Howdy folks! We once again hope you are doing well! We're here with our second patch after release, and unlike last time, there's not too much to say about it. With that said! It is worth keeping in mind that when we make adjustments or fixes to levels that might impact saves, the game will auto-restart you at the beginning of the level in order to prevent any game-breaking issues. This was also the case during our early-access version, but with the full release, it's caught some folks off guard, so I thought we might clarify. We've been keeping our noses to the grindstone, reading reviews, taking in feedback, and we'll continue to do so. Several of the changes present in this and even the prior patch have come in lieu of said feedback. So with that out of the way! Here are your patch notes!

Tweaks:

• Buffed Shredder damage from 20 to 22.
• Dash can now be used even when you're standing still.
• Reduced cooldown between Punches from 0.1 to 0.08.
• Rebalanced Melee Damage to Corpses.
• S.O.S. Assassins and Adopted Void Drifters now have a distortion effect when going invisible.
• Tweaked Pathfinding of the S.O.S. Assassin, Watcher, and Adopted Void Drifter Enemy Types.
• Tweaked S.O.S. Assassin Hologram visuals.
• Tweaked Armor quantity dropped from U.S.C. Drones.
• Nerfed Watcher Damaging Frequency.
• Nerfed Watcher Damage Range.
• Tweaked Pathfinding of the "C1L4 - Disposable Danger" Boss.
• Nerfed the Health Pool of the "C1L7 - Evanescent Evacuation" Boss.
• Added Crusher Warning Light sounds during the Boss Fight in "C1L7 - Evanescent Evacuation."
• Added Extra Ammo to "C2L1 - Eastern Evisceration" on Narcolepsy Mode.
• Added Respawning Cell Ammo in "C2L2 - Cthonic Crypt."
• Made killing balcony U.S.C. Grenadier non mandatory for progress in "C2L2 - Cthonic Crypt."
• Tweaked the Position of the "C2L4 - Ethereal Egress" Boss Autosave.
• Nerfed the Health Pool of the "C2L4 - Ethereal Egress" Boss.
• Nerfed the speed of the "C2L7 - Arche Ascension" Boss's homing projectiles.
• Tweaked lighting in "The Heuristic Halls."
• Increased Health Drop despawn times from 5 - 7.5 seconds.

Fixes:

• Fixed issues with lock-on.
• Fixed backing out of the help menu when accessing it from the pause menu.
• Fixed looping melee charge sound.
• Fixed "press any key" prompt being inaccurate in the main menu.
• Fixed "The Heuristic Halls" locations being incorrect when going between profiles during the same session.
• Fixed "C1L4 - Disposable Danger" elevator softlock.
• Fixed elevator buttons in "C2L7 - Arche Ascension" not being reactivated when they should.
• Fixed softlock with Chapter 3 Rotating Puzzle Pillars.
• Fixed "C3L7 - Alter Alvus" boss fight autosave.
• Fixed an issue when trying to unbind an input.
• Enemies should now jitter up and down less, and should no longer randomly play the first frame of their walking animations for one frame while they're standing still.
• Fixed Drone armor not despawning.
• Fixed "Rough and Tumble" achievement.
• Fixed the scaling of the Yellow Key in "C1L2 - Stifled Storage.
• Fixed Switches clipping through floor in "C1L1 - Containment Carnage" and "C1l3 - Fragmented Folly."

Known Issues:

• Some menus in 'ultrawide' aspect ratios are cut off/ugly. With the changes to how backing out of the pause menu works, these shouldn't lock you into a menu anymore, but better-looking menus will be coming in a later patch.
• There's a bug that occasionally causes Ambient Audio/Music to be inaudible.

Once again, thank you to everyone for your support; it means the world. We hope you've been enjoying the game and that you all have a wonderful day! God bless you all!

[ 2025-04-17 15:36:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ahoi folks! We hope this finds you well and that you have been enjoying Viscerafest! We're now coming at you with our very first post-launch patch, and it is kind of a big one! So, for starters, let's talk about the big change! Two days prior to launch, I was doing a playtest on the game's Extreme Difficulty, this being the difficulty below Nightmare. I've been doing most of my testing on Nightmare, and a lot of our in-house testers played the game on Narcolepsy mode up through to Brutal, so Extreme difficulty hadn't really gotten much love on the testing front. In the midst of playtesting extreme, I was kind of struck by just how similar it felt to Nightmare... to the extent that most of the differences, though in theory were substantial, in practice did not feel so. Because of this, and because Viscerafest sort of holds something of a meme status regarding its overall difficulty, I have decided to systematically nerf every difficulty below Nightmare. This being done to give the jump between Extreme and Nightmare some meaningful breathing room. I figured this would be a change few would object to, as those who enjoy the game's uh... "Cruelty" (or at least that's how folks describe it to me) will still have that, and the people who don't, well... they should be afforded a bit more headroom now. In addition to the above, this update should address most of the major bugs experienced by our players so far with the full-release version. We'll be continuing full steam ahead, making further tweaks and improvements to the overall experience and aiming to address any reported issues. A big thank you to everyone who has taken the time necessary to report and work through some of the issues with us! It means the most! And here are your patch notes!!!

Tweaks:

• Enemy Damage Values have been nerfed on all difficulties below Nightmare.
• Enemy Projectile Speeds have been nerfed on all difficulties below Nightmare.
• The Hellbirds health pool has been nerfed from 450 to 300.
• Added a guiding light to "Prelude - Intruder Inbound."
• Changed the Elder Banshee introduction and how the autosave works, making it much easier to get back into the fight than before.
• Tweaked the timing and speeds of the shifting pillars in "C2L4 - Ethereal Egress" during the boss fight.
• Shortened the Melee Uppercuts Windup from 0.8 seconds to 0.48 seconds.
• UI navigation with a keyboard now respects the spacebar as a confirm key and not just "enter."
• Controller aim assist no longer adjusts your pitch when you're close to an enemy.
• Controller aim assist is disabled on the Carcosa's Wrath and Pung Cannon due to these weapons usually wanting to be shot off-center of an enemy. (Further weapon-specific tweaks to aim assist may be made in the future)
• Pressing the pause button in the pause menu no longer quits straight to the game, and instead returns you to the previous menu.
• When the bunnyhop option is set to toggle, the input buffer is no longer used since it's redundant in this mode, and makes toggling the jump off feel not as responsive.

Fixes:

• Fixed bad collision on door in C2L7 allowing you to exit the map.
• Fixed oneliners not playing correctly.
• Fixed idle singing not playing at all.
• Fixed "I need a key" lines playing over the top of other Caroline VO.
• Fixed hub tutorial not going away after the intro intermission.
• Fixed the back button in the help screen soft-locking the game.
• Fixed explosive damage against the player being inconsistent.
• Fixed names of certain keybinds being inconsistent depending on the state of the game.
• Fixed shop for non-16:9 resolutions.
• Fixed back button sounds not playing when on controller.
• Fixed a keyboard UI navigation bug caused by a movement key being bound to the mouse.
• Enemy Projectile graphic scaling across all difficulties have been fixed.
• Fixed bathroom shower doors clipping into the floor above in C1L5.
• Fixed a broken enemy spawn in "C1L2 - Stifled Storage" on Brutal Difficulty
• Fixed a broken secret line of dialogue in C1L4

Known Issues:

• Some menus in 'ultrawide' aspect ratios are cut off/ugly. With the changes to how backing out of the pause menu works, these shouldn't lock you into a menu anymore, but better-looking menus will be coming in a later patch.
• Enemies can still jitter on rough geometry, and their walking animations will still occasionally play the first frame at random. A fix for this just needs to be tested a little more before making it live.
• There's a bug that occasionally causes Ambient Audio/Music to be inaudible.

As one final note, another thing some folks have asked of us is to make the prior Early Access build available to play again, and this was something we were already planning to do! So with that, you should now be able to go into the game's Steam properties, select betas, and nab the old Early Access version! Regardless, thank you everyone for your feedback and support! It means the world that you would spend time playing our game, and we hope you have a wonderful day!

[ 2025-04-16 15:03:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, ladies and gentlemen! The time has come! Viscerafest has left early access!!! And we are very tired... Regardless, there are some initial things to keep in mind. First! Your save data with older builds will not be compatible with the full release. This is because the game, from top to bottom, has undergone a substantial facelift with virtually every system, mechanic, weapon, enemy, level, etc, etc, etc... being subject to a cacophony of change.
So many changes have been made, in fact, that there is no possible way we could ever dream of cataloging it all. But to give you a very, very, very... truncated rundown of the changes...

• Every weapon has been rebalanced and received significant visual updates along with major mechanical changes.
• Every enemy has been rebalanced and received significant visual updates along with several enemies receiving new attacks.
• Brand new enemies have been introduced into the already existing chapters.
• The gore system has been reworked.
• The tutorialization has been reworked.
• The pacing of enemy and weapon reveals across the campaign has been heavily altered.
• There's new story dialogue.
• Most of the levels have been completely remade.

And believe me, I could keep going...
None of this even touches the brand-new chapter, the updated hub space, the now functioning shop! The now existing Lorebrary and Bestiary!!! There is so much just within the realm of what technically already existed in the early access build that has been updated and changed that the game is radically better, overall much more refined, and basically... just a brand new experience. Even if your saves were compatible, you would definitely want to replay the game from it's start because in not doing so you would be missing out on so much. But then! We get to what's actually new!

• 12 new enemy types! (not including the new enemies introduced in chapters 1 and 2)
• 3 new boss fights! (Not including... actually never mind... Pretend I said nothing :3 )
• 8 new levels!
• 30 Gameplay Modifiers and Cheat Codes you can buy using Skullies and play around with when replaying levels!
• The Lorebrary, where you can read up on the game's universe!
• The Bestiary, where you can read up on its critters!

So yeah! There's a lot that's in store for you! And we really hope you enjoy the efforts of our sleepless nights. Additionally, we do, in fact, have another brand-new feature worth noting...

Narcolepsy Mode

Did you find Viscerafest too hard? Even on the easiest difficulty setting with the assist options turned on? Do you have no shame? Are you so coddled that you cower in the face of moderate pretend adversity? WELL THEN HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU!!!
We introduce to you... NARCOLEPSY MODE!!! An even easier easy difficulty setting with extra ammo pickups and enemies so pathetic it's almost merciful to put them out of their misery! Enjoy pretending that Viscerafest is, in fact, meant to be played like Doom and enjoy mindlessly blasting foes!!! Or, ya know... be a cool way to break your little kiddos into gaming or whatever, that too.

Please Note

So, those of you who have actually been following us relatively closely will know that life and circumstance have not treated us kindly. This release date of April 14th was unshiftable, Viscerafest needed to come out today.
Now, Viscerafest is content complete, but there are several things we wanted to finish before release that we have been unable to. First... Let's talk about the elephant in the room...

The OST

John S. Weekley was going to compose the music for Viscerafest chapter 3, and a good chunk of that music is *almost* done. But last month's life circumstances saw John having to put his work on Viscerafest on hold, and as such, the OST for the game's final chapter was not completed in time for this release. For chapter 3, none of the current music fits the tone we were striving for, and as such, chapter 3 is pretty musicless, save for a few key moments. We will be striving to keep folks posted on what's going on with the OST, and we hope to add it in as soon as possible, but for the time being all we can do is wait until life calms down for John.

The Hub

Chapters 1 and 2 are still using their early access sub-hub variants, we wanted to update these before release, but we did not have the time. As such, whilst they function perfectly fine, they are a little uglier than their respective chapters are now. We hope to rectify this fairly quickly, and the updates to these will likely be coming in about 2 to 3 weeks.

C2L7 - Arche Ascension

Chapter 2's finale has received several updates, but its updates were not able to be completed in time for the "Full" release. The levels more than playable and honestly probably in better shape than it was in the early access phase, but understand the opening of the level is visually a little rough if you pay too close attention, and we'll be cleaning her up and making her as pretty as the rest in the weeks to come.

Chapter 3 - Static Story Moments

There are a number of in-game story moments in chapter 3 that are... well... a little less visually interesting than we wanted them to be. There's some spice to those moments we did not have the time to add, and this is yet another thing we will be looking to fix up in the coming weeks.

The Ambient Audio Bug

There is an infuriating issue we were not able to address prior to release where sometimes when you hit a transitional point for a levels ambient audio the ambient audio just... does not play. Again, we'll be working to fix this asap.

Enemies Having a Seizure

Another issue that cropped up like... 2-3 weeks ago? Enemies now hate slopes and weighted surfaces now for some reason, and traversing them causes the enemies to vibrate with intense rage. Functionally, this doesn't have much impact gameplay, but it looks dumb and I hate it. In addition sometimes enemies might... just... kind of... wobble in place, jittering their walking animations, again.... both of these issues are things we will be aiming to address as soon as possible.

Flying enemy pathfinding

There are a couple of doorways in the game where flying enemies just make... bafflingly daft navigational decisions. Yeah... we'll be working on that.

Some U.I. Jank

We wanted to give some of the menu's a bit more love before release but... yeah... you know the drill. A couple of the U.I. elements are a bit ugly, which... I mean... was also the case in early access but we wanted to fix that before the game came out. Needless to say, we will be fixing now that the game is out.

And Probably More

There are no doubt many more issues I have not cataloged above, and if you come across please report them in the Steam forums, or... far more preferably, our discord server, which you can join here. Link: https://discord.gg/zQ4S8PPRFA I will likely be making another post within the next few days, updating everyone on the situation, and walk out our post-launch goals in a bit more detail, but for now! Thank you so much for your support; we really hope you enjoy our game! And as always... May the Lord bless you, keep you, and make his face to shine upon you. God Bless you, and have a wonderful day! From, Noah Dickinson

[ 2025-04-14 17:00:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Howdy folks! We hope this finds you well! Viscerafest will be leaving early access on April 14th, 2025. And with that announcement, we've got a new little trailer for ya! [previewyoutube=McXOH5Z6se0;full][/previewyoutube] So, with that announcement, I thought we might clarify what's coming with the full release for everyone who has been a little out of the loop.
For Starters, the entirety of the game's early access content will receive a substantial update. Chapters 1 and 2 have seen all their levels heavily updated with visual improvements, layout changes, new secrets, revised and new combat encounters, new enemy types, new story dialogue, new scripted sequences, revised tutorialization, etc...
In tandem with the above, most of the weapons and enemies have been rebalanced, and some have new/revised attacks. They have also been visually updated. There's a newly revised gore system with bouncy gibs! And more, I'm probably forgetting.
And all that is just the old content; almost none of that is to address what's new... Because coming in this release, there are now 13 new enemy types, 4 new bosses, 8 new levels, a working shop where you can use your collected skullies to buy cheat codes and gameplay modifiers, the lorebrary where you can unlock lore entries that allow you to read up on game's universe, and the Bestiary where you can read up on all the game's little critters!

But More is Yet to Come

It's worth noting that this is not the end of the road for Viscerafest either. Post-release, we'll be working on adding a NG+ mode with the main campaign's levels, including and being balanced around the late-game content. We also plan to add some unlockable bonus levels, and in addition, we have something of a free side-campaign in the vein of something like "Wolfenstein: The Old Blood" we hope to add if all goes well.

Some Caveats

Those who have been following us closely will likely know we've been having a rough go of it, and unfortunately, it seems this will, in fact, impact the launch version. Something has come up with our composer, John S. Weekley, and as such, it seems the new music will not be ready in time for the full release. In addition, we're still having issues with Markie, and it's very likely probable that some of the story dialogue will either be missing, placeholder or using rough outdated recordings that we had originally planned to replace. The music situation will impact the new 8 levels, the story dialogue situation will likely be isolated to C1L7, C3L1, C3L7, Cinematic 7, and Cinematic 8.
We're hoping to address these as quickly as possible, but unfortunately, especially regarding the OST, that stuff will take a bit of time. Ordinarily, it would be my preference to delay the release in light of this, but that's unfortunately not an option. I apologize for this. I've been working on this game for over 12 years now, and this is certainly not how I wanted to release the game. Until everything is wrapped up, we will be including a bit of a statement when you boot the game just so everybody is in the know. Regardless, we really hope you enjoy our game, it has been an intense labor of love, and we look forward to seeing you on or after release day! We pray God Bless you, Noah Dickinson

[ 2025-03-25 16:38:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Howdy folks! We have a bit of a quick update regarding the full release. The game is pretty much on track to hit the previously announced release window of April this year. There is, however, one minor hiccup. Our lead sound designer, Markie, has been going through one heck of a tumble dryer with all life has been throwing at him; as such, we've had to bring in another sound designer to help us wrap up everything. Even with this, however, there's a very real possibility that Viscerafest will launch with some placeholder/missing audio. We'll be working to make sure that doesn't happen, and if it does, we'll be aiming to patch in the missing sounds as quickly as possible. On a similar note, if you've not been following our youtube channel, we've been posting a few extra little sneak peaks as of late, including some looks at the new tracks for the OST by John S. Weekley. [previewyoutube=uN4IXN6SS5o;full][/previewyoutube] [previewyoutube=q5gBnvUCr8g;full][/previewyoutube] We'll be announcing the exact date of release fairly soon here, but for everything to fall into place, we have to raise the price of the game to its final value of 19.99 USD/EUR (and its equivalence in other currencies, based on the Steam pricing matrix). This will go into effect on Friday, March 7th. With the full release will come the game's third and final chapter, massive changes and revisions to chapters 1 and 2 (with some of the levels being longer than their originals), new enemy types, a new weapon, the lorebrary, the shop, gameplay modifiers, and... probably some other stuff I'm forgetting... So with that if you want to grab Viscerafest at the lower, Early Access price, you better hurry! [previewyoutube=jFSiU--kxb0;full][/previewyoutube] We can't wait for you all to see the fullness of what's in store for Viscerafest and we really hope you enjoy your time with the full game. In the meantime if you'd like to hang out with us and chat, come join us at the Viscerafest Discord server and if you haven't follow us on Twitter to keep up with our shenanigans! Thank you for your time, we hope you have a wonderful day! God bless you. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/

[ 2025-03-03 18:11:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Howdy, ladies and gents! And welcome back to that thing I said I wouldn't be doing again!!! Aren't I a stinker! Last time we chatted, I said that devlog would probably be the last one we did, and I meant it. But! I still intended to post something of substance for you all to read. I was hemming and hawing about what to post, though.Something about the game's development history? Perhaps something about the game's story? But now did not particularly feel like the right time for any of the ideas I was coming up with. Regardless, enough work and developments have accumulated that I do, in fact, have something to talk about from a developmental perspective. It was getting to the point where I was honestly planning on ending whatever I posted with a mini-devlog of sorts anyway. So I thought... "Eh, why the heck not? What's one more devlog? It's not like anybody is going to care..." So! Without any further ado... Here's one more devlog for your reading pleasure!

OST and Sound

We've been in the trenches a bit working with our new composer, John S. Weekley, on establishing and refining the sound of chapter 3's music. Thus far, the score screen track and the song for C3L1 are just about done save for some final polish. Up until recently, John was working on Coven, which just dropped recently, but now his schedule is a lot more open, so we're heading forward at a much quicker pace. We recently dragged Markie into the equation to help refine the sound of the music a bit, and because of that, we've mostly been tinkering with the two above songs to make sure they're perfect before moving on to the rest of chapter 3's tracks.
As for the audioscape though, Markie has been having a darned tooting heck of a time up until recently. Without getting into the nitty gritty details, he'd gotten a home that, for, uh... stupid reasons... he wasn't able to move into for quite a while, which, as you can imagine, slowed us down a tad. But now! He's finally been able to move in! He's been in the process of re-establishing his workspace, and once he does, the work should start getting done fairly quickly. As a final note on the sound and music side of things, several songs that were previously not on YouTube (notably "Signal to Slaughter" and "Minutes to Midnight") are now on our channel along with the rest of the OST! So, if you care to jam, you can check out our YouTube playlist with fancy little visualizers here!
Youtube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJg0WI2Gczzn_RnszpXIdh5qnGebxOrhZ

General cleanup

There are a lot of little systems in Viscerafest that the average player probably doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about, but they are there, and just like the big boys, they need some polish too. We've made a cavalcade of fixes to our oneliners system: voice overrides, respawn mechanics, Players starting position and aim, gibs, jump pads, weapon auto swapping, push puzzles, occlusion culling, ladders, explosive barrels, cutscene skipping, powerups, save system, switches, UI, etc...

Enemy Polish

Lot's of little tasks in this category that we've been plugging away at, more than I will likely be able to easily recall. A couple that stand out in my mind though... The parasite enemy type has been a particular nuisance. Parasites don't navigate via navmeshes or nodes like most of our other enemies, they jump around kind of like the spawns out of Quake, and this can make them a real pain from a technical perspective. We've had lots of issues where parasites have clipped through walls or floors, and we have had to fix them. We've dealt with some problems that resulted in them skipping their windups and immediately flinging themselves toward the player when they are not supposed to. We've fixed a bug where they would just infinitely glide through the air, never actually landing from a jump. Another issue we fixed is sometimes the parasites would just deal double damage to the player, because why not? But it's not all been bug-fixing with them! Because they're one of Viscerafest's smaller and faster enemies, they can occasionally be difficult to track visually. To help with this, we've given them a trail that they leave behind, which makes it easier to keep an eye on their movements. There are also some technical issues related to how we balance them across difficulties, and so we've altered what aspects of their behaviors change from difficulty to difficulty.
There are a couple of enemies that can come back from the dead in Viscerafest, and one particularly annoying and hard-to-replicate issue tied to this mechanic is a bug where the enemy's invisible and invincible corpse will continue to pursue and attack you. Related to this, these kinds of enemies don't always play nicely with scripted sequences, so we've been working to resolve that as well. There's a flying enemy that gets introduced in chapter 3 who was moving when he wasn't supposed to, that's been fixed. That same enemy occasionally stopped attacking the player for no reason; that's been fixed. Melee enemies had an issue where their movement speed would multiply exponentially, which we fixed. Some of the tankier enemies/bosses have hadtheir stun mechanics reworked a pinch to make sure they arenot pushovers. And finally, of course... Enemies have received a vast multiplicity of balancing and behavioral tweaks.

Chapter 1 Polish

Being the oldest levels in Viscerafest'scampaign, chapter 1's maps, while polished(ish) mechanically, were pretty rough around the edges in virtually every other regard. Because of this, we decided to remake them and spruce them up a fair while ago, something we've been slowly plinking away at in the background whilst tackling more important tasks. Now! Chapter 1's rework is almost completely done! And it should be wrapped up before the year ends.
The Prelude up through C1L5 is all done and dusted, with only a pinch of audio work remaining for them to be 100% completed. The same will be the case with C1L6 by the time this devlog is reviewed by our publisher and sees the light of day. Otherwise, we've been plinking away at general polish work on all the levels of the game's first chapter. This includes difficulty balancing with the enemy and item placement, setting up the ambient audio volumes that dictate things like the scale of a room and how sound resonates through it. Minor bug fixes, some of which related to how saving works, etc...

Chapter 2 Polish

While Chapter 2's levels are indeed more recent than chapter 1's, they are very much still in need of some intensive touch-ups. Whilst not nearly to the same extent as Chapter 1's levels, we've been going through and giving Chapter 2's maps a solid facelift, as well as completely reworking and improving their encounter setups. C2L1, C2L2, and C2L3 are all virtually finished in this regard, C2L6 is close behind, and C2L7 is midway done. Once work on C1L7 finishes up, we'll be continuing our work on Chapter 2's general polishing labor. Otherwise, though to a lesser extent, a lot of what I said for chapter 1's polishing work carries over to chapter 2, just a bit more WIP.

Chapter 3 Polish

Save for the boss fights, missing audio, difficulty balancing, and some save issues, Chapter 3 doesn't have a whole lot more work left for us to tackle. Given we spent so much time already cleaning it up, it's almost at the finish line - so our primary focus has been bringing the earlier chapters up to speed. With that said, we recently had a milestone to meet with our publisher that involved us sending a content complete build to them so they could look everything over. This highlighted some technical issues for us internally that we spent a fair bit of time working on. Amid that, I also found a method to help optimize one of Viscerafest'sless performance-friendly levels, C3L3 - Virile Vanity. In essence, the vast majority of the work we've done on chapter 3 as of late has been bug-fixing, most of which was tied to some of the new enemies we introduced, and I highlighted a few of those issues above.

