Omno news & patch notes

Hey everyone! The big day is finally here - I just unveiled my new game, Kibu(!), to the world! In case you aren’t watching the Wholesome Direct showcase (that’s still happening right now - go watch it if not - soooo many great games!) then here’s the reveal teaser trailer: I am so, so excited, terrified, anxious and thrilled to finally have it out in the world - just making this announcement feels like such a big weight off my shoulders! I’d love to know your thoughts and feelings about the trailer and the idea behind Kibu - the things you’re excited about (as well as anything you’re less keen on - all feedback is good feedback! Some of you have been supporters of my work for years now since the early Omno days, and you’ll know how much I value your feedback and support already! If you’re keen to get involved in the Kibu community and see more behind-the-scenes stuff, maybe head over to the Discord here: https://discord.gg/inkyfox For now, I’ll be diving straight back into development to keep working on Kibu - I love these announcement times where I’m making new trailers to send out into the world, but they do set me back as a solo dev :D However, the energy I get from my community at big moments like this always helps me tackle development with new energy and motivation, so I’m hoping to make great progress in the weeks to come! Oh, and if you could throw me a Wishlist (and a follow too if you’re feeling extra kind!) that would be hugely appreciated - it makes such a difference for smaller indies like me, trying to get noticed in the sea of great games coming out every day! Big love, -Jonas https://store.steampowered.com/app/2193150/Kibu/

Hey folks, Just a quick note to say that I’m running the first-ever Omno Steam discount for Omno right now (for the next 48 hours), as today’s Daily Deal! If you haven’t taken the plunge yet, or if you’ve got friends you think might be interested, now is a great time to jump in! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/5d08d93ec7ff428ccf36a337efdcc86e3304d5af.png Much love, -Jonas

Hi everyone! I pushed a minor update out earlier in the week so here is a little rundown on what's been fixed and adjusted. Build ID 7196633: most recent

• removed Yoshi's coconut jump (sorry)
• added animation when coconut hits your head
• Removed unused puzzle from Cloudy Area
• added two more names to the credits
• added an easter egg in Ice biome

Big love, -Jonas

Hi everyone! I pushed two minor updates in the last couple of days, so here is a little rundown on what's been fixed and adjusted. Build ID 7129639: most recent

• adjusted camera on the first gate in the desert to make it more "obvious" what to do
• adjusted the camera sequence in the last puzzle of ice biome
• adjusted the radius and height of the upstream in the last cloudy biome area
• and a small minor tweaks here and there

Build ID 7122034:

• SET added copyright info
• VIS flying sand in desert fixed
• VIS Ice biome area 2, main puzzle, visual hint added when failing 3 times
• FIX First gate in desert, button deactivates when spamming button
• FIX stuck when climbing on sleeping Koronus
• FIX second companion appears in last biome
• FIX game gets stuck when pressing map + pick up light orb
• FIX character rotating in pitch when moving accidently angled blocks
• FIX moving blocks physics time reduced (from 1 to .6)

Big love, -Jonas

Hi everyone! The first full day of Omno being on sale is over, and wow - it’s been a real wild ride for me! So many lovely comments, amazing streams, and great reviews coming in! I wanted to share a little roundup of some of the Omno highlights so far: Escapist: “A gorgeous, meticulously crafted adventure puzzler” The Gamer: 8/10 “a gorgeous, inventive platformer True Achievements: 8/10 - “a wonderful adventure into a mysterious world” TechRaptor: 9/10 - “Omno is pure escapism” PC Gamer: “I’m going to be friends with that turtle” Shacknews: 8/10 “a calm and delightful journey” Gamers Flag: 10/10 “a game that leaves you dreaming TheSixthAxis: 8/10 JeuxVideo.fr: 8/10 IGN Greece: 9/10 {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/1d2a0c205f51e31987baeff35ee87cdc756c47e0.png A little update on Twitch streams: in the last 24 hours Omno has been broadcast for 947 hours on Twitch alone, with nearly 15,000 hours of gameplay watched!!! Some of my top picks so far include Sir_Thomas_, DanielFenner, EvilToaster and dakieksde. I’ll keep adding things I find as I go! -Jonas <3

