A version update for The Departure is now live on Steam for Windows 32-bit, Windows 64-bit and Linux (version 1.5.50), including advanced graphics options, a Ukrainian translation, and quality of life fixes.


Estranged now offers the following Advanced Graphics options under Options > Graphics > Advanced:

• Enable Highest Model Detail - Turn off distance-based level of detail transitions for models
  
• Enable Highest Shadow Detail - Don't scale dynamic shadow quality with distance
  
• Enable Super Sampling - Render at 2x resolution

These options are designed to future-proof the game for future hardware (and as a result will not perform well on the current recommended hardware specifications).


Several quality of life changes are now available, including:

• Supply crate tweaks so that if no resources are needed, nothing is spawned - see thread
  
• Save/load fixes in the prelude & epilogue sections
  
• Ukrainian translations contributed by the community

There is now an https://wiki.iamestranged.com/ which contains all lore to date sourced from in-game materials (with some bonus extra information). Some notable pages to get started with:

• Arque Corporation[wiki.iamestranged.com] is a multi-national corporation responsible for Deep Sea Operations, Logistics and Chemical Research according to its website, with significant presence on the Island in the form of multiple research facilities.
  
• The Fisherman[wiki.iamestranged.com] is the main protagonist and playable character in the Estranged game series.
  
• Infected[wiki.iamestranged.com] are enemies in Estranged: Act I and Estranged: The Departure. They are humans, presumed to be previous inhabitants of the Island.

One of the motivations for compiling such a wiki was to help the development of Arctic Cold, since as you can tell by the size of the wiki there is now a lot to the Estranged universe to keep track of.

[wiki.iamestranged.com]The original idea and inspiration for a wiki came from the existing Fandom Wiki[estranged.fandom.com] (I based the structure of the official wiki on this one). The official wiki is not open to contribution, but if you see something that is missing or not quite right, please let me know and I'll fix it.

--

Finally, if you're interested in a peek behind the scenes of the in-game update news feed The Departure had while it was in development, I recently posted a writeup: Update News Presentation Markup for Games[alanedwardes.com].

That's it for now - I hope you enjoy this update, and find the wiki interesting!
Alan

A patch version update for The Departure is now live on Steam for Windows 32-bit, Windows 64-bit and Linux (version 1.5.49), including localization updates contributed by the community for the following languages:

1. French
   
2. Latvian
   
3. Russian
   
4. Chinese (Simplified)

Thank you to the translators who contributed updates to the translation repository[github.com], and thank you for playing Estranged!

Alan

--

Further Updates

• Title of this news post changed to be consistent with prior news posts
  
• Follow-up update pushed live containing the updated localization caches
  
• Clarified that the update is for Windows and Linux - macOS remains on version 1.5.47 due to challenges related to Apple's notarization requirements

10 years ago today, Estranged: Act I was released. Since then, there have been well over a million unique players, with nearly 7k reviews and the title sits with a Steam rating of 93%.

"Natural Reserve" by Er0de from the Act I Steam Community

Thank you to everyone that supported the project by translating, submitting feedback, and of course playing the game. The biggest reward for a game developer is seeing people have fun with something you’ve built.

Humble Beginnings

For those that may not know the background, Estranged started as a map for Half-Life: 2 known as Splooshe (available on the Act I workshop), inspired by some of the early Half-Life: 2 screenshots[combineoverwiki.net]. From there, the map and concept continued to evolve into a mod, and then into a standalone game (and got a better name!).

Untitled screenshot by siplaki from the Act I Steam Community

The Departure

After the release of Act I, Act II was born as a background project. It entered Steam Early Access in 2017 and released in 2020 as Estranged: The Departure.

"Красивое место 🧡" (en: Beautiful place) by Extragamer from the The Departure Steam Community

A year later The Departure released on Nintendo Switch (US[www.nintendo.com], Europe[www.nintendo.co.uk]) which introduced brand new audiences to the series. The title will celebrate its own 5-year anniversary later this year!

Next Instalment

The next instalment to follow will be Estranged: Arctic Cold, which has been in development in the background since 2020. This is a direct continuation of where The Departure ended, with enough context to also be played standalone.

Previously unseen development screenshots from Estranged: Arctic Cold

A personal note: I’m at the stage now where I’d really like to get people playing Arctic Cold to shape the future of the game. It’s nice to develop in a vacuum without the pressure of expectations, however it’s not rewarding; no-one is playing what you’re putting together. The plan is to follow with an Early Access release of Arctic Cold later this year, and continue to develop it "in the open" as with The Departure.

If you'd like to stay in touch, there is a Discord server at https://discord.gg/estranged

Thank you for playing and following the Estranged series!
Alan

Cross posted on the Estranged: Act I Steam Community

There have been reports of users impersonating me on Steam and Discord, which sometimes involves a phishing attack (a fake Steam support thread directing users to contact "Alan Edwardes Official" on Discord).