The Thing You Can't Escape

In the section above, I mentioned a little milestone that we were working on that we recently had to send to our publisher. Working on this milestone dredged up some memories, some truly horrifying memories, and because of that, I feel talking about this milestone would be an appropriate way to end this update. Game development is a rough time, and nothing quite highlights the pain it induces more than playtesting. Don't get me wrong; I love playing Viscerafest; it is a game I have made for myself, first and foremost, after all. The problem is that... when you go to make a build for testing, or perhaps a build that will get released publicly, you must ensure that the build works fairly flawlessly. I mean, obviously, there will be bugs and whatnot, but generally speaking, most players/testers should be able to get through the experience without any significant hiccups. This means before the testers test a build, we, the developers, have to test the build, and doing so calls to mind that belovedly memed scene from the film entitled "A Clockwork Orange." There are a host of stupid, nonsensical, ridiculous bugs and issues that crop up during game development, and my favorites are the kind that only show up when you export a build or are in the midst of a long play session. Nothing quite ruins a day like a soft lock that only occurs when you play a level smack dab in the middle of the campaign after having sequentially walked through the entire experience to get there. In isolation, the level might play fine, but in the context of the greater whole? And only when you've exported a standalone build? Nah... When we were pushing early access updates or releases, it was not uncommon for me and Elijah to have to stay up all night testing builds, doing 100% playthroughs of the entire campaign's content, only to find a last-minute issue that required us to stay up another 4-5 hours to both address it, and then export and test the build again. Those lucid memories of craving rest as I stared at my monitor, waiting for Elijah to send me the newest build so we could hopefully finally go to sleep in a few hours and meet our deadline, have re-awakened once again. You see... that milestone involved us sending them a build... So, the pains of that process have returned! They're just worse now because... well... the game is *at least* double the length of the early access version... About two weeks ago now, I had to play through the game a good 8-15 times back to back as we attempted to address any last-minute issues with the build before we sent it off to our publisher. A fair few of those times, I'd gotten almost all the way through an entire playthrough before we found a significant problem we needed to address. The fun part is... this is just the tip of the iceberg! Soon we'll be in the beta-testing stage, where this process will get much, much, much worse... And I am not going to lie... I am moderately dreading the coming months. We'll get through it, but the closer we get to release, the lower the threshold for error is going to get. I simply don't have the energy to stay up all night testing builds anymore, and I probably took a good few years off my life doing that already. So basically, we're going to be having a fun time, I'm sure...

A Not So Quick Side Tangent

In our early access days, the process of finally getting a build test ready for our publisher could potentially take... well... days. This is, of course, not to mention the fact that the builds we sent to them would often still have bugs that needed to be resolved before said builds could be pushed to the public. Hence why they were testing them to begin with; two developers playing a game are simply not going to find the full suite of issues teams of testers can. In case you were wondering, this is, in part, why we were so quiet on the content update front. We could have probably released more early access updates between now and our last update, which was published quite a while ago. But doing so would have meant... 1 - We likely would have ended up adding another couple of months to the game's development. And... 2 - We would have ended up killing what energy and sanity we had left doing so. I had some reason for bringing this up... I think at a certain point, my schpeel about the milestone just turned into frothing rambling... But it does allow me to... in no uncertain terms, comment on something. Im very much of the opinion that the choice to use an Early Access model for Viscerafest was a mistake. Don't get me wrong - there are certainly good things that have come from it. I don't think the final product would be nearly as polished and refined as it will be were it not for the feedback and help our community has given us throughout the development; and I am incredibly grateful for all of you whove had dialogues with us and attempted to help us to work out some of the kinks in our vision. But as a part of the Early Access model, we were required to constantly shoot for frequent and significant content updates throughout its lifetime - and while we initially thought that was achievable, we underestimated the strain that goes along with it. Doing one big release is more than enough trouble for a tiny development team like ours, without having to drag the headache it induces throughout an entire game's development cycle - especially whilst we were often making significant changes and, in some ways, still forming the substantive core of the gameplay experience. In tandem with the above I would like to apologize to those let down by the lack of content updates post 2023. It was certainly not our intention to leave everyone high and dry, hence why I chose to go the devlog route. Truth be told, through a combination of hubris, inexperience and outside incentive, we chose this route when we could have put our foot down and said no to our publisher, asserting that we thought this was the wrong decision, and it's on us that we didnt.
Granted, it was not a decision we bumbled into completely by accident, our publisher has a consistent business model by which they abide, and given prior success they felt this was the best route for us to take. At the time, we didn't know what we were doing, and rather than choosing what we felt was right, we wanted to play suck up. But needless to say, it was the wrong choice for Viscerafest, and should I continue to work in gamedev, it's certainly not a business model I intend to adopt again.

But That's All Folks!

Admittedly, this last chunk of the update has been slightly more pessimistic than I would like it to be. But these thoughts have been brewing in the background for a while now. Overall, I'm very happy with how Viscerafest is shaking out, but I'm less happy with the road we've driven to get to this point. Praise the Lord God; It seems we'll make it out the other side in one piece with a game to be proud of, but boy... what a rocky journey it's been. With all that said, I do think one final question to answer would be... "Will we make another devlog?" I mean, we already did go back on our word and make one extra, so to be safe... I'm not going to shoot down the possibility. I doubt it because, as you might have parsed above, the vast majority of the game's remaining work will mostly just be grinding. But I'll leave the door open! For the rest of development, we'll probably be down in the trenches. Maybe just giving you some sneak peeks of the content coming in the next 4-5 months! But until next time, or perhaps the time before next time! :> We ask God bless you, keep you, make his face to shine upon you! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, pray you have an even better Christmas! And perhaps even a spectacular new year! So, ladies and gents, thank you for reading, and have a great day! Adios!

[ 2024-12-20 17:43:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings, everyone! Allow us to inform you, loyal players of Viscerafest, that another first-person-shooter from Fulqrum Publishing has just left Early Access and is available now - the game is none other than Forgive Me Father 2! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2272250/Forgive_Me_Father_2/ Drawing inspiration from various FPS subgenres, including classic boomer shooters like Quake and Doom, combined with modern mechanics, unique visual style, and Unreal Engine 5 technology, Forgive Me Father 2 offers an action-packed retro-meets-cutting-edge love letter to all FPS fans. Building upon the original with a darker story, players are now entrenched deeper into the mythos, with equipable Dark Tome pages to upgrade their madness skills. Be that healing wounds with Lifesteal, becoming more powerful with Might, boosting fire rate and reload speed with Haste, or reducing incoming damage with Resistance, players can give their mind to the eldritch apparitions to improve their chances of survival. While Forgive Me Father 2 has seen multiple major updates over its Early Access period, todays 1.0 launch introduces tons of new content including vast new levels, new weapons, eldritch monstrosities to battle, and much, much more! Starting from today, players will be able to explore the suitably-named Nightmare Land, a low-gravity Hellscape filled with gigantic mushrooms, and of course, hordes of Lovecraftian monstrosities ready to devour their flesh and soul. If mushrooms arent your thing, why not face the chilly horrors of the new Arctic level, which also launches as part of todays 1.0 release? Players will also be able to get their hands on new tools of destruction, such as the melee weapon known as The Suspicious Box, which clears theirs personal space when surrounded by hideous monstrosities. Or if youd prefer, why not kill enemies through sight alone? Then youll love the latest addition to the Dark Tome system, which wounds enemies within your sight at unbelievable frequency. No one is safe as long as you have a clear line of sight to your target. Get Forgive Me Father 2 for a discounted price and if you think playing the second installment without even trying the first one, be informed that there is a bundle that includes both of these games and that offers a bundle discount (this discount applies even if you already own one of the included games). https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/35903/Forgive_Me_Father_Franchise_Bundle/

[ 2024-10-24 17:04:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Well! This is somewhat bittersweet. So, you've likely noticed that it's been a hot minute since our last dev log, and that was no accident. We're very much in the final stretch of Viscerafest's development, and because of that, there's been progressively less exciting things going on. More time and effort has been put toward just cleaning up what exists rather than doing anything fancy or new. Truthfully, it's stuff that's not particularly exciting to talk about, and thus, I wanted to wait until enough interesting things had accrued to make a brand new post. Well just the other day we dropped a new trailer with a big announcement in it, so surely that means we've got more than enough to warrant a new post, and with that, this will probably be our final Devlog post. That's not to say we won't be posting anything; maybe as we get closer, we might give you guys sneak peeks and whatnot or talk about some fun craziness that's happened, but the posts like this one that we've been doing for the last year or so, are indeed coming to an end. But before we get into the dev log part of this developer log, we should tackle some more big-picture stuff first.

That New Trailer...

As I said above, we released a brand new trailer and, in case you missed it, announced that the game would be released in April 2025 (aiming for early April). [previewyoutube=LGnu4Nsy8AY;full][/previewyoutube] Now, obviously, that is not the 2024 window we stated in the Realms deep trailer we dropped about a year ago, so what happened? Well, truth be told, we were actually somewhat adjacent to on track for a 2024 release. When we dropped that Realms Deep Trailer, we assumed we would see the game released in late 2024, probably sometime in October-November. With our current rate of progress (ignoring the OST), a December release would've been tight but feasible. But in August, our publisher approached us and asked us to change our plans, and there are a couple of reasons why. [olist]

Our publisher has a lot going on during the end of this year, and their marketing, QA, and Translation teams are currently and will remain busy through to the new year with the projects they have in the works. Adding another project to the fray means ours or another project would suffer as a consequence.

There are a host of releases stealing the limelight right now, and that's likely only going to get worse toward the end of the year. The ideal timeframe to release would have been during September, but because that was not possible, business-wise it would be smarter to wait til the new year.

They want to ensure the game is done by the time the release date rolls around. Initially, we proposed February, but for business reasons, they felt April would be a better time to drop the game, as well as give us more time to tidy things up. [/olist]

Console Ports

Being so close to the end of development has gotten our lead programmer, Elijah, thinking about one big thing we've been neglecting up until now: console ports! We proposed such to our publisher about a month or so ago, and we can now confirm that, yes, sometime post-launch, Viscerafest will be getting console ports.
Theoretically, development-wise, a simultaneous release could've been possible. However, as we have now been made aware, there is a host of fun, time-consuming legal nonsense involved in porting our game to consoles. Currently, we're mainly focused on the Xbox and Switch, but we'll likely be looking to tackle PlayStation as the other two to pick up momentum.

A Baby Boy

So, a few days after the last major development update post went live, our lead programmer's bride gave birth to another healthy baby boy! Which is pretty cool, but pray my guy gets some sleep.

A New Composer Enters the Ring...

So our boy Geoffplaysguitar was initially slated to do the OST for Viscerafest chapter 3. However, his schedule was booked until about June-July, so we were left having to wait to start working on it untilhe was available again. Well... in reconvening with him, unfortunately, he was still working on said projects, which were supposed to be done by now. (Funny how that works :P) Unfortunately, there's not really a solid estimate as to when said projects will be wrapped up. (Funny how that works :P) Thus (in what will inevitably be misinterpreted as an ingenious creative decision) each of Viscerafest's chapters will now feature the works of their own standalone composers, with Viscerafest chapter 3's OST being composed by Primeval (Aka John S. Weekley) whose body of work you may be familiar with if you've played the stellar DOOM mods composing the Ashes 2063 saga! (also, hi Vosty :>) For the last month or two, we've been working with John on nailing the sound of Viscerafest Chapter 3's OST, and I'm very comfortable saying he will be more than capable of finishing us out on a strong note. [previewyoutube=VrMjVJcSVAo;full][/previewyoutube]

Onto the Devlog

With all that preamble out of the way, it's time to talk about what we've been working on the last few months. To kick things off...

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is done, or well... it's close to being done. Last we talked about chapter 3; we were working on taking the "Rough Draft" versions of the chapter 3 maps and cleaning them up to get them to a place we were more comfortable with.
That cleanup is mostly done, and the levels are in a far better place than they were when we left them. However, there's still more work to be done before they're ready for release. For example, the only playable difficulty in chapter 3 right now is Nightmare (the other difficulties don't have enemy or item spawns set up).
The chapter is missing some story dialogue along with its entire soundscape; there are several progression-blocking bugs, along with some performance issues in a couple of locations present in a few maps; the boss fights need some tweaking, some enemies have buggy behaviors, etc, etc, etc... Mostly, a lot of minor maintenance work with a few big remaining things to tackle. But the chapter is playable from start to finish and is in pretty good shape heading into the final polish phase.

Chapter 1/2 cleanup

With the bulk of chapter 3's work done, the focus has shifted to cleaning up the rest of the game, which is what we're focusing on right now. While we've done a bit of work on Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 on the side, most of the game's levels that you can now play in early access haven't been touched since our last major patch, which was over a year ago. In working on chapter 3 (and some other stuff I'll talk about soon), a lot of stuff got updated, changed, improved, and optimized in such a manner that it inevitably rippled throughout the rest of the game. For example, we made changes to how explosions work and are triggered, as well as to how explosive walls work and are triggered. This resulted in several of chapter 1 and 2's levels having cracked wall secrets or progression points that no longer work because they used the old systems for these things. Thus, we have to go back through them and tidy them up.
In addition, we want to make changes to address some feedback we received during the early access period. For example, there's an elevator in C2L4 whose switch absolutely baffles and befuddles new players, some areas where players get easily turned around, and that one level in chapter 2 with lots of platforming that was remade mid-development and rushed out the door due to time constraints that has a tendency to really piss people off... You know, that kind of stuff.
But even beyond that, we had always planned to do a major balancing pass in the lead-up to the game's release. With the final chapter playable, we can establish a better throughline with the game's difficulty curve and by extension, implement the planned changes to the game's pacing to improve the overall experience.
My primary focus for the moment is stuff like this, along with making these old levels a little bit prettier. But a bit more work has been done than just what's been mentioned with the chapter's stuff, so let's get to that.

The Hub

Welcome to Heuristic Halls! Viscerafest's hub!
The hub that you guys experienced in the early access period was effectively a placeholder; there was a bunch of stuff that we had yet to add, and the overall visual presentation of the hub effectively used Chapter 1 textures due to time constraints. We've been planning on making these additions and changes for AGES, and it is so awesome that we finally have been able to make them. This was teased in the game's tutorial screen when you guys reached the hub after the Prelude, but Bestiary and the Lorebrary are finally accounted for. As you progress through the campaign in the Bestiary, you'll unlock little statuettes of the enemies you face. These statuettes feature placards with more details regarding the enemy's species, faction info, etc...
In the Lorebrary, you'll unlock more general info about the world's history, characters, and locations, accompanied by a little companion named VIX, an A.I. character who was actually cut from early drafts of Chapter 2. Obviously, as implied above, the game's hub has been given a massive visual overhaul to separate it visually from the rest of the campaign, and it's even got a funny little name now. Hooray! There's even more stuff in the new hub I've not mentioned, mostly for spoiler reasons, but to close the hub stuff out...
There's also the shop! With our own little shopkeep! So you'll finally be able to spend all those Skullies you've been collecting! Speaking of which...

The Gameplay Modifiers

As mentioned in one of the prior updates, the content you can unlock in the shop includes gameplay modifiers and cheat codes. This is another big thing we've been working on for the last while. 28 of the 30 gameplay modifiers are now implemented, with most of them being finalized. The last two remaining ones that have yet to be implemented are an enemy randomizer and a pickups randomizer. Also worth noting... Some of the gameplay modifiers (the randomizer included) will feature enemies you will not see in your standard playthrough of the campaign. These are enemies we will be primarily featuring in an NG+ Mode we intend to add post-launch, but we thought we would sprinkle them in for you here.
In tandem with this, the game's save system had to be entirely rewritten to account for how a modifier playthrough deviates from a standard playthrough, and with that, improvements have been made to the game's save system in general.

Stackable Powerups

So, because I hate myself, I decided to add mugshot sprites for every variation of the different combinations of powerups (Even across the OG Caroline and Dopefish skins) that you can pick up at any one time, and with that, you can now stack powerups. There are not too many times in the campaign where you will see this happen (though powerups appear much more frequently than they did in the early access version). Still, a couple of the cheat code unlockables use powerup functions as their base, invincibility, for example, and thus, with being able to mix and match those, you'll be able to see the effects reflected on the hud.

Plague Rifle Tweaks

For a variety of reasons, a number of semi-significant changes have been made to the game's weapon, "The Plague Rifle." Without getting into it too much, the two big ones are that the Plague Rifle now has the second fastest player-side projectile in the game, as well as an arching path through the air.

Lots of Writing... So Much Writing...

I mentioned the Lorebrary and Bestiary above, and a big thing we've been up to lately, in addition to all that we've mentioned prior, is writing up their contents. With about 30 critters to write up Bestiary entries for and about the same amount of Lore entries, there's been a lot of writing to do.

Chapter 3's Ending Cutscene

The art for Chapter 3's final cutscene is done! And it has also now been fully animated! The only thing left to do for it is a sound pass!

And Finally, the Usual...

Art updates! So... So many art updates... This obviously, in part, is due to us revisiting those old levels from chapters 1 and 2. There were lots of old, ugly textures that needed fixing, but beyond that, there were still 1 or 2 enemies (such as the Watchers) that hadn't gotten an art update yet. Also! A good chunk of props needed a good brand-new lick of paint.

But that is all for now...

As I said, somewhere overhead? This will likely be the final developer log before release. It certainly won't be the last time you hear from us before then, especially not if you're following us on Twitter or hanging out in our Discord Server. Viscerafest's release is rapidly approaching, and I cannot tell you how excited and terrified I am to say that. But thank you for taking time out of your day to read this! May the Lord of Glory multiply and bless your days. And I pray you have a wonderful morning, evening, night, or whatever frame of time you currently dwell within. Adios!

[ 2024-09-18 11:03:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! The day has finally come! As Viscerafest is a part of the BOOMSTOCK event, we can announce that the game will leave Early Access in April 2025! [previewyoutube=jFSiU--kxb0;full][/previewyoutube] We can't describe how happy we are to finally share what we've been working on during the past years. Of course, it would not be possible without your support throughout the Early Access period, we are lucky to have such an awesome community! We are not there yet though, so, please, keep those thoughts and feedback coming, whether it's here on Steam or on the Viscerafest Discord server where you'll most welcome! The exact release date will be specified once we get closer, so keep your eyes peeled. And if you don't have enough, check out the rest of the BOOMSTOCK event participants, as there are many great games showing new trailers, adding new content or even launching!

[ 2024-09-16 17:42:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Viscerafest has been in early access for a little over 3 years now, and its last patch was over a year ago...
Now when I say that out loud boy howdy am I slapped in the face with just how much time has flown us by. But beyond that, it certainly raises the question "What have we been doing during all that time?" Today we aim to answer that question for the folks who have not been obsessively stalking our every move. If you've not been religiously following our every update, then this one will catch you up to speed.

So... Why So Long?

Well for starters, Viscerafest is primarily only worked on by 2 individuals, Me (Noah or Acid Man Games) and Elijah (or Fireplant Games). We certainly have other folks working with us to make the music, sounds, cutscenes, and Voice acting, but the "game" part of the game, the content that most everything else is scheduled around is only being handled by Elijah and I.
Viscerafest is a big game for only 2 (formerly full-time but now part-time) developers, which has certainly contributed to the slow progress. But more importantly, life has been pretty rocky during the game's development, and very little has seemed to go our way. To give a small sampling of what has taken place since we dropped into EA, I've dealt with sickness, major technical issues that left me unable to work for weeks, unplanned game updates and patches that interrupted our development schedule, I got engaged, had my fiance break up with me, my grandma passed away, my family moved, etc, etc...
Now more could indeed be said on this front. However, I'm primarily aiming to give you a sampling of why things have been slow, not a comprehensive breakdown, which would take much... much longer.

But Why a Year Since the Last Patch/Update?

There are two primary reasons for this. The first is that after the last major patch we released, we had a host of changes and improvements we wanted to make to the game. But before publicly releasing these changes, we would have to completely rebalance the entire campaign's enemy and item placement. This is because said changes would alter various aspects of how the game played, and would not mesh well with how the game was balanced at the time.
The big issue here is that once the game is done, we are going to need to completely rebalance the campaign's placements anyways. So if we were to push said changes in an update, it would have meant that we would need to have rebalanced the game not once but twice, which is a waste of time. The second reason is chapter 3. Our primary focus has been working on the game's final chapter, and whilst yes, in our spare time we have gotten lots of other stuff done (as you will soon see). The time spent getting a patch ready is fairly significant. It can take a good 2-3 weeks just to get an update approved for a public release, and thats time we could instead spend on more important tasks.
Now there are indeed other factors that have contributed to the following choice... But as a consequence of the above, we chose to refrain from updating the game until its full release. This is also why we've been frequently posting development logs to keep you all somewhat in the loop. We didn't want it to seem like the game had died, or we'd fallen off the face of the earth. But Enough Preamble... I'm making this post because far more has been tweaked, changed, and added to the game beyond just the new chapter 3 content. So that of course inevitably leads us into the question...

What's Changed Since theEarlyAccess Version?

The answer is a lot... A lot has changed... So much so that I'm going to structure this as if I were writing up a semi-detailed list of patch notes to keep things simple... ish. Viscerafestis a much... much better game now. It almost hurts to watch people play the early-access version, and hopefully, as I lay out what's changed below you can get a sense of why...

The Player:

• Updated Spritework for fists and Legs.
• Coyote Time has been added to the player's move set. Now for a brief duration after falling the player can jump in the air.
• Hold To Bunnyhop is now by default set to on, many players did not know the option existed, and having it on will make the game more approachable for those with poor muscle memory.
• Various tweaks have been made to the player's movement physics, speed, air speed, ground friction, acceleration, etc... both to make tasks such as platforming more approachable and add a further layer of polish to the player's movement.
• The speed and duration of the player's dash has been tweaked and refined.
• The player's Health and Armor caps have been buffed from 200 to 500.

The Arsenal:

• Most weapons have received major sprite improvements and revisions.
• The visual effects of every weapon have been substantially improved with major art improvements and revisions as well as new art drawn up for some of the effects.
• Every weapon in the arsenal has received a substantial balancing pass. Weapons that were formerly not very useful are much more so now.
• The pacing and revealing of certain weapon types has been altered to help improve early-game combat.
• The Player's starting pistol (The Skull-Piercer) has had its damage buffed from 35 to 150 damage. It now costs 10 ammo per shot to fire, and is now a glorified mini-railgun that can instagib several low-tier enemies.
• The Shredders now have a small AOE stunning effect that can easily stun-lock most enemies.
• The Bunker Buster now does double damage to enemies if you risk receiving splash damage by point-blank shooting an enemy.
• The Pung Cannons explosion now does double the damage of hitting direct shots, making it more useful when aiming at the feet of enemies rather than directly at them.
• The Deus Mortis now has a new mechanic where you can call the pellets you've fired back to your current location. This new mechanic allows you to hit the same enemies twice with the same pellets.
• The Plague Rifle and Deus Mortis have swapped weapon slots with the Plague Rifle being in Slot 5 and the Deus Mortis being in slot 6.
• The BBQ Belter and Warhound have swapped weapon slots with the BBQ Belter being in Slot 7 and the Warhound being in slot 8.
• The Warhound now uses Pung Canisters as ammo, with the Plasma Grenade ammo type being cut from the game.
• The Warhound, rather than releasing a flurry of cluster bombs upon exploding, now detonates in a cross pattern similar to the Firebomb from "Rise of the Triad".

The Enemies:

• Most enemies have received major sprite improvements and revisions.
• The Visual effects of enemies firing and or otherwise attacking the player have been substantially improved with major art improvements and revisions as well as new art drawn up for the effects.
• The game's Gore system has been entirely reworked with major art improvements and revisions as well as new art drawn up for the effects.
• All enemies have received a substantial balancing pass.
• Several enemy types have received new attacks and behaviors.
• 3 New enemy types have been added to chapters 1 and 2.
• The pacing and revealing of certain enemy types has been altered to help improve early-game combat.
• Melee-resistant enemies now have purple armor or purple skin to help the player visually identify whether or not an enemy is melee-resistant. Enemies that were formerly purple but not melee-resistant have had their color scheme changed.
• Melee-resistant enemies have new visual and audio effects that play when the player punches them to help the player understand they are doing less damage.
• Melee-resistant enemies are no longer stunned by melee attacks.
• Drones, which were formerly melee resistant are now weak to melee attacks. (But they still have their melee counterattack.)
• There are now 2 types of shielded enemies. Enemies with "Red" shields can deflect all attacks with the exception of explosive and fire-based attacks. Enemies with "Yellow" Shields can deflect all attacks with the exception of explosive, fire-based, and melee attacks.
• The physics of enemy grenades have been tweaked and refined to make them feel less chaotic in combat.

The Pickups:

• Most Weapon and Ammo pickups have received major sprite improvements and revisions.
• Ammo and Weapon Pickups now have rings around their base that make them easier to spot mid-combat.
• The Collisions for most pickups have been improved which has also helped to resolve various bugs.

The Prelude:

• The opening Cutscene has received updated artwork and minor editing tweaks.
• The game's opening tutorial level has been completely remade. It has mostly retained its original layout, but now features various minor improvements including, better texture work, improved visual clarity for elements important to progression, better combat spaces, as well as additional areas for tutorialization.
• Brand new Secrets along with a few revised old ones.
• Tutorials are now triggered by question mark pickups rather than invisible walls to make their appearance feel less abrupt and annoying.
• Accompanying Tutorials the text explaining what you need to do are videos that showcase the mechanics discussed in action. Furthermore, Tutorials such as the melee tutorial are broken up into multi-part sections, in order to better introduce players to the nuances of the mechanics. Finally, the mechanics are often put in a context that will see you actually being forced to use them, such as with using the dashes I-Frames.