Wow, I still can’t quite believe I’m writing these words, but my very first game Omno is now available right here on Steam! Check out the all-new launch trailer I made to mark the occasion: It’s been a long, hard journey to get to this point - 5 years of working away on this thing on my own - and I’m feeling a crazy mix of emotions now it’s finally out in the world. Actually hitting the big green “Release” button to launch the game on Steam is probably one of the scariest things I’ve ever had to do! I really hope that all of you people who have been following the game so far come and join me in the next step of the journey - I can’t wait to see what everyone thinks of the game! Your support and interest in Omno has really helped get to where I am now, so hopefully you’ll have half as much fun playing it as I’ve had making it. Big love, -Jonas

Hello Steam friends, It feels a bit surreal writing this: Omno is launching in ONE week! :D I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone who came along on the development journey that started 5 years ago. Without the help of the Kickstarter backers and the encouraging words and feedback from all the community members, friends and followers over the years the game would have not been possible! With that, I just wanted to leave a little gameplay clip of Omno with you. Wishing you a good week and I’ll see you next Thursday (29th July) for launch day! :) Much love, Jonas

Hello Steam friends, I know I’m a little late on the monthly update this time around, but it’s for a VERY good reason. Today, I’m absolutely delighted to be able to announce to you that Omno will be launching 29th July! Check out this short little teaser trailer I made for the announcement: I’m going to keep this month’s update brief, since there’s still plenty of bits and pieces I need to finish off in the game before launch. I mostly just wanted to say thanks for all your support, for your wishlists and follows here on Steam (that really are a huge deal for small indies like me), and that hopefully you’ll join the adventure when Omno launches on the 29th! -Jonas

Hey hey, friendly followers! Just a quick note that Omno is in this summer’s Steam Next Fest, happening RIGHT NOW! For those of you who have tried out the Omno: Prologue, or the demo at any point in the past year, the Next Fest demo is essentially the same, so there won’t be anything new to see here. With the launch JUST around the corner now, I’m 100% focused on finishing the game and didn’t have time to prepare a completely new demo, but I thought it would still be nice to let brand new players find Omno and try it for the first time as part of the Fest! Big love to you all, and I’ll be in touch very soon with more details about the launch. -Jonas

Hello Steam friends, June has arrived, things are finally starting to warm up, and Omno is heading ever closer to launch, so it’s time for a quick update! I’m really in the thick of things development-wise now, so will keep things a little shorter this month so I can get back to dev work! :D BETA! The closed beta test for all of you alpha & beta-level backers is almost upon us! I’m just a few days away from finalising everything on my side, so keep an eye on your emails and the Discord for details of how to access the beta - news will be coming very soon! The beta will be the first time an essentially feature complete version of Omno will be released into the wild, so I’m crazy excited/terrified about it all! As with the Alpha tests, I’ve set up a feedback system for you all to give me your thoughts (more on that in the invitation), so I’ll be really looking forward to seeing what you think! This beta is essentially the final big milestone before launch, so it’s a pretty huge moment for me personally. From here til launch the development work is largely going to be polishing, and fixing bugs that come up from this beta - wild times! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/5d08d93ec7ff428ccf36a337efdcc86e3304d5af.png THE VERY END (of the game)! This past week I’ve been finalising the credits for the game, which feels VERY exciting - really makes the upcoming launch feel sooo real now! Not only has it been a great reminder of just how many of you lovely people backed my little project in the first place, but it’s also been amazing seeing how many names I recognised from old friends and ex-colleagues from my animation days - people I had no idea had backed Omno! It’s really been a humbling and emotional experience working through these credits, and again I can’t thank you all enough for helping me to make my Omno dream a reality. The music that Benedict Nichols, the composer of Omno's OST, wrote for it really makes me tear up. Also, a fun fact about the credits: since there’s so many of you who believed in me making this game, just the backers section of the credits runs for 6 and a half minutes, even when split into 3 different columns, which is crazy to me! Also pretty funny when the development team is just me :D The internet really is a weird place but can make dreams come true. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/565986506086c43d44faa4041f12dfd7fc76f350.png NEW TRAILER! As we’re ramping up for launch, I put together a new trailer for the game which will be showcased this Saturday during the Guerrilla Collective live stream event! Promotional opportunities like this don’t come around all that often, so I’m thrilled to be picked to be a part of it - it’s a really great way for Omno to find new fans! Check it out live in the stream, or keep your eyes on the Omno Discord/Twitter/YouTube channels to see it once the event ends. Much love as always, and I’ll keep you updated on launch plans as soon as things start falling into place - won’t be long now! -Jonas

Hello Steam friends, April is over, so it’s time for another update! With everything getting close to the finish line now I wanted to focus on all of the things I’ve been working on over the past few weeks.

