We recently released a December update for our backers on Kickstarter and wanted to share it with the wider community here as well! Hope you enjoy our first edition of The Pulse Monthly.

Hey Everyone,

First off, allow me to introduce myself. My name’s Megna, and I’ll be joining as Scorn’s community manager. I’ll be your first point of contact for all things Scorn, so if you have any thoughts, questions or feedback for the team, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m a long-time horror fan and am really excited to meet all of you! Over the coming months, I’ll be bringing you regular updates and taking you behind the scenes. Today we’ll be covering the release date, an interview with our lead 3D artist, Nikola, and we’re getting up close and personal with the anatomy of a biomechanical contraption.

I’ll continue to bring you the latest news and info about how things are progressing (and mutating) for Scorn. Ultimately, my goal is to communicate more regularly with our Kickstarter community and share glimpses of Scorn’s ongoing development. You’ve been with us from the very beginning, and we’re thrilled to share this journey with you.


We want to ensure that Scorn is the best game it can be. Mysterious, deliciously dark, and oozing with atmosphere (emphasis on the ooze). With that being said, the game will officially be launching in October 2022. This additional time will allow the team to make sure the vision for Scorn comes to life in all its spine-chilling, nightmarish glory. We know that this means a longer wait, especially for our fantastic Kickstarter community, who have been with us since the very beginning. Still, we’re committed to making Scorn the best experience possible for our players and fans.

We’re also excited to share with you our new release date teaser trailer!!



This month we’re talking with Nikola, the lead 3D Artist at Ebb Software, about how the Art Department helped create such a visceral and unique world! Let’s dive right in!

Hey Nikola, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions. How many people are in the art department, and what are their technical roles?

Currently, we have 15 3D artists in the department, split into three sections: ZBrush sculpting artists, 3D Technical modeling, and texture artists. We have 8 ZBrush artists who sculpt all environment assets, items, weapons, and characters. The two Technical 3D modelers are responsible for all low poly, baking, and importing the assets. Our five texturing artists texture all environment assets, characters, and items. All 15 Artists are skilled in various 3D tools, so they can jump and help out with 3D Technical modeling or texturing if needed. The team’s primary tools are ZBrush, Maya, Substance Designer, Substance Painter, Photoshop, and Unreal Engine 4.

Can you talk about how all those different specialisations come together for someone who might not be familiar with the development process?

There are two ways we approach a task. If the assets are for the environment, first we work closely with our Environment Department, who gives us a blockout (also known as a blockmesh or graybox) of the level. Then with the help of our Concept Artist, we model everything in ZBrush to give our assets their signature look. After that is standard 3D modeling for games workflow - low poly optimisation, texturing, and importing into the game engine. The second way involves working on Characters, Items, and weapons. For this, we work with detailed concept art, game designers, and the Animation Department. These are most difficult to make because more than one team is involved in the production, and they have to be more detailed visually.

Your art style has a great visual appeal that really resonates with the community. Is that something that you expected? How did that make you feel?

At first, we couldn’t believe how well the audience reacted to our work. It was and still is a great motivator that drives us to work harder on our game. Scorn has been such a unique project for us as artists. We often sit and read comments that give us a good insight into our audience’s expectations. Story prediction comments are always fun to read, too!

What inspires you (aside from Giger) when it comes to Scorn’s visuals?

Many different art forms from painting, sculpture, architecture, and music inspire this unique look for our game. Nature and human anatomy have a tremendous influence, and we tend to incorporate as much as possible. Biology is an endless source of ideas when designing our models.

Do you have a specific thing in the game that holds a special place for you without giving too much away? Something you’re proud of or that makes you excited to see the players' reactions?

There is a scene from last year's Microsoft announcement trailer with male and female statues. That area is my favourite, not just because of the artistic freedom we had and the overall look, but also it's meaning. I think players will find more answers about the world we created in that area.


