Devlog 1 - More interactions, expansion of levels, polish and Kickstarter

Hey everyone!

Welcome to Devlog 1! I’ll aim to keep these posts regular, at least once a month. Here’s what I’ve been working on this month for Path to Serenity:

I’m continuing to add more interactions to the world. I’ve built a flexible system that allows me to reuse the same scripts to create tasks, objectives, and interactive items. This month, I’ve focused on adding more of these elements to enhance the story and provide players with a deeper understanding of what’s happening. Path to Serenity is all about exploration—completing tasks by interacting with objects, and this is a key aspect of the game’s design.

I’ve added new interactive elements to the office scene:

A resignation letter from a staff member, Ewan, which the boss crumples, showing his lack of care.
A letter turned into an airplane, where the boss asks everyone to work hard and promises a pizza party on Friday.
A letter from Aunt Didi, now on the player’s desk, which reflects the protagonist’s struggles.
I’ve also been polishing the level design to make sure the environments look and feel as good as possible. I’ve been experimenting with post-processing effects and lighting to fine-tune the scenes.
More audio recordings of me voicing the main character have also been added as well as more sound effects.

In terms of tasks, I’ve been reorganising them to add more variety and depth. Now that the main mechanics are in place, it’s all about refining them and telling the story in the way I’ve envisioned.

Next, I’ll be focusing on creating a fourth level—a night scene in the forest. This will take place after the player leaves the office and gets lost on the road.

Many of the core mechanics are already in place, but there’s still work to be done. For example, controller support is already functional, but I need to ensure it works smoothly with the menus as well—currently, it’s only partial. If I cant get it to work the game will only work partially with the controller. But I am still working on it. There are also plans to add more options to the menu, such as credits and audio settings.

It’s going to be a busy month, but I’m looking forward to the progress!

I also wanted to share that Path to Serenity is now got a page that is live on Kickstarter. This campaign will help me bring in more unique art and really improve the game’s visual quality should the funding levels be reached. If you’d like to support it, I’ll leave a link below:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/luduspaxstudios/path-to-serenity-a-tranquil-adventure

Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to seeing you in the next devlog, where I’ll discuss what I’ve achieved and what’s coming next.

Silviu