Viscerafest News

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!!!

• 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.
  

• 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
  

• 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!

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...


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.


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...

[h2]The OST[/h2]
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.

[h2]The Hub[/h2]
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.

[h2]C2L7 - Arche Ascension[/h2]
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.

[h2]Chapter 3 - Static Story Moments[/h2]
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.

[h2]The Ambient Audio Bug[/h2]
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.

[h2]Enemies Having a Seizure[/h2]
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.

[h2]Flying enemy pathfinding[/h2]
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.

[h2]Some U.I. Jank[/h2]
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.


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

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][/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!





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.





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

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][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/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][/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/