Localisation!

A big thing for me is making Omno available to as many people as possible, so with the help of my co-publishers Future Friends Games, I’ve been working with a couple of great localisation agencies to translate the game into as many languages as we could. So at launch Omno will be fully playable in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese-Brazil, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese (traditional and simplified)! It feels so crazy suddenly seeing Omno in languages other than German or English (as I work in both of those languages myself during development), but it’s a GREAT feeling and makes me very proud. Here’s a look at the game in Japanese, which I think works really well with all the in-game glyphs I’ve created, somehow! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/bd600a89c7adf68826dc6b434acb07ac08efe0f9.png

Final Sequence!

This is a big one for me personally (and I promise, no spoilers here!) I’ve just finished off creating the first version of the final cutscene for the game! I’ve been animating day and night for pretty much the last 2-3 weeks on this one (and on and off before this, too). I’ve stuck closely to the storyboard I sketched out over 2 years ago, and was pretty surprised that I didn’t feel I needed to change much after all this time. In my past as an animator, I always just made the characters move, whilst dozens of other people took care of the layout, lighting, camera work, rendering etc… all under the watchful eye of a director. Doing everything myself for this sequence reminded me of just how much work it is to create even 10 seconds of animated footage, and how much I still have to learn in all of the different disciplines. Still, now that I’ve got this first draft of the full sequence together I feel I’m a BIG step closer to the finish line. There’s still lots more work to be done, but it’s a massive relief to finally see on screen everything that’s existed in my mind for so long! Needless to say, the release is getting closer and closer and just thinking of that makes my heart skip a beat! Much love, as always, -Jonas You can read the full April Kickstarter backer update here (includes console and backer beta test details). PS: If you’ve not joined the official Omno Discord, you can do so here.

Hello Steam friends :) Here is your monthly recap on what's been happening since the last update. New Trailer: It's been over two years since the last Omno trailer, so here is something new for you. 2ND ALPHA! A few weeks back I launched the second Alpha test, and I’ve been getting lots more great feedback from you Alpha backers, so thank you so much to all of you who have taken part! It’s really helping me tighten things up as I work towards delivering the Beta, which will hopefully not be too far off - I should have news about that as part of next month’s backer update at the end of April. What am I working on next? So as mentioned earlier, I’m getting things together in preparation for the beta, and finalising the last major parts of the game, with a big focus on the story and the cutscenes! Localisation work will soon be underway once-storied things are finalised, then we’ll mostly be on the final stretch - polishing, bug fixing, QA testing and performance optimising so that I can be confident the game is all in great shape before the launch! Very exciting times ahead and, as ever, I’ll be sharing any developments with you all here as we get closer to the big day! Big love and gratitude to all of you, as always, Jonas PS: If you’ve not joined the official Omno Discord, you can do so here.

Hey Steam fans, How is it March already?! With another month in the rearview mirror, it’s time for another update on all things Omno! February has been a super productive month for the game, which has felt really great. The feedback from the first alpha has given me so much energy, especially now it’s starting to feel like the finish line is insight, and I’ve been making really good progress on my “to do” list. As well as all the development progress, there’s lots of business stuff happening on the side, now things are starting to get serious and close to the end! I’ve also been working away on a brand new trailer for the game - the first in about 2 years! - which has been great, as it allows me to take a “step back” and really look at the game as a whole and the progress I’ve made in the time since I last put a trailer together. I’ve also been working very closely with the porting company and talking to the platform holders to try to align all of the plans for launching the game - believe me, this is a LOT of work for someone doing this for the first time! In-game, I’ve done an entire overhaul of the menu system - it now works properly with a gamepad and keyboard/mouse, is much more adjustable and generally just looks much nicer and cleaner - see what you think in the screenshot below! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/f5c1ff36f0324126a7fba452dbd413b75f27d549.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/c4112efaebadafe4cbebdfb6b499efaf90df0e17.png To finish on a high here’s a little sneak peek of something that you might see in the new trailer I’ve got in the works - enjoy! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/eb92468de57dabc64b6c13cef994f469e72ec54b.gif You can read the full Kickstarter update here including more screenshots and updates on the Alpha testing for KS backers as well as a full HD version of the GIF above. Stay safe out there, and big love as always, -Jonas PS: If you’ve not joined the official Omno Discord, you can do so here.

