Arctic Awakening 
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Devlog #15: Content Complete + Demo UpdateApr 30, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsHey everyone! Our last update was during Steam Next Fest, and even two months on we're still blown away by the response. Over 10,000 of you checked out the demo during the event and thousands more have left snowy footprints since. We've been more motivated than ever from seeing the excitement surrounding the world we're creating! Demo Update Since Next Fest, we've been hard at work completing the full game, fixing bugs and making improvements based on the hundreds of feedback messages we received and the dozens of streams we've watched. Beyond just getting the game in front of so many new people, these last few months have been incredibly valuable for us to improve the overall game before release. Since we aren't doing early access, the demo has doubled as a sort of beta test for us. While most of our recent efforts have been in the later stages of the game, and while we still have more work to do based on the submitted feedback, we've taken the time to release an updated build of the demo that includes: Various minor and some game-breaking bugs Improvements to overall traversal mechanics Enhancements to drone flight and navigation Performance optimizations Art and level design polish Improvements to the auto save system Newly recorded voice-over Localization improvements for all 7 languages {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40166011/49af1c9f63ff08b1c9819b5d83c4968606ed27b5.jpg Full Game Progress We aren't quite ready to share a release date just yet (we've got one in mind, but we're going to be extra sure before finalizing it); however, we are excited to announce that the game has now been content complete for nearly a month, and as of today we've finished recording all voice-over for the entire game! Our main focus right now is QA testing (and more QA testing -- you can never do too much), polishing every detail and optimizing performance to make sure the game runs smoothly and looks great. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40166011/fc517b68ea195b914a27eac9544b073150940ea8.gif We're in the home stretch now, and we can't wait to share more soon. Stay tuned, and as always, thank you for your support! Feel free to pop into Discord, X or BlueSky and say hello as well.New Demo for Steam Next Fest!Feb 24, 2025 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40166011/b92b88d1fba1e7a7121e3f7fdfa72c1ce7f6f48e.gif Hey everyone, Steam Next Fest is officially underway from February 24 - March 3, and we've released a brand new updated demo as part of the event! In this version, we've taken all of your feedback and packed it into a fresh, extended demo with loads of polish, frozen bugs, performance improvements and full translations in 7 languages. We've even decided to break the ice with brand-new content never before seen in the demo! Check it out during Steam Next Fest, let us know what you think (we're still making improvements based on your invaluable feedback) and don't forget to wishlist/follow to stay up to date! See you in the snow soon! ❄️ PS: We're also running a giveaway for a free copy of the game -- just play the demo and signup to the newsletter in-game to be entered into the drawing (you'll get an email before release if you're selected)!Arctic Awakening DelayedNov 19, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsHello Arctic adventurers! We started working on Arctic Awakening nearly 5 years ago. Our team has poured all of our creative efforts into bringing this thrilling tale to life, and we can’t wait for all of you to start exploring the wilderness with Kai and Alfie. We're in the final stages: mechanics are being finalized, QA is squashing the last stubborn bugs, performance is being put on overdrive and every last leaf, trail and mysterious moment is getting the polish it deserves. Localization is also in full swing to make sure the game speaks to adventurers all around the world. Today, however, we have to ask all of you patient adventurers to wait just a little bit longer. We have to delay the release... one more time. We're truly sorry to keep you waiting longer than we hoped, but we're committed to making this experience something truly unforgettable. We know delays are frustrating, and believe us, we'd love nothing more than to have the game in your hands right now. But we refuse to settle for “good enough.” While we can't announce a release date just yet, rest assured it's coming soon, and we're so excited for you to experience what we've been working so hard on. Thank you for your patience and support. It means the world to us, and it's what keeps us pushing to make Arctic Awakening the incredible adventure you deserve. We can't wait to share it with you – see you in the snow soon! -The GoldFire Studios Team PS We also recently updated the demo, which includes a bunch of improvements including: A long list of bugs and general polish (including some crashes). 