Chapter 1:

• The Chapter 1 levels are being completely remade. They have mostly retained their original layout, but now feature various minor improvements including, better texture work, better flow, improved visual clarity for elements important to progression, and better combat spaces.
• Brand new Secrets along with a few revised old ones.
• New scripted sequences, some of which help to contextualize the jump from level to level.
• Brand new as well as revised old dialogue some of which has been tweaked or added to better set up events that take place later in the game's story.
• General pacing changes.
• Some super special stuff I don't want to spoil :>

Chapter 2:

• Various visual/aesthetic improvements such as better texture work, and improved visual clarity for elements important to progression.
• Performance fixes to levels such as C2L6 which originally did not run very well.
• Brand new sprites for the boss variant of the Interdimensional Shambler
• New/tweaked dialogue.

The Menu's/HUD:

• Menu's/The player's HUD has received major sprite improvements and revisions.
• Added new art for level title cards as opposed to using the in-game font.
• An option to disable the difficulty warning that plays upon booting up the game has been added.
• An option to adjust the frequency of Caroline's one-liners has been added.
• An option to disable the camera bob that occurs when you land from a fall has been added.
• An option to disable the death counter has been added.
• The Layout for the controls menu has been tweaked for ease of use on a gamepad.
• Menu's are navigatable keyboard only.

Misc:

• Too many bug fixes to count.
• Various backend tweaks to help the game run better.
• A bunch of new Combat one-liners for Caroline (A few of the older/more cringy ones were cut, but even still we now have over 100).
• Even more sets of difficulty names! (there are now 30)
• New death messages.
• Reworked the Sacrifices A.I.
• Completely redid controller support, should now be plug-and-play.
• And more...

I'm not going to lie... this actually ended up being even longer than I was expecting it to be when I started writing it. But as you can see, when I said a lot, I was not joking. Truth be told, there's honestly probably even more I just forgot to include, and it's worth noting more work will be done before the game's full release, so the above list will get longer... Probably not too much longer... But still longer.

But What's New?

Now as shocking as this may indeed sound, all of the above... that's just stuff we did on the side. About 80-90% of our time was spent focusing on the brand-new content, though there is a lot less to say about it because well... we don't want to spoil it.
First chapter 3... Chapter 3 features 11 brand-new enemy types, 7 brand-new levels, all of which are notably longer than the former chapters' levels. A small bevy of brand-new mechanics, and a couple of uh... neat little boss fights ;> Chapter 3 is where we've been spending most of our time. It's been a bit more ambitious than the former chapters, and let me tell ya it's a blast... but it's still not quite done yet. Soon though... (TM) Secondly the ending. Yeah I uh... I won't say much about it, but make no mistake, the ending has been just as much of a time sync as the bulk of chapter 3's maps.
Thirdly... Dem Skullies... As you parade your way through Viscerafest you will collect a host of fun little grabbems that go by the name of Skullies, and with these in the game's hub you will be able to buy cheats, and gameplay modifiers that you can use when replaying a map. Some of them we have in already, others we're still working on. But I think in total the final game will have about 30... Also one of them lets you play as dopefish. Fourthly! LOOOOOOOORE!!! So if you did not know, Viscerafest has an obnoxious amount of Lore, and I entirely blame Elijah for recommending we include it in the game. As you play through the campaign you'll be able to unlock chunks of the game's lore that you can read up on in the Hub. Shockingly writing up said lore can take a little bit, but I'm not joking when I say at one point shot Elijah a message telling him that "I am hiding a political thriller in Viscerafest" Which let me tell you was not on my to-do list when I started working on this game.

And I Think That's It?

I was hoping to make this a short and relatively accessible post but that's very hard to do when I'm also trying to catalogue all the progress we've made over the course of an entire year. Trust me there were some things I wanted to go into far more detail about, however... we do have the old developer logs you can back and look at if you want more information as to why we made certain decisions. Heck... you can also always just ask us a question! I frequently check the comments on all the posts we make, so rest assured if you have something you'd like to know about the game, I will likely be there to respond ASAP. I think the only major thing left to address is at last year's Realms Deep we announced a 2024 release date. If that happens it will likely be toward the end of the year just so you all know. I really want the game to come out this year, and I know Elijah does too. Things keep happening that make that seem harder and harder to pull off, which has not left any of us happy on the development side trust me. I have been working on this game for 12 years of my life, and I don't want to make it 13, but I also want you all to receive a finished game, and I'm sure my publisher feels similarly... ;P

But That is All For Now...

Thank you all for your support, seeing the encouraging comments, fanart, and general support always brings a smile to our faces. I don't thank the Lord for the blessing you have all been to us nearly enough, and I want you all to know that you've routinely lifted our spirits through frustrating and difficult times. We pray the Lord bless ya, keep ya, and make his face to shine up ya. And we hope you have a wonderful day. Sincerely, Noah

[ 2024-05-21 14:00:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Howdy one and all and welcome back to another Viscerafest Development update! We hope you had a wonderful season remembering our Lord's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Now you may have noticed that despite our expectant comments from last time, we did not post an update in the throws of March and there is a good reason for that...

March sucked.

In the opening weeks of March, yours truly was not only job hunting for part-time work but got sick and was bedridden for a good two days. Following this I did get back to working on the game, however, progress was demoralizingly slow as I felt like garbage for about a week. In addition to feeling like freeze-dried filth, the absolute halt to progress left me feeling very burnt out which meant that by the time we finally started moving again, I was feeling positively out of it.
In essence, development felt like a process of wading through deep mud, a fact that would not be rectified in the latter half of the month. On the 19th, I received a call from my mother letting me know that the 8-year-old daughter of my would-have-been In-Laws had passed away under rather harrowing circumstances, following which that Thursday I attended the funeral. It was a distressing and emotionally draining few days not helped by everything going on before it, and everything happening in the midst of it, as yes, more indeed happened that I will not mention here. So that is in short why you have been left bereft of a development update until this day, progress has been slow, as unfortunately, life keeps happening. But with that said, I'm not posting this to inform you that no progress has been made, as in Marches wake, quite the opposite is true. So after that just... real downer of an opening remark, let's get to the more fun part of this update.

Nuts.Blend

So amid March's madness, I had hit a brick wall of burnout and I needed something I could quickly pump out to get my spirits up and just... feel like I had accomplished something of tangible substance. I had some Icarusliv3s videos playing in the background as I cobbled together a lunch for myself and as the autoplay cycled videos one in particular popped into my cue. The video "Dukes Nuts" popped into the video player and it got me thinking... You know... making a Viscerafest Nuts map would be pretty easy... and I wonder what it would play like...
Thus between working on things that I actually needed to try to get done, I pumped out "Nuts.Blend" over the course of about 2 days... and it was magical. I still have some work I want to do on this map to visually polish it up a bit, but I'm planning to stick this map into the full game as a secret for all of you who wish to torture yourselves and your PCs. Aggregious framerates have never been so colorful.

C3L3 - Virile Vanity

The third map of Viscerafest's third chapter still needs a bit of visual cleanup, on the whole, the map is a bit more visually rough right now than I'd like and as a consequence, I won't be showing you too much of it. Gameplay-wise though, the map is pretty much done! So let's talk about it a little.
C3L3 - Virile Vanity picks up where C3L2 left off with Caroline arriving at a massive elevated plateau in the midst of a hedge maze. The level primarily sees you diving below and above ground to navigate this maze before finding your way to the level's finale amidst a courtyard that features a massive pit. The level also introduces a new fun little puzzle mechanic, one that gets a fair bit more use toward the end of the chapter, and one that will be quite familiar to those who have a bit of Quake under their belt. The level also builds upon the new Chapter 3 roster of enemies with a good 3 or so new enemy types added to the fray, two of which you'll be familiar with if you've been following our updates for any significant period of time.

C3L4 - Nihilistic Necromancy

Now C3L4 and onward is where I'll be getting more tight-lipped about a level's given contents. Obviously, I don't want to give you guys a thorough rundown of every little thing that happens in every chapter 3 level but C3L4 is where we begin to breach into territory I would consider downright spoiler-ish.
As a matter of fact whilst I will tell you about C3L5 likely in the next update I probably won't show you anything past its opening room as that level is... particularly special...
But that doesn't mean I have nothing to say about C3L4 as there are a few things I can let you in on. C3L4 introduces the last of the chapter 3 enemy roster, and by this point in the campaign, it's quite a star-studded cast of foes.
This is when the combat in chapter 3 really starts to take off in my opinion and the level features some of the most fun and also most intense combat encounters in the game's campaign. Viscerafest becomes basically borderline bullet-hell at this point and it is downright glorious.

Fan Requested Options

We frequently get requests to tweak, add, or adjust certain things within the game, and every once in a while, (should we deem them good suggestions) we finally get around to adding some of those requested features or making some of those requested tweaks. Now is indeed one of those times! Many players have requested an option to disable the difficulty warning that pops up when you boot up the game. Now you can already skip this by holding the escape key, but yes we have indeed added an option to turn it off completely.
A fair few folks have requested the option to adjust the frequency of Caroline's One-Liners, some because they want to hear them more frequently, some because they want to hear them less frequently, and worry not! We've got you covered on both fronts as we now have a slider that allows you to adjust said frequency.
A small few have asked for the option to disable the little camera bob that occurs when you fall and land on the ground, a toggle button has been added for your convenience.
And then finally we know some folks don't like being told they've died 300 times, so there is now an option to disable the game's death counter as well.

Tutorials

So in the developer update "Known Issues and Stuff" we went through and talked about some of the content in Viscerafest that we felt was lacking. Since then, most of the issues we brought up have been, or are being addressed, but there was one issue we have had in the cards to deal with for a while now that we just hadn't gotten around to yet, and that was the game's tutorials.
For those of you not in the know in the current version of the game Viscerafest's tutorials are little more than walls of text that abruptly pop up on screen when you bump into an invisible wall. They're kind of annoying, feel designed in a way that encourages players to skip them, and more importantly, because it's an uncontextualized wall of text they do a poor job of giving players a solid idea of how to really make use of the mechanics they are trying to teach the player about. The old tutorial level itself didn't really help with this either to be honest, it was rather lackluster and didn't really do a good job of providing scenarios that would allow the player to adequately learn. The consequences of this were that despite how skilled someone might've been at FPS games in general they were often given a poor idea of how to play Viscerafest. I've seen people who suck at shooters do wonderfully at Viscerafest just because they stumbled into the right way to play, and conversely, I've seen decent players bang their heads against a wall just because they didn't really grasp what they were supposed to be doing. Now some of the latter was admittedly self-inflicted in certain circumstances, but I can't help but feel that the poor tutorialization contributed to it.
So a while ago we completely remade the game's tutorial level. Shortly after we decided to make the tutorials triggered by pickups to avoid the annoyance spawned by invisible walls initiating them. But now we have added the final ingredients.
The tutorial popups now contain video footage of yours' truly doing the action described in the tutorial contents in an effort to better contextualize what's being said, giving you a visual example of the action being asked of you. But this way you're being shown what to do, not just told. Certain mechanics that were formerly never tutorialized (Such as Melee Resistant enemies) now feature their own tutorial sections. Tutorials are also broken up more now with several being multi-part to avoid vomiting an abrasive wall of text onto your screen.
With all of this, we're hoping to do a better job of equipping you all as players to enjoy our game. As a developer, it's never fun to watch new players bang their heads against a wall and find themselves bouncing off our game because of *our* failure to teach them. It's one thing if players just don't enjoy the game we're making, or another if players ruin the experience for themselves, that's fine, I don't like those scenarios but I can stomach them. It's a whole other issue when they might have genuinely enjoyed what we made, but we just did a poor job of equipping them too.

Art Updates

As with almost every update now there have been a host of updates to the game's sprite and texture work, however, there are a couple I would like to address this time more specifically. For starters the armor pickup sprites. Whilst editing C3L4 I noticed the scaling for said pickups was a complete mess, and in fixing the object scaling in the editor I realized that 3 of our armor pickups were too high resolution, and one of them was too low resolution. So I quickly went through and redrew the sprites, and since our protagonist is female I figured I would aim for a more feminine look with the pickups than I had originally gone for.
As is per usual now several Chapter 3 textures have been updated and polished up, as well as the sprites for a few props. Some pre-existing props have received tweaks to better situate them within the context of outdoor environments. Several of the game's older liquid textures such as blood, Milk, and the various Liquid "falls" have finally been updated and given the proper pixel scaling. One special little enemy I can't talk about has received a great deal of artistic love put into his fun little hives.And now finally, the Sacrifices have received some sprite sprucing up!Speaking of which...

Set Yoth - The Sacrifices

So when we were in the midst of readying Viscerafest for its early access release back yonder in 2021 we were, to be frank... rushed. A lotof hardcore crunching and all-nighters were pulled to hit our release date, which... we didn't... the early access was delayed by a month but... that's beside the point.
Being rushed there were several areas of the game where for the sake of simplicity we said "we'll work on it later" and we slapdashed a quick and easy solution for the time being until we had the time to do the job right. The sacrifices are by far the most notable example of this. The A.I. of the Sacrifices is basically just the A.I. of the game's enemies tweaked and repurposed for your little NPC pal, and this creates some problems... Enemies utilize a navmesh to do things such as avoid obstacles, navigate around hazards, etc... Because of this enemies don't really have physics... enemies can't fall, jump, or really do all that much vertically, and the one enemy in the game that does have physics works completely differently from the rest. Not only are the... shall we call them benefits? Of using a navmesh not things we wanted the Sacrifice to be able to do, but the lack of physics poses a problem for some of the puzzles we planned to design with them.
The Sacrifice puzzles were meant to have your A.I. partner just track the player. As a consequence, it would be up to said player to keep their little buddy out of lava pits, out of the way of blade traps, and away from the fire of unfriendly foes. Upon falling prey to a trap or acid pit, your little buddy would respawn back where he started, and you could try again. Now this mechanic is not used very often in the game, it's used most in chapter 3, but only once in each of the chapters before it. We were able to effectively cheat the puzzles somewhat in chapters 1 and 2, but for 3... we needed to finally implement their A.I. proper. This is something we've actually had on the docket of tasks for ages... It's just that more important tasks have frequently gotten in the way, but with chapter 3 being the primary task at hand, it finally found itself at the top of the tasks pile.

Achievements

Ok so this is not actually something we've worked on yet but it's something I thought I would address it because it keeps coming up. Yes, Viscerafest will have achievements and they will be coming with the game's full release. Currently, we have about 80-90 achievements planned some will likely be cut from that list, and others added, but I suspect that's roundabout the number we'll be sticking with. So here's a quick sampling to give you an idea of the achievements we have planned.

• Participation Ribbon (Beat Viscerafest on any difficulty)
• Back in My Day... (Conquer an entire chapter of Viscerafest never once using a save beacon)
• Shawn's got the Shotgun (Find the Bunker Buster early)
• You Can't Evade Me Forever (Find 20 secrets)
• Maximum Overdrive (Overstack your health pool to a value of 400)
• Non-Copyright Infringing Band Name (Find the MIM ammo pickup in Wayward Watchers)
• AAAAAAH SHADDAP!!! (Interrupt Mortice's Monologue in Evanescant Evacuation)
• I Love Sweet Baby Rays (Kill 8 Maledicts with the BBQ Belter)
• Just had to make sure... (Toggle the does nothing button)
• Feeling Lucky? (Waste ammo by shooting a scientist)
• Somebody Beat you with the Ugly Stick (Conquer - REDACTED- on Brutal Difficulty or higher)
• You're Going to Hell (You know what you've done...)

Now in copying and pasting this list from my notes there is one change we made a while ago that I never mentioned in any of the dev updates, at least I have not to my recollection... So let's talk about that change real quick too!

Health and Armor Pools

So in the current Steam version of Viscerafest, you're able to overstack your health and armor. As is typical in retro shooters your health and armor caps out at about 200. However, in our current dev builds, you can overstack your health and armor to a value of 500.
Now you may be wondering... why did we make this change? And that is a wonderful question that I wish I could remember the answer too. I do recall there being some generally well-informed design reasoning that went into this decision, but I never wrote it down... and this was a decision made ages ago that we didn't pull the trigger on until a good few weeks after the decision to make this change was made. Silly me. Regardless, I can tell you that being able to frequently surpass the 200 HP cap that used to exist feels very fun for some reason and comes in rather handy for chapter 3. But!...

Tis Goodbye For Now

As always thank you for all of you who take the time to actually read this stuff, and by extension thank you to all the wonderful folks who have been supporting us throughout the game's development. You are all a wonderful blessing, and we couldn't do this without you! But as the day doth end so must my rantings about the game's development. But before we close I thought you might want to know... We've added randomized sprites of Caroline crying to our Quit to Desktop prompt so you can feel like the monster you truly are...
We love ya'll, and we pray you have a wonderful day!

[ 2024-04-16 08:51:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! Work on Viscerafest is in full swing and we can't wait to show you more of Caroline's story! For now, if you've already killed all the enemies and discovered all the secrets in the current content of Viscerafest, maybe you have a hankering for a different boomer shooter experience? If that is the case, it might interest you that WRATH: Aeon of Ruin, a brutal hardcore FPS inspired by Quake, is leaving Early Access today. It offers an epic experience full of lethal weapons, blood-thirsty enemies and a unique "90s" look that will take you back to a time when the FPS genre shone the brightest; while maintaining a modern approach, including original gameplay elements. You can now get WRATH: Aeon of Ruin here on Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1000410/WRATH_Aeon_of_Ruin/ And if you want to get yourselves a really sweet deal, check out these bundles where an additional 10% discount applies - this is especially handy if you already own some of the games, since you will only pay for those you don't have yet! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/12693/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39216/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39215/

[ 2024-02-27 18:00:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Shalom Ladies and Gents! We hope you've had a wonderful opening to the new year, it's certainly been a productive one on our end. Thus, in the wake of February now being in full swing, Valentines day being right around the corner, and the birthday of yours truly being the 12th, (which by the time this update was released may have already passed...) I thought it was high time we gifted you with another Viscerafest Developer update!
So without any further ado...

The Finale

The rough draft version of Viscerafest's final level is complete! A lot of the loose ends have been addressed, and the level is now playable (though in a very rough state) from start to finish. There's still a lot of work to do on the Finale to get it ready for release, but as was mentioned last time, I'd begun the work of finishing and polishing up the rough draft version of chapter 3. Now that the Finale's first pass is done, we're full steam ahead on the cleanup work.

C3L2 - Blighted Babylon

Speaking of cleanup... there's a pinch more work I need to do in wrapping up Chapter 3's second map, but with that said, it is very much on the verge of completion. So let's talk about it!
C3L2 - Blighted Babylon is the player's first venture into the world of Rhanak Zethir, and with that, there's a host of new foes awaiting you therein. There are roughly 4-5 new enemies introduced with your foray into this new world, and a few of them bring some nasty new tricks to the table.
The level itself is very free-form in its overall structure, and with the exception of a few bottlenecks that act as funnels between the major sections,you have a fair amount of freedom to roam around and putts about.
But hey what about those enemies I mentioned? Surely there must be something interesting to talk about there...
A fair few of the new faces introduced in C3L2 are enemies that I've given you all a peak at in prior updates. However, there are 2 introduced in the map that I've not revealed to you as of yet. One of which I'll be leaving for the game's full release, but the other... We can talk about him...

The Adopted Mage

You may have spotted this little blight in the promotional art for Viscerafest's final chapter. There's a couple of them floating yonder in the background being silly little goobers. But make no mistake these lads are mean. The Adopted Mage is a flying enemy that fires a full auto barrage of slow-moving projectiles which they lead their aim with, but the fun does not stop there! Adopted Mages have yellow shields! Yellow shields, as opposed to red ones, can deflect projectile attacks, but only moderately reduce melee damage. And on that note! These little stinkers are weak to melee attacks. Similar to the drones these lads drop their shields when going to attack you, but unlike the drones, they don't have any defense mechanisms against melee attacks. So if they get low enough to the ground for you to throw hands with them, it's worth doing!

Art Updates

As always we're constantly refining the game's art, updating refining, and polishing up old stuff to make it look as nice and purty as all the new stuff.

Audio Stuff

With Markie back on the team the first big thing we've been cracking down on is getting a fair chunk of the game's story content ready for implementation. Whilst we've had the dialogue recorded for months, a lot of that voice work needed to be cleaned up and given its fair share of sound design before it could be added to the game proper.
Most of the VA work is done with but a few exceptions, and because of that both C3L1 and 2 have most of their story dialogue and narrative events implemented already. There's only one more character whose content we're working on dealing with right now, and... Well... Speaking of which...

Cinematic 6 - Relent

Cinematic 6 is finally getting its sound pass! Wew!!! Not much more to say about it other than that, don't want to spoil anything...
But you know what I do want to spoil?

SO WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO WITH ALL THOSE SKULLIES???

Well my dear sweet summer child I am so glad you've asked... This last month we have been finalizing our plans for the purchaseables present within the hub's shop. Whilst we've known the *kinds* of things Viscerafest's shop would contain for you to purchase, what *specifically* has been slightly more up in the air, as we've been throwing ideas back and forth for quite some time. The short answer as to what exactly the shop will contain is... Cheat codes. Well... Cheat Codes and Gameplay Modifiers. Basically... Lots of ways to spice up repeat playthroughs of Viscerafest's campaign. Now if that doesn't sound appetizing to you... Just wait... With the 30+ we've got planned there's bound to be something you'll like. Heck let's talk about a few shall we!!!

- The Basics -

As I said, Cheat codes are on the docket of purchaseables, and with that comes the fairly vanilla stuff you'd expect. There's Invincibility, infinite ammo, Regenerating Health and or Armor, Berzerker mode, all your fairly standard fair to mess around with.

- Viscerahot -

Oh, but this... This is the premium stuff right here... Ya'll know what superhot is? Time slows down when you're not moving? It's fun stuff! But with Viscerahot time slows down the faster you move! So as you enjoy bunnyhopping through the air blasting foes left and right you get to enjoy the sweet songs of slow motion along the way!

- Blitzkrieg -

Is Viscerafest just not fast enough for you? Why... Just try Blitzkrieg! And increases the overall game speed of Viscerafest!

- Instagib -

Your arsenal gets replaced with a railgun that one-shots enemies... Also, all the ammo pickups are replaced with ammo pickups for said railgun.

- NC-17 -

So in older versions of Viscerafest, the names for the game's difficulty settings were effectively based on the Motion Picture Association's film rating system, easy was "G" medium "PG" and "NC-17" was the hardest difficulty. On NC-17 every enemy in the game could one-shot you. So you could probably guess what this modifier does.

- Oops, All cultists -

All the enemies in the given level you're playing? They're cultists now.

- The Minus Touch -

If an enemy touches you, it dies.

- Dope Mode -

Ok, but kids we've had our fun... There are genuinely many more I've not mentioned here but we just... We just can't leave today until we've talked about Dope Mode... In Dope Mode... You get to play as Dopefish... Instead of punching enemies, you slap them with your big tongue...And you're Dopefish... And you make farting sounds when you dash because Markie is pissed I wouldn't give Caroline Dash boots so he could make an interesting dash sound and threatened to blackmail me by sneaking fart sounds into the full release with a 1/1000 chance that a fart sound would play instead of the generic dash woosh sounds so I offered to let him add the fart dash sounds to dope mode instead... And you're dopefish...

- And Many More -

As I said we currently have more than 30 planned for the game's full release. Some of them may or may not make the cut depending on where we're at, but there'll a lot of fun stuff tucked away in the shop for you to experiment with. And hey who knows! We may even add more after launch...

More Technical Odds and Ends

Some of the tasks that I have been far less intimately involved with, but nonetheless have very much been getting done is some more technical cleanup work. My lead programmer Elijah has been applying some hefty elbow grease to optimize our backend in the name of improving performance, collision detection, culling some tech debt, fixing minor bugs, etc...
Basically, he's been tackling a lot of the less flatteringly interesting stuff that often gets taken for granted but should amount to the game running better and smoother for you all in the end.

And That's All Folks

As I said it's been a rather productive month give or take, and as I write these final sentences I'm about halfway done with the cleanup work on C3L3. I don't have anything quite ready for public display on that front, but I most definitely will come March, and heck... I may even have some C3L4 stuff to show come that time. But as with all our updates, they must eventually come to an end... That way I can get back to work. For all those who bothered to read through my goofy ramblings, I appreciate it! And I hope you enjoyed it. We hope and pray you have a wonderful day, and that God might bless you! Adios!

[ 2024-02-13 15:00:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy New Year, Everyone!!! We hope you've had a wonderful holiday season! You may have noticed there has been a gross dearth of updates from us as of recently. That is because whilst we have indeed been working this whole time, there's not really been much to show or update you on...
The last few months have been spent working on the game's finale and polishing up its third chapter. These are time-consuming tasks that involve either heavy spoilers, or stuff that's just not really interesting to showcase until the work is actually done... As it stands currently, we are still knee-deep in the midst of both these tasks. Thing is now we actually have something to show for them. There have also been a number of other important changes and tweaks that we can talk about along the way. So without any further ado...

