Forgive Me Father News

Greetings Everyone,
We would like to thank you very much for all the feedback so far, both positive and negative. The development team has been hard at work, and we initially had a re-balancing patch scheduled to be published today, that would alleviate many of the issues most frequently mentioned here in reviews, discussions and on Discord.

Unfortunately, at the very last minute of testing, we uncovered some very unpleasant technical issues and at this moment, we have a more balanced, but less stable build. And since the lead developer was struck with Covid this week and is unable to work, it was not possible to fix the problems in time. Rest assured that as soon as humanly possible, we will release a patch bringing (at least) the following fixes and improvements:

[h3]Balancing[/h3]

• Abyssal Hunter, Mutant, Entity of Torment, Observer, Slither, Abomination - decreased damage dealt.
  
• Observer and Ygolak - decreased maximum health.
  
• Increased amount of Rocket pickups in early to mid-game levels.
  
• Increased amount of all pickups in mid to late game levels.
  

[h3]Levels[/h3]

• Treatment Plant - fixed invisible enemies.
  
• Improved Ship, Crystal Cave and Mines levels in terms of enemy variety.
  
• Cult Hideout - pressure plate runes now only light up when pressed.
  

[h3]Weapons[/h3]

• New designs for some weapons.
  
• All explosive weapons - increased blast radius.
  
• Shotguns - rebalanced audio levels.
  
• Rusty Vito and upgrade - increased damage per bullet.
  
• Melee weapons - made knife hitboxes more forgiving.
  
• Noller - increased damage per bullet.
  
• Des Goules and upgrades - increased ammo consumption.
  

[h3]Enemy Tweaks and Fixes[/h3]

• Boss 2 - death barrier reverses directions less frequently in the second phase.
  
• Boss 2 - death barrier now takes longer to change speed and direction.
  
• Boss 2 - fixed idle animation not looping after shield regeneration.
  
• Boss 3 - sinking islands now also shake the screen when it is sinking, and the player is still standing on it.
  
• Yellow Cultist - improved homing projectile behavior.
  
• Yellow Cultist - decreased homing projectiles’ lifespan.
  
• Yellow Cultist - homing bullets now dissolve when the owner dies.
  
• Yellow Cultist - new particle effects when homing bullets disappear.
  
• Abomination - improved pathfinding.
  
• Abomination - fixed idle sound playing on level load.
  
• Dark Bane - killing it is no longer required to get 100% kills for level stats.
  
• Entity of Torment - several bug fixes.
  
• Patient - fixed idle sound playing when killing the enemy during sitting animation.
  

[h3]General Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed achievement Voodoo from Hell can’t be unlocked.
  
• Fixed Journalist’s cigarette skill causing frame drops.
  
• Fixed player camera under certain conditions staying tilted for the rest of the level.
  
• Fixed Numpad movement bindings networking on some levels.
  
• Energy Booster and Energy Catalyst - fixed animations breaking when using skills while shooting.
  
• Fixed weapon switch sound playing at the start of the level.
  
• Fixed weapon idle sounds playing when using skills.
  
• Fixed audio glitches with light skills when pressing use during hiding animation.
  

[h3]New Features[/h3]

• Added Portuguese Brazilian localization
  

We are also working on improving the XP and levelling curve, re-balancing the Experience gain skills, and an ability to change some already purchased skills. This may or may not be possible in the first upcoming patch, since it requires a significant amount of testing.

Last but not least we are investigating and working on a fix for the crash issues some of you have reported.

Once again, thank you everyone who submitted any kind of feedback, we appreciate it and we pledge to continue working on the game until it is in the best shape possible and all of you can enjoy it to the fullest. We will keep you posted on further development, stay tuned!

dark retro-FPS in a comic-book inflected world, we've had our eyes on Forgive Me Father for a while now, and it's finally out. After a journey in the dreamlands of early access, Forgive Me Father just released this week. Following the loose story of some main characters investigating a predictably fish-and-tentacle-y cult, Forgive Me Father mostly has you chewing up lots of monsters and spitting them out... if you're pretty good at retro-style shooting...
Read more.

Greetings cultists,
The day of joyous madness and exquisite suffering has come, for everyone can now step into the fully realized world blessed by the insanity of the Old Ones! Feast your eyes on the brand new trailer and accept our invitation to explore the now complete story of Forgive Me Father - filled with unending hordes of nightmarish enemies for you to unleash your bloodlust upon!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Compared to the Early Access version, the full release brings another playable character (the Journalist), increases the total number of levels from 17 to 25, 3 new bossfights and 3 new Endless mode arenas, a new weapon and 8 new weapon upgrades, new skill upgrades, animated cutscenes showing the full story of the protagonists, and more!

All this could never be achieved without the help of our amazing community, and we would like to thank each and every one of you who played the game in Early Access, and especially those who took the time and shared their feedback by writing a review, a post in the discussions or came to our Discord server.

The journey of Forgive Me Father is not over yet - we are here to fix any bugs that may yet be discovered, and make improvements to the game wherever we can. So please, stay awesome and keep that feedback coming in, we really, sincerely, appreciate it.

Now go kill some monsters already!

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

Hey, it’s Byte Barrel!

Forgive Me Father’s full release is almost here, so let’s talk about some levels.

Our game is a nod to H.P Lovecraft mythos, so we prepared places of cult, The Great Old Ones related encounters, levels where you can feel that cosmic presence. The first couple of levels of our game are a bit linear and closed. They are designed to guide players through some basics of our game before they explore the more complex maps. We also wanted to create that horror-like atmosphere, where the player feels claustrophobic and has nowhere to escape.

As the game progresses, levels are getting more open and interactive. A couple of them are maze-like, others require a little puzzle solving from the player.

