Escape from Blackwood Manor Dev Log 30th August 2026 (Patreon)

Less than 4 weeks remain until I promised I would release the Demo, I'm working pretty much full time on this now to get it done in time, here's the weekly update for what I've been working on

So You might have seen some of the escape games I previewed here, what you haven't seen is the restraint release mechanic, to put it simply if you take a restraint off it now appears in the background on the floor, likewise if it is put back on (for example by a guard patrolling) then it goes back on the player, fairly simple but i think it helps build immersion

A lot of what i have been doing this week is colour correcting and adding in animation frames, and we are up to a whopping 712 individual frames for all the character so that's 712 individual images I've had to manually work on, colour correct (i have been doing this quite a bit the last few days), scale down and adjust so the animation frames look smooth, it's a hell of a lot of work but i think it makes the characters feel alive and part of the world

One thing I have had to work on and this obviously wont be in the final product is a new scene specifically for the demo, since I'm intentionally not including some of the stuff that comes before where the demo starts (story and exposition, if you've read the comics you get it) I figured I would do a little intro scene where a new Character runs you through it, I also had a lot of fun with this and decided to add in some neat little Easter eggs, I wont spoil so you'll have to wait and see

another thing i added in was alternate frames for i the player is gagged during the "move function", to explain if you remove you leg restraints you can walk around the cell you find yourself locked in and potentially find clues and items to get you out easier, however some of these are animated with the same player animation frames, and because of this i have had to make separate busts for if the player is gagged or not, i thought it would be silly if you managed to take your gag off but the player was still wearing it in the cutscenes, so now its been edited to have both depending on which restraints have been removed

Some other things I've worked on are the sealing and locking mechanics for the escape system, I have included the ability to lock a restrain on the player essentially making it impossible to remove without getting a key first, however there is also the ability to seal restraints making them impossible to remove until you escape (or not, you'll see)

Another thing, since the demo is releasing soon I've made some escape tutorial images that you can access from the menu, basically explaining how each escape game works (including some I haven't showed off yet), just as a helping hand

That's all for now, I'm going to get this posted then get straight back to working on the game, cant stress enough how much effort I'm putting into this I really hope you all enjoy the end product as you will get a little taste of it soon (or a big taste, the demo is going to be pretty packed to be honest)