Hey detectives, time to investigate a fresh patch for you all after checking it out on the experimental branch. More news to come on the plans for the year soon as well!

• Much improved mini-map rendering speed
  
• Fixed: Citizens could become stuck in a loop cleaning up receipts from the floor in their home if certain conditions were met.
  
• Fixed: In certain circumstances the player could give items to dead citizens.
  
• Fixed: Taking a bullet casing from an apartment-stored inventory could result in a non-droppable item that the player could repeatedly take.
  
• Fixed: An inaccessible light switch could spawn behind a water cooler.*
  
• Fixed: Game forgot player’s own discovered password on save/load.
  
• Fixed: Attempted fix for certain achievements not completing until the player ate/drank.
  
• Fixed: Attempted fix for certain achievements not unlocking at the correct time (sometimes only once the game was over).
  
• Fixed: KO’ing a citizen by door barging did not count towards the ‘Spare No-one’ achievement.
  
• Fixed: Décor mode UI spawned partially off-screen on Steam Deck (1280x800).
  
• Fixed: News Stands always sold the ‘Cartographer’ sync disk for their daily deal.

* Requires a new city generation to appear/spawn/see


If you want to sign up to the Fireshine Games newsletter for more information on our upcoming games please do so here[share.hsforms.com]

Hey folks, we have another new experimental patch for you all.

These builds are only found on our ‘experimental’ steam branch. You can access this by right clicking the game in your steam library, choosing ‘properties’, then the ‘betas’ tab. The experimental build should be in the dropdown list. Experimental builds may be less tested than the default branch builds. Most experimental branch patches will make their way to the default branch after a week or two (barring any issues discovered).

Please do see the public bug list with comments from Cole about what is being worked on at the moment here: https://shadowsofdoubt.notion.site/0053dddf306643eea972c6595ac897d2?v=25d97977c0ad43b5811787d11ee27987

• Much improved mini-map rendering speed
  
• Fixed: Citizens could become stuck in a loop cleaning up receipts from the floor in their home if certain conditions were met.
  
• Fixed: In certain circumstances the player could give items to dead citizens.
  
• Fixed: Taking a bullet casing from an apartment-stored inventory could result in a non-droppable item that the player could repeatedly take.
  
• Fixed: An inaccessible light switch could spawn behind a water cooler.*
  
• Fixed: Game forgot player’s own discovered password on save/load.
  
• Fixed: Attempted fix for certain achievements not completing until the player ate/drank.
  
• Fixed: Attempted fix for certain achievements not unlocking at the correct time (sometimes only once the game was over).
  
• Fixed: KO’ing a citizen by door barging did not count towards the ‘Spare No-one’ achievement.
  
• Fixed: Décor mode UI spawned partially off-screen on Steam Deck (1280x800).
  
• Fixed: News Stands always sold the ‘Cartographer’ sync disk for their daily deal.

* Requires a new city generation to appear/spawn/see


If you want to sign up to the Fireshine Games newsletter for more information on our upcoming games please do so here[share.hsforms.com]

Hey Detectives, another patch incoming now with some more fixes ahead of the holiday season.

• Fixed: Some number pad selection issues while using a controller (using D-Pad selection moves the virtual cursor)
  
• Fixed: Missing Work ID and Wallet in Tutorial
  
• Fixed: Incorrect citizen age calculation
  
• Fixed: Number keys pull up inventory items during cruncher passcode entry (as they are also hotkeys)
  
• Fixed: Apartment keys could be stolen legally while the player obtained a guest pass
  
• Fixed: Player gained the ‘wet’ status effect while in an exterior air duct if it was raining
  
• Fixed: Removed inspect action for bleach bottle as it was missing a summary
  
• Fixed: Candles played a switch on/off sound when interacted with
  
• Fixed: It was possible in rare cases for a killer to not pick a murder weapon, leading to problems with them executing murders
  
• Fixed: The black market sync doctor would not go to work
  
• Fixed: Long delays in citizens going to work (resulting in them often being late; they still can be but it should happen less often)
  
• Fixed: The black market trader only had 2 staff; meaning it could only stay open for half of the week*
  
• Fixed: The player could quickly select an alternate user on the login screen on a cruncher after a successful passcode input, and the cruncher would log them into that account.
  
• Fixed: Failed inputs after case board closing
  
• Fixed: Failed inputs after text input
  
• Fixed: Small changes to ensure we're updating our last active controllers.
  
• Fixed: An issue with the control state flags
  
• Fixed: An unlisted bug where you could get stuck without control access in the main menu

* Requires a new city generation to appear/spawn/see

Hello detectives! It’s been a couple of months since the launch of 1.0 and I wanted to share a general update to talk about what you can expect next year.

First off, I’m extremely pleased to announce that Shadows of Doubt is part of this year’s Jingle Jam[jinglejam.tiltify.com] games bundle; a fundraising initiative with a collection of games available for donations over £35. All money goes to some excellent causes. This ends on December 14th, so be quick about it!

