As you might have noticed, we recently updated the game info both on our website and on Steam. We removed the word "episode" from the description, and there's a reason for that. We gave up on the idea of episodes.
More specifically, we gave up on it a while ago. The new description just dots the i's and crosses the t's. When we started developing our very first game, we'd planned to make it episodic: first game first, continued story in the episode two, and the grand finale in the episode three. However, the highlights shifted in the course of the work. There are three reasons why the Light at the End became the second story of The Uncertain rather than episode two.




We gained experience. The industry has changed. Our team became bigger and passed through some replacements. The second game will inherit and develop the ideas of the part one. Yet still it's a distinctive project featuring new puzzles, a different story, and enhanced graphics. While preserving the game universe and familiar atmosphere, we retrofitted almost all game-specific aspects.


Part one narrated a story about a world without people and a lonely robot-explorer. Part two, albeit connected with the storyline of part one, is complete in itself. This is a game about the few people, who survived after the robot uprising against humanity. Is it okay to play the second game without completing the first? Most certainly. Will the comeback to the familiar universe make the experienced player happy? We hope so.


As we worked on The Uncertain's story, we realized that it's absolutely impossible to keep the narrative linear. Arti can never understand the human survivor's logic. He's physically incapable of human emotions. On the other hand, Emily can never understand Arti. She's accustomed to things that he perceives as twisted and weird. Revealing the world's planes one by one would've taken us too long, failing to produce a solid and distinct image.
So we decided not to take the Telltale way. We followed Terry Pratchett's footsteps instead. We're bringing you several independent stories that take place in one universe. We have more freedom in terms of the storyline, and you can learn about the universe of The Uncertain in any order. Do you want to play only one game? Or complete both games as they are released? You can also wait for the release of game two, and learn about Arti's story after you've completed it. It's up to you to decide. The two stories might overlap. Or not. Only time can tell.

Will our decision affect the development time? In no way. As we announced, we are releasing The Uncertain: Light at the End in 2019!

Hello, everybody, and welcome back! Artem Netiagin speaking, and it's time I tell you about the things we did in the past few months. As you'll recall, by the end of September we completed a Kickstarter campaign, which consumed a lot of effort and resources. Despite this, we tried hard to keep the development momentum and make it. The winter is coming. We're still working hard, warming ourselves by our system units heat. What we achieved, you ask?

Our biggest accomplishment is the game levels we've been building. Aside from fine details, the locations are 70% ready! We also took a new look at the visuals. We don't just aim for an ambient post-apocalyptic look, we try and give every level its individual taste, a little something to remember it by. In addition, we've been adding more chaos and destruction to make the environment look even more worn down. As a result, it isn't just selected corners that will attract players' attention, but whole locations, each of them featuring its unique style and atmosphere well within the general concept of the game.



Major and minor details also occupy our minds: we're delivering heaps of decals, level objects, vehicle models, objects of interest, and many other things for you to fiddle with. Fallout 4 is still a long way off if you look at the number of objects, but on our scale, there's a whole lot of them for every taste.



Character models. Now, most of them are ready, except Olga and Claire, and prepared for their rigs and a hair shader. In the meantime, our animators are prepping their mockups for the first cutscene shootings. We never got to use this technology in the previous episode, but now that there are people in the game, it's an absolute must for realistic movements and a cinematic picture. It'll be our first. To tell you the truth, we aren't entirely clear on what's it going to be like in the game, but we're very curious, and can't wait to see it all! Apart from that, the first facial gesture and lip sync validation is just around the corner. We want to capture and convey characters' emotions and match their lip movements to what they're actually saying.



The artists were constantly distracted by the secondary objectives, such as Kickstarter campaign, social media posts, and Steam page design. Nevertheless, they're trying their best, and in terms of game art completion, they're neck and neck with the modelers. 70% to 80% level concepts are ready. We have a ton of minor textures, such as holographic signs, banners, magazines, and books, ahead of us.



Base coding is completed. What we're doing now is polishing, bugfixing, and working on puzzles and mini-games. Gameplay creation feature is fully functional. Character controls are working smoothly. There are some perks, too. For instance, we copied one of Detroit features, where a character is kind of pulled and dragged into a doorway for an easier fit. Game saving feature is up and running. As you requested, we're introducing saving slots, where you can save your game manually at any point. Localization package has been delivered, and it's still to be tested. To top it off, basic QTEs are ready. They're waiting to be adjusted for the gameplay.
The content is by and large ready. Game logic, animations, and sound effects are still to catch up. To speed them up, we adjusted our work organization. Today we're preparing the first level of the game for closed beta testing, which will start on December, 17. Stay tuned! There's a lot more coming!

