The game is pretty early in development, but if you have questions about it, I'll answer them here, if I can.
A first-person-skulker at the edge of the earth. · By
could try this? not sure if it'll work.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/68477371/force-unity-game-in-folder-to-run-w...
otherwise you might just have to stumble thru menus best you can. the resolution settings are in the Video settings tab. basically the only setting there. idk what your screen looks like, but if you can access that dropdown and scroll wayyyy way down and pick any random resolution that may work.
or, idk where unity stores PlayerPrefs, but if you can find it and edit it then that could work too.
anyway, sorry i dont have a more elegant solution to this. i'll see what i can do in the future to make it not happen again
thanks for taking the time to write out all this 💚 i'll do my best to answer all this accurately. keep in mind some things may change over the course of development.
fwiw, i am working on this solo, which presents some challenges to scope as well as certain features beyond my abilities. but i have learned a lot from the first Brush Burial. i have much more expertise to apply to this game. anyway, on to your questions:
- the second and third acts will hopefully be about as long as the first one, in terms of time to complete. they may be a little larger in scope, judging by the current progress i've made on act 2. bear in mind, act 1 (the one in the demo) will also be recieving some more content before release as well.
- the lore of the game will be developed further through seemingly mundane and inconsequential interactions with regular, unremarkable people living in it. the world has a lot going on, but i choose to present it modestly. for now, that's the most i can say with any confidence.
- i have a couple things in mind. for now, the only other major innovation didn't get much spotlight in the demo, though it is working under-the-hood, and that is the addition of more complex behavior for neutral NPC's. act 2, which i am currently working on, will be more focused on this aspect of the game. few other new features are planned right now. i'm mostly interested in building on Brush Burial 1's strengths and making a better game out of what's already here.
- Brush Burial 2 will not include a puzzle dungeon or any other primarily puzzle-based encounter along the critical path.
- i'm not entirely sure what you mean by the sliding mechanic as it relates to sneaking, but i would say don't expect a total overhaul of stealth. i'm constantly tweaking values to make it feel better, but i am unlikely to do another full rework for this game, beyond what i've already done to improve it from the first game. if sliding feels overpowered, i could easily just tweak some values to make it so you're discovered quickly while sliding.
- i'm considering it, but i won't make any promises. first person animations are not a major focus of mine at the moment.
- i hope to add a third person idle mode that can be triggered at will. the functionality is there, but the animations currently aren't. it will be in the game by release. bear in mind as well that customization in the full game will be accessed through a menu rather than picking full outfits off-the-rack as seen in the demo. that was a temporary way of giving the player some options before the full customization system has been implemented.
- i haven't played enough of the dark project to answer this confidently. there will be NPC's who ask the player to do little minor things for them, and there may be rewards for doing those things. but those rewards will likely be in service of completing the main objective. i also hope to add some short-and-sweet side missions to the game, in the form of smaller standalone levels that can be completed quickly. time will tell if this feature will be within the game's scope--it would be the first thing to get cut if development runs longer than id like.
- currently, i have no plans to implement any maps into the game. it's a nice idea though. i will take note.
- i kinda just add new items on a whim, when i have a fun idea. i intend to keep doing so. i've been thinking the game has a lack of explosives--it'd be fun to add a couple more. the functionality is there; it's just only used for the Shredder grenades, which are currently rare. thinking some sort of satchel charge could be fun...
- Brush Burial 2 will focus more on Fennel and their relationship with Sigg. this is by no means a Narrative Game, but i'm deeply bothered by the narrative of the first game and how little i was able to do with it. time will tell what shape this game's narrative will take, and how it is presented. don't expect anything too fancy. it's not gonna have an epic overarching plot with twists and turns. but i want to do better than the first game, which i honestly feel a little embarassed about, narratively.
- Brush Burial 2 is set about a decade or so before the first game. it is the same world and Fennel is the same person.
as it stands right now, act 2 is shaping up to expand on act 1 in a meaningful way. the gameplay will likely continue to be a key hunt, but the way that key hunt is presented / accomplished is going to complexify. you'll see. in the meantime, i hope the demo was to your taste. i believe it's a good represenation of the game's fundamentals. my focus this time around is on taking what i have and constructing good levels around it, rather than trying to innovate beyond what is absolutely necessary.
thanks again for all your in-depth questions. lmk if you have any others, or if any of my answers didn't make sense or need clarification. 💚
Thank you for your detailed response!
Regarding the stealth system, this might just be my issue, as during my attempts to complete the game without being detected and with all kills, I didn't always succeed. This was mainly due to the inconvenient initial positioning of enemies and the somewhat awkward binding of sliding and crouching to the same "ctrl" key. (However, I still believe that the sliding mechanic fits very well into the stealth system and can create a wealth of unique gameplay situations.)
It would also be nice if the game remembered all the NPCs killed at the time of the last save.
Basically, those are all the questions I wanted to ask you.
Lastly, I just want to add that as someone who has a large number of unfinished gaming projects behind me, I respect your commitment to seeing your ideas through to completion and sincerely hope you manage to implement all the planned content fully! :)
thank you!
im deliberating on how to proceed with a save system. mid level saving, i.e. quicksaving, is not entirely out of the question but it is highly unlikely.
the inventory system, also, is unlikely to be reworked in any significant way. i like for it to be a little fussy and clunky. i believe it serves the game well. but who knows, things may change. for now, dont expect much.
thanks for playing the demo 💚 glad you liked it
I'd also like to add that, while the level felt quite large in my first playthrough with slow exploration, it is in reality quite compact enough that retrying from the start to get the special objectives was not a pain at all (Edit: ate my words. For stealth not a pain, for trying combat with hand to hand only, very difficult and it became a pain xD). I find it hard to resist save scumming and think games like this are more enjoyable when you have to adapt to your mistakes and finish a chunk (level) in one sitting. Filcher and Cruelty Squad come to mind. Still, I know a lot of people are highly opposed to this, as well as other limited saving (like save spots).
its an issue im investigating. try switching to a lower Hz in the resolution menu. that has fixed it for others
It worked! The issue did crop up once or twice again when the game got choppy though, but that wasn't game breaking.