I want to take you all behind the scenes and share how certain elements in the game were developed from concept art to in-game assets. This month we’re dissecting one of the biomechanical contraptions.



Players can find these juicy hubs throughout the vast labyrinth. They become an essential part of manipulating the environment around them to progress. Let’s take a closer look at how the concept progressed from storyboard to in-game asset:



I also wanted to share with you an update directly from Ebb Software’s CEO, Ljubomir Peklar:

“December has been a pretty huge month for us at Ebb Software. Not only have we been able to share our new release date but we’ve also reached a significant milestone in our development - 75% content completion! I’d just like to give my deepest thanks to our community for your patience and our team here at Ebb who have been working incredibly hard to pull everything together.

As we look ahead at the coming months, we will be focusing on completing the final 25% of the content, followed by bug fixing and getting the game ready for the launch. We’re very excited to get our game in players’ hands and allow them to experience Scorn for themselves.”


I want to keep you informed at every step of the way during this final leg of our journey. These ongoing updates will be filled with a range of content. News, behind-the-scenes interviews with our teams, sneak peeks at some work-in-progress assets, and most importantly, a check-in with development progress overall. Once again, if you have any thoughts, questions, or feedback, please drop them in the comments below.

Hello everyone,

In case you missed Inside Xbox today, here is a brand new Scorn Xbox Series X trailer.



We decided to make this update in the form of a Q&A hoping to answer most of your burning questions. You will certainly have more questions than we managed to cover here, so feel free to post your questions on Kickstarter and on our Twitter https://twitter.com/scorn_game[/url] page. The most interesting questions will be compiled in one place and we will post answers online.


Why Xbox Series X?

It was a simple decision. Xbox Series X is very capable hardware (on par with high-end PCs) that will run the game at a technical standard of 4k60fps that we aim for Scorn. More so than the 4K resolution, having the game run at 60fps with a certain visual fidelity is imperative for us as developers.


Why Microsoft and why Xbox Series X exclusivity?

The authenticity of the game and being able to develop it as we conceptualized it is the highest priority. Before deciding to partner with Microsoft we made sure that they will not have any influence over the game's concept and development process. They were more than cooperative in that regard. The only thing they were interested in was exclusivity rights. Once all that was agreed upon it was a no brainer decision when you look at all the benefits Scorn will get from this partnership, from additional resources to much bigger exposure(marketing). It will certainly help us make Scorn a better, polished game in the end.


Will Scorn be released on the previous generation of consoles?

No. We really don't want to spend development time on what would from a technical standpoint (900p resolution, frame rates dipping below 30fps) be a sub-par version of the game and overall not a good experience.


Will the game still be released on PC and on what storefronts?

Of course. Scorn will be released on Steam, Windows Store, and GOG.


What’s the release date?

We realize people get frustrated with this answer but we decided not to give out a release date, or even a time frame until we are 100% sure we can deliver.


Why is there no gameplay in the trailer?

We were actually planning to release a different trailer at a later date that was twice as long, and that was going to feature gameplay elements, but the opportunity to be a part of Inside Xbox happened in a very short period of time. Microsoft also couldn't give us more than 2 minutes (not that we would be able to prepare more on such short notice anyway) so we decide to re-conceptualize and re-arrange it. We like to set a specific mood and pacing with the trailers and it was already hard squeezing this much into 2 minutes, let alone having additional gameplay footage without disrupting the established flow and mood.


What about the community concerns about the game, like long development time and slow, infrequent updates?

The biggest issue, in our eyes, that is creating all the commotion is a consequence of one necessary evil. Up until 20 months ago, when we signed with Kowloon Nights investment fund, we were constantly struggling with resources. We were barely scraping by, never having time to try out different things, having to half-ass so many tasks just so we could finish anything at all. Don't get us wrong we are not moaning about our fate, it's the same for every new indie studio and we were dealing with it in the best way we knew how. What is important, and what we would like you to fully understand is that the only reason we went to Kickstarter, or even made those trailers in 2016 and 2017, was to give ourselves a chance to receive additional funding and survive. We haven't done it to vainly show off the work that we have done up to that point, build a community for the community’s sake, or make some additional money because it was up there for grabs. We did it as our last chance to finish at least the first part of the game. Splitting the game into 2 parts was a big compromise at that time, thankfully that compromise has been successfully rectified.

