Anamorphine

Today through 1pm EST on January 3rd you can get Anamorphine for 25% off! As before, the soundtrack is 10% off (listen to a track), or you can buy them together for 25% off of both (a great deal!). If you prefer to buy from other sites, we’re also 25% off until January 4th on Nuuvem. If you're looking for a gift for your friends and family, the Steam gift function is a simple and seamless was to give them Anamorphine, a gift with emotional power.

It’s been a while! Launch and the months right after were intense for the team, as we fixed up bugs and strategized about how to best improve the game in the long run. And for now, we have good news!:

Through November 27 at 1pm EST, you can get Anamorphine for 25% off! The soundtrack is 10% off, too, or you can buy them together for 25% off of both (a great deal!). If you prefer to buy from other sites, we’re also 25% off on the Humble Store and Nuuvem, in Brazil. This is a great time to encourage friends and family to support the game. You can listen to a track from the soundtrack on YouTube.

If you didn’t see it around launch and need something to help describe to your friends (or yourself) what Anamorphine is like, here’s a great, non-spoiler article about Anamorphine from The Washington Post.

Hey there!

It’s been a very busy two and a half weeks since launch. It started with a Day 1 Patch for PS4, PC, and VR. Then we put out a PS4 patch fixing a game-breaking bug (thanks, Day 1 patch :/). Since then, we’ve been working hard on a VR and PC update which makes the game *much, much* better to play in VR, especially on the Vive, which was in some cases a real mess. So if you were holding off until these bugs were fixed in VR, now’s the time to grab Anamorphine and play it!

We know performance on the PS4 is sub-par, so you’ll be happy to hear that we’re working on further optimizations to make it a smoother play experience. Being pulled out of the emotional story by lag isn’t the way the game is meant to be played, clearly.

In the meantime, you can read about how The Washington Post loved Anamorphine over on their website.

If you run into more problems, please let us know here or at [email protected]! Here’s some patch notes for the build we put up today (August 17, 2pm):

Fixed bugs: - All Menus now appear in Vive as they did with Oculus. - VR can now be toggled if you're using the Vive - Full support for VR motion controllers (cursor/no cusor, step/smooth) throughout game - Fixed gamepad issues in VR - Fixed a portal issue that caused double vision in VR - Fixed issues where quick movements would cause out-of-sequence loads in both VR and Flat Known Bugs in All modes: - Exiting the game to the main menu leaves the game in a laggy state - Shader errors with Elena's bathwater Known Bugs in VR mode: - In-Game Trigger warning has a font rendering issue. Looks garbled. (this will be fixed promptly) - Toggling VR on and then back off with Oculus will crash the game - Fastest and Fast quality modes have an LOD issue making the game unplayable - Some portals and thresholds are difficult to travers in VR with a cursor - When entering areas with distorted gravity, the VR cursor will have an offset orientation - One of the VR captures does not fade quickly enough - VR players can still move during loading - VR Menu is stretched a little - Mindscapes have a strange floor collider at the start location - In VR when the player goes through a choice portal, they land _inside_ the floor - Credits can not be seen in VR

IT’S HAPPENING!

We are so excited to announce that Anamorphine and its Official Soundtrack will be coming out on July 31, supporting PC, HTC Vive*, Oculus Rift*, and PS4. You’ll be able to buy it on the PS4 store (heart it!), Steam (wishlist it!), the Humble Store, Green Man Gaming, and if you’re in South America, Nuuvem - it’s good to have options!

Last week we went Gold on PS4, a milestone we’ve been working towards since November 2017. Ramy, Mehrdad and Mo have been complete heroes, wrestling with crash after crash on PS4 for more than seven months. To quote Ramy, “We ate a big fat slice of humble pie,” which more or less sums up the entire process of creating this beautiful, insane passion project of a game. That said, we’re thrilled to show you the results of all of that pie-eating. We hope you’ll tell us what you think (our Discord is a great place to do that!), sign up to our newsletter to stay in touch about launch day itself and get behind-the-scenes info on the game and its development, and share the news with your friends.