The Uncertain: Light at the End closed beta-test registration

Hello, dear friends! My name is Alexander Tsvetkov, I am a game designer at ComonGames studio. Today I will tell you about the features of the Episode 2 gameplay, and Artem Netyagin will reveal the differences with the first episode. Our gameplay is engaging thanks to our small gameplay perks. You will hardly notice all of them, but together they work to build the picture. We achieve this by constantly asking ourselves the questions: what would attract the player’s attention? What would be interesting to explore? Which paths would they want to take? Which events would help unwind the story in the most accurate manner?

For example, almost every potentially interesting object can be inspected. In most cases, Emily, our protagonist, has something to say about it. One of the new game features is Emily’s smart watch. Its in-built scanner helps you see something that’s hidden from your eye at first sight. There’s a thrill of discovery in there: what will I find if I scan another portion of the world?



Other than through interactions with the environment, the game’s world is built up in dialogues. They are varied, and the decisions you take affect the whole progress. You can influence the choices of two members of your survivor group, as well as establish positive or negative relationships with them. For instance, you may have some items that aren’t crucial for the story, but you can use them to change the relationships among the team members. This encourages the player to pay more attention and develop a deeper understanding of how their actions affect what’s happening on the screen.

You will find various pop-culture references in the game. The story is set in the future, in a place which the player is not familiar with. But Easter Eggs will help one to feel surrounded by something recognizable and loved.



Artem Netyagin:

In Episode 2 we decided to go with the third-person view instead of a static one to make controls more intuitive and let you examine our world more thoroughly. It won’t make you feel as if you were playing a completely different game, because many elements have remained the same: for example, the dialogue interface, hotspots, and the action circle.

Speaking of dialogues, we’ve changed the dialogue system. Now you can go over all the available options. In Episode 1 the dialogues were non-linear, and you could select only one of the lines.

It is, of course, impossible to list all the game design changes in one update, given that we add and remove features as we're moving along the development process, refining the ultimate gameplay experience. You have tried one of the first “rough cuts” playing the tech demo. We’ll appreciate your feedback in the comments section and your opinions as to what you liked or disliked.

Hello, dear friends! Let us share some project news with you.

Kickstarter the campaign unforutnately has failed, but this just challenged us. There's no sense in pointing fingers, arguing over right and wrong, and sorting out what we missed. Of course, we feel it's essential to analyze the ups and downs internally. We will figure out our mistakes and draw conclusions for the future. We'll hardly bring The Episode Two back to Kickstarter. As we said, our resources are enough to complete the development process, however hard it'll be. We have a release ahead of us, and The Episode Three is just around the corner. Yes, let us ensure you — the game will be released next year just as it was planned.



We are here, first and foremost, to commit and tell you our stories. Very simple and therefore charming stories about a lonely robot, about a girl and a small group of last survivors, about a huge world, created and abandoned by humanity. We managed to engage and sweep you along with us, wondering: how's Emily doing? What's going to happen to Arti? Where have all the people actually gone?

Development of the Episode Two is well under way. It's mainly technical and not very entertaining process, but we promise to post updates at least once a month!

Thank you for your support! Stay with us!

Hello, dear friends! The ComonGames team is on air. Today we’ll talk about an important pending issue. Only 24 hours left until the end of our Kickstarter campaign. The last month has been very intense and exciting. We hope that you enjoyed our updates and learned more about the development process of The Uncertain. 681 people have supported us since the beginning of the campaign. You left your comments to the news, told your friends about us, followed the project! Rest assured, no matter the result, it’s just a start.

Follow us on social networks and see the development process. We promise to release the second episode. We’ll do everything in our power to make each and every one of you love the game.



On October 25 we’ll complete our fund-raising effort. We’re planning to discuss it internally with the team on October 26. The stream with the development team and an AMA session will be held on Twitch on October 27 at 12:00 PM UTC, as promised - we’ll be playing our favorite old games and fun/party games. At 2 PM UTC Sergey Yermolov will start a cooking show to demonstrate the diversity of our talents. Starting 4 PM UTC, we’ll be playing Choice Chamber, Domina, and Game Dev Tycoon together with you!

The AMA session begins at 6 PM UTC. We’ll be happy to answer your questions regarding the development process, the game, the Kickstarter campaign, tell you about our future plans, and absolutely any other questions of yours!

We’ll show you the current version of the game at 8 PM UTC.

During the stream, we’ll be answering your questions, raffling off prizes, ripping the covers away from the development process to keep you entertained and steal your hearts!