Hey Steam fans, We’re already a good way into the second month 2021 - hope you’ve all managed to get back into the swing of things and are managing to keep some of your new year’s resolutions in these strange times we’re living in! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/82b10188393fe9656f870f4667bcdad8f9921eaa.gif January was a pretty huge month for me and Omno - I finally launched the Closed Alpha for Kickstarter backers! I’ve been working away on Omno solo for such a long time now, hidden away from the world in my little dark cave, where it’s very easy for the doubts to start creeping in. I’ve really just had no idea if Omno was shaping up to be the game that people have been expecting, which is a really scary thought when you’re so far into development. Putting the Alpha out there, and getting so much positive feedback from the Alpha backers, has really lifted a HUGE weight off my shoulders, and given me so much renewed motivation. So, what are my thoughts from the Alpha, you say? You can read them on the full Kickstarter update here. There’s no doubt in my mind that Omno will end up being a better game because of the feedback I have received so far. I can’t wait to get more feedback from the next Alpha, and from the Beta after that when all of the Beta backers will be joining the party too! ːsteamhappyː {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/7ea19794a9425f84b34753591400f8f00993de24.gif Backer emails incoming! Reminder emails from the friendly folks at Future Friends Games have gone out this week to those Kickstarter backers that have not yet answered their surveys. This is super important as it helps me make sure I get rewards sorted in plenty of time, including correct names for the credits and monument in-game. So keep your eyes on your emails and remember that official emails for Omno will ONLY ever come from @studioinkyfox.de or @futurefriendsgames.com domains! Stay safe out there, and big love as always, -Jonas PS: If you’ve not joined the official Omno Discord, you can do so here. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1375540/Omno_Prologue/

Hey Steam fans, I can’t believe it’s December already - time seems to just be going so fast lately, for me at least! It’s very cold here in Germany now, and everything’s still pretty much in lockdown with all the covid stuff going on, so it’s the perfect time to get warm and cozy inside. But that isn’t making me any less busy - here’s an update on what’s been happening in Omno world: Kickstarter Backer emails incoming! As things are moving on with the project, I’m having to start thinking more about backer rewards recently. Depending on your pledge level, there may be some emails coming your way shortly from me and/or the friendly folks at Future Friends Games who are helping me out with this stuff so I can stay focused on development. These emails will be asking a few simple questions, just to gather any info we need to ensure we can deliver your backer rewards in the easiest way possible, and we’ll keep the number of emails we send to the absolute minimum so we’re not spamming you, of course! So keep your eyes on your emails and remember that official emails for Omno will ONLY ever come from @studioinkyfox.de or @futurefriendsgames.com domains! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/6dd3f7f4b183b77014e9c51fe5d63976bc20b9ae.jpg Alpha Update The first alpha test is getting closer, but given my experience in how long things take, I’m not putting a firm date on this just yet! I’ve spent a good chunk of time over the last month on performance adjustments, so I can roll out the alpha without turning your PCs into heaters! For the tech-interested among you: I’ve been improving on the level streaming system by breaking things up into smaller chunks, doing some sparring with Unreal’s Memory Manager and learning some valuable lessons about the so-called “garbage collector”! For the Alpha I’ll be using some pretty aggressive distance culling, so things like mountains in the background may pop in and out a bit, but rest assured this won’t be the case for the full game! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/e5188729f0da411bec9489f5a22c6104e2bd2ea1.jpg Music time! One of the things I’ve been super excited about this month is the progress in the game’s music. The composer I’m working with, Benedict Nichols (he created the music for the Kickstarter demo back in the day) has been writing a TON of music for the game, so we’re slowly replacing the placeholder stuff that’s been there for months with the ACTUAL proper soundtrack, which is so exciting for me as a game dev! Kind of like watching a movie with the sound turned off, then turning it on - you realise just how important the sound is for portraying moods and emotions. So in the alpha what you’ll be hearing music-wise should be fairly close to the final feeling (though many of the sound effects and music tracks are still going to be work in progress)...but more on that later when it’s alpha time. Bestiary Business! Another new thing I’ve implemented this month that the completionists among you will be happy with is a brand new “Bestiary” feature, so you can keep track of all the creatures and critters you encounter in the world of Omno! Although it’s been planned from the beginning, it was pretty low on the priority list (HUD is not THAT much fun to work on from a developer perspective haha). It’s still very WIP and I’ve done nothing on the UI to make it look pretty yet, but it’s functioning properly which is always the first step! I’m also looking to use this feature to keep a “journal” of sorts, tracking the story fragments you’ll discover as you make your way through the world. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/6c4c1ed649a5babd1269ecdf5f925d02a4b7ea19.jpg There’s LOTS more I’ve been adding, but for now, I’m going to focus on getting my head down and delivering the alpha to you alpha backers as soon as possible, so there will be plenty to talk about once that’s all ready to share! In the meantime, wrap up warm and enjoy what you can of the festive season, even if it’s a bit of a different one this year! -Jonas PS: If you’ve not joined the official Omno Discord, you can do so here. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1375540/Omno_Prologue/

