2021-019 (10-12-2021):

ADD: Added small text at the bottom telling player they need to slow down to pit the car.

CHANGE: You can no longer use ALT+ENTER to change between Windowed/Fullscreen as this causes issues, please use the options menu for this in future.
CHANGE: You can no longer resize the window manually, the Resolution option can be used to change window size.
CHANGE: Internal engine updated for more stability.

FIX: Game no longer reverts back to Windowed when returning to the main menu when you have selected Fullscreen previously.
FIX: Fixed some issues where dirt particles would be kicked up on a road track.
FIX: Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred at the end of a time trial event.
FIX: Possibly fixed a crash that could occur when a ghost replay reaches the finish.

Some other issues may have been fixed, as some tracks had incorrect formatting which may have caused odd issues on the original 20 tracks included in the game.

With the PC version of The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails releasing soon, we thought it would be useful to provide some information on what you can expect from this release.

For us at PH3, this is the first time we are porting a game which originally released for a very low-tech -- by today's standards -- platform. This makes some things easier, especially in terms of performance, but it also has some unique challenges e.g. in using some old-school rendering techniques. It's also the first time that we have worked on a game with fixed camera angles, which was particularly challenging in terms of supporting the Ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio.

Compared to some of the other Falcom games we worked on recently, like Ys IX, there are not all that many options which make sense for this game. It uses a lot of 2D sprites by design, which means that e.g. attempting to shoehorn more advanced lighting into it would clash with the original art. As such, we focused on providing the following:

• Arbitrary rendering resolution support -- of course. This also meant fixing some texture seam issues which would become apparent at particular resolutions.
  
• MSAA anti-aliasing up to 8 samples. Since the game uses a very traditional forward renderer, MSAA can be used at relatively low cost (but you might not want to run 8xMSAA on an integrated GPU), while providing excellent edge anti-aliasing.
  
• Unlimited draw distance. The original game has quite limited draw distance for some objects and enemies, which really isn't necessary on any current PC. As such, we've made the draw distance for both essentially unlimited in this release.

You might have noticed that this list does not include arbitrary framerate support. The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is an old game, and was designed entirely around a fixed frame rate. We had already started to invest significant effort into rewriting several aspects of the game to accommodate arbitrary and variable FPS, but had to shelve this goal for now. As such, the game will be limited to 60 FPS.




Regarding input, we support full rebinding of all actions, with a primary and secondary binding option each. As you can see in the screenshot above, we have also added extra bindings to e.g. navigate to specific menus instantly when playing with a mouse and keyboard.
We fully support Mouse/Keyboard as well as controller button prompts, with the latter coming in Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo varieties. Dynamic prompt switching based on inputs is supported, but can be toggled off in the settings as well.



Since some parts of the game benefit greatly from analog 360° movement, we have also included a mouse movement option. This works similar to e.g. older Falcom PC games, where you hold a mouse button to move in the direction of the cursor relative to the main character. This option is off by default but can be enabled in the menu.

Usually, supporting ultra-wide aspect ratios in games is primarily UI work, making sure that all the HUD elements are positioned nicely, and also that no effects or cutscenes break -- and fixing or pillarboxing those that do.



However, since this game uses fixed camera angles and was built specifically for 16:9 aspect ratios, supporting 21:9 without showing many unfinished or "missing" parts of maps was a larger challenge. In order to address this, we implemented a new system of per-map camera constraints, which try their best to keep the camera away from missing parts while still showing a wider field of view whenever possible. Note how Nayuta is not standing in the center of the screen in the image above -- the camera stopped scrolling to the side here to keep the map in frame. Since even this system has limitations, only aspect ratios up to 21:9 are fully supported. (The game will still render at wider ratios, but you might see some missing geometry at the sides on some maps)

After we started working on this port, some updates for the PS4 version were released. In addition to various bug fixes, the following new features were included:

• Improved texture assets, in particular higher quality character textures.
  
• A toggle-able High-speed Mode.
  
• A special Time Attack mode.

Out of these, both the improved assets and high-speed mode will be available in the PC version at launch. The TIme Attack mode requires some more testing, but we will try to make it available shortly after the release.

As always, I particularly want to thank all of the great QA testers involved with this project. Without them, the release would certainly be a lot less polished and stable than it hopefully turns out to be.

- Peter "Durante" Thoman, CTO, PH3

Snipers, the time has come to return to the battlefield.

Launching simultaneously on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 4 & 5, Epic, Steam and Windows Store, Sniper Elite 5 will see elite marksman, Karl Fairburne, travel to France in 1944 to destroy Operation Kraken.