25-50% performance improvements across the board. Various navigation and flight improvements to Alfie. Improved gamepad support. Fixed various issues with the save system. Level design polish. Added some new settings including FOV control (more coming soon). Further sound effects and music polish. Full professional translations for Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Portuguese (Brazil). German, Spanish, French and Russian coming soon. We really appreciate all of the feedback on the demo -- it's been truly invaluable to the development!Arctic Awakening Gameplay Stream #2 @ AdventureX 2024Nov 8, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAdventureX is back for 2024! It's the premier annual festival in London for narrative-driven games. We showcased Arctic Awakening in-person for the first time in 2022. This year we're once again participating in the Steam event, which runs from November 4-11. About Stream One of our favorite YouTube streamers plays and commentates on the Arctic Awakening demo, from the opening scene in the plane all the way to the surprise finish of the demo. We've also included some behind-the-scenes segments in the stream. About Arctic Awakening Arctic Awakening is a first-person narrative adventure set in the unforgiving Arctic. Your plane crashed in a storm, leaving only your court-mandated therapy bot for company as you journey to find your co-pilot and uncover the mysteries buried beneath the ice.Arctic Awakening Gameplay Stream @ AdventureX 2024Nov 7, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAdventureX is back for 2024! It's the premier annual festival in London for narrative-driven games. We showcased Arctic Awakening in-person for the first time in 2022. This year we're once again participating in the Steam event, which runs from November 4-11. About Stream One of our favorite YouTube streamers plays and commentates on the Arctic Awakening demo, from the opening scene in the plane all the way to the surprise finish of the demo. We've also included some behind-the-scenes segments in the stream. About Arctic Awakening Arctic Awakening is a first-person narrative adventure set in the unforgiving Arctic. Your plane crashed in a storm, leaving only your court-mandated therapy bot for company as you journey to find your co-pilot and uncover the mysteries buried beneath the ice.Music Deep Dive: Save & Sound 2024Nov 5, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsSave & Sound is an incredible celebration of music in games, so we're more than thrilled to have been selected to participate in this year's event! If you missed the live stream, our own feature can be viewed below. Our composer (Joff Winks) performs live on various instruments featured in the soundtrack and does a deep dive on some of the dynamic elements used in the game. We're nearing completion on the game -- more updates on that soon. In the meantime, let us know what you thought in the comments and join in on Discord and X!Devlog #14: The Home StretchJul 17, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsIt's been a while since our last post, so we thought we'd give a quick update about the latest development progress on Arctic Awakening. The exciting news is that we've nearly completed all of the gameplay, level design, art, etc – which means the game is just about fully playable from start to finish in our internal builds! Episodic Structure There are obviously other games that have influenced us, but it's safe to say an even bigger influence has been the episodic format of some of our favorite TV and mini-series. We especially love how this narrative structure allows for more of a focus on character development and pacing. It's also just a lot easier as a player to tackle a 1 to 1.5 hour episode rather than the open-ended nature of many story games – we're busy too, we get it! This is why we decided all the way back before the pandemic to make what would become Arctic Awakening an episodic game – not in terms of a release schedule (all content will be released in a single download from day one), but in terms of narrative and gameplay structure. It's taken a lot of work to get here (4+ years! 🤯), but that's why it's so exciting to finally be able to play through all five episodes as we enter the home stretch of the development cycle – we're excited for all of you to do the same soon, too! What Comes Next There's a lot of work that goes into games outside of the obvious gameplay and visuals – it's a wonder that any game ever sees the light of day! The bulk of the work is now behind us, but here's a few areas that we're still chugging away at: Bugs & Polish The biggest area remaining is around QA testing, bug fixing and overall polish. This isn't the sort of game that really makes sense for an "Early Access" release, so we're committed to releasing a game that's as polished and bug-free as possible. With such a large world and so many branches to account for, this is a rather complex and difficult process – but also a fun one as the vision for the game really starts to solidify and feel real! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40166011/6fbe1a7c7f8618511072a540e3c520dcab43eebb.gif Performance We want the game to run smoothly on as wide a range of devices as possible. Some of our technical choices (like creating a vast landscape with tens of thousands of rocks, hundreds of thousands of trees and millions of plants) make this more of a challenge than it might seem at first glance, but we've got a variety of solutions in the works that should provide significant gains over the current demo build. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40166011/04a1039a07f5f33f5f3b2ead52e337f6d54e4273.jpg Console Porting We haven't made any "official" announcements on the console front yet, but we're also working on two console ports that we'll provide more concrete information on soon. This is no small task, but we're working closely with our console partners to get the game ready to play fully cross-platform. Localization Storytelling is universal, so localizing the game into as many languages as poss...Devlog #13: Demo UpdatesFeb 20, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsWhile we've mostly been focused on the later stages of the game as we ready it for the full release, we've still been putting in plenty of overall polish, bug fixing and core system improvements that have made their way into our demo build. We really appreciate all of your incredible feedback and detailed bug reports -- we've read every comment and have been hard at work incorporating the feedback and fixing the issues. We're thrilled to release today's update to the demo that encapsulates all of the progress since our last update for Gamescom last fall! Interacting with the World Agency to explore and interact with the world has been one of our key pillars from day one, so a lot of our recent work has revolved around honing those aspects of the experience. First and foremost, the traversal system has been rebuilt from the ground up. All traversal mechanics are now run automatically with no button presses needed other than jumping from a height that you can't climb back up from. The animations and motions of the traversals are faster and smoother to feel more fluid and address motion sickness concerns. The camera is also never taken over during any traversal mechanic so that you won't get disoriented or lose the feeling of control. And for those of you that like to toggle jogging, this is now supported alongside the ability to hold the button/key as before. We've also made significant improvements to interactions such as picking up and putting down objects. These actions are now dramatically smoother and faster without feeling so jarring (and just like with traversal mechanics, the camera is never taken over). You can also now use physics to place objects on flat surfaces or even on top of other objects to arrange things in your shelter just the way you like them. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40166011/9cd006a266aa1556284e4baf7096afe26c543424.gif Weather Systems We view weather as just another character in the game, so it's been long overdue for some TLC. The most obvious of changes is that we've added clouds to the sky! It's a subtle change at times and quite dramatic at others, but it really gives us some fantastic freedom to make the weather systems that much more dynamic and vistas that much more breathtaking. To go along with the updated skies, the weather system and the color grading that goes along with it now supports full dynamic blending. The time could already dynamically update the visuals as it passed, but now the weather can change in an instant or over an extended period of time and everything will update seamlessly. In addition, the quality of the feet deformations in the snow has been improved to be more dynamic and realistic. We've also addressed some nagging issues like Kai's head dropping below the surface of the snow in some areas or the fact that dropping items into the snow would cause them to disappear into another realm, never to be seen again. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40166011/2d29f0f87d8586037153d0d67d9cfde347659393.gif Auto Save One of...Arctic Awakening Gameplay Stream @ AdventureX 2023Nov 5, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsAdventureX is back for 2023! It's the premier annual festival in London for narrative-driven games. We showcased Arctic Awakening in-person for the first time at last year's event. This year we're once again participating in the Steam event, which runs from November 2-8. About Stream One of our favorite YouTube streamers plays and commentates on the Arctic Awakening demo, from the opening scene in the plane all the way to the surprise finish of the demo. About Arctic Awakening Arctic Awakening first-person narrative adventure set in the unforgiving Arctic. Your plane crashed in a storm, leaving only your court-mandated therapy bot for company as you journey to find your co-pilot and uncover the mysteries buried beneath the ice.Arctic Awakening Gameplay Stream @ AdventureX 2023Nov 4, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsAdventureX is back for 2023! It's the premier annual festival in London for narrative-driven games. We showcased Arctic Awakening in-person for the first time at last year's event. This year we're once again participating in the Steam event, which runs from November 2-8. About Stream One of our favorite YouTube streamers plays and commentates on the Arctic Awakening demo, from the opening scene in the plane all the way to the surprise finish of the demo. About Arctic Awakening Arctic Awakening first-person narrative adventure set in the unforgiving Arctic. Your plane crashed in a storm, leaving only your court-mandated therapy bot for company as you journey to find your co-pilot and uncover the mysteries buried beneath the ice.Arctic Awakening Gameplay Stream @ AdventureX 2023Nov 2, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsAdventureX is back for 2023! It's the premier annual festival in London for narrative-driven games. We showcased Arctic Awakening in-person for the first time at last year's event. This year we're once again participating in the Steam event, which runs from November 2-8. About Stream One of our favorite YouTube streamers plays and commentates on the Arctic Awakening demo, from the opening scene in the plane all the way to the surprise finish of the demo. About Arctic Awakening Arctic Awakening first-person narrative adventure set in the unforgiving Arctic. Your plane crashed in a storm, leaving only your court-mandated therapy bot for company as you journey to find your co-pilot and uncover the mysteries buried beneath the ice.Devlog #12: Release UpdateOct 26, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsAs we approach the end of 2023, you might be wondering why we haven't nailed down a precise release date for the game. Well, creating ambitious projects like this one can often take longer than even the most seasoned developers anticipate. While we've worked hard to meet our initial release target, it's become clear that we need a bit more time. But fear not! We aren't about to compromise on quality just to meet an arbitrary deadline. We're committed to delivering a game and story that meets the high standards we set for ourselves. We want Arctic Awakening to be truly exceptional when it lands on your PC, Steam Deck, console or wherever you choose to play. https://i.imgur.com/A6kQ3J4.gif So, what's been keeping us busy lately? Well, we've recently wrapped up the script and voice-over recording is nearly finished as well. We've also taken all of your feedback from the online and in-person demos to heart, which includes major updates to the companion AI system, character locomotion, performance optimizations, object interactions, world design and overall polish to every nook and cranny in the game. We know you're disappointed to hear the release is being delayed – heck, we're disappointed ourselves! However, we're equally excited for what's to come and know that Arctic Awakening will be worth the wait. We can't wait to share it with all of you in 2024! Stay tuned for more updates by following/wishlisting our Steam page. You can also join our Discord, Twitter (X?) and the newsletter for future updates and chat with us and others about the progress of the development!Devlog #11: Companion AI ImprovementsOct 4, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsEarlier in the year we completely re-built the companion AI system for our therapy robot from the ground up. Having a life-like companion that isn't just your typical "tutorial bot" is vital to the experience of Arctic Awakening, so we couldn't just leave it at that. We continued gathering your feedback from the latest demo builds as part of Gamescom and Tokyo Game Show, and we've been using that to focus on various areas of polish to improve the behavior of this pivotal character in the story. Intelligent Target Selection One of the main issues with Alfie's navigation is that it didn't have a full model of the world – in other words, he couldn't really see! Often, Alfie is simply trying to get into the player's cone of vision, even without understanding what lies within that vision. This led to significant issues when inside walled areas, of which there are many beyond the demo! We iterated through a number of solutions before landing on a system that selects several possible target locations and intelligently selects the "best" one based on obstacles in the way, their type and their distance. This effectively allows Alfie to see walls or other large obstacles that he should stay in front of rather than trying to go around. The most glaring example of this can be seen in the below GIF where previously Alfie would often try to navigate completely outside of the building rather than following the player through the curved hallway. Beyond halls, this change improves navigation in any sort of interior space like a room or airplane, narrow cliff ledge trails and just general traversal through the forest. https://i.imgur.com/PGV22ag.gif Local Avoidance While Alfie could already navigate around