Fear the Spotlight news & patch notes

Fear the Spotlight is on discount RIGHT NOW! The game is 25% off for the Steam Winter Sale 2024. To celebrate the sale, we will be featuring streams of Fear the Spotlight by Gab Smolders, Kinda Funny Games, and Jesse Cox. Enjoy! Bryan and Crista Cozy Game Pals

Many of you have been asking for when Fear the Spotlight will go on discount. The answer is RIGHT NOW! The game is 20% off for the Steam Autumn Sale 2024. To celebrate our first sale, we will be featuring streams of Fear the Spotlight by Gab Smolders, Kinda Funny Games, and Jesse Cox. Enjoy! Bryan and Crista Cozy Game Pals

Attention all students of Sunnyside High! It's time to nominate games for this year's Steam Awards. A lot of you have been sharing how much you enjoyed the story and characters of our game, so please vote for Fear the Spotlight for Outstanding Story-Rich Game. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42282789/7301b890cef03947806c190a2942af3022432c3d.png And we know many of you have asking for a sale. So to all the new fans that are playing for the Autumn sale, please don't forget to consider us when voting. Thanks so much! Bryan & Crista Cozy Game Pals

Hello everybody! Thank you all for playing and enjoying Fear the Spotlight. We're happy to share our patch based on all the feedback and bug reports we've been getting. Thank you for your help, and sorry for any inconvenience these issues may have caused. Patch Notes:

• Fixed save files in Amy’s house breaking on some PCs
• Fixed shed lock puzzle getting stuck on some PCs
• Fixed keyboard key rebinding
• Improved Japanese translation.
• Improved framerate throughout the house.
• Red numbers in the lockpick minigame now pulse (for colorblind players).
• Updated "Special Thanks."
• Fixed lighting bugs in the girls' locker room and theater.
• Fixed several issues when fading to black between scenes.
• Corrected ceiling geometry in the dark library.
• Fixed retro (wobbly) material on various objects.
• Fixed hanging spotlight in house unexpectedly turning off
• Fixed attic enemy behavior when playing at 120fps+.
• Adjusted SSAO to reduce temporal artifacts.
• Improved edge-cases in the faculty office setup.
• Fixed cell phone rotation bug when toggling menus too quickly.
• Fixed collision on air vents.
• Fixed checkpoints sometimes failing in Chapter 2
• Fixed sliding door lock sometimes getting stuck
• Improved clarity for unlocking Chapter 2
• Added "info" screen to main menu

To celebrate Steam Scream 3D and our recent launch, we will be featuring streams of Fear the Spotlight by Gab Smolders, Kinda Funny Games, and Jesse Cox. (sorry for the repost, we had issues with the original post) Happy Screaming! Bryan and Crista Cozy Game Pals

We're busy working on a larger patch, but for now here's a quick fix for one major bug. Save files now work in Amy's house when your PC is German, Portuguese, & French (previously loading a save file would spawn you in the black void)

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42282789/e23edf6f7f5e22407c809b284b0d1963a271ebb1.jpg The day is finally here. After years of dreaming, developing, and pouring our hearts into this project, the extended re-release of Fear the Spotlight is officially live! This game began as a passion project, a love letter to the horror games and movies we grew up with. And because of your support, it has become the debut title for Blumhouse Games. It has been an adventure we’ll cherish forever. Whether you’re just discovering our game today or you’ve been with us since the original limited release, we are forever grateful to you. For the original fans that purchased the limited release last year, you are automatically upgraded to this newly expanded version of the game which almost doubles the length of the game. We hope you enjoy. So, what are you waiting for? Fear the Spotlight is out now! Step into the shadows of Sunnyside High, uncover its buried secrets, and let us know what you think. With endless gratitude, Bryan & Crista (Cozy Game Pals)

Hi all, We're excited to finally reveal the release date for Fear the Spotlight! You'll be able to play it on October 22nd! We also have a brand-new Release Reveal trailer for you to check out: It's been an incredible journey. Over the past year we've added so much to the game, and now it finally feels complete. We can't wait for you to experience it. As a special bonus, we were featured in PlayStation's State of Play! Since this game is our love letter to the PlayStation horror classics that inspired us, being part of an official PlayStation showcase was an amazing honor. Thanks for all your support, Bryan & Crista Cozy Game Pals

