Infernax News

Hey Dudes!

We didn’t make a big post about it because we didn’t have anything new to show to anyone who’d already played Infernax, but a couple of the team headed to PAX West this year to set up the ol’ living room and drink some Capri Suns.

It was only the second time we’d really had a chance to talk to anyone in person since the game launched in February, so a big thank you to everyone who took the time to stop by to tell us about their experiences playing the game, and to everyone who came and checked out the demo for the first time. Getting to talk to people about our games in person is one of the highlights of making games at all honestly.



[h2]"New" Steam Branch:[/h2]
So onto the content of the post: Right before PAX we added a new branch option for Infernax on Steam. It’s basically a time-capsule of the game at v1.01.011, before we launched the last major update with all the bug-fixes and accessibility options. We realized it would be nice to make it easily available for anyone who (for whatever reason) preferred the old build, but also for those who invested the time into learning that version for Speedrunning.

One of the things we were really surprised by after the launch of the game was the support of the speedrunning community, and we’re super grateful that anyone liked our game enough to spend a truly impressive amount of time playing and analyzing to optimize their runs. We figured the least we could do was make it possible for anyone who didn’t want to learn the post-updated version’s new quirks be able to stick to the older version they prefer.

[h3]BIG IMPORTANT NOTE: We absolutely can’t be sure there won’t be issues with your save files when you switch between versions of the game. So player beware here. Make sure you’re not attached to any save files before you start switching to and from the beta branch all willy nilly. Don't say we didn't warn you, it's happening, right here, right now.
[/h3]

If you don’t know how to activate a beta branch on steam, here’s a quick, handy, "high-quality" visual guide:



1. Right click on Infernax in your games list to open the game properties.
2. Once the window pops up, head to the the option marked "Betas" in the left-hand list.
[REMBEMBER TO READ THE NOTE ABOUT SAVE FILES FIRST]
3. In the drop down menu, select "backup" to swap over to the older branch.
4. Infernax.


[h2]SGDQ Speedrun:
[/h2]
Speaking of speedrunning, if you missed it, there was a great run of Infernax during this year’s Summer Games Done Quick by DantheVIP, with really awesome commentary from SaberaMesia. The whole team had a good time watching someone do things to our game we didn’t intend and could not have foreseen, all in the service of the almighty speedrun.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


If you want to attempt to use the time capsule branch to try your hand at a run, it looks like Dan did it in 51:52, so get to it.

We’ll have some news coming up fairly soon about content updates, we’re still working away over here so we will keep you looped in once we’re able to talk about it!

Take It Easy,
-Berzerk Team

Hey again, that’s right. When we said in the last post that the update was coming soon, we meant it. The QoL and Accessibility patch launched a bit earlier today, and should be available now on all platforms. For a nice general list of updates, here’s a TL;DR re-run of the greatest hits:

Major accessibility features:

• Accessibility options are no longer linked to the Game Wizard, and are now a menu available from the very start
  
• Element contrast: Add distinct color tints to enemies, projectiles, traps, etc. to make it easier to read a scene visually
  
• User controllable color saturation and contrast
  
• Ability to disable ambient particles and animated backgrounds to reduce visual noise
  
• Further improved the ability to greatly reduce both screen shake and camera flashes
  

SOME of the patched fixes/changes:

• In Casual mode, “dying” to a pitfall or drowning will now respawn the player on the edge they fell from if the player has enough remaining health points, instead of instant death.
  
• Minor UX changes like making it harder to accidentally steal from the church
  
• Fixed some issues with doors being unresponsive
  
• Improved V-Sync support
  
• ...tons more, the full patch notes are below
  

As promised, for those of you who would like more exhaustive patch notes, here they are. Contained in here are some spoilers for various story points, and variant play modes, so keep that in mind if you haven’t played through the entire game yet!

