Hello there, readers!

We’re now in the progress of going through the assets, and giving them the polished look that they need. One of the first things we’re going to update, is the dialogue screen.

From the above you can see the new design on its graphics. We’ve beefed up the size on the dialogue, and given the portraits these little animations. Now the characters blink, move their head, or do some little movement like that.

It’s weird and exciting to see the new dialogue screen in-game, as you’ve watched the previous version for so long. Every day of gamedev requires constant testing, running the game with different fixes and seeing what’s fixed. The former iteration of the dialogue screen just seemed like an alpha version of the design, and not something that belongs in the full game.

One of the major things that we’re updating is the main menu. We’re not only giving it a graphical re-haul, but adding some features like the Horde mode, Art gallery and Encyclopedia. The horde mode will be an extra survival-type game mode, where you can visit a couple of the environments from the actual game in a different, alternate timeline.

In this timeline the corruptive forces have spread much further, and all the locations are crawling with enemies. The environments will have a different look in this playmode, and will be redesigned to fit the mood. In horde mode, you will collect powerups and top your high score, as you survive further against the enemy onslaught.

Our inventory screen is also going through a new iteration, along with the objectives and map screen. The old version was never meant to be shipped as a part of the finished product, and was made only to display all the important information. We’re trying to enhance up the UI elements, but also trying to keep the simplicity of it. The hud should represent the theme and evoke the right kind of feeling about the gameworld.

The paper doll graphics of Bob also needed to be redone. The previous one was intended as a placeholder from the start, and was waiting to get replaced. As our character designer Vesa-Pekka is currently busy with the last animations of Bob, I had to take on the task of creating these little images.

We might do another iteration of the Bob picture seen above. It really depends on how much time we’ll have late in development. We have this principle that we’ll focus on the assets which are most regularly seen during gameplay, and give those a facelift. We will also go through the scenes, write some new stuff for them, and add some new interactive objects.

There’s still no set release date, but we’ll deliver the finished game by the end of this year. After that, we’ll see if there’s still something that needs fixing and patch it. We can’t wait to get the game to players and hear their feedback. Although we’ve had internal testing and QA on the game, it’s impossible to predict how the game will work with a larger audience.

• Harri J.