C3L1 - Theopathic Thoroughfare

The opening level of Viscerafest's third chapter is almost completely done! There's some sound work it needs yet, its OST and several small bug fixes. But otherwise, the level is playable front to back! So let's talk about it a lil' bit.
In the wake of Viscerafest Chapter 2's ending Caroline once again steps through an archegate into the Great Divide, the primary difference now being the route this takes her through has a formerly well-established U.S.C. presence.
Various U.S.C. Checkpoints bridge the gap from this entrance into the Great Divide through to its exit into Rhanak Zethir, which resides in the realm of the Elder World. This will be Caroline's final goodbye to the U.S.C. before she steps into territory they have lost. Unknown forces have removed the conglomerate's presence from Rhanak Zethir, and this will mean that soon Caroline will be fighting more than mere flesh and blood.
C3L1 in a similar vein to C1L6 and C2L5 is one of Chapter 3's more story-heavy maps. But unlike the prior Great Divide levels, it is also more elaborate, and combat-heavy. Honestly... as of writing this, it's easily one of my favorite levels, and I can't wait for you guys to play it!

Bombs away!!!

On a much less significant note, I've effectively completely reworked the physics and behavior of the Grenadiers'... well... grenades.
In my humble opinion, they were a bit too chaotic in the midst of combat, often flying around and ricochetingoff the environment at borderline untrackable speeds, thus I felt the need to reel them in a bit. They no longer fall as quickly and generally have a slightly slower, more floaty presence to make their movements easier to visually track and deal with. It's a relatively minor change all things considered but one that I feel makes this enemy a bit nicer to go up against.

Nomad Priest - Rework

Viscerafest'sfirst flying enemy has just received some rather notable changes and updates. The Nomad Priest was one of Viscerafest'sfinal enemies that needed a sprite update, so I gave the kind lad a pretty new paint job.
In addition to this though I felt like amongst the Chapter 3 enemy roster his old set of attacks meant he didn't have as firm a footing in that part of the game. Other enemies did his job better and were more interesting, thus I felt the need to spice him up a bit in order to set him apart from the crowd. I won't say what these changes are, I'll let you findout with time, but I feel he has a stronger place on the roster now as it stands.

U.I. Updates

This isn't necessarily entirely new but slowly more and more work has been being done to refine the look of our menus further. Not anything too exciting, but ya know... it's stuff we've been working on... So I thought I would mention it.

Art Updates

As I mentioned in the intro my big focus of late has been polishing up Viscerafest'sthird chapter, and a big part of this is refining the look of all these maps. You may have noticed I've been... stingy... about showcasing Viscerafest'sthird chapter until now, and there's a good reason for that.
The levels for a long while now have been in a... "Rough Draft" stage, and as a consequence, they're quite ugly and rough around the edges. Not only were/are there missing props and gameplay elements that have yet to be added, but the lighting is... *oof* and the texture work is especially rough and sloppy. This "Rough Draft" stage is something we've done with all of Viscerafest's levels in the past. Prior to release, most of Viscerafest's levels were pretty rough, but the rough drafted-ness of chapter 3 has been particularly egregious until now, and that's why I've been very picky and hesitant to show ya'll any of it. If I was going to show you guys a glimpse of the chapter, I wanted it to leave at least a somewhat positive impression upon you all, and I just knew that most of the third chapter was not ready for primetime. Being able to finally go through and "clean house" so to speak, is immensely satisfying, and I can't wait to show you all more and more as the rest of these maps hit their final stages!

The Return of Markie

For those of you not aware toward the beginning of this year we lost our Composer Michael Markie. In the wake of life's craziness, he was effectively forced to step away from the project as he no longer had the time to work with us. Into his place stepped Geoffplaysguitar who you may know did the OST for Viscerafest's second chapter. But whilst I am eternally grateful for Geoff, Markie did far more than make the game's music. Markie was our sound designer, he mixed audio, polished up VA recordings, made the entire game's audioscape, did the music and sound for the cutscenes, and then some. This was by far the more damning aspect of losing him, which is why I am happy to say that HE IS BACK BOIS!!! In the wake of recent events, Markie has been able to hop back on board the project to help us finish up the game's audioscape. As you may have surmised I am overwhelmingly overjoyed regarding this fact, and I'm very excited to finally be able to start making progress on that side of things once again.

In Closing

With Chapter 3 in its cleanup stage, it's safe to say that you'll be seeing much more of it here in the coming months. With that, we may even start showing some gameplay soon here to give you a taste of what the chapter will be like. It's also worth noting in addition to the above a whole host of balancing changes, optimization tweaks, and other more minor stuff has indeed been accomplished as well, but it's all stuff not really worth explaining here.
But that is all for now. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to catch up with us! It's always a pleasure. As always we hope you have a wonderful day and a very happy new year!

[ 2024-01-02 16:17:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Shalom one and all! It has been about a month since Realms Deep and thus as promised we are back with yet another Development Update! First things first though, we dropped a new trailer at Realms Deep! Which you've probably already seen, but in the caseyou've been living under a rock you can check it out right here! [previewyoutube=rcp9s09O9PI;full][/previewyoutube] In addition to the new trailer we also showcased the updated opening cutscene wementioned in our "Birthday Cruisin" Devlog. That of course you can check out right here! [previewyoutube=ds1fY3iJXJo;full][/previewyoutube] And as if that were not enough I've also started doing a series of YouTube shorts in which I'll be breaking down some of the game's mechanics, enemies, weapons, etc... and you can find those in this playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJg0WI2Gczzm-UAa_AhETu7BVErHGkT0l But let's not waste any more time, and jump right into what we have been working on these last few months!!!

Gameplay Updates

The Warhound

A few updates ago we made mention of a whole suite of changes and tweaks being made to Viscerafest'sarsenal and the accompanying reasons as to why said weapons were getting a facelift. But there was one more weapon I wanted to make changes/adjustments to, and that would of course be the game's grenade launcher, The Warhound.
The Warhound was a weapon that originally took a great deal of inspiration from one of my favorite weapons of all time, the Grenade Launcherfrom 1997's original Shadow Warrior. It was an absolute beast of an explosive weapon, with splash damage so stupid you were just as likely to kill yourself with it as you were your foes. And our little spin on it with The Warhound was... underwhelming. Admittedly... I personally feel that in both function and presentation, our rendition of the beast was rather forgettable and often fell to the wayside in the wake of more immediately useful weapons. Because of this, I knew the gun needed an update, but what that update would be was something I hadn't solidified yet. During the process of Chapter 3's development, I also stumbled across another little problem that I had with our arsenal. Viscerafesthas 9 weapons, and whilst functionally they all contribute and play an important role within the game's combat suite, juggling 8 different ammo types in the game's last 3rd honestly felt like slightly too much, I really felt as if we needed to cull one of our ammo types in the name of streamlining the resource management a bit. Thus the first major change I decided The Warhound would need is that it would share ammo with The Pung Cannon, and accompanying that would be a design change to both reflect the new ammo type and to hopefully make for something more visually memorable.
But accompanying this change, I had a truly wonderful and stupid idea... What if I made the Warhound's Clusterbombs functionally behave more closely to sequenced explosions of Rise of the Triads Firebomb?
So functionally the Warhound is now one of Viscerafest'smost powerful weapons, firing a bundle of 3 pung canisters that detonate into a massive cross-shaped sequence of explosions. It's also been bumped up from the 7th to the 8th weapon slot, meaning you'll be getting it after the BBQ Belter in the main campaign now.

Player Movement

Movement is something that I kind of obsess over when it comes to Viscerafest. It's something I'm always trying to improve and fine-tune. This is because, in First Person Shooters, the one thing you do more than shoot is move. Thus if your movement is bad/mediocre, I would personally consider that to be a really big problem. Lots of little tweaks and refinementshave been made to things like player speed, the ease-in/ease-out of the player's motion, the player's friction against the ground, and basically just... all of the important stuff to take note of when finessing your player's movement. But in making these changes there was one major complaint I was also taking aim to address, and that my friends, is the platforming. Personally, I've always considered platforming in Viscerafestto be rather easy, but a lot of folks do not share this sentiment, and there are a number of factors that I think contribute to this. [olist]

- The Jump Arch- The Arch of a jump is effectively the curve the action follows as you leave and eventually head back toward the ground. It's dictated by a number of factors, the force with which you leave the ground, movement speed, the force of gravity, player mass, air friction, etc... Viscerafest's jump arch didn't quite get the level of attention that I think it necessarily needed in order to be fine-tuned for platforming. Thus more time has been spent trying to find the right balance of all the above.

- Bunnyhopping - In Viscerafestrepetitivejumps made in sequence whilst moving in a given direction cause you to build up speed very quickly, a little too quickly in some cases. As a consequence of this, if you were a little too trigger-happy with your bunnyhopping you could very easily see yourself gaining enough speed to grossly overshoot a given jump. And whilst you have the air control necessary to correct a mistake like this, most players aren't particularly movement literate when it comes to fps games, thus they lack the muscle memory to do so consistently. This is an issue somewhat exasperated by how the platforming sections in Viscerafestare designed. Platforms are often small surfaces tightly bunched together in clusters, and because of this, it's very easy to jump straight from one to another in an effortless chain. This effectively causes players to inadvertently bunnyhop and subsequently gain enough speed that a single jump overshoots the platform they were aiming for.

- No Forgiveness - Many games that prominently feature platforming as a core part of their loop typically have mechanics set in place that act as buffers should the player make a mistake. Air control is a great example of this, being able to make minor adjustments to, if not completely change your trajectory mid-jump greatly relieves the burden of faulty decision-making beforehand, and it's one of the reasons why Viscerafest has always had it. But there's one mechanic most games with platforming have that I've only recently been made aware of, and I think it may have helped ease the platforming burden a bit had I both known about and seen it implemented sooner. That mechanic, of course, is coyote time. Coyote time effectively gives a brief window of forgiveness. If say you fall or slip off an edge whether because of negligence or attempting to jump too late, rather than being doomed to your fall you can still jump if you attempt to do so soon enough. [/olist] All of the above are factors we've put under consideration when attempting to address and refine the game's movement. Thus all of the above have been tweaked in order to find that sweet je ne sais quoi between movement for combat and movement for platforming. And with all these changes I think it's an issue we can confidently say has been addressed.

Art Stuff

Hud Faces

Throughout the course of Viscerafest'ssecond and third chapters, various narrative events take place that somewhat alter Caroline's demeanor, as a result, though Caroline's signature grin is always a welcome sight, new expressions have been drawn up to allow Caroline to more adequately express what she's feeling when these moments roll around.

Blood Updates

So for starters, I recently discovered that the sprites we were using for our blood effects were scaled incorrectly. They were way too small, and thus I had to go in across the board and tweak the arts scaling. This realization and its accompanying tweaks also allowed me to cut back on the amount of effects needed to adequately convey a big bloodsplosion when gibbing enemies without having to cut back on the overall feeling of its volume, so that's cool.
But more importantly, there were a few enemies in chapter 3 whose blood effects created visibility problems and this called for the creation of a new smaller blood sprite set along with adjustments to the blood visuals in general. There are also new sounds for blood, little sploshing sounds as the blood trails and puddles hit the ground, along with some improved effects and visuals for when that happens.

Sprite Updates

As with literally every development update, I have to inform you that more improvements have been made to old sprites, textures, and assets to further improve and refine the look of the game.

The Rest

I don't know how to categorize the rest of this stuff so... :P

Voice Acting

With the Script finalized I've been making the rounds with our voice actors, directing and recording the bulk of the remaining dialogue we'll need to round out the game's story. We're not quite finished as of yet, there are a few remaining things we have yet to record, but the end is very much nigh...

Cinematic 6 - Relent

In the wake of us rounding up the VA stuff Viscerafest's6th Cinematic has finally been fully animated, it still needs a big sound pass (something we are not able to accomplish at the moment) but progress is progress dagnabit, and seeing what in my opinion is both one of the most important and exciting cutscenes of the game finally come to life is a real treat.

C1l4 - Remake

Currently, I spend the bulk of my weekdays working on the game's ending and Finale, but I've decided to allocate my weekends to more unimportant side tasks. Because of this, I've been able to pick upprogress on the remake of Viscerafest'sfirst chapter once again. Thus I thought I might share some screenshots of the old version of C1L4 compared to its WIP update. The newer shots are not in engine yet, so they do not feature any fun colorful lighting, but I do feel the improvement to the geometry and texture work speak for themselves. Old - 1
New -1
Old -2
New - 2

The Finale

Well, this has been a pain... As with prior updates very little I can actually say about this one. But the bulk of my time on this front has been consumed by mapping. Currently, as of writing this, I'm working on the final boss arena, and as with the rest of the map it's been a bit of a time sink. Whilst the game's ending level is not particularly elaborate in layout it definitely has some of the largest setpieceareas in the game, and as a consequence yeah... It's been a bit of work... But in other news, progress has also been made on the game's final boss, again not something I can say too much about... other than I think you all will like it. :>

In Closing

That however is all from me for now!!! There have been other things I've been working on as well but it's either stuff I can't talk about or stuff not worth bringing up here. For example, I don't think you guys need to read 30 paragraphs of me explaining why I lowered the Blitzer's health pool from 800 to 750, or buffed the shredders' damage from 20 to 22. I'm sure just mentioning those changes makes you feel as if you are being robbed of some truly riveting reading, but trust me it's not worth your time. Once again though if you read all the way through, or just stopped by to check out the funny pictures I appreciate it! And as always we thank God and you for the wonderful support and encouragement ya'll have lent us throughout the course of the game's development. As much as we enjoy it, development has been a real grind at times, but seeing all the fanart, playthroughs, streams, and kind comments you all have lent us throughout the game's life cycle never ceases to make us smile. As always we hope you have a wonderful day, and as of writing this, I hope you have had a very spooky Halloween!!!

[ 2023-11-01 14:28:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings, cultists, The time has finally come, madness is taking over and Forgive Me Father 2 is available in Early Access! Ten levels await you and the first installment's main character, the Priest, in this lovecraftian comic-like retro-FPS, more will come in Early Access Content Updates! [previewyoutube=bCHddWtpHmg;full][/previewyoutube] Throughout the Early Access period, regular updates are planned to greatly increase the amount of levels, weapons and content, alongside bug fixes and updates from community-based feedback, while the full game will launch in late 2024. If you buy the game during the first week since launch, you will get a special 15% launch discount! And if you want to save even more money, Forgive Me Father 2 is a part of the Franchise Bundle along with its older brother. Whether you own the first game and just want to complete your set with an extra discount, or get both games at the same time - this is the way! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/35903/

[ 2023-10-19 17:00:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone, Realms Deep 2023 Steam event has arrived and that means a lot is happening! You, fans of Viscerafest, will want to know that the game is now discounted by 20%! So if you have not done so already, now is the perfect time to get yourself a copy! If you're not ready yet to help Caroline pursue her one true love, we understand. We're not judging you. But if you are considering doing it in the future, don't forget to wishlist the game so you don't miss any new info and updates! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/ Speaking of news, Viscerafest will be a part of the Realms Deep 2023 streaming show with a new trailer, as is tradition! So tune in to the 3D Realms Twitch Channel this Saturday, September 30, at 11am PT / 8pm CEST - the livestream will have plenty of interesting content for fans of the genre! Besides that, Viscerafest is still a part of the THIS IS MY BOOMSTICK bundle. By getting it, you make additional savings, because there is another 15% bundle discount applied to games you don't own yet - a great opportunity to expand your collection even if you already have Dread Templar in your library! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23337/This_Is_My_Boomstick_Bundle/ And that's not all! We have prepared six different giveaways for you, one for each day of Realms Deep, starting Thursday, September 28. You can participate in every single one of them, all you have to do is follow Fulqrum Publishing on their Twitter (known to some now as "X") and on their Discord. Each of these platforms will host its own giveaway every single day for the duration of Realms Deep, and nobody is stopping you from participating in both!

MORE NEWS FROM REALMS DEEP:

HYPERVIOLENT Content Update #1 is out and the game is discounted by 15% https://store.steampowered.com/app/1409200/HYPERVIOLENT/ Diluvian Ultra Chapter One is out and it's 10% off for one week! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1306970/Diluvian_Ultra/ Forgive Me Father 2 now has a playable DEMO! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2272250/Forgive_Me_Father_2/ Forgive Me Father is having a Daily Deal, meaning it's 50% off + it just launched on consoles! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1590910/Forgive_Me_Father/ Dread Templar is 50% off, that's the highest discount the game has ever had! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1334730/Dread_Templar/

[ 2023-09-28 17:00:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone!!! So I actually started working on writing this update for you guys a few weeks ago, but life's been a bit crazy, more important tasks distracted me, and ultimately the work on this dev update got sidelined in the name of getting actual work done. But alas! I am here now! Here to update you on all the crazy shenanigans we've been up to these last two months!!!

C1L3 - Fragmented Folly

Last time we talked C1L3 was getting ready to hit the big time and I'm happy to report that the dandy fellow is in fact playable and done!
While still retaining its original overall layout, the map has a great deal more going on now. In addition to the aesthetic facelift, a lot of areas have been substantially fleshed out. Agreat example of this being the route you take to get the green key, which now features some fun new obstacles, secrets, a lil bit of platforming, and a fair bit more verticality.


But yes, this was indeed a level I wanted to give a lot of love, and a lot of love it has indeed received.

Pacing Changes

The rate at which enemies and weapons are introduced is getting tweaked a bit. There are a variety of reasons for this which range from difficulty related, to ammo economy adjacent, but to summarize this as quickly as possible... The changes being made on the enemy side of things are primarily done to push enemies the player would want to shoot closer to the early game, as in the current public balance, the first 3 levels of Viscerafestare filled to the brim with enemies you can easily slaughter melee only, and the levels following that are slow to pick up the slack. We want to give the player both more things to shoot, and more reasons to shoot, and the changes to pacing on this front will help with that. In addition to this, a great deal of the early-game fights tend to be over before they even get started. The changes to pacing in terms of enemy reveals will definitely help with this, but we are also increasing the scale of fights and encounters to make them feel more substantial and meaty.
On the front of weapons, the game's arsenal has received a fair few updates that have substantially changed the utility of various guns. The Shredders for example (Assault Rifles) aren't particularly useful against enemies with low health, but they're great against tankier/more dangerous foes, as they can knock enemies into a pain stateeven whilst said enemy is in the middle of attacking you. However, because of this, the Shredders are actually kind of useless until C1L3, as both the Skull-Piercer and the Bunker-Buster, are better equipped to deal with the enemies you're facing before that point. This in combination with several other factors meant it felt necessary to moderately rearrange, where and how you get certain weapons.

Arsenal Tweaks

As stated above the Shredders have received various tweaks. The Shredders now have a momentary stunning effect upon impacting with enemies making them a lot more effective at stun-locking opponents, and because of that, they have a much more substantial role in the combat dance than they've had prior. They are still more ammo efficient than their Pistol counterpart as was mentioned in a prior update. However, they now have a slower time to kill, along with slower projectiles that see them being rather ineffective at medium to long range. Speaking of the Skull-Piercer pistol, I realized quite recently that it had a much lower-resolution sprite than the game's other weapons, and thus, I thought I would update the lil guy.
The max capacities regarding the ammo pools of various weapons have been adjusted, and whilst we are still aiming to maintain Viscerafest's resource management, the increased scale of encounters, and therefore the greater likelihood of missed shots, wasted ammo, etc... means we've found it necessary to make the doling out of ammo *slightly* more forgiving. Projectile Impact Effects have received some more love and thus shooting thingsis a much more flashy affair!


Speaking of effects...

Gibs

You can never have enough gibs! We very recently updated our gibs system and in the time since then, I've been further touching up and refining the physics, quantity, but more importantly... the Variety of gibs!
Rib cages and wiggly intestines have joined the party! One might even be inclined to say the game is now much more of a Viscerafest than it ever was before!

Pickup Rings

A very small aesthetic change that we made, some pickups have little rings around them now. This was done for 2 reasons

• To help visually ground them a little bit more in the 3D space,
• To make them even easier to spot in the heat of combat.

Enemies

There have been yet more updates and changes made on the enemy front. So we should talk about that!

Spawnlings

First... I have some bad news for all you spawn lovers... the lil guy is being cut from the game's enemy roster...
I know I know... I can hear you all sobbing over the fact that you will longer be able to feel the warm embrace of a lil blue slime exploding in your face, but the reason why they're being cut is quite simple. C2L5is being altered as has been mentioned in the past, and the segment spawnlingsprominently featured in will no longer contain them. Outside of a cameo in C2l1 and C2L7, they don't appear anywhere else in the game. Truth be told for narrative reasons there are not a whole lot of places in the game where they can be used, and the few places where they could make an appearance wouldn't see them adding much to the game. With that said, if you are indeed a lover of the bouncy boys, fear not! Because whilst the spawnlings are indeed vacating the premises, a close friend of theirs will be stepping up to the plate...

Lore accurate Grenadiers

So in Viscerafest,there is an enemy known as the grenadiers, and as you may be aware they wieldgrenade launchers, riveting stuff. But what you may not know is that the grenadier is actually host to a parasite.
That's right! That green dome isn't just for looks, it's a completely separate creature from the rest of the grenadiers body! That lil glob is known as a Ratakthul, and despite being parasites they are quite a sophisticated race.
I've really wanted to include the Ratakthuls in game for quite some time but could never really figure out how I wanted to go about doing it. My original idea was that they would function similarly to Duke Nukem's protozoid slimes, but there are several problems related to how grenadiers work that would see that not being a viable option. But with decommissioning of the spawnlings, I saw an opportunity to repurpose their A.I. and thus Viscerafest finally features lore-accurate grenadiers! Upon killing the Scylla host body the Ratakthul parasite will detach itself and attempt to kill you on its own. They are, however, quite weak without a host, featuring a health pool low enough to allow you to pop them out of the air with a single punch. They're more of a minor nuisance type, but certainly, a nuisance to be wary of.

C1L4 - Disposable Danger

The Remake of C1L4 is on hold as more important tasks take center stage. But a decent amount of work has been done in starting the rework, and I have a generally solid idea of what we'll be adding/changing, so I thought I might give you all an overview of what our plans are for the Lil guy. The level's opening is pretty much being entirely redone. The original level opened with the player in a small closet that immediately leads into a massive arena, and whilst that's... fine... it has inevitably led to a lot of newer players door-fighting the level's opening arena.
With the new ending of C1l3, the player finds themselves jumping down a massive garbage shoot, and will now spit them out into C1L4's new opening which features a trash compactor section. Early WIP of opening Trash Compactor
After escaping the compactor the player will be led out to a balcony that hangs over the levels opening arena. Starting the level's opening fight will now see the player jumping down into the arena from above, effectively preventing the player from using the entrance to the arena itself as abusable cover. The route to the green key used to escape the levels opening fight is being changed up a bit, but from here on out the levels flow and progress will be pretty similar to the originals with some key differences.
The pink key routes platforming section in the original was absolutely pathetic. Featuring such heights as the only major obstacle not working properly! And being ever so slightly too claustrophobic, a feature it shares with the storage area, which wouldn't you know it... is also in the pink key section!
This entire pink key route flows awkwardly in general and if may be honest it's one of the reasons C1L4 is my least favorite map of Chapter 1. Whilst conceptually this area will be pretty similar to its current version, I very much plan to address all the above, making the entire section a lot less clunky and sloppy. But finally... we need to talk about the ending...
C1L4's ending has always felt grossly anti-climactic to me. If you think about the map like a song, the bulk of the level has always felt like its first 2 verses, with the lava escape section feeling like a bridge that's supposed to build up to its final epic chorus... a chorus that never comes... because that's where the map stops. I won't spoil what specifically we've got in the works for the new C1L4 finale. But I will say there are some rather fun narrative additions to its ending, and I think you guys will really like what's being added.

The Finale

Viscerafest's Finale has pretty much taken up center stage when it comes to my priorities as of late. And as much as I'd love to talk about and show you guys some of what I've been working on that front, I honestly don't know if there's a corner of the map I could show you that doesn't contain spoilers for the game's ending.
But rest assured, it contains easily some of the screenshot-worthy sections in the whole game, and if all goes well it will be a suitably epic climax to Viscerafest's story... OH YEAH, THE STORY!!!

I HAVE A BRAIN INJURY... MY BRAIN IS INJURED... OW...

