Kill It With Fire News

Hello exterminators!

We're one day out from launch and it seems like most of you are having a great time with Kill It With Fire! I haven't heard about any show-stopping issues so far (knock on wood!), but I did hear about one bug that I wanted to quickly address in a patch. If you see v1.0.16 in the bottom left corner of your screen, you'll know you've got it!

For the curious, here's what was going on. On the second level (Close Encounters), if you picked up all five batteries before collecting the S.P.I.D.A.R. tracker upgrade, you would complete the "Power Up" objective without having first discovered it. That by itself is fine - it happens even more in other places (such as the "Fight Spider With Spider" objective in Major Inconvenience) so I've got code that automatically deletes the objective discovery pickup upon completion of that objective. That's good, because it means you won't later discover a random, glowing sheet of paper that doesn't do anything.

Maybe you see where this is going - the S.P.I.D.A.R. upgrade is both an objective discovery pickup AND an upgrade, so when you picked up the 5th battery the game deleted the upgrade! And, to make matters worse the whole thing was happening again when you reloaded the level, since we want to get rid of the objective discovery pickups you've already found.

I've only heard from one player that actually encountered the issue but it's possible there are more who just haven't said anything, so it seemed best to fix it ASAP! Another issue that I discovered along the way (and I seriously doubt this has been discovered by ANYONE, but you never know!) is that if you never pick up the hairspray in First Contact but you do pick some up in a later level, you'll be unable to complete the "Find More Firepower" objective, since it was only listening for the player to discover new equipment, not find more ammo. Of course, the game is called KILL IT WITH FIRE, so who in their right mind would skip grabbing the hairspray in the first level?!?!

That's all for today! I'll just leave you guys with these awesome articles about the game. They really made my day!

Fan Byte - Danielle Riendeau

Buried Treasure - John Walker

Want to meet a community of like-minded spider exterminating enthusiasts? Be sure to join the Kill It With Fire Discord. And, as always be sure to follow the game on Twitter or Facebook.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1179210/Kill_It_With_Fire/

Sincerely,



Casey Donnellan
Twitter: @caseydonnellan

Calling all spider hunters,

Our time has finally arrived: Kill It With Fire is now available on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1179210/Kill_It_With_Fire/

It has been a blast building Kill It With Fire and I'm thrilled to be able to share it with the world. If you enjoyed the demos, I suspect you'll love the full game. It has tons more levels, weapons, upgrades, challenges, and most importantly - MORE SPIDERS!

Creating Kill It With Fire was an enormous undertaking for me. Since I left my job at Rooster Teeth nearly a year ago I've been working on this game full-time while living off of my savings - including hiring a few key contractors out of my own pocket. The result is a wild, wacky game that was a huge personal and creative risk, but also clearly a labor of love.

Is Kill It With Fire for everyone? If you're TRULY arachnaphobic, this might be a little too much for you. BUT, if you're looking for several hours jam-packed with insane, slightly terrifying, collateral damage-causing MAYHEM you could hardly choose a better game than Kill It With Fire. If you're also interested in supporting independent game development, grabbing this game is a no-brainer!

Of course, there's no way most of you would even be reading this without the amazing people at TinyBuild! From creating incredible trailers, to boring (but important!) stuff like localization and QA, this game would not be where it is today without their support. Thanks, TinyBuild!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

So what's next for Kill It With Fire? If you make it all the way to the game's secret ending, you might have some idea of where the game might be going next. But...I'm not against going in another direction first. So, what do you think? More levels? New Game+ where the spiders can actually kill you? Replace the spiders with something else? Randomly generated levels? VR? Multiplayer? A level editor? I'm not going anywhere, so please let me know in the comments below!

Want to meet a community of like-minded spider exterminating enthusiasts? Be sure to join the Kill It With Fire Discord. And, as always be sure to follow the game on Twitter or Facebook. Last but certainly not least - what are you waiting for?! Go buy the game!

Sincerely,



Casey Donnellan
Twitter: @caseydonnellan

Hello fellow exterminators! Alex from tinyBuild here.

It's less than 24 hours before Kill It With Fire finally launches. I can't stop relating to this game as every morning a whole colony of spiders decides to make webs that I go through with my face while drinking coffee. Unfortunately Elon didn't send me a non-flamethrower to deal with this issue.

I do have some news leading up to launch. Between IGNITION and HEATWAVE - the two demos / playable teasers we released for the game, there have been over 300k people who played them! That's insane. Check out the reviews for IGNITION:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1291500/Kill_It_With_Fire_Ignition/

Both pages have a 90%+ Steam Reviews score. This is insane, and on behalf of Casey and the whole team here at tinyBuild - a huge thank you!

The launch trailer is ready to go live and will do so here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

You can smash that "set reminder" button to get a notification when the game and its trailer go live.

Casey will be posting a launch announcement alongside the game going live as well.

Get your machine guns, c4, time-slowing energy drinks ready - we're hunting spiders tomorrow!

Hello spider hunters!

The reckoning approaches - KIWF comes out next Thursday, August 13th. It's been a wild ride making this game. Although I'm the only person working on Kill It With Fire full-time, the game would not be what it is without the help of some very talented friends/accomplices. I thought now might be a great time to look back on everything and call out some of the people who helped along the way. All of these folks have been immortalized into Kill It With Fire as in-game portraits. There, thousands of spiders will crawl over their faces for all eternity. Thanks guys, you're the best!



