
2019 - Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, we had the necessary funds to finally reach the level of polish and talent in order to create a truly beautiful experience, with awesome animations and detailed world design.
Today - And after lots of work, from a now experienced team which worked harder than anyone could ever ask them to, we're almost there! Just a few more months to dot the i's and line the t's and it'll be ready.
If you want to talk to us, as well as keep up with the day to day, join us on http://discord.gg/unbound and try out Unbound prologue for yourself here if you want to see first-hand what we've been working on.
Anywho-ha-hee, thanks for reading and catch ya next time!
We are just a few months away from launching Unbound and at the Steam Game Festival, we are going to stream new awesome stuff from Unbound, show our progress and answer questions.
Hope you are all really well! We have been very busy working on Unbound but we think we can share some new stuff that we been working on.
In the demo, we had a few characters that give you about the quests. But lots of you said you want more characters as well for the lore. So we added new characters for the full game, this one is the Record Keeper. We have more, can't wait to show more in the future!
We integrated new art in the game. Here are some interesting concept arts:
Finally, we are working on the cutscenes are well. This cutscene image could be a wallpaper:
Unbound will be present at MAG-Con Online this year during the 27th and 29th of November. We thought it's good time to update the demo and you will be able to play Unbound translated in German from now on ːsteamhappyː. If you want to hang out with us at our online booth we'll be in the the PC Games 01 section at https://mag-con.de/ when it opens.
Since we're actively working to bring the demo to the Nintendo Switch, we've being doing a lot of optimizations recently. We've brought all of them to the demo and you will be able to enjoy the game with faster loading times and a higher frame rate.
Let us know what you think of the update :)
If you want more updates about Unbound: Worlds Apart, please follow us here:
We are going to do an AMA session. We are going to show you new stuff from the game, We can discuss lots of topics about the game, from game design to Kickstarter or industry in general.
You can join us for an interactive developer stream to chat and discuss about Unbound: Worlds Apart. We think this is the best way to check new stuff from the game, ask any questions, and get more from the development insights. Join us for an interactive developer stream from the latest Alpha build of The Riftbreaker.