SO!!! On top of the finale, I have been combing through the game's script this last month. Doing things like checking for potentially contradictory information, stuff that may just be generally incoherent, proofreading... you know... all the stuff you do when you're writing a story. But truth be told, when it comes to writing for Viscerafest I have grown an antagonistic relationship with my own mind where I feel I can no longer trust my judgment. Viscerafest is just so filled with lore that the game's plot is just... stories within stories within stories...
Because of this, I felt it necessary to drag in some outside feedback from our community to help make sure that the game's plot is even remotely comprehensible. Thankfully it was, meaning I may not in fact be losing my mind. But some adjustments were made in response to some of the suggestions and feedback given by these fine folks, which I am eternally grateful for. With all that said... I thought I might give you guys a... small peek into the madness. As you may know, we plan to add a lorebrary to Viscerafest. A place where you can pour through the lush world of the game in gruesome detail... So I thought I might give you guys a small excerpt from one of the unlockable bits of lore you guys will get to see in the full game. Keep in mind this is also WIP and will likely be tightened up and further refined, but without further ado!!! The Tome of Ra-dal The Tome of Ra-dal is a Lithelekian religious work penned in the early 500's. The book claims to have been authored by the Lithelek Ra-dal, an infamous heretic who led a weeks-long revolt against the priesthood of the Orellio Church of Nodens, in 538, before being decapitated on the step of the church by an unseen assailant. Preface The book opens with an introductory preface that recounts a bizarre meeting Ra-dal had with a stranger late one evening during a personal ceremonial cleansing. The Stranger is described as "An obsidian quadrupedal invertebrate, with a fragmented and distorted torso, robed in tattered black rags, and bearing a face like that of marble or glass." The figure confronts Ra-dal in his residence and asks if "He would like to know that which binds the cosmos and what it hides therein." Ra-dal obliges, and the Stranger demands that the Lithelek write down everything he is told. -

In Closing

Truth be told... there's probably a host of things that have slipped my mind or that I have intentionally left out for the sake of not wasting your time. But regardless! I hope you enjoyed the read! Lots of craziness going on as of late both in life and with development, but it's probably worth noting it will likely be a good few months before you hear from us in a dev log again, but don't worry! That's we'll be at Realms Deep 2023 next month with a brand-new trailer!!!
But until then! We thank you all for your support, praying all is going well for you wonderful folks, and as always... We hope you have a wonderful day! Adios!!!

[ 2023-08-09 13:56:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! That time of the year is finally here, Summer Sale has arrived to Steam and with it come tons of discounts - so don't hesitate and get all the cool games to make the hot summer days more comfortable! Or the other way round, if you are in the southern hemisphere, of course. Viscerafest, of course, is a part of the sale and you can now get it for a 20% lower price. Don't hesitate though, this price won't last forever - the sale ends on July 13! To see the whole list of discounted games by Fulqrum Publishing, follow this link and head to "Discounts". And don't forget that Viscerafest is included in this bundle and the Summer Sale discount gives you the perfect opportunity to complete your collection! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23337/This_Is_My_Boomstick_Bundle/

[ 2023-06-30 13:21:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Howdy!!! It is that time for me to once again update you on... Wait... it was Viscerafest's birthday May 20th... which was like... 20 days ago... Uh... Idk here's a complimentary birthday mime... I guess...
Um... Regardless, it is once again time to update all you wonderful folks regarding the goings-on of Viscerafest's development! From tweaks, changes, and minor additions, to brand-new content, Here is what we've been cooking up as of late!

Bunnyhopping

One particularly obvious hurdle a lot of new players struggle to overcome is wrestling with the game's movement, or more specifically... bunnyhopping. Bunnyhopping is effectively mandatory if you want to have any hope of surviving on the game's harder difficulties, and I think that is in part why Viscerafest has such a fearsome reputation as a brutal game. The muscle memory required to build up and maintain the game's faster speeds just isn't something most average players have baked in. To address this, holding the spacebar to bunnyhop, rather than tapping it, will become the new default. There will still be an option to tap rather than hold in the options menu, and some tweaks will be made to holding in order to make sure the act of doing so isn't as touchy as it is now. But our hope is that this change will ease up the experience for new players, without actually compromising the game's difficulty.

Enemy Stuff

So this last month I've been going through and making a bunch of refinements to our enemy roster. Aesthetically and mechanically sprucing up the gang in a variety of ways, so here we'll quickly go over what's changed, what's been added, and all the goings on with everything that's trying to kill you.

Impact Effects

As of the current public build of Viscerafest enemy projectiles tend to just vanish upon impact with the player or any given surface. BUT NO MORE!!! From sparks, to smoke, and explosive lil poofs, enemy projectiles now go out in a more stylish fashion. They also now feature audio for their impacts and even sounds as they travel through the air.

New and Tweaked Attacks

The Enforcers and Blitzers of Viscerafest's first chapter have some new tricks up their sleeves! Enforcers on top of their rapid-fire flurry now have a precise burst that they shoot with a slower firing rate. Unlike their standard projectile spraying which now lags behind the player, they lead their aim with this shorter burst.
Blitzers in addition to their projectile volley attack now have a very mancubus-style bullet-pair attack that shoots 2 projectiles, one to the left, and the other to the right of the player.
With that said the majority of the game's roster have had their attacks tweaked in a variety of subtle and minor ways. For example, some enemies which prior would shoot fast-moving projectiles now fire slower and easier-to-dodge-projectiles that they lead their aim with. There has also been a slew of more minor tweaks and balancing changes to things like enemy movement speeds, attack frequency, etc...

Chapter 3 Enemies

The road to wrapping up the Chapter 3 enemy roster was a bumpy and experimental one, but the deed is finally done. Whilst there is still work to be done on the enemies themselves, which foes you will be facing in Viscerafest's final chapter have been decided upon and are all indeed very much functional. There are 11 new enemy types introduced in Viscerafest's final chapter, as (save for a handful of cameo appearances) the friendly U.S.C. faces you've known and loved through chapters 1 and 2 will be getting replaced and upstaged by a group of more strange and deadly opponents. Throughout the development of Chapter 3 I was routinely running into the feeling that our new roster was missing a few things, enemies that were originally planned got cut due to obsolescence or story changes, old foes were tweaked and refined, and new members were added to the fold to try to find the right balance of Fodder, Mid, and High-tier threats. Whilst I don't want to show you guys too much yet, I thought I might more properly reveal an enemy you've already seen plenty of.

Behold the Willow Bairn!

She's been featured in the game's main menu art for a long... long time now, and I thought it was time you finally get a taste of what she actually does.
The Willow Bairn is a close-ranged Mid-Tier monster that lets out an AOE concussive blast when in proximity to the player. She's a fast and moderately chunky opponent, being able to weather a good few shotgun blasts with a health pool of 800. She's also a thick-skinned girl, resistant to melee attacks. In addition to her concussive blast attack she also regularly gives birth to children (The Saplings) in the midst of a brawl, and if gibbed she births Quintuplets, all of whom will bear down on you to avenge their mama!

Carcosa's Wrath

Viscerafest's final weapon has undergone a lot more in the way of iteration since we last showed it, both in terms of its visual, and mechanical design. Once again, we're not willing to show it off in action before release. But the gun is in pretty much its final form, and save for some cleanup work, it's ready to hit the runway.

The Opening Cinematic

Back when me and Sara started work on Viscerafest's opening we didn't have much in the way of reference material for Caroline or... much else in the game to be honest. It wasn't until later that we established a more consistent look for our protagonist. But as a consequence, Caroline's appearance in the opening cutscene is very different... not only that, but her appearance tended to change from shot to shot, and I wanted to address this.

Sara had just recently become available to do a little more work again, thus she and I went through the process of updating and re-animating the game's opening cinematic. Some changes are major, some more subtle, but overall I'm very happy with the end result.

Chapter 1 Rework

In case you missed it, I very recently posted a video comparing the old C1L1 to the new one we have in-house! You can check that out here. [previewyoutube=4hK2LbCywQ4;full][/previewyoutube] But since our last update, the new prelude level has been pretty much finished. C1l1 and C1L2 have been getting some more polish and love, and C1L3 is just about ready to start being imported into the engine!

Chapter 3

Viscerafest Chapter 3's final level is almost done! Once it is we'll be moving on to the game's Finale, following which we'll be doing a comprehensive sweep of the game's final chapter, polishing it, cleaning it up, adding fun little details, putting all the story stuff in place, etc... As for what's left after all that, I posted a slightly more comprehensive breakdown of the remaining work in the last update, so be sure to check there if you want more details.

We'll Meet Again...

Thanks for reading! Once again thanks to all the awesome folks in our community, wherever you mayest thou lurk! We hope you have an amazing... nay an awesome day! See you in a month!... or however long it is until our next update... Ciao!

[ 2023-06-12 14:24:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Shalom one and all! It's been over a month since we let you all have a peek at our shenanigans and I figured it was once again time to let you take a gander at the goings-onof Viscerafest'sdevelopment!

Ludicrous Gibs

So back in January, we released the "Booms, Bangs, and Blood" update. So-called because it saw a bevy of changes and updates to Viscerafest's blood, gore, and explosions. But since then, even more, work has gone into all the above. Starting off, I was still finding the game's blood sprites have a tendency to look a little flat. They were lacking what I felt was a necessary amount of visual depth to help them pop out as I felt they should, so I went through and further tweaked both the materials and sprites until I got them to a place I was more satisfied with.
What's more so, Viscerafest'sgibs have also been pretty heavily reworked, and though this comes with a trade-off, overall I think the outcome is pretty nice. For starters, Gibs should no longer present as much of a performance burden as they had in the past. Not that they were super taxing, but the new system allows us to have more Gibs at the cost of fewer frames. The gibs are also very bouncy now! Something that just wasn't tenablewith the old system we had. Gibs also won't get stuck in midair because of things like elevators or moving platforms. The main trade-off for this being that they won't stick around quite as long as they did before. But honestly, with how much more fun they feel now bouncing all over the place, it doesn't feel like that much of a loss.

Explosions

Viscerafest'sexplosion sprites are old... really old... I don't think I've updated them since like... 2020... and I felt it was time to rectify that! So we've got prettier bubblier explosions that much more nicely fit with the aesthetics of the game now.

The Deus Mortis

If you've been following the dev posts up until this point you'll know we've talked about reworking the Deus Mortis. Well, the deed has finally been done! And whilst its balancing still needs to be sorted out, the handsome devil is more than ready for the runway! So quick rundown on how it works one more time!

• Tapping the Fire Button once will fire the gun.
• Tapping the Fire Button a second time whilst the projectiles are still midair will call them back to you.
• Holding the Fire Button until the firing animation finishes will automatically cancel the callback and reload the gun.

[previewyoutube=64ZQ38bUmi8;full][/previewyoutube]

Hud and UI

On a more minor note we've also been making tweaks to the heads-up display and UI, mostly aesthetically oriented stuff. In addition the games standard font... or I guess *fonts* have changed. Originally we were using about 3 different ones, and this was to account for the fact that each font we were using was missing certain characters. Finding an all-inclusive font that gelled nicely with the game aesthetically and that also wasn't missing something as simple as lowercase letters or question marks was a nightmare. But finally, we managed to do it!

More Art Updates

Should probably go without saying at this point, but yes indeed more and more of Viscerafest's art is getting that spit and polish it needs!

Athens

Now look we've been all cute and coy up to this point but we all know that the real reason you're here is to buy that handsome man of yours a wedding ring and you'll be happy to know he's finally gotten a voice!!! Athens is now being played by Ryan Hughes!

Chapter 1 Rework

Work has somewhat slowed on the Chapter 1 rework stuff in light of some hiccups that have seen Chapter 3 stealing a bit more of our time than desired, this is not to say nothing has gotten done however! We've been putting in quite a few loving touches to the spiffed-up chapter 1 levels, a great example of this being characters you hear talking over the intercom will appear via holograms in some of the more socially oriented sections of the station.
Little story touches are being added to help make what happens in the transitions between levels a bit clearer. A great example of that being the opening of C1L2. Formerly the level just started with the elevator wall blown open and Caroline making a snarky remark, but now you not only get to see it happen live, but the victims of this detonation just so happen to be pushing around explosive barrels on a lil cart! Small touches like that are things we're effectively aiming to add throughout the full game, with the aim of adding a bit more life to the levels. The rework for C1L3 is also coming along quite nicely. The basic framework of the redone layout is just about complete, (and whilst this is true of every map we've done so far) it's hard to express just how much the map as a whole is benefitting from the facelift.

Chapter 2 Updates

Oh yeah! Don't think that just because not all of the Chapter 2 levels are being remade doesn't mean they aren't getting some much-needed love too! As I already stated we're working on adding little story touches throughout the whole game, but due to Chapter 2's nightmarish development it didn't get nearly the amount of love I feel it needed. Currently, there's a lot of stuff that's getting visually polished up, and whilst most of it'spretty minor, there are a few areas in Chapter 2 that will be getting pretty heavily updated.

Chapter 3 Updates

But ok ok I hear you... "What's going on with chapter 3?" Headaches to be honest... that's what. Currently, we're working on getting chapter 3's final level ready to import into the game's engine, and we've hit a minor bit of a snag. Without spoiling anything, there are some more elaborate elements present in this map (particularly on the animation front) that have been quite migraine-inducing. Work that I was hoping would only take a few days is now taking a few weeks, which is... less than ideal, and is part of why some of the work on the other stuff has slowed down a bit. This isn't to say it's going bad though! More so that it's just going painfully slow... But the actual content of said level is something I think you're all really going to love, so it'll be worth the effort.

But what's left?

Ok so updates on what we've been working on aside, I think it might be fair to ask what the remaining work that needs to be done before the game's full release can happen actually entails. A sort of... roadmap of what needs to be done if you will... Well! Once chapter 3's levels are complete we'll be moving to work on the game's grand finale following which we'll be going through the whole game but especially chapter 3 and just polishing the ever-loving crap out of the levels themselves. In the midst of this, we'll also be wrapping up on the story stuff, ironing out the cutscenes, and doing the last rounds of VA with our team. Following this, the game's Hubs will be getting reworked, and the game's store/economy will actually start to get properly implemented. With the unlockable cheats and gameplay modifiers getting added, however, we'll also need to go through the whole game and make sure they don't cause the game to buckle under its own weight. This will likely mean we'll need to create a "Free Play Mode" Which will largely cut out all the story content and some of the scripted sequences to make the experience a bit smoother. We'll also be adding the lorebrary and bestiaryduring this period. Following that we'll be moving on to beta testing and likely addressing more minor additions like menu options and such. Along with this will come localization, refinements for gamepads, trying to make the game Steam deckcompatible, etc... And then after all that we'll be moving on to release. How long will this all take? Well, our schedule says 5 months... but if I may be brutally honest I just don't see that happening. Life has not been kind to our time as of late, and keeping on top of everything is becoming more of a pain. So with that said I'm hesitant to pin a date on it because no doubt if I do that a gas line underneath my house will explode, or my computer will erupt into flames, and then we'll get delayed another month.

In conclusion

Once again a special thanks to all the folks who've been supporting us throughout this time. Whether you're a long-standing member of the community, or just a lurker who peaks in every now and again. And a special thank you to all the folks who actually care enough to read these, because I know you're likely in the minority, and I appreciate you. We hope you all have a wonderful day! Audios!

[ 2023-04-24 15:25:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! As the winter is coming to an end and the season of growth and rebirth is upon us, for the first time ever, Steam is celebrating this time of year with a Spring Sale. That means only one thing - discounts, discounts everywhere! From now on until March 23 you can get Viscerafest for 20% off. That itself is already a decent discount, don't you think? But if you want to save even more money, get yourself the whole bundle with Forgive Me Father and Dread Templar, the discount applies there as well! THIS IS MY BOOMSTICK BUNDLE https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23337/This_Is_My_Boomstick_Bundle/

[ 2023-03-16 17:00:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ahoi folks! It's been a bit since our last content update, and internally we're not too sure if there will be another before launch but alot has already changed and we wanted to give you good folks a peak at what we've been up to!

Balancing Changes

Oh boy where to start... pretty much every single enemies health pool and weapons damage/projectile speed in Viscerafest has been completely rebalanced, and a good few of these changes are far from what one might call "subtle tweaks".

Skullpiercer - Shredders

The pistol and assault rifle duo have been butting heads throughout development alot with the pistol usually pulling through as the victor, it being so ammo efficient and all. Alot of players tend to neglect the Shredders and have pretty openly told me so, thus I decided it was time to fix that. The Shredders are now far more ammo efficient than the Skullpiercer, and can more reliably stun lock some of the games chunkier foes, this coming with the caveat that their projectile speed is pretty slow now, which makes them slightly harder to use. But if you want the most bang for your bullet, the Shredders are now the way to go. The Skull Piercer is now effectively a mini railgun. It is much more powerful and is the closest thing the game has to a hitscan weapon. This was done to give the weapon a more pronounced role in the combat space, so whether your in the early, mid, or late game you'll always go back to it. Its basically replacing the old role of the Pung Cannon (but I'll talk about the changes coming to that girl in a bit). The Skull Piercer also uses 10 cells per shot now, and whilst the ammo economy surrounding the Pistol and Shredders has been tweaked to accommodate this you can very easily burn through your ammo very quickly with the lil guy. In short, the pistol is now an easy to use long range power house that burns through ammo whilst the assault rifles are great for stun locking and preserving resources, but are really ineffective at range.

The Bunker Buster - Pung Cannon

Similarly the games shotgun and rocket rifle have also been at each others throats. The Bunker Buster has always been a lil bit lacking and hasn't had enough of a well defined role within the combat space for awhile. The Pung Cannons just more powerful, easy to use, and to make matters worse the games melee attack doesn't cost any ammo and has been just about as powerful as the Bunker Buster for a long while. This is one of the reasons why in the last patch we started implementing some changes to the Bunker Buster, but it seems it wasn't quite enough... and we got some mixed feedback on the changes made to that weapon. So... First of all, the Bunker Buster has been buffed to make it more powerful, its spread tightened to make it easier to reliably one shot lower tier targets, and its projectile speed reduced pushing it toward more of a close-mid range oriented weapon. Whilst we have not removed the weapons splash damage it has been reduced. To counteract the presence of the splash damage however, point blanking an enemy with the Bunker Buster will now deal just short of double the damage. As for the Pung Cannon, priorly its primary usage was in scoring direct hits similar to a railgun, with a fun lil side function where if it hit a surface rather than an enemy it would detonate after a short delay. That secondary function has now become the weapons primary feature, doing much more damage than direct hits. The size of the hitbox on the projectile itself has been reduced to make it easier to more reliably miss enemies, and conversely the splash damage radius of the explosion has been increased to make it easier to hit your target. Taken as a whole the Pung Cannons role is now more about hitting heavier targets and groups of fodder indirectly with splash damage, meaning it requires a bit more skill to use, and functionally no longer conflicts with the Bunker Buster despite being more powerful.

The Deus Mortis

For those who missed it the Deus Mortis (Viscerafest's Quad Shotgun) is getting a massive rework. Whereas prior it was just your standard super-shotgun now you will be able to call your bullets back to you! And paired with the weapons piercing function you can effectively use this to hit enemies multiple times with a single blast! Or just do kewl trickshots... that to... Effectively tapping LMB will fire the the weapon, and tapping LMB again will call the bullets back to you and reload the gun. Holding LMB until the gun reloads will allow you to just fire the weapon normally, and similarly switching weapons will cut off your ability to call the bullets you just fired back. Because of this the weapon is obviously a tad more complicated to use, and as such the game will do more to teach you how to use it. The level it's introduced in (C1L5) will also be almost solely focused on allowing you to get used to the weapon, that way we can ease players into its quirks a bit more effectively.

Melee Resistant Enemies

Awhile ago we added melee resistance to a few enemies as a way to try deincentivise the over abusing of melee attacks some players were committed to. but ultimately the application of this melee resistance was lacking, and in some cases had the opposite effect of what was intended. Because of this melee resistant enemies have been heavily reworked to better achieve the intended goal, and to make their melee resistance more immediately readable. Melee resistant enemies now have purple armor and or skin, upon punching them, a more noticeable *tink* sound plays, with sparks and poofs accompanying a fewer quantity of blood effects. Melee resistant enemies are also no longer stunned by melee attacks meaning you can no longer stun lock them by *slowly* pummeling them to death as they stand by helplessly grunting at you. Conversely there are a few enemies that are now particularly vulnerable to melee attacks. The Drones for example (who were formerly melee resistant) now take extra damage from melee attacks. They do still have their melee counterattack however, so punching them is indeed still a risk.

Troopers

Because of the changes made to the pistol mentioned above it can effectively oneshot all of the games lower tier goons now. This means for the first 2 maps of Viscerafest you'll be exclusively fighting enemies your starting weapon can steamroll, and whilst that's not necessarily a bad thing it does lend to the opening sections of the game to feeling like an utter pushover. So to counter this the Troopers have received a major change. When going to attack you Troopers will now whip out a lil shield to protect themselves with. Unlike the other shielded enemies however they will still be vulnerable to melee attacks in this state, and visually the shield is quite different from say the Drones or the Hellbirds to make this more apparent. So in essence they're effectively functionally the opposite of the other shielded girls and boys, only able to counter your projectiles when they themselves are shooting at you. Other aspects of their behaviors have also been tweaked to compensate for this change, they attack less frequently now, move slower, etc...

Upcoming Changes

How Viscerafest's combat is balanced in general will be changing with the full game as well. There are alot of very brief combat encounters in the current game that lead to an "awe... that's it?" Kinda reaction that I've seen a few players have, and as a result we'll be beefing things up a bit and also using that as an excuse to give the player more in the way of resources. There'll be a few more encounters triggered by events, where say you'll pick up a key and a door will open with enemies charging into the room with you. Additionally there'll be more encounters tied to secrets, and because of this secrets in general will have greater rewards. One example in particular is that in the new version of C1L1 there's a secret at the start of the map that requires you to effectively explore the whole level before you can access it. Finding the secret will repopulate the whole map with a new set of encounters, introducing a new enemy early, and the secret itself will give you a decent amount of ammo along with a powerup to deal with them. Powerups in general will be more present throughout the whole game, both in secrets and out in the open, as opposed to their relatively scarce presence outside of secrets now.

THE GIRLS ARE BACK IN TOWN!!!

Oh yeah... did I mention that for Viscerafest's full release both chapters 1 and 2 will be receiving some new enemy types? I mean yeah if you're on our discord you know that but you're probably not which you should be! But regardless yes, on top of the new enemies coming to chapter 3 the games first 2 chapters will be receiving 2 new enemies. One of which you can see above! This lady in particular is called the assassin, a fast sneaky stinker who can go invisible and will toss disks that project holograms of herself to fake you out!

Tutorials

But wait! There's more!!! Awhile ago we talked about how we were planning to rework Viscerafest's tutorialization, and we gave a list of the changes we were planning to make... BUT I'VE GOT ONE MORE TO ADD TO THAT LIST! The tutorials will be pickups now... In all seriousness the reason for this is quite simple, the way tutorials just abruptly pop up in your face right now with no former warning is admittedly rather annoying. Having them be pickups gives you some form of visual forewarning that "Hey! There's a tutorial coming up!" and the hope is this will help to alleviate some of the frustration caused by them with their current implimentation. As a way to reward players for engaging with tutorials the pickups will also give you a bit of health. So... yeh!

Art Updates

You may have guessed this already based upon the enemies above but Viscerafest's in game art is also getting some love. From HUD elements, to enemies, weapons, etc... The whole suite is getting some artistic spit and polish.

Chapter 1 Rework:

Viscerafest's opening maps are seeing some love as you know, with the first 3 being almost complete. So I thought we might give you a peak at the games new opening map!

Chapter 3

Currently I'm just starting pre-production on the final map of chapter 3, with C3l1-C3l6 being playable and finishable. Once chapter 3 is *content* complete, we'll be going back through and polishing up the chapter as a whole. We've not really been showing off too much of it yet because to be perfectly honest it's just not ready for public viewing. The levels themselves are there and they are playable but they need alot of love and so we're hesitant to show too much just yet, but here's a lil peak!

Once chapter 3 is complete we'll still have the games finale to do as well, and Chromonaut, the lead dev on the game Bitter, is giving us a hand with the final boss. And honestly I can't tell you how hard it is to not spoil what we're working on, I'm immeasurably excited to see everyones reactions to alot of what the games final chapter and ending have in store!

In Closing

That is all for now! If you've read to the end then uh... congratulations? Admittedly there's alot here and I'd understand if someone didn't feel obliged to soak it all in. What's more so there are a few things I actually would've liked to say more about, give you a better idea why some of the decisions we've come to have been made but for the sake of your time and mine, I think I will spare you. Regardless, once again thank you so much for your support! And have a wonderful day!

[ 2023-02-27 16:39:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

We greet you, fans of the most legendary game genre! There is never enough boomer-shooters, and one of the most anticipated retro first-person-shooters has just left Early Access, that being none other than Dread Templar. The full version of the game is a rough trip through hell, on which you'll be constantly interrupted by 20+ types of enemies and 9 bosses. Don't you worry though, for your dearest companions are dual-wielded pistols, shotguns, rocket launchers, katanas (which also can be thrown as a spear) and many more - all of which can be further upgraded in more than 100 ways! So what do you say, are you brave enough to take the trip? During the first week after launch, Dread Templar is 15% off, so there's nothing to wait for, get the game right now! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1334730/Dread_Templar/

Dread Templar - Full Launch Trailer

[previewyoutube=PhcyDAZLQac;full][/previewyoutube]

FORGIVE ME FATHER + VISCERAFEST + DREAD TEMPLAR bundle

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23337/This_Is_My_Boomstick_Bundle/

[ 2023-01-26 18:00:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

So uh... This was just supposed to be a hotfix, but sometimes silly ol me gets carried away... In all seriousness this may actually be bigger than the last update in terms of the scale of what's changed, or at the very least, it easily competes with it. So before we get to the patch notes lets do a quick overview of the headlining changes coming in this update.

