Hey there!
It’s been a while since our last update, so we figured it was time for another one. We've got a lot to cover this time, so buckle up!
Before we dive into what the team is working on, we want to share a quick development update. We’re a few weeks away from feature complete, a milestone where all core features must be implemented and testable by our QA team. As always, everything shown here is still in development, and can go through changes before release.
While this doesn’t mean everything is final or perfectly polished yet, it does mark a hard cutoff for adding new features or making major changes to the core experience. We had to remove some of the upcoming votes from our roadmap to stay on track as they would have put our production timeline at risk, but we will make sure to keep you updated on their status through our blogposts.
After the feedback we received from creators, consultants and you, we decided to slightly revisit some decisions, making a few adjustments to what we have shown you. The suggestions are still being explored, but some of these have already gotten positive reception internally. We covered these changes in our latest Q&A on Discord, and will showcase some of them on our next Community Livestream on May 7.
Here’s a sneak peek at one of the things we’ve been exploring:
Our Programming team has been focusing on the controls, movement, and VFX support for the Ray of Retribution.
They are also working on the Banishment ⮕ Exiled ⮕ Saved by a Survivor Praying at a Shrine loop. The Sin Killer Effect and the spawning Hazards in the Exile are also in progress.
In the meantime, the VFX team has been focusing on the Ray of Retribution & Survivor Sin. The team wanted to approach this in an optimal and aesthetic way, with performance in mind, to ensure it is optimized for gameplay, looks nice, and fits with the art direction proposed.
The team has started working on the effect for Active Sin on the Survivor!
This was quite interesting to do as we had a really inspiring concept from Art Direction with some cool movement references. This effect is mostly all procedural material with the addition of a sine calculation on the particle's rotation to create the chaotic movement. We are still very early on this, but we are off to a good start.
We will share more details during the Community Livestream on May 7.
After the last vote, we held our Art Direction kick off with other teams to show how the gameplay would look. Based on their notes, and timing, we're making adjustments to some gameplay concepts. In parallel, we continue to work on the 3D versions of the Killer and Survivor, and the recoloring for their outfits.
For the Hopeless Exile, after the theme was selected, the team created blockouts and made a first pass on lighting, syncing with the Technical Art team to implement new material to achieve the visual demands of our art director. This is a work in progress, and there's a lot that can still change, but we are excited to see how it will evolve.
Since the voting results, Design has been working on refining the propositions with our programmers. The next step is to add them to a prototype for testing and tweaks to ensure we’re working toward a fun gameplay experience. Below is our first pass. Please keep in mind that once we test it out, things will likely change, as they should. Our goal is to keep making them feel better and more balanced.
Killer Perks
Survivor Perks
On May 7, the Grimoire opens for one last time. On this final vote, you will decide on the theme music and the art direction for the chapter’s key art. If you don’t know, key art is the main visual image that represents the game’s world, tone and brand, serving as foundation for our marketing campaign and assets.
That’s it folks. The Grimoire might be closing soon, but our updates and behind-the-scenes will continue until release. Don’t miss our Community Livestream on Thursday May 7.