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Enter Bahlam, a sunken city of the Old Gods, located deep in the South Atlantic Ocean. Maritime archaeologist and adventurer Nikolay Bernstein and his life support droid Buddy must combine their unique skills to overcome Bahlam’s hostile creatures, uncover its secrets and find their way home.

Post news Report RSS Big Jan 2018 update & new demo!

Hope you're all well and enjoyed a couple of cozy days with your friends and families! As we've entered the new year I thought a bigger update on how we're doing would be a good thing to have, so here we go. Also, there is a new demo which you can download here on Indie DB!

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Hey guys,

hope you're all well and enjoyed a couple of cozy days with your friends and families! As we've entered the new year I thought a bigger update on how we're doing would be a good thing to have, so here we go.

THE NEW EARLY ACCESS BUILD IS READY!

The second area and two new bosses are completed and a lot of improvements to all aspects of the game were added. The build went out to our Kickstarter backers today. I also uploaded a new demo to Indie DB, so if you're interested in the game, try it and drop me some feedback!

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ARE WE ON SCHEDULE?

Bad news first: Not really, but for a good reason. The first months of early access have been incredibly valuable to me. Anyway, if you ask questions you get answers, and not only the ones you would love to hear. Outbuddies was a solid and functional game in Mai 2017 but the quality in terms of graphics, level design, narrative and other aspects like options and performance did not live up to the standards of today's indie games. Titles like Hollow Knight and Iconoclasts (out today and totally awesome) show what can be achieved by individuals and small teams and to stand a chance against this competition and ensure I'll be able to continue making games in the future I'd rather delay Outbuddies a bit instead of rushing it out in a subpar quality.

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WHAT'S NEW IN THE CURRENT BUILD 1.15 (Made a list for you)

AI Improvements and TONS of bugfixes (about 500+)

Made a new level editor so my design process speeded up a lot, redesigned rooms of Area I for the new player sprite, Area II is finished and two new bosses implemented, we also have a lot of doorless room connections now, which enabled far more interesting area layouts

Lot's of tweaks in platforming mechanics, adjusted to the new bigger player sprite

All weapons rebalanced with added quality of life features

New camera engine and viewpoint options

Visual Improvements: Underwater distortion, Color grading shader, visuals fully customizable in the game options, the game runs on real fullscreen now for far better performance

Complete button mapping support for keyboard and gamepads

Did a lot of polish on the game's tilesets and all characters

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NEW COVER ART AND VISUAL REBRANDING

As we did not make the stretch goals in the campaign it was unfortunately no longer possible for me to work with Amanda as an additional artist. She had done an awesome job with the campaign, but due to the given constraints I started with illustration next to pixel art myself and went for a rather kooky style inspired by Saturday morning cartoons. I'll develop this further if I find time next to bringing the game forward and hope it resonates with the game's core aesthetics and narrative.

I also shifted the main character to a rather badass, mature and edgy style. He also got a new name Lenny van Bernstein, maritime archeologist and adventurer. Looks a bit like angry Mario in a futuristic diving suit, actually. Hope that's a good thing XD.

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SO WHAT ABOUT THE SOUNDTRACK FROM OGRE?

Really good news: Robin will make a complete original Soundtrack for Outbuddies and has already started working on it about a week ago. I'll post an extra update on this when we've something to show. This point was very important for me, as I think a lot of you guys are really looking forward to it. The current build still contains sound loops done by me though.

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