HELLSEED News

Hi guys,

Today we have two important announcements to do.

[h2]The first announcement[/h2]
We have decided to insert all chapters into the final game, So the game title will not be HELLSEED: Chapter 1 BUT only HELLSEED.
This required us to refactoring a bit the chapters sequence in the game.

The Demo we have released some months ago becomes the Chapter 1.
For the upcoming Early Access we are working to the Chapter 2.
In the final game the chapters will be 4.

[h2]The second announcement[/h2]
As a consequence, during the development of the Easrly Access, we have started to insert some new scenes and new gameplay mechanics for better explaining the story behind the game and increasing the horror atmosphere.

This has incremented the work for us (new graphics, new game logic) so we aren't able to release the early access this month, after all we are 2 guys developing this game.

This time we don't want to announce a next release date because we want to give it the best quality we can, and we'll announce the release date when it will be ready for us.

Hi guys,

Today we would like to show you how we are progressing in the development of HELLSEED: Chapter 1.
Following are some screenshots taken from the new locations we are working on:



Hope you like them,
stay tuned :)

PROFENIX STAFF

[h2]Live Demo[/h2]
Join the developers of HELLSEED as we play the new demo, give some developer insights and answer your questions!

[h2]About HELLSEED[/h2]
HELLSEED is a first person horror adventure with puzzles and some action elements.
Italy 1980,
some doctors of a psychiatric hospital in province of Turin report the missing of a colleague of their own to the police.
You are the detective investigating about what happened.
The first place in whch you start the research is the house of the doctor.
While in the house, many strange things will happen and a dark presence will seem to follow you everywhere you go.
What does it want from you?
What is the relationship between it and the doctor?
Is the doctor really missed?
Is he dead?

All these questions and many others you will have to answer for discovering the truth and completing the chapter 1.
Be careful and don't panic, someone will try to catch you and take you to hell...

[h2]Join the community[/h2]
Discord: https://discord.gg/y5XD3C6
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hellseed

Hi guys,

First,
Thanks to all for appreciating our work.
We are very happy our game has really scared a lot of you :D, we are confident the final release will be even more frightening.

To celebrate the Autumn Steam Game Festival we have released a new demo with some important changes we made based on suggestions and feedback from gamers.

The following are latest improvements we made in addition to those showed in the DEVLOG #1

[h2]NEW PHYSICS[/h2]
Finally we have changed completely the physx version our engine implements.
Many users have found problems in playing the game beacuse the old physx library required installation that on some system failed the first time. This forced them to do some additional work for making the game to be installed correctly and played.
All these problems have been fixed with the new physx implementation.

[h2]IMPROVED INVENTORY VISUAL AND AUDIO[/h2]

We have replaced the old, stylized inventory item icons with rendered images that make easier to recognize them.
We have also replaced the old irritating inventory sounds with more pleasant ones.

[h2]IMPROVED WOODEN BOARDS [SPOILER!!][/h2]
[ATTENTION SPOILER!!] We have added ghost wooden boards on the cellar door appearing after escaping from the monster. In this way you view precisely where put them.

[h2]NEW SOUNDS[/h2]
We have replaced the irritating breathing sound of the player with a more pleasant one.
We have added some new environmental sounds such as clock hands and neons.
We have also added some new sound playing when using items such as keys, screwdrivers, ladder, etc..
We have added a new sound when examining the documents.

[h2]NEW LAUNCH SYSTEM[/h2]
Some users have experienced problems in starting the game because of the launching system.
The old system required to execute the configuration application before starting the demo. On some systems the configuration application simply doesn't start and the game application, if not properly configured, starts with a strange and unuseful resolution.
We have fixed this procedure by making the game application to automatically recognize the desktop resolution, in this way users that cannot reach to configure the game using configuration application are able to start the game with the correct resolution in any case.

[h2]MONSTER INTRODUCTION NEW CUTSCENE [SPOILER!!!!!][/h2]
[ATTENTION SPOILER!!] We have improved the cutscene when monster comes out from the metallic door. It is much more comfortable when the control returns to the player.

[h2]SCREEN SPACE GI[/h2]
We have improved the previous Screen Space Global Illumination shader, even if the feature is still in experimental phase.
Now the look is much more effective, with less artifacts and higher realism.


[h2]MINOR BUGFIXES[/h2]
Some other bugfixes have been made.

[h3]WARNING[/h3]
Updating the demo all the saved game data will be invalidated.

Enjoy and stay tuned!
PROFENIX

Hi guys,

Today we start to publish a series of news about HELLSEED development progress.
We are continuing to develop the remaining (big) part of the story, that will be available in the EARLY ACCESS except the last part, that will be available when the game exists the EARLY ACCESS stage.

In the meanwhile we are improving some of the gameplay mechanics of the demo.
THE NEW DEMO WILL BE AVAILABLE DURING THE FIRST HALF OF OCTOBER.

Following are some of the progresses we have done after the last demo update:

1. The player now runs 3x faster :D
   
2. The woman monster also runs faster (a bit faster than player) and the speed is prefectly synchronized with the running animation.
   
3. Now lowest stamina doesn't block player, in other words, if player continues to press run button after stamina has reached the lowest value, he can continue to run until he stop (leave the run button). When he stops he cannot run until stamina has completelly filled (as previously).
   
4. We have introduced some screen effect (chromatic aberration and blur) that increases when stamina level decreases and viceversa.
   
5. Almost all the keys now can be used without passing trough the inventory, simply press action button if you are close to the door to be opened. ;)
   
6. Now if the player has the spotlight ON the woman monster can see him also behind barrels, tables, other obstacles and dark areas.
   
7. We have introduced some AI dark areas in which player can hide from woman monster sight (if, of course he has the spotlight OFF)
   
8. [h3]NEW QUICKITIME EVENT[/h3]We have changed the part in which player can escape from monster attack. Previouslly it was sufficient to press a random button (showed on the lower-left corner of the screen) in any moment, to stop the monster attack, and pressing the wrong button had no conseguences.
   In the new version we have used a sort of QUICKTIME event:
   when monster start to attack the player it stops about 1 second, during this temporal window the player has to press the right button, otherwise the attack of the monster starts and cannot be stopped, the button to be pressed is random and showed at the center of the screen, together with a pregress bar that shows how much time remain before the quicktime finishes.
   
9. [h3]SHADOWS IMPROVEMENT[/h3]
   We have improved the shadowmapping of S2ENGINE HD by introducing a new parameter called "angleBias" to the lights.
   This parameter allows you to correct some artifacts that appear using only the "bias" parameter for reducing shadowmapping acne and/or "peter-pan" effect.
   There are couple of images showing the BEFORE and AFTER the fix.
   As you can see, before the improvement, in the dark areas there were some lighter pixels that break the atmosphere and realismn of the scene:
   

[h2]S2ENGINE HD[/h2]
If you are interested in using S2ENGINE please visit the store page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/443970/S2ENGINE_HD/
[h2]DO NOT FORGIVE TO ADD HELLSEED TO YOUR WISHLIST![/h2]

Enjoy and stay tuned,
PROFENIX STUDIO