Reliefs The Time of The Lemures Diary of devs #37

Hello everyone!

It's been over 1 year and 6 months since version 1.0 of the game was released on the various platforms, and the last patch for the game was released in June 2024.

A new patch, 1.0.03, was due to be released at the end of 2024, but some recent improvements to the game engine have delayed and finally cancelled this patch.

The limitations of the game engine:

In the version currently available, the game uses the Unity 2020.3.47 game engine. At the end of 2024, the Unity 6 game engine became available and a number of improvements to this engine mean that I can now add certain features to the game that had been removed due to performance and capacity problems.

When Reliefs The Time of the Lemures was first imagined, it was intended to be a realistic open world. As game engines changed during development, realism became increasingly important, to the detriment of the open world, which was eventually cancelled altogether in favour of a semi-open world. Large levels cut off with loading times. The engine couldn't handle either an open world that wasn't realistic, or a closed world that was realistic, but not both at the same time.

Today, after extensive testing, Unity 6 allows me to make the game as it was imagined, even more realistic and detailed in a totally open world with the same performance as version 1.0!

Version 2.0 news:

Creating a The Time of the Lemures 2 Reliefs was not justified as it was too close to version 1.0. This version 2.0 will be available as a huge update to the game, and will therefore be free for anyone who has already bought the game. The demo will also be updated.

Contents of the new version:

• - A complete overhaul of the horse's physics and AI.
• - The horse can move backwards.
• - The horse looks at the player as he approaches.
• - The horse follows the player at a certain distance.
• - Improved player physics and ropes.
• - Numerous effects have been added for the player, such as dust and thrown stones.
• - The arm animations have been redesigned to adapt to the player's immediate environment. (No more arms or torches running through walls)
• - Improved torch fire.
• - Improved rate of fire for the player's bow.
• - Improved strings.
• - Major improvements to lake and ocean water, water effects, caustics and waves.
• - Volumetric clouds added.
• - Major change to the calculation of indirect light with the abandonment of the use of Lightmaps and the use of the new Adaptive Light Probes.
• - Addition of time and day cycle changes. (Light will no longer be fixed)
• - Improved interactions with set elements to create puzzles more quickly.
• - Significant improvements to vegetation, its density and rendering.
• - Significant improvement in the quality of elements visible from a distance, such as cliffs, ruins and trees.
• - Addition of numerous elements to help understand the puzzles.
• - Extensive use of GPU Instancing to add numerous elements to the scenery without any loss of FPS.
• - Corrected a number of materials and shaders in the game.
• - Added Tessellation for rocks, cliffs and ruins.
• - Creation of tools to facilitate game development.
• - Fixed numerous bugs reported in version 1.0.
• - Added new achievements and areas to explore.
• - Added new small and complex puzzles.
• - Added open world.
• - Added many new ruins and puzzles.

This list of updates has been simplified because it's too long to enumerate. To keep things simple, only the story, the main puzzles and the interface will be retained for this version 2.0.

A new world:

This will not be a simple merger of the different levels available in version 1.0. As the game currently stands, that's not possible.

It's a new game that takes up and draws inspiration from certain elements of the previous version.

The saves game will therefore be totally incompatible between versions 1.0 and 2.0. However, your achievements will be preserved, as will your playing time.

New games:

Two new games are also in the pipeline, and will be different adventures from Reliefs The Time of the Lemures. They will use the same assets as the base game but will be sold separately at a low price and playable without the base game.

Reliefs The Time of the Walks: A simple walking or riding game in a huge, unique open world inspired by the base game but with new achievements, temples, ruins and realistic landscapes!

Reliefs The Time of the Climbs : A climbing game where you have to climb as high as possible without falling. With different difficulty levels and new achievements, use your bow and ropes to reach the top of a huge rocky spike covered in vegetation and Roman ruins (inspired by Beton Brutal).

Release dates:

For version 2.0 of Reliefs The Time of the Lemures or for the next two little games inspired by it, I wouldn't give a precise date although I'd like to release them before the end of 2025.

In any case, I'll be giving you regular updates on my website, social networks and on Steam, Itch.io or IndieDB.