Hello there!
First of all we would like to thank the community once again for the patience and support.
Now let's get you up to date with the Development of Echoes Of The Living!.
As we stated on the last post here, many things has changed, one of the most important ones is the size and quality of the game.
Three years has passed since Laura and I released the first Alpha Demo and decided to quit our jobs to fully focus on the development of Echoes Of The Living. Back then the game we had in mind was WAY MUCH SMALLER, a short 2-4 hours game with a simple story that was identical for 2 playable characters.
The game has evolved into a 2 campaign experience with an average lenght of 12-15h per campaign with unique stories, characters, weapons, locations, bosses... We are finally getting to our goal and we couldn't be happier!
Here are some of the big updates we added to the game:
- Brand New Cinematics, no more scripted, static animations.
- Voice acting for every character.
- Each character has its own set of unique skills.
- 5 Unique endings for each character.
- In game unlockables such as weapons, skins and a few secrets we won't spoil!
- Steam Achievements.
- Steam Cards.
- New inspectionable system.
- Fully detailed map system.
- New puzzle systems.
- Several types of new enemies.
- New health conditions.
- New health items.
- New weapons.
- Reworked item combination system.
- Completely reworked AI for every enemy, making sure each gameplay brings a challenge with each enemy being a threat.
- Defensive/Ofensive items in the world (Barrels, Gas Pipes, Electrical Equipment...)
- And many many more!
This change of plans brought a lot of challenges, sacrifices and added an insane ammount of stress to our lifes.
Sadly the game suffered from a huge slowdown early this year, due the lack of sleep, proper alimentation and working under high loads of stress, I suffered from various health issues, one of them was a stress ulcer that didn't allow me to work for almost 3 months, so Laura was the only one working on the game while taking care of me. After that, our efforts had to be doubled in order to keep things up with our schedule.
It has been a crazy ammount of work, but we are finally so close to release the game via ...
A SPECIAL EARLY ACCESS
Q: "WOAH WOAH WOAH, what do you mean by Early Access?"
A: "Fear not, we know many of you are sceptical or don't trust Early Access but this one literally means Early Access to the Final Game.
Due how big the game has turned out, we have come to the conclusion of releasing one of the campaings first, so you can start playing the game while we finish the other one. It's important to mention that during the Early Access the game will be launched on it's final state, QA tested, fully optimized and playable from start to finish without placeholders or missing content (Obviously people may find bugs along the way that will be fixed via patches).
We think this is the best approach for everyone, so you can enjoy the game while we can relief some pressure and finish the remaining campaign."
Q: "So when are you finally releasing the game then?"
A: "If everything goes right we are entering the external QA phase by the end of the month, Laura and I already made a lot of internal QA to make sure this process takes the minimum ammount of time possible. After that its only a matter for time of Steam to give us the green light and announce the release date! So get ready to finally be able to play Echoes Of The Living this summer!"
Q: "Why not releasing only one campaign and adding as DLC the second one?"
A: "Splitting the game into parts or adding Paid Content is something we have never wanted for our game and since the very beginning we announced that there would be 2 playable characters.
We promised a game with 2 full campaigns and that's what we are going to deliver."
Q:"But I only want to play as Laurel"
A: "Well, you can always wait for the full release, but keep in mind that you will miss more than the half of the main story, since each character has its own story, part of the main story, locations, enemies, weapons, bosses... "
Q:"How long will it take to finish the other campaign?"
Short answer: "Way less time than you think"
Long answer: "Laurel campaign will be released this year, most of the work is done but some areas, bosses and cinematics are not done yet, we will keep you updated with the release date."
Q: "How many languages will the game support during the Early Access?"
A: "The game will be fully translated and dubbed into English and Spanish (Spain) for the Early Access, with the support on the EA we will be able to hire translators that can help us to localize the game (Text Only) to the rest of planned languages."
STEAM DECK
One of the most requested features was the game being able to run on Steam Deck. Well, we have great news for you! we were able to get our hands into a Steam Deck and we are happy to announce that the game is fully playable at Max Settings.
We hope to get the original Steam Verified label by the full release time.
IMMERSIVE SOUNDTRACK
Get ready to get immersed into the world of classic survival horror thanks to the soundtrack of MonoMemory with his awesome beats.
FUTURE PLANS
Why purchase a DLC when you can get content for free? We are releasing additional campaigns for Echoes Of The Living that will be unlocked once the two main stories are completed. This content will be released after the full release and will depend on the game success.
We are also planning to release the game on consoles later on in 2026 if the game is well received.
YOU WANT UPDATES? I'LL GIVE YOU UPDATES!
This is how the world of Echoes Of The Living has evolved!
From creepy and claustrophobic interiors:
To bloody streets and shady exteriors:
ROADMAP:
And that's all for now! Laura and I want to thank you all once again for being so patient, we know that waiting can be really hard but please, remember that we are just a team of 2, without any kind of funding, kickstarter, publishing or financial support, working countless hours without any kind of profit trying to make the game of our dreams.
Keep an eye for the next update, it may be the release date you have been waiting for!
Best regards
Alvaro and Laura
- MoonGlint Team