This is not me - here's some tips for spotting a scammer:

• I will not communicate with you via Direct Messages on any platform
  
• I am alanedwardes (previously Alan Edwardes#3608) on Discord, and only communicate via https://discord.gg/estranged and the Steam forums for the Estranged games
  
• If you are added by a Discord profile with my name, it is an impersonator, and the account should be reported to Discord Trust and Safety via https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
  
• If you are added by a Steam profile with my name, it is an impersonator, and the account should be reported to Steam Support via https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4D07-D139-587C-2080
  
• I do not work for Valve (Steam), and will never ask for account passwords, or money (I will not send a direct message to you in the first place)

Here's a short message from Alan Edwardes (Liam Jones ???), explaining the situation:

Stay safe!

Alan

An update with cheats and translation updates is now available for Windows, macOS and Linux!

A player screenshot from Discord[discord.gg] user Badbadalex1#5096

New Cheats

The following new cheats (requested on the forums) are available to spawn Arque guards with, equipped with various weapons:

• spawn guard - Pistol
  
• spawn guard rifle - Assault rifle
  
• spawn guard shotgun - Shotgun (AI don't use this, just one scripted scene)
  
• spawn guard rat - Rat Tracing technology
  
• spawn guard laser - Assault rifle with high-powered laser

Language Updates

The following languages have also received updates from the translation community:

• Czech
  
• German
  
• Persian
  
• Finnish
  
• Portuguese
  
• Slovak
  
• Turkish
  
• Vietnamese

I'm always around on the forums, or on discord.gg/estranged if you'd like to report bugs, or provide feedback.

Thank you for playing Estranged!

Alan

I'm going to pretend it's already June as I released a late may update - an update is now live on Steam for Windows, macOS and Linux, including an improved intro sequence and fixes!

New Wake Sequence

I recently published a blog post about creating motion-captured camera sequences using my phone[alanedwardes.com], and I have now used this technique with the "wake" sequence in the Prelude (at the very start of Chapter 1).

This technique isn't perfect, but allows you to simulate more subtle and "human" movements and I'll be using it with future camera animations of this kind.

Weapon Firing Fix

I want to thank everyone that helped report this bug and provided me with the information to track it down - especially on the forums.

Previously, when picking up a new weapon, if you went back to your old weapon and tried to use it again, you'd see the effects of it firing without it actually firing. This bug only affected a small percentage of players since swapping back to your previous weapon is quite a rare thing to do (because typically your next weapon is an upgrade).

I apologise for not catching and fixing this bug sooner - since I'm wearing multiple hats (including QA) it's easy for me to get tunnel vision with regards to what I'm testing.

The bug is fixed, and we can now rest easy knowing we can defend ourselves against Sokol-Glockner's skilled marksmen.

👀

As ever, I'm around on discord.gg/estranged, and post more frequent development updates there if you want to keep up with Estranged (check out the #dev-screenshots channel).

Thanks for playing Estranged!
Alan

There's a new Steam beta branch called gi-tech-demo, which is a version of Estranged: The Departure with only some of the levels included to showcase dynamic global illumination in Unreal Engine 5.

The Prelude level (Chapter 1 from the menu) has been adapted to allow you to control the position of the sun in the sky with the keyboard, and allow you to toggle it on and off.

All lighting in this beta is calculated in real-time, while the live version of Estranged: The Departure uses pre-computed lighting.

The live version of Estranged: The Departure won't change to use this technique, this is purely a tech demo to showcase the latest global illumination technology in Unreal Engine 5, which released into Early Access on May 26th.

To check out the tech demo, pick the gi-tech-demo branch from the "Betas" tab on the "Properties" menu for Estranged: The Departure. You need Windows, and a graphics card which supports DirectX 11 and above. This branch will not be kept updated, and does not focus on stability/performance.

To get updates like these and screenshots from development, join Discord: https://discord.gg/estranged

Thank you for playing Estranged!
Alan

A build is now available for Windows, macOS and Linux containing improvements and bug fixes.

Bug Fixes and Improvements

The following changes are included in this build (1.5.42):

• Disables async loading thread since testing on other platforms revealed some instability
  
• Improves the slider UI element when adjusted via the keyboard and gamepad
  
• Adds a loading spinner to show while menus load
  
• Adds quick menu transition animation
  
• Adjusts stream-loading point in sp07 and removes vent grate (the first sewer)
  
• Allows the stream-loading spinner to be visible at the same time as the "LOADING" banner on slower machines

If you haven't joined already, you may be interested in the Estranged Discord server[discord.gg].

As ever, thank you for playing Estranged!

Alan

A new build is live on Steam for Windows, macOS and Linux including a brand new short level!

There is a new short level available in Estranged, called Blizzard. It's a short, story-driven adventure, and is a free and permanent update for the game.

The Blizzard short was made for the holiday season, but isn't directly related to it! It provides some clues about the Estranged: The Departure story, and also what might follow it.

There are now a total of 3 shorts, all available from the main menu.

Thank you for playing Estranged!
Alan