Neverending Nightmares 2.0 on Steam! (and OUYA)

[matt]

Mostly there are just minor fixes and tweaks, but it has a few new features:

1) EvilKingGumby mode. EvilKingGumby mode is something that allows you to pick up a level near the branching point if you didn't unlock it already. So if you only found one ending, it should be easy to go back and find the branches for the other levels. This is named after EvilKingGumby because despite being one of the most frequent posters, he never went back and played all the endings because he didn't want to replay the entire level. My original idea is that people would enjoy hunting for the secret exits kind of like in Super Mario World, but judging from the amount of people who found all the endings, I suspect that was a error in judgment. A horror game doesn't quite have the replayability of SMW (although few games do)

2) We removed color from the backer portrait frames, but the closer looks are still there - One of our more favorable reviews felt like the closer looks unrelated to the story were distracting. My thought was people wanted to interact with things, and this was the easiest to add interactions for since we had high rez drawings already. I figured I'd try it out, and see how it felt with them NOT in color, and I think it is an improvement. We left the closer looks in as an "Easter Egg" sort of thing, but I don't think that will bother anyone.

3) Misc technical improvements like pregenerated mipmaps for everything and probably a few other things that I can't think of off hand.

Note that Dan is out of town and he manages the build process (we do a LOT of builds - Steam, Humble, GoG, Playism, OUYA, and now DRM-free Android), so only he can update the other ones.

Enjoy!

[evilkinggumby]

LOL ok i am flattered and slightly worried this is a slam on slacker bastards like me that wouldn't take the time to see all endings proper... But still, thats def a unique honor either way.

Either way it is appropriate so like it or not, I gotta OWN this mode. Guess I know what I'll be trying to do this weekend!!!

though if i do.. should i bother to share my thoughts with a better, more rounded view of the game? Ir at this point are you akin to tellin me to just go stuff it?

I bow to you sir. You win this one.. hands down.

Ok i just went in and fired the game up. i can do nightmare select and it shows my progression from the first playthrough but I see no option for landing NEAR the branching path. Is there something I need to do to activate NeN 2.0? I did a fresh install just now so it's not like it was an old file? or maybe the update will take 24 hours to apply ?

also i am happy to say at 1080p and extreme graphical quality it runs fine on my i5-4590(using just the built in Intel HD chipset for graphics).

[matt]

Sorry for the delayed response. When you select the levels with the branching points - assuming you never restarted them after you completed them the first time through, it should give you an option to continue and it puts you near the branching points.

I didn't really think of the case where you already restarted the levels but quit before finishing them. In that case, I think you might be out of luck. D'oh!

[almos666]

I've recently re-played NN, unaware of the updates, and was rather unpleasantly surprised by the changes in the art - namely, the excessive darkness in the Insanity and in the Destroyed Dreams ending, that made many details completely obscure in the original sense of the word.

Please, keep the original art - it was perfect.

[Googolplex]

Great news. I am deciding to re-play this game. I red that there is already a 2.1 update, but in my Humble Store library is still version 2.0. Are you planning to update Humble Store?

[matt]

Hi Almos666,

We didn't change the art with the exception of removing color from the backer portraits. Do you have any screenshots of the scenes that seem too dark? It is possible it's a bug.

Googolplex,

The 2.1 update doesn't really contain anything new. We had to increase the version number for OUYA because of the way their system works, and I guess we did the Steam build after OUYA. It may have one really really rare crash fix in it, but otherwise it should be the same. Someone is having another rare issue (that might be Android only), so we will probably hold off on updating the Humble Store until we work that out.

Thanks!

[Googolplex]

Thank you Matt!

The art of this girl puppet got changed. Originally it didn't have any colors, but now it does.



There will be any affects to the story/gameplay if the player look at the backer portraits (or not)?

[almos666]

During the weekend I'll replay the game and send the screenshots.
------
Edit:
Cell, old version:

Cell, new version:

Insanity, first cell, new version:


As you can see, the picture shown when peeking into the cell differs quite drastically from what was in the original game. These vertical lines now show in every cell (not just the one I've shown). I don't have the screenshots of the original cell where the protagonist wakes up, but generally everything now seems to be clotted by this darkness, beginning with Insanity and on. It certainly is present in the "Destroyed Dreams" ending - at the very end, after the protagonist wakes. I've replayed the game quite a few times and am certain it wasn't there before.

I'll send the screenshot of "DD" ending tomorrow.

----

Edit:
The original cell - as seen on longplay:

https://youtu.be/yODpUOhZvtA?t=675

The look is definitely different. Especially the top-left corner, just above the bed.

[matt]

So sorry for the delay. I have been really swamped with work as well as fatherhood.

The girl puppet was supposed to be in color since it has a closer look. Are you saying it currently doesn't have color?

I think the closer looks were all supposed to have those shadows, but they weren't showing up because of a bug. I'm not sure. I'll have to ask the artist as to what he meant to do.

There was never any story purpose for looking at the backer portraits, so there hasn't been any changes relevant to the story.

Do you have screenshots of the ending of DD? To my knowledge, we did nothing other than fix bugs, but it is possible we introduced some. Thank you for following up on this and I apologize again for the delay. I've been pretty overwhelmed as of late.

[Googolplex]

Sorry, wrong post.