Incredible things have been going on with the project since our last post we made last year.
We released a demo together with a new trailer, which went viral on Twitter! We did the first definitive shooting sessions for the cinematics of the game. And we also won the biggest prize a game can get in our country!
We’ll tell you everything about that and much more in this post.
To start off, at the beginning of 2023 we got a Mega Grant from Epic Games. This has helped us a lot to keep working on the project without needing to use our savings 💸
They were three intense (but super fun) working days with a lot of movie professionals, including actors, scenography, make-up, special effects, cameras, lighting, among others.
And right now, we’re preparing the second part of the definitive film sessions for the end of the year, where we’re looking to complete a very important part of the story.
In terms of the game itself, we continue working with the unmatched team of graphic artists: El Toreh as concept artist and illustrator, Attar doing most of the pixel art and Pedrito Caval in pixel art and animations for characters.
But this time, a well know friend of us joined the team: David Levill, the music producer and sound designer from our games Doorways, Hellbound and Out of Bounds; and the guy who did the remaster of The Black Heart soundtrack.
For Tenebris Somnia, David is doing the music and sound effects for the 8-bit version 👾
David Levill at his studio in Santa Cruz, Río Gallegos (Argentina)
PLAYABLE DEMO
This month of September 2023 was without a doubt the most important month for Tenebris Somnia to date.
After working for more than a year on the project, both in development and making the movies, we finally launched a playable demo of the game so everybody can taste a small bit of what this dark and twisted survival horror adventure is all about.
Didn’t try the demo yet? Go to the next link and find the big green button to start the download 👇
Since the release of the demo, we have been reading and listening to every opinion and feedback you gave us. Even though the reception was great in general, there were some things to fix and improve. So we have made a quick update to the demo including some changes based on your feedback. You can find the full list on the bottom of this post 🗒️
Don’t stop letting us know about what you think! You can use the Steam discussion section for that.
FEAR FEST AND TRAILER
We launched the demo together with a new trailer which was broadcasted for the first time at the event Fear Fest: Black Summer 2023 hosted by Feardemic and featured at the IGN official channels. The new trailer is short, but super intense, and shows new characters, locations, mechanics and (above everything) a lot of horror:
Both the demo and the trailer traveled through the internet all around the world. From the dev team, we were shocked with the impact and reception the game had. The news came out on big sites like PC Gamer, RPS, Vandal, Meristation and Bloody Disgusting; but the demo was also played by big influencers from different parts of globe 🤯
EVA AND RECOGNITION
A week after the big announcement, we participated in the most important local event of game development here in Argentina: EVA 2023. We were there with the team presenting an extended version of the demo of Tenebris Somnia so people from our country could check the new mechanics and cinematics.
And speaking of events, we’re right now participating for the second consecutive years in the online event Realms Deep 2023, hosted by the guys at 3D Realms 🙌
Don’t miss all the sales of great indie games with retro vibes! Also, tomorrow (Saturday 30th), a broadcast will start with announcements of new titles and interviews to the developers. Check everything here!
To finish, we want to share with you how happy we are right now with everything that has been going on with Tenebris Somnia. There’s still a lot to do, but we have all the motivation in the world right now. Thank you for that!
Below are some new screenshots from the game and on the very bottom of this post is the changelog of the demo update. Don’t forget to leave your feedback!
A big hug from the team! Thank you once again for all the support and stay tunned for more news and behind the scenes material at our accounts in Twitter and Instagram 👌
Cheers, everybody!
Tobías and Andrés
NEW SCREENSHOTS
DEMO CHANGELOG (v0.2)
Bug fixes
Sometimes, opening the inventory or re-entering a room during a fade transition blocked the game
Some texts went out of the screen in 16x10 monitors, including the Steam Deck
Fixed the vertical synchronization (VSync) issue
General improvements
Added blood particles when afflicting damage and when receiving it
New sound effects for certain steps, elevator door, oven, among others
Visual improvements for some of the props of the environment
Added a one time language menu option when the application starts
Besides skipping the text screens and movies using the action key, there was a skip-all shortcut that was barely used. We removed that key now.
During the confrontation with the first enemy, now you can interact with any part of the environment, including doors to avoid it
Improved some of the texts from dialogues and interface, mostly in the English version
Now, the options can be selected like a carousel, moving to the sides left or right
Added a new set of controls combining the mouse and the keyboard (see image)
The twentieth version of our all-new "Spotlight Packs" are LIVE in Perfect Team! This week's Spotlight Packs are available until Saturday Sep 30 at 1 PM ET only and include 1 Silver+ card guaranteed from Topps BUNT sets 2, 3, 4, or 5.
Each Spotlight Pack is set up where one card is fixed, pulled from a selection of recent content cards. The other 5 cards in the pack will be drawn from any non-live players, using the standard ratio of card tiers and odds. The fixed card in the spotlight pack will be guaranteed to be at least a silver card.
The cards from the selected content set(s) will be weighted to be pulled at the following ratios: Silver cards: 4x Gold cards: 3x Diamond cards: 2x Perfect cards: 1x
All the details on each card available and its pull rates are here:
👥 Connect & Play: Meet up to 10 players in the brand-new Social Room. Practice with 5 basketballs, chat about anything, and forge new alliances.
🏀 Skills Boost: Hone your game with multi-ball practice. Become a basketball pro before diving into intense matches.
💬 Open Chats: Engage in discussions, share tips, and plan epic space matches. It's your hub for ideas and experiences.
🛰️ Stay tuned for more cosmic adventures as we continue to enhance your experience. We can't wait to see you in the Social Room, sharing stories and shooting hoops.
- Dynamite explosions now create craters in the sand. - Dynamite explosions now destroy rocks and cactuses in their blast zone. - The "Body Slam" Worm ability also creates a small crater at the impact zone.
Note: The are limits to how far the sand can be lowered, with Quarry and the ground under the Train being it's lowest point. So these areas will not be deformed by explosions.
Spectator Mode Fixes:
- Fixed a myriad of bugs with Spectator mode. Blocker trains, destroyed buildings, ghost players, time of day, and the fuel indicator on the train now sync properly. - Fixed the Worm winning end screen displaying spectating players as "winners".
Misc Bug Fixes/Changes:
- Added a new on screen prompt on how to equip a Kit item you're holding. - Fixed public lobby browser UI text overlapping itself. - Fixed Dpad Up/Down Controller issues when selecting items from your inventory. - Added additional names to the credits.
Now I can say, that I have a game on Steam! In the first place I made this game for personal use only, because initially it was a gift for my dad, but here we are, a release on Steam!
I already have some plans...
I kinda know what I want to change in the Future and I'm also sure that I'll have to fix some bugs, but for now I'm just happy, that the game is released and most importantly is playable!
I basically I'm saying:
Special thanks to everybody who bought the game on launch-day and also have a great time playing! ːDː - CryT4x
PS: It has an introductory offer! ːwinter2019surprisedyulː
Fixed city-capturing achievements to not trigger when watching recording. Fixed achievement on almost-safe odds exchange ("Even Safe Can Be Sorry") to not trigger when attacker did not lose a unit after all due to all attackers being at least triple strength compared to defender total strength.
