Amber County - First Development Update news

Hi all!

I’m back after a couple of months with some news and, above all, a lot of changes in Amber County so let’s start with this DevLog.

As you can see in the header image, in the last months I worked on a new logo for the game. It’s slightly different compared to the first one. This new logo is more elegant, professional and I really think that it better reflects the game mood. The cool thing is that I didn’t worked a lot on it, the idea has come in my mind during a night and after two days of work the logo was ready. I really hope you appreciate this new Logo as much as I do!

The early prototype uploaded on IndieDB already featured the “black and white” graphic but the game still had that “amateur” look that I really hate. The actual version of the game features a cool Old Camera effect and a “2.40 aspect ratio”. Just to let you understand, it’s the same Camera Ratio used in “The Order: 1886”. You can check the new effects in the following video and in the Gameplay video posted below. Due to its "Narrative" nature, these effects surely make the game's look more similiar to a Movie and this fit perfectly with the "mood" I want to create.

Okay, now the most important thing: the gameplay is totally changed. The demo version that was uploaded on IndieDB used a hybrid system that merged a Point and Click system and a First Person Movements system. After several feedbacks from players, I find out that it was really intricate and a system like that just confuses the player so I have decided to change it and make it easier. Now you can still open the inventory and check your items but the screen will not be locked and you will not use the mouse to interact with both Inventory Items and Environment. Everything can now be done just by pressing E on the environment. By the way, the game still features puzzles and dialogues just like the old Point and Click adventures and I really hope that nostalgic fan will appreciate this. Here’s a sneak peak of the new gameplay:

So, how the development’s going? I can say pretty well. I am still working on the game alone but, at this point, the development is at its 20%. I decided to divide the game story in more days (5/6 days probably) and the first one is ready and can be played. I’ve developed several solutions for making the development of the game a bit faster thanks to the several functions that the Unreal Engine 4 offers so I think that the next "game days” will take less time to be developed.

I decided to archive the old Demo I posted here because it didn’t represent the actual game and can confuse the players. I got a lot of feedbacks from all the people who played this Demo and this allowed me to make several changes to the game so I want to say "Thanks to all of you". You can still play it but I don't recommend it.

Follow the project for more news during the next months (and be ready for a new and better trailer).