The Uncertain Episode 1 The Last Quiet Day 
Save
Developers Diaries. MarchApr 5, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsHi all! Artem Netyagin is with you today! I'd like to give you the development report. I won't talk much, though. We delivered a great deal of new content for you to check out! We hope you're going to like it. We're creating more volume and adding details to the game world. Follow the link to read and view more on our Steam page. In addition, starting April, we're going to publish the The Uncertain: Light At The End news only on the Steam page. The page of part one will no longer see any development updates on part two! However, we'll keep publishing the most important news on both pages. Add part two to your wish list to follow the development process! Developers Diaries. March https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/64c3e0d7df4a9664d2dd5346e591dab3387aa3eb.jpgThank you for your support!Mar 29, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsDear friends, we'll be honest. We've been feeling very jittery since last night. Delaying the launch was a tough call. We were ready to take your rage. We prepared to explain our decision time and again, and to face your discouragement. We held our breath and followed your comments on social media and Steam. We were on pins and needles even before the first comment arrived. We got even more excited as we received more of them. Your support made us so happy. There were no rejection or denial, and it was so amazing to see! And today we would like to thank each and every one of you. Those of you who expressed their support. Those of you who liked and shared our post. And those of you who left bitter comments! We were ready for the fury but received your encouragement and appreciation! We acknowledge even your silent support. Your unspoken presence makes a difference! Our team, consisting mainly of tough bearded men, forwarded each other messages in our online workspace: "What a wonderful supportive community we have! It brings tears to my eyes!", "I've read the comments, tears came to my eyes, too!", "Isn't it nice to have such an acceptance!" We are forever grateful for your encouragement and approval. You're the best. Your kind support truly warms our hearts! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/de7e5101b9ca40eb658d38bcae71d0a264844a53.jpgThe Uncertain: Light at the End Release Postponed, New Release Date: Spring 2020Mar 28, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsWe would like to announce the delay of part two of our project. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but it is final. We believe it would be fair to explain our reasoning behind the delay. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/76253c39ff5d27547c5d29166d600948ecd2541f.jpg Release dates and porting to consoles Being a small independent team, we find it important to draw the maximum attention to the game release. Besides, you deserve to play the game wherever you feel most comfortable. We're planning to finalize the game by July 2019, and port it to consoles until Spring 2020. You can say, porting isn't a time-consuming process. You're right. But a number of AAA games are released in autumn, and winter is the traditional off-season. It's full of holidays, sale offers, Black Fridays, and it's Christmas in Europe and New Year in Russia! People play good old games, purchase discount games on their wish-lists, run their errands, vacation... long story short, a winter launch isn't a timely launch! Testing We can tell you more about the development process, game features, and most importantly, fully test and optimize the game before releasing it. We want to make the best glitch-free game we can and not put out something we know might have issues. We really look forward to your support! However, even with the delayed release, our Beta testers will see the game this summer. The Ins and Outs of Game Development Let's be honest. Things aren't always going swimmingly. We have replaced three leading 3D modellers lately. We also wrote a complex system for Unity, the Adventure System script editor, and implemented a lot of smaller technical solutions. A professional game designer and a screenwriter, Alexander Tsvetkov and Sergey Chekmaev, are working on The Uncertain: Light at the End. Quite a different team developed part one. Changes in the team, the increased gameplay time, new elements, animation, and characters' voices, game engine customization—it takes time. We're at the finish line. The path was longer than we'd planned. We apologize for that. The Good News To sum it up, we're releasing The Uncertain: Light at the End on PC and consoles in Spring 2020. The gameplay will become longer and more sophisticated, and the story will be more interesting, compared to part one. We continue the testing stage, starting the end of April. Our most passionate players will have a chance to see the game! We'll start working on another game in The Uncertain universe simultaneously with porting part two to consoles. The work will begin in June, and the final prototype will be ready by the end of July. We'll keep you posted about parts two and three, the team life, and our future plans. We appreciate your support and kind understanding! Do you have a question? Feel free to ask it in the comment section. Stay tuned!Meet Emily HalesMar 24, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsHello, dear friends! We'd like to tell you more about characters of The Uncertain: Light At The End. Let's start from Emily Hales. