Expeditioners,

We're so pleased to see so many of you enjoying the new photo mode feature!!

We put a lot of time and care into building this feature and we’re so glad to see so many of you enjoying it! There were a lot of moving parts involved in getting the Photo Mode set up, so we thought we’d show a bit of the process in this blog and talk a bit about what went into building this feature.

There were a few key people involved in the development of this, and each of them had a part to write here !

VINCENT CONSTANTIN-TURKI – Producer \[Twitter: @Vincent_Aros]

One of the main features we wanted to introduce with the Thank You Update was Photo Mode. It felt like a meaningful way to give something back to the players and thank them for their commitment to the game.

What’s funny is that the team in charge of developing Photo Mode doesn’t usually use this feature in other games, which is why we decided to collaborate with Shinobi. He helped us design a Photo Mode that would truly resonate with players.

NAJA DALMAGNE – QA Coordinator \[Instagram: @naja_dlmgn]

In many games we tested, Photo Modes often felt restrictive, which could quickly become frustrating. So, from the very beginning, one of the key goals we all agreed on was to give players as much freedom as possible. It was really about letting players express their creativity without getting in the way.

During development, the QA team ran into some unexpected and sometimes quite funny issues. One of the funniest, but also one of the most severe, involved characters whose heads or torsos could become displaced or deformed when opening the Photo Mode if they hadn’t been visible on screen for a while during exploration.

One feature I’m particularly proud of is the lighting system Florian worked on. It offers great flexibility while remaining fairly easy to use, which really makes a difference when you're trying to get the perfect shot.

FLORIAN TORRES – Senior Gameplay Programmer \[Instagram /Twitter: @[i]torresflo[/i]] \[Bluesky: @torresflo.bsky.social]

I love giving players as many tools and features as possible (that’s literally the purpose of my job).

When we started working on the photo mode, our goal was to give players as few restrictions as possible and that’s what I was in charge of coding: infinite camera distance, the ability to pass through collisions, lots of customizable lights, many (weird) filters, and more.

Of course, that comes with its challenges, but in the end it allows players to see a lot of things we don’t want to show during normal gameplay. The photo mode became a way to peek behind the scenes of each cinematic or environment, and sometimes even see how we have created the entire game.

Ever wondered what happens outside the camera frame? Here’s an example (sorry cinematic team, I love you).

LUDOVIC ‘SHINOBI’ HELME – Photo Mode Consultant \[Twitter: @Shinobi_Space / Website: [/b][/p]

https://shinobispace.com]

We felt it was important to include anything that increases the “freedom” factor for players. It opens up countless possibilities every time someone enters photo mode: a very generous camera range to capture unseen details or create epic compositions, RGB curves control to edit and build your own color schemes, a strong custom lighting system to truly take ownership of a scene, and solid depth-of-field management.

But when all of that is also available in cutscenes - giving access to those incredible facial expressions and emotions - that’s when I really start to feel satisfied.

Every shot I’ve seen has blown my mind, and I often wish I’d been the one to come up with the idea. It’s truly inspiring.

I’m very proud that the team managed to create a tool that is both beginner-friendly and deeply satisfying for more experienced photographers. Finding that balance is extremely difficult.

With all of these features, there had to be a user-friendly way for people to make use of everything. Making sure players had full control of all the settings and could navigate all the features comes down to our awesome Gameplay & UI Programmer, VICTOR BOULEZ.

Thank you for all of your appreciation and feedback on this feature, we had a lot of fun making it and even more fun watching you use it!

This past week, especially, we’ve really loved the work you’ve all been putting into the social Photo Mode Prompt Challenge!! We’ve seen some amazing photography this past week, it’s completely blown our minds how creative you have been able to get with the prompts and tools.

Even though the challenge is over, feel free to keep sharing your work with us on social media, we thoroughly enjoy seeing some of your masterpieces!!

In the meantime, we are continuing to work on fixes for ongoing problems, keep an eye on the bug thread and socials to stay updated on the latest.

Finally, we leave you with some of our favourite uses of photo mode.