[[img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35172403/7fe73f100df383f60845f75b3257393f61c5da2d.jpg[/img]

On the dev team side, we’ve been mostly keeping our head down and working on resolving bugs. We’re finding we’re currently solving around ~15 issues per patch, with patches coming about every 3 or 4 weeks. As we’ve been prioritising more serious bugs, the number of those is coming down. Our main priority will be to continue with these next year and give the game the polish it deserves.

We found throughout early access that adding something ‘big’ to the game (and when I say ‘big’ I mean something that fundamentally interacted with the game’s core systems), would often break something we had either previously implemented or fixed. So doing this while trying to polish the game often resulted in a ‘two steps forward, one step back’ experience where we would add something cool, only to break something else.

Shadows of Doubt is a game with a large scope, having been constructed over 8 years, and 7 of those by a rather scatter-minded individual (myself). It would be fair to say that the codebase rather reflects this: An interconnected beast to say the least! Modifications to it on a fundamental level can often result in a bunch of things somewhere along the line going wrong, and the scope of the game means this isn’t often obvious.

So what’s next? Well as previously stated we do want to get the game in a better place polish-wise as a priority. Then we’ll likely start adding a couple of things that were nearly done but for whatever reason didn’t make the final release; these are some pretty small but interesting additions. Then we’ll look at adding some more significant things as the year goes on.

It will likely take the form of more of what’s there already (buildings, objects etc), or more modular self-contained systems that don’t weave in with everything else quite so tightly. The key here will be to avoid adding things that mess up the original ecosystem of the game to prevent the game from going backwards and polish getting wiped out.

We realise there’s scope to take the game several steps in so many directions, and people are really excited to see and explore those possibilities. We certainly are too, but the reality of game dev means we’d prefer to keep a lot of those grander schemes to a future sequel project where we can properly build around them rather than attempt to tack them on. That said, I’ve no doubt that we can add some really cool things to the game in 2025.

It’s all on the vaguer side right now as we have yet to finalize what we’re going to do exactly. Plus the dev team need a break! But you’ll hear us pipe up when the cogs are turning again, that’s for sure!

Thanks for your continued support for Shadows of Doubt.

Hello Detectives, we have a fresh batch of patch notes with a new suite of bug fixes for you all. The work continues in the background towards making the best version of Shadows of Doubt possible and more patches are on the way. Thank you for your continued support folks

• Fixed: Apartment storage items missing on load game
  
• Fixed: Player movement could sometimes become restricted when crouched
  
• Fixed: When a new crime scene is opened, enforcers no longer target other people who live there
  
• Fixed: Citizens should no longer attempt to turn on the lights in a room where another citizen is sleeping
  
• Fixed: Citizens could get stuck sitting while waiting for the player to come and meet them for side job info. These side jobs can now also be failed if you don’t meet them in time.
  
• Fixed: Multiple entries of the same dialog option for side jobs
  
• Fixed: The player could not inspect the menu in the hotel
  
• Fixed: A tweak to how disabling the sandbox mode murderer works; this will now only take effect after an active one is caught or a new game is started. The previous method could result in some edge cases with the worst of them stopping murderers from ever being re-activated.
  
• Fixed: Kitchen overhead cabinet interaction collider could block pinned notes from being interacted with.
  
• Fixed: Placing an Ash Tray or Green Desk Lamp in décor mode could result in the object interacting with the player movement physics in weird ways.
  
• Fixed: Direction Arrow could reappear when disabled in game options after the player used the camera or observed CCTV.
  
• Fixed: In older generated cities, prices of certain items that have since been changed in more recent updates could create an infinite source of money if you purchased then sold them at pawn shops.
  
• Fixed: Having a guest pass for an address on an Echelon floor didn’t give you access to the floor without it being classed as trespassing. Having a guest pass will now also allow you to enter the floor’s communal area without trespassing.
  
• Fixed: Apartment purchase flyers could be spawned for apartments that the player had already purchased.
  
• Fixed: A few spelling mistakes

* Requires a new city generation to appear/spawn/see

Greetings detectives, unlike the cold weather we are beginning to get for the holiday season, the cases remain hot with our community sleuths on the job! Let’s take a look at what you all have been up to recently:

Speaking of hot cases, check out this monster case board from Reddit u/DankSpiritCase. Complete with an accompanying rundown of the investigation and we are happy to hear there is another killer off the streets!
Our detective modders never cease to amaze with some of the things they create. Welcome to “Rexton City[discord.com]”. With a sprawling 5x7, 887 population city like this, we can imagine how endless exploring it all can feel. Let alone solving cases here! Details along with a link to download provided in the above hyperlink.

Secret El-Gen technology, prosthetics or years of training…We aren’t sure but whatever it is, this citizen is taking blows from katana wielding Reddit u/Izikpavlyuk like nothing. How many of you consider yourselves swashbuckling-detectives?
Does anyone else here keep track of all their past victims and killers? Detective Trier is with some added sketch artist flare[discord.com]
That about does it for this investigation, detectives. We leave you with a fun little assignment brought to you by Discord Detective Aaron Assiduous. Aaron has created an OC template for you to use to create your very own detective profile card[discord.com]. Don’t forget to share it with your fellow sleuths and we will see you on the next case later this month!

