Latest Gardens tileset revision with improved details, lighting, and readability.
Production Update
We've prepared an extensive production update for everyone this month! It breaks down many facets of the game and details what stage each is currently at. On top of that, there's a few behind the scenes photos and teases at what's to come. Check it out now on our official Kickstarter page!
Chasm at PAX Prime
We'll be showing off Chasm this weekend as part of the PAX Prime Indie Megabooth! If you'll be there stop by and say hi, grab some swag, and check out the latest demo. We hope to see you there!
July Update
Ever since the original prototype, Chasm has begun with a short text crawl followed by Daltyn entering the town of Karthas. We've always tried to stick to a "play it, don't say it" philosophy, and after studying up on Joseph Campbell's hero's journey we realized that the Outpost that Daltyn is stationed at was the perfect place to begin an epic adventure. The Outpost lies on the border between the rival kingdoms of Guildea (Daltyn's homeland) and Delkath, and is an important strategic position in the long-running war between the two. Starting there will not only give you a taste of Daltyn's life before the journey, but also help establish the lore of the world more deeply. We'll be showing off more of the Outpost in the coming months, but for now enjoy the first look at its courtyard!
GIFs
We've been hard at work on new content for the past couple months, as well as doing some overall improvements and polish to the game. The next few GIFs show off a couple enemies you will encounter in the Gardens, as well as many improvements we've made such as new hit effects and shaders, dynamic dust particles, improved damage stats, dramatic freezing for important events, and more. Please keep in mind these are downsampled from 60 to 30 FPS, so they aren't nearly as smooth as it will be in-game!
We usually only show off the more polished stuff, but we thought you all might like a little peak behind the scenes to see how things are made! The following GIF was recorded in a debug room we use to develop and tune the mechanics of the game. It features a new Wall Jump ability, hard landings, pushable obstacles and more!
Also check out our most recent Kickstarter update for another image and a preview track off the OST! We'll have more to reveal next month, so stay tuned!
May Update
Hello again Chasm fans! This month marks the two year anniversary of the Chasm Kickstarter, so we decided to do a huge recap Update of the past couple years to commemorate it. It also goes into what we've been up to lately and our next goals, so check it out now on our Kickstarter page!
Game Devastation Podcast
Chasm director James Petruzzi and biz/marketing expert Dan Adelman did a podcast with Double Helix/Amazon Producer Stephan Frost a couple weeks ago. Check it out on his Patreon page now!
Screenshots
We'll be releasing some first looks at new content this summer, but in the meantime here's a few new things to check out:
NPCs from the new intro area "Outpost".
An old, mysterious painting in the Keep.
Optional xBR smoothing for the pixel averse.
March Update
We've been incredibly busy this past month working away on the game, but we're happy to report that things are progressing smoothly! With the Alpha completed and all the design problems out of the way, we've been able to dedicate 100% of our energy to content. We were planning on doing a big production update this month for everyone, but there are so many things wrapping up in the next few weeks that we thought it would make more sense to just hold off until next month. In the meantime, here's a look at a few cool things we've been working on:
Achievements are now working on all platforms, both Steam and DRM-free! The framework has been set up and the unlocks work, so we're basically just down to creating the list itself. We're looking forward to brainstorming some fun and challenging feats for you to perform!
Secret areas have been prototyped! We went back and forth on how to do them for a while, but we ended up with something inspired by one of our favorite series about an Italian plumber. Walls, floors, and ceilings can be fake, and you can move behind them to discover hidden treasure and passage-ways!
We've been thinking about fancier transitions for a while now, so we tried out something reminiscent of our favorite 16-bit games. What do you think?
PRESS ROUNDUP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjhW2Dprglo
If you haven't had a chance to check out anything about Chasm recently and don't have a lot of time, definitely check out Super Pawsitive's brief 5 minute review of the Alpha. He does a great job quickly encapsulating how the game plays, and showing off a lot of the stuff you can do in it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnIamAnpFUw
Gamespot highlighted a few games from this year's GDC MIX event on their livestream, and Chasm was among them! In this clip, Chasm biz man Dan Adelman talks about the game while Axiom Verge creator Tom Happ plays the demo!
We've gotten a lot of feedback about the final Alpha update from the community over the past couple weeks, and we're very happy to report that the reception has been overwhelmingly positive! It's a huge relief to know that we've finally gotten the game to a place where everyone feels that it's not only fun and exciting, but also very close to what we originally promised. We really appreciate everyone's patience and help during this long and difficult process.
We've released a few patches in the past couple weeks with various bugs fixes and improvements, and just yesterday we just pushed out 0.53