Patch Notes (V.1.02.004)
- Accessibility features have been greatly enhanced and overhauled and now have their own dedicated menu.
-Added option to adjust saturation and contrast in-game to accessibility menu.
-Added option to remove particle animation to accessibility menu.
-Added option to remove background animation to accessibility menu
-Added option to add distinct color tints to game elements to accessibility menu.
-Further improved reduction of both screen shake and flash animations when set to ‘minimal’ via accessibility menu.
-Added option to swap control joysticks and adjust deadzone to advanced controller settings.
- In Casual mode, “dying” to a pitfall or drowning will now respawn the player on the edge they fell from if the player has enough remaining health points, instead of instant death.
- Multiple text and localization fixes.
- Improved V-Sync support.
- Fixed some instances where Door collisions could become unresponsive.
- Fixed possibility to steal from the Church more than once during night time.
- Donation chest now requires multiple hits to make sure the choice isn't accidental.
- Fixed possibility of losing first key if dying at the same time as the Red Aberration by changing logical checks linked to the event start and key obtention.
- Reward for performing a successful exorcism increased to 300 gold.
- Added auto-save upon exiting Castles 1 to 5 to prevent progress loss if dying after finishing a Castle without having saved.
- Fixed being able to trigger Paimon resurrection from other corpses then his.
- Fixed soft-lock if trying to start a new game as Maxime Gunn with maximum save slots already filled.
- Player will now properly collide with Spike Boxes while on Moving Platforms.
- Every dialog triggered through input should now check for nearby enemies before allowing interaction.
- Fixed Shield Spell being able to despawn when killing one of the dual bosses in Castle 6.
- Fixed Shield Spell despawning when switching day-time or reloading the same level.
- The lever at the gallows will now only be there during the execution event.
- Fixed mis-aligned Evil Save Shrine in front of Castle 3.
- Fixed possibility to hit Crocell during her eye closed animation cycle.
- Fixed possibility to softlock during the initial Darsov Fight by having the monster push NPCs out of bounds.
- Added ability to back out of difficulty Select Screen.
- Removed Block VFX spawning while attempting to drain life on some enemies during their invisible states.
- Fixed incorrect corpse visual in Katska Hideout.
- Fixed missing Jetpack helmet on some Evil Alcedor frames.
- Fixed missing default dialog handling with incompatible morality values for James and one of the Vagabonds at the nearby camp.
- Fixed Tancred colliding and blocking the Hero’s Projectiles during his Protect Quest.
- Reduced camera bounds during the Attack Tancred event.
- Fixed possibilities for Tancred to cancel out of his "finish him" stance at the end of Darsov Assault.
- Fixed wrong portrait for Cultist Dialog during the Defend the Bridge event.
- Fixed Hero projectiles getting despawned during Boss Death, especially for fights with multiple bosses.
- Fixed possibility to trigger Gregor exorcism more than once.
- Fixed Death Screen music not looping.
- Revised Drain Life casting rules to minimize the possibility of wasting the spell. Improved visual feedback when Drain Life cannot be cast.
- Multiple fixes for Blood VFX color, both from hits and Drain Life spell.
- Fixed some instances of Down Strike's hit VFX not having the proper color.
- Fixed Background color in a cave environment during night on the way to Robert's Hideout.
- Fixed Evil Ending artwork displaying Alcedor with his Good Tabard.
- Fixed Mayor's Goon not awarding experience.
- Fixed Demon Form Alcedor having Mace during Evil Credits.
- The range at which the Castle 3 event can be triggered is now more generous.
- Fixed being able to Drain Life from invisible Sorcerers.
- Fixed Nightbeasts not dropping coins.
- Fixed being able to skip the initial zombie encounter by flying / infinite jumping over it.
- Fixed Null Ref if dying in Darsov Battle room with the Gate.
- Fixed Null Ref if using Drain Life on Scorpion during Darsov Battle.
- Fixed Boss Reveal music still playing if skipping intro for Castle 5 and Future Bosses.
- Fixed Robert not being registered in Demonology when dying during his stand-off event.
- Fixed Drowning animation flickering while playing with non-regular Heroes.
- Fixed Thunder flash looping if cast right before a scripted dialog would occur.
- Fixed Darsov Protect scripted events triggering after Player death.
- Fixed hit SFX during Destroy Relic event with Axcedor.
- Fixed wrong portrait for alternate Heroes during both fights against Tancred.
- Fixed possibility to trigger Ram Hideout Door animations twice.
- Fixed Lord of Maggot's corpse collision so it cannot clip walls.
- Added quotation marks to Kickstarter Grave Messages.
- Fixed quest update display when meeting Julius outside Darsov during exorcism questline.
- Fixed quest update display after picking up the Necronomicon in Robert's Hideout.
- Fixed possibility to farm xp by re-entering Castle 1 Boss room after defeating him.
- Fixed two seperate NPCs having the name "Christopher".
- Fixed floating eye spawning under a water wheel on the way to Castle 3.
- Fixed instances of scripted jumps not properly supporting Infinite Jump.
- Fixed a platform collision in Castle 4's top room that was too generous and problematic when navigating on the way back.
- Fixed a corner collision on the way to Castle 3 that was prone to clipping through regular navigation.
- Fixed a corner collision on the way to Kadjanto that was prone to clipping through regular navigation.
- Fixed a corner collision in the Castle 5 room with multiple spear launchers that was prone to clipping through regular navigation.
- Fixed a corner collision in the first room of the eastern caves that was prone to clipping through regular navigation.
- Fixed a corner collision in the Castle 4 room that requires charge skill through a tunnel formation that was prone to clipping through regular navigation.
- Fixed a corner collision in Darsov Keep that was prone to clipping through regular navigation.
- Fixed possibility to trigger screen edge travel without activating bridge by clipping the rocks on the way to Skeleton Neighbor House.
- Fixed possibility to get soft-locked during scripted events by hopping on and off Bike.
- You can now drop-down through platforms while staying on Bike.
- Unmounted Bike now properly interacts with water.
- Fixed loss of control after dashing with the Bike right after activating it through manually entering the code from the Kickstarter Mausoleum shrine.
- Fixed possibility for Bike Controls to remain stuck during Castle Clear animation.
- Added proper handling for picking-up chest items while riding Bike.
- Fixed Last Weapon VFX still appearing when dashing on Bike while having them equipped.
- Fixed animation when being kicked by the Red Aberration in Darsov while on Bike.
- Added a block in a corner of Castle 4 to prevent Bike from staying perma-hit-stunned in between two spikes.
- You can now destroy the Dam with the Chainsaw.
- You can now perform Holy Charge with the Chainsaw.
- Fixed collision length of the Chainsaw Attack.
- Fixed Chainsaw SFX looping if started mid-air.
- Removed an invisible platform in Castle 6.
- Fixed a floor collision in Castle 4 that allowed Sorcerers to warp inside walls.

