Episode 2 released (Patch 2.0)

Hi everyone, I am very happy to finally present the release of Version 2.0!

Episode 2: An unusual Profession

... is now live on Steam and contains a big pack of new contents exclusively available in the full version:

• A new chapter extends the storyline and introduces completely new contents.
• Direct continuation of Episode 1 starting inside the eremites' house.
• Expansion of the wood zone into new area Village, including explorable house interiors.
• Introduction of the brand new area monastery, the biggest place in this episode, including 7 puzzle filled rooms to explore.
• Episode 2 contains 56 new camera perspectives/screens!
• Extended NPC interaction allows cooperation game play with friendly characters and combat against demonic evocations!
• Meet over 50 critters and characters with four different creature types and one new complex personality.
• Support of story branching through non-linear options, resulting from direct and indirect player decisions.
• Interactive dialog trees with selectable topics deepen the storyline and give hints for puzzle solving.
• Various new puzzles with individual types of interaction.
• 7 new optional achievements to gain.
• A new exclusive soundtrack by Spencer Bambrick increases the game's atmosphere.
• Michelle Lewis significantly improved English language of the game. Also check out her concept art design portfolio!
• ...and much more. See below (or website) for more details on bugfixes and changes.

Also don't miss the brand new teaser trailer for Episode 2 here in the product description or on YouTube.

How to play Episode 2

Open Steam and let the client update your game installation. Start A Room Beyond and continue a saved game.

As Episode 2 continues Episode 1 it is not possible to directly start in 2. You have to finish Episode 1 to continue to the next chapter via the new Episode tree shown at the end of each episode:

There is no new contents (only general bugfixes) in the demo, Episode 2 content is exclusively included in the purchasable full version.

This release was tested to be stable in common. However if you find a bug, let me know so I can fix it. ːsteamhappyː

Best,
-- René

CHANGE LOG for PATCH 2.0General

• The full version release of the game contains the complete contents of Episode 2: “An unusual Profession”
• General optimization and fixes apply to all episodes and may also be included in the free Episode 1 demo release.

New Content & Design Changes

• Fighting adds a complete new gameplay element to the game. At some story points enemies appear. It is possible to fight these enemies with different weapons and strategies. Enemies’ attack and defense actions become stronger in proportion to player’s progress.
• Attacks by enemies or contact with hazards now lower the main character’s health. When health is zero the character dies and the game is over.
• NPCs are able to fight for or against the player.
• Gameplay now supports flexible dialogs. For some characters players can choose various topics to talk about.
• End of Episodes screen was completely reworked for a much more appealing look. Each episode is now represented by a node in a tree. Labels and icons show the states of the episodes, locked, unlocked/playable, completed, etc. For the demo there is also a new teaser panel that links to the shop.
• End of Episodes banner were removed from the full version. In demo version they were adjusted to work as simple links to the online shop for purchasing the full version.
• A new setting can be used to switch off optional background music.
• A visual interface for reading books and letters was added.
• Seven new achievements are included in Episode 2. For Episode 1 a new achievement is gained when completing the episode.
• Episode 2 includes a soundtrack produced exclusively for the game by Spencer Bambrick.

Optimizations & Adjustments

• Speech bubble icons floating over the speaker’s head now have a darker border for a more appealing look.
• Texts on Credits page got some improved formatting and are rendered now in Arial font for easy reading. Design of page selection buttons was adjusted to look more like actual tab controls.
• Tutorial slides system was technically improved. Additionally there is a new tutorial mode that is offering optional help in a info Button.
• Design of text slide confirmation cursor was adjusted as players often missed that they have to close any text slide before proceeding.
• Color of audio annotation text was adjusted to improve contrast between text and background.
• Settings contain now options to limit the frame rate or to enable VSync.
• Links that open a website are now indicated with a new ‘web cursor’.
• Game Title at boot screen is now in high resolution.
• Opening credits shaders were reset to the legacy shader model which draws the good brilliant colors from the first releases again.
• Round buttons (MetaMenu, Health, Tutorial, …) were adjusted graphically to have a more consistent shape.
• Text that is ‘spoken’ by any virtual character in the scene is now presented in a capsule having the best fit flag. This should decrease the risk of text cut-offs in different languages.
• As complete auto save support for every camera continued to cause lots of trouble, it is limited to selected backup points now.

Bug Fixes

• The Whisper Voices Tutorial slide that was missing in 1.10. It is now included again.
• When the same sound clip is about to play multiple times at once, the game software now takes care that only one sound instance is played. This avoids very loud sounds resulting from adding up volumes in some circumstances.
• The eye pointer is now properly centered at the mouse cursor’s hotspot.
• Text labels in savegames dialogs now masks text that is too long by the available screen space. In previous versions long text was cut by word/spaces which caused an unnecessarily big loss of visible information.
• Bottom ornament in main menu is no longer grayed when social network is inactive, but stays in clear white color.
• A bug in startup of cutscenes was fixed. As side effect the mouse cursor now properly hides during the intro as intended.
• The end of opening credits actions are played only once now. A minor bug before triggered the same script multiple times under some conditions.
• When the game window is maximized on Mac using the window’s green title bar button, the game should stay playable now and no longer loose inventory display. However it is recommended to change the game resolution in the startup window to get a proper fullscreen rendering.
• Cliff fog in Episode 1 now appears also when loaded from savegame.
• In savegame dialog a bug was fixed that allowed to only delete the first item in the list properly.
• Anchoring of the delete button was fixed in savegame dialog.
• Returning from in-game to the main menu is now less error-prone. By returning into interactive mode for a very short time during fadeout there was a high risk for data interferences before.
• Minor fixes in language and translation. English localization dictionary was proof read by a native speaker.