Hey everyone, To start off, thank you to every single person who has played Subliminal so far. Your support means everything to us as a team. That being said, there's been some pretty valid feedback. At this point, we have looked through every single Steam review, a good amount of live streams, and as many YouTube videos as humanly possible. Before anything else, I (Sven) want to directly address anyone who had a subpar experience: I’m incredibly sorry. That’s not the experience I've wanted for you all, and I can promise you that we are dedicated to making this right over time. That being said, we are finalizing our first round of updates aimed at addressing some of the most pressing feedback we've received. We want to be completely transparent: this upcoming patch is just the first step. It fixes the majority of difficulty and intuitiveness issues we’ve seen come up for puzzles and chases with nearly every puzzle and chase modified, but we know there is still more work to be done to reach the standard you deserve. We are also currently ironing out a few lingering stability issues, so while this patch isn't live right this second, we will be rolling it out very soon. We will have more fixes continuing to roll out after that, as we continue to polish the overall experience. Puzzle Adjustments
To start off, we’ve seen the response to the puzzle difficulty and overall intuitiveness. We have adjusted several puzzles that were causing unnecessary confusion and frustration. These initial revisions are aimed at making progression feel a bit more intuitive. Puzzles should feel unique and rewarding, not frustrating. There's much more to come, but for now, we hope this makes a significant change to the overall puzzle enjoyability.
For Example: We’ve put work into adjusting a specific Memory Loop puzzle that we saw a lot of feedback on—changing the core loop to be a little less confusing and a bit shorter so it's easier to know when you're on the right track. Adjusting Chase Difficulty
We’ve also seen a lot of feedback around chase difficulty and certain sections not being intuitive. To help with this, we have added checkpoints to every chase, tweaked margins to be more forgiving, and are actively reworking certain chase sequences that were creating needless frustration from being less intuitive. We believe chase sequences are a huge part of what makes horror feel intense, but they also need to feel fair. We are committed to perfecting this for EP1 over our next few updates.
For Example: This upcoming update includes added hints for some of the trickier puzzles & mechanics, as well as tuning the camera shake. We are also pushing to get as many immediate bugs fixed as possible for this initial drop. (We have 37 fixes currently) Narrative & Environmental Adjustments
We've noticed how deeply many of you care about the story and lore of Subliminal, and we've heard your feedback regarding the narrative flow. To address this, we are actively making environmental and narrative improvements. Our goal is to provide a better, more natural flow of lore so that the story unfolds more clearly and cohesively as you progress.
Hints, Camera Shake Adjustments, and Bug Fixes
Lastly, we've seen feedback around hints, camera shake, repetitiveness, and various bugs. Rest assured, we are logging and addressing this feedback step by step.
Regarding the widespread reports of black screens on laptops, we are fully aware of this and are continuing our investigation right now. In the meantime, if you encounter this, please ensure your laptop is using the dedicated/discrete GPU only as the default for the game. For Nvidia Graphics users, you may adjust the corresponding settings in either Nvidia Control Panel or Nvidia app.
For Example: This upcoming update includes added hints to some of the trickier puzzles, as well as tuning the camera shake. We are also pushing to get as many immediate bugs fixed as possible for this initial drop.
Finally, we want to express how incredibly grateful we are for everyone who has played SUBLIMINAL so far, as well as every review, critique, and praise we’ve received. Thank you to everyone who has supported us and voiced their concerns. Our mission throughout this entire development cycle has been to create a truly unforgettable experience. We know this upcoming patch is just the beginning and won't resolve every bit of frustration, but we are dedicated to proving how much we care through our continued actions and updates. Thank you for your time, patience, and belief in us as a studio.