Development Log: Episode 3

Been a while since you last heard from us and while it might seem worrying, we assure you it was for the greater good.

For now let's hop on some new little stuff we've been working on and will be available in the 2.5.0 update.

EX-DRONES' engine is now upgraded to Unity 6!

Surprisingly, once we upgraded our projects' version from a 2022 build to Unity 6 there were no critical issues. At first, some Maps/Levels were compromised and once we played the scenes, Unity would automatically crash everytime, to fix it, we deleted the terrain and re-added one and that magic trick worked. Other issues such as fire being pink due to graphical issues, leading us to add and rebuild new Fire VFX Particles. Now improved and smoother. We've also reduced the amount of fires used in the scenes to improve performance and visibility. 

We've worked on the Graphical aspect of EX-DRONES and we wanted to increase the usability of our Advanced Settings.

As you can see in this photo, we've added the 'Advanced Brightness Settings' which is very descriptive but it turns out to be more of a Graphics/Colorblind and Brightness setting at the same time.

Once in, you'll be rewarded with this graphical menu.

-EXPOSURE, which is the little brother of Brightness.

-B&W, which is a black and white feature and as you move the slider the graphics will turn into B&W mode (UI is not effected, only the 3D aspects and game). 

-COOL COLORS, adjust those 2 or 1 sliders to make a more cool/bluey image. We added these 2 sliders in order to help someone who has trouble staring at their monitor playing the game (for example, me). Some of our levels abuse the Orange color (Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Arena, Horde Mode). Cool Colors. And finally, we have the Post-Processing effects! 

developer note: These settings apply if you are using Medium, High and EXTREME settings. Low settings won't do the magic. You can also disable the Post Processing effect and use Medium, High and EXTREME settings without it. We are working on improving these settings and even adding more!

Now, let's have a look on our new Pause Menu. 

As you can see it's more simplified and everything's in order. No more 2 unnecessary Quit buttons (Quit to Menu, Quit to Desktop) which take a lot of space. 1 Quit button and once pressed, you get to choose between Menu or Desktop.

We added a Resume button too (now that's progress baby!).

Advanced Brightness Settings in Pause Menu:

This is how Advanced Brightness Settings look in the Pause Menu. We are working on improving it later.

Now let's talk about the Jailbreak PT2 Remaster progress.

The truth is that we haven't really made any progress since our Summer break before July. That doesn't mean that we are not close on finishing though! That's because we were overworking ourselves and it was draining. We took this whole break for our health. 

//Jailbreak Part Two Remaster Levels//

Right so, We have 1 huge map and 1 Prison level (optional accessible) which is scary and the atmosphere is creepy and we literally had some chills and scares while play testing, and 1 another level which is in development and it's planned to be a huge some kind of factory with our NEW antagonist where you can fight him too. This is planned to be also the final level and after that maybe we'll drop 1 small level as the epilogue and then 1 cutscene.

Here's the Factory map designed by one of our friends and now designer:

We have reached the *6 part of the development. 

Thank you for your patience over this course. 

Best regards,

The TheSilentHouse_Studio & Cookie Studios Team