Anathema News

Hello, everyone!

We wanted to post an update here regarding the current development status and deactivation of the demo that was previously available.

For those of you that haven't followed the project, we announced Anathema in 2015 when indie games wishing to release on Steam required a community approval known as Steam Greenlight. During that time, the game was far from ready but we wanted community feedback if there was any interest in the game concept before we pushed forward into a lengthy development cycle. Now, the process of listing a game on Steam is much more straight-forward and does not require a community approval cycle to be listed on Steam.

In 2017, we released an early pre-alpha demo of the game in its state at that time, but still very far from completion and release. We continued to work on this project for years in our free time outside of family, friends and day-to-day life obligations. Admittedly, it has been a very slow development cycle when trying to find time outside of obligations to work on the game. In summer and fall 2024, two of our team members had health concerns that forced development to come to a complete halt. The good news is testing and health has now turned out to be fine and development can resume for the final stretch.

Now, in 2025 as we near the development finish line, a few things have become abundantly clear regarding the 2017 demo:

1. It is no longer remotely close to the representation of Anathema in its current state. Significant leaps in development have been made in generally every aspect of the game.
   
2. Since the 2017 demo's release, the Steam Deck has been released which the 2017 demo is incompatible with due to legacy FMV cut scene methods that cause termination of the demo. Cut scenes have been completely remade from scratch entirely in-engine to ensure 100% compatibility with Steam Deck without reliance of codecs. The FMV cut scenes also were hit or miss even on some Windows machines, so this was a high priority to fix in the long term. A demo that doesn't run on a very popular piece of hardware is not desirable.

In its current state, the game is somewhere around 90% completely, approximately. The gameplay segment itself is playable entirely front-to-back and cut scenes are the current focus on final voice over selections and musical scoring. Once the cut scenes are fully complete and some gameplay musical tracks brought up to par with more recent instrumental quality, they can be merged together for a complete experience with some final coats of polish (which has been heavily applied as development progressed the last couple years.) From there, it's off to external bug-testing, promotional campaigns and eventually (and finally) release.

We will be releasing an updated trailer, screenshots and demo on the store page in the future that better represents what the final product will be as we near release to tie into our promotional campaigns, but felt it necessary to deactivate the demo that is almost 8 years old (wow). Understandably, this may disappoint some, but first impressions are very important and we want players to see Anathema in its best form possible which has evolved by leaps and bounds since our initial presentation for Greenlight approval and demo release. We hope you understand and look forward to final version as much as we look forward to getting it into your hands!

As we gather to bid farewell to 2023, this seemed like a great (and long overdue) opportunity to provide an update on Anathema's development. Overall, 2023 was subjected to multiple setbacks and delays due to somber personal life-events that took precedence and attention away from Anathema, but we managed to exit the year nonetheless with some major milestones. Please read below for further details!

• All in-game audio has been completely remastered. This allows for more headroom in the digital audio spectrum and should produce far less "clipping" audio and artifacts that was present in the 2017 demo.
  
• The cover artwork is currently being drawn by our good friend Craig Daversa (his game can be found here). We can't wait to unveil it when it's ready; the work-in-progress updates we've seen have been fantastic.
  
• The polish phase has commenced. Below are select comparison screenshots from the 2017 demo to the 2023 pre-release build. Note that these are all still very much a work-in-progress and the animated version's resolution and color count have been lowered due to the service used to make the animated images.

• All in-game cutscene artwork renders have been completed and are now functional in-engine. This doesn't include the game's ending, which will begin production in 2024 after we reconvene to plan storyboards.
  
• The number of images in cutscenes completed total to a whopping 593 panels that took approximately 100 hours just to render the imagery.
  
• There are 28 cutscenes that span a 70 page script.
  
• Voiceover lines were recorded in 2017, but will have some additional voiceover recordings for minor NPC characters.
  
• Music, sound effects and voiceover lines are next to be added to cutscenes. The voiceover lines need final selection of best takes for each character, music will need to be scored for select scenes and sound effects where applicable.
  
