End of the Year Update — Progress on the Main Game, Sunsetting of the Slacker Backer Campaign, and MAGFest 2023 Details!
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:
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 working with a scale of Lv. 1 to Lv. 25. For those interested in seeing this in practice, we’ll be deploying the first pass of our current difficulty ratings in the upcoming patch for UNBEATABLE [white label]: PATCH V1.0.9!
Despite all of our progress, we still have a looong way to go — “game development takes a while” is, perhaps, the understatement of the century. However, everyone on the team is so excited about what we’ve built thus far and there’s so much we just can’t wait to share with you all. This update is just a taste of things to come!
(you can ask the dog what looks good on a poster)
Sunsetting the SLACKER BACKER Campaign
Since we launched our funding campaign we have received so much support and love from everyone, and now we need to start the process of making sure you all receive your orders. To ensure we can fulfill your orders, we will be closing the Slacker Backer on December 20th at Midnight EST. This is your final chance to snag one of our campaign-exclusive merch tiers, so please check it out before it wraps up! Andrew is hard at work on the designs for this merch, and we’ll be showing them off soon!
https://www.unbeatablegame.com/slackerbacker
More updates will follow as we get closer to the fulfillment of orders. We’ve also updated our FAQ here. As a reminder, any changes to your information (name, address, etc) need to be made through the backer forms emailed out earlier this year. If you need assistance or have questions please reach out to dev@dcellgames.com.
UNBEATABLE: MAGFest 2023 Plans
Last week, we announced that we’re coming to MAGFest! And now, we’re excited to share more details about the merch, exclusive songs, and our competitive event today.
Most of the main team will be here, alongside two of our remixers, Dante and Lumena-tan! We’ll have several setups featuring an event-exclusive version of UNBEATABLE [white label]. If you’re coming to the event, come say hi!
For those wondering, we’ll have the following songs to play at the event:
- Worn Out Tapes
- BLANK PAGE (featuring a new STAR chart by Cheryl Stelli, “Cheryl’s Mix”)
- FUTURE PEOPLE
We are bringing back our old stock from MAGFest 2022 (our shirts, stickers, and hoodie) alongside a new special poster design, drawn by our director Andrew Tsai! Check it out:
Our competitive event, UNBEATABLE: MAGFest 2023, will feature a new circuit, featuring the event exclusive songs and their hardest beatmaps! The highest score will win a full set of our currently available merch, including the new poster! Some of the competition from this year will be returning, so you better be prepared if you want to win!
Winter Break
A majority of the staff will be on break from the 16th to the start of next year. Though some of us will pop back in occasionally to help with the sunsetting of the SLACKER BACKER and the release of the new [white label] patch, do expect responses and messages from us to be slow over the holidays. Thank you so much for your support over the past year, and see you on New Years Eve with the release of [white label]: PATCH V1.0.9!
❤ FROM D-CELL GAMES
PS: also what the hell jacob geller played white label
