Episode 3 released (Patch 3.0)

Hi everyone,

I am very happy to finally present the release of Version 3.0!

Episode 3: The Voice from the Deep

... is now live on Steam and contains a big pack of new contents:

• A new chapter extends the storyline and introduces completely new contents, including a brand new magical character.
• Direct continuation of Episode 2 starting at the monastery.
• Introduction of the brand new area Twilight Atoll and the Sunken Labyrinth.
• Episode 3 contains 80 new camera perspectives/screens!
• New game play modes Swim & Dive allow the exploration of elsewise unreachable areas.
• Reveal what is hidden in the island’s guts with new game play mode Treasure Hunt!
• Weather changes cause variations in visual impressions and interaction options!
• Interact with various animals and creatures from the island!
• Meet our episode guest star: Cthulhu!
• 7 new optional achievements to gain!
• Improved translations (esp. French).
• ...and much more. See below for full details on bugfixes and changes.

Also don't miss the brand new trailer for Episode 3:

How to get Episode 3

Update to Episode 3 is free for everyone who already purchased the game.
If you only played the free demo yet, purchase a full version in the Steam store now to get Episodes 1, 2 and 3 immediately (plus episodes 4 and 5 in 2017).

How to play Episode 3

Open Steam and let the client update your game installation. Start A Room Beyond and continue a saved game. As Episode 3 continues Episode 2 it is not possible to directly start in Episode 3. You have to finish Episode 2 to continue to the next chapter via the Episode tree shown at the end of each episode:

This release was tested to be stable in common. However we are still in Early Access and if you find a bug, let me know so I can fix it. :)

Best,
-- René

CHANGE LOG for PATCH 3.0General

• The full version release of the game was extended with the complete contents of Episode 3: “The Voice from the Deep”

New Content & Design Changes

• A new chapter extends the storyline and introduces completely new contents, including a brand new magical character.
• Direct continuation of Episode 2 starting at the monastery.
• Introduction of the brand new area Twilight Atoll and the Sunken Labyrinth.
• Episode 3 adds 80 new camera perspectives/screens!
• New game play modes Swim & Dive allow the exploration of elsewise unreachable areas.
• Reveal what is hidden in the island's guts with new game play mode Treasure Hunt!
• Weather changes cause variations in visual impressions and interaction options!
• Interact with various animals and creatures from the island!
• Meet our episode guest star: Cthulhu!
• 7 new optional achievements to gain!

Optimizations & Adjustments

• An episode specific header image that matches the current promo artwork style is now integrated into the startup launcher dialog.
• Sound annotation texts are now limited in time for some very long sounds. A text display for a few seconds is still sufficient to know what is happening.
• When moving between different grounds, i.e. grass and concrete, footsteps sounds change accordingly.
• Screen fonts appear less blurry now due to changed font settings.
• The status indicator GUI was generalized to allow additional icons (i.e. air status bubble) to be integrated easily.
• When more items are carried in inventory than can be displayed on screen, items are arranged in rows. Players may scroll between the rows using arrow keys, mouse wheel or graphical buttons on screen. It is possible to expand all lines to full screen grid view to make drag & drop across different rows easy.
• Support for special inventory items that trigger specific actions was added. This way it is possible to carry i.e. a map in inventory and view it anytime. It's also possible to pickup objects that can be deconstructed in sub-objects.
• Inventory Items' appearance animation was technically improved and contains an additional color transition now.
• Book & letter reading was extended to display of areal maps.
• Door hotspots now support locking and the need for keys.
• Added support for interactive waterline rendering and animated mesh deformation to display deformable objects.
• Resolution of the Play More banner in Demo version was increased.
• A soft ambient sound was added to main menu.
• In Episode 2 Valerian's voice shows a dialog indicator now and the speech bubble was adjusted in position.
• Icon for the dialog indicator ('thinking bubble') was improved to be prettier and more in line with the cursor designs.
• Progressbar on bootscreen is purple now, active task description got brighter to improve visibility.
• Developer Logo Animation on Bootscreen can now be skipped with Click, Space key or Escape key.
• Revision timestamp of the language file is now included in version info page.
• The game's license agreement is now replaced/covered by Steam's standard EULA.
• French Localization was completely reworked and optimized for better language.

Bug Fixes

• Speech bubble overlays are hidden in zoomed views now.
• Whisper Voices sparkling no longer causes a null pointer exception under certain conditions.
• The capping threshold for walk/stand animation synchronization was lowered.
• A bug was fixed that was hiding the other savegame slots when scrolling after selecting a slot item.
• Thinking bubble icon, indicating available dialogs, was optimized so that it is never rendered when the talking character is not in camera viewport.
• A bug resulting in too frequent autosave slots is now fixed.
• When loading a savegame where the player's health is zero the game now no longer locks.
• Various other small fixes and improvements.