We’ve spent countless hours in Unity. Traveled across North America, Europe and the Middle East to show it at festivals. Been included in research projects! Basically, we’ve learned more than we could have possibly imagined. We can’t wait for you to play Anamorphine next week!

Hey folks - great news! In anticipation of a launch this summer, we’ve made a Discord where we can all hang out, share more regularly about what we’re up to, and create a space for all of you who are into surreal stories, environmental art, VR, super-depressing stories, and more! You can join it using this code: https://discord.gg/ts5SSYf. Join us for a special Discord kick-off/meet-and-greet with the main team from 12pm-1pm EST on Friday, June 8.

In April, we were super busy showing Anamorphine at PAX East in Boston, the NewImages festival in Paris, and Amaze in Berlin. Check out our snapshots from the events:

PAX East, where we were part of the IndieMegaBooth!

NewImages Festival. Anamorphine was shown in their VR arcade, and Sam gave a talk about Metaphorical Storytelling - watch it here.

Amaze, the 7th international Games and Playful Media Festival, where we were an official nominee and Beatrix gave a talk about sound design and audio.

Hey Anamorphine fans! Your patience truly stuns us as you calmly wait for the game to come out. If you haven’t yet, Wishlist Anamorphine on Steam. There’s not long to go now! But before we make hard date announcements, we have some other exciting announcements about where you can find us between now and launch:

We made it into the Indie Megabooth for PAX East! This is a dream, and will  expose Anamorphine to more people in-person than ever before. You can visit us at booth #13081 from April 5-8. Even better, you’ll be able to play on PC and in VR! You’re in for a great new experience.

As if April couldn’t get more exciting, we are also nominated for an A.MAZE award! Our fantastic Sound Designer & Composer Beatrix, who also worked on another A.MAZE-nominated project The Museum of Symmetry, will be attending to represent us from April 25-29.

What else are we up to? So much! Here are some other places you can find us in March and April:

GDC, San Francisco, USA. Mo, Beatrix and Sam will be there. The only public showing of Anamorphine will be at Canada’s GDC Play area on Wednesday, March 21, 10am-12pm PST, on PC.

NewImages Festival, Paris, France: Sam will be speaking at this film/VR festival on April 5.

London Games Festival: Sam will hop over to London from Paris (oo la la) to see some of the fun at London Games Week, as well as participating in the London Funding Market on April 10-12.

Hello everyone, and Happy Valentine's Day! Because we're a bunch of morbid weirdos, we desperately wanted to release Anamorphine on this couples-centric day of romance, but the production schedule didn't allow it. Think of it: a tragic tale of broken dreams and a spiraling couple, to be played with mounting concern alongside your loved one; or alone, in the dark, reminding you of the tough side of relationships... what’s not to love?

What else is happening? Plenty! Mo, Sam and Beatrix will all be heading to GDC to learn things, discuss our next project with publishers, and see our awesome international dev friends. We're waiting to announce Anamorphine's new release date. We learned some hard lessons from our preemptive announcement, and will be mitigating that by not announcing until we are 100% sure we’ll make it.

In the meantime, Anamrphine is going through final rounds of polish and playtesting and we're finding the feedback immensely helpful. Sending players to play in their own homes then reporting back has been a great way of getting user feedback since playing in a brightly-lit office is counter to the mood of the game. Plus, people can play when they have time, instead of dragging themselves to our office. And some bugs look cool, which is fun!

Before we sign off, here are a few things the team has been making each other watch on our Slack channel recently:

- Mo highly recommends Shaun Tan’s wordless comicbook, The Arrival. It’s a surreal story of an immigrant’s experience in a foreign culture. It shares a lot of the cool wordless storytelling tricks we use in Anamorphine!

- Mehrdad is keeping us politically on our toes.

Hey everyone! Happy holidays and Happy New Year - may 2018 be a year of bittersweet endings and new beginnings. That’s what we’re aiming at with Anamorphine, anyway!

After putting the team through their paces and more, Anamorphine is looking excellent, but still needs a few final weeks of polish. After around three years of work, the last thing we want is to bring it out just a little too early, when the extra time will make sure a huge impact on the final product.