Hey Steam Fans, Hope you’re doing well and had a suitably spooky Halloween! It’s November, so time for another little update on all things Omno :) October has actually been relatively distraction-free in terms of other things happening that I needed to deal with, so I’ve been in “terminator mode”, just getting my head down and making lots of progress with development, which has felt amazing! Here are some of the things I’ve been up to: New level streaming system This might not sound like the most exciting thing, but to me this is one of the BIGGEST things I’ve added to Omno in recent times. As a first-time solo dev I was only a little familiar with how level streaming systems work, and to be honest was a little daunted by the idea of working on it, so I always found a way to get around it. But I finally took the time to tackle it, and I’m really glad I did! Adding a level streaming system is a necessary step to have actually working loading screens and a smooth gameplay experience, and I’m so happy it’s all working like a charm! It even opened up some new possibilities and resolved some performance bottlenecks that I otherwise could barely get over. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/6fb6a2debe57648044672c99809211433f1ea92a.gif Main Menu screen! Another cool thing I added this month is a Main Menu screen! Quite a small thing in some ways, but it does make things feel all quite “real”! I’m still working on details like the visuals of the Options Menu (yes, I've implemented Invert Mouse Axis and turn-off-HUD options)! There's still a lack of contrast from the text of the menu to its background, but I will find a way to improve on that before release… Pet sounds I also added some more creatures, because I just can’t help myself when it comes to adding more cute little critters that bring the world to life! I also added some fun sounds to some of these creatures, mostly because they really made me laugh, and I think a little fun and laughter is a good thing in these strange times we’re living in! Many of these sounds are recorded in with my VERY amateurish and cheap microphone setup, but I am also using sound libraries and the composer is occasionally helping me out with his wisdom when a bit more professionalism is called for! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/d4406c2b31cd73a9132481a7729d9d90ccef1d55.gif Puzzling over puzzles After a few tests with IRL friends (yes, I still know a few people in person ^^ ), I made some necessary adjustments to visual cues of some puzzles. I am always amazed by how small details like a certain perspective, aligning pillars, etc. make a huge impact on the 'readability' of a puzzle and the way people understand and approach them, so I think these changes should make all the game’s puzzles feel much better, more understandable and more satisfying. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/e65209f5bda8ffbba6598e65a7fea5260c65198a.gif You can read the full Kickstarter update here including more info on the game's story elements, what's next and full HD versions of the GIFs above. Love as always, -Jonas PS: If you’ve not joined the official Omno Discord, you can do so here. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1375540/Omno_Prologue/

Hey Steam Fans, A few weeks back I launched the Omno: Prologue that I was talking about in the last update. To be perfectly honest I didn’t really know what to expect from it, since it’s essentially the same demo I used for the Steam Summer Festival, based on the exact same content as the Kickstarter demo from way back. However, over 8,000 people have downloaded the demo, which is pretty awesome, and I’ve had some lovely and helpful feedback from people about it, the reviews on Steam are 97% positive, and a fair few extra wishlists for the main game, so it seems it was really worth doing after all! Thank you to all of you who have tried it (and an EXTRA thank you if you left a Steam review for it) - it always means so much to me that people want to try this thing I’m pouring my life into :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1375540/Omno_Prologue/ What have I been working on this month? Puzzles, making things pretty, and lots of work on the game’s main collectable - the “explorer stones”. I’ve been experimenting with different ideas to make the system feel really rewarding - I’m toying with the idea of collecting a certain number of stones triggering a short speed increase that feels rewarding or something fun like that, but obviously making sure it doesn’t break any of the other game’s systems is very important too, so I’m still working on that :D {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/d7ba3d5777222fcbe883d9ca5d333f043d1d656f.jpg What’s next? Alpha prep is very much underway, so I’m hoping to have some news on that really soon. I’m doing what should be one of the final passes on all the game’s puzzles, and a big chunk of work on the game’s big, mysterious “final temple” (that’s about as far as I can get without spoiling anything). I’m pausing work on the next trailer for another month as there’s some really exciting and very visual stuff I’ve got planned in my November dev schedule that could look AWESOME in a trailer, so more on that in the November update! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/4a734031f133575d534f1a40bd55efede7a7b2a6.jpg Big love as always, and as ever let me know in the comments if you have any questions. Kickstarter update here]

