Today we are pleased to announce the release of a very important update for the game, "Abyss Crew v2".
We are sure that if you were already interested in Abyss Crew, you will enjoy this new version! It involved 4 years of internal development, with - we know...- not much communication about it. The list of changes is large, you can have a tour of the changes on the game website
Moreover, the game is part of the “Made in Quebec” celebration week, with a 50% off promotion until Sunday 4th February!
Remember: you can buy a key to host a game, and invite your friends to play with you for free with the “Friend Pass” available on Steam!
Note: this is precisely version 2.16f. Future updates will include translations of the game (French, Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese are planed), a better tutorial to learn how the submarine works, and new levels with new bosses.
Meowllo! Quick hotfix for those experiencing performance hitches on the farm/inside their house. If this is you, please read this part:
Effect settings turned down to low: your windows will now just display a generic window-lookingy pattern
Effect settings turned to anything above medium or above: windows will show outside your house
Performance optimization: the cameras are ONLY capturing what is outside the window if you're in that room now
What it used to do was constantly capture the information outside the windows, even if you were not indoors or inside a room with a window
Note: If your settings are low and you change it up to medium and above inside your house, the window will display a blank texture until you re-enter the room or your house
My personal recommendation on Steam Deck settings
VIDEO
Shadows: Medium
Anti-Aliasing: Low
Effects: Medium
Post Processing: Medium
Frame Rate Limit: 60
TWEAKS
Ambient Leaves: off (unticked)
Other fixes:
Mailroom should now display proper working hours if you've had Date or Lan and then switched for the other
Miss Curator's dialogue about what she likes now clarifies what she also dislikes
Mikan's dialogue about liking certain foods now gives a hint as to what she dislikes
Fixed issue where sometimes Nobu will just refuse to talk to you if you haven't said "hello" in the morning, resulting in a softlock if you choose "Hello" with active quest
Nobu Jr. Plush now stackable. Do with that what you will.
Backpack Battles will be part of the Steam Next Fest starting next Monday, February 5. The event will be going on for a week. We hope the game will find lots of new players!
With the next patch, we are adding a German translation! And new content, of course. 🙂
Also, you can catch our stream on the store page and the event page!
‘Tis I, Peanut, and I’ve got another piece of insight about TMYS today - this time, it’s Character Backstories! I invite you on a deep dive into who Rose and Amelia are – in their own eyes, and in the eyes of the game’s narrative.
Oh also, we’ve got a demo version with a questionnaire at the end, check it out! 🥜
Grandma Rose has been a globetrotter since she was young, in her old age she decided to settle down in a little cottage – that’s where the story of TMYS begins. This is not the usual grandma behavior (or is it?). Before coming over Amelia thought of Rose something along the lines of “She is my old grandma that needs help”, but then she realized that there was so much more to her elder than the surface.
Helping Rose unpack and clean brings back a wave of memories in the form of mementos, which were stowed away for years or simply used as everyday items. Those items are the first thing that makes Amelia realize that there is so much more to Rose than just her old age.
Tell Me Your Story is not necessarily kept vague when it comes to the time and place of its story. It’s very clear that Rose was a free soul in her youth, even if the way she was raised told her otherwise. Instead of choosing a quiet life, she chose to follow her dreams of traveling across the world and experiencing many different cultures, seeing unforgettable sights, and walking to the beat of her own drum.
She did what was thought to be impossible for many, and lived her life true to herself and her dreams. There were obstacles in her way, not necessarily shown outright, but she overcame them to pursue happiness. Now she can show Amelia that she can do the same – even if her granddaughter’s passion isn’t travel, Rose will infect her with a passion for life.
Overall, Rose is incredibly energetic, happy, and cheerful. No grandma is always grumpy – you can get wrinkles from smiling too, you know! 🐾
Now, when it comes to Amelia – she is a girl with a wild imagination… wonder where she gets that from. Kids Amelia’s age are a sponge – they experience the world and it shapes their perception of it. Our redheaded granddaughter is no different. She is energetic, curious, and maybe a tad naive but this is what childhood is about!
This vacation spent with Rose could have been a bump in the road of her life, but it definitely will not be. She is experiencing new things, getting to know places and people she’s never heard of, thinking about adventures that not many people experience… and all of that under the watchful eye of someone who lived through them and has many stories to tell. Amelia is both a little girl, who is at the moment in her life when her personality and future dreams will become a bit more tangible and a device for the player to experience this one summer in person.
