Chasm News

Chasm has been updated again with another often requested feature: mappable gamepad controls! We also took the opportunity to revamp the button graphics and tidy up a few input related things. Here is the full change-list:

- added customizable gamepad controls
- added new button graphics for all platforms
- added button graphics to control mapping screen
- adjusted drop rates
- fixed rare crash with enemy status effects
- fixed enemy getting status effect after death
- fixed crusher collisions
- fixed treasure chest spawning animation for boss no hit in arcade mode
- fixed yes/no prompts sometimes overflowing convo bubble
- fixed keyboard key labels sometimes overflowing button graphic

Happy New Year! We're excited to announce that Chasm 1.050 is now available. While the major feature is language support for 5 new languages (Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese), we’ve also made improvements to the world, backtracking, item drops, and much more. A huge thanks goes out to our community for all the feedback and support!

Here is the full list of changes:

• added translations for Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese
  
• added chance for Unique and Legendary item drops with bonus stats
  
• added new shortcuts in Mines and Catacombs to help with backtracking (new games only)
  
• added Savepoint to Mines shortcut hub
  
• added Inventory sorting by Name, Value, and Type
  
• added 4th treasure chest room to Mines, Catacombs, Gardens and Keep areas (new games only)
  
• added several new rooms (new games only)
  
• updated to FNA 19.01 with new audio engine (fixes "Out of Memory" crashes on some machines)
  
• changed Portals to ask for destination after more than 2 unlocked
  
• changed Map screen Area connection labels from words to icons
  
• various improvements to UI
  
• various tweaks to drop rates, player speed, spell upgrades, etc
  
• fixed rare glitching into ground when walljumping in corners
  
• fixed interaction status message spamming
  
• fixed item descriptions sometimes overflowing box bounds
  
• fixed stray character on Name Entry screen when opened with keyboard
  
• fixed Temple Guards glaive not being destroyed on death
  
• fixed missing boss flag before final boss
  
• fixed wasp buzzing playing after death
  
• fixed crouching in spikes without taking damage
  

We'll have more coming soon, so please stay tuned!

It's 1992, and the arcade is the place to be for the most advanced and challenging experiences around. A mysterious new game has appeared that has all the kids at school talking. This game is different every time you play it, and the leaderboards reflect only those with the quickest wits to combat its twisting dungeons, ferocious enemies, and unpredictable nature.

When people first play Chasm, many don’t realize that there is a robust world building engine powering it. After all, it plays like a good old fashioned dungeon crawling Metroidvania. We had tons of ideas of ways we could leverage the procedural dungeon creation engine, so we set to work and built our first DLC for Chasm: the Guilean Arcade Pack. And best of all, it’s free!

Unlike the main mode, which generates a full world map when you start up your campaign, the new Arcade Mode generates a new layout of the world on the fly. Leave a room and come back, and it’ll be a completely new room. You have 8 minutes to explore each area of the world. If you don’t reach the next area or die along the way, your game is over.

The Arcade Mode is really three modes in one:

• Daily Challenge: Every day you get one shot to leave your mark on Karthas history. Stay alive, progress as far as you can, and rack up your kill count and reach the next area as quickly as possible for maximum points to earn your spot at the top of the daily leaderboard.
  
• Weekly Challenge: Same idea as the Daily Challenge, but you can take your time and get to know the map. Play through as many times as you like, finding the best shortcuts, loot, and power-ups along the way. Your highest score for the week will be recorded for posterity.
  
• Practice: No one’s keeping score but you, so just have fun in this mode. Use the randomly generated seed to explore a new dungeon just for you, or enter your own seed number to explore a dungeon you’re already familiar with.
  

The Guildean Arcade Pack is currently only available on Steam, but we are working hard to bring it to all platforms as soon as we are able.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!

In addition to the new Arcade Mode, we’ve been adding a bunch of improvements to the game based on player feedback since launch. Combat should feel a lot more responsive, and enemies will react more realistically. (Well, as realistic as we think a zombie in an underground catacomb might react!) We won’t go into all the little tweaks and adjustments here, but if you’d like to find out all of the detail, you can check out our release notes page.



Lastly, we'd like to quickly mention that we are participating in the Steam Halloween sale and the game is currently 10% off. Grab it while it's hot!

Happy hunting!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shTHtaF4ASA

That’s a wrap everyone! Chasm is done, and it’s now being played by people worldwide. To say that it’s a surreal feeling would be an understatement. I’ve done pretty much nothing but Chasm for the last 5-6 years and now it’s out of my hands.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey. Some of you may have heard about us years ago and some just recently. Regardless of when you became a part of this community, you were part of something special. Even in the indie scene, it’s rare for a ragtag group of aspiring developers to be able to keep hammering away at a project year after year until it was done right. We learned a ton along the way and never compromised. With the help of my best friends and teammates, we all made Chasm the best we could.

I wrote a retrospective recap of our development journey for the PlayStation Blog, which you can read here. If you’re too PCMR to check out a PlayStation blog, the tl;dr version is that the Bit Kid team is composed of old friends. Our lead programmer, Tim, and I have been friends since high school. Our composer, Jimi, and I have been friends since college. And the rest of the team - Glauber, Dan, and other Dan - have all become lifelong friends too.

Even though Chasm is now officially out, we’re not done yet. We’ve already got ideas for new game modes we’d like to add. New platforms to be on. We’ll be sure to keep you in the loop every step of the way.

Thanks for being a part of this journey, and stay tuned for more!

James

Chasm is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*

Explore the depths below a remote mountain town in this procedurally-generated Adventure Platformer. Taking inspiration from hack 'n slash dungeon crawlers and Metroidvania-style platformers, Chasm will immerse you in a fantasy world full of exciting treasure, deadly enemies, and abundant secrets.

*Offer ends August 6 at 10AM Pacific Time