A Boofier Shotgun

I made my dissatisfaction with Viscerafest's vanilla feeling Quad Shotgun known in the last update, and that big boi is still WIP when it comes to his slew of updates. But man... I just couldn't shake the feeling my baby the Bunker Buster needed some loving to... and after having played too much Shadow Warrior... and realizing Viscerafest doesn't have anything analagous to a rocket launcher... I did what came naturally... So yeah the Bunker Buster now fires explosive rounds, you can blow up cracked walls now, deal splash damage that can pierce through enemy shields, all the fun quirks that come with wielding a gun that shoots explosives!

Massive Melee Changes

So I've been pretty satisfied with Melee for awhile now, but we've noticed a trend (particularly with inexperienced players) of folks not really understanding the utility and power of the melee attacks. Now apart of this I feel is that the game doesn't do the best of jobs introducing you to them, but another aspect of it is being able to get in and out of close quarters combat without running the risk of being torn to shreds. I won't go into to much detail regarding the changes themselves, the patch notes are below, but suffice it to say we're hoping the tweaks and adjustments made will soften the blow for newcomers.

Completely Reworked Blood

Throughout Viscerafest's development I have been slowly updating and improving the art and assets as we progress, but this last month I took the plunge to finally completely redo Viscerafest's blood, both the sprites and the effects themselves, and personally I am very satisfied with the results.

Prettier Explosions and Weapon Effects

Up until this update bullet impact effects on player bound weapons were pretty simplistic, they were pretty much just single tiny poof sprites that emitted a subtle impact sound, but when I upgraded the Bunker Buster, I very quickly realized that iffy environmental impact effects weren't going to cut anymore. As a consequence almost every weapon in the arsenal now kicks up sparks, smoke poofs, etc... when your projectiles hit something that's not any enemy. But even the effects for hitting enemies have gotten a facelift in lieu of all the fancy new blood stuff. What's more explosions have gotten alot of love, now kicking up firework esque trails, with the smoke properly reacting to the lighting rather than just being a flat additive material, and the fire having a more glowy hot material.

And More...

Look... we could keep going... there are lots of balancing tweaks, effects and sprite updates, crosshair and hitmarker changes, the final boss of chapter 2 has a new attack... etc... But like... the patch notes are just... right there... so go ahead... read em...

Patch Notes

New Features:

• The Bunker Buster now fires explosive rounds.
• The Players projectiles have received fancy impact effects.
• The Final Boss of Chapter 2 has received a new attack.
• The Melee Uppercut now pulls from the Dash Stamina meter, but does not require stamina to be pulled off.
• The Melee Uppercut now has I-Frames along with a stronger forward push.
• The Melee Uppercut now has a charge meter below the crosshair.
• Added Killmarkers.

Tweaks:

• Reworked blood sprites.
• Reworked blood effects.
• New "Blood" inspired Blood trail effects when shooting enemies.
• Both shotguns projectile models have been swapped out for sprite pellets with smoke trails.
• Reworked explosion materials and sprites.
• Reworked explosion effects.
• Various misc sprite updates.
• Various misc texture updates.
• Reworked Weapon pickup sprites.
• Reworked Deus Mortis sprites.
• Reworked Plague Rifle sprites.
• Tweaked scaling of on screen weapon sprites.
• Reworked Weapon crosshairs.
• Reworked Hitmarkers.
• Reworked Melee Crosshair to be more immediately noticable.
• The general Melee range has been moderately buffed.
• The standard Melee attacks cooldowns have been reduced.
• The Melee Uppercuts cooldown time has been increased.
• The Melee Uppercuts windup time has been tweaked to more accurately sync with the windup sound.
• The Melee Uppercut's damage has been buffed.
• The Melee Uppercut now prevents the player from firing weapons when fully charged.
• The Pung Cannon's direct impact damage has been buffed.
• The Pung Cannon's explosive damage has been buffed.
• The Player now starts the game and chapters with 0 armor.
• An extra Armor pickup has been added to the start of C2L1.
• Ammo respawn timings in chapter 2's final boss arena tweaked.
• The Grenadier's HP has been moderately buffed.
• The Nomad's HP has been moderately buffed.
• The Nomad Priest's HP has been nerfed.
• All enemy corpses HP's have been rebalanced.
• Both end chapter Bosses HP's have been rebalanced
• Every Enemy and Bosses aggression, speed, projectile speed, and damage levels have been universally rebalanced across all difficulties.
• Various sounds Volumes have been rebalanced.
• Various improvements and tweaks to all of chapter 2's Ladders.

Bug Fixes:

• Bug with the Halloween skins turning back on after being disabled fixed.
• Bug with Chapter 2's final boss getting stuck fixed.
• Bug with Chapter 2's final boss not moving fixed.
• Bug with Chapter 2's final boss being knocked out of mid phase transition fixed.
• Bug with Chapter 2's final bosses music not playing upon loading a save fixed.
• Bug with Chapter 2's final boss taking excessive damage from explosives has been fixed.
• Fixed missing Trooper Effigy's sprites in C2L4.
• Fixed issue where if the damage taken by the player supercedes the quantity of armor, any effects the armor might have were negated.

[ 2023-01-05 15:00:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone, 2022 is nearing its end and that means one thing - Winter Sales are here! From now on until January 5, you can get Viscerafest with 20% discount. Perfect Christmas present for yourself or your friends, right? To view all our discounted games, head straight to our Steam page. And if you want to save even more money, you may want to check out the bundle Viscerafest is in, since then the particular discount gets even bigger. https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23337/This_Is_My_Boomstick_Bundle/

Merry Christmas!

[ 2022-12-22 18:01:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Merry Christmas to one and all! Also hi! Lead Dev here! And I thought it would be fun as a lil early present to give you guys a sneak peak at some stuff we've been working on for chapter 3 of Viscerafest! Namely I have 3 enemies I figured I'd give you all a small taste of. So to start things off it'd probably be smart for me to give you all a broader taste of what the enemy side of chapter 3 will be like. With the exception of the opening map, (that being C3L1) Chapter 3 will be pretty much starting from square 1 as far as enemies goes. You'll see your favorite lil cultist lads throughout, and maybe even a certain somebody covered in peach fuzz, but all of the U.S.C. kin that you've come to know and love throughout the first 2 chapters will be, at most, making brief cameo appearances. Chapter 3 introduces 12 new enemy types, and today we'll be going over some of the more common... uh... faces? That you can expect to encounter in the games final 3rd. So lets kick things off with a more... "Familiar" lady.

The Adopted Troopers

The Adopted are a common subclass of enemies in chapter 3, they're lifeless pupetted husks who obey the will of the whomever is controlling them. Their bodies tend to be covered in grotesque yellow pustules, and their flesh is often deformed to fit the role set by their new master. The Adopted Troopers in particular are Zetherans who formerly served the U.S.C. that have been claimed. They're a mid tier threat, firing a burst of projectiles that loosely home in on the player, as well as throwing pustules that bounce around and detonate like grenades. However what truly sets apart the Adopted Troopers as a threat is their ability to resurrect. If not gibbed the Former Trooper will bounce right back onto her feet, and she doesn't gib as easily as some of Viscerafest's other enemies. The best way to deal with her is to either point blank her with the Deus Mortis, or to blow her sky high with the Warhound.

The Saplings

Another common subclass of enemies you'll encounter are the Bairns, and as you may have guessed, the sapling belongs to this family of goons. Saplings are one of chapter 3's most common enemy types, and they are also Viscerafest's smallest. The Saplings are speedy little stinkers inspired heavily by the spiders from blood. They're little ankle biters who nip at you whilst you're dealing with bigger more notable threats, and if they get a bite in they can blur your vision, making it hard to see for a brief second. Now when I describe them like that, it may cause you to think to yourself "Oh God almighty please kill me now! Why are they adding annoying little ankle biters to Viscerafest!" But do not be allarmed because they really aren't that bad. If they so much as sneeze near the cloud of a plague rifle blast they die instantly, a single burp from the BBQ Belter gibs them, and the pistol can 1 tap them into the next life, and with the first 2 weapons I mentioned just so much as aiming in their general vascinity will be more than enough to hit them. They are however, quite resistant to melee attacks, so generally if you see one, it's best practice to deal with them at range.

The Birch Bairns

By the end of chapter 3 you'll be pretty intimately familiar with these lads. As you may have guessed by their name and appearance, the Birch Bairns are yet another member of the Bairns family of folk. The Birch Bairns are a common low level threat that is borderline bullet hellish in nature. From their eldritch maws they spam a diagonal spread of 3 projectiles in rapid fire bursts, and... that's pretty much it, but really that's all they need. As far as tactics go, a good o'l bunker buster blast will usually be more than enough to take them down.

Carcosa's Wrath

Now... it's at this point you might be saying... "Noah! You already showed us 3 enemies! What's this doing here?" And "This doesn't look like an enemy at all!" And you'd be right on both fronts, because this isn't an enemy, this is Viscerafest's 9th weapon, "Carcosa's Wrath". Now I'm not going to tell you what it does, quite frankly I want you to find that out for yourself when you play through chapter 3. I will tell you it is not a BFG type weapon, because to be honest with you I really don't care for BFG style weapons. I will also tell you it is a very fun weapon, and a very useful one, but again, beyond that, you'll have to wait til full release to learn more...

So in Conclusion

We'll have some more stuff to show you as we draw closer to chapter 3's release, but I just wanted to give you a small sampling of what's in store. Overall I'm very happy with how Chapter 3's enemy roster has turned out. They're all quite quirky, fun, and interesting, adding a great deal of zest and spice to proceedings in a way former chapters enemy types don't quite, and there are even cooler fellows and ladies we've yet to let you see. As a small aside last update I said we'd be shooting to have an update for the game out this week. That's... not gonna happen... the update is ready but I forgot our publisher was on vacation and unfortunately any updates have to be run past them before they get released. But rest assured once they get back in the office we'll be releasing that stonker ASAP. Regardless we hope you have a great, peaceful, and Merry Christmas, and if we don't see you again before then, a Holly Jolly New Year!

[ 2022-12-21 22:22:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

We greet you, Bounty Hunters! It seems like the game is one of your indie favorites! At least the partial results of 2022 Indie of the Year Awards say so, since Viscerafest got into the TOP 100 thanks to your votes. The second round starts now, let's continue with the voting and get Viscerafest to the actual top! Just click the "vote" button next to Viscerafest on the full Top 100 list - or pick more than one game, nobody's stopping you! Thank you all and have a wonderful holiday!

A Lil Dev update:

Ahoi folks! Lead dev here! and I thought I might take a second to get you up to speed on what's going on with the dev side of things. After the last update, there were a few Lil issues we wanted to iron out with a hotfix, which we expected would be the case. With that said it was meant to come out a lot sooner than it will, and that's for 2 reasons... The first is that my Grandma passed away recently. But before she died me and my father left town to be with her before left to be with the Lord, which inevitably had an impact on development being that we were gone for 2 and a half weeks. The second being that this hotfix... well let's just say it's not a hotfix anymore... At this point, it is a pretty massive and substantial update, but we're aiming to have it out by next week at the latest. Lots of fun stuff coming with it, can't wait for it to come out! As for Chapter 3, C3l1 - C3L4 are in a rough but playable state, with C3L5 on the way to joining them. I'm currently in the pre-production phase of C3L6 as well, and we're in the midst of making plans for the game's finale. All of the art for chapter 3's first cutscene is complete, and the latter ones are coming along nicely. We're still a ways out from release, but it's all starting to come together.
But to wrap things up, I want to thank everyone whose been sticking with us throughout the game's development, as well as to the wonderful folks actually helping us out with it. It's been an... odd... year for me, but one where I think I can comfortably say the Lord has exceedingly blessed me throughout. But whether you've been playing our game, or in the trenches with me working on it, I can't thank you enough. Have a very merry Christmas, and a happy new year! And OH! Also thanks to all the kewl people who make us fanart! Mattowaar:
Backup-Bastian:
Dementialmaiden:

Bluddly_fox:
CosmicRoboAstra:

[ 2022-12-15 11:25:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings everyone, Autumn Sale has just started and Viscerafest is one of the included games. From now until November 29 you can buy the game for 20% off. Also don't forget that Viscerafest is a part of This Is My Boomstick Bundle along with Forgive Me Father and Dread Templar, meaning you can combine the discounts. That's a hell of a bargain, isn't it? https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23337/This_Is_My_Boomstick_Bundle/ Many more games from Fulqrum Publishing, such as fresh titles Lords and Villeins, Forgive Me Father or The Pegasus Expedition, are discounted as well, you can find all of them on our sale page.

[ 2022-11-22 18:00:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ahoi ladies and lads it is that spooky time of the year once again! Or it was when I wrote this originally... we've been dealing with a cavalcade of annoying and hard-to-pin-down problems that held up this release, hence we have a fashionably late holiday update for you! The folks of your favorite enemy faction have dressed up for the season of spooks! But that is not all...
This update brings with it a host of changes tweaks and additions, most notably of course being Geoffrey Day's OST for Viscerafest chapter 2. We've been working with him on it over the last several months and are incredibly excited that we've finally gotten to put it all in the game! What's more, if you scroll down a bit we've provided links to all the cool places you can go and listen to the OST all on its own! So if ya just wanna support ol' Geoff, or acquire some nifty tunes to listen to on your iPod nano's and mp3 players, scroll down to the bottom of the page for all of those! We do have a few more notable things to update you on, but we know the vast majority of you have likely clicked on this thread for the patch notes, so let's get to em. New Features:

• Chapter 2's OST
• Enemy, Prop, and menu reskins for the holiday
• New Seasonal options tab under Graphics
• Bunny-Hopping now cuts all incoming damage in half (stacks with armor)
• New option to disable the Bunny-Hopping's damage resistance effect available in hud options
• Enemies can now damage/kill each other and destroy things in the environment
• Enemy projectiles now reflect off of shields

Tweaks:

• Improved Menu U.I.
• Improved Menu Art
• Various sprite and texture updates
• Various lighting tweaks across most maps
• Swapped out the doors in the opening room of C2L1
• Extra ammo pickups have been added in most maps
• The spawn rate of certain ammo types in chapter 2's final boss arena has been tweaked
• The spawn rate of stun barrels in the final boss arena has been reduced
• Removed a few save beacons to curve chapter 2's overabundance of them
• Enemies now make a more significant effort to evade each other's line of sight
• The enemy-type version of chapter 2's first bosses' health pool has been moderately increased
• The first boss of chapter 2 now maneuvers as intended
• The first boss of chapter 2's line of sight attack's windup sound's volume has been increased
• The firing rate of chapter 2's final bosses' standard projectiles has been reduced during the first phase
• The firing rate of chapter 2's final bosses' standard projectiles have been increased during the second and third phase
• The damage of chapter 2's final bosses' napalm rockets has been reduced
• The speed of chapter 2's final bosses' homing missiles has been reduced
• The Health pool of chapter 2's final bosses has been slightly increased
• The Warhounds explosion effects have been tweaked
• The BBQ Belters flames now better track the on-screen weapon
• The BBQ Belters flame effects tweaked
• Player's step height has been reworked which should make for a yet smoother movement experience

Fixes:

• Fixed C2L3 doors missing collision
• Fixed a C2L4 elevator Door interact being misplaced upon opening
• Fixed an unresponsive enemy in C2L6
• Fixed broken textures/materials in C2L7
• Fixed transparency issue relating to sky boxes
• Fixed the first boss of chapter 2's line of sight attack's detonation using the incorrect sound
• Fixed controller rebinding issues
• Fixed several bugs related to hud customization
• Fixed minor scaling issues and prefab non-conforming ammo pickups in various maps
• Fixed several bugs with the hud's ammo counter
• Fixed bug where stalker projectiles would not detonate properly once their timer was up
• Fixed an audio bug triggering the war hounds explosions to cause framerate hitching
• Fixed bug where stunning the first boss mid-LOS attack would cause particle effect to stick around while the attack was not active
• Fixed various bugs with the final boss of chapter 2
• Fixed Dashes I-Frames not working on spawnlings

Going Forward:

So in our last Lil update, we mentioned that this would likely be the last major update Viscerafest gets until full release, and that was no lie, but that's not to say there won't be any updates going forward. Most of what we do from here on out will just be significantly smaller in scale, bug fixes, minor tweaks and touchups, that sort of thing. But we do have one major change planned that will likely sneak its way into an update prior to release...

A Weapon is Changing:

Now with Viscerafest's arsenal, we've striven to make sure everything has a role and a place in the combat space, and I'd say we've succeeded at that. However... I've never really liked that the game has 2 relatively standard shotguns... Now functionally the Bunker Buster and Deus Mortis are indeed distinct in the role they play in combat. The Bunker Buster is your nice all-rounder, a workhorse in the combat space, and the Deus Mortis a wonderful 1 shot damage dumper great for dealing with tanks and crowds. But at the end of the day, they are both shotguns, that both fire a spread of normal projectiles, and that's not good enough for me... As a result, the Dues Mortis is changing. We've planned to make the Deus Mortis not only have its shots pierce through enemies regardless of how many it hits, but you will also be able to call the projectiles back to your current location. This will allow you to effectively hit enemies more than once with the same projectiles, or even do fun trick shots because... why not? With this, the Deus Mortis will also be getting a new look, as you can see here!
Now when will this be added to the game? Don't know. We'll be adding it as soon as we get the all-clear that there are no major bugs in this update, but when it will be added to the public version of the game is hard to say. Regardless, we hope you enjoy the new music, the new update, and your holiday as a whole! Stay safe, have fun, and a wonderful day to boot!

OST Links:

Buy OST on Bandcamp: https://geoffplaysguitar.bandcamp.com/album/viscerafest-chapter-2-original-game-soundtrack Listen on Spotify: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/geoffplaysguitar/viscerafest-chapter-2-original-game-soundtrack Listen on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/geoffplaysguitar/sets/viscerafest-chapter-2-original-game-soundtrack Listen on Youtube: https://youtu.be/20nzO4BmJO0

[ 2022-11-02 15:09:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings everyone! We are so happy to announce that the Fulqrum Publisher Sale just started and Viscerafest is a part of it with an amazing discount! ALL of Fulqrum Publishing's games are discounted by up to 90% for an entire week! The sale ends on October 27. Besides, we have just launched a brand new game into Early Access, that being The Pegasus Expedition. If you have not checked it out yet, now is the perfect time! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1521070/The_Pegasus_Expedition/ Enjoy the sale, buy as many games as possible while they're discounted, play The Pegasus Expedition and don't forget to follow us on our Social Media so you never miss any important info!

[ 2022-10-20 17:17:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone, As fans of Viscerafest, alias FPS lovers, have you ever tried GRAVEN? If not, now is the perfect time, since the game has received a second Content Update that adds new quests, a region, weapons and even a boss! To check out the whole changelog, follow this link: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1371690/view/3326493366179455544 TRAILER: [previewyoutube=F-jG0Ic1OcQ;full][/previewyoutube] GRAVEN: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1371690/GRAVEN/

[ 2022-09-12 14:06:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ahoi! Lead dev here! And I've got something a touch out of the ordinary to talk about... So Viscerafest, as I'm sure you are all well aware, is a WIP game, and as a consequence, there's a lotwe have yet to do. Beyond missing content, we're talking known bugs, half and un-implemented features, stuff that's old and needs to be updated, etc... So I wanted to make a post to help give you guys a glimpse at some of what will be changing between now, the games full release, and potentially post release.

TUTORIALS:

Naturally teaching players how to play a game is very important and if I may be honest I think Viscerafest's current tutorial level does not do a good enough job of introducing the basics to new players. So we'll be revising both the intro level itself and how tutorials are handled to make the player's abilities easier to comprehend. We'll also be providing visual examples through said tutorials of the game being played to help newcomers better understand what they should be aiming for.

CHAPTER 1:

Viscerafest's first chapter is... old... the first versions of the chapter 1 maps were created in 2016 and whilst they've been updated a lot over the years they're currently getting completely remade behind the scenes. The layouts will be pretty similar but there will be minor additions, new areas, altered secrets (Hi pagb666 teehee...) tweaked elements of the overall layout, and of course, they will be much more handsome devils with updated geometry and texture work.

The Great Divide Maps:

So for those of you who don't know "The Great Divide" is a plane in the Viscerafest lore that binds the differing realms together. It's that void space with the bloo balls and white architecture. Yeah, all of those maps (which there are currently only 2 of in the EA) are getting remade. Specifically "C1L6 - Wayward Watchers" and "C2L5 - Ceremonial Sacrilege". C1L6 is as stated prior, pretty old and a couple of its segments need to be touched up, as well as its visuals updated. But C2L5's *current* version was... rushed... and as a result, it's a bit of a rough map to play particularly if you struggle with the game's movement. Various tweaks will be made to help mitigate the frustrating elements, introduce some of its more unique mechanics in a gentler way, helping the map play more smoothly and of course, look nicer.

Le Hub:

In a similar vein to the chapter 1 maps, the hub is old, it's a bit empty, a bit ugly, and in general needs a facelift. A lot of its planned features were never going to be present until full release anyways and as a consequence, it being remade was pretty much planned from the moment it was added to the game.

Lighting:

So here's a weird one, ambient lighting tends to look very flat when it's not broken up by dynamic light sources, and it can be a big issue in maps like C2L4. As shown below in areas where there is lots of one color (or similar colors) the flat lighting causes things to visually blend together. The way we hope to address this is by basically doing what the original doom did. In dos doom, things that are further from the player are darker, which helps to create a sense of visual depth that we hope to loosely functionally replicate. We'll also be doing a second lighting pass on a bunch of the maps which we hope should help to alleviate this as well.

Gotta Go Fast:

I don't want to elaborate too much on what we're doing for this one just yet as it's nothing is set in stone. But in essence, we want to provide more incentives for players to engage with the already existing systems in the way that we intend them to. Giving things like bunnyhopping more advantages than just purely going fast and making you harder to hit, so that players (particularly ones who play more cautiously) have more reasons to take advantage of them.

Overall Balancing Changes:

There are a fair few issues I personally have with the game's current balancing. For starters, I feel the ramp-up in difficulty is a pinch too extreme, so we'll be aiming to level that playing field a bit. Secondly, the pacing of enemy reveals primarily in the early game will be getting sped up a pinch, as the first two levels can be melee only'd with ease. And finally, the difficulties, in general, will be getting reigned in a bit.Nightmare will be going from an intentionally unbalanced mess to something a bit more playable and consistent, and the easier difficulties will be getting a bit more love and restructuring as it seems that's where most players will be spending their time.

The Ammo Situation:

Viscerafest's balancing when it comes to ammo is quite obnoxiously meticulous, with the intent being that players are forced to think about what they use before they use it. Viscerafest is not a game about spraying and praying, it's about pushing the resource management and enemy prioritization side of the retro shooter subgenre to its logical extreme, this then, of course, is tied in with the game's focus on aggression and close quarters bruiser combat with the necessity of melee having to be factored into ammo balancing. Because of this, we will pretty much always expect the "Why is there no ammo?" complaint to be a common one amongst players who don't understand what the game is going for, picked a difficulty they can't handle, or who shoot at NPC's with the Quad Shotgun not understanding why that is a bad idea. We've had this argument many times, and our stance on the matter is not changing. *However* we are going to be making a slight balancing shift going forward. Ammo will be getting slightly more abundant, not by much, but in general, we plan to make things *slightly* more forgiving. But part of addressing this issue will also be dealt with in the tutorial changes. I feel a part of the issue is we've just done a poor job communicating some aspects of this part of the game to players, and that in making the utility of melee and the intentions of the games core clearer, this alone will help to alleviate some of the complaints on this front. With all that said, the changes to the balancing itself will largely be as follows.

• Ammo in the open will be *slightly* more abundant
• Ammo in secrets less so

We actually don't balance Viscerafest around secrets anyways, when playing myself I actually never get them. I don't think it's fair to expect players to find something blatantly out of the way, so they're treated more as a light reward for being vigilant. But it's quite easy to overstock on ammo if you know where they all are due to their accumulative nature, which is something I've never liked. So in that, we'll be shifting the scales a bit.

Step Height Jank:

So as of writing, this has already been addressed in our dev builds, it's just not been pushed to the public ones yet. Step height in games effectively detects the height of a surface an object is moving to and whether or not when it hits that surface it will climb up atop it, or stop against it like the object has hit a wall. This is why the player for example is capable of climbing upstairs without needing to jump. Up until now, we've been using unity's default systems for this, and it's caused some janky awkwardness, particularly with objects that are just high enough that the step height is kinda unsure of what to do. With the tweaks we've made, movement around scenarios like this feels much more fluid, we may refine it more, but where we have this stuff internally is already a massive step up from where it was prior.

Boss Jank:

Both of Viscerafest's major bosses currently have some light jank to them that I don't care for. Things like the Banshee's spinning laser attack clipping through the pillars, her AOE sigil attacks spawning in midair/lava, or just the way Mortice moves and or occasionally gets stuck on level geometry... just lots of little edges that could do with some smoothing out and refining.

Enemies Sliding:

Enemies in Viscerafest have hard-coded states during which they are supposed to stay absolutely still and not move. Like, say if an enemy is winding up for an attack, or if they get stunned. Sometimes they, however, they don't... and it can occasionally lead to things like thunderbirds just homing in on you and getting a cheap hit (and often kill) in. This is a bug and we're currently working to address it.