She is like a piece of clay and Rose is shaping her into following her dreams. Cool, right?
So in all of this, where do I come on? Oh, dear friend, I have the most important role!
Peanut (aka. the journalist 🐶) is Amelia’s companion, who goes where she goes and sees what she shows him off the high surfaces. Not only a cute dog but also a reminder that Amelia is older, she has her own responsibilities and came to visit Rose to help her first and foremost. He exists as someone who will always listen and be there for her with love and a wagging tail.
This is the first time in a long while that Amelia and Rose can spend together with no limits. Rediscovering the past far away from the business of everyday life is truly unique, and a good reminder that everyone should sometimes sit down and think without the constant buzz of everything around them.
Buy a cottage, adopt a dog, start a new life as a chicken farmer (or adventure book writer) I say 🐶🐾
Thank you so much for reading! I am running back to the team to ask them more questions… maybe belly rubs are in order. Hm.
For quite some time now, we've been developing a kafkaesque immersive-sim game about escaping the ever-watchful colossal Policeman. Our last devlog took us through the process of shaping the game's concept, and now, we're all set to finally get to the main course. It all began with a goal: to complete the demo…
Before that, we created prototypes, designed artwork, and established the technical framework, but all the mechanics were scattered. They simply needed to be assembled into one cohesive and enjoyable game. And, Fully determined to reach the finish line, we… kept repeatedly falling into the same pattern—developing scattered ideas and prototypes. It was challenging to break free from that loop, and the situation was only intensified by a part of the team needing to relocate to another country. It felt like we were stuck, this time for good.
It might sound strange, but we don’t have any intentions of developing this game for another decade. This means that we just needed to make a new plan - to identify the most basic mechanics of our game and shed everything slowing us down.
So what is the core of Militsioner? It's an immersive-sim about a relationship with the Law. So at that time, actively in development were: an open dialogue system with voice input, a tamagotchi-like mood system for all npc’s, a dynamic time system and a law system.
The main mechanic for elimination was pretty obvious. Keeping up with AI advancements while developing a robust dialogue system became a daunting prospect. By seriously developing an open dialogue system with voice input, we risk becoming outdated even before the game's release.
We had to abandon the voice recognition system. it was inevitable that some features we had initially aimed for would be cut. It’s natural for every project. While such decisions are typically made behind closed doors in most studios, our commitment to open development means that you get to witness it in real time. But we feel like it's crucial to maintain transparency with you about these unavoidable decisions.
Immersive-sim
There are positives to this as well – it allows us the freedom to really dive deep into the remaining mechanics. So, let’s jump right in!
All immersive-sims have some form of combat through which its immersion is revealed. Fighting the giant is not an option, so the player will have to resort to tricks - flattering, lying, stealing, giving gifts to appease the giant. His mood is the law, so as you get closer to Giant, different doors start opening up. So basically, we extend the classic immersive-sim staple of "talking your way out of the situation" in to a fully fleshed dating-sim mechanic.
Of course breaking the LAW’s heart is an option too - you can steal anything not nailed down , including chairs and even bricks from the street. For this, we've created a full-fledged store. ...Just make sure you're not caught in the act.
To pull that off, you gotta figure out his routine. The LAW needs to sleep too. Time is a key element, everything in the game world operates on its schedule.
It's very important for us that the player experiments and finds their own way to solve each task. But such an approach is very labor-intensive. Typically, in games like Dishonored, each path is crafted separately and represents a complete segment of the game that the player will never see unless they choose that specific route. We can’t afford such expenses. How to maintain freedom without adding years to the game's development?
We decided to tackle the issues in a more systematic way. We introduced universal locks that can be solved in several ways, something similar to what was done in Amnesia: The Bunker. For instance, there's a lock on a door that you can break with a brick, pick with a lockpick, or acquire a key for.
It's up to the player to decide how to get through. Each door may look the same but offers entirely different solutions depending on whether the player has a lockpick, is on good terms with an NPC who can provide a key, or if the player has swiped it from that NPC. Or even wait for the night time and discreetly break the lock with a brick.