obstacles, dynamically moving obstacles such as the player could throw a wrench in that. Or even more common would be Alfie's own momentum carrying him into large rocks or trees, causing unwanted (though often comical) collisions with the environment around him – he's still a bit clumsy and will run into things here and there, but now it's by design! An advanced autonomous flying robot should at least be on par with the capabilities of a current-day consumer drone. Many of these camera drones have local avoidance systems that scan the world around them and avoid colliding with obstacles that become too close, which is now what Alfie does with detectors above, below, to the front and to the sides. https://i.imgur.com/4cjvvq4.gif Custom Navmesh Baking We use a pathfinding system called a navmesh to enable Alfie's navigation throughout the world. This works relatively well; however, the complexity of the nature in our world leads to rather noisy navmeshes that make it difficult for Alfie to "understand" what's around him. This noise often leads to noisy navigation and movement behaviors. To address this, we built a custom navmesh baking system that evaluates every rock, tree and obstacle in the game world (all 1,332,787 of them – approximately) and tags these in ce...Meet Us at Gamescom/Tokyo Game Show!Aug 21, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsIt's that time of year again -- festival season. We're really excited to be official selections of two of the biggest game conferences in the world: Gamescom and Tokyo Game Show! As part of the Indie Arena Booth at Gamescom, we'll be showing an updated version of our demo in-person from August 23-27 in Cologne, Germany. We'll follow that up a month later with the new professional Japanese translation of the demo at Tokyo Game Show as part of the Indie 80 cohort. If you'll be at either event in-person, be sure to stop by our booth and say hello (we won't bite... but we don't take responsibility for Alfie's actions), play the demo and grab one of our new limited edition cards! If you can't make it, rest assured that an updated version of the demo is also coming to Steam! We're working really hard on finishing the game and we'll be excited to share more updates in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned by following/wishlisting on our Steam page and joining our Discord! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40166011/ed114e3acf4b2f3e265a8ffb561efde53f14121c.jpgDevlog #10: Adding an InventoryJul 31, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsIt's only been a little over a month since our recent demo update and new trailer as part of summer games festivities, but we've continued making great progress on the game as a whole. While it's mostly been post-demo content, we've also been smashing bugs (thanks to your feedback!), implementing new features/updates and even adding a long-awaited new feature (new demo build available now on PC and Mac via Steam)! We'll have more to share at our upcoming Gamescom and Tokyo Game Show appearances, but in the meantime, we wanted to give a quick update on what has probably been your most requested addition – an inventory! Took the stuffed dino in the plane never to be seen again? Just search your (currently giant) pockets and jiggle him around – or decorate your shelter a bit differently! The inventory lets you see everything you've collected and take it back out whenever you want. We'll likely expand this further before the full release, but for now this acts as a solid base to start from. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40166011/8dc8e2c075fb2b3119c244bf16f89e7f5a1577e1.gif This demo update isn't just about the inventory though – we've also worked hard to resolve a variety of bugs that we've seen in your feedback and in the many YouTube/Twitch streams that we've enjoyed watching (we even made a sizzle reel of our favorite moments!). We really appreciate the feedback, it'll really make a big difference for the finished game! Until next time, the best way to keep up on the game is by following/wishlisting our Steam page. You can also join our Discord, Twitter (X?) and the newsletter for future updates and chat with us and others about the progress of the development!New Gameplay Trailer & DemoJun 10, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsIt was a dream come true to be part of an E3-adjacent summer showcase last year, so you can imagine our excitement when the call came again! At Future of Play Direct we revealed a brand new gameplay trailer that takes us further "inside" the game world. Let us know if you spot anything interesting in the new environments! We've also released a big update to the demo thanks to all of your feedback from the last few months! While much of our development has been focused on later stages of the game, we've still managed to squeeze in loads of improvements and fixes to the current demo experience, some of which are highlighted below: Improved Drone Behavior We recently created an entirely new companion AI system for Alfie, but a