The Pung Cannon:

The Pung Cannon's hit detection at close range seems iffy... sometimes projectiles will just fly straight through enemies which is... not ideal... it's very rare but it's also incredibly annoying when it happens. Once again a bug we're looking to address.

Explosive Inconsistencies:

Hit detection on explosives is kinda borked sometimes. Sometimes explosions will clip through walls and damage you or enemies, and sometimes they'll think the tiniest ledge is a brick wall in the way of an enemy, robbing you of a kill or damage you clearly should have gotten/dealt. This one is much harder to address but it is something we are aware of and want to fix.

Enemy Interactions:

Currently, enemy projectiles can only hurt the player, and will just discharge into anything else having no impact. For me, it leads to them feeling jankily disconnected from the game world in a way that I don't care for, so we'll be aiming to address that. The plan is to allow enemies to do damage to each other (within reason) and damage or destroy props in the environment. Depending on how this plays out we may exclude barrels for... uh... obvious reasons. But ultimately we won't know how it will play until we try it.

And Probably More:

What's mentioned above makes up a great deal of what we consider to be some of the most important things that we need to address. However, naturally, being that this is game development there are likely more that will crop up, and some that we've not listed here for one reason or another. We should have a new patch coming out likely within the next month that will aim to address some of the issues that have been reported with the most recent public build, as well as one or two of the smaller things mentioned here. More than likely, however, the bulk of this stuff will be addressed down the road. We'll be aiming to give you updates and sneak peeks as we move forward, but note that after this next patch things will likely get a bit quieter around these parts us as we put our noses to the grindstone. If you'd like to stay up to date on all things Viscerafest, or just hang out with us and the community we've got a nice lil discord you can join here: https://discord.gg/E2pUkxe And a twitter you can follow here: https://twitter.com/Awesreek As always we thank you for your support! And we hope you have a wonderful day!

[ 2022-09-02 15:00:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ahoi folks! Lead dev here! And today we have one stonker of an update cooked up for you! Featuring much-requested features such as subtitles, Anti-Aliasing options, Hud Customization, an alternate heads-up display, and more! Now it's worth noting a lot of this stuff is very very very new and as a consequence there may be some rough edges. In particular, there's some more refinement of various elements I would like to refine with the priorly mentioned alternate HUD. So just keep in my mind you may run into some hiccups, and if you do please let us know so we can take care of them ASAP. But we know what you're here for... SO ONTO THE PATCH NOTES! New Features:

• Melee attacks now drop armor pickups.
• Hud customization options.
• Retro/Centered hud.
• Keybinds to disable and enable Hud.
• Weapon position and scaling options.
• Options to tweak weapon auto swapping behaviors and priorities.
• Anti-Aliasing and options to enable/disable it.
• Various Audio visual options to help enhance the awareness of players.
• Subtitles.
• Quit to Desktop button added in the pause menu.
• A new message from Gianni!

Tweaks:

• Chapter 2 has received a second art pass.
• All levels have received various minor and major tweaks, balancing changes, and additions.
• Various sprite and asset updates.
• Most of the environmental props breaking effects have been improved.
• Melee attacks now have more notable impact effects for both the environment and enemies.
• Uppercut has been removed from standard RMB tapping.
• Dash icon on hud now darkens whilst dash is recharging.
• Pistol has received a very minor damage buff.
• Pistol shots now consume 3 Cells instead of 2.
• Pung cannons explosion buffed.
• Tweaked the animations and timing of stun states on low-mid tier enemies to be more consistent.
• Tweaked the animations and timing of stun states on high-tier enemies to be more consistent and useful.
• Hitscanning enemy's aim delay has been rebalanced.
• Several Projectile enemies now have a delayed aim.
• Rebalanced the first boss of chapter 2's aggression levels.
• Nomads have received a minor damage and aggression buff.
• Nomad priests have received minor aggression and projectile speed buffs.
• Enforcers' health nerfed.
• Enforcers and Grenadiers now have melee resistance.
• Enemies with melee resistances now have an alternate sound and impact effect to make their resistances more apparent.
• Changed weapon wheels default binding to R.

Fixes:

• A few acid related fixes
• Fixed a bug where enemies could phase through a door in C2L6.
• Aim delay system has received various tweaks and fixes.
• Various tweaks to improve performance.
• A few Linux-related bug fixes.
• Fixes related to loading save profiles.
• Controller bug fixes.
• More stuff we probably forgot because we've been working on this patch forever...

But Wait... Hold on... We're not done just yet... So Viscerafest has one more major content update we'll be pushing prior to release, and after that, we'll mostly just be sticking our noses to the grindstone wrapping up... well... lots of stuff... Realistically we believe the game's full release will likely be around the Summer/Fall of 2023, though obviously, I'm not making any promises. With that said a lot inside of Viscerafest is going to change between now and then. Likely in September, I will be aiming to release a brief summation of what our plans (ignoring new content) for the game will be. A list of known issues, tweaks to the design, and just general updates to pre-existing content that we hope will give you a vision of how the final game will differ from what you can currently play. I was hoping to include that in this update, but holy crap will that post be a beast in and of itself. Regardless, we hope you enjoy this update, and we cannot wait for you all to see what's in store! Thank you all for supporting us and playing our game! And we shall see you again *soon*

[ 2022-08-18 15:09:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, everyone! Viscerafest is a part of Steam Summer Sale! You can now get the game for 20% off! You don't want to miss this chance! The sale ends on July 7. To check out all of our discounts, follow the link to our sale page. Viscerafest is also a part of the following bundle, check it out below and buy the game for even higher discount! The additional discount applies in full even if you already own some of the items in it! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23337/This_Is_My_Boomstick_Bundle/

[ 2022-06-23 17:07:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, everyone! [table] [tr] [th]
[/th] [th]
[/th] [/tr] [/table] Steam Next Fest is now live! From now until June 20, you have the opportunity to try free demos of The Pegasus Expedition and Diluvian Ultra! We would be really happy if you decided to play our DEMOs and perhaps add them to your wishlist so you knew about everything that moves around the games! Thank you and enjoy the gameplay! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1306970/Diluvian_Ultra/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1521070/The_Pegasus_Expedition/

[ 2022-06-13 16:08:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, slayers, There is something very important we need to tell you. As you know, one of the most outstanding features of Viscerafest is its soundtrack. Until recently, it had been worked on by Michael Markie. Over the course of this past year he has been working with 3DR on music, sound and level design, for several of their upcoming titles, and he'll soon be getting a full time job at a different studio as a full time level designer. As a consequence, whilst he will still be a part of the project, he will just be less involved, taking on a more advisory role. The reins of the OST will now be taken on by Geoffrey Day! Check out the video he made about joining Viscerafest along with his conversation with Noah aka Awesreek, the lead developer of the game. [previewyoutube=llp6yRoEciI;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2022-06-09 13:35:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ahoi folks Lead dev here! And it has been approximately one year since Viscerafest launched into early access! So it would seem to be our birthday of sorts and with that, I thought it might be fun to give you guys a Lil peek into what's going on behind the scenes right now! For starters, chapter 3 has effectively begun production, with C3L1 currently in the works and C3L2 in pre-production.
We have a brand new suite of 11 enemy types brewed up for the game's final chapter (because I hate myself) and we'll be showing off those lil stinkers in the coming months.
We have the concept art for the final bosses complete as well as their general mechanics pinned down. Additionally, we have a new cutscene in the works which will appear toward the late middle chunk of the chapter.
Now we don't want to showcase too much of that stuff just yet as its a bit early so we're only giving you a small taste of what's in store on that front. However, there are more immediately pressing things regarding currently available content that we can talk about a bit more liberally. For starters, tutorials! Everybody's favorite part of every game. In all seriousness, one of the bigger struggles we've been facing internally is how to communicate vital pieces of information to the player. There are alot core design decisions players need to be aware of going in. Because of what kind of a game Viscerafest is a lot of players have false preconceived notions of how the game is supposed to play, even among some positive reviews, it's pretty clear a portion of our audience doesn't entirely understand what the game is trying to do so we've been re-evaluating how we communicate alot of that stuff. So when exactly this stuff will be added to the game is hard to explicitly outline but here is generally what our plans are.

• The entire first map is going to be remade and restructured with certain mechanics requiring mandatory use for progression purposes, things like melee, using the dashes I-Frames, etc...
• Tutorials will now contain video footage showcasing the ideas, concepts, and mechanics involved with what they are referring to

Next up, melee! Melee is in general receivingsome tweaks. As far as some more subtle changes go there will be a bit more feedback when it comes to the impact of melee. Whether it be punching walls or enemies.
On a more substantial front, we have 2 major changes coming. For starters, the uppercut has now been removed from standard RMB tapping. Prior if you didn't charge your punch, and instead just spammed the melee button you'd do a 3 punch combo, with the final punch being the uppercut which did double damage but had a longer cooldown. Now, tapping the melee button will only do standard left hook right hook punching, with the uppercut being exclusively accessiblevia charging your punch. The second major change, (and what I'm sure will be everyone's favorite) Punching living enemies will now cause them to drop armor pickups. Armor reduces all damage taken by 50% regardless of how much of it you have, so now there's a bit more reward for actually charging in to make those jabs beyond the hefty damage you'll bedealing
The next uh... "MAJOR-ish?" patch is scheduled for July, and with it will come a few other substantial tweaks and additions, so! SPEED ROUND TIME!

• Chapter 2 is receivinga second art pass with improved texture work to make everything pop a bit more.
• We plan to add some more HUD customization options! including the ability to turn individual hud elements off, and alternate hud, weapon scaling and placement, etc...
• Some new options and settings including Antialiasing,
• and some general quality of life stuff.

So uh yeah... lots and lots of stuff in the works, none of this is to even mention that in the background chapter 1 will be getting a complete facelift. But when that will be finished is up for debate, might even be post-launch. Regardless thank you all for your support so far! And please have a wonderful day!

[ 2022-05-20 17:00:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Aighty! So we have a lot to talk about with this coming update but I wanted to kick things off on a slightly more fun note. If you follow us on social media (which if you don't you totally should) this won't be anything new to you, however, I know not everyone does. But last week we unveiled a small teaser for Viscerafest's final chapter via its Lil promo image, and we thought we might give you guys who may have missed it a peak!
Development on the game's final chapter is kicking off now and as time rolls on we'll be giving you more Lil insider peaks here and there. But it's time to focus on the here and now because we've got a patch to get to! And boy is it a doozy...

The "I May Have Gone A Bit Too Far In Some Places" Patch

So over the course of time since Viscerafest chapter 2 was released I've had the chance to sit down and observe some folks run through the new content. Hearing their thoughts, watching them play, and just generally taking mental notes as I evaluate what needs to be fixed tweaked, or change. Over the course of me doing this, it ultimately brought to light a fact I'd had a hunch on but was not fully sure about. That of course being Viscerafest chapter 2 was just a bit too hard. You see the way the game was supposed to be paced as follows. Each chapter would escalate throughout the course of its run time, getting harder and harder throughout until it ended, as one would expect. But when the chapter after rolls around the idea was the chapter would open by scaling things back to about the midway point of the prior chapter. This was going to be done for 2 reasons.

• Give players a bit of breathing room in the hopes of preventing the experience from becoming exhausting.
• Prevent the game's consistent escalation from reaching a critical mass where it becomes so torturously hard partway through that nothing after that point could surpass it outside of being unrelentingly cruel.

So in essence, C2l1 was supposed to be as hard as C1l4, which it is very much not, and as a consequence, the consistent escalation seen thereafter impacts the rest of the chapter resulting in the game getting a bit harder a Lil faster than I intended. As a result, this patch's aim is to scale things back to where they were supposed to be as well as address various other balancing and gameplay-related issues. Now it's worth noting, not every inch of every level has been altered, some fights and encounters have remained the same, but for the most part, a fair chunk of the levels encounters have been completely reworked and the chapter's pacing as a whole has been changed for what I believe to be the better. Tbh this is an issue I can't fully go into here. Most players are just reading this to get to the patch notes, it's not really the time or place for a deep design discussion. So if any of the changes or tweaks leave you feeling perplexed or worried, please feel free to post your thoughts in the steam forums, OR more preferably hop over to our discord! Which I will be including in a link below. But enough talk! Here are your patch notes!

Patch 0.9.1.0

Tweaks:

• Stalkers HP nerfed
• Stalkers homing projectiles now have looser homing
• Arachnospud's HP nerfed
• Arachnospud's homing projectiles now have looser homing
• Nomad's hitscan attack damage output tweaked
• Nomad Priest's speed buffed
• Nomad Priests' aim nerfed
• Hellbird's speed nerfed on harder difficulties
• Hellbirds will now be vulnerable for longer after they attack
• Spawnlings will now wait longer between jumps
• Mecha scientists now wait longer to begin attacking
• Chapter 1 final bosses projectile spew damage nerfed
• Chapter 2 final bosses homing missiles now have looser homing
• Enemy and item placement tweaked in C1l3 and C1l4
• Enemy and item placement tweaked across all chapter 2 levels
• C2L6's level geometry tweaked to allow enemies free access to other parts of the level
• Warhound's initial blast radius slightly reduced

Fixes:

• Fixed bug where Chapter 2's final boss would shoot one last cheeky projectile between phases
• Fixed level/teleport transitions breaking due to fixed fades
• Fixed bug that allowed the chapter 1 boss to be damageable via melee during its intro
• Fixed train outdoor ambient sections that were playing indoor sounds
• Fixed platform in C2L5 infinitely looping sounds

Discord: https://discord.gg/E2pUkxe

[ 2022-04-08 14:19:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings Bounty Hunters, It is always a joyous occasion when a retro shooter is released, wouldn't you agree? And today is just such a day - Forgive Me Father has left Early Access! Check out the full launch trailer: [previewyoutube=XDLHEVNLxz4;full][/previewyoutube] You can read all the details and info about the new content in the announcement and for the first week, you can enjoy a 15% discount. Furthermore, fans of Viscerafest may be eligible for further discount if purchased through the This Is My Boomstick bundle. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1590910/Forgive_Me_Father/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23337/This_Is_My_Boomstick_Bundle/

[ 2022-04-07 17:02:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, Bounty Hunters, Works on exterminating the bugs are still going on! You can check the progress below.

Full changelog:

• Elder Banshee will no longer be defenseless whilst under attack from the player
• Elder Banshee now has damage flashing
• Fixed bug where Eldritch walker powerup caused enemies attacked during its use to not attack the player after its expiration
• Tweaked boss and mecha scientists rockets blast radius
• Fixed level titlecards not appearing
• Fixed level Fade in

Don't forget to hit our Discord and Steam discussions to give us any feedback you may have!

[ 2022-03-31 13:04:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, Bounty Hunters, Chapter 2 of Viscerafest has been out for a while now! Few minor bugs were fixed and you should now be able to maximally enjoy the update.

Tweaks:

• Controllers can now navigate the loadout menu
• Can now use the back button on the controller to exit the level settings screen in a hub slipgate rather than needing to hit the button on the UI
• C2 U.S.C. key doors now marked with locks
• Minor resource balancing tweaks in various Chapter 2 levels
• Tweaked Puzzle room battles enemy placements on easier difficulties in C2L2
• Tweaked C2L5 Shoot switch puzzle
• Tweaked C2L5 escape encounter
• Changed the triggers for C2L6's bunny line
• Added a touch of cover atop the train in C2L6
• Some extra save beacons in C2L6 and C2L7 after/before particularly brutal encounters
• C2L6's and C2L7's pacing, item, and enemy placements tweaked to make them slightly less relentless
• Shoot switch holding barrel in C2L7 now has a subtle light to it to make it more eye-catching
• The standard enemy type version of Chapter 2's first bosses health nerfed from 7000 to 5000
• Final boss of Chapter 2 was a little too easy so some minor balancing changes have been made to toughen him up just a bit
• Spawnlings, Warhounds, and Drones explosion radius shrunk
• Various explosion visuals now better match explosions size
• Stalker projectiles now have a limited lifetime and will self destruct after a brief period
• Hellbirds movement speed on easier difficulties nerfed
• Enforcer projectile speed nerfed
• Blitzer projectile speed nerfed
• Enemy corpses now subtly flash to indicate you can gib them
• Player can now pass through sacrifices
• Game will now autosave after cutscenes
• Pressing E after dying will almost instantly start the loading process rather than having to wait for the counter
• Tweaked railings to mitigate step height issue

Fixes:

• Fixed profile issue where despite having beaten Chapter 1 players were unable to access Chapter 2
• Fixed various save issues tied to the timing of specific triggered events
• Fixed issue with the Chapter 1 boss where if killed whilst doing the AOE attack the summoning circles wouldn't disappear
• Fixed weird selection bug with the push platforms in C2L2
• Fixed a soft lock-in C2L2 caused by a door being unintentionally closable
• Fixed C2L3's Fortune Cookie
• Fixed a soft lock-in C2L4 caused by the switches around the puzzle elevators the base for if you fall down not working
• Fixed a navmesh issue that caused enemies to walk through glass in C2L4
• Fixed the game autosaving in the middle of the first boss fight of Chapter 2
• Fixed platforms in C2L5 breaking after loading a save
• Fixed pillar platforms in C2L5 infinitely looping audio
• Fixed dialogue in C2L5 replaying if using the elevator again upon loading a save
• Fixed saves breaking in the train station segment of C2L5
• Fixed C2L3 and C2L7's secret armor not triggering the secret on pickup
• Fixed bug that caused stun barrels to do way to much damage to the final boss of chapter 2
• Fixed issue where punching the final boss of Chapter 2 whilst he was stunned would cause the player's weapons to vanish
• Fixed bug where push platforms became unusable after loading a save
• Fixed explosions not properly pushing the player like they should
• Fixed bug where some explosions would deal double damage to the player
• Fixed Spawnlings death sound not playing
• Fixed items gravitate component ignoring cracked walls
• Fixed issue where the player was unable to lock onto the first boss
• Fixed bug where if you entered a level without the last weapon you had equipped in your inventory, your weapons wouldn't work properly

Known issue, will be fixed very soon: Banshee remains idle whilst being attacked Don't forget to let us know how's your progress so far! Join our Discord server, we can have a talk there!

[ 2022-03-30 14:08:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ok so, we just recently released chapter 2, and some bugs slipped through the cracks. Now this isn't out of the ordinary, every game is plagued with thousands of bugs and only so many can really be stamped out, especially when you're on a tight deadline. We rely on our testers to find issues, and when you've got a small pool of people playing it can sometimes be hard to find issues. With that said, Some major issues slipped through the cracks, including 2 known major save bugs, and an elevator that really doesn't like us. That sucks, and it's been miserable seeing this crap happen especially when getting to just this point has been so much of a nightmare and we thought we'd crossed all our T's. we're currently hammering away at these issues right now and we will be aiming to have a patch out within the week. We're terribly sorry this happened, and we're trying to work quickly to rectify it, but fixing this stuff does take time, and rushing to fix it will probably only make it worse. We wish all of you the best, thank you for supporting us so far, if you find any bugs please report them, supplying as much info and potentially footage as possible, it always helps.

[ 2022-03-25 19:15:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

How are you doin', Bounty Hunters? The next episode of Caroline's hunt for THE bounty is finally here. We proudly introduce Chapter 2 of Viscerafest, raising the stakes in the story to a whole new level and bringing more areas, more weapons, more carnage, definitely more viscera and maybe even more fest than ever before! And wait until you meet Hampter! For your viewing pleasure, we have prepared a short trailer, and we are looking forward to hearing how you like the new content! [previewyoutube=VfzJKiQVqWU;full][/previewyoutube] Want more detailed overview of what this content update brings? Check out the full changelog!

New Content:

• The entirety of Chapter 2 and its hub containing 7 levels
• 8 new enemy types
• 2 new weapons
• You can now customize your loadout when replaying levels
• Hampter

Tweaks:

• Updated logo
• Revised difficulty descriptions
• Various enemy, weapon, and UI sprite reworks
• Icons for saving, and no save zones
• Death has gotten some extra flare with new sounds and visuals along with a counter to tally your demise
• Tweaked Chapter 1 ammo placements
• Tweaked Item placements in Chapter 1 secrets to prevent players from being able to overstock on resources, completely negating the need to think tactically about how resources are used
• Nerfed shotguns because with fixed piercing they were overpowered
• Tweaked Quad Shotgun encounter in C1L5
• Enemy placements on Nightmare have been nerfed
• Tweaked Thunderbirds charge to be more consistent across all difficulties
• Buffed Blitzers projectile speed
• Zetheran projectile speed nerfed
• 8 new sets of difficulty names
• Stalker Death effects tweaked
• Moved the tutorial options
• Gibbed enemies will no longer Re-Gib upon loading a save to help with performance
• Blood now despawns overtime to help with performance in some of the more taxing maps
• When replaying levels from the hub, the player's health is automatically set to 100
• Keys are now themed after the doors of the location that they are used on

Drone Reworks:

The enemy type known as the drone is a support unit that is invulnerable whilst not attacking, firing an incredibly fast and damaging projectile. Players would regularly cheese/abuse this enemy when in isolation. Various other factors saw this enemy being a little uninspiring to encounter, so we've made modifications to its behavior to address the above.

• When punched, the drone enters an alternate stun state where it drops a stunning field that slows the player and drains their health
• Drones now take reduced damage from melee attacks
• Explosives now pass through Drone shields
• A new weapon has been introduced to directly counter Shielded enemies like the Drones
• Drones now drop a custom armor pickup upon death rather than the standard shard

Fixes:

• Fixed shotguns projectile piercing
• Made minor fix to a single shot in the Chapter 1 end cutscene
• Fixed issue where certain interactions caused the players weapons to vanish
• Fixed issue where pressing Escape would interact with pause menu buttons
• Stalker Homing Projectile impact effects fixed
• General Optimization
• Various save fixes

Let us know how you enjoy the game and keep us informed about any bugs or issues you encounter. You know the way, just leave a review or start a discussion on Steam or join our Discord server.

[ 2022-03-24 14:03:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey there, Bounty Hunters, Many of you have already finished the first chapter of Viscerafest and probably have been wondering what will happen next. Boy, do we have some good news for you! Tomorrow, on March 23, 2022, you will get an epic opportunity to take a sneak peek into the new Chapter, since the streamer Jared Bair and the developer of Viscerafest will be streaming the new content live together! The broadcast will take place on Jared Bair's Twitch channel and will start on 9AM PST / 5PM CET. Viscerafest content update (including Chapter 2) will be released very soon, so stay tuned, follow us on our social media and join our Discord server!

[ 2022-03-22 15:27:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ahoi! Lead dev here and it's uh... It's been a minute. We've been hard at work on chapter 2 and we were hoping to have it out for you guys by the beginning of February. It's quite clearly a bit past the beginning of February though... so as you might assume there's been a few setbacks. Back in December, we released a Lil update showcasing the first level of Viscerafest's second chapter, but prior to that, we were originally going to have another content update. Quite clearly that didn't happen and a lotof that just has to do with us underestimating the scope of what we were trying to implement, that being the games modifier/store system. For the time being that has been shelved, but our push to get that ready kinda set us back a Lil bit.
Shortly following the release of the chapter 2 teaser the file sharing service known as Unity Collab that our team had been using up until that point crapped out on me. I lost connection to the project altogether for a period of about a week, meaning effectively I couldn't get any work done. We did manage to fix the issue but that quite obviously set us back even more.
This all in turn meant that whilst we were supposed to have Viscerafest chapter 2 content complete by the 31st of December... that didn't end up happening until the 26th of January. We are currently on clean-up duty, our beta testing teams are running through chapter 2 and positively destroying it so we can make sure things are as stable as they can be by launch. Or they were before our lead programmer Elijah caught Covid effectively preventing us from being able to fix issues and make new builds for testing.
So yeah... we're sort of in a limbo of uncertainty right now as far as when *exactly* chapter 2 will be done. We are pretty close to having the second chapter in a releasable state and our new plan until Elijah got sick was to release the content update near the end of February/beginning of March, but it is looking like we may quite possibly have to push that back just a bit more.
We are sorry things are taking so long. It's been a very frustrating experience for all of us as of late. But I can indeed confirm Viscerafest Chapter 2 is coming out in the nebulous period of soon, and I can also say that despite the troubles we've been facing internally, it is pretty awesome. Currently,Viscerafest is on sale, being 15% off. If you haven't done so yet and would like to nab the game at a discounted price then feel free to do so. I want to end by saying thank you to all of the wonderful folks who've been supporting us throughout the game's development. Whether it be through kind words, fan art, or just buying the game, we really can't thank you all enough for the love you've given us. That is all for now! I hope you guys have a wonderful day.

[ 2022-02-16 13:49:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings, Bounty Hunters! We know very well how badly love hurts - but why should you be the one hurting? So this Valentine's Day, and for one week afterwards, we want to make it easier for you to bring the pain: Viscerafest is 15% OFF until February 21st. But that's not all! Misery loves company, so...

