Blood Reaver News

Hey Cultists,
This month we wanted to let you all in on the direction of the new art style we've been experimenting with in the hopes of achieving a more stylised look that lends to the strength of our artists.

Regarding the promise for a Spotify release last month, those of you who were waiting will be happy to here that it's available to stream right now! Following that, if anyone is interested on how our studio got to the point where we can make Blood Reaver, our directors were featured on a livestream last week!

[h2]Finding our Style[/h2]

We wanted to reflect on how Blood Reaver used to look and finally show you the kind of style you can all expect going forward.

The first thing we wanted to nail with such a sweeping change was the main thing you'll be shooting. the demons. Back in July we showed concept art for our 'Lesser Demon' and now, after a few months of dev, we have the model to show you! Beneath is a comparison between the old lesser demon and the new one.


Brought to you by our incredible artists:
Millie (Modeling, Sculpting, and Texturing) and Ben (Rigging, Retop, and Optimization)

*If you preferred how the old model looks, don't worry! We have plans of re-introducing it at a later date to have a more fitting role for it's design. **Additionally, there will be other variants of this model, look forward to all the different forms this beast can take.

The primary reasons for this shift in art style is something I myself can't quite articulate... so I won't, I managed to grab our lead artist for a quick word on the exact intent...

"It's good, I like it, it's nice..." - Lead artist, Flynn Eickhoff

"To elaborate on that, we chose to really hone in on a more visually unique art style to separate the new Blood Reaver from the demo version and other games in that similar "semi-realistic" style. With the new style, we hope to achieve a more painterly look heavily inspired by Dishonored, to lean into the mysticism of the lore while still maintaining the dark, gritty feel of the demo version."

[h2]Stream Rivers of Blood Today[/h2]

As promised last month - the OST is now available on Spotify as well as a variety of other platforms for streaming! Make sure to add it to your playlists so you can listen wherever you want!

Find our music on our Spotify album!

[h2]Blood Reaver's Rise - Our Journey so Far[/h2]

Earlier this month, AIE offered to interview our directors on a livestream talking about how they broke into the game development industry. Check it out here

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Upcoming Events: PAX Aus & SXSW Sydney![/h2]

If you're there pop by our booths and have a chat with us for more information on the current direction of Blood Reaver!

BOOTH & DATES
PAX:
Booth 51
11th - 13th of October

SXSW:
Booth 1
17th - 20th of October

See you all next month,
Matt Narrative

Hey Cultists,
This month’s been a busy one! First, we’ve officially moved into an office space at ACOLAB, which has been a blessing for our productivity. Second, we have exciting news regarding our new enemy type, which we are enthusiastic to see player’s reactions to. Last but not least, some announcements regarding the music we promised would be releasing for free and a mention of how our director got featured on the Tech Over Tea podcast!

[h2]Meet the Hell Byte Studios Team[/h2]
Since early this year, we as a team have been working from home - which, we thought would be enough to keep up steady progress on development. However, there were complications with how we approached that and have been able to secure the opportunity to use an office space with ACOLAB! It’s still early days, but we’re coming up on our 1st full month since acquiring the space and already, by next monthly update we’ll have something to show you all from what we’ve been cooking for the last few months.



Our team from Left-to-Right:
Matthew, Flynn, Scott, Ben, Jackson H, Euan, Millie, Alf

Those not in office today:
Jackson S, Jake, Jason, Aiden

[h2]Mini-boss Concept Art: Name 'Chaos Demon'[/h2]
For those who have played the pre-alpha demo available on our discord (go join if you haven’t already!) - you may remember the ‘wendigo’ enemy that would either end your run early or become a bullet sponge as the rounds progressed. This isn’t what we envisioned for what it could be.

With that said, we are beginning development of our first boss style enemy that will function as a skill-check as opposed to the other being a straight damage-check. The image below shows some possible designs we're considering for this new demon. However, one of the big things we want to fix with it was it's silhouette (if you want to learn how we managed that, check out the Tech Over Tea podcast mentioned later in this post). Previously, the wendigo-type enemy often got hard to pick out at a glance, especially in the more frantic moments of combat.

In terms of gameplay, we want these enemies to provide a challenge that the horde can't. One way of achieving this is by giving the chaos demon more ways of attacking the player, a ranged attack that punishes player who play too far from the horde and a close range slam that deals high damage to players who get too reckless.

While it says chaos demon in the heading, we’re still settling on what to officially call it - so if you have an idea of what might fit a creature like this, leave your suggestions in the comments below and who knows… we may use it (with credit) 👀



[h2]"Rivers of Blood" - Blood Reaver OST[/h2]
For the last few weeks now Eyes & Arrows have been remastering the soundtracks featured in the demo so that everyone who asked for it to be available since AVCon. If you find it’s too your taste then we’re also pleased to announce we’re looking at getting ‘Gnawing Hunger’, ‘Decarnation’, and ‘Forsaken’ on Spotify by the end of the month!