complex system like this is never really "done". We've fixed all sorts of edge case issues that have come to light as well as continuing to improve how intelligently he navigates the world with Kai. As just one example, Alfie's now much better about getting out of your way so you won't run into him all the time! https://i.imgur.com/LCRWfCw.gif Everything Collectable We heard all of you! You want to pick up everything that ever existed in this world of ours😂 So, you'll now find that most anything that looks like it can be picked up now can be. We'll continue to expand this and add even more objects to explore, collect and use leading up to release. An inventory is in the works as well! https://i.imgur.com/V2YPxTW.gif Brand New UI In a game like Arctic Awakening, a great UI is one that gets out of your way and lets you focus on the game world. Up until now the UI was mostly just placeholder and often a distraction from the overall experience. So, we've finally gotten around to a full re-design that is cleaner, more consistent and easier to navigate/read. It also creates a much stronger foundation for the rest of the game. Options Menu Probably the most frequent feedback was about the lack of a true options menu. It's finally here.. well, mostly! We plan on adding even more settings before the full release (such as look sensitivity, control re-mapping, quality settings, etc), but the new menu now covers subtitles, language, resolution, refresh rate, VSync, fullscreen/windowed, vertical/horizontal invert and full audio controls. https://i.imgur.com/wnO9KyH.gif Improved Gamepad Support We've had gamepad support from the start, but with the UI overhaul we put more of a focus on getting gamepad support on-par with keyboard/mouse. In general, gamepad lovers are going to feel more at home in the UI. We've also added a completely re-designed dialogue choice UI that maps to the controller layout. https://i.imgur.com/jtPrUsu.gif Audio Improvements Dialogue was sometimes hard to hear and music was sometimes too loud. We've been re-working the mix, adding ducking and making various other improvements to improve the overall audio quality and your ability to always hear what the characters are saying. Performance Improvements There's still qu...Devlog #9: Adaptive Music In Video GamesApr 24, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsThis devlog was originally written by Joff Winks for his blog. Joff is the composer of the music being created for Arctic Awakening. The original blog post can be found here. Adaptive Music In Video Games As gamers, we're all familiar with the concept of adaptive music in games. For instance, we encounter a combat scenario, and the music changes to a more intense composition. We're triumphant, and the music registers our success by playing the victory theme. Switching between two pieces of music is commonplace. But what if we apply the notion of adaptation at the compositional level, dynamically changing the melody, harmony or instrumentation? It would then be possible to sculpt a piece of music to fit the contours of a scene, where the player is responsible for making narrative choices and the timing of events. From the beginning, making music that is reactive to and synchronised with a player's choice has been at the core of our thinking. But more than this, we strive for a captivating soundtrack, music that immerses you in the wild, mysterious world of Arctic Awakening. In this blog, I want to share some of what goes into writing, recording and controlling Arctic Awakening's music. Here's a deep dive into how I approach the technical demands of adaptive music in video games with an example from episode 1. Enjoy! Sections: Form & Function Different music forms have been used for centuries by composers to establish structure and hone composition skills. For games, though, the form of a piece starts with the scene. The structure of the game scene lays out what the music needs to do and when. For example, I've identified four sections from the scene Night Frights that set out how the music progresses: Wake Alfie's Lantern Search Return to Plane The composition has four sections to match the scene's structure. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40166011/894fc313040e177300c71f1d4e33bf67193ca8c3.jpg When these sections are activated depends on the player, so discrepancies in the timing of triggering events are inevitable. Looping To accommodate the variation in timing, I split the composition into looping sections. A good loop is a thing of joy! They're tremendously satisfying to make and very useful when the length of music required is undetermined. Effectively, once the play head enters a loop, the music can play indefinitely until the player triggers the next section. The critical point in any loop is where the end meets the beginning. During this transition, any natural decay (the time it takes for the recorded signal to fall from 100% to 0%) at the end of the loop is interrupted when returning to the beginning. At this point, a noticeable artefact is audible, and unless the