A blade of red light cuts across the frame in front of an armoured Echo under falling leaves

Dev Log · 04 · 25 Oct 2026

Stop Time, Take the Shot, Keep Your Run

01 · Photo Mode02 · Saves

Photo mode and a save system that never loses a run. Both land in the next demo update, coming to Steam soon.

Part 01

Photo Mode

Freeze any fight, walk a camera through it, save it in up to 8K.

Live · sound on

A real fight, no edits. Every pause is photo mode holding the frame.

Stop time

Any frame, held

P L3+R3 orPause › Photo Mode

The world stops on the frame you were looking at. Rex can't be hurt. Run the fight at 10, 25 or 50 %, or step one frame at a time until the sparks land where you want them. The camera flies free or orbits Rex, rolls to 90°, and slides along walls instead of through them.

The sheet

Eight tabs

The Lens tab: focal length, focus, aperture, bokeh bladesThe Filter tab: a group, a look and its strengthThe Frame tab: aspect, border, grid and logoThe Light tab: type, colour, intensity, range, cone and shadowsAfter the shot: the Photo saved note at the top of the screen

Lens 12 to 200 mm, F/1.0 to F/22, focus on Rex or wherever you set it. Thirty filters in four groups, each with a strength slider. Crops from 21:9 down to 9:16, borders from hairline to Polaroid. Three lights you place yourself. Hide Rex or the enemies. The HUD is never in the file.

Looks · try it

One shot, four films

Velvia · 50%
Rex in a low katana stance as red lightning crackles along the blade 24 mm · F/4.0

A browser approximation of four of the thirty. In the game, every filter has this slider.

Camera roll

Taken in real fights

Rex, glowing red, squares up to a giant armoured mech crouched in flooded red waterLow · Orbit Rex raises a katana beside a glowing Echo hologram, in saturated film colour26 mm · F/5.6 · Velvia 50% Blue lightning arcs from a boss's drones while Rex charges through the waterOver shoulder In black and white, a mechanical boss bares its jaws at RexNoir Two mechanical hounds lunge through a storm of falling leaves and shattered glassFrozen · Step A close-up of Rex's helmet with an enemy's red eyes glowing out of focus behind4× · 8K A wide shot of the cherry-blossom arena as a mechanical beast prowls through red leavesWide A black and white shot over Rex's shoulder as a white arc of light sweeps past35 mm · F/2.8 · B&W Rex leaps through the air above a burst of fire from a slashAirborne Rex holds a stance as lightning arcs around the bladeFrozen

The shutter re-renders the frame at 1×, 2× or 4× your screen, so 1080p gives a true 8K PNG in Pictures\Fragmented Echoes, border and logo baked in. H hides the UI.

Part 02

Saves

Autosave, three picture-card slots, and a run that survives a crash.

Save & Load

Your run, kept safe

Save and Load in the pause menu: three slots with a picture, the room and the time, and an Autosave card

Autosave is on from the start: on entering a room and after you clear it, never mid-fight, airborne or in a cutscene. Three slots with picture cards, plus an Autosave card you can always load and never overwrite. Dying keeps every save. New Game asks Keep your game? first. Every save is written to a new file with a backup beside it, encrypted and signed; a damaged one is restored, not loaded.

The start screen: Continue is selected with a card showing room, time since save, level, weapons and currencyContinue
Starting a new game asks Keep your game? and offers three slotsKeep your game?

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Captured from the upcoming build. Work in progress.
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio.

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