Hey folks! As I mentioned before, today sees the launch of Omno: Prologue! As a standalone demo, it’s a small, spoiler-free taste of what the main game is going to offer when it launches in a few months’ time :) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/48d4352f7f6294304a812d2f396041802d762d5c.gif Though there’s nothing really new for any of you Summer Festival/Kickstarter demo players, I’d love it if you could tell your friends about it, or maybe you can hop back in and leave a review to let me know what you think of the Prologue on Steam? A small thing, but those reviews make a massive difference for a solo dev like me! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1375540/Omno_Prologue/ Big love, as always <3 -Jonas

Hey Steam fans, August is down, September is here, so it’s time for another update! Target release date I’ve had a few questions about this lately, so I thought it would be good to address this head-on. First of all, I want to apologize if I did not appear to be transparent about this: Truth is, developers, don’t know better sometimes themselves. What this means for Omno is that the end of 2020 I was targeting just isn’t going to be realistic anymore - as you have guessed already, I’d assume - and I’m now looking at around March/April 2021 for launch, which having done all of the revised planning I believe will be achievable. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/8ce756036265a7c297c953a13d1cb2aa5c7c4a44.gif gamescom! As I’m sure a few of you might have noticed, gamescom just happened this past weekend! Obviously it wasn’t quite the same as the usual craziness of hundreds of thousands of people piling into a convention center in Cologne, but the organisers still managed to put on a good show digitally! As I mentioned before, I’m planning to make the demo available right up until launch on its own standalone page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1375540/Omno_Prologue/ What have I been working on this month?

• Creating lots new creatures, to make the world busy, vibrant and surprising!
• Lots of creature animation work to make all those creatures interesting to discover and watch
• New interactions between the player character and creatures
• Environment additions - lots of new trees, bushes and vegetation throughout, as well as smaller critters, to really bring the world to life and help signpost points of interest in the world
• Dynamic camera improvements to make key moments feel “epic” - I noticed some people don’t enjoy forced sequences necessarily, so I decided to go for a middle path here in some occasions and make the camera do it’s thing to show what it’s supposed to, but still remain the player in control

What’s next? In terms of development, September will see me working on the puzzles some more (they do make a lot of work! Wow!), generally making the world prettier and more alive (this is a BIG task as well, as it is a main aspect of the game), making some additional performance and optimisation improvements, introducing “Explorer Stones” to the world (a little more on that next month!), doing some extra work on new creatures, and maybe even starting work on a new trailer if I can fit it in, since it’s been a LOOOOONG time since the last one! Big love as always, and as ever let me know in the comments if you have any questions. Kickstarter update here]

Hey folks! A cool little bit of news for you! Omno is part of the Indie Arena Booth at gamescom 2020 which will start later today, alongside TONS AND TONS of other really cool indies! If you wanna wander round the little digital booth we made, and play the demo for the game, you can do so here ːsteamhappyː {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/8ce756036265a7c297c953a13d1cb2aa5c7c4a44.gif The demo is the same as the one we used for the Steam Summer Festival, so nothing new to see if you tried that already. In other cool demo-related news, I’ll be making this demo available permanently as a standalone download - Omno: Prologue - which you’ll be able to grab on Steam on September 11th, so you can jump in and replay it as many times as you want between now and the main game’s launch :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1375540/Omno_Prologue

Hey Steam fans, Hope you are staying safe! Another month has passed so it’s time for a development update! More Animals As mentioned in the last update I’m still busy bringing more and more life into the world of Omno. Today I wanted to give you a first look at a small friend that you will cross paths with in the swamp area... {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/f17a61c316b8d50e6175c45d3056a9bf57a93fed.gif First look at digital gamescom booth Omno is going to be playable during the first-ever online edition of the gaming convention gamescom! The “show” takes place on the 27th to 30 August and Indie Arena provided a digital booth editor beforehand and I'm having a good time putting it together. Below you can get a first look at it - all work in progress of course. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/8ce756036265a7c297c953a13d1cb2aa5c7c4a44.gif July was a great month for the development of Omno as the world is really getting more lively by the day. You can read the full July Kickstarter update here including a HQ video of the frog! I look forward to showing you more in the next update! Take care and stay safe!

