S.E.A.

Devlog

• S.E.A. has been remade
  December 15, 2023 by shiftBacktick

  3

  I’m excited to announce that S.E.A. has been rebuilt from the ground-up and released as Side C of Periphery Synthetic EP . This is an extremely sentimental release for me. S.E.A. was my first major... Continue reading

  
• v1.5.1: Remake hotfix
  December 10, 2023 by shiftBacktick

  A hotfix has been released to coincide with the remake out on December 15. This adds an nonintrusive advertisement for it and upgrades the game for modern systems. It also turns off the HUD by default... Continue reading
• S.E.A. is canceled (sort of)
  March 12, 2022 by shiftBacktick

  After a year of post-jam updates, I regret to announce that S.E.A. is no longer under active development. It was my pleasure to share this world with you. I’m grateful for your feedback and support... Continue reading
• v1.5.0: Deep update
  October 29, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  Dive into the deepest S.E.A. update yet! In S.E.A. you pilot a personal watercraft that uses sound to reveal a relaxing open world. Immerse yourself with new vertical look controls. Hear the shape of... Continue reading

  
• Diving into the Deep update
  September 21, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  From the shiftBacktick blog : Recently I’ve received some questions regarding the status of S.E.A. and its next release. Rest assured that development, while slower than I had initially hoped, is mo... Continue reading
• v1.4.5: Performance hotfix
  July 25, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  Today I published syngen v0.2.0 which adds new OpenSimplex noise generators, and optimizations for the existing Perlin noise generators. To celebrate, this hotfix for S.E.A. benefits from those perfor... Continue reading
• v1.4.4: Fest feedback
  July 17, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  The latest S.E.A. update is a small one that addresses feedback received during the Steam Next Fest. Notably it contains a few visual enhancements, including a new adjustable backlight while in Dark M... Continue reading
• v1.4.3: Fest hotfix
  June 17, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  1

  This hotfix addresses some small issues uncovered during a livestream today, including some progress on the worst known issue. Thanks for understanding. Spoiler Warning Fixed sun and moon fading to bl... Continue reading
• v1.4.2: Fest enhancements
  June 06, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  The latest S.E.A. update brings another vertical slice of enhancements to prepare it for Steam Next Fest . Enjoy new engine sounds, experimental changes like surface strafing, and various tweaks and f... Continue reading

  
• v1.4.1: Fest enhancements
  May 23, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  The latest S.E.A. update brings a vertical slice of enhancements and lessons learned from E.X.O. to prepare it for Steam Next Fest . Enjoy graphical enhancements like a high-contrast Dark Mode, improv... Continue reading

  
• Introducing E.X.O.
  April 26, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  Explore an icy exomoon in a versatile and upgradable exosuit in this submission to No Video Jam 2 : E.X.O. by shiftBacktick As you might remember, S.E.A. was originally my submission to the first No V... Continue reading
• v1.4.0: Fest update
  March 28, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  1

  The latest S.E.A. update has a lot to celebrate! Loading up the game, you’ll find a refreshed interface atop fully animated scenes. Feel the ocean with new haptic feedback in supported gamepads. Sur... Continue reading

  
• v1.3.0: Night update
  March 07, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  The largest S.E.A. update yet expands its simulation with a diurnal cycle, adding new graphical enhancements, audio cues, and tidal effects! Bask in sunrises and sunsets, count the stars, and let the... Continue reading

  
• Roadmap to a Steam release
  February 24, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  I’m excited to announce that S.E.A. will receive a Steam release, hopefully later this year! With this post I’d like to formally outline its roadmap to release, which includes a few large updates... Continue reading
• Sneak peek at the Night update
  February 22, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  Over the weekend I’ve made major progress on the upcoming S.E.A. release: the Night update! Dynamic time of day Did you know that the simulation was stuck at high noon? Enjoy evolving colors as the... Continue reading

  
• v1.2.3: Polish and fixes
  February 08, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  1

