Keyboard Controls, Minigames and Tapes

Hello!

At first I decided to add keyboard control to make testing easier and faster (also tendinitis), but then I realized it might actually be a better way to play rather than using the mouse.

For the regular gameplay, you can advance pages with the left and right arrow, and make choices with numbers 1 to 5.

The white font on the third choice means this option was already selected on a previous play-through, since the game has many different paths, I thought it would be nice for the player to visualize which options are new to him.

The SPACE key has a different function depending on the context. In most places it will act as a mouse click (advancing a dialog cutscene, maximizing/minimizing an image), but it is also used in the minigames. By the way, if you played the demo version, you will notice that the minigames are now linked to the relevant attributes, so they will be harder or easier depending on the value of your attribute.

Fitness-based mini-game

And of course you can access the Map (M), File (F) and Options (O).

Besides that, I’ve also started working on polishing some aspects like adding fade in/out and adding some animation to tape-covered text.

“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity” – Edgar Allan Poe

That’s it for now, hopefully will have more information on release date soon, for now you can wishlist Blackout on Steam or pre-order on itch.io!

Cutscenes

Adding “cutscenes” for some images. Still WIP.

I first used this effect on the teaser trailer, but I liked the effect so much that I decided to add it to the game as well, it brings a nice dramatic effect and also invokes the comic book style =)

Art by the amazing Damsa

The effect is quite easy to achieve, it’s just four separate cameras with render textures.