Scopes at the ready snipers, you can already Wishlist Sniper Elite 5 on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1029690

Including all in-game engine footage, take a sneak peak of what's to come in Sniper Elite 5's reveal trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVPeSJSkopk
As part of a covert US Rangers operation to weaken the Atlantikwall fortifications along the coast of Brittany, Karl makes contact with the French Resistance. Soon they uncover a secret Nazi project that threatens to end the war before the Allies can even invade Europe: Operation Kraken. It’s Karl’s mission to take out the high ranking Nazi officers and end Operation Kraken once and for all.

Based upon real world locations from France in 1944 the new game maps are the largest and most immersive in Sniper Elite's history with the new traversal system offering players an even greater sandbox of options when it comes to taking out their targets. You can even invite a friend to help you on your mission with enhanced co-operative gameplay options.



Sniper Elite 5 continues the franchise’s unparalleled tactical sniping experience complete with incredible ballistics and enhanced kill cam taking the genre-defining feature to the next level. New customisation options allow you to adjust your rifle, other weapons and ammo to suit the mission and your play style.

Grab your scopes and prepare to experience:

• Expansive Campaign – real-world locations have been captured using photogrammetry to recreate a living, immersive environment, and multiple infiltration and extraction points and kill list targets provide a whole new perspective on each mission. Take on the Nazi plot solo or work with a partner, with improved co-op mechanics allowing you to share ammo and items, give orders and heal each other.
  
• Advanced gunplay physics and traversal – use ziplines, slide down slopes and shimmy along ledges to reach the perfect vantage point, or to sneak past a sharp-eyed lookout. Factor in rifle stock and barrel options along with gravity, wind and heart rate while you line up your sights on the target.
  
• High calibre customisation – use workbenches to customise and upgrade virtually every aspect of your weapon. Change scopes, stocks, barrels, magazines and more. Rifles, secondary weapons, and pistols all have a huge variety of options. On top of that you can select the ammo to suit your target, from armour-piercing right down to non-lethal.
  
• Invasion mode drop-in PVP – you can invade another player’s Campaign as an Axis sniper and engage in a deadly game of cat and mouse, providing a new dimension to the challenge as you stalk your prey. Alternatively, as Karl you can call for assistance and have a second sniper drop in to help you out of a tricky situation.
  
• Tense adversarial multiplayer – customise your character and loadout and earn XP, medals and ribbons as you take on intensely competitive 16 player battles that will really test your sharpshooting skills. If co-op’s more your style, you can team up with up to 3 other players against waves of enemies in Survival mode.
  
• Enhanced kill cam – more realistic and grisly than ever, the trademark X-ray kill cam returns, showing you the true destructive power of each shot. Bones deflect bullets unpredictably, ripping a new path through enemy bodies. SMGs and pistols can also trigger kill cams, including multiple shots in dramatic slow motion.

For over 16 years, our dedicated Sniper Elite community has ensured Karl's mission remains ongoing.

Thank you for the support so far Snipers and stay tuned for more Sniper Elite 5 news in 2022!

Hello, Beasts!
This update is bringing very important information to everyone who starts the journey in Animal Rivals: Up In The Air! Buckle up, as we are going straight into it!


Localization
A very important thing to mention is that we are working on a full localization of our game, so it will be available to many more players around the world. Our current goal is to provide English, Polish, French, German and Spanish. and we will work our best in the upcoming time to implement more languages, stay tuned!


Outline
To make the game more pleasant for you guys, we’ve added a red outline to our planes, so they are more visible! This outline was added to the Demolition and the Capture The Flag mode. In the Demolition mode you can see the outline on every plane that is far away from you. In the Capture The Flag mode you only see the outline on the plane that actually holds the flag, so it makes it more obvious and you don’t waste your time by flying around and looking for other planes. Personally we think it helps a lot!



Tutorial
Tutorial, a place that is often neglected by a lot of veteran gamers, but still an important feature of every game out there, ours is no exception! Here you will learn the basics of the game as well as more advanced mechanics.



We hope all of you are staying healthy, and we can’t wait for your feedback while playing with your friends! Stay safe and fly high, Beasts!

Hey everyone,

I'm glad to announce the release of the first major update since the game release. I've implemented 2 new sub-modes into Singleplayer and Custom game modes:


As the name suggest, in this mode your visibility is limited to only a few tiles, amount of visibility is different for every piece.


Players that don't enjoy too much chaos will definitely find Stick-With-King fun to use in their matches as this mode limits pieces' movement to only x number of tiles away from king, you can still check enemy's king outside of your 'zone' though!

On top of that I've also added a functionality that allows players to customize their pieces' formation before the start of a match:


All of the above features are optional in Singleplayer and Custom game modes.