Some of them you may know, and some will still have a chance to surprise you.

Cornfield



We probably all know that scene when a character in a horror film runs into a cornfield while escaping from the baddie. When it comes to FMF, our character is armed and ready, and definitely not running away, so this time things will go completely differently.

We prepared a few interesting things for you here. First of them - Corn Maze. It's designed to confuse and make the player wonder which path to choose (probably multiple times), but someone with a keen eye may notice that there are some clues hidden all over the place.

As we enter the Cornfield we can see a huge Windmill in the distance. We wanted to create an object that of course has its intended purpose, but would be interactive and fun at the same time. When activated, you can use it as a ferris wheel and take a spin or two. Take your time, enemies can wait, right?

Underwater



In Lovecraft’s stories, the uglies often emerge from the sea, so what would be a Lovecraftian-based game without a water-related map? Underwater is really unique when it comes to gameplay.

We prepared two things for you: a harpoon and diving gear, the rest depends on you. We wanted to make this diving experience as real as it could be, so this level may be a little tricky, because your field of view and movement are limited. While most levels are about fast reaction, this one is more about planning.

Cult Hideout



When the time comes, you will visit the bad guys’ den. We don’t want to spoil too much, so we will keep it brief. In this level you get to decide in which order you progress through encounters. Just pick a door and you will do fine, probably.

Oh, and better watch your step there!

City of Ancients



The aesthetics of this place will make you feel like you are in another dimension. It’s almost like the entire map is living its own life. We can feel that cosmic vibe that is so important when it comes to Lovecraftian lore. But what about gameplay mechanics?

City of Ancients is almost like a puzzle for the player to solve, and hordes of enemies do not make it any easier. This hostile place requires the players to make a map inside their heads and figure out how to use this level's core gimmick in order to find the path forward.

We hope that exploring levels in the upcoming full release of our game will be an absolute blast for you!

Got some questions? Don’t hesitate to ask here, in the comments or on our Discord or Twitter. And please, don’t forget to leave a review here on Steam, once you've tried out the game.

Hey! It’s Byte Barrel Team again. Last time we shared some secrets about our art design process and inspirations that followed us through developing Forgive Me Father. In this piece we would like to shed some light on how we created and changed Madness System during that time.

So, what exactly is that whole Madness System?

Insanity is an inseparable aspect of Lovecraftian lore, so we knew it had to be in our game somewhere. The choice was simple: why not make the entire system based on it? This allowed us to create an escalating feeling of anxiety that player may experience as our main character steps deeper and deeper into madness. But how does it work?

Simply put, Madness is a mechanic that rewards a player’s aggressive playstyle and picking all in fights over safer confrontations. The more enemies a player kills, the more powerful he becomes. But that's not all. It is a combo-like system where you need to kill as much as you can in a short period of time in order to gain the most benefits.

Madness is also a resource that allows you to use special abilities like Aspergillum - that stuns enemies, or Crucifix - that heals its user for a certain amount. On top of that after reaching half of the Madness bar, the player's screen goes black and white with that juicy red blood splash effect. We wanted to add that insanity factor to our game that is starting to make even more sense when the game story progresses.

Another thing is the fact that Madness gives our game more dynamic and that “what the hell is going on” effect.

How has it changed over time? From idea to Early Access version

Madness System is a feature that we could call the heart and soul of Forgive Me Father's gameplay. We knew that it would be present in our game from the very beginning, but we had to work on some specifics. We started with the thought that we want to make a combo-like system that brings more dynamic to the game and would create more gameplay possibilities for the players.

From that point Madness System had a long, long road to the place where it is now, and we would like to share that process with you. Through developing Forgive Me Father we created at least four completely different designs. Some of them differ in visual aspects (different colors, chromatic aberration effect) others were our attempts to make the best Madness System in terms of gameplay possibilities. Current one is using all the best aspects combined from previous prototypes. The very first Madness System wasn't all black and white like it is now, but it was this intense green color that would take over your screen!



Optimizing the Madness System

Have to say, that one was a little bit tricky. Making a combo-like system that rewards aggressive playstyle but also doesn't punish those who want to take their time while exploring the world of Forgive Me Father, wasn’t easy.

Another, and we think the hardest, thing was making the entire skill system based on the Madness resource. It had to be perfectly synergised. We had a lot of ideas but unfortunately we couldn’t implement all of them. Compromises are hard and necessary especially when it comes to optimizing a system that is so important when it comes to the core of our game.

As we said earlier, Madness System rewards aggressive playstyle, making players stronger as they take down enemy after enemy. But when you play slowly you also can earn your skills but just in a little less efficient way. So don’t worry, we have something for everyone!

Why it looks how it looks, and why it works how it works - about inspirations

We wanted it to bring more flavor to Forgive Me Father, accent its brutality, make the moment of reaching that certain level of madness worth player's effort. Our system had to fit perfectly into the Lovecraftian based universe and retro shooter genre at the same time.

Our intention was to make our game as comic-like as possible. Madness System is a nod to the Sin City comic book series by Frank Miller. It was an obvious choice for us because it’s not only perfectly matching our design but what’s more important, we are just crazy about his work. Also, there is of course that one more thing - nostalgia.

Going forward, we wanted to intensify encounters, especially those bigger ones with hordes of enemies rushing towards the player. Our goal was to create that special moment when the player is in the middle of a fight, madness is stacked, screen turns all black and white and players just know that there is no going back.

Developing the current Madness system was a really long process where we had to compromise a lot, and by saying that we really mean A LOT. But we believe that we created a version that fits our vision of Forgive Me Father!

Got some questions? Don’t hesitate to ask here, in the comments or on our Discord or Twitter. And please, once you've tried out the game, leave us a review here on Steam!