So no, you won’t be able to get Anamorphine on January 16 as previously announced, but you will see it later on this Winter/very early Spring. We’ll put out an announcement when we have the new date! Thank you all for your support and patience. We can’t wait to put Anamorphine into your hands.

Heads-up, everyone: today we’re featured in the Playstation Blog. We’re thrilled to be bringing Anamorphine to the PS4/Pro, PSVR, PC, Vive, and Oculus Rift! We will be bringing it to the Xbox after launch - more details on that in the winter.

Hey Anamorphites! It's been a great summer, and we're sneaking ever-closer to launch (which means you should Wishlist us early and often!).

Latest big news: we're sending Mo to IndieCade in LA! We're excited to participate in this premiere Indie event - our first on the West Coast. As part of the IndieCade/spaces collection, you can find us in the Inahara Foyer - Upstairs with other narrative and exploration games.

Between now and launch, it's mostly nose to the grindstone for the team, but you can find us around Montreal:

- Samantha will be speaking at CGX (Capital Gaming Expo) on October 21 about the potential unforeseen challenges you face when building a studio. - Ramy and Beatrix will be giving a talk called "Empowering Your Sound Designer" (something we put a lot of energy into), also at MIGS. - Along with Tanya Short (Kitfox Games) and Tali Goldstein (Casa Rara), Samantha will be giving a talk called "Production, the Indie Way: 3 Methods For Sanity and Success" at MIGS. - Anamorphine will also have an Indie Pod at MIGS where you'll be able to put your hands on the game for the first time in Montreal since ComicCon.

As we suffer through the final throes of Montreal summer (40 with humidity - is this entirely necessary?), we're fitting together the final act of the game, polishing the earlier stages, testing our TRCs, adjusting locomotion in VR - heck, we're busy!

But don't worry - we've also all managed to take a little vacation this summer, since we believe it's healthy (and more productive) not to work flat-out, forever. Especially over a two and a half year stretch, and counting. No, really, ask us how we feel about crunch and mental health some time!

We went to E3 to participate in The MIX, and we're so glad to have made it from Montreal! While Ramy, Mo, Mehrdad and Philip continued to work away at the game, Sam flew out to LA to take in E3 and talk about Anamorphine.

We did an interview with Ars Technica, Daily Vice (upcoming), and this neat livestream with Super News Live. It was also great to see other indie dev friends showing off their games there, and make new friends, too.

What's next for us? You can play Anamorphine at Montreal ComicCon on July 7, 8 and 9th. Come say hi!

Amazing news! We’re taking Anamorphine to The MIX (Media Indie Exchange) on June 14, 7-11pm, during E3! We’re thrilled to be part of this excellent event for our first E3.

Samantha will be in LA the 13th-16th, so if anyone wants to say hi, play Anamorphine, or do some Business Meetings (TM), drop us a line and we’ll arrange it!

Halfway through May already! Where has the time gone?

Huge swaths of Anamorphine are in good shape, and since GDC we've been focusing hard on making the beginning of Anamorphine playable and testable. If you want to check out what we've been working on, you can see the most recent build at the GamePlay Space Play Test on Thursday, May 25 from 6:30-9:30pm. Mark your calendars!

Where else can you see us, you ask? Anamorphine will be in the Arcade for the Toronto edition of Different Games! Check it out from May 31 - June 3 at OCAD University.

Back in March, we put out a new Story Teaser trailer, created by the lovely M. Joshua, with sound by our in-house composer, Beatrix Moersch. Josh has thoughts on making first-person-narrative game trailers, if you want to hear a little bit about what went into creating this one and others. We wanted to emphasize the trippy scene transitions, but also give you glimpse into the psychological and narrative nature of Anamorphine. Take a look - we'd love your feedback on our Facebook or Twitter.

Hey folks!

We really have no idea how it's already nearly the end of February. We've been hunkered down in the office working hard on Anamorphine and, the fast few weeks, prepping for GDC and Game Connection 2017.