• Below are some screenshot examples taken from cutscenes at various points throughout the game.
  Note that all dialog text has been censored to prevent any potential spoilers of the story.

Hello!

We have received a few emails asking about the development status of Anathema and thought it would be a good time to give an update on where we are currently at.



We're very pleased to say we are extremely close to finishing the game! Since the last update from October 2020, development slowed significantly due to working around day jobs and personal lives but we've made some decent progress along the way still, albeit not at the rate we were making until May 2021. Things are ramping up heavily again now that we're in the final stretch! Here's what has been completed in that timeframe:

• Steam Deck compatibility! Early testing with the newly released Steam Deck is fantastic and runs great using Proton Experimental. Further testing is needed as the Steam Deck is still new, but so far it is working fantastically.
  
• 11 bosses have been added. All that remains in this category is the final boss!
  
• The cutscene system has been entirely revamped and is moving away from FMVs entirely. The intro and ending will maintain a similar style of direction that was utilized in the demo but will be built entirely in-game to ensure 100% compatibility across all player machines. Cutscenes between levels will be more akin to Shantae. This will help us also ensure the Steam Deck compatibility is high and avoid prior codec issues demo users sometimes receive.
  
• The Inventory screen has been completely redesigned for a better flow and user experience.
  
• Controller compatibility has been greatly extended. The game is now natively compatible with Xbox 360, One, and Series S/X controllers, and PS4 and PS5 controllers. The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is also compatible using Steam's built-in Nintendo controller support. Players can select their preferred icon set for their preferred controller.
  
• The Level Select/Map screen is completed and fully functional.
  
• The save system is now fully functional. On this particular note, how many save slots would you suggest be available?
  
• Localization code has been created to support future localizations. Currently, we only have plans for English, but based on feedback and wishlists we may add other localizations in the future.
  
• The tutorial area has completely replaced the demo's tutorial video and is now a fully interactive segment. Brief and to the point.
  

We are currently working on a horse chase segment of the game that hopefully, players will enjoy. This segment is approximately 85% complete and just needs some further level design revisions and additions. From there, it's a matter of completing the remaining cutscenes, the final boss, tightening up enemy AI, replayability rewards and placement, and some of the remaining music for the soundtrack.

We do have plans to issue a demo update in the future leading up to the release. The majority of work necessary is completed for that but does have a few items that need to be addressed before we can push that out for play.

While we're not quite to the point to feel confident in announcing a release date just yet, know that we're much, much closer to knowing when we can confidently set a date. Once everything is together we still have to run a period of beta testing and also marketing as we move into the final stretch!

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Where to begin? If you've kept up with prior development updates, you're aware we are working on this project around our day jobs with our free time. When Covid hit earlier this year, our employers responded like most - reduced work schedules or even furloughs. In a way, this was somewhat of a blessing in disguise because it allowed extra time to make significant milestone progress.

Since March of this year, we have completed all level's designs, layouts, and art assets. I repeat - all levels are fully functional and completely built, save for that final bit of polish at the end of all development cycles to make them shine their best. This may not be very exciting for you, but this is huge progress. In the end, Anathema will end up with 13 levels total, instead of the originally planned 12 levels.

The second major milestone achieved is 100% of all enemies are completely designed, animated, and programmed. There are currently 54 enemies in Anathema that do not include mini-bosses or main bosses. The enemies are also neither recycled sprites nor palette swaps - these are 54 uniquely designed, animated, and programmed enemies. Some attacks, patterns, or movements may be slightly similar (due to working in a 2D environment you only have so much range of motion) but each stage features its own unique enemy sprites. That said, as development progresses we may decide to add more enemies if necessary.

How about a look at some of the enemies?

[h3]PLAGUE WEREWOLF[/h3]

Anathema's backstory revolves around the fallen Angel, Azrael, who unleashed a terrible sickness known as "Devil's Plague." This (un)fortunate soul was able to survive the Devil's Plague only because it was also infected with Lycanthropy.