  The latest S.E.A. update brings a vertical slice of fixes and improvements. v1.2.3 changes Added Gamepad Deadzone slider to Controls screen Fixed Alt + Tab locking in-game controls (introduced in v1.2... Continue reading
• v1.2.2: Performance hotfix
  February 03, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  The latest update to S.E.A. continues to make performance gains. v1.2.2 changes Fixed falling from sky on new game (broken in v1.2.1) Performance optimizations Increased throttling of collision sounds... Continue reading
• v1.2.1: Performance hotfix
  February 02, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  The latest update to S.E.A. addresses some low-hanging performance optimizations that should have made it into the previous build. Many thanks to kalmarr for bringing these issues to my attention. v1... Continue reading
• v1.2.0: Performance update
  February 01, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  The latest update to S.E.A. introduces a variety of performance settings for lower-end machines, a calming blue sky, and a handful of fixes. This build may be my submission to Finally Finish Something... Continue reading
• v1.1.0: Post-jam update
  January 26, 2021 by shiftBacktick

  1

  The first post-jam release of S.E.A. includes a major upgrade to its engine, a graphical heads-up-display, and more settings to tweak. Perhaps there are more secrets to reveal as well? Spoiler Warning... Continue reading
• v1.0.0: Jam submission
  August 29, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  The final build of S.E.A. has been uploaded for its submission to No Video Jam . It reflects today’s progress: adding basic compass rose cues while turning creating and including accessible user doc... Continue reading
• v0.14.0
  August 27, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Today was another light day of polish, including: improving wind physics and synthesis improving physics related to catching air adding more musical feedback to movement implementing mouse controls so... Continue reading
• v0.13.0
  August 27, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Today was a light day of polish, including: adding a filtering effect to first entering the game improving the overall mix squashing some bugs Spoiler Warning improving terrain generation tweaking the... Continue reading
• v0.12.0
  August 26, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Today’s progress resulted in the first feature-complete build of S.E.A., including: preventing the arrow keys from scrolling overflown data tables when their items are selected that way Spoiler Warn... Continue reading
• v0.11.0
  August 25, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Today I continued yesterday’s progress, including: improving the game page description and tags Spoiler Warning improving the 3D prop streaming service by imposing a maximum prop limit prioritized b... Continue reading
• v0.10.0
  August 24, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Today I continued yesterday’s progress, including: improving the controls for left-handed users improving the overall audio mix Spoiler Warning implementing an octree utility for storing and queryin... Continue reading
• v0.9.0
  August 23, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Today I made some general improvements while advancing secret features, including: revising the gamepad controls with more input models Spoiler Warning fixing issues with scanning and player orientati... Continue reading
• v0.8.0
  August 21, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Today I worked exclusively on secret content, including: Spoiler Warning managing the reverb impulse to react to transitioning between the surface, underwater, and inside caves adding a cue for when t... Continue reading
• v0.7.0
  August 21, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Today was another light day, including: fixing a blue note in the soundtrack Spoiler Warning investigating and correcting the underlying issues with my engine's procedural noise generation algorithms... Continue reading
• v0.6.0
  August 20, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Today I didn’t make as much progress as I would have liked, but I did spend some time polishing the experience, including: improving wave sounds, positioning, and geometry forming a musical relation... Continue reading
• v0.5.0
  August 19, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Today I improved the game page and worked mostly on features hidden behind its spoiler tags, including: describing its world with additional flavor text improving ocean wave generation improving smack... Continue reading
• v0.4.0
  August 18, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Today I gave feedback to players’ movements, including: modeling the engine sounds as the product of controller inputs and physics designing how the engine transitions between normal and turbo modes... Continue reading
• v0.3.0
  August 17, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Today I gave players the ability to move: implementing the movement controls switching between normal and turbo movement modes handling the turbo toggle setting adding height to the surface waves simu... Continue reading
• v0.2.0
  August 16, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Starting with this devlog, certain changes will be hidden behind spoiler tags. Please only reveal them when you’re ready. Today the experience began to emerge as I finalized the UI and worked on som... Continue reading
• v0.1.0
  August 14, 2020 by shiftBacktick

  Today the No Video Jam began. For the past six hours I’ve been setting up the project. This involved: finalizing my game design document, which I’ve spent the past two weeks thinking about initial... Continue reading