Stay tuned, follow us on Twitch and see you during the stream!

Hello everybody! My name is Igor Fomichev, I'm the sound designer and composer for ComonGames studio. Today I'm going to tell you about the SFX (sound effects) creation for the Uncertain episodes.

I always try blur the line between the real life and the game for the players. A credible sound picture requires long and painstaking work, but it offers a great scope for controlling player's attention. A correct emphasis in a cutscene, a change in tone, or an unexpected sound effect add up to the atmosphere and allow deeper immersion into the game. Sound effects build into locations and music pieces grant a seamless transition from level ambient to the music.

While working on The Uncertain, I faced a curious phenomenon. Recording sounds for a world without people turned out quite a challenge! Normally, we don't see it, but most everyday, familiar sounds are produced by humans. A door slam, an elevator ride, footsteps, muffled sounds of a heated discussion, car engines, vehicle horns... All of them are regular background sounds. We can't just switch them off without making the player uncomfortable. On the one hand, I had to fill the game with sounds without everyday noises. It surely posed certain challenges. On the other hand, I had all freedom to choose the sounds that I needed.

In episode two, despite the appearance of humans, we're trying to keep the mysterious atmosphere and the feeling of loneliness. As a sound designer, I find it easier to record sounds for a human character rather than a robot. I don't know so many androids, but I've lived all my life among humans, so I'm able to identify the human sounds appropriate for this or that situation. Recording the sound of Emily's run through in the final scene was one of the most challenging tasks that I had to face while working on episode one. It took me a while to get the correct sound. I couldn't find or record the sound of footsteps on a rough terrain. Eventually we decided to use the sound of hooves. A horse shifting from hoof to hoof sounded very convincing.



Game event sounds are important. Environmental synth sounds that accompany character's expression of emotions are nonetheless important. This is where I could give my fancy full scope! I only had to clearly spell the sounds, make them easily perceptible, and keep them in a uniform game style. The protagonist is a curious young girl. She picks up a lot of items to examine, study, and put back—and I expect recording a lot of relevant sounds. This is exactly what the actress who played Emily in the Kickstarter video did. She picked up and examined almost all items on the scene. The original version contained over a hundred sound effects: all kinds of light switches, rustling paper of books, newspapers, and leaflets, buzzing projectors, and other stuff she grabbed hold of during the shoot. I can re-use all these effects in the game, but I still need to find or record tons of other sounds.



I will pay special attention to our old friends, robots, in the second episode. This time, we're able to record elaborate sound effects for machinery, gearwheels, and hinges. They are occasional sounds, so they won't be an awful bore to the players.

More sound puzzles await the players in the episode two. They are now clearer and easier. We're also introducing something new for you! It's a secret, but here's a hint: it's in my wheelhouse, and it affects the game play! You will have a chance to give it a try yourselves!

We gained more experience since the episode one. Your feedback gave me a new angle. Your precious support helps us make the episode two an exceptionally vivid and amazing game. Sound effects and soundtracks are a big part of the game. I'm happy that so many players enjoyed the sounds of the first episode. I promise to keep the elements that you liked through the episode two. I will run with them and make the sound environment even better!

Thank you so much for your feedback and support, these are the things driving us forward!

There are congratulations to be held for both you and us today. Thanks to you we’ve achieved another community goal: we’ve reached the 500 backers milestone. Which means that it’s time to answer your questions on Twitch.



We don’t want for the AMA to degrade into a bland conference with a remotely-based team. We wouldn’t like to stream something like black screen or webcam images, while the distance between participants totals at thousands of kilometres. That’s why we’ve come to a decision: on 27th of October the team will partially gather in one place, at a certain time. The stream’s schedule will be kept under adjustments till the last day, so be sure not to miss the final announcement!

The list of what we are ready to disclose right now:

• AMA
  
• A giveaway of prototype versions of all the physical rewards. These aren’t final products, so these copies will be one-of-a-kind.
  
• Some fragments of The Uncertain: Episode 2 demo.
  
• And a lot of other interesting stuff which we will disclose during upcoming two weeks

To answer all of your questions and entertain you we will gather ComonGames cofounders Artem Smirnov & Alexander Mogutov, Head of development and Game idea author Artem Netyagin. ComonGames COO & CIO Sergey Ermolov and Sergey Zykin as well as The Uncertain Project Manager Alexey Surkov will join them. Alexander Tsvetkov our Game Designer will tell you more about game mechanics and puzzles while our Lead 3D artist Andrey Trunov, Artist Herman Kromer, Lead animator Eugeniy Molotskiy and animators Anatoliy Potebnya and Victor Borodin will give comments on Episode 2 visuals. Our sound producer and composer Igor Fomichev will help you to hear sounds of lost humanity. And if you want to ask something about game marketing, social media promotion or community management - our PR and SMM specialists Stanislav Pleshev and Eugeniy Leutin will be happy to help you out on this matter.