[h3]FIRE SPRITE DEMON[/h3]

In the deepest catacombs of the main continent lie the ruins of a misunderstood civilization that was exiled. The outskirts of the Exiled's rubble are teeming with creatures adapted to the hostile volcanic landscape. This demon will certainly scorch any to ashes that dare enter its domain.

[h3]BLACK DAWN ALCHEMIST[/h3]

In the opening of the Anathema demo, we mention a cult known as "The Black Dawn." These cultists blindly pursue the rebirth of Azrael after his defeat at the hands of Aurora's father, Corbin Delacroix. There are various roles the cultists play - sentries, alchemists, priests, etc. This particular cultist is adept with the art of alchemy and uses it with explosive results, albeit with a headstrong nature.

We would love to show more of the enemies, but also don't want to spoil everything in the game ahead of its release. But don't worry! We will show more as we near the finish line!




***Please note these are not final names, just what we use to refer to them internally.

[h3]THE ARCHREVENANT[/h3]
In the last update, we showed you a glimpse of the Ossuary and its Vampyr Elder miniboss. Here is a look at the final boss of this level. The Ossuary is the very next level following the end of the demo.


[h3]SNOW PEAK VILLAGE[/h3]
We posted this screenshot on our Twitter earlier this year (in animated form) so here it is in case you missed it. If you haven't already, give us a follow on Twitter @Esperware because we post things there that don't always make it here.


[h3]SCARECROW VALLEY[/h3]
Classic games would tout having a day and night system. Well, we have an eclipse system.


[h3]THE ALCHEMY LAB[/h3]
What hideous man-made monsters await in this isolated laboratory?


[h3]THE ZOMBIE VILLAGE[/h3]
There is nothing like a little R&R in the country, right?



As mentioned above, we've made two major milestones in 2020 that bring us two very big leaps closer to completing the development of this game. We want to finish this game and get it in your hands as soon as possible, but there are still some things left to do. Currently, development is focused on bosses and cutscenes. These are the final two remaining major milestones for the game. After that it's minor things like revamping the Inventory screen, adding the hidden Tomes that expound on the lore of the game, rounding out the final sound design (even though most is handled as we go), and the level select screen.

It feels really good to be able to say the end is finally in sight. There are still things left to do, but the hardest parts of the development cycle are now done and behind us. I am extremely confident in saying that Anathema should be ready for release sometime in 2021, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

We hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!!!

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Happy October!

We don't have as much this time around to share with you as we did last month, but this time around we will show you some audio/visual goodies!


In last month's update we shared images of the work-in-progress for the newest level we've been developing - The Ossuary. In this video, we share a brief look of this level in motion, including one of three mini bosses you will encounter. The player can progress through this level's three routes in any order they choose, but must defeat all guardians before they are allowed passage into the next area - the Vampyr Den. Feast your eyes and let us know your thoughts!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


To change things up this month a little bit, our resident composer has whipped up a special remix just for you. For those that have played the demo, you will be familiar with the tune this remix is an arrangement of - Gravekeeper's Hollow. When thinking of games' stage 1 music, it's important to hook the player with a catchy, hummable melody that (hopefully) can get stuck in your head. When Anathema releases, we definitely want to have a bundle that includes the OST for the game. Whether or not it includes remixed versions of tunes from the game is up in the air as of now, but companion pieces are always great to have. Let us know what you think.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


Quite a lot of progress has been made since the last update. We've begun adding a new area that precedes the graveyard area of the first stage which will serve as the "tutorial area." The video tutorials in the demo area merely placeholder just so the player has a basic understanding of the core fundamentals of gameplay. Don't worry, we won't hold your hand, but it's important to know the basics so players can get the most out of the game. Here is a very early look at how it is shaping up aesthetically.

There will be more to show in future updates. We will post them here but you can also follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/esperware to be notified as we post.

We hope everyone has a fun and spooky rest of your October, and Happy Halloween!