Well, that's it for combining the core mechanics. All that was left was to test it on players, and the demo is ready! ...testing is known to be quick and easy. Games always work exactly as intended.
Numerous logical and gameplay issues arose during regular tests, which had to be promptly fixed and tested again and again and again over several months.
One of the recurring issues was that people were avoiding the game's mechanics all together. Players struggled to grasp what they needed to do in the game at all, leaning towards tactics they had already seen in other games. They were playing someone else's game.
We fought with this for a while before arriving at the simplest solution: a tutorial!
This small addition drastically transformed gameplay dynamics; people's play styles changed instantly. Mechanics began working, tactics emerged in the game, and players started engaging with tamagotchi systems, building relationships with the city's inhabitants. The demo became much more interesting to play.
After spending several months testing and making fixes, we found ourselves with a demo that felt completely different – more like a real game. We significantly changed the overall loop, tossed in heaps of new content, characters, and details to spice up the game.
The last year ended with participation in the Day of the Devs conference and a ready demo. For those who want to play, the demo is now on our Patreon.
A 10-minute gameplay video is available on our YouTube channel. We aim to keep our development process as transparent as can be, so feel free to share your feedback and join us on Discord.
Hey, this is nowhere near the final cut of the game. The tamagotchi thing still needs some tinkering, the dialogue system is on a quest for a new direction and, honestly, the game's a bit of a walk in the park right now. It's tough to be super objective – our eyes are a bit foggy, but overall, we received very positive feedback. The demo has bloomed into something way bigger than our original plan for these two years, even with the inevitable cuts. Most importantly – we've figured out where to steer this ship next.
I hope the next devlog won’t be named “our progress after another 3 years of development”. Militsioner is soon to be old enough for school; he needs to be set free.
Update 1.0.8 brings two new game modes to Goliath Depot: a speedrun practice mode and a randomizer. This update also improves the UI in various screens like the File Select and the World Select to try to make it more consistant.
Randomizer
Disclaimer that the randomizer mode was made for seasoned players. It is unlocked only when you have completed the game.
In the randomizer mode, you play a random sequence of levels based on parameters that you will set before generating the sequence. The structure of the level stays the same but dynamic objects (doors, exit, enemies, coins) are shuffled around. It is procedural, so there is a list of predefined positions that is selected randomly based on the seed number. You can decide to turn on or off what you want to randomize from the menu. This mode is "seed"-based, which means that the randomization algorithm will always be the same if you input the same seed number twice. It's ideal for speedrun races or if you want to retry the same seed.
Number of levels - 16, 24, 32 or 40. All four bosses will appear evenly no matter the number of levels. For instance, if you select 32, it will appear in level 8, 16, 24 and 32. If you select 16, it will appear in level 4, 8, 12 and 16.
Number of extra lives - from 1 to 10.
Difficulty - normal, hard or progressive. Progressive difficulty will start the game with normal levels and will turn the game to "hard" difficulty in the 2nd half.
Random door placements
Random enemy types and placements
Random coins
Random spikes and icicles
Random security camera-laser - usually in HQ
Speedrun Practice Mode
In this mode, you can practice each levels individually. The game will save your best time locally for 5 categories:
Any% - no restriction, play as fast as you can (solo only)
Any% co-op - no restriction, but with a 2nd player
No Power - play as fast as you can without the use of a power (solo only)
All Coins - no restriction except you need to collect all coins in the level (solo only)
Pacifist - don't kick any enemies (solo only)
As an extra challenge, I have played and set a time for each level. These are my personal best times. If you can beat my time in all 40 levels, you will unlock a new color palette for your character!
UI Improvements
Other than the 2 extra game modes, UI was improved in the File Selection menu, World Selection menu, Difficulty Selection menu, in order to stay consistent from one screen to another. I also added a background for each stages to make it a bit more dynamic!
Last update?
There are a little bit more than I want to do with Goliath Depot for the next update, stay tune because yes, there is going to be an UPDATE 1.0.9 soon. As a small reward for your support, I'm discounting the game for the GAMES FROM QUEBEC special week to try to get new players to challenge the current ones on the leaderboards ;)
Check out my fellow game developers from Quebec this week, there are tons of great games from Quebec being showcased.
Once again, if you notice any problems with this build, let me know on Discord. Thank you!