We're nominated for Best PC/Console Hardcore game and Best Story/Storytelling at the Game Connection America 2017 Development Awards! Sam will be going to Game Connection today (Feb 27) and Tuesday to show Anamorphine. Drop by and try out the game! She'll also be the Xbox-sponsored IGF booth on Wednesday, March 1 from 10am-1pm, and the Game Nation (yeah, Canada!) party on Wednesday evening!

Part of Sam's travel is being covered by LOJIQ (Les Offices jeunesse internationaux du Québec) - thanks so much for helping her get to Game Connection/GDC!

We’re still taking turns making breakfast, too - Monday mornings are nicer with a bit of food and catching up before jumping into the week.

What's up with the game though, right? One of the most exciting parts of January was getting VR up and running, and testing it on unsuspecting people who didn't know how mind-blowing it was going to feel!

For those of you who can’t get your hands on one of our controllers, here's a screenshot of Elena’s concert hall, mixed with a daydream. It's come a long way in a year. We can't wait to show you more soon!

Artifact 5's Year in Review

We can't believe 2016 is coming to a close already. We've had such a big year! We gained Mehrdad and Philip, without whom we wouldn't be making the awesome progress we are. We've made countless 3D assets, recorded string and vocal tracks, designed dozens of scenes, and tracked more budget lines than we'd care to remember. We've wrestled with Wwise, Unity, Xbox, and VR. We've attended, showed or spoken at 10 conferences and events. We've learned that running an indie game studio is approximately 90% awesome game creation and 10% difficult financial and strategic decisions; that making a big game always takes more steps than you anticipate; and that your best production estimates will still be off! We've come a long way, and we're excited that 2017 will be the year you finally play all of Anamorphine!

Celebrating our Game Dev Community

We've spent a fantastic year in GamePlay Space with our Execution Labs colleagues and other awesome studios (like Kitfox, who launched the beautiful Moon Hunters this year, and Clever Endeavour, whose Ultimate Chicken Horse was a party multiplayer hit, and Outerminds, whose Tuber Simulator catapulted them yet again to the top of the mobile gaming game!).

In 2017, we're looking forward to seeing what our friends at Cardboard Utopia hatch, and we can't wait to see our overseas XL buddy studios launch Forgotten Anne, Diluvion, and Outreach!

Holidays Can Be Hard

The holidays can be a mixed bag, full of happy and tough memories and experiences. If you’re having a hard time reaching out to friends and family, there are people who can help who are just a phone call away:

Montreal Crisis Lines Quebec Crisis Lines Canada Crisis Lines US Crisis Lines

It can be tough to know how to be there for your loved ones, so for you, too, there are resources:

Canada: DepressionHurts.ca, info for friends and family. More at ReachOut.com. US: Memphis Crisis Center

As always, we wish you a happy, healthy holiday season!

See you in 2017.

Hey Anamorphites! You can now Wishlist Anamorphine on Steam! What are you waiting for? Add it today!

We’ll showing Anamorphine at the Montreal International Game Summit (MIGS) at an Indie Pod. Drop by, play the game, and talk to Sam, Ramy or Mo any time. Mo and Ramy are also giving a talk, Rendered Emotions, on Monday from 5-6pm: “Surreal mechanics and visual effects are great for “wow” factor, but in Anamorphine we use them to reinforce the narrative and reflect the emotional state of the characters through the environment. We’’re being literally figurative, telling a story by actually representing the mind of our character for players to spatially explore. We will explain how we convey the emotionally strong memories the character is traversing without dialogue, cut scenes, UI or action buttons, and how we use the minimalistic acts of looking and walking around as storytelling tools.”

In other excellent news, we had gained more hardware when we returned from the Boston Festival of Indie Games in September, and then again the next weekend, after the Montreal Indie Games Festival! We won BFIG’s Digital Art and Experimental Award, and the MIGF Awards for Narrative Design and Innovation Award. We are so thrilled to have been recognized by our peers in Montreal and Boston! We also got some fun press and a podcast about Anamorphine from ElectricSistahood, IndieHangover, and Bagogames.

And finally, here’s a little peek at some recent art for you, made by our awesome 3D artist Philip!