This update also brings some changes to the AI, player is now be able to choose difficulty level ranging from 0-100, higher level means higher probability of your artificial opponents stealing your pieces and hence surviving.

I also fixed a few bugs in singleplayer that were causing occasional game freezes, sorry for not spotting them earlier.



That's it for this update, hope y'all will have lots of fun exploring strategies and winning games with those new game modes. Remember to join our discord to stay updated on the current state of development and share your experience!

Merry Xmas! ːsteamhappyː

What's new:

- Implemented per-project backups. Now each project you create gets its own backup which you can load.
- Added a menu button which opens the backups folder
- States now update when they are either deselected or before the story is saved. This caused confusion among users who were not sure why they were losing work when selecting other states.
- The Reader is now bound to Steam, you may only use it if you have a working steam connection
- Implemented a basic access to the Steam Workshop inside the Reader. You can open any story from the Steam Workshop via the Reader.
- Added a Russian translation in the Editor, made possible by Andrey Bolshakov
- Fixed crash when trying to select a state which is invalid.
- Fixed ambiguities when right-clicking a state. If you had multiple states selected and tried to delete a single state it would behave funky, now this is fixed.
- Fixed level 4 warnings in the Editor project which could've potentially lead to some strange behavior or crashes
- Fixed an exception in the Reader which caused it to sometimes hang
- Added FontAwesome icons inside the Reader
- Fixed errors with some special Russian characters in the Editor

Hello everybody.

It took me a while but here I am now telling you that I've decided to stop development on Angel Precario.
It was long ride with way more problems I've could imagine.
Since development startet It was cursed with so many problems caused by the software I was programming the game with, as well as hardware problems on my end which also forced me to pause development in the past.

It really wasn't an easy decision but I think its just the best to cut development and remove the page + game from steam. I just didn't feel the motivation on working on this game anymore after all that problems in the past, may it be because of hardware or software problems, or even because of personal mental health.

I really hope everyone of you understands that decision.

Hey everyone!

Here's a roundup of this week's progress. Thank you to everyone who voted in this month's community asset vote. We'll be announcing the winning prop sets shortly!

Please keep in mind that everything on this list is extremely early in development and may not reflect what may be released in any official future update.


Added 216 Props From The Community Asset Vote:
We finished adding all of the props that you, the community, voted on in last week's poll. Keep an eye out for more information coming very soon! ;)

Launched Map Making Contest:
This week we announced our Map Making Contest! If you're interested in putting your creativity to the test and winning BIG prizes then head over to our Discord server to find out how YOU can enter. This competition is open to both free users and GM Edition users.


Also, please don’t forget to give us a review on Steam! We would love to hear what you think about all the new updates.


Subreddit / Discord

Just WOW.
The news arrived from nowhere. I suddenly received a Twitter notification on my smartphone and... BOOM! The Inspector was selected as Finalist for the #PitchYaGame!

With over 1500 participants in this session, I can say that being on the first fourteen, is mind-blowing!

But now, the time for celebration is over, and I need to come back on fixing the game!

See you soon!

Patience and persistence are the hallmarks of a seasoned specialist, especially those whose mistakes neighbourhood kilometres away can hear. It stays true to the game dev as well.

Sapper - Defuse the Bomb Simulator Full Release version is constantly in development. We received a tremendous amount of feedback after the Early Access Release that allows us to address what's good and wrong.

We would love to thank all those who sent us their feedback. You guys are the best!

There are a few main goals we want to archive:

1. Redesign currently used defusing minigames.
   
2. Add more levels and improve presently existing.
   
3. Improve or change now used lockpicking, hacking and decrypting minigames.
   
4. Add new mechanics to the game

Those are some severe changes in the game, so they will most definitely break current saves of the game. Don't worry, though. We will make it worthwhile to start over.

The new defusing mechanics will be much more complex and engaging, with more room to make loud mistakes. Below we have a design art showcasing the new bomb-defusing minigame.



Many of the players enjoyed searching for bombs in various environments by resolving environmental puzzles. Upcoming map changes emphasize those elements by adding more complex routes to reach the bomb or other story essential items and clues. We will talk about it more thoroughly in the next Devlog that we will post regularly from now on :)

Meanwhile, we are adding new mechanics, so fellow sappers will have to work harder for their wages.
One of those is laser emitters. They...well...emit lasers. No sapper ever want to cross those.




They are to appear in part of the mission and will be a form of an obstacle for the player.
Lasers will be able to move on the surface and the emitter, placed on the gimbal, capable of moving in two axes...

More news is coming in the next Devlog in two weeks.
Yours "Sapper - Defuse the Bomb Simulator" Team.