First, let's talk about that music! Kill It With Fire's soundtrack was composed by the incredible Trevor Whitaker Black. The game would NOT be the same without his music. Honestly, I think a lot of people are surprised by how good it is. You're just expecting a silly game about killing spiders, but the sound really sucks you in.

BTW - Trevor also has worked on the soundtrack for a few movies, including Kingsmen! You should follow him on Twitter: @TrevorWBlack




Cara Curley did all of the game's excellent graphic design. That includes the equipment icons, the amazing portraits, the achievement icons, and a few other odds and ends. She insisted that her cat, Moose, be included in her portrait. Who am I to say otherwise? Here's to you, Cara! Make sure you follow her on Twitter: @IDrawCaraLines




Next up is Abe Robertson. Me and Abe go waaay back. We've worked on several games together and when I needed some extra help making the game look pretty, he was the first and only person I called. Abe did a little bit of everything on KIWF - he worked on lighting, visual effects, the skyboxes, special materials, and more. His biggest contribution, however, is the cinematic that plays when you beat the game...but you'll need to wait until August 13th to see that.

I don't think Abe really uses Twitter but follow him anyway! @RobertsonAbe




I did most of the SFX for Kill It With Fire myself, but I knew there was one area where it would be wise to call in the professionals: the spiders. I hired Kat Wenske and Zachary Woomer from Team Audio to create spider sounds that are guaranteed to stick with you long after finish playing the game. Each type of spider has a unique set of sounds, kinda like the special infected in L4D. Learn what they sound like and you'll never be surprised when one jumps at your face! Follow Kat on Twitter: @jelfish67.




Perhaps you've heard of a small publishing company called TinyBuild? Kill It With Fire got picked up by them back in February (before the dark times...) and the game wouldn't be where it is today without them! Represented here by their CEO, Alex Nichiporchik, they've been instrumental in promoting the game, localization, quality assurance, and tons of other stuff. Plus, they're just all around good people. Big thanks to Artem, Yulia, Andrei, Sunny, and the whole QA department. I wish I had portraits for all of you!

I would say follow them on Twitter but honestly, they have enough followers already. Follow the game instead: @kiwf_game




Thanks to everyone else who helped and supported me along the way. Bryan Lian created the model for the tracker and did a few of the portraits and Josh Guglielmo created the original logo and key art. Also, thanks to my beautiful wife Kathryn, our families, and my Little (through BBBS), Juan, who provided the shark art.




That leaves yours truly. I haven't really talked about myself much during these updates, but that's me, Casey Donnellan. This game was my vision and I've spent nearly every day for the past 10 months making it come to life. I've been making games professionally for 8 years, mostly working for larger companies (Certain Affinity, Rooster Teeth), but this is my first, big, solo project. Despite all the trouble in the world these days, it has been an amazing experience and I hope that Kill It With Fire does well enough to allow me to continue making games independently. If you'd like to keep in touch, follow me on Twitter: @caseydonnellan


For all the latest on Kill It With Fire, join the Discord, or follow the game on Twitter/ Facebook. As always, make sure you wishlist the game, or if you really hate spiders you can pre-order it and save 10%!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1179210/Kill_It_With_Fire/

Hey spider gang!

Kill It With Fire comes out in less than two weeks. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! I'm going to be busy making minor improvements, fixing bugs, and doing some performance optimization through next week. It's so, so close to being ready and I can't wait for everyone to see it!

So instead of showing more equipment, spiders, or levels I decided to talk about something completely new today: ACHIEVEMENTS! Kill It With Fire will launch on Steam with 24 achievements. Some of them are easy to get, others...not so much. All achievement art was done by Cara Curley (@IDrawCaraLines). She also created all of the equipment icons and the in-game portraits. You might have seen one of her on a certain fireplace...

Let's look at a few of 'em. If you don't want to know what the achievements are, abandon this post while ye can! You've been warned.

[h2] *** LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD! *** [/h2]


Spick and Span - Destroy EVERY dish in Domestic Duties.


Just say NOPE - Kill a Jumping Spider in mid-air.


That's All Folks - Kill a spider by dropping an anvil on it.


Line of Succession - Transform a Spiderling hatched from a Queen into a Queen.


MLG Pro - 360 no-scope a spider with the Assault Rifle


Sub-Par - Sink a putt.


Good luck with them, especially the dish achievement. You might need think outside the box to get it...

That's enough for now! A few non-achievement updates:

First, I'm changing the way spiders respond to cheese puffs. Previously, only certain spiders would go after particular flavors of cheese puff. Specifically, they would only try to eat them if they could transform from doing so and they would only transform into more "advanced" forms. That's all gone now - every spider will pursue every flavor and can transform into any other type.

Next, I've put a limit on how long spiders will get spooked for. Previously, if you hit a spider or fired a gun near it, they would speed up and stay at that speed until they died, or found a new hiding spot. They'll now only get a speed boost for a few seconds.

Some of the later levels are a bit darker. There's a flashlight upgrade, but for players who didn't find it, I've put a tiny white dot in the middle of the aiming reticle; it's subtle, but I found that it really helps to aim in low light situations.

Finally, I've moved the upgrade equip menu to the mission preview (where you click "PLAY") for easier access. In addition, I've created a little "breadcrumb" system to tell you about new upgrades you haven't looked at yet.


For all the latest on Kill It With Fire, join the Discord, or follow the game on Twitter/ Facebook. As always, if you haven't added the game to your wishlist PRE-PURCHASED THE GAME yet, what are you waiting for?!?!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1179210/Kill_It_With_Fire/

Warm regards,

Casey
Twitter: @caseydonnellan