Game Updates : July

Hey everyone, welcome back to another monthly update!

This month we made some major changes to Dark Island: Faded Memories' art direction.

As many of you know, the game originally leaned into a pretty retro visual style. But as development went on, a lot of other retro-inspired games came out, each carving out its own distinct art direction. On top of that, we simply didn't have enough time back then to reach the visual quality we were actually aiming for.

That's changed now.

We finally have the time to polish the game the way we always wanted, and one of our main goals is making the world as beautiful and immersive as possible. That's led to a handful of visual upgrades.

One of the most visible changes is our new trees, but we've also started adding grass to select areas of the world — some of you have probably already spotted it in our recent videos.

Honestly, I think this was one of the best calls we've made. These changes make the world feel a lot more alive, and at the same time make it way easier to build the kind of stunning atmosphere we've always had in mind.

Of course, we're still holding onto the game's retro identity. All these additions are heavily optimized, so they won't hit performance in any meaningful way. The goal was never to drop the retro look — it's to build on it with richer environments and a stronger art direction.

Main changes:

New Trees -

Let's start with the most noticeable change: the trees.

As a lot of you know, we used to run low-poly trees. I still like that style, but it just wasn't landing the visual direction we wanted for the game. The goal was always something with a retro touch that still looked genuinely beautiful and memorable.

After talking it over with some community members, we decided it was worth experimenting with a new style — and I'm really glad we did.

We're now using a new tree style that, in my opinion, gives the world a much stronger identity. It keeps the nostalgic feel we were going for while making the environments richer and more immersive.

I still love the original trees, and they'll always be part of this project's history. But since we're aiming for a game that blends the charm of classic titles with the visual quality players expect today, we think this new direction is the right call. It lets us hold onto the retro soul of the game while showing off a world that feels a lot more alive and atmospheric.

New Grass -

Steam post image Another big update, as you can see, is the game's grass. We're still figuring out exactly how to place it across the main map, but as you can tell, it's a great addition. Huge credit to Lorenz here — I think it turned out perfect and genuinely beautiful.

Just a heads-up: it'll show up in large quantities at a few specific spots on the other maps.

Melee Combat -

So... as you know, our melee combat animation used to be just a straight punch — not really a fighting style at all. Now, we finally have one! It doesn't deal much damage yet, obviously, but it's a real moveset now. I think it adds something fun to the game in its own way.

Mount: Horse -

And now, of course... the star of this update: the horse. 🐎

Steam post image You've seen the clips, you've seen the videos. We finally added the horse from "Day 3" as a playable mount, and honestly? I think it turned out really well. I'm really happy with how it looks in-game and how the gameplay feels.

As you know, our main inspirations for this game are, of course, the Souls saga — but also Skyrim, and a bit of Shadow of the Colossus. We wanted a horse with gameplay identical to Skyrim's, which I think is genuinely great — it's an addition I really enjoy.

On top of that, I tried tackling something a lot of games don't bother with: the cape. 🧣

I've never understood why capes in other games just clip straight through everything when it comes to dragons and mounts. So I did something about it — added a collider so the cape can't clip into or pass through the horse's body. I think it turned out great, but hey, that's not really up to me, is it? You're the players. So I'd love to hear what you think.

Evil Knight -

As you know, one of our long-standing enemies is the one we've been calling the "Evil Knight / Black Knight," and he used to have a different look — one we're moving away from now. Why the change? We felt like we couldn't customize him the way we wanted, and honestly, the old version felt a bit flat. Now we finally can give him exactly the look we've been after. We might even turn him into a sub-boss, since that feels like the more natural direction for the game at this point. And his armor skirt? Way better than before.