It is not often that as a dev that you can say that a project (mainly a game) is finished. Hell software is never finished! They can always be improved or so they say...
We are very satisfied with the last update of Audio Infection. An update that was so huge that it was divided in 3 parts; A, B and C. We have basically created version 2.0 with the things that were revamped... and it was worth it!
In late November 2019 is when we went to the drawing board and started planning. We already had a list of things that needed to be fixed, added, removed or just completely revamped. We had time and motivation. So we took on this ambitious update.
I wanted to implement some of the latest features Unity had to offer such as the High Definition Render Pipeline and the Visual Effects Graph. I did not foresee what a huge headache this would become. Going to HDRP pretty much meant killing all existing shaders. So a lot of things had to be remade... but since HDRP is pretty new, it is not friendly when it comes to custom shaders. Thankfully shader graph came in clutch.
All particles were replaced with Visual Effects, which use the graphics card instead of the processor. This means that the overall performance of the game gained a significant boost since we could push more load towards the GPU. This also meant that things could be way fancier than before... so I had the courtesy of replacing a meager 74 particle effects with brand new visual effects that are unique per effect. The longest took about 16 hours to make (for the laser gun) and the quickest about 20 minutes...
We revamped the pub which is now known as the preparation room and we fixed the tutorial. We added a lot more bloom and color to the game. We improved so many things that you can call this a new version of this game.
Not just the game was improved. We overhauled the store page. It needed a more professional look and it definitely has one now with a brand new trailer as well! Since it is the Steam summer sale it is also extremely cheap!
But most importantly, this a chapter that we can close. Audio Infection, the first game we officially released and maintained. A project that looks simple on the outside, but is everything except that from the inside. Due to the complexity of it, it nearly took us 3 years (since it is just the 2 of us) to get to this stage and I am very proud of it.
After a short well earned break we will continue the development of Eternal Wanderer. We are rich with knowledge and experience. We got the passion and motivation and most importantly; we have a solid foundation. So the next blog will cover a lot more juicy details about our third project.
