Direct Contact - Major Update: Unreal Engine 5.5.1
Today, I’m thrilled to announce that Direct Contact has officially been updated to Unreal Engine 5.5.1. This is a significant milestone as we continue evolving with the latest engine technologies. However, there are still some limitations with plugin support:
🎮 Engine Upgrade & Plugin Status
Successfully upgraded to Unreal Engine 5.5.1
DLSS: Custom workaround implemented while awaiting official NVIDIA update
Plugin integration ongoing for remaining components
✨ Major Features & Improvements
🌟 Megalight System
Complete lighting overhaul using UE5.5's Megalight system
Enhanced visual fidelity and performance optimization
🔧 Skeleton Meshes & Nanite Integration
New Nanite support for skeleton meshes
Progressive asset transition underway
🏢 HQ Map Reconstruction
80% map reconstruction
New defensive wall implementation
Significant FPS improvements
Ongoing optimization process
🗺️ New Content: Norwegian Underground Facility
Winter-themed map revival
Full UE5.5 compatibility
Available in Norwegian Section
Continuous development planned
Looking Forward
We're committed to delivering the best possible experience. Stay tuned for more updates!
Thank you for your amazing support! Here's to an exciting year ahead! 🎉
Getting a little emotional, last one of these updates I'm going to do before the game releases. The first update I did was on February 12, 2022, almost 3 years ago, and here we are now, announcing the release date of January 27, 2025. It's a surreal feeling, and I want to thank each and every one of you who have followed the development of this game.
I've been heads down on the remaining chapters, and I can finally say that we have finished the entire game, with 21 chapters in total (Prologue up to chapter 20). I don't want to spoil all the levels, but I'll show a sneak peak into a later chapter:
I had some extra time to get in the most popular requests, like fixed growths option, a non-permadeath option, difficulty options (planning a "brutal" difficulty after release), persistent blood effects (can be seen in the gif above), etc.
I've also added in the remaining weapons, items, and refinements into the game, bringing the total amount of abilities you have to customize your units with to well over 100.
These final 2 weeks will be spent play-testing, and adding in the final story scenes/supports, but trying to make minimal code changes to have the game be as stable as possible for release.
Changelog
All chapter battles complete.
~20 new refinements added into the game.
~30 new items added.
~20 new weapons added.
6 voice-acted world map scenes completed.
Fixed growths mode.
Non-permadeath mode.
Difficulty settings.
Persistent blood option in settings.
Final game build approved by Valve!
Future
Put in the remaining story scenes and support conversations.
Finalize map music.
Start working on controller support (Won't make it to release unfortunately), and getting Steam Deck certified.
Work on a "Brutal" difficulty, and potentially having an in-game reward (custom character? custom ability? let me know what you'd want to see!) to the first person who can record themselves defeating it.
Fixes/iterate on any player feedback once you all have the full game in your hands!
I'm thinking of doing a dev stream the day of release where I play through the game, and maybe even do live fixes to the most requested features. I've never streamed before, so let me know if that is something that sounds interesting to you and I might try to get a proper camera set up!
Again, thank you all so much for the support you've shown the game through the years. Your feedback through the demo feedback forms has been immensely helpful and encouraging. I couldn't be more excited to get the full game into your hands!
- Planted trees grow to full size. - Berries regrow on bushes after a few days. - Bushes, flowers and mushrooms now regrow after a few days. - Added two new villagers, a stonecrafter and a woodcrafter. You must now purchase the recipes for the stonecrafter and woodcrafter workbenches from those villagers.
Hey folks, i hope this winter is treating you alright.
It's been almost 4 years since I started working on Forgetful Loop, and it's always been a little jewel for me personally since it helped unlock a lot in me - to make Day of Maintenance, to make other games, to try and tackle other large projects over the years.
After finishing it, i was left nauseous at the idea of touching this project again from how intense working on it in the first place was - I basically just 7-days-a-week crunched for a couple months on it. But now, I've got the interest to come back and tweak it a bit,
I won't promise a date, only that I am working on an update to do the following:
Add rebinds
Add character portraits
Show more states on the nodes (eg: tints on the node bodies, downstream nodes of a broken fuse go red too)
and polish the art: adding effects, shaders, particles and animations to the game
It's been a couple weeks since re-opening, updating unity version, and doing art. And it's refreshing! to come back to this thing with the tech-art skills I wanted to have when first making this game.
💭 Today I had a couple ideas for new nodes even too! So if the stars align with time, I hope I'll be able to add some new levels to the game too, but that's just an idea right now.
The game is looking better, and I'm excited to share it.
See you soon. Merry fixing and a happy new time loop ⏳
I want to thank all of those who have been patiently waiting for the release of Vysions. I am very excited to announce that Vysions is now available and ready for you to explore its worlds.
This game is a unique experience where the worlds and puzzles you interact with are based upon real dreams with a connected thread between them all.
Thinking outside of the box is important, the environment will unveil its clues, and together we will find what is perhaps above our world and the dream world after all.
Thanks again, and get dreaming adventurers!
Note: for any technical issues I will be watching the Steam Community Discussions area so please post technical issues there.
This input action is an alternative way of dragging overlays regardless of the drag-mode state. Note that it is not bound by default and can be configured in the Desktop+ SteamVR Controller Input settings (you can use [Show Controller Bindings] in the Settings window as a shortcut to access them). This input action can also be bound to a keyboard key for the Gaze-based HMD Pointer.
Added default input bindings for PSVR2 controllers
Overlay brightness property now accepts levels higher than 100% when HDR mirroring is enabled
Detected SDR white level is now logged alongside display information when HDR mirroring is enabled
Changed:
Revamped heuristics on how to handle HDR brightness level adjustments depending on available display data, capture method and OS version (potentially still incomplete)
Fixed:
Fixed masked/monochrome cursors not being displayed during Desktop Duplication HDR capture
Fixed deactivating application profiles not restoring regular overlay configuration
Fixed Desktop+ laser pointer cursor being stuck on the Desktop+ Keyboard window when deactivated via input binding
Worked around SteamVR 2.9.1 dashboard changes breaking dashboard-relative overlay positioning
We’re only 1 review away from the coveted 10 reviews on our Steam page! Your reviews make a huge difference, and I always appreciate good feedback. If you’re enjoying the game and haven’t left a review yet, I’d really love it if you took a moment to share your thoughts.
Thanks for the support, Andreas Freiburg Solo dev behind Midnight at the Disco