Once more, big thanks to Aden Richards and Eyes & Arrows. If you like their work, go find them at the relevant socials!

Full Playlist
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]#232 A Faster Take On An Old Classic | Tech Over Tea[/h2]
Hell Byte’s very own director; Euan got the opportunity to speak with Tech Over Tea’s host and producer Brodie Robertson and they spoke in depth about:

• Building a unique hoard enemy
  
• How to decipher feedback
  
• How to end an endless game mode
  
• The never-ending goal of perfect game balance
  
• How merging genres leads to a refreshing take on an classic Experience
  

If that interests you, Go listen for yourselves here! Go show Brodie some love and leave a comment saying where you came from👍. We’d love to feature on the show again!

Podcast Link:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]On the Horizon[/h2]
With event season coming up we want to make something clear now. Even with the stellar progress we've seen in the last month - we're don't currently think the new build will be presentable by PAX or SXSW. Therefore, we've made the decision to bring the pre-alpha demo for the events for the time being. If this changes, stay tuned to the relevant channels for updates.

See you all next month where we'll be revisiting the lesser demons... and how they might look in-game!

Hey Cultists,
This month follows our venture to AVCon, where we got to show Blood Reaver off to more people and even got to meet some of our active community members. Additionally, our director got the amazing opportunity for an interview (link below). Outside of that, it was wonderful to meet a host of new people, some in costume and others not. we even earnt our first payment there - one copper coin.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Special thanks to Johnniemadeit, who came around to the booth and put together this amazing interview!


[h2]Redefining Blood Magic[/h2]
Now to why you're reading this, Blood Reaver. This month hasn't been the most visual - lots of gameplay systems coming to fruition, greyboxing is wrapping up on one of our new maps and we've been striving for an in-built localization system that will allow us to bring Blood Reaver to even more people around the world.

Something that's been on our mind since players first saw and used the blood abilities, is that they weren't fulfilling the position we needed or wanted them to. With this system, we want to stop it from being something the player only occasionally remembers to use and make it integral to playing the game optimally and casually. To achieve this, we wanted to place more gravity on using an ability, make them feel like the player really is tapping into forbidden blood magic and causing catastrophe upon their enemies.

The designers working on crafting these new abilities have been putting a lot of work into making them feel more inventive and distinct, leaning away from the ambiguous magic sorcery that's present in the pre-alpha demo. Now, majority of our abilities will be done through bespoke items that become modified and enhanced by blood. Additionally, developing these new systems has become significantly easier to iterate on, allowing us to take and implement feedback much faster.

For some of those that got to talk with us at AVCon, you might know more than I elaborate on here, but blood abilities will be broken down into two categories: Trinkets and Artifacts.

[h3]Trinkets[/h3]

• These will have a typically lower power in terms of damage but offer unique effects that give the player insurance or set-up value.
  
• They can be unlocked and equipped outside of gameplay, letting you have agency over how you want to play the game - whether that means leaning into a more evasive playstyle, selecting abilities that allow you to escape dangerous situations, or maybe a playstyle geared towards kiting enemies by having them purposely target you.
  
• Trinkets are also much more readily available, allowing the player to use them without hesitation.
  

[h3]Artifacts[/h3]

• With Artifacts we want to create the feeling of using terrifying and forbidden power with each activation, every one of these will be either a sustained state of power or give the player a fundamentally unique way of dealing with threats.
  
• These are only available through gameplay, which means that players need to earn them through engaging with each maps environmental elements.
  
• Unlike the alternative, Artifacts should be treated as grand moments of power, and power must be earnt, you'll have to reave blood from demons constantly to use these effectively.
  

[h2]Building a Competitive Community[/h2]
With our community discord having reached over 100 official members, we've developed a small but competitive community (which you can join directly from the steam page btw) and we're thrilled to see it growing, already we've had some upsets with records being swapped only hours after they've been earned. Additionally, holding one of our curated records grants a unique role so that everyone knows who their challenging when going for one of the current titles.

Quickly, a brief thank you to all the current and previous Revenants in the community, we're so incredibly thankful for the time you've given us so far and we hope to see your names throughout the full development of Blood Reaver.

Once more thank you to Scotty, CloudRyze, ᚠᛖᚾᚱᛁᚱ, and Zappa. For competing with each other, consistently breaking the game, and for your loyal dedication.


This is one of our resident Revenants Scotty, a title held by only the most dedicated and devoted Reavers in the community. If you think you can dethrone him or any of the other revenants, join the community discord and participate in our growing competitive scene.

[h2]Pre-Alpha Soundtrack COMING SOON[/h2]
Over the last couple weeks, we've had numerous requests about if the soundtrack we made for the game will be available at some point. To satisfy that, we've been working behind the scenes to get that music up on our YouTube channel for free! The announcement for that will be live on all our socials so stay tuned for any and all info on that.

