Red Thread has been very busy this year developing the fourth chapter of the adventure game series, while simultaneously porting all previous entries to the Unity 5 engine. The Unity 5 update went live last Monday, and part four, "Revelations", is out this Thursday December 3.
It has been a tough process. The Unity 5 upgrade and Revelations were due out in October, but the port job was much bigger than expected. Red Thread's Ragnar Tørnquist documents the struggle of a "protracted and painful beta phase" on Medium. Every lighting element in every chapter had to be revisited to generate new light maps, while shaders and scripts had to be rewritten.Tørnquist estimates that the upgrade set the studio back by $150,000.
It sounds like the work has been worth it, though. "The new engine has provided us with the tools we needed to not just improve internal production pipelines and optimise performance, but also to up the stakes when it comes to visual quality — particularly in terms of lighting, shaders and materials, and visual effects."
You'll find the evidence in the Revelation's trailer above. This is chapter four of five, and the series is available as a single purchase for £24 / $30 on GOG and the Humble Store, and is currently half-price on Steam.
