Full Steam Ahead! : PreAlpha 0.5.4

Download on Itch. The music featured was composed by Hand Eternal’s composer Sander Tolner!

Welcome to the year 2025! Since the last blog, I have launched a Patreon and a Steam page for Hand Eternal! On the development side, I have been fixing bugs, adding more sound effects, and begun redesigning the UI.

Steam is Live!

After some time, we have now got a Steam page set up for Hand Eternal. The more public this project becomes, the more life it will have, and the further the vivid dream can come alive! Wishlist and tell your friends about Hand Eternal. Your energy will fuel the Trembling Sun!

Mind the Menu

Working on the main menu's look and sound in Hand Eternal! How's it coming together? #godot #indiedev #gamedev

[image or embed]

— DeadJade (@deadjade.com) December 19, 2024 at 2:00 AM

With the help of other developers’ feedback on the UI design, I put together a main menu screen which will serve as the DNA for UI design in Hand Eternal.

January 2025 Save Select Menu
The outer circles of the menu were darkened in order to emphasize the menu options after the first iteration was shared on Bluesky.

I learned how varying levels of brightness and contrast can be used to distinguish important menu elements to the player, and found ways to implement a little bit of menu feedback through sound effects and adding a slight shake to the button selection when reaching the end of scrolling through a list of options.

Strategic Dashing

Following in the footsteps of Ghostrunner, I implemented a mechanic which will give you a brief period of slow-motion when holding down the dash button. Once released, the player will do a dash if they do not run out of time. This will allow for precision when fighting and dodging enemy attacks.

There are numerous bugs which need to be addressed in Hand Eternal. With the help of a handful of play-testers, many have been catalogued. I will be keeping track of these bugs.

Looking Ahead

Concept art for the Astral Guardian boss model. The Astral Guardian will use a Scorched Spear, striking with deadly blades of blue fire.

Soon, I will be obtaining work to help support myself throughout development. Progress may be a little slower, but I will continue working on Hand Eternal. For the next few months, I will be focused on producing the concept art needed for me to visualize the world and story of Hand Eternal. During this time, I will also continue to work on UI, bug fixing, and various game mechanics in a limited capacity while creating concept art.

Patronage Accepted

If you’ve read this far, you may be interested to know that you can now directly support Hand Eternal on Patreon! Since I will be largely focused on development, the patron rewards will be minimal, but I do want to share what I can for your contributions to make Hand Eternal a reality. There will be behind-the-scenes images and videos, voting, and monthly meetings available across the various tiers of support. These various perks will be available on the Hand Eternal Discord, with special roles for each patron tier available.

There are a total of 4 different tiers of patronage available, ranging from $3 a month to $30 a month.

If you wish to support the future of Hand Eternal, your patronage will be met with deep gratitude for your kindness. View the Patreon page to learn more!

Thank you for joining me,
DeadJade

Developer’s Mementos

To conclude, I’d like to share a small collection of images and screenshots from this period of development that I personally like for one reason or another.

Modelling the Astral Guardian in Blender.
The first iteration of the Activated Jade overlay.
One piece made for the Astral Gate Interior concept art brainstorm phase.
Updates to the lighting in Prealpha 0.5.4.
The initial block-out of the Astral Interior concept art piece.
The first iteration of new UI design for the pause menu.
3D model for an Astral Defender enemy concept.

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