ECHOPLEX [DEVLOG]

Mind-Bending First-Person Puzzle Game | http://echoplexgame.com

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Everything you need to know about the ECHOPLEX Premonition Update

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ECHOPLEX Environmental design: The Midroom - concept sketch and more...

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Progress on lighting and colour in the ECHOPLEX

A comment we heard often during our Greenlight campaign was that the colours in the Echoplex are “hard to look at”.  For the most part, people seem to like that the game has a different look, but we wanted to see how we could refine the colour and light while sticking to our original colour palette.

We also had to solve a lighting problem that would cause the corridors to become completely washed out when two light colours were combined, e.g. A yellow switch in a white corridor.  When the colours were too strong, edges would also disappear into their background, making the dimensions of the space hard to see.

The screenshots you see here are the result or a few days of tweaking (and debating).

Read more on the Output Games blog

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We're experimenting with introducing soft areas of colour (like the yellow above) into our live action sequences.

These colours reflect the palette in the levels, and will be used to signify different story threads.

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Doing post-production on our cut scene "memory fragments".  We filmed plates of different friends eating at the same table, then Ronnie and his team turned it into a packed Clonochem canteen. The ceiling is a stock image from Shutterstock.

Most importantly, my bald head is visible (twice) - famous at last...   ;D

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There’s an all-new Echoplex coming - with multiple floors, and a few other surprises too...

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Yesterday we started filming live action sequences that will appear in the game as "memory fragments".  It's going to be interesting to see how the flash frames work inside the game - I'm hoping its going to give us an unusual look and feel.  More to come on this...

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20 Days after launching on Greenlight, Echoplex has been Greenlit by the community.  Thank you so much to each and every one of you who voted and shared the game!

We can't wait to show you the next release - Sign up here to get notified of the Early Access

- Tyron, Henk & Ronnie

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Progress with the Echo model - good work CrimsonZA

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Ronnie experimenting with the first low-poly models of the Echo - one with a kind of radiation suit and the other a creepy Easter Island face...

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In the Echoplex, you're followed by an "echo" of yourself, who you must outwit to win. This is our first concept art for the Echo character.  I want the Echo to be almost anonymous (as he/she is supposed to be the player).   I like the full body coverage, and the outfit suits the experimental environment.  Having done this visualization, I think we may leave the eyes in shadow... What do you think?

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Developing our level editor - any doors can now be connected, even if they are in the same corridor. It looks like the level editor will only be for us at this stage.  All feedback we're hearing says the same thing: we should focus our time and resources on building an introductory "story mode" - user-designed levels are for later on once people have an emotional connection to the game. :)

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Our level editor needed a little algorithm to prevent designers from deleting a module that would break the grid system - this is a (slowed down) visualization showing the "flood" system that Henk developed to solve the problem.  Purdy.

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Space Invaders? Nope, its the newest feature of our level editor: different color corridors!

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Streamlining our level editor.   Cool problem to solve: Let the user create a corridor of any shape without allowing the corridor to be more than one module wide..

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Our second test using portal rendering on the doors of the Echoplex.   Portals allow us to form "impossible" architecture - doors will lead to different rooms depending which way you go through them. The portal is in the center of the doorframe, so right now it is causing some pretty funky color combinations - we're sorting this out. This is the asset we're using, which seems to be very well supported: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/45383

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Feedback we're often hearing is to add narrative to Echoplex - this is something we're now working on.

We're still keeping the level design feature, just with a simpler social system than the BADGES! RANKING! GLORY! we had planned.

So above is the beginnings of our new design for the level editor - one that is simpler and more intuitive.  

This is our first step towards a grid system that will allow designers to do all tasks in one screen.  

This also makes it easier for us to design levels for story mode.  :)