Hi all! We're still working hard on bringing you Fear the Spotlight later this year on all consoles. We're so excited with what we are adding to Fear the Spotlight and we will be announcing more about the game soon! In the meantime, we were lucky enough to make this video with Blumhouse Games. If you're curious about who we are and our inspirations for Fear the Spotlight then you might enjoy the video below! Thanks and you'll hear from us soon, Bryan & Crista

Hi there! We can finally share some incredible news with you. Thanks to your amazing support and reception of Fear the Spotlight's original release, we caught the attention of Blumhouse Games. They loved the game so much that they offered to help us in any way they could. We’re still in disbelief! Our goal was always to bring FTS to more people through console ports and additional languages. With Blumhouse Games' backing, not only are the console ports happening, but we were also given the chance to continue working on the game. While we're not ready to spoil any details, we’re excited to share that we’ve added over an hour of new story content, carefully preserving what we loved about the original. This is all possible because of you, our dedicated fans. As a huge thank you, anyone who bought the original game on Steam will receive a free upgrade to the updated version when it’s released this Fall 2024. We can't wait to share more with you soon! Bryan & Crista

Dear Fans! Hi there, it's Bryan and Crista! We've got some exciting news that will have an impact on Fear the Spotlight in the near future. First, we want to thank everyone who has played Fear the Spotlight so far. Thanks to your incredible support, we've been given the opportunity to keep working on the game to make it even better. We'll be adding console versions, improving translations, offering more languages, and (most excitingly) adding some new gameplay. We want to be upfront with you – We'll be taking the game off Steam while we work on these improvements. We'd love for you to wait for the improved version, but if you were looking forward to playing it this Halloween season, you will have until November 2nd to purchase the game as it is now. For everybody else, we promise it will be worth the wait. We can't thank you enough for playing our game. It means the world to us to see how much you're enjoying it. We're super excited about what's in store and can't wait to share more details with you. With loads of gratitude and excitement, Bryan & Crista

If you run into any Steam Deck related issues, we encourage you to discuss below.

Hey all! Thank you so much for sharing your love for Fear the Spotlight so far. All of the video and written feedback has helped us create our first update patch. Some of the changes made include:

• Skip showdown cutscene when you die/retry
• Added some extra inhalers when the difficulty ramps up near the end
• Fixed file save bug that would sometimes set/reset puzzles incorrectly
• Fixed library collision some players got stuck in.
• Fixed pool audio ignoring volume settings
• Fixed minor enemy AI bugs

Thanks again for the feedback. you are really helping improve the play experience for other players.

The full version of Fear the Spotlight is out now! We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we had making it! Thanks everyone for all your support ❤️

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Full Game Release is Days Away

The full game launches on September 15th 2023. We can't believe we're already here. See the launch trailer above for more of what you can expect in the full game.

Demo Update

It has been amazing and helpful to see reactions and playthroughs of our demo. With your help, and some additional private beta testing, we have been able to fix a ton of tiny issues in the full game. We have also updated the demo build for Windows, Linux, and Mac to include some of these fixes.

Positive Reactions

The responses we've been seeing are amazing. We have a ton of new wishlists on Steam. We've been in the top 10 most popular games on itch.io for about 2 weeks. It's all very surreal! We know Fear the Spotlight is a very niche game, but when the right people find it, they seem to love it - which is an amazing feeling for us. We really hope that more of the right audience continues to discover it post-launch. Thank you all so much for your support! We look forward to updating you again when the full game is in your hands!

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42282789/d03d7938778d57eb555d429133911412d69def50.png We just released a new demo to give you a taste of how the full game is shaping up. We're so proud of what the game has become. And even more exciting, the game is nearly done and we will be releasing on September 15, 2023! Play the demo, and if you enjoy it. make sure to add Fear the Spotlight to your wishlist! Thanks for all the support 💜 Bryan and Crista

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42282789/d97e1e1421644cc689d5cde95896f1ee29166193.png We've been working hard on Fear the Spotlight and are getting close to releasing the full game! Fear the Spotlight has changed a lot the first demo, so we wanted to release a new updated demo that is representative of the full game. We're so excited for you all to play it next week!

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42282789/0577cceff4cffaab73fc11648593a6345a261237.gif Welcome back, fans of Fear the Spotlight. It's been a year since you experienced the terror of Sunnyside High, and we've been lurking in the shadows, tirelessly working on bringing you an even more terrifying experience. We can't wait to share some improvements you will see in the full game: ⦁ Physical Puzzles: We've taken inspiration from escape rooms to make the puzzles and exploration more immersive. ⦁ An Intelligent Presence: The enemy has become more than just a predictable obstacle. We've upgraded its mind to keep you on edge and constantly guessing. ⦁ Heart-pounding moments: We've added much needed scary encounters that are not just puzzles or sneaking. These are moments that will test the limits of your courage ⦁ More areas to uncover: We've opened up new areas of the school for you to explore, each with its own puzzles and stories to discover. Stay tuned for more updates as we approach the final stages of development. The secrets of Sunnyside High are waiting to be uncovered, but are you brave enough to face them?

