Major update

LONG OVERDUE; THE BIG UPDATE YOU DESERVE

Broken Sword 5 - the Serpent's Curse · published 19 May 2022, 12:59 UTC

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6.3 GB - RECOMPRESSED JUST FOR YOU

OKAY BUT WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
Compression is a big part of ever day computing. Images take up large amounts of memory and disk space, so we use compression techniques to store them when they're not being viewed. For example ".png" and ".jpg" are ways to store much larger information, just packed up neatly.
Particularly 2D games like Broken Sword 5, will contain tons of large graphical data and audio files that would take up obscene amounts of space without compression. To us it's important to keep an eye on the latest techniques and pass on those benefits to all of you!

🤫 FUN FACTS SIDEBAR:
Back when we finalised the frame of Broken Sword 5 the method of compression we used for such big files was z-lib, which is an industry standard super stable and quick default compression technique.
But then (dramatic music) a contender, a lone ranger, a rogue, open-source Zstandard appeared!!!

🤏 FILE SIZE REDUCED BY 10%
On mobile, as you might know, Broken Sword 5 was split into 2 parts.
And even then both parts are still MASSIVE!!! Especially for phones...
So we're always looking at the development of reliable compression, and Zstandard was used in our most recent overhaul-update of Broken Sword 5 on the Google Play Store. It's only fair that Steam should reap the benefits too. Therefore Broken Sword 5 now takes up 10% less hard drive space than it used to!

NATIVE APPLE SILICON SUPPORT

Apple have released their own CPUs known as Apple Silicon, or M1 chips.
This means Broken Sword 5 will now run natively rather than emulated!
It might not feel much different to you, but your Mac is LOVING this efficiency, and who knows, there might be a few more minutes of battery life in it for you too!
We felt like you deserved a little treat.

IMPROVED FULL SCREEN SUPPORT

There were a two things we felt the need to improve on in this matter:

🗔 SWITCHING BETWEEN FULL SCREEN AND WINDOWED MODE
Broken Sword 5 comes packaged with 2 completely different asset resolutions: 1080p (Full HD) and 720p (Regular HD). Which assets are displayed depends on the resolution of your monitor and whether or not you run the game in full screen, or windowed mode.
However when switching between full screen and windowed mode the game was previously allowed to switch between asset resolutions as well. This incurred a full tear down of the engine and a reload of ALL game assets. Not ideal!!! This resulted in the game going black and pausing for up to 10 seconds before displaying correctly. Imagine your computer just frantically recollecting every single asset like "Oh no, no. nonono I didn't know there was gonna be a test!?" while you get to stare into a black square! Many of you probably felt like the game was crashing - we don't blame you! But we do blame us!!!!!!!
When switching to windowed mode now, you get a single appropriate graphics solution.
So if your monitor is 1080p, the assets will remain in 1080p, even if displayed smaller in windowed mode.

📏 WIDE-SCREEN MONITORS
When using wide-screen monitors some of you experienced cropping issues with the game.
We've now made sure more aspect ratios are supported so the game displays without any cropping or stretching issues! It will now utilize black bar spacers when needed.

🎬 BLACK BARS EXPLAINED
Sometimes the question comes up, and we think it's super interesting to talk about...
Broken Sword 5 is a 2D game; It contains tons of hand drawn artwork, and the characters while modelled in 3D, were processed and exported as 2D sprites. The actual game engine in Broken Sword 5 only ever deals with 2D assets! It's a true 2D point-and-click adventure. This was a stylistic choice, and combined the charm of a hand drawn game we wanted, with the character flexibility we needed.
In 3D games there is the luxury of assets in a scene with environment and geometry, and while it still takes a lot of work, the "camera" in this engine can be tweaked, and view ports can be altered to accommodate different aspect ratios.
But in 2D, there is no "bit to the side" - the art was made to fit the game exactly.
This leaves us (and other games in our position) with 3 options:
💀 cropping issues that can get players stuck
📏 big stretch to fit
😭 stop everything, fund a huge overhaul, re-do the whole game, work years to finish, find out a new ultra ultra wide monitor dropped, cry, rise, and repeat
✔️ display black borders

MORE IN THE WORKS FOR OUR GAMES

We hope this sheds a little light onto how we make some of these decisions, and that it's not because we don't love you. We care so much about what you think and how you experience our games. Many of you reach out to us to tell us how much we changed your lives, well! You changed ours too!!
We think about your experiences all the time, and we really want you to feel appreciated, loved, and cared for.

Currently our plan is to look at our games all across the platforms they are currently on, and give them a spruce up, so if you're wondering if we're getting to the other games, we absolutely are.
Is there a timeline for that? Absolutely not! We don't want to overpromise. We're an indie studio with a tiny core team supporting our existing titles, which can mean that when things pop up it can affect our timeline. But the important part is that we want you to know it's happening, and we're actively, right now, working on it 💖

And last, but not least:

STEAM DECK

STEAM DECK, STEAM DECK, STEAM DECK!!!
Broken Sword 5 is Steam Deck compatible, and it looks ✨ STUNNING ✨

We added a handy function which lets the code know if you're running on a Steam Deck or not, which helps to natively adapt to the system once booted. This should assure a seamless experience of enjoying Broken Sword 5 on the Steam Deck

Shoutout to LowSpecGamer for making these pictures! Check out his channel for fun and informative videos surrounding the early journeys of the games industry. We honestly think you all would love it, especially the retrogamers amongst you!
Wait, one more! Last one, promise