End of the Year Progress Update on the Main Game!

Hi gang! We hope you're staying safe this winter! With [white label]'s upcoming patch and our appearance at MAGFest, the team is ready to close off the year on a strong note.

So, how's production on the game going?

Since we last talked, the team has continued making great progress on the story mode.

First and foremost are the litany of visual enhancements we've brought to the game! Characters now display dynamic rimlighting to help them pop against the environment, all of which is affected by both the sun and the plethora of dynamic light sources we have added to each environment. This has been combined with an overhaul of our material and surface shaders - every object in the game now has defined paint strokes that catch the light at different times of day in just the right way, which, coupled with the refined cel-shading, helps lend each environment a lovely, hand-crafted feel…

That wide variety of lighting conditions, from early mornings to gorgeous sunsets, isn't just there as eye candy, either - depending on the time of day, certain activities, characters, and events become accessible. For example, you can't use the batting cage when it's closed! Hell, you can barely use it when it's open. It's very difficult. It has maybe (???) killed people?

We've also been carving out more of the game's environments, and have completed an early pass of several explorable locations. Our day/night system allows us to handcraft lighting at all times of the day, allowing us to carve out light and shadow in the precise places the artists want.

We've spent lots of time running around just to soak in the vibes. This is probably the twentieth time someone has said this, but it's starting to look more and more like a real video game.

Our new tools engineer, Sam Chiet (welcome to the team!), has also helped us develop cutscene tools to streamline further the process of constructing the many scenes present in the overworld.

This marked his first major task as a part of the project, going above and beyond in servicing a tool that is not only intuitive but also filled with cute flourishes, such as this wonderful little doodle of Beat…

More and more NPCs are starting to come to life, too! Here are some of our favorites, done by one of our animators, Michelle:

The various characters you'll be seeing in the world of UNBEATABLE!

As for Treble and Clef, they have new overworld animations done by both Michelle and Camille! Here's Clef (roughs by Michelle, cleanup/color by Camille):

Eli also did work on this shot of Beat waking up - it marks the start of every day!

Everyone else on the animation team has been hard at work putting together tons of cinematics and storytelling flourishes - all the animation being put together looks absolutely phenomenal. That said, as much as we would love to show off that work, avoiding spoilers comes first, so… we'll hold off on that for now.

In addition to all the new tracks and charts we've added, Peak Divide has also been putting together a bunch of brand new BGM for the overworld. You may have already heard the night version via UNBEATABLE DEMO TAPES, but check out a preview of the day version of "homework salad"!

Both Jeff and their co-charter Cheryl are also workshopping how we rate difficulty for the final version of the game. Tentatively, we're