But having to show the game early in order to survive left us with the task of keeping it present in the public eye for a long time, and that is certainly not an easy task. In an ideal situation we wouldn't have to announce anything about the game 6 months or so before the release, and organically have enough material for that time period to present the game in a proper manner, but that is not a reality for an unknown indie team. It was either doing it this way or not doing the game at all. The issues that this approach created is that some people became impatient, constantly wanting to see more and also expecting to get a quality game as soon as possible. That is just not a valid option as developing a polished, well-made game requires a lot of time. It's also true that Scorn has been in development for 5 years, but it's a night and day difference how the studio functions now compared to the 2015-2018 period. The team has more than doubled and development in the last 18 months has been so much smoother because we have enough resources to work in decent conditions, have decent equipment, receive steady salaries, etc. It's not like we been developing the game at this level, with this much experience and capacity for the whole 5 years.


Since you finally managed to establish a stable studio environment and development of the game is going accordingly where are the updates?

While we do have more resources they are still not unlimited, far from it, and we decided long ago to always prioritize development over everything else. Interesting, substantial updates take resources away from development, and whenever we discuss them internally we always come to the conclusion that it's better to concentrate those resources(effort) on parts of the game that needs it the most at the time. Big updates will come organically as we get closer to release. An example of what we are talking about: We never finalize levels 100%, just keep them at 70-80 %, because we want to have them flexible enough so we could make quick changes if needed, and not do the same tasks multiple times. Final lightning set up, FX, color correction will come at the very end. What that means is that if we decide to show something to the public we need to finish up these last 20-30%, and that can sometimes take away weeks from people’s already overstrained schedule. Having to do unscheduled work because you need to show it to publishers or to the public, and later throwing that work away is one of the biggest organizational hurdles game developers encounter. It's really unproductive practice, even with the largest of budgets let alone ours.

What about small updates that some people ask for so they would have some confirmation that the game is progressing and not dead(abandoned)? Those can't take that much time from your schedule? Are you using refund policy as a shield against updating?

People that point out that small updates wouldn't take too much of our time are absolutely right. It wouldn't take a long time to write down all the mundane tasks we do from month to month or show you some quick WIP. We already have a lot of it ready for our internal sprints and milestones.

We also agree with people pointing out that we shouldn't be using the option to refund as an excuse not to update. That really isn't our intention, the refund option is there for people that don't agree with some of our unorthodox ways or have any other concerns.
We are also not that concerned with spoilers as you might be led to believe, even if we certainly like to keep a sense of mystery around the game.

Our main point is that we feel these small, quick updates would be, quite simply put, trivial. It felt, and it still feels, disingenuous to us to put up this kind of trivial updates, even if most people would be fine with them. Our previous updates also felt rather underwhelming. If they are just bare minimum of effort we might as well not do them. We care about the presentation and would rather not show anything than show something subpar because of pressure and obligation. It would've been easier to just do these small updates than to have some backers frustrated and then having to explain why we decided not to do them but, as you might have noticed by now, we like to stick to our guns.

To sum it up, substantial updates require time/resources and we will do them when appropriate (trailers, gameplay videos, etc). These are in our opinion updates that present the game well and what most people are interested in seeing. Small ones feel like unnecessary distraction and obligation that needs to be scratched off the bucket list every couple of months. Junk food that will be forgotten by everyone 5 seconds after the update goes online. We are a small team pushing quite a bit above our weight so some sacrifices have to be made or will never get to the finish line.