We hope these additions make the game easier to play for anyone who would like to use them, and that the fixes polish up some of the stuff we saw recurring post-launch. While waiting for this patch to make it through approvals, the team has already been working on what comes next. We think everyone will enjoy what we have planned, so stay tuned for updates when we've got more info to share.

Take it Easy,
-Berzerk Team

What’s up duuuudes, we know people have been interested to know what the Infernax team has been up to since launch, so we appreciate you hanging with us while we first did some critical post-launch patches on the game, and since then we’ve been able to spend the last few months working on an upcoming update.

This day one (four months later) update focuses on both Accessibility and quality of life. It’s something that was really important to us as a team that despite spending a lot of time leading up to the launch polishing, we still had more things we wanted to tackle to feel like it was in a good spot.



Due to the nature of Infernax having been developed over the course of so many years, when we realized towards the end of development that we wanted to try to add in options and features to allow as many people as possible to enjoy the game, we were constrained a bit by the actual game design itself. Something that seems simple, like removing flashes or screen-shake turns out to be very hard to modify at all when the game itself has certain effects hard-coded in.

So we had to get deep into the code, and make some changes to the base game to be able to add in more accessibility than Infernax launched with, but it was something we felt strongly about, and we decided like it was an important first major project to tackle before adding more content.

Major accessibility features we were able to add are:

• Accessibility options are no longer linked to the Game Wizard, and are now a menu available from the very start
  
• Element contrast: Add distinct color tints to enemies, projectiles, traps, etc. to make it easier to read a scene visually
  
• User controllable color saturation and contrast
  
• Ability to disable ambient particles and animated backgrounds to reduce visual noise
  
• Further improved the ability to greatly reduce both screen shake and camera flashes*
  

*Due to the way the game is built, entirely taking out every single instance of a flash or shake was impossible, but in addition to removing every single instance that we could, any that are still a part of the game are now low contrast or diminished, with greatly reduced impact to minimize issues for people who are sensitive.



In addition to the accessibility updates, we tackled some still outstanding issues, and made some quality of life improvements to the general game. These include things like:

• In Casual mode, “dying” to a pitfall or drowning will now respawn the player on the edge they fell from if the player has enough remaining health points, instead of instant death
• 
  
• Minor UX changes like making it harder to accidentally steal from the church
  
• Fixed some issues with doors being unresponsive
  
• Improved V-Sync support
  

*there’s more detail to this but you get the idea, you don’t die every time.

The patch notes are much longer and go into a lot more detail for those of you out there who want the nitty-gritty, and we’ll share those when the update does go live.

We’ve heard everyone asking about new content, and what we can say is: yup, there’s more content we have planned for the game and once this update is out we’ll be about to focus more resources on that directly. We just wanted to leave the basic functions of the game in a state that felt good as far as trying to make it easier for more people to have a chance to play before moving on and expanding the game itself.

Thanks a ton for all the support, it’s been really great to see so many people enjoying their time with the game. The Accessibility/QoL update is planned to go out soon (real soon), at this point we’re mostly waiting to make sure that everything is approved on every platform, and we’ll be good to go.

-Berzerk Team

Are we a roguelike game now?

We're in the Going Rogue event, but that doesn't mean we HAVE to be a Roguelike right? We like to think of ourselves as a Zeldavania anyway.

We're 20% off right now during the event though, so you should pick up the game if you still haven't; and if you have... well... thanks a ton for playing, now rope someone else into playing too!

You know, speaking of Roguelike games, remember Rogue? What a great game, never cared more about an @ sign wandering around an ASCII dungeon.

Buy our game if you like good stuff, we're gonna go play some Rogue.

Hello everyone!

This Valentine's Day you have a date with destiny, a very gory, bloody destiny, as that's when we're releasing Infernax into the wild, because we're romantic like that.



If you didn't have a date planned, you do now.

if you had, well, you might have to pull a Michael Scott in that one episode with Jan and the real estate agent lady and figure out a way to do both without the other finding out; or maybe you can get them to play with you, now that's a sign they're a keeper if I've ever seen one!

Think Jan would be down with Infernax? I kinda think she'd be, she's sorta wild at the end...

...

I digress... YEAH Infernax is coming out in a few weeks, check out the trailer and get excited!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


🌟 Wishlist us for great justice:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/374190/Infernax/

⚔️ Want to get in that sweet, sweet Infernax action? Come check us a look on our socials:

https://twitter.com/infernax
https://twitter.com/TheArcadeCrew
https://www.tiktok.com/@thearcadecrew/
https://discord.gg/berzerkstudio