Steam Summer Festival Minus a few technical glitches at the start, the event went great! We had a load of demo downloads, a bunch of new wishlists and soooo much feedback from players old and new which was really helpful and incredibly humbling. It was amazing to talk to you all as part of the AMA on Discord and its something I am now very much considering doing again as we get closer to launch. So a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who helped make the festival a success. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/1e97b7737b3901de7f39808e83175a5b1773fcae.png Creature Comforts I’ve been putting a focus on bringing the world of Omno to life, and this means lots of new plants and, more importantly, creatures! I want to save the surprises for when you encounter all these things for the first time in the actual game, but I thought I’d show you one of the little critters I’ve just added this week, as they really make me smile for some reason :) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/276de9365148086b3d95d5793b1d5ba9d75779dc.gif You can read the full update over on Kickstarter here which includes more news, full HQ version of the above little critters and more. See you next month!

Hey everyone! Omno is part of the Steam Summer Festival and that means you can try a short demo of Omno right now, that will only be available until the 14th June. https://store.steampowered.com/app/989670 For all Kickstarter backers: This is a slightly updated version of the demo used during the campaign. Same content but uses the tech from Omno’s current build so demo veterans might find some new details here too. I hope you all enjoy the demo and look forward to your feedback here on the Steam Discussion boards or in the Omno Discord community. Have fun!

As you've all likely seen, the Steam Summer Festival has been postponed by one week. I'll now be doing the AMA on the Omno Discord on Friday 19th June between 4pm and 6pm CEST, where I’ll sit down for 2 hours and blast through as many of your questions as I can get through! Quick timezone check:

• 3pm BST
• 4pm CEST
• 7am PDT
• 10am EDT

(You can also check your local timezone here: https://notime.zone/M9NFPz5rFTcbp) If you’ve got a burning question you’ve always wanted to ask me, now’s the time! There are some great questions already posted in advance, and I'll do my best to get round to them all on the day. If you’ve not joined the Discord, you can do so here - full details about the AMA are in the new Steam Summer Festival “AMA-Questions” channel! See you there!

Summer is now in full swing, and May’s been a good month for development, with lots of progress made! I’ve been finishing off some new additions to the game that I’m quite excited about. They’re not quite ready to share yet (there are some surprises I don’t want to spoil too early!) but I think these latest additions to the game are going to put smiles on all of your faces when you see them ːsteamhappyː {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/cf08de2f396db42cec00c678cce65bd9bc31426d.jpg Steam Summer Festival I’m very excited to reveal that Omno will be part of the Steam Summer Festival (9th to 14th June)! It’s looking to be a really cool event, with demos available for a whole bunch of exciting in-development games. There will be an updated Kickstarter demo available to download during the duration of the festival. It’s essentially got the same content as the Kickstarter demo but uses the current systems and backbones of Omno. So whilst it should still feel good to play, it won’t feature all the latest and greatest content I’ve been adding to the game in the year and a half since the Kickstarter campaign. As part of the Summer Festival, I’ll also be doing an AMA session on the Omno Discord, where I’ll sit down for 2 hours and blast through as many of your questions as I can get through (if there are any haha)! If you’ve got a burning question you’ve always wanted to ask me, now’s the time! If you’ve not joined the Discord, you can do so here - full details about the AMA are in the new Steam Summer Festival “AMA-Questions” channel! You can read the full May Kickstarter Update here including more info on the upcoming Steam Demo plus The 8 Best Solo Developer Games in Development!