Follow our Twitch channel right now and you definitely won’t miss the stream https://www.twitch.tv/comongames

We’re infinitely grateful for your support and starting to prepare for the event - it’s gonna be huge!

Hi! Artem Netyagin, Head of Development, here and today i’m gonna tell you how the development of The Uncertain: Episode 2 looks on the inside. I hope that having read this you’ll learn more about some aspects of work of small indie-studios as well as why there wasn’t a second episode for such a long time.

The Uncertain: Episode 1 - The Last Quiet Day was our studio’s first game. The development of a sequel didn’t start right after the release of the first game - there was a half a year pause. During that time we were not only coming round after the release of our first project, but also supported Episode 1 and ported it to other platforms. Meanwhile first steps in Episode 2’s development have already been made simultaneously with the finishing touches of the first. We’ve already had a first draft of the story, first models, concept arts and even a couple of really crude locations.



After the release of Episode 1 we’ve got a lot of reactions. The feedback was generally positive, but there was some critique as well, fortunately quite insightful. Having taken notice, we’ve realized that we had to change our approach to development: in Episode 1 I took up too many tasks and I had to solve many of them for the first time in my life, which affected the quality of the game. After some discussions we’ve decided that everyone has to do his own thing. We hired a dedicated script writer and a dedicated game designer. And even though I continue to closely work with them, they have taken most of key tasks for themselves.

Changes in the team and the approach to development have led to a complete overhaul of the game concept and the script of Episode 2, effectively meaning we started over. Thanks to the team’s expansion we were actually on the way to creating something special, and the award that our script has gotten, “Die Grosse Nordklinge”, or “The Greatsword of Northern Lands” is another indication of that. Working as a team we’ve managed to interweave the story of Episode 2 into the already existing one of the first episode, not really changing the general concept, but making the story more engaging nonetheless. The work on the script and dialogues became much more serious - at the same time taking much longer to complete.

While reading your comments we’ve noticed that a lot of players were upset by the fact that the game was quite linear. Surely it is not in our capacity to create something as non-linear as Detroit: Become Human, but we’ve put a lot of effort into creating some story branching, which should make each playthrough more individual. We won’t disclose the details just yet - you’ll see everything for yourself after the release. Moreover, the type of characters has changed. There is a reason why there were only robots around in Episode 1: I’ve chosen them not entirely because of the plot. They are also easier to animate, their movements are rather simple, they don’t have facial expressions or eyes. This simplified the development process. This time around the main characters in the game are humans, which leads to a whole bunch of stuff getting much more difficult: lipsync (the process of synchronising the lip movement with the speech), realistic movements, facial animations, eye movement, even the dialogues. There is a particular emphasis on the ill-fated Emily, the main protagonist of the game. She was getting on the nerves of our animators and modelers, her own model was re-created from the ground up multiple times, trying to achieve the desired look. The game will also have much more QTEs and animations, which complicates the development, but adds variety.



Another reason for such a long development cycle is the decision to discard Adventure Creator, modified code of which became the basis of Episode 1. Surely we were hoping that we can relatively quickly create Episode 2 based on the work done in the previous one. But since AC created a lot of unsolvable problems and bugs we’ve decided to write our own version. This task turned out to be huge and complex. Currently, our own Adventure System, as we’ve called it, functions almost to its full extent and we’ve already begun to adjust gameplay utilizing it, but the work on bug fixes and small patches is still underway. This was a difficult and delicate decision, but we are sure that our new system will positively affect the the game.




Having received a lot of negative feedback concerning the controls and the camera, we have decided to significantly overhaul the gameplay. Initially we wanted to create the classic, old-school control scheme, but it didn’t turn out the way we intended. We have heeded your words and now, as you could have noticed, we'll have a modern control scheme with the third-person camera. We’ve tried to keep as much of the good stuff from the first game as possible, so you will see the familiar circular action submenus, icons and much more, but at the same time a lot of changes were implemented. For example, we’ve dropped the cursor completely. Now the character just needs to look in the point of interest’s direction. Also we have added lots of new features, such as Emily’s smart watch and mini-games, which took some time as well, but makes the gameplay more compelling.



The puzzles will also change - we’ve decided to make them harder, since most of the players thought previously they were too easy. Moreover, we’ve put a lot of effort to create truly unique puzzles, to make this part of the game different from other projects.