Make sure to follow us on X and join the Discord to stay up to date on all of our investigations and the latest news!

Hey detectives! We hope you’ve been enjoying the cooler weather and spooky season so far this October.

Our team is still hard at work squashing bugs and we want to thank everyone who has been so patient and excited to be on this investigation with us. It’s been a huge technical endeavour for us as such a small team and your reports have been an amazing help in our public bug list. We aren’t done yet!

That being said, let’s celebrate some of the awesome + spooky content we’ve seen from the community recently🎃

Discord Detective Thog has got a voice any criminal wouldn’t mind copping to during an interrogation. Check out his latest detective narration outlining his time living in the city solving cases.

Surely you’ve seen your fair share of film posters and advertisements plastered all over the neon cities, but have you seen the Starch Kola monster? Born from our community created lore, is this the abomination the result of too much Starch consumption or perhaps an Elliot Genetics experiment gone wrong…In any case, ‘tis the season to plaster up one of these creepy posters in your very own detective apartment! Available in your apartment decor tab menu.

Reports are coming in of detectives helping killers hide and dispose of bodies by stuffing them in small places, throwing them over the docks or out windows across the city. Why did they decide to help them? Well, the city does something to you over time…and crows aren’t always easy to come by. Have you been hiding bodies lately? Don’t worry, we won’t tell. Discord Detective “The Man In The Hat” has presented us with “The Man In The Cupboard”.

To wrap things up, here is some horror trivia for you detectives to solve…Do you know where the inspiration for this carpet design comes from and have you noticed a matching achievement title to go along with it? Let us know your findings down below 👍

See you next month, when we investigate…Synth Turkey? 🦃

Hey detectives, we've got a new patch for you all with a host of fixes that should improve your playing experience! Cole and the small team here have been hard at work trying to squash those hard to find and replicate bugs. As always you can see the existing bug list and what Cole is working on here[shadowsofdoubt.notion.site]

• Fixed: Loading screen getting stuck at ‘Simulating Past Events’ on Casablanca Quarter (it was possible this was affecting other cities too)
  
• Fixed: Route plotting issues where the route would not appear for the player under certain circumstances
  
• Fixed: Switching to clear text mode on an evidence window would result in link locations in the text not updating, and the page controls disappearing
  
• Fixed: Case of laboratory room not generating (creating an empty void). This space should be a bathroom in future cities; in previous ones the door is now a wall.
  
• Fixed: Citizen hats and glasses would glitch out when their wearers were ragdolls. Glasses do now not fly off citizen’s heads when rag-dolled (less theatrical but probably for the better!)
  
• Fixed: Player could no longer interact properly with physics objects that citizens had moved back to their original positions
  
• Fixed: If the player saved while a citizen was repositioning a physics object, the object would not spawn when the game was loaded
  
• Fixed: Fix for citizens holding items they should have gotten rid of
  
• Fixed: Citizen animations are now paused properly when the game is paused
  
• Fixed: Blood pool Y positioning fixed and should also now appear over rugs
  
• Fixed: Raised newspaper hiding status would remain active if you switched items with it active
  
• Fixed: A fairly rare error that caused non-expiring buffs and unresolving cases
  
• Fixed: Issue with some sounds cutting out on consoles
  
• Fixed: Some tweaks to the amount of trash a citizen can carry/drop
  
• Fixed: Some cases of missing window panes within the ‘mixed industrial’ building*
  
• Fixed: Small possible performance boost at crime scenes due to extra blood decals that were not visible to the player
  
• Fixed: Error when player threw a citizen into the sea

* Requires a new city generation to appear/spawn/see

Hey detectives, we are pushing the most recent experimental build live on the main branch now. We are hard at work on another patch that we should have ready for you early next week. You can check what Cole is working on with the public bug list here: https://shadowsofdoubt.notion.site/0053dddf306643eea972c6595ac897d2?v=25d97977c0ad43b5811787d11ee27987

• Fixed: Cover-Up calls and a couple of other instances would list details of past murders instead of the immediate one
  
• Fixed: Cover-up calls could happen constantly after the first occurrence, and now you also have an option to refuse after the first choice
  
• Fixed: Kidnap cases could stall if the player saved & loaded the game while the kidnapper and victim were meeting
  
• Fixed: Newspapers could report a kidnapping case too early
  
• Fixed: Issues with notebook history/search section removing the wrong entries when it hits the max number of 40 world objects.
  
• Fixed: At least one cause of murders not triggering (due to the black market trader not having enough staff to cover open hours, resulting in the killer waiting a very very long time for it to be open so they could buy the murder weapon)
  
• Fixed: Camera occasionally not capturing citizens in clear view
  
• Fixed: Some cases of furniture blocking citizen/player paths*
  
• Fixed: Text being displayed too small on some in-game popup messages
  
• Fixed: Some odd UI selection for street renaming list buttons when playing with a controller in the city editor
  
• Fixed: On PC, some control glyphs were missing and displayed text code
  
• Fixed: Popup tooltips should clamp onscreen correctly
  
• Fixed: Movement control rebinding was missing from PC build

* Requires a new city generation to appear/spawn/see