At the end of the day, the only thing that is important to us is creating the best game possible, and people enjoying it when it's released. Everything up to that point shouldn't be of much importance, people are welcome to disagree of course. Hopefully, everyone realizes by now this is not some elaborate scam and we promise that if by some ridiculous circumstances the development of the game stops we will inform you right away. There would be no reason to prolong that dreaded announcement. We are very thankful to each one of you that contributed to the KS campaign and helping us get closer to finishing the game. We really hope to make something that is going to be well worth the wait.

We are proud to announce that Scorn is a part of a new lineup of games supported by Kowloon Nights video game investment fund.

You can find out more information about all the games that are part of their lineup at this Polygon article https://www.polygon.com/features/2018/9/13/17853204/kowloon-nights-investment-fund-fumito-ueda-gendesign and also visit Kowloon Nights website at http://www.kowloonnights.com

Hello everyone,

We have another significant update on the development of Scorn. There is a lot of info we need to disclose so we are going to cut straight to the point. We have a good/bad situation on our hands, predominantly good.

The Good

We managed to sign an excellent deal with the great investment fund and acquire additional funds for the development of Scorn.

The fund in question is very hands-off regarding creative elements of the game, and that was the primary reason why we decided to go through with the deal. Creative freedom is the most important aspect for us as a studio. From the very beginning of the project we wanted to create a game without too many compromises, and that indeed isn't an easy task.

With this new deal, we are in an excellent position to create much better quality, fully realized game.

A single compromise we did make was to split the game into two parts. Cynical people were saying we are just doing that to make more money, but it couldn't be further from the truth.It was a necessity if we wanted to finish the game with this kind of high fidelity, scope, and modest budget, which partly came from our backers.

The newly acquired resources will enable us to the develop Scorn as intended from start to finish, the whole experience, not just the first part.

There's been a lot of debate recently with many "not-so-positive" stories about the quality of indie games, especially those funded through the Kickstarter. It's somewhat understandable why these kinds of things happen, as game development takes a lot of dedication, perseverance and stamina. Since we started this project our top priority was to create the best game possible. During this time, we have faced many hardships, but our goal remained the same. We have never faltered, and we will stick to our motto, making the best game possible. We will never release something subpar and call it a day.

The Bad

Making the whole game is going to take more time. Scorn Part 1 of 2: Dasein will not be released this year.

We know that some of you are going to be understandably disappointed as you were eagerly awaiting Scorn Part 1 of 2: Dasein in October 2018. And although we understand that, we still think that this new deal is the best course of action for us and ultimately the players as it will enable us to develop a better game. The upside is that you won’t be left waiting on a cliffhanger for part 2.

Now you will experience the game from start to finish, as intended, but at a later date that is yet to be announced.

For Our Backers

As we genuinely appreciate the constant support that we received from each and every one of you Kickstarter and Brightlocker backers we decided the following: All backers will receive the FULL game and, depending on the reward tiers they opted for, the whole soundtrack and expanded art book, respectively. That means twice more content and more value than you initially pledge for, affecting both digital and physical rewards.

However, we also realize that some of you will not be satisfied with this development and feel that this is not what you signed up for. For everyone who wants to cancel their pledge and get their money back, we are offering a full refund at any time during the development.That is the least we can do. You can receive a refund directly to the same credit card you pledged on KS, if the that card hasn't expired. If the card expired, you will need to provide us with a Pay Pal account. Please understand that these rules are set by KS and we can’t change them. We will process refunds as soon as possible, but please allow two to four weeks before the refunds reach your accounts.

Once again, thank you for sticking with us this far. We will give our best to make your wait worthwhile and create a great game.

https://youtu.be/gug_0mNhg4k

Scorn is also LIVE on Kickstarter.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1777595379/scorn-part-1-of-2-dasein

https://youtu.be/gug_0mNhg4k

Scorn is also LIVE on Kickstarter.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1777595379/scorn-part-1-of-2-dasein