I finished the demo and I am absolutely stunned! I am very happy to see a sequel to Brush Burial which is definitely in my list of favourite games ever. I just played without going for the challenges (Grace, Prowess, Mercy), aggressively (killing pretty much everyone) and with this in mind I can say:
- Same as the first, the vibes/style/atmosphere - absolutely beautiful. The world is dark, but also never oppressive, so I feel invited to stay and enjoy.
- The combat is just right, with each encounter feeling tense and interesting but overall never being so challenging as to frustrate. Resources felt tight, but never scarce.
- The level design is just right, with a big non-linear space, just winding enough so you can get a little bit lost, but not so much you can't find your way back. Climbing and looking around vertically for spaces to reach very pleasing, and I also always feel properly rewarded for exploration, because the side bits are fun, engaging, beautiful, *and* have goodies.
Apologies for the lack of (constructive) criticism, but you are literally making my dream games. I can truly find no major fault. I can muster a few suggestions though:
- Option to make the inventory UI always visible. Very slightly annoying to fail putting a item back to the inventory the first time because I forget which slots are taken. Oops. Missed the tab and g key, cause I was reading the readme with half a brain :').
- I was having difficulty stunning some enemies. Not sure what it was about. The dual wielding axe men I couldn't stun at all, and some others I just couldn't stun sometimes. (Edit: It was a skill issue, I got better, though I still don't know what exactly I'm doing, I'm just better at doing it). If it's due to their animations or the range, maybe a bit better signposting as to when they are stunnable (Perhaps a particle alert like when they are getting alerted?)
- As for bugs, apart from the refresh rate issue, I also noted that some items I interacted with and dropped would disappear when I come back.
Will be replaying to go for the challenges and will report back on the experience with stealth.
Edit: Are you publishing somewhere about your development process by any chance? If I understand it well, you are a solo dev, and the fact that you pull this off alone is amazing and an inspiration.
Edit #2: Did it!
Took a couple of tries. Mercy and Prowess were easy to get when trying for Grace (but failing :P). Grace had 2 pain points for me. Took me a few tries to figure out the timing to pickpocket the Apartment Key from the worker in the basement without alerts. Also, even when I did it was finnicky cause the hitbox on the key seems to be small (maybe it could be a bit more permissive?). Secondly, the guards at the armory where the Stronghold Key confused me before I realized that taking them out sneakily wouldn't break Grace. The rest of the stealth was smooth sailing given I knew the level layout. I did appreciate it more now that I used the sneaky routes. Also totally missed the tools at the beginning on my first (violent) playthrough.
Prowess would seem to be crazy difficult to do in a combat playthrough given how I was having difficulty getting stuns in, and how quickly enemies can interrupt the takedown animation. Still gonna try though. Also wonder if it's possible to do all the challenges with no takedowns. Or taking down all the guards for the secondary objective while also doing the challenges. Hmmm...
The completionist in me also thinks that gathering all gold should be a special objective (Greed?), and given how fluid and fun the movement is, a speedrunning special objective to beat a certain time might also be fun (Haste?)
And a final note, after starting the game for a second time the refresh rate issue was gone even with a high refresh rate. Great, but odd...
sorry i didnt see youd been editing the post so i didnt think to respond
i dont really post much about development other than what i post on twitter and bluesky. not sure why exactly; im just a bit of a shut-in, lol. pretty sparing with what i show publicly nowadays. i can answer questions about development though 💚 i do enjoy doing that
congrats on getting Mastery, that is not easy. i do need to rework how pickpocketing a key works because it is really finnicky rn. i'll see what i can do
No worries! I'd love to hit you up with some questions. I'm curious about the process and tools around level design - do you use a brush based tool like Trenchbroom, or model the level and parts in Blender or similar? Do you plan everything (or most things) in advance, or do you just start working and iterate?
When I figured everything out I can do a 0 kill Mastery in <4 minutes and it's not so hard. Far harder was actually was to get all 41 Hellionaires, while maintaining Mercy and Prowess. Couldn't do it without exploity tactics like luring enemies away one by one, or running away to get them to deaggro and picking them off slowly. While hand to hand is fun alone, having *no* access to weapons, and also having to spare the workers who are all too happy to kill me is too much :).
Edit: Don't think it's possible to do it while also maintaining Grace.
yeah i firmly believe getting all 41 hellionaires with grace is entirely impossible. if someone managed to do it that would be mind boggling.
anyway. as for the programs i use: im just using Unity with the Probuilder plugin. that has some disadvantagous but it works with my process, for now. i have used trenchbroom in the past, though, when i dabbled with godot, and it was a great tool. very fun and easy to use. most devs i know use blender, fwiw, and generally try to talk me into doing so instead of probuilder, lol.
i dont plan much ahead of time which actually is becoming a bit of a problem for my workflow, but for the level shown in the demo i think it worked out great. i kinda just keep adding chunks to the map, and shortcuts to loop them back into the rest, until it all works out. idk how to explain it any better than that really