SIGNAL LOST mod for Half-Life

Since December, I've been working constantly on Signal Lost: Uplink. I picked up where I left off, and have gotten a great deal done already in just these past 2 months alone. This article will go over a few things, but first lets kick it off with a brand new gameplay video. Lets take a detour into the ARCHIVAL LABS...

The Archival Labs are a large part of Chapter 2, serving as one of the main locations alongside Data Control, and the dome. A massive neighboring complex to the Communications Center, complete with facility housing & research labs. You'll eventually find yourself at the High Security File Storage, from there, you must retrieve the USNRC "All clear" codes required to align the satellite array, and ultimately transmit the signal.

Gameplay wise, the Archival Labs will play akin to a mixture of Questionable Ethics and Office Complex, containing loads of exploration, interactivity, and secrets to uncover. Its all coming together, slowly but surely. This was one of the first areas I dove back into when work began again in December, I evaluated the entire chapter, eventually cut a level that just wasn't working, and went from there. Since then, this has been shaping up to be one of the most expansive parts of Chapter 2, almost large enough to be a chapter in itself. I feel pretty confident in saying that out of the 3 main areas in Uplink, the Archival Labs will be the biggest part of it.

There's so much more to come in regards to Chapter 2's locations, but I'll touch more on that later!

A major visual upgrade comes in the form of fully 3D skyboxes. 2D skies have been phased out of Signal Lost entirely in favor of model based 3D skyboxes.

The system I've created for these is incredibly hacky, but it allows for each map to have its very own 3D skybox, complete with realistic cloud effects & an absolutely immense sense of scale.

I won't set a deadline for release just yet, but I'm still hoping to have it at least fully playable by sometime this summer. Progress has been going excellent, and if I'm able to stay in the fight & keep up this pace, then I'm confident that I can do it. Levels are getting finished, and things are coming together piece by piece. There is still a great deal of work to be done, but I'm taking it one day at a time. Remember, I'm just one person, and I can only do so much!

In the next article, I plan to touch on some pretty significant updates that have been made to Chapter 1, as well as some more Chapter 2 stuff! In the meantime, I plan to start updating the ModDB page a lot more frequently, much more akin to how often I post development clips & media over in my Discord server.

Speaking of which, if you want to catch up on what I've been making for Starlight & Signal Lost, I regularly show off development & behind the scenes media over in my community on Discord! Always feel free to stop by & join the conversation! You can show off your work, your art, all that good stuff! I also stream work on my projects every now and then.