Some changes have affected smaller elements of gameplay: players were annoyed that some objects were impossible to pick up until it becomes clear that they are needed to progress, as well as inability to talk about every single topic during the conversations. This information is also taken into account while working on Episode 2.

Easter eggs played an important part in Episode 1. Some players loved us for them, some didn’t, but they definitely left no one indifferent. We admit that some of them were too on the nose and obvious, but we are not planning on abandoning them. They will be hidden more thoroughly in Episode 2 and it will be harder to find them. Moreover, it will be possible to track them with the smart watch in order to get an achievement for finding them.

To improve the optimisation we’ve built a test PC with minimal configurations: i3, 4GB RAM, GTX 650. We are doing everything we can so that the game launches smoothly with minimal graphics options. Also we’ve completely revamped the save system. Now on top of the autosave you’ll be able to save at any point (except for the cutscenes), you’ll be to create separate save files and the game will support Steam Cloud.

Atmosphere is very important in games of this genre. That’s why we plan to pay more attention to voiceover of the characters and have already brought in well-known and experienced voice actors. I’m sure this will improve the general impression of the game and reinforce its tone.

I could have named a dozen of tasks and minor factors that take up our time - from problems with careless contractors to the shooting of our trailer and preparations for Kickstarter. But none of this will affect the game directly. Instead of listing nuances and tasks that are probably not that interesting to you, I would rather talk about game development as a whole.

Many people wonder how is it possible to spend so much time on a game that can be completed in 2-3 hours. Unfortunately the player will never get to see the bulk of our work. Game development resembles shooting and editing a movie. But in some stages the development is much more complex. On average, creation of a movie, between the first announcement and the theatre release takes about two years. In the movies the director gives the actor the script and the latter executes everything that is written there. Virtual actors have to be programmed, given voices and manually be granted movement and actions. In the movies the shoots are often are carried out at real locations. A developer has to create all the decorations from the ground up. In the movies the dialogues and the script is linear. A video game allows the player to choose interesting topics and make choices that can have consequences. But, at the same time, there are easier factors, like absence of extra takes, the work is done with a virtual camera, the costs of labor and equipment is generally lower.

Both areas are a long and hard work process.



A project development for us is a long journey that spans across the years and we are grateful to everybody who follows the project, comments on our news, discusses the concepts and ideas. Some of you’ve fallen in love with The Uncertain with the first demo, some of you hear about it for the first time on Kickstarter. But each player, each comment is important to us. We thank you and ask you: stay with us and keep commenting! Your words, your support and your critique is the only thing that can help us create a truly unique and interesting game.

And it’s fine if the finished game is just a short experience. But we’ve seen that it can excite you, lighten up your day and bring you nice emotions. The joy of showing your world to the players, positive reviews, high grade on Steam ratings - all of this was worth the effort and time put into it and it has inspired us to create something new, and to do that better every time.

Thank you so much for your support and I hope this post answered most of your questions regarding development of Episode 2! If not - please do not hesitate to ask us in the comments!

Hello, friends! We’d like to share some good news about our successes and your accomplishments on Kickstarter. By this time today we have already gathered more that $13000, which translates to more than a quarter of final goal!

We’ve told you two fascinating stories: how The Uncertain was born and how we create our music.
This week we’ll tell another engaging story exclusively to our backers. While it’s being prepared be sure to read a publically available post how we’ve managed to create the melancholic tone of The Uncertain.

Meanwhile the story of The Uncertain: Light at the End was awarded a prestigious German award
“The Greatsword of Northern Lands”.

So it’s unsurprising that during this time more than 400 fans joined our Facebook page, 200 - our Steam group page, the number of backers exceeded 400 and the post about the start of the Kickstarter campaign has been reposted dozens of times. We are talking about numbers not just for the sake of it, but because you, our dear fans, get rewards for completing certain community goals. For example, you can find 50 free game keys for Episode 1 in the discussion section of The Uncertain: Episode 2 - Light At The End as we speak.

You can find more detailed information on possible rewards for backer and active members of the community on the main page of our Kickstarter project.

Help us reach our goal and we will repay you many more times to come!

SUPPORT The Uncertain: Light at the End Kickstarter Campaign

Long story short: follow the link, watch the trailer and you will find out a lot of stuff about the main protagonist, her companions, story features and the latest news on the development process.

If lately it seemed like we do not treat people with enough news — starting today the picture is different. An alpha demo version is available now as well. You can download it right now from Kickstarter!

Please, support us, share these news with your friends and keep an eye out — during this campaign we will tell you a lot of new things.