Project Absentia News

So we decided to add a dash to the game at the last minute to celebrate us being at Realms Deep.

Upon the suggestion of some of our playtesters and people observing said playtesters.

You see that cover image? That's Abby dashing backwards through the newest room in E1M3!

You can dash in all four cardinal directions, as well as diagonally. By default this uses the shift key.

Wait? Doesn't the shift key make you run?

Not anymore! You're always running now.

We found in playtesting people struggled with the default walk speed, but improved gameplay wise when they were running.

We also fixed some issues in E1M1, E1M2, and E1M3.

We also fixed some interesting bugs with E1M4's boss - Asphodel. (She's proven to be ironically, for the first boss, the most difficult boss to code).

This is an update to Project Absentia's Demo, hopefully the last before we start working on the rest of Episode 1 for the initial early access release.

• Overhaul E1M4/Asphodel boss battle - she should scale better on lower and higher difficulties
  
• Change how E1M1 opens to help show the platforming/gliding mechanics better
• Minor Fixes to the other maps
• Other Fixes to the code

Remember, save states might break for this. Which is something I want to talk about.

Due to a limitation in the GZDoom engine, save states might break in some situations.

In the full game, each Episode will be broken up into chapters in a hub, and you can play through the episodes from each chapter onward, through the end of the available game. Each time you beat a boss, the game unlocks.

We're also going to be keeping older builds on certain branches for people who for some reason . They'll be marked in a way so you can continue your old saves.

We will keep you up to date.

Project Absentia Demo dated 8/12/2021 has been updated with the following fixes

• Updated E1M3 a bit more to include a better ending sequence and combat arena - This included a scripted sequence with the primary antagonist of Episode 1.
  
• Reworked the Plasma Rifle - fires much faster in primary fire, secondary fire rips through enemies, using static cling to suck in enemies within a radius and electrocute them
  
• Fixed a bug in E1M4 where enemies would spawn endlessly
• Minor art changes here and there
• Fixes under the hood, too many to count
• Updated WIGZDoom to latest dev build

We have released a bug and feature fix for Project Absentia's Demo.

Here are some of the fixes and changes:

• New Tommy Gun sprite and reloading/ammo swapping sequence
  
• Fix some level geometry issues in E1M1 that caused confusion or things to get stuck
  
• Add some TNT boxes and a crack sprite to make it more obvious you need to blow up the wall in E1M2
  
• Fix some text strings left over from SHDX development
  
• Increased the size of hollow point ammo
  
• Fix one room in E1M2 to spawn enemies, rather than open trapdoors
  

NOTE: Save states are not compatible with this. Don't worry, we have something to remedy this in the Episode 1 and beyond version.

Also, a note about the voicework - Down the line we will be working with the VA for Abby to redo some of the lines, maybe add some more, especially for the episode 1 opening. Stay tuned!

-Waffle Iron Studios