State of the Depth: Depth (PC), Depth (PS4), Depth VR, and a step toward the development of Depth 2

[BabyCat]

A year has passed since we announced Depth for PS4 and outside of this PC community there are definitely people wondering where it is. In this post we hope to clarify the state of Depth PS4, the direction of Depth PC, an until-now unannounced project titled Depth VR, and the future of Depth 2.

We would first like to reassure everyone the Depth (PC) is still going to be worked on and will continue to receive updates. As long as the game has a strong community, it makes sense for us to continue to support it.

Depth (PS4) has halted development entirely for a number of reasons. One of the major driving factors was that Unreal Engine 3 is getting harder to maintain, and is not officially supported on PS4. To be able to launch on PS4 there is a lot of engine work to be done, and the engine would have to be updated as Sony update their API's and platform. Not doing so would block us from releasing the game at all, and we underestimated this work early on. Another factor was wanting to bring Depth up to visual parity with other PS4 titles which meant revisiting a lot of our older art assets. Over time we found ourselves remaking a lot of the art, which was again a much bigger work load than anticipated. We also wanted to bring any art changes or new content back to Depth PC but we were worried about increasing the minspec for running it (32-bit and 3GB of RAM is incredibly hard to keep supporting with new art).

We decided the best next step for Depth would be to bring a new Depth experience targeting both PC and consoles: Depth VR.

Depth VR means we can start again on Unreal Engine 4, and actually focus on making an entirely new game. Unreal Engine 4 is officially supported for both PC and Consoles which drastically reduces the amount of engine work to be done for releasing the title. And when we work on art now we can focus on making everything ready for PBR rendering, and not have to worry about increasing the minspec for existing players of Depth (PC).

The gameplay of Depth VR is quite different from Depth (PC). Depth VR is a virtual reality, single player experience set in the same world of deadly sharks as Depth. Depth VR allows players to explore a beautifully rendered environment, solve puzzles and escape from sharks all while inside a one man submarine. The submarine can be controlled with a standard controller or motion controls. Depth VR is designed for Oculus, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. Depth VR is designed solely to be played in VR with no compromises taken. Even the most battle hardened gamer will have their heart skip as they are stalked and attacked by sharks in VR. Using either motion controls or a standard controller, operate and manage a one man submarine from its point of view. As well, players will need to solve spatial puzzles that take advantage for the 3D / VR setting.

Depth VR is our first step toward both expanding the Depth universe, and a step toward the development of Depth 2 in the future. Depth 2 is of course both an exciting and scary word, which leads to many questions from you our core audience. Questions such as "When?", "What is new?", "Are you going to keep working on Depth 1?", "Is Depth 1 dead?". To hopefully answer a few of these, we would like to of course say that Depth 1 is by no means dead and that we will keep working on the game for the foreseeable future. This means new gameplay content, events, and systems will be making their way into Depth 1 over the coming months. As for when, and what will be in Depth 2 - this is currently a question even we do not have the answers to. Here at Digital Confectioners people are working on both Depth VR and Depth 1. Depth 2 is in pre-production, but when we know more about the project we'll be sure to tell you all.

As always we will do our best to keep you guys updated on our plans, and right now for Depth 1 we can confirm that we are still working toward the release of our first community treasure and releasing another update. For Depth VR, if you are going to be at PAX AUS this weekend come visit us and check the game out. For everyone else feel free to check out the Depth VR store page here http://store.steampowered.com/app/534050 and add us to wishlist and follow the game hub to get updates about Depth VR in the future. Things are a bit bare as we've been busy finishing both the Terror Nights for Depth, and the demo of Depth VR for PAX AUS but over the next few weeks you will definitely see some gameplay videos of Depth VR coming out.

Exciting times are ahead, and we'd like to thank you all so much for your continued support and joining us on this crazy journey. Fin~

[Xenomorph Kisser]

[SeanXD]

Oh my, such news o-o

[Xenomorph Kisser]

Depth 2 better have goblin sharks

[Walrus-Sama]

Depth: Dating Sim when?


About VR...

I don't mean to be negative, but isn't VR just gimmicky? It's a Wow! That's cool! thing, for a few hours... then its dropped. You don't see many people putting 300+ hours into VR games. To much of the focus seems to be the gimmick and the games have little soul or depth (Heh). Is it really worth the time and effort?

And...

Will Depth 2 have Waifus?