Spooky Greetings, Pals! To celebrate Steam Scream Fest we want to invite you to take a peek at some of the upcoming updates to Fear the Spotlight. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42282789/a41bca7b955eb8ce541537a3a2de1ea226f6978c.gif

UPDATE DETAILS

We've been heads-down for a while now, transforming our demo into a full experience. We're holding off on story spoilers but are excited to give you a peek into some of the gameplay improvements you will see in the full game. 🔴 Join us on our Steam page as we go live on Friday October 28 at 11:00am PST Your pals Bryan & Crista

Demo Reaction

We released the playable demo 2 weeks ago, and the reaction has been way huger than we ever expected. Comments, plays, wishlists (please wishlist on Steam), and even trending as 3rd most popular game on all of Itch.io! It's an amazing feeling to see people actually understand our inspirations and care about the mystery we are putting so much work into building. Thank you, thank you, thank you SO MUCH. You have no idea.

Your Questions Answered

We've been getting lots of questions (mostly about about the "full game") and I want to try my best to keep you all in the loop:

Release Date

By far the most frequent question is "when is the full game coming out?" The short answer is: not soon. The demo is really all we have so far, the rest of the game only exists on paper. And because we didn't expect a big reaction, our paper design was very minimal (maybe 1-hour long) And would have taken a few months to make. But the reaction HAS been big, so we've spent these 2 weeks going back to the drawing board and fleshing out the design to include a lot of things we thought we had to cut. We're still figuring out the exact scope. We're being responsible adults about it because we don't have infinite time and money, and there's only so much we can expect to earn back. But we are really narrowing down on some possibilities.

Ports

We're being asked if the game will be released for consoles and other languages. We'd love to! But the English PC version is definitely what we'll work on first. We'll worry about other releases when we are further along. Porting and localization is a LOT of work. Even if other people are helping us, it still takes some of our time. Since our team is only two people every little bit of time matters.

Difficulty

Another question we're getting: The Spotlight is too easy, will the full game be more challenging? "Challenge" is really tricky because the right balance can be different for each person. We made the call to keep The Spotlight pretty easy in the demo so people would actually finish it. In the full game we want him to be INTENSE and we are prepared to put a lot of work into getting it right.

PS1 Look

We're also getting questions about our PS1 look. A full breakdown is something we'd love to do for a future update. Our overall goal is to evoke the PS1 look without being SO strict about it. We're really picking and choosing what WE think looks good. Some people are saying that our filters are too intense. We'll be constantly tweaking the filters until we finish, so feedback is considered. The full game will also have an accessibility option to tone things down.

Content

And lastly we are getting lots of questions about what will be in the final game. More enemies? More gear? More locations? Etcetera. The simple answer is an excited "YES"! We have all of those things planned, but we won't know what will make it into the final game until we test and iterate and make sure it's fun. We're really not sure how much to share about specific content because it dips into spoiler territory. A big element of horror games is the mystery and the surprise of seeing things for the first time. So it might be shame to give things away so early. That's something we'll have to figure out as we continue to update you.

Thank You

We'll try to update you again when we have a better idea of scope and schedule. But now we really need to get back to work! Thank you so much for following us on this journey. Wish us luck! Bryan and Crista, Cozy Game Pals

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42282789/9aa64cad8e93770b45fe0906af36fca485a0eba6.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42282789/fff6d99a0705197cd5bda22f0f6a3e125de216f2.gif We're thrilled to announce Fear The Spotlight with the release of our playable demo! If you haven't already, play the demo now! This demo is an early sneak peek at what you can expect from the full game. The setting, art style, and gameplay are all there. For the full game, we need to flesh out the campaign, story, puzzles, and memorable encounters. There's a long road ahead of us, but we're excited for you to be joining us for the ride. If you want to support us, the best thing you can do is wishlist us on Steam. The more wishlists we get, the more Steam knows to share our game with other people. Your wishlist is basically a megaphone to other horror game fans. Thanks so much for all the love and support, Bryan & Crista Cozy Game Pals play the demo now!