The horror returns.

Are you ready to survive the horrors of “The Complex” all over again? That’s right – today I’m officially announcing One Night: Ultimate Edition is coming soon to Steam and itch.io, the first in a series of updated re-releases planned to bring the One Night series to a brand new audience. Just as its name suggests, One Night: Ultimate Edition is an overhauled re-release of the original One Night, featuring a brand new soundtrack, an updated engine, new maps, an entirely rewritten story and other cool things.

Now with updated screen rendering!

First, let’s get the most important (and contentious) thing out of the way: One Night: Ultimate Edition will be a commercial release, retailing at $3.99 USD. There are a few things I’d like to clarify about this price. First of all, it’s mainly intended to offset the Steam Direct fee and other associated publishing costs. Secondly, this price point puts it in right about the same ballpark as the Steam re-releases of RPG Maker horror classics Mad Father and Misao, which were both also previously available for free. Finally, the original free version of One Night (complete with its cheesy writing and outdated engine) will still be available at no cost wherever you originally downloaded it from. You’re not really paying for the game itself here – the idea is that you’re subsidizing the considerable work required to update a 10 year old game to a presentable modern standard.

So, if that’s the case, what are you paying for? What exactly is new in One Night: Ultimate Edition? Behold!

What’s New:

New graphics and overhauled environments.

Every map in the game has been touched up.

The original One Night was made in 2008, using basically just the RPG Maker VX RTP and whatever handful of “sci-fi” tiles 16 year old me could find laying around. Needless to say, it hasn’t aged particularly well. In the Ultimate Edition, each and every room in the game has been tweaked (and in some cases, entirely rebuilt from scratch) to make each location more visually appealing. Important rooms are now distinct and contain unique set pieces, and The Complex now actually resembles a place where real people may have actually lived and worked. Maps aren’t the only visual elements that have been spruced up, either – monster designs have also been entirely overhauled, both to make them more intimidating and alien and to make each monster type more visually memorable.

Engine improvements and quality of life tweaks.

Can you believe it took 10 years to get a wound counter?

As my first full featured release, One Night had quite a few design oversights and engine limitations that I simply couldn’t work around at the time. Do you remember monsters continuing to creep up on you while you mashed through flavor text, or not knowing exactly how much health you had left? The Ultimate Edition updates the game’s engine and mechanics to work how they were originally intended. Monsters will no longer move while text is displayed. You can now see how many wounds you’ve sustained at any time. You can actually take files and memos with you, and your inventory is organised by item type. In addition, the screen rendering code has been completely rewritten to upscale better and more smoothly on modern systems.

New and revised gameplay content and pacing.

Not everything in the Ultimate Edition consists of tweaks to already existing content. I’ve thrown in some new stuff, too. Where the original late game (just before crossing over to the other side of the “merge”) was mainly boring backtracking with the same old enemy types, we now have new monsters that show up to make exploration tense again. A couple of new rooms have been added to The Complex, and the game progression has been slightly tweaked, meaning you’ll do different things in a slightly different order. Exploration and puzzles have been streamlined and some new scares have been added in, too.

Completely rewritten dialogue.

Last but most certainly not least, every single line of text in the game has been rewritten. What was amateurish storytelling 10 years ago is now actually functional. The personalities of the main cast are far more apparent than they were before, and the convoluted backstory has been streamlined and tightened up. Even the descriptions you get when examining scenery have been redone to be more informative and flavorful. Continuity nods and foreshadowing to the events of later games have been tossed into the mix here and there, and additional story content to allow Mythos: The Beginning to serve as a prequel is also present.

Where and when can I get it?

One Night: Ultimate Edition is currently going through the Steam Direct submission process. This process usually takes a couple of weeks, and an additional rule is that a game page must be shown as “Coming Soon” on Steam for at least 20 days before going live. Please stay tuned for more specific release information.