April is now behind us, and it’s been a strange month, with everything happening in the world around the COVID-19 pandemic, and much of the world in lockdown. Hopefully, you’re all managing to stay safe and healthy, both physically and mentally, and finding ways to keep your brains busy and curious. Trying to look for the positives in all this, if you’ve got more time on your hands than usual, it could be the perfect time to try something you’ve always wanted to do - learning a language, writing that novel...making a game, even? For this month’s backer update, I wanted to do something a little different, since it’s been a pretty reflective time for me lately. Instead of focusing on the progress I’ve made this month, I’d like to talk about something that I stumbled over while cleaning up my project folders… I often get asked where my inspirations come from, and honestly, I often don't know myself. I draw inspiration and influences from all kinds of sources - games like Mario, Journey, FF7, even WoW (which I never really even played) have all been influential in some of my thought processes and design decisions for Omno, but I think I draw inspiration equally from art, movies, books etc too. At the very beginning with Omno, I just had this feeling and an idea of a lonely character in this vast world, being on a journey. So very early on in the process, even before prototyping, I did some vague landscape tests (also to learn the technical aspects, since so much of this was completely new to me). Some of those landscape tests already felt right, while others seem completely ridiculous now! Some of the other landscapes I made looked cool and I would have loved to let Omno players experience those, but they just didn’t fit the context of the game as it’s developed. Those very early "mood" tests definitely shaped the way the game will look and feel, but whilst there’s ideas and settings that are still present in the Omno of today, they’ve changed beyond recognition from those original landscape ideas. There are also dozens of puzzle prototype maps for Omno and mechanics that never made it into the game, which I’d definitely like to show you more of at another time. It’s a similar situation to the landscape tests, really: some of them work great, but just didn’t feel quite right for what the game has become as it’s evolved over time. Looking back on these prototypes and tests now is rather painful in a way, as I really like so many of them, but for various reasons I know I have to "let them go" in order to make Omno the best overall experience. I guess that everything - all products/designs/creations - that look good and work well have so many iterations and failed attempts behind them, which most people will never see. Even skills work that way. You cannot draw all of a sudden, it takes hundreds of bad drawings until the first good ones appear. Even the very best skateboard professionals have had many broken bones… I guess what I’m trying to say is that maybe this unprecedented time we’re living in right now has the potential to give people the time to just get past some of those failed attempts, in whatever they want to achieve, and get closer to the place they always wanted to be. Also, I think it’s important to realise that you should be proud about those “failed” attempts. Every single one of them gets you a step closer to where you want to be, so in a lot of ways, you owe to them whatever it is that you ultimately achieve. Take care of yourselves and your families, call your loved ones, and if you have the time, go make some mistakes :) -Jonas To keep up to date on Omno development and discuss updates with the community, you can join the official Omno Discord here.

Another month has passed us by, so here is a short update on what has been happening in March. Coronavirus pandemic With everything going in the world right now there’s not really anything bigger or more important than the COVID-19 outbreak. It’s been so sad hearing just how many people are suffering from this awful disease already, directly and indirectly, and knowing it’s going to keep getting worse for a while. I’m still making progress whenever I can on development, but obviously looking after my family (also with elderly potential high-risk family members who we look after) has to take priority over everything else right now. This disease is going to affect so many of us, so my heart really goes out to everyone who has lost loved ones and friends, to those still fighting it and those who fight for their jobs. New HUD (interface) I’ve been thinking a lot about how the players will interact with the world. For Omno I’ve always wanted to keep the on-screen information as light and clean as possible, but this needs to be balanced with making sure that players know what to do in different situations. I’ve designed a ‘floating’ HUD and replaced it with the old screen interface placeholder. It’s a much more minimal style, without bombarding players with unnecessary text or info that will break immersion. See what you think: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/e3ff8b332b92e3d27a3d4836a7d8d72ef48cd10a.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/84b28e1c418193fa7dc2780fb1e05c40b6e88f02.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/12d137c82ffa21d12aa7f4c56a45d662f64b7bc9.gif You can read the full March Kickstarter Update here. To keep up to date on Omno development and discuss updates with the community, you can join the official Omno Discord here.

Hey Steam, The long February is behind us, so it’s time for another Kickstarter update! GDC Cancellation {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/3803e6c4ce86e8ae62dac3c7718e61d49a23f830.jpg Unfortunately with all of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) troubles happening all around the world right now, the show was cancelled last Friday. Obviously, for Omno it’s a real shame not to be able to attend such a cool event, but ultimately the organisers didn’t really have a choice, and safety has to come first. Stone on stone! The world of Omno is going to be full of ruins and relics from a lost civilisation, and one thing I’ve spent a lot of time on this month is modelling ALL of the temple assets that will be found throughout the game! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/a7d3348431b3f4c1fa9da09efcdd6bb95d52cea2.png Hey good lookin’ This “ivy” style creeper plant is just one of the things I’ve added in recently and will be found on many of the structures throughout the swamp biome. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33862400/9ce9d39608d674c3ae6f9b9f15cb81a70e1ad7b0.png You can read the full February Kickstarter Update here. To keep up to date on Omno development and discuss updates with the community, you can join the official Omno Discord here.