Happy New Year, Everyone!!! We hope you've had a wonderful holiday season!  You may have noticed there has been a gross dearth of updates from us as of recently. That is because whilst we have indeed been working this whole time, there's not really been much to show or update you on... [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38625098/858b723d315500bf2bbb891be6ae9e234094b49b.gif[/img] The last few months have been spent working on the game's finale and polishing up its third chapter. These are time-consuming tasks that involve either heavy spoilers, or stuff that's just not really interesting to showcase until the work is actually done... As it stands currently, we are still knee-deep in the midst of both these tasks. Thing is now we actually have something to show for them. There have also been a number of other important changes and tweaks that we can talk about along the way. So without any further ado... [h1]C3L1 - Theopathic Thoroughfare[/h1] The opening level of Viscerafest's third chapter is almost completely done! There's some sound work it needs yet, its OST and several small bug fixes. But otherwise, the level is playable front to back! So let's talk about it a lil' bit. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38625098/c92442fc6c02b08255809430de6285d9411697a8.png[/img] In the wake of Viscerafest Chapter 2's ending Caroline once again steps through an archegate into the Great Divide, the primary difference now being the route this takes her through has a formerly well-established U.S.C. presence. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38625098/700251186430429dbc04993d55ca7e4945ac0028.png[/img] Various U.S.C. Checkpoints bridge the gap from this entrance into the Great Divide through to its exit into Rhanak Zethir, which resides in the realm of the Elder World. This will be Caroline's final goodbye to the U.S.C. before she steps into territory they have lost. Unknown forces have removed the conglomerate's presence from Rhanak Zethir, and this will mean that soon Caroline will be fighting more than mere flesh and blood. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38625098/af6fbf47bd4682c6c5be90e589beb6427809c3c3.png[/img] C3L1 in a similar vein to C1L6 and C2L5 is one of Chapter 3's more story-heavy maps. But unlike the prior Great Divide levels, it is also more elaborate, and combat-heavy. Honestly... as of writing this, it's easily one of my favorite levels, and I can't wait for you guys to play it! [h1]Bombs away!!![/h1] On a much less significant note, I've effectively completely reworked the physics and behavior of the Grenadiers'... well... grenades. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38625098/4f62234a236ef5d49b2fecc9453fc35facb2dce1.png[/img] In my humble opinion, they were a bit too chaotic in the midst of combat, often flying around and ricocheting off the environment at borderline untrackable speeds, thus I felt the need to reel them in a bit. They no longer fall as quickly and generally have a slightly slower, more floaty presence to make their movements easier to visually track and deal with. It's a relatively minor change all things considered but one that I feel makes this enemy a bit nicer to go up against. [h1]Nomad Priest - Rework[/h1] Viscerafest's first flying enemy has just received some rather notable changes and updates. The Nomad Priest was one of Viscerafest's final enemies that needed a sprite update, so I gave the kind lad a pretty new paint job. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38625098/65d9a1fe9a91ab37305cd5968f434b038e84c7c0.gif[/img] In addition to this though I felt like amongst the Chapter 3 enemy roster his old set of attacks meant he didn't have as firm a footing in that part of the game. Other enemies did his job better and were more interesting, thus I felt the need to spice him up a bit in order to set him apart from the crowd. I won't say what these changes are, I'll let you find out with time, but I feel he has a stronger place on the roster now as it stands. [h1]U.I. Updates[/h1] This isn't necessarily entirely new but slowly more and more work has been being done to refine the look of our menus further. Not anything too exciting, but ya know... it's stuff we've been working on... So I thought I would mention it. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38625098/9dc174c55a6fdb584dd7803b37e9cfaccd8252d8.png[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38625098/5126e83a080447d101658d02f3905786ab8d2588.png[/img] [h1]Art Updates[/h1] As I mentioned in the intro my big focus of late has been polishing up Viscerafest's third chapter, and a big part of this is refining the look of all these maps. You may have noticed I've been... stingy... about showcasing Viscerafest's third chapter until now, and there's a good reason for that. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38625098/8f88da086154710ce090c61a2b69388274a6eb7f.png[/img] The levels for a long while now have been in a... "Rough Draft" stage, and as a consequence, they're quite ugly and rough around the edges. Not only were/are there missing props and gameplay elements that have yet to be added, but the lighting is... *oof* and the texture work is especially rough and sloppy. This "Rough Draft" stage is something we've done with all of Viscerafest's levels in the past. Prior to release, most of Viscerafest's levels were pretty rough, but the rough drafted-ness of chapter 3 has been particularly egregious until now, and that's why I've been very picky and hesitant to show ya'll any of it. If I was going to show you guys a glimpse of the chapter, I wanted it to leave at least a somewhat positive impression upon you all, and I just knew that most of the third chapter was not ready for primetime. Being able to finally go through and "clean house" so to speak, is immensely satisfying, and I can't wait to show you all more and more as the rest of these maps hit their final stages! [h1]The Return of Markie[/h1] For those of you not aware toward the beginning of this year we lost our Composer Michael Markie. In the wake of life's craziness, he was effectively forced to step away from the project as he no longer had the time to work with us. Into his place stepped Geoffplaysguitar who you may know did the OST for Viscerafest's second chapter. But whilst I am eternally grateful for Geoff, Markie did far more than make the game's music. Markie was our sound designer, he mixed audio, polished up VA recordings, made the entire game's audioscape, did the music and sound for the cutscenes, and then some. This was by far the more damning aspect of losing him, which is why I am happy to say that HE IS BACK BOIS!!! In the wake of recent events, Markie has been able to hop back on board the project to help us finish up the game's audioscape. As you may have surmised I am overwhelmingly overjoyed regarding this fact, and I'm very excited to finally be able to start making progress on that side of things once again. [h1]In Closing[/h1] With Chapter 3 in its cleanup stage, it's safe to say that you'll be seeing much more of it here in the coming months. With that, we may even start showing some gameplay soon here to give you a taste of what the chapter will be like. It's also worth noting in addition to the above a whole host of balancing changes, optimization tweaks, and other more minor stuff has indeed been accomplished as well, but it's all stuff not really worth explaining here. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38625098/b5ae2e918423fd6b6da6e282dab56f586c94ef0f.jpg[/img] But that is all for now. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to catch up with us! It's always a pleasure. As always we hope you have a wonderful day and a very happy new year!