natural decay at the end is allowed to play out, the loop point is obvious. To remedy the problem, I record all sections separately, allowing the instruments and effects, such as reverb and delay, to fade to silence. Then in FMOD, I use the transition timeline to crossfade the end of the loo...London Games Festival DemoMar 29, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsIn addition to the new companion AI for Alfie, we've been working on loads of updates and bug fixes to the game since we last showed it at Day of the Devs, The MIX and AdventureX last fall. We're thrilled to be an Official Selection of this year's London Games Festival, so we're making all of these updates available in a new demo right here on Steam. However, be sure to check it out while you can as the demo will only be available through the end of April. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1275550/Arctic_Awakening/ And please keep the feedback coming! It has been invaluable for us as we continue to hone the experience and finalize all of the gameplay/story elements leading up to release later this year. The best way to stay informed on future beta/demo availability is by following/wishlisting our Steam page as they'll all be run through here. You can also join our Discord, Twitter or newsletter for future updates.Devlog #8: New Companion AIJan 23, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsWe were thrilled to end 2022 on a bang with inclusions in Day of the Devs, AdventureX and The MIX. It was an honor to be selected for such acclaimed events, but we were even more excited to receive such valuable feedback from everyone who tried out the demo in-person and on Steam! Thanks to that feedback, we've been working hard to fix bugs, add new features/mechanics, record more voice over and lots more. However, one thing that really stood out was the need to improve our companion AI system for Alfie. We knew we couldn't settle for "good enough" when your therapy bot plays such a pivotal role in both the story and gameplay. So, we made the hard decision to go back to the drawing board and completely re-build the AI companion system from the ground up, taking into account all of the feedback and lessons learned from the last year of demos and play tests. You'll get to see the improvements for yourself soon with an updated demo later this spring, but for now, here's a taste of what's new: Physics-Based Movement Our goal from day one was to make Alfie feel "alive" in this world, but there's always been a nagging feeling that his movement didn't "feel" quite right. We realized this was because it wasn't physically-based. Making a robot float with physics isn't the easiest thing in the world, but we knew we were onto something when it started being a blast just moving him around in test scenes! https://i.imgur.com/jkPOxd4.gif The new system actually simulates thruster forces rather than just moving from point A to B, which gives him a real sense of weight and momentum. His subtle bobbing and rotation is now a natural side-effect of thruster balancing mechanics. He also now reacts naturally to speed, turning and obstacles, which helps to believably ground him in the world. What's more, a physically-based system allows for real collisions with the world. This means he doesn't fly through rocks, trees or other obstacles in his way. It also means that if he's blocking Kai's path, you can simply push him out of the way. This gives us so much more creative freedom to really bring his character out in fun and surprising ways. https://i.imgur.com/2RFNRlT.gif Navigation One of our pillars is player agency in exploration, so we didn't want you to just be following Alfie the whole time. However, having Alfie simply try to stay in front of you caused many players to get completely lost in the forest. While fitting for the scenario, it wasn't exactly the experience we had in mind. Alfie having effectively no concept of where he is or where he's going was probably the biggest issue we saw from demo players. What's great about the games industry is the sharing of knowledge. We happened across a GDC talk given by developers of the companion AI system in Bioshock that helped inspire our own "goal side" type of system. Basically, we know the general area where we want the player to end up, and we can calculate a path in that direction. This allows Alfie to bias his ...Arctic Awakening: Gameplay & Dev Insights - AdventureX 2022Nov 3, 2022 - Community AnnouncementsEvent Information We're part of the AdventureX 2022 event from November 3 - 9. We'll be running several streams throughout the event and will also be at the in-person event in London on November 5-6! About Arctic Awakening Arctic Awakening is a first-person narrative adventure set in the unforgiving Arctic. Your plane crashed in a storm, leaving only your court-mandated therapy robot for company as you journey to find your co-pilot and uncover the mysteries buried beneath the ice. Watch the broadcast on the Arctic Awakening store page.
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