Kathy Rain: Director's Cut - OUT NOW!

Started by JSH, Fri 22/01/2021 17:57:17

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JSH

Hi all,

So we recently announced that we're creating a new and improved Director's Cut version of Kathy Rain!

Sadly this marks our departure from AGS, as this version of the game is being rebuilt in Unity from scratch.

*Edit Released now!

Get the game on your preferred platform below:
🔹 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/.../Kathy_Rain_Directors_Cut/
🔹 GOG: https://www.gog.com/game/kathy_rain_directors_cut
🔹 iOS: https://apps.apple.com/.../kathy-rain.../id1529574744
🔹 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rawfury.kathyrainse
🔹 Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/kathy-rain-directors-cut-switch/

If you own the original game on Steam, make sure to select the "Loyal Detective Bundle" to use your -50% discount!


Babar

Very interesting! If it's ok, would you mind sharing what specifically engine-wise you changed, and why? Because what little I can see of the screenshots seems to communicate a game that "apes" the AGS style very well.
The ultimate Professional Amateur

Now, with his very own game: Alien Time Zone

JSH

#2
Quote from: Babar on Fri 22/01/2021 18:50:09
Very interesting! If it's ok, would you mind sharing what specifically engine-wise you changed, and why? Because what little I can see of the screenshots seems to communicate a game that "apes" the AGS style very well.

Hm, not sure exactly what you mean? Do you want to know how we have replicated a look similar to AGS in Unity or are you wondering about what kind of technical features Unity has allowed us unlike AGS? And if it's the latter, do you mean from a player experience perspective, a developer perspective, or both?

Ali

Congratulations, I think remastering it is a great idea. Having done an AGS -> Unity switch, I know it's a serious job. Are you using any plugins, like AdventureCreator or PowerQuest?

I liked Kathy Rain, but I thought Whispers of a Machine was really outstanding. So it's nice to see you returning to Kathy Rain with all the experience you've gained.

JSH

#4
Quote from: Ali on Fri 22/01/2021 21:08:28
Congratulations, I think remastering it is a great idea. Having done an AGS -> Unity switch, I know it's a serious job. Are you using any plugins, like AdventureCreator or PowerQuest?

I liked Kathy Rain, but I thought Whispers of a Machine was really outstanding. So it's nice to see you returning to Kathy Rain with all the experience you've gained.

Thanks, Ali! :-D And yes, we're using Adventure Creator, although we have modified it quite a bit at this point. We also plan to add Rewired when we start looking into the controller support.

Vanilla AC generally works fine for working with dialogue when the majority of it is just copy pasted over like this, but for our next project we'll likely also pick up a more dedicated third party framework for dialogue, like Dialogue System and/or Ink.

Babar

Quote from: JSH on Fri 22/01/2021 20:12:22
Hm, not sure exactly what you mean? Do you want to know how we have replicated a look similar to AGS in Unity or are you wondering about what kind of technical features Unity has allowed us unlike AGS? And if it's the latter, do you mean from a player experience perspective, a developer perspective, or both?
I mean the second, and both! What was the reason you felt you needed to switch to Unity for the remaster?
The ultimate Professional Amateur

Now, with his very own game: Alien Time Zone

JSH

Quote from: Babar on Sat 23/01/2021 09:58:15
Quote from: JSH on Fri 22/01/2021 20:12:22
Hm, not sure exactly what you mean? Do you want to know how we have replicated a look similar to AGS in Unity or are you wondering about what kind of technical features Unity has allowed us unlike AGS? And if it's the latter, do you mean from a player experience perspective, a developer perspective, or both?
I mean the second, and both! What was the reason you felt you needed to switch to Unity for the remaster?

Well, AGS has been used for a number of commercial games but it is essentially a hobbyist tool, and I believe it will always stay a step behind modern game engines such as Unity or Unreal in terms of features available both for the end user and the developer. These engines have teams of hundreds of developers constantly improving and maintaining them, and huge communities that churns out powerful plugins, frameworks and assets on a regular basis. We believe that we had to make the switch at some point to stay competitive as an indie, and this fairly straight forward project (essentially a port and then expanded and improved) turned out to be an excellent way to learn the ins and outs of the engine while staying in familiar territory. Switching to an engine like Unity for the studio also gives us the option in a longer perspective to work in 3D or make games in other genres than adventure games, should we want to.

But to put things in more concrete terms, these are some of the bigger reasons we made the jump:

  • Portability
  • Localization
  • Better save system
  • Shader support
  • Controller support
  • User friendly and flexible handling of resolutions and graphics settings (although I hear later versions of AGS has improved on this)
  • This is likely subjective to some degree and requires the right plugins and tools, but a better development workflow in general and more ways to customize it. Just a basic thing like being able to modify gameplay objects directly in the editor during runtime is quite huge in my opinion.
  • More robust tools for build processes. With Unity, we've been able to set up our own build server connected to source control that automatically creates builds on all platforms as we make changes to the game and uploads them to Steam, mobile app stores etc.

Frodo

The Director's Cut seems great.  Can't wait to see it on GOG.   :smiley:

FormosaFalanster

I loved the Kathy Rain game and I really hope it means she will be back for more adventures, she was a great character and the "90's period piece" effect was really brilliant. She needs more good stories!