[h2]See You Next Time[/h2]
That about wraps up everything that's been going on this month... Remember that we'll be at PAXAUS and SXSW Sydney later this year if you want to come check out the progress and chat with the devs.

See you next month where we'll be showing off something a little more... Monstrous.

Hey Cultists,
Another development update for our 2nd month. To begin we wanted to announce that we’re nearing 5000 Wishlists! This is something we’re continually grateful for – especially with the traction gained from being featured on IGN Live last week, which we’ll dive deeper into later in this very post. Onto the game now, we wanted to use this time to talk about the demons of Blood Reaver.

[h2]Demon Concept Art: The Horde[/h2]
As anyone who’s played a horde-shooter before knows, one of the most important things to get right is none other than the horde itself! The hardest part about designing a horde is how we display the evolving strength of the horde. Some earlier concepts we cooked up were undoubtedly menacing and ‘demonic’ for lack of a better word. Yet so much so we decided to reserve them for greater threats some of which you may in the coming months...

These initial designs (not shown here) gave the impression that the demons were holding back rather than constantly pursuing the player - which is something we wanted to avoid. After going back to the drawing board and trying a new angle, we found a healthy mix of ‘shambling husk’ and ‘bloodthirsty demon’. We’re pretty happy with what we came to, but we’re bursting with excitement to see what you all think of our expanding horde.

Wanting to exemplify how each demon in the horde is twisted and warped in their own way, something we want to strive for is variation in appearance, this can range from different pigmentation of flesh, largely distorted head shapes, grotesque wounds staining the skin, and other such additions.



"A soul twisted and warped. Stripped of its will and body, now it only has one craving. Blood. To quench its eternal thirst is its mission, its purpose."



The inevitable outcome of all who douse their bellies in blood. A bloater’s body is a vessel, it’s not uncommon for other demons to kill these sacks of liquid crimson to feed themselves. Yet, these beings yield a crueller fate – in a fruitless effort to continue feeding their hunger, they will drink and drink and drink until it’s too much. They will burst in fiery blood.


Once again, these incredible concept pieces were created by our concept artist Matthew Dobrich.

[h2]IGN Live[/h2]
As mentioned, last week Blood Reaver was featured during the IGN Live as part of the Indie.io showcase alongside many other games. During this our game directors gave some insight into the game's development and what inspired us to start making Blood Reaver to begin with through a short developer interview.
We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have presented some of our pre-alpha gameplay and we’re even more motivated now to continue making this game the best it could possibly be!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]We’re at Avcon24![/h2]
Later this month, the Hell Byte team will be showcasing the game at Avcon in Adelaide, South Australia. So, if you find yourself close by on the 28th to the 30th of June, then you can come and catch us in the indie games room!
If you’d like to hear about the updates for Blood Reaver first, make sure to find us through our socials and community discord linked on the store page!

Hey Cultists,
It's officially been 1 month since we launched Blood Reaver's Steam page! We just want to thank everyone for the overwhelming support thus far and we're so excited to announce we've hit 2700+ wishlists.
Not only that, but we wanted to especially thank the influx of overseas interest in Blood Reaver. As a small Australian studio, the thought that our game could reach international players and grab the attention of those in other parts of the world is phenomenal. It's been a huge motivator for the team and we're even more excited now to be able to show what we've been up to so far in 2024.

We’re still a ways off from early access release, so while you wait for a major content announcement, here's some of our initial concept art for one of our player models, currently in production.

[h2]Character Concept Art: The Nameless Blood Reaver[/h2]
'Members of an ancient order, The Blood Reavers have mastered forbidden magic allowing them to siphon blood from infernal demons. They are the last line of defence protecting the barrier between hell and the mortal realm'


Created by our outstanding concept artist Matthew Dobrich. Check him out on ArtStation!

[h2]Looking Ahead[/h2]
We're heavily underway with our multiplayer rework & integration, and ideally, we'll be able to showcase fresh gameplay of what you can expect from Blood Reaver soon. Additionally, we're deep in the trenches with creating our second map 'Last Stand' and are in the process of expanding and updating the map currently available in our pre-alpha demo 'The Beginning of the End'. Both are planned to be playable for our early access launch in 2025!


[h2]Upcoming Events[/h2]
If you're local to us in Adelaide, South Australia this coming June, keep a look out for AVcon 24, where we will be showcasing the playable demo and teasing exclusive info on what's happening behind the scenes. Looking towards the later half of 2024 we’re also excited to announce we will be at PAX AUS in Melbourne, and SXSW in Sydney this coming October!

[h2]Links[/h2]
Community Discord: https://discord.gg/U6KMrZjrGM
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BloodReaver_AU
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloodreaver_au/
Studio Website: https://www.hellbytestudios.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HellByteStudios