Viscerafest News

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!!!



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. A great 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.



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 Viscerafest are 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 state even 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.



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 things is a much more flashy affair!


Speaking of effects...



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!



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.
  

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

[h3]Spawnlings[/h3]
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. C2L5 is being altered as has been mentioned in the past, and the segment spawnlings prominently 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...

[h3]Lore accurate Grenadiers[/h3]
So in Viscerafest, there is an enemy known as the grenadiers, and as you may be aware they wield grenade 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.



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.



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!!!



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. -


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!!!

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/

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!


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.



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.



[h2]Impact Effects[/h2]
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.


[h2]New and Tweaked Attacks[/h2]
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...


[h2]Chapter 3 Enemies[/h2]
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.


[h2]Behold the Willow Bairn![/h2]
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!



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.




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.






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][/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!






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.








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!

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-on of Viscerafest's development!

[h2]Ludicrous Gibs[/h2]

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's gibs 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 tenable with 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.



[h2]Explosions[/h2]

Viscerafest's explosion 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.







[h2]The Deus Mortis[/h2]

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][/previewyoutube]



[h2]Hud and UI[/h2]

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!







[h2]More Art Updates[/h2]

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!





[h2]Athens[/h2]

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!






[h2]Chapter 1 Rework[/h2]

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.





[h2]Chapter 2 Updates[/h2]

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's pretty minor, there are a few areas in Chapter 2 that will be getting pretty heavily updated.





[h2]Chapter 3 Updates[/h2]

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.





[h2]But what's left?[/h2]

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 bestiary during 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 deck compatible, 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.





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!

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/