JSH

Quote from: Frodo on Sat 23/01/2021 21:23:01
The Director's Cut seems great.  Can't wait to see it on GOG.   :smiley:

GOG is a curated store so we can't 100% confirm at this point, but we'd like to have it on there and they've been happy with our games in the past, so I think there shouldn't be any issues with that  :smiley:

Quote from: FormosaFalanster on Sun 24/01/2021 02:34:17
I loved the Kathy Rain game and I really hope it means she will be back for more adventures, she was a great character and the "90's period piece" effect was really brilliant. She needs more good stories!

Thanks a lot, glad to hear that! I can't promise anything right now, but if this new release of Kathy Rain does well and helps us reach a wide audience, we'll certainly have a good foundation for more games with Kathy :smiley:

Frodo

Quote from: JSH on Wed 27/01/2021 08:24:28
Quote from: Frodo on Sat 23/01/2021 21:23:01
The Director's Cut seems great.  Can't wait to see it on GOG.   :smiley:

GOG is a curated store so we can't 100% confirm at this point, but we'd like to have it on there and they've been happy with our games in the past, so I think there shouldn't be any issues with that  :smiley:

You have the current version of Kathy Rain for sale on GOG, so there's no reason why the Director's Cut shouldn't be there.   :smiley:

Snarky

Oh, very cool!

I had my issues with the original game, but most of them felt fixable, and I see that you're indeed fixing one of the big ones: no more verb coin! Yay! ;-D

Since ProgZmax passed away, can I ask who's doing the animation updates? And are you getting the original voice actors back to record new lines? (Man, doing a "director's cut" remaster  like this must be quite a challenge just in terms of logistics!)

Best of luck!

JSH

Quote from: Snarky on Wed 27/01/2021 19:06:29
Oh, very cool!

I had my issues with the original game, but most of them felt fixable, and I see that you're indeed fixing one of the big ones: no more verb coin! Yay! ;-D

Since ProgZmax passed away, can I ask who's doing the animation updates? And are you getting the original voice actors back to record new lines? (Man, doing a "director's cut" remaster  like this must be quite a challenge just in terms of logistics!)

Best of luck!

Thanks! Yes, we are doing our best to fix any issues with the game, including your concerns, so I'm hoping that the Director's Cut will get that elusive Snarky Stamp of Approvalâ,,¢ in the end  ;)

I'm working with these guys for the animations! https://twitter.com/tulevikEU

Yup, I reached out to the original cast last year, and with the exception of the little boy who has outgrown his role and may be recast, everyone else is on board! :) I will probably do the voice direction myself remotely this time around though, since the voice over process is much more straight forward. There's just a fraction of the number of lines and the characters already have established voices with plenty of reference material, so I figured that Dave's talents would be wasted on that!

Hobo

Quote from: JSH on Wed 27/01/2021 20:33:30
I'm working with these guys for the animations! https://twitter.com/tulevikEU
I'm helping out with the animations (in case some people don't make the connection  :)).
Applied for the job right here in the Recruitment section, so huge thanks to the AGS forums for providing awesome opportunities.

It's been really enjoyable work so far and makes me appreciate ProgZmax's talent even more, it's very educational to see how some of this stuff was made.
We do have some differences in style and approach to animation, but I tried to keep it as close as possible and hopefully it won't stand out too much.

JSH

#14
Quote from: Hobo on Wed 27/01/2021 22:19:59
Quote from: JSH on Wed 27/01/2021 20:33:30
I'm working with these guys for the animations! https://twitter.com/tulevikEU
I'm helping out with the animations (in case some people don't make the connection  :)).
Applied for the job right here in the Recruitment section, so huge thanks to the AGS forums for providing awesome opportunities.

It's been really enjoyable work so far and makes me appreciate ProgZmax's talent even more, it's very educational to see how some of this stuff was made.
We do have some differences in style and approach to animation, but I tried to keep it as close as possible and hopefully it won't stand out too much.

Right, totally slipped my mind that we actually recruited you here on the forum! :-D

Oh, and I'd like to take the opportunity to mention to all of you that we're doing a livestream on the game's Steam page tomorrow Feb 3 at 7PM CET as part of the Steam Games Festival! There will be a live chat if you wanna join the fun! :) Done!

JSH

Kathy Rain is 5 years old today! To celebrate the occassion, we put together this little cross-over video:


JSH

#16
Hello again, everyone!

I thought I'd let you all know that after much deliberation, we have decided to give a loyalty discount of -50% to all owners of the original Kathy Rain when purchasing the Director's Cut. This discount is permanent and will combine with any other offers on the Director's Cut, including a likely launch discount.

We also released a new teaser trailer where you can catch a brief little peek of some of the new content:

Stupot

That’s very cool of you. It’s looking great.

JSH

We just launched a new and improved version of the demo on Steam!

Unlike the previous version, this demo contains extra story and gameplay segments that are unique to the Director’s Cut, including new VO with the original actors that we recorded this summer :) This time, you can also play with a controller and in seven different languages.

Most of the content is still placed at the later parts of the game, but hopefully this demo will give you a taste of the improvements in the Director’s Cut:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1395030/Kathy_Rain_Directors_Cut/

JSH

Happy to announce that we will release on October 26!

Check out our new trailer:

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