[BabyCat]

We have no plans for making a Depth Dating Sim at this time, but we definitely understand the draw of tsundere sharks, and why you might want to try your hand at charming a shark as cute as the thresher.

Dating Sims aside, I would like to clarify that Depth VR is a story driven, single player, VR experience, and importantly is built exclusively for VR. We believe that VR is here to stay, and that VR is a rapidly growing market. Of course, a lot of our core audience for Depth are currently hardcore multiplayer gamers - so maybe Depth VR will not be for appealing for everyone, however we do believe there are a number of people who will look forward to and be excited to play Depth VR. As mentioned above, Depth VR is also a much smaller project that Depth 2 is - this is a good stepping stone for us to work toward building a bigger and better Depth in the future.

Finally, we unfortunately have no information on Depth 2 waifus at this time.

[Cerebral Daemon]

Originally posted by BabyCat:

We would first like to reassure everyone the Depth (PC) is still going to be worked on and will continue to receive updates. As long as the game has a strong community, it makes sense for us to continue to support it.

Welp, we're doomed.

Happy to see there's plenty of plans in stock for Depth as a whole, and glad there's even words being spoken about a "Depth 2". That's quite the good news.

[DarknessConcept]

Wow... super exciting news. Can the devs confirm whether or not Depth 2 will be like Depth in every way except over 9,000% more shork?

[Draven]

Originally posted by Walrus-Sama:

Depth: Dating Sim when? :awkward:


About VR...

I don't mean to be negative, but isn't VR just gimmicky? It's a Wow! That's cool! thing, for a few hours... then its dropped. You don't see many people putting 300+ hours into VR games. To much of the focus seems to be the gimmick and the games have little soul or depth (Heh). Is it really worth the time and effort?

And...

Will Depth 2 have Waifus? :vanilla:

Would kinda of have to agree with his point here, well besides the dating sim thing lol. I mean yeah I get you, about you think vr is here to stay, but I really don't feel like it's hit mass audiences yet, though like you said if you can use some of your built world from the VR and port it to Depth 2 then I guess you'd be killing 2 birds with one stone.

Don't get me wrong Depth VR sounds cool, just the price tag on some of this VR stuff is too high for alot to reach atm, so can't help but feel you're jumping the gun on this one.

But hey it's your dreams, don't let us stamp on them, shoot for the sky, just be careful k.

[Wesk]

Originally posted by BabyCat:

I would like to clarify that Depth VR is a story driven, single player, VR experience, and importantly is built exclusively for VR.

Let me know if you guys need an alpha/beta tester for Oculus hardware ;)

[noxbolverk]

DEPTH 2 HYPE

[GlacticaMO]

yay

[Ray G.]

Wait ... it's Halloween or April Fools today?

[MDT紫 | Demicron]

i have played like 70 matches now and got a skin every round ..

[Sielulintu]

The most exciting news for me is that Depth 1 is going to get more updates. I'm happy to hear that there will be depth 2, and i do hope when it is coming, i will have a pc that handles unreal engine 4 well. In the meantime i want lots of content for depth 1 :P

Keep up the good work guys, and thank you for such a great experience with Depth. :)

[Walrus-Sama]

Originally posted by BabyCat:

We have no plans for making a Depth Dating Sim at this time, but we definitely understand the draw of tsundere sharks, and why you might want to try your hand at charming a shark as cute as the thresher.

Dating Sims aside, I would like to clarify that Depth VR is a story driven, single player, VR experience, and importantly is built exclusively for VR. We believe that VR is here to stay, and that VR is a rapidly growing market. Of course, a lot of our core audience for Depth are currently hardcore multiplayer gamers - so maybe Depth VR will not be for appealing for everyone, however we do believe there are a number of people who will look forward to and be excited to play Depth VR. As mentioned above, Depth VR is also a much smaller project that Depth 2 is - this is a good stepping stone for us to work toward building a bigger and better Depth in the future.

Finally, we unfortunately have no information on Depth 2 waifus at this time. :azuki:

You could probably ask those guys that make the Sakura games to make one for you, they seem to fart those out every month or so anyway...

The VR thing seems like it'd be really harsh to pull off. Depth community is small, VR community is small (And lets not forget one of the VR Sytems (Forget its name) is like $800 and requires the rearanging of a whole room and mounting ♥♥♥♥ to walls. The ♥♥♥♥ is their target demograpic?). The amount of people that will probably play it and keep playing it will be smaller than Depth by a decent amount, and Depth sits around like 300-600 players currently.

Great White-Chan is my Waifu~