• Forgive Me Father just released a new content update and is 20% OFF!
• Dread Templar is 15% OFF!
• Hedon Bloodrite released a new add-on, and the base game is 10% OFF!
• Still not enough to turn that frown upside down? Check out either the This Is My Boomstick bundle or the IndieDB Players Choice - Best FPS bundle and get an additional 15% discount on any of these amazing old school shooters you don't own yet!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23337/This_Is_My_Boomstick_Bundle/?snr=1_5_9__403 https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/24463/IndieDB_Players_Choice__Best_FPS/?snr=1_5_9__403 And yeah, of course, you can enjoy these offers even if you are happily in love. Sure, be like that. We're not stopping you. steamsad

[ 2022-02-14 18:00:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings Bounty Hunters! The seasons are changing, the Year of the Ox has ended, and the Year of the Tiger has arrived. And we are celebrating this occasion with the Lunar New Year Sale! If you've been waiting for a chance to grab Viscerafest at great price, wait no more - it is now at 15% off, with the possibility of even higher discount if purchased through the This is my Boomstick bundle - the additional discount applies in full even if you already own some of the games in it! These incredible offers are only valid for another day however, until February 3rd - so don't miss your chance and grab the game now! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/ You should also check out the full list of discounted titles by 1C Entertainment. And once you've played the game, please, give use feedback in form of a Steam review, in the discussions or come chat to our Discord server. It is very much appreciated and helps us make the game even better for our fans!

[ 2022-02-02 17:12:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings Bounty Hunters! The holiday season is here once again, and that can mean only one thing for all PC gamers: Steam Winter Sale is here! If you've been waiting for a chance to grab Viscerafest at a lower price, wait no more - it is now at 15% off, with the possibility of even higher discount if purchased through the This is my Boomstick bundle - the additional discount applies in full even if you already own some of the games in it! These incredible offers are valid now through January 5th, so don't miss your chance and grab the game! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/ You should also check out the full list of discounted titles by 1C Entertainment. And once you've played the game, please, give use feedback in form of a Steam review, in the discussions or come chat to our Discord server. It is very much appreciated and helps us make the game even better for our fans!

[ 2021-12-22 19:00:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ahoi folks! Lead dev here! Viscerafest Chapter 2 is only a few months away, as a matter of fact, we're currently working on the chapter's final level. With that said it's been a while since we launched chapter 1, and we figured you all might want a little more to play. As a result, we've chosen to release the second chapter's first level a bit early to help tide you over until its release. We can't wait for you to see what's in store, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy this little taste. [previewyoutube=aCFclAWnt7I;full][/previewyoutube] Here are your patch notes: New Features:

• The first level of Chapter 2
• A new enemy type, the Arachnospud/Gorouge
• A new weapon, the Warhound

Tweaks:

• Player side sprites (weapons, body, etc...) all touched up/reworked
• Skully/Skully Barrel sprites improved
• Updated Scientist sprites
• Updated UI sprites
• Plague Rifles damage radius nerfed
• Enforcers Projectile speed nerfed
• Performance improvements
• Improvements to loading times
• More safe profile saving/loading/creation

Fixes:

• Plague rifle gas no longer goes through walls
• Fixed various sounds that wouldn't play/were missing
• Water splash sounds no longer layer

We also wanted to thank everyone who voted for us in the Indie of the Year 2021 Awards. Thanks to you, Viscerafest made it to the Top 100 and we are now in the finals! With so many excellent indie games being released, this is a huge honor for us. And if you believe the game deserves to be among the fabled Top 10 and want to give us the best Christmas present ever, please go vote for Viscerafest in the Released - First Person Shooter category on the voting page! This is one of the best ways to show your appreciation for the game and help us out. But we appreciate any other type of feedback just as much - be it a review written here on Steam, a post in our discussions or coming to our Discord server. Your participation energizes us and all your suggestions and feedback really, really help us out in making the best game that we can for you, so don't be shy!

[ 2021-12-15 14:09:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings bounty hunters! We have been hard at work and the new Content Update release is just around the corner, but we are so excited about the new area and all the carnage you will bring to it, that we just had to give you a small sample of what's to come... steamhappy
We also wanted to thank everyone who voted for us in the Indie of the Year 2021 Awards. Thanks to you, Viscerafest made it into the Top100 and we are now in the finals!
With so many excellent indie games being released, this is truly an honor. And if you believe the game deserves to be among the fabled Top10 and want to give us the best Christmas present ever, please go vote for Viscerafest in the Released - First Person Shooter category on the voting page!


We welcome any type of feedback, so please, feel free to leave us a review right here on Steam, a post in our discussions or come to our Discord server. Your participation energizes us and all your suggestions and feedback really, really help us out in making the best game that we can for you, so don't be shy!

[ 2021-12-13 17:01:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings Bounty Hunters, The most elusive of bounties, the 2021 Indie of the Year Award, has just been posted and we urgently need your help to hunt it down - if you like the game, give it your vote! The process is very simple, you do not even need to sign up or log in - just go to our game's IndieDB page and click on the button under "VOTE FOR THIS GAME" and you will help us to rank in the top100 Indie games of 2021! You have until the 10th of December, when the voting will be closed and we will see if we made it to the Top100 best indie games of the year.
This is one of the best ways to show your appreciation for the game and help us out. But we welcome any other type of feedback just as much - be it a review written here on Steam, a post in our discussions or coming to our Discord server. Your participation energizes us and all your suggestions and feedback really, really help us out in making the best game that we can for you, so don't be shy!

[ 2021-12-02 16:06:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Bounty Hunters! It's finally happening. The long-awaited Steam Autumn Sale has started, meaning it's the highest time for you to grab our game for a great price. Purchase the game now while the sale lasts! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/ But the deals don't just end here! Viscerafest is also, for a limited time only, a part of the "This Is My Boomstick" bundle. If you wish to buy Viscerafest, Forgive Me Father and Dread Templar, you can get an extra discount this way - or just complete your set if you already own one of the games, and get the discount anyway! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23337/This_Is_My_Boomstick_Bundle/ You can also check out the full list of discounted titles by 1C Entertainment.

[ 2021-11-24 18:06:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings Bounty Hunters! Viscerafest is back again with another hotfix adressing the few problems that appeared after the 0.9.0.7 update! We also want to thank all of our fans for your continued support and feedback that you provide us with in the Steam Forums. You make us help the game as good as possible and we value your help immensely! Read the full changelog below:

Changelog:

• Fixed issue with boss where dying to its AOE attack prevented you from respawning
• Fixed abusing quickswapping causing crashing
• Fixed issue where dying to the C1L7 subways prevented you from respawning
• Fixed issue where settings wouldn't save across sessions if you change them in the main menu
• Fixed issue with resolution settings being overridden on restart
• Tweaked C1l4's opening encounter on nightmare
• Tweaked C1l7's plague rifle encounter

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/

[ 2021-10-29 15:09:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings bounty hunters! Steam Halloween Sale is here and we have prepared offers that are hard to pass! First of all, from now until 1st of November, you can grab Viscerafest with 15% discount! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/ In case you'd want even more retro action, then "This Is My Boomstick" Bundle is the right choice for you! This bundle is a great choice for any fan of retro FPS as it contains our three latest retro shooters - Viscerafest, Dread Templar and Forgive Me Father! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23337/This_Is_My_Boomstick_Bundle/

[ 2021-10-28 17:01:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ahoi folks! Lead dev here, and we're back with our biggest update yet! Coming in with a host of new features and fixes, from controller support and new mechanics to better facilitate playing with one, to various substantial tweaks and changes to help polish up the first boss! We've also been working on stamping out a slew of saving-related issues, so you should find things a bit more stable on that side as well. One thing to note with the controller support is that what we've effectively done is closer to laying the foundations rather than being anything close to finalized. We still want to and have yet to add things like gyro support but rest assured we do indeed plan to, but if you're running the game through steam it's very likely you've already been using that feature if it appeals to you. On that note, however, we should provide a quick disclaimer regarding the Switch Pro Controller support. In the setup menus for the controller side of things is a Lil question mark that'll help folks confused with how to set up their specific pads for the game, if you're using a Switch Pro Controller, you will absolutely want to consult this. How you will be required to set up the Pro Controller changes on whether or not you are using steam, so please be sure to pay attention to that. On a final note before you view the cavalcade of chaos that is the patch notes, I'd like to apologize to everyone who's been waiting for this update. We wanted this update out much sooner than it came, but unfortunately, the slew of new features and bugs we had to tackle ended up being more of an undertaking than we'd originally anticipated. We have another really cool lil update coming later this year, but in the meantime, we hope you enjoy the slew of changes and additions coming with this one. Read the full changelog below:

New Features:

• Controller Support
• Lock on targeting
• Weapon Wheel
• Previously held weapon bind
• Sticky Aim

Tweaks:

• General performance improvements
• Players air control moderately slowed to make shifting direction midair less touchy
• Melee jabs damage buffed from 45 to 50
• Melee uppercuts damage buffed from 90 to 100
• Skull Piercer's damage buffed from 30 to 35
• Bunker Buster now has a faster firing rate
• Bunker Buster sound and animation tweaked to account for new firing rate
• Pung Cannon now has a slower firing rate
• Pung Cannon's animation tweaked to account for new firing rate
• Shredders now have a faster firing rate
• Shredders damage buffed from 12 to 14
• Cells ammo pool increased from 100 to 125
• Reduced wait to fire time when swapping weapons
• Added stability checks for saving
• Troopers health buffed from 35-40
• Thunderbirds health buffed from 70-75
• Enforcers projectile speed reduced
• Enforcers spray duration decreased across all difficulties
• Enforcers health buffed from 100 to 105
• Watchers attack range decreased
• Watchers speed whilst in players line of sight reduced
• End encounter of C1L3 tweaked
• C1L4 ammo placements tweaked
• C1L5 encounters tweaked
• Reworked Caroline hud sprites
• Changed visuals of highlighted and disabled UI buttons
• Quicksave button in the load menu is now greyed out when there is no save to load
• Decal corpses gibs trajectories/blood effects tweaked
• When setting is active Gibs shrink when despawning rather than just pop out of existence
• Tweaked C1L7 ammo placements
• Extra C1L7 save beacon in puzzle room
• Thunderbird Hellrooms laser maze is more visually dynamic displaying how close to shifting the lasers are
• Bosses pustule attack sounds fixed
• Bosses pustule attacks visuals/behaviors tweaked/fixed
• Bosses design visually reworked
• Bosses AOE attack visuals tweaked
• Bosses AOE attacks behaviors tweaked/fixed
• Bosses Turrets sprites reworked
• Bosses turrets now ricochet player projectiles away from them to make it clearer you cannot destroy them
• Bosses windups for pustule and scream attacks now made longer
• Bosses windup for scream attack now more apparent
• Bosses health pool reduced across all difficulties
• Boss attacks that did not have windup sounds prior currently have placeholder ones
• Reduced the amount of ammo given prior to the boss fight in the re-stock room

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where weapon firing rate was tied to framerate
• Fixed a bug where Set Yoth would pop to altar
• Fixed save bug in C1L7
• Fixed Bosses stun state overriding attack animations
• Fixed Bosses Turrets windup animation
• Fixed Boss alarm end sequence
• Fixed bug where player could walk through the Prelude's broken elevator doors
• Fixed a bug where camera shake would stack so much the player would have an out of body experience
• Fixed a minor legs clipping issue
• Fixed issue where the game would not save progress if you quit out during a score screen
• Fixed C1L3 headless decal corpse
• Fixed performance issue tied to Gib despawning

Get Viscerafest right now:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/

[ 2021-10-20 13:59:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ahoy folks! Lead dev here! For a while now weve been showing stuff off on our social media outlets regarding future content, and if youd like to stay up to date with how things are going, we would highly recommend you follow us there. However, for all those who have been missing out, we wanted to give you guys a taste of whats to come. At the end of Viscerafest Chapter 1, Caroline haphazardly destroyed the U.S.C.s quickly cobbled together Grabbag station and made a last-minute escape to earth via slipgate. Chapter 2 picks up where 1 left, dropping you into a U.S.C. facility in the middle of post-apocalyptic Japan. Little of humanity remains as the earth is now ruled by an amphibious race known as the Deep Ones, who are largely ambivalent to the U.S.C.s presence. Mortice is now bolting to the aid of Cromune, and Caroline is hot on his tail.





Chapter 2 introduces a slew of new enemy types into the fray, all of whom are a lot meaner than the quaint lads you met in Chapter 1. The first of faces youll meet is the Gorouge, or as we like to call him, the Arachnospud. A chonky slab of meat who spams bursts of loosely seeking missiles, and is a nightmare to deal with in open spaces.
The next youll meet on your journey is the Nomads, members of a local cult known as the children of Baphomet, theyll be the first of Viscerafests hitscanners, sporting a shotgun, and tossing Molotov cocktails that can set a space ablaze.
In a similar vein, the next lad youll come across is the Nomads priest, a flying occultic nightmare that leads its shots with projectiles that deal damage over time, as well as tossing an obscenely fast explosive bolt.
We of course dont want to give everything away which is why well be stopping here. But rest assured, theres some really cool stuff were overwhelmingly excited for you to see, and we have to hold ourselves back from spoiling it for you. Chapter 2 is turning out to be so much more awesome than Chapter 1 was, especially on the side of the narrative. We currently do not have any concrete release date set for the Chapter 2, but we are working hard and aiming for winter release window. So on that note, we thought we might leave you with these concept pieces, as a small teaser of the chaos to come. Thank you for all your love, support, and feedback, you guys are the best, and we can't wait for you to see what's in store.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/

[ 2021-10-12 14:24:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings everyone! Steam Next Fest is now live! From now until October 7th, you have the opportunity to try free demos of Forgive Me Father, Lovecraft's Untold Stories 2, HYPERVIOLENT or Reverie Knights Tactics. As loyal fans of old-school shooters, don't forget to check out Forgive Me Father and HYPERVIOLENT (or the other two demos we have available), and of course in case you enjoyed the demo, add the games to your wishlist so that you won't miss any updates and news about them! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1590910/Forgive_Me_Father https://store.steampowered.com/app/1401400/Lovecrafts_Untold_Stories_2 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1409200/HYPERVIOLENT https://store.steampowered.com/app/1399690/Reverie_Knights_Tactics

[ 2021-10-01 17:42:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Realms Deep 2021 is just around the corner and to celebrate the event, Realms Deep Steam Sale is now running! From now until Monday, August 16th, you can buy some of the presented games and other related titles with an awesome discount. For example you can now grab GRAVEN with a 15% discount, WRATH: Aeon of Ruin with 25% discount, Lovecraft's Untold Stories with 75% discount or Viscerafest with 20% discount! Don't forget to tune in for the Realms Deep 2021 livestream and check out new trailers, announcements and much more! Friday - Sunday, August 13-15 2021 Live show airing August 14 10:00 AM PT https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/

[ 2021-08-12 17:01:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings heroes, adventurers, mercenaries and anyone else who reads this! 1C Entertainment is happy to announce that we will be participating in the Realms Deep 2021 event! The event will start on Friday 13th and end on Sunday 15th, with a live show on Saturday, August 14th. The event will also be accompanied by a Steam Sale so be sure to come check it out and grab games such as GRAVEN, Viscerafest or WRATH with an awesome discount! Come join the livestream and check out new trailers, announcements and much more! Friday - Sunday, August 13-15 2021 Live show airing August 14 10:00 AM PT https://realmsdeep.game

[ 2021-08-11 15:16:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello bounty hunters! We are reporting back with another Viscerafest update! This patch brings in various fixes related to saving, general gameplay and weapons along with a number of general changes and improvements such as the option to turn off Caroline's one-liners. We also want to thank all of our fans for your continued support and feedback that you provide us with in the Steam Forums. You make us help the game as good as possible and we value your help immensely! Read the full changelog below:

Bug Fixes:

• Various saving fixes
• Fixed bug where boss sequence would not trigger
• Fixes related to weapon swapping
• Fixed being able to pickup C1L7's yellow key through glass
• Fixed projectiles not properly reorienting upon impact with drone
• Fixed geometry oversights in the prelude
• Fixed Hub Tutorial not being affected by disabling tutorials in the options menu

Changes:

• Option to disable combat one liners
• Made nightmare a bit harder (lel)
• Tweaked max ammo capacity's for various weapons
• Various sprite tweaks
• Drones drop armor pickups on death
• Drones damage buffed
• Added shotgun pickups to C1L5 and C1L7
• Boosted Infinite Ammo powerups timer from 15 to 25 seconds

[ 2021-07-01 14:01:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Steam Summer Sale is here again and we have prepared great discounts for all of our titles - you can now grab Ancestors Legacy, Deep Sky Derelicts, Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, WRATH: Aeon of Ruin or our brand new Arena FPS Viscerafest and many other titles with discounts up to 90%! Check out the full 1C Entertainment catalogue here: https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/1CEntertainment/#browse

[ 2021-06-24 16:51:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Steam Next Fest is in full swing and until June 22nd, you have the chance to play a free demo of our retro FPS Dread Templar!

Dread Templar

Dread Templar is a fast-paced retro FPS that combines 90s classic shooter elements with modern skill-based FPS controls. You are a Dread Templar who entered Hell seeking revenge. But in order to get it, you have to fight your way through the dark realm! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1334730/Dread_Templar/

You can also check out other participating titles that have free demos available right now:

Kapital: Sparks of Revolution

Kapital: Sparks of Revolution is a hybrid of city-builder and society management game. You play as a new mayor of the city that was recently destroyed by war. Your goal is to restore the city to former glory by managing limited resources, resolving social conflicts and overcoming crisis situations. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1399700/Kapital_Sparks_of_Revolution/

Terrain of Magical Expertise

TOME Terrain of Magical Expertise is a game about a game! Take on the role of a White-Hat Hacker, battling your way through a turn-based RPG adventure with hundreds of unique enemies, doing anything it takes to achieve victory in the Campaign of Champions! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1543430/Terrain_of_Magical_Expertise/

[ 2021-06-17 13:28:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello bounty hunters! We are happy to bring you the very first update for Viscerafest bearing the version number 0.9.0.5! In this update we added some new features such as the Assist options or the ability to remove DoT from green acid by dashing and also bring in a plethora of tweaks and fixes. This update also brings in small changes to the save system, which means that all saves from the previous version will be missing the weapons you have already picked up! All of your stats will remain, but we recommend starting a new save so that everything works correctly.

New Features:

• Assist options added
• When you're being burnt by green acid you can dash to remove the damage over time effect.
• Added skip function to the stat display at the end of a level. Press your assigned interact key and it'll skip the stat display animation

Tweaks:

• Scientist, Trooper, Thunder Bird, Enforcer, Grenadier, Blitzer and Watcher sprites updated
• Liquid damages rebalanced
• Pillars during boss fight lowered to prevent players from using them as cover
• Further elaboration in dash tutorial
• More Save Beacon placements in C1L7 Evanescent Evacuation
• Watcher's nerfed
• Ladder tweaks(edited)
• Projectiles swapped from particles to models to improve performance and fix visibility issues at lower framerates
• Enemy windups adjusted to be more noticeable

Bugfixes:

• Issue where you are unable to move related to keybinds (while also being unable to bind your keybinds) should be resolved
• Locker softlock fixed - you can now open the lockers from the inside, should you find yourself locked inside one
• C1 Boss softlock related to dying on certain attacks fixed
• L7 toilets fixed
• L7 trains deathbox tweaked to prevent occasions where you would die while behind one of the trains
• L7 saving softlock resolved
• L7 texture fixes
• Pistol starting works as expected when loading your boss autosave
• Fixed inconsistencies with screenshots loading improperly
• Fixed loading saves when selecting a profile
• Elevator doors in L4 fixed (when spamming the elevator button on the inside you could break the open/close sequence which could lead to a possible softlock)
• Elevator doors in Prelude fixed (when traveling back down the elevator the doors would fail to close)
• Elevator switch buttons in intro fixed (when using the elevator the buttons on the top and bottom of the elevator would break)
• Re-added the unbind instructions on the input screen that was disabled mistakenly
• Fixed issue with objective panel occasionally disappearing
• One of L6 dialogue lines fixed
• Fixed boss tutorial panel graphics
• Ratakathul explosions don't go through walls anymore
• One acid pool in L5 & L4 did not hurt you, this has been fixed
• Door in L4 that you couldn't open did not let you interact with it now allows you to play the cannot open sound
• L6 softlock fixed when saving before a sequence finishes
• File creation bug when selecting a different profile while the game is loading a different profile fixed
• L7 Stalkers not spawning in on Nightmare
• L5 Blitzer spawn outside bathroom fixed
• Typo fix
• FOV resetting on level start and death

[ 2021-06-02 13:01:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings traveler! Today we have exceptional news to share with you - GRAVEN is available in Steam Early Access right NOW! That's right, you can go get the game straight away and start your journey as a Priest on a mission ordained by The Creator: root out the evils corrupting not just the Order, but creation itself. [previewyoutube=_UBWaTDvtug;full][/previewyoutube] Early Access includes new quests in Cruxfirth, and multiple updates throughout the year will add additional areas, quests, enemies, and hidden secrets. Further down the line, the Priest shall no longer roam alone: GRAVEN will add split-screen co-op and online play for up to four players. So wait no more and grab GRAVEN right now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1371690/GRAVEN/

[ 2021-05-26 17:02:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings everyone! 1C Entertainment is launching a brand new project called 1C Champions! The purpose of this project is to offer members of our community the opportunity to participate in the early development of our games, that are currently being developed and supplying us with your feedback regarding these titles. In addition to being able to preview our titles in advance, the most active members of this program can look forward to receiving fabulous rewards as a compensation for their hard work! If you are interested in joining this project, join our Discord server and check out the #1c-champions channel for further instructions on how to join this program.

[ 2021-05-23 19:47:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings bounty hunters! The time to fight through the hordes of Cromune's minions and claim the bounty on his head is here - we are excited to announce that Viscerafest is now available in Steam Early Access! [previewyoutube=swMkqeWB8Ns;full][/previewyoutube] The Early Access version includes an introductory prelude level, the games main and chapter 1 hubs, and the entirety of the first chapter with 7 levels to play through. It also features 8 of the enemies, and 6 (out of total 9) of the games weapons. The second chapter is planned to be added down the line during the Early Access period. The hub's primary features together with the third chapter are planned for the games full launch. The price for Viscerafest Early Access is set at $14.99 USD / 14.99 EUR, accompanied by a 15% discount during the first week! So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and grab Viscerafest right now! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/

[ 2021-05-20 17:02:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings bounty hunters! Today we have an important announcement for all of you, who are awaiting your chance to step into the shoes of Caroline and take on Cromune and his horde of minions - your time is almost here! Viscerafest will be entering Steam Early Access on 20th of May! So mark this date in your calendars, the bounty on warlock's head is hefty and his henchmen are plenty! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/

[ 2021-05-14 14:58:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello there! Just a friendly reminder that Steam Game Festival ends tomorrow and that means you have the a last opportunity to check out the playable demo of Viscerafest! So if you want to get a taste of the alien slaughtering action first hand, this is your chance! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/

[ 2021-02-08 13:36:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

21:00 CET / 15:00 EST, 06.02.2021 - Come check out the Viscerafest livestream hosted and commented by the lead developer and ask anything related to the game in the chat! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/

[ 2021-02-03 13:58:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

18:00 CET, 04.02.2021 - Come check out the Viscerafest livestream hosted and commented by the lead developer and ask anything related to the game in the chat! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/

[ 2021-02-03 13:50:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings everyone! The next Steam Game Festival is rapidly approaching and we are proud to announce that Viscerafest will be a part of it! From February 3rd to February 9th you will have to opportunity to get a small taste of Viscerafest in the free demo that will be part of this festival! So get ready for a slaughter... Nay... A Viscerafest!

[ 2021-01-28 15:53:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings mortal! We are back with a third major Content Update and there's a lot new stuff for all of you to enjoy, explore and exterminate! This update brings in a brand new level called The Hollow - a forest choked with ancient trees and forgotten ruins. Delve into the heart of the long-corrupted woods and discover the new Trinket of Deflection, an Artifact that summons an arcane shield. Activate the Trinket of Deflection in emergencies to ward off enemy projectiles or go on the offensive and unleash bullets, bones, and blood. But beware the Lurker, a new aquatic abomination waiting in the depths. [previewyoutube=vgLu3Xiiofw;full][/previewyoutube] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1000410/WRATH_Aeon_of_Ruin/

[ 2021-01-14 18:10:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=LkBzF2LHjb0;full][/previewyoutube] Hello everyone! We are happy to announce our collaboration with 1C Entertainment as the new publisher for Viscerafest, which will be coming to the Steam Early Access in 2021! Revealed at Realms Deep 2020, Viscerafest is a sci-fi fantasy single player arena FPS where you take the role of Caroline, a bloodthirsty, psychopathic mercenary who wants nothing more than to marry her wonderful boyfriend Athens Fetter. Problem is money's tight, and rings aren't exactly cheap. But thankfully there may be hope for her yet, as a warlock named Cromune has acquired a rather hefty bounty on his head. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406780/Viscerafest/

[ 2020-12-11 13:00:20 CET ] [ Original post ]