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/b27d62711b21f621ca833b79fe9713655a55e5d3.jpg Age: 24 Height: 5'6" Weight: 133 lbs. Emily is a former spatial designer (it's a more complex profession than a 3D modeler and visualizer, focusing on VR and AR). She knows the city very well because of her profession. She may act as a guide in a group or go out on reconnaissance missions. Not only she is interested in survival—she also deeply cares about the whole population. While on a mission, she's always on the lookout for things that others may need. She survived during the incident by coincidence: she passed out in a laundry room at home, and the robot cops couldn't find her. She came round to find out that all people were gone. She returned to her place. Her bot went mad. It was talking nonsense about the disappearance of the humankind years before. She went to her sister's home but didn't find her. Emily realized that all of it was the work of robots, so she was forced to leave the city center and hide from their increased activity in the area. She didn't meet so many people over long months. She changed several shelters and groups, but luckily, never got caught by the cops and always managed to get away from the chase. Emily is very powerful and determined, no stranger to sadness—and it takes time to get back to normal. Kind and considerate, she may get cynical if she has to fight injustice. Some issues are dealt with hastily, and Emily gets to concentrate on her own thoughts. Emily's actions sometimes result from player's choice, which adds another layer to her character, making it unique during every new game you start. A creative person, Emily is reflective but impulsive. She can give a snappy retort to any ordinary question, but at times you can find her patiently explaining something to the anxiously yelling Alex. She's not uptight, never hesitates to ask a question or speak her mind. Always in motion, she may freeze for a moment to enjoy the beauty of a ruined house in a sunset (we can see that in the game via the holographic watch). She's a pet lover, she always feels sorry for the strays. In the English localization, she's got a British accent.Developers Diaries. FebruaryMar 5, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsHi all! Artem Netyagin is with you today, and I give your our monthly development report. As we planned, February brought some advancements to our teamwork organization, and things began to improve. The tasks we set out on a path are mostly tedious, I don't want to bore you with these. In a word, we're still setting up locations and game logic, making puzzles and minigames, refining gameplay, and fixing glitches. But we made a bunch of new stuff that I'll show you below! Now we work on Steam Audio, the plugin that makes all effects sound more natural by recreating the interaction of sound waves with the virtual environment. In other words, it makes everything sound very real. It improves immersion and enhances the game atmosphere. We finally furnished our Moscow office, now we can throw ourselves back into the project! Some good work was done over the recording room. It's perfectly sound-proofed—now we can use it to record tracks and voiceover artists! On the upside, in case things don't work out with the game development, we can always build a career of reparation and maintenance team or assemble furniture for money :) https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33666106/c50657744a036b5d033c2a16087103ae40ce38ec.jpg "Cushy job", they said! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33666106/8fc1bb217cd746470d2c12cb7e027f6b2ec5d03d.jpg A quadcopter manufacturer's logo (may in remain nameless) will soon be replaced with our new logo. Here's a little something for you: https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33666106/6d6f92a9aa3dcc85daa58954f1b70380daedaad3.jpg The subway station you've already seen is now coming to life in 3D. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33666106/fd54bb1688ec38de02f307bba2f7a70a9a7b7f7b.jpg Emily's morphs, or blend shapes, used to make various emotions. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33666106/9330f0c8045aca28facb5c2a8b904c9e32b0cea2.jpg Alex, the most mischievous character. We're sure you're going to like him. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33666106/36dac9236d839c67a7875d069ebe26e0f955050c.jpg Ember, a holographic helper from the geek shop. We chose the iteration number one. Which one do you like most? https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33666106/6a92ea4a08e9b9865e1d511c64d4c3b8ee754d34.jpg There are survivors' graffiti on many buildings of the abandoned city. Can you find them all? https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33666106/b5cb486d5ad5f3b53cedbc68a8c7dd56617c5365.jpg The game features a lot of magazines. You can read them to learn about the world or unlock an achievement. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33666106/da5a93b4bdec6cee926dc530de920d48df69c776.jpg The text here is just a placeholder, but you will find real interesting magazine articles in the...Developers Diaries. JanuaryFeb 5, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsHey there! I'm Artem Netiagin, and today I'm going to tell you about the work we've done :) January is over. It's time to sum up everything we did. We took a good long holiday, which left us with just a few working days. But the work we did last month was really great. The thing is, we don't have that much time left until the release. The whole team is racing against the clock. As we planned, the team faced a change (for the better), and the reorganization allowed us to prioritize the tasks that were falling behind, such as gameplay and animations. Major changes are ahead, and we're very hopeful about the future. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/db3eeac0fe332b24bf9a1607a972bd09d7f1739f.jpg The abandoned warehouse is coming to life: people will return to it. We've been perfecting the diagrams that represent the game logic and store all characters' cues. 3D modelers and artists are slaving away at the last levels: the sewers, the warehouse, and the subway. Several team members are integrating the logic and applying sound effects. Since we're almost done with the coding, programmers have switched to other tasks, such as game interfaces and good old puzzles. The characters are ready to be animated and get their facial expressions, and it's a major breakthrough! We're working on each character's basic emotions right now. And of course, I can't ignore the recent Beta! We'd love to thank all of you, who took part in it! Together we found and fixed a considerable amount of nasty bugs, and implemented a ton of improvements. We hope, during the next testing stage you'll be pleased to see that we followed your feedback and reports. By this stage, we're planning to add another level, along with some polished and finalized animations and gameplay features. Here are a few screenshots for you to enjoy. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/ba1d4c477311c1a3ebbbc97e596c1933dab01429.jpg Game logic in diagrams. Many events and dialogs are based on your actions in previous levels. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/6b52e7c686590c5b76e92534ccf02d9233d7c06d.jpg Sewers, basic geometry. There's a lot of work to do, but the future level energy is already in the air. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/a2ee039b14301651066349c46dd45d0ff1af2e31.jpg We're finalizing and introducing another aerocar. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/cc9ce1432fc54a805ff7be6ec0d07ac5f3266d2d.jpg A drugstore scanner; you'll need to avoid its rays in a QTE. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/107f68fbde22993e6d44a5dc949381edf189e74d.jpg Emily looks livelier with her improved facial skin texture. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/dd402b35f7263dc562e73a2619df67530db5ea27.jpg Just wait until you see her facial animatio...The Beta test ends on January 21!Jan 15, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsThere's only one week left till the end of The Uncertain — Light at the End Beta. We've received tons of useful feedback, ideas, and suggestions from you. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/56ddfeecdf1082dd1a39f160983acaf23112a660.jpg If you haven't had the chance to try out the Beta version, you better hurry — all access keys will be disabled as soon as Beta ends. We also have a favor to ask of you. There's a link to a feedback form in the same e-mail, which contained the Beta access key. Please, take a minute and fill it in. It's the best way to share your impressions of the Beta version. Do you prefer to keep your mailbox clean, and have erased the invite? No worries! We're sending you another e-mail with the link as you read this post! :) We'd like to thank all Beta test participants, all our fans and supporters! We'll make a great game together!New CBT stage!Jan 4, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsDear friends, the next CBT stage is about to start. As you requested, you no longer need to download any files. We sent you Steam activation keys instead. Please, check your e-mails. If you filled in a participant's form, but you haven't received a key, please, check your spam folder. If you entered your e-mail address correctly, you should have it. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/b1c06a9dcf58b89f49f94c5aeba94adcb26875d9.jpg Follow the instructions as shown in the GIF animation below. After you activate the Beta version, it'll appear in your library. It'll stay there until the testing stage is over. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/b0d0e5a9187be23367791aa8b421b390ae79e147.gif New Beta version features You need a Steam client to launch the game. Added the intro, start menu, and a cut scene. You may play and complete the demo level, but just like the previous version, it lacks QTEs, and its animations are draft quality. Improved the English and Russian localization of the menu, starting cut scene, and the level. Added most objects that you can check out and interact with. Fixed camera shake effects. Added gamepad controls. Optimized the game. Fixed a lot of bugs and glitches. PLEASE, NOTE: this is a test version of the game. Animation, performance, and many other aspects are not finalized. Please, do not stream or let's-play it, or publish screenshots. We will greatly appreciate your feedback and bug reports! They will allow us to polish the game and make it perfect for you.Happy New Year!Dec 31, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsToday the year 2018 is ending. Can't wait for 2019! It'll bring us the Uncertain: Light at the End! Before we proceed to the wishing part, let's take some time to reminisce the past year. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/2fe11b357d8bb4ba09934ef4ce45529310c7b1ea.jpg We spent the first half of the year in silence, but it was a busy time. We were developing the game and preparing the Kickstarter campaign. We recorded a trailer, built the demo version, interviewed the team, developed the advertising campaign—and the game development never stopped! Before starting the Kickstarter campaign we run the alternate reality game. Emily's adventures lasted for more than a month. As one of the players pointed out, she "lost our world". It was our first experience, which didn't go entirely smoothly, but we enjoyed it anyway. The new year might bring the fans of online puzzles a new game from us! Stay tuned. Finally, we launched the Kickstarter campaign. Even though we didn't raise enough, it was a very important lesson. We rehearsed the release, optimized our team's resources, told you our story, and learned yours. You may find all Kickstarter updates regarding the development process here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1321269974/the-uncertain-episode-2-light-at-the-end/updates. The New Year's eve is the perfect time to thank all of you, who supported us through this amazing experience. Our relatively small team faced some staff turnover this year. The 3D head was replaced three times, and this affected the deadlines. Despite all hardships, we entirely finalized the 3D objects. We still need to record or embed most animations, but the Uncertain world, still and motionless, is almost finalized. We keep showing you the game. First, you saw the demo version during the Kickstarter campaign, today you can check out the closed beta-test version. We deeply appreciate your feedback, comments, and opinions—and use it to improve the game. By the end of the year, the vector of the development process is as user-oriented as it can be. We did a stream and recorded two podcasts. It's not too much, but it's an important first step. Not only some team members started the conversation with our gaming community, the whole company did! After all, the development process is very complex. One specialist alone can never give players a good idea of it. We're planning to go on. The new year will bring you more podcasts, news, streams, and lotteries! We also have a personal message from one of our studio's founding fathers Artem Smirnov: Dear friends! 2018 was the year of our firsts. We organized our first Kickstarter campaign, developed and run the ARG, shot our first trailer with real actors, held our first (very hearty and warm) stream with the developers, and recorded our first podcast. If there's a trial, there's an error. We couldn't avoid mistakes, and that's natural. We had some faulty planning and staff turnover (three 3D lead...The first stage of the CBT The Uncertain: Light At The EndDec 21, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsHello, dear friends! We are glad to launch the closed beta testing finally. It will consist of several stages. During them we will collect a feedback from you and our own testers, analyze it, fix bugs and upgrade the game with a large number of new features. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33666106/b61b2a6ddec01bbb84e1c0531b094670e462150d.jpg At the first stage of the CBT we present you a part of the game from the very beginning of the game. Its gameplay is almost ready. All characters already know their cues (only in the form of subtitles). But they may still change. The voices will be recorded at later stages. The graphics are close to the final, but it will be refined. We’ve added several soundtracks and sound effects. What the game does not have yet is the puzzles, the intercom interface. Animation is ready in draft form, no facial expressions have been added yet. QTE will also appear in later stages of testing. Important: we urge you not to stream, do not post in the open access video of the gameplay from the demo and also the test build itself, since this could harm the reputation of the game, which gamers will see far from the final quality. To start playing, check your email, find a mail from us, download the archive of the client from the link, unzip it and follow the prompts: Please do not judge us too harshly. We specifically launch the CBT with a pretty “raw version” to start receiving your feedback and advice at the earliest possible development stage, before complicating of the gameplay. So after you have played enough in the demo version you may share your impressions, suggest something or tell about the bugs using special form (link to it is also in the mail). Join CBT (till 28.12.18)The Uncertain: episode two is historyDec 12, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsAs you might have noticed, we recently updated the game info both on our website and on Steam. We removed the word "episode" from the description, and there's a reason for that. We gave up on the idea of episodes. More specifically, we gave up on it a while ago. The new description just dots the i's and crosses the t's. When we started developing our very first game, we'd planned to make it episodic: first game first, continued story in the episode two, and the grand finale in the episode three. However, the highlights shifted in the course of the work. There are three reasons why the Light at the End became the second story of The Uncertain rather than episode two. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33666106/9b17a863bafa5d3904035d1330b208fe6af7860f.jpg Gameplay changes We gained experience. The industry has changed. Our team became bigger and passed through some replacements. The second game will inherit and develop the ideas of the part one. Yet still it's a distinctive project featuring new puzzles, a different story, and enhanced graphics. While preserving the game universe and familiar atmosphere, we retrofitted almost all game-specific aspects. It is not a sequel Part one narrated a story about a world without people and a lonely robot-explorer. Part two, albeit connected with the storyline of part one, is complete in itself. This is a game about the few people, who survived after the robot uprising against humanity. Is it okay to play the second game without completing the first? Most certainly. Will the comeback to the familiar universe make the experienced player happy? We hope so. Non-linear narrative As we worked on The Uncertain's story, we realized that it's absolutely impossible to keep the narrative linear. Arti can never understand the human survivor's logic. He's physically incapable of human emotions. On the other hand, Emily can never understand Arti. She's accustomed to things that he perceives as twisted and weird. Revealing the world's planes one by one would've taken us too long, failing to produce a solid and distinct image. So we decided not to take the Telltale way. We followed Terry Pratchett's footsteps instead. We're bringing you several independent stories that take place in one universe. We have more freedom in terms of the storyline, and you can learn about the universe of The Uncertain in any order. Do you want to play only one game? Or complete both games as they are released? You can also wait for the release of game two, and learn about Arti's story after you've completed it. It's up to you to decide. The two stories might overlap. Or not. Only time can tell. Will our decision affect the development time? In no way. As we announced, we are releasing The Uncertain: Light at the End in 2019! The Uncertain: Light at the End closed beta-test registrationDevelopment news (October-November)Dec 4, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsHello, everybody, and welcome back! Artem Netiagin speaking, and it's time I tell you about the things we did in the past few months. As you'll recall, by the end of September we completed a Kickstarter campaign, which consumed a lot of effort and resources. Despite this, we tried hard to keep the development momentum and make it. The winter is coming. We're still working hard, warming ourselves by our system units heat. What we achieved, you ask? Our biggest accomplishment is the game levels we've been building. Aside from fine details, the locations are 70% ready! We also took a new look at the visuals. We don't just aim for an ambient post-apocalyptic look, we try and give every level its individual taste, a little something to remember it by. In addition, we've been adding more chaos and destruction to make the environment look even more worn down. As a result, it isn't just selected corners that will attract players' attention, but whole locations, each of them featuring its unique style and atmosphere well within the general concept of the game. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/f09dddf066b6d29b08379c14ee414b0d3bd0ea7d.jpg Major and minor details also occupy our minds: we're delivering heaps of decals, level objects, vehicle models, objects of interest, and many other things for you to fiddle with. Fallout 4 is still a long way off if you look at the number of objects, but on our scale, there's a whole lot of them for every taste. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/0f50957462327b3b1893022b6fc92ee726cc1b7b.jpg Character models. Now, most of them are ready, except Olga and Claire, and prepared for their rigs and a hair shader. In the meantime, our animators are prepping their mockups for the first cutscene shootings. We never got to use this technology in the previous episode, but now that there are people in the game, it's an absolute must for realistic movements and a cinematic picture. It'll be our first. To tell you the truth, we aren't entirely clear on what's it going to be like in the game, but we're very curious, and can't wait to see it all! Apart from that, the first facial gesture and lip sync validation is just around the corner. We want to capture and convey characters' emotions and match their lip movements to what they're actually saying. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/00a40dfe5542b8eb060d3c4c8c2215eb5ca821b2.jpg The artists were constantly distracted by the secondary objectives, such as Kickstarter campaign, social media posts, and Steam page design. Nevertheless, they're trying their best, and in terms of game art completion, they're neck and neck with the modelers. 70% to 80% level concepts are ready. We have a ton of minor textures, such as holographic signs, banners, magazines, and books, ahead of us. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/09d4c4f11ce373e568873...Game design featuresNov 19, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsHello, dear friends! My name is Alexander Tsvetkov, I am a game designer at ComonGames studio. Today I will tell you about the features of the Episode 2 gameplay, and Artem Netyagin will reveal the differences with the first episode. Our gameplay is engaging thanks to our small gameplay perks. You will hardly notice all of them, but together they work to build the picture. We achieve this by constantly asking ourselves the questions: what would attract the player’s attention? What would be interesting to explore? Which paths would they want to take? Which events would help unwind the story in the most accurate manner? For example, almost every potentially interesting object can be inspected. In most cases, Emily, our protagonist, has something to say about it. One of the new game features is Emily’s smart watch. Its in-built scanner helps you see something that’s hidden from your eye at first sight. There’s a thrill of discovery in there: what will I find if I scan another portion of the world? https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/6c2d2146fcf57f29a216db7ea3c4c9043f34c0d3.png Other than through interactions with the environment, the game’s world is built up in dialogues. They are varied, and the decisions you take affect the whole progress. You can influence the choices of two members of your survivor group, as well as establish positive or negative relationships with them. For instance, you may have some items that aren’t crucial for the story, but you can use them to change the relationships among the team members. This encourages the player to pay more attention and develop a deeper understanding of how their actions affect what’s happening on the screen. You will find various pop-culture references in the game. The story is set in the future, in a place which the player is not familiar with. But Easter Eggs will help one to feel surrounded by something recognizable and loved. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/105e51a00c1081b17708c48da5bc7a7efc97fcd1.png Artem Netyagin: In Episode 2 we decided to go with the third-person view instead of a static one to make controls more intuitive and let you examine our world more thoroughly. It won’t make you feel as if you were playing a completely different game, because many elements have remained the same: for example, the dialogue interface, hotspots, and the action circle. Speaking of dialogues, we’ve changed the dialogue system. Now you can go over all the available options. In Episode 1 the dialogues were non-linear, and you could select only one of the lines. It is, of course, impossible to list all the game design changes in one update, given that we add and remove features as we're moving along the development process, refining the ultimate gameplay experience. You have tried one of the first “rough cuts” playing the tech demo. We’ll appreciate your feedback in the comments section and your opinions as to what you like...Moving forwardNov 8, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsHello, dear friends! Let us share some project news with you. Kickstarter the campaign unforutnately has failed, but this just challenged us. There's no sense in pointing fingers, arguing over right and wrong, and sorting out what we missed. Of course, we feel it's essential to analyze the ups and downs internally. We will figure out our mistakes and draw conclusions for the future. We'll hardly bring The Episode Two back to Kickstarter. As we said, our resources are enough to complete the development process, however hard it'll be. We have a release ahead of us, and The Episode Three is just around the corner. Yes, let us ensure you — the game will be released next year just as it was planned. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/7d257861ce4348a8ce17938bd9ea115e873f503d.jpg We are here, first and foremost, to commit and tell you our stories. Very simple and therefore charming stories about a lonely robot, about a girl and a small group of last survivors, about a huge world, created and abandoned by humanity. We managed to engage and sweep you along with us, wondering: how's Emily doing? What's going to happen to Arti? Where have all the people actually gone? Development of the Episode Two is well under way. It's mainly technical and not very entertaining process, but we promise to post updates at least once a month! Thank you for your support! Stay with us!24 hours till the end of the campaign, 72 hours before the stream with the developersOct 24, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsHello, dear friends! The ComonGames team is on air. Today we’ll talk about an important pending issue. Only 24 hours left until the end of our Kickstarter campaign. The last month has been very intense and exciting. We hope that you enjoyed our updates and learned more about the development process of The Uncertain. 681 people have supported us since the beginning of the campaign. You left your comments to the news, told your friends about us, followed the project! Rest assured, no matter the result, it’s just a start. Follow us on social networks and see the development process. We promise to release the second episode. We’ll do everything in our power to make each and every one of you love the game. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/a9ec55d848444e1f5f93239410671ec6956cfa24.jpg On October 25 we’ll complete our fund-raising effort. We’re planning to discuss it internally with the team on October 26. The stream with the development team and an AMA session will be held on Twitch on October 27 at 12:00 PM UTC, as promised - we’ll be playing our favorite old games and fun/party games. At 2 PM UTC Sergey Yermolov will start a cooking show to demonstrate the diversity of our talents. Starting 4 PM UTC, we’ll be playing Choice Chamber, Domina, and Game Dev Tycoon together with you! The AMA session begins at 6 PM UTC. We’ll be happy to answer your questions regarding the development process, the game, the Kickstarter campaign, tell you about our future plans, and absolutely any other questions of yours! We’ll show you the current version of the game at 8 PM UTC. During the stream, we’ll be answering your questions, raffling off prizes, ripping the covers away from the development process to keep you entertained and steal your hearts! Stay tuned, follow us on Twitch and see you during the stream! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/8d9d18d53715382ea26285cb86ec1cf7bc376fcb.jpgRobots, Horses, and Sound Synthesizers. Creating Sound for The UncertainOct 16, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsHello everybody! My name is Igor Fomichev, I'm the sound designer and composer for ComonGames studio. Today I'm going to tell you about the SFX (sound effects) creation for the Uncertain episodes. I always try blur the line between the real life and the game for the players. A credible sound picture requires long and painstaking work, but it offers a great scope for controlling player's attention. A correct emphasis in a cutscene, a change in tone, or an unexpected sound effect add up to the atmosphere and allow deeper immersion into the game. Sound effects build into locations and music pieces grant a seamless transition from level ambient to the music. While working on The Uncertain, I faced a curious phenomenon. Recording sounds for a world without people turned out quite a challenge! Normally, we don't see it, but most everyday, familiar sounds are produced by humans. A door slam, an elevator ride, footsteps, muffled sounds of a heated discussion, car engines, vehicle horns... All of them are regular background sounds. We can't just switch them off without making the player uncomfortable. On the one hand, I had to fill the game with sounds without everyday noises. It surely posed certain challenges. On the other hand, I had all freedom to choose the sounds that I needed. In episode two, despite the appearance of humans, we're trying to keep the mysterious atmosphere and the feeling of loneliness. As a sound designer, I find it easier to record sounds for a human character rather than a robot. I don't know so many androids, but I've lived all my life among humans, so I'm able to identify the human sounds appropriate for this or that situation. Recording the sound of Emily's run through in the final scene was one of the most challenging tasks that I had to face while working on episode one. It took me a while to get the correct sound. I couldn't find or record the sound of footsteps on a rough terrain. Eventually we decided to use the sound of hooves. A horse shifting from hoof to hoof sounded very convincing. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/add0224050628d2193b29437b82a3999fcf5c59c.png Game event sounds are important. Environmental synth sounds that accompany character's expression of emotions are nonetheless important. This is where I could give my fancy full scope! I only had to clearly spell the sounds, make them easily perceptible, and keep them in a uniform game style. The protagonist is a curious young girl. She picks up a lot of items to examine, study, and put back—and I expect recording a lot of relevant sounds. This is exactly what the actress who played Emily in the Kickstarter video did. She picked up and examined almost all items on the scene. The original version contained over a hundred sound effects: all kinds of light switches, rustling paper of books, newspapers, and leaflets, buzzing projectors, and other stuff she grabbed hold of during the shoot. I can re-use all these effects in ...More than 500 people have supported The Uncertain - AMA announcement on Twitch!Oct 9, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsThere are congratulations to be held for both you and us today. Thanks to you we’ve achieved another community goal: we’ve reached the 500 backers milestone. Which means that it’s time to answer your questions on Twitch. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/bfc1303b1ea52b1f311f2cd8a7f27f21c6eaee00.jpg We don’t want for the AMA to degrade into a bland conference with a remotely-based team. We wouldn’t like to stream something like black screen or webcam images, while the distance between participants totals at thousands of kilometres. That’s why we’ve come to a decision: on 27th of October the team will partially gather in one place, at a certain time. The stream’s schedule will be kept under adjustments till the last day, so be sure not to miss the final announcement! The list of what we are ready to disclose right now: AMA A giveaway of prototype versions of all the physical rewards. These aren’t final products, so these copies will be one-of-a-kind. Some fragments of The Uncertain: Episode 2 demo. And a lot of other interesting stuff which we will disclose during upcoming two weeks To answer all of your questions and entertain you we will gather ComonGames cofounders Artem Smirnov & Alexander Mogutov, Head of development and Game idea author Artem Netyagin. ComonGames COO & CIO Sergey Ermolov and Sergey Zykin as well as The Uncertain Project Manager Alexey Surkov will join them. Alexander Tsvetkov our Game Designer will tell you more about game mechanics and puzzles while our Lead 3D artist Andrey Trunov, Artist Herman Kromer, Lead animator Eugeniy Molotskiy and animators Anatoliy Potebnya and Victor Borodin will give comments on Episode 2 visuals. Our sound producer and composer Igor Fomichev will help you to hear sounds of lost humanity. And if you want to ask something about game marketing, social media promotion or community management - our PR and SMM specialists Stanislav Pleshev and Eugeniy Leutin will be happy to help you out on this matter. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/8d9d18d53715382ea26285cb86ec1cf7bc376fcb.jpg Follow our Twitch channel right now and you definitely won’t miss the stream https://www.twitch.tv/comongames We’re infinitely grateful for your support and starting to prepare for the event - it’s gonna be huge!Back to the Future or Causes of lingering developmentOct 4, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsHi! Artem Netyagin, Head of Development, here and today i’m gonna tell you how the development of The Uncertain: Episode 2 looks on the inside. I hope that having read this you’ll learn more about some aspects of work of small indie-studios as well as why there wasn’t a second episode for such a long time. The Uncertain: Episode 1 - The Last Quiet Day was our studio’s first game. The development of a sequel didn’t start right after the release of the first game - there was a half a year pause. During that time we were not only coming round after the release of our first project, but also supported Episode 1 and ported it to other platforms. Meanwhile first steps in Episode 2’s development have already been made simultaneously with the finishing touches of the first. We’ve already had a first draft of the story, first models, concept arts and even a couple of really crude locations. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/b4d857b8fca2b63ce11bf64a9fc2b3d508ac1579.jpg After the release of Episode 1 we’ve got a lot of reactions. The feedback was generally positive, but there was some critique as well, fortunately quite insightful. Having taken notice, we’ve realized that we had to change our approach to development: in Episode 1 I took up too many tasks and I had to solve many of them for the first time in my life, which affected the quality of the game. After some discussions we’ve decided that everyone has to do his own thing. We hired a dedicated script writer and a dedicated game designer. And even though I continue to closely work with them, they have taken most of key tasks for themselves. Changes in the team and the approach to development have led to a complete overhaul of the game concept and the script of Episode 2, effectively meaning we started over. Thanks to the team’s expansion we were actually on the way to creating something special, and the award that our script has gotten, “Die Grosse Nordklinge”, or “The Greatsword of Northern Lands” is another indication of that. Working as a team we’ve managed to interweave the story of Episode 2 into the already existing one of the first episode, not really changing the general concept, but making the story more engaging nonetheless. The work on the script and dialogues became much more serious - at the same time taking much longer to complete. While reading your comments we’ve noticed that a lot of players were upset by the fact that the game was quite linear. Surely it is not in our capacity to create something as non-linear as Detroit: Become Human, but we’ve put a lot of effort into creating some story branching, which should make each playthrough more individual. We won’t disclose the details just yet - you’ll see everything for yourself after the release. Moreover, the type of characters has changed. There is a reason why there were only robots around in Episode 1: I’ve chosen them not entirely because of the plot. They are also easier to animate, their...Kickstarter updateOct 3, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/9e88fcb635105a2114aa6a80d0da22cca3092b93.jpg Hello, friends! We’d like to share some good news about our successes and your accomplishments on Kickstarter. By this time today we have already gathered more that $13000, which translates to more than a quarter of final goal! We’ve told you two fascinating stories: how The Uncertain was born and how we create our music. This week we’ll tell another engaging story exclusively to our backers. While it’s being prepared be sure to read a publically available post how we’ve managed to create the melancholic tone of The Uncertain. Meanwhile the story of The Uncertain: Light at the End was awarded a prestigious German award “The Greatsword of Northern Lands”. So it’s unsurprising that during this time more than 400 fans joined our Facebook page, 200 - our Steam group page, the number of backers exceeded 400 and the post about the start of the Kickstarter campaign has been reposted dozens of times. We are talking about numbers not just for the sake of it, but because you, our dear fans, get rewards for completing certain community goals. For example, you can find 50 free game keys for Episode 1 in the discussion section of The Uncertain: Episode 2 - Light At The End as we speak. You can find more detailed information on possible rewards for backer and active members of the community on the main page of our Kickstarter project. Help us reach our goal and we will repay you many more times to come! SUPPORT The Uncertain: Light at the End Kickstarter CampaignThe Uncertain: Episode 2 — Light at the End starts a fundraising campaign right now!Sep 25, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/24743864/1aaa59f1887c7a03dd78bc2c21db555d77a49db7.jpg Long story short: follow the link, watch the trailer and you will find out a lot of stuff about the main protagonist, her companions, story features and the latest news on the development process. If lately it seemed like we do not treat people with enough news — starting today the picture is different. An alpha demo version is available now as well. You can download it right now from Kickstarter! Please, support us, share these news with your friends and keep an eye out — during this campaign we will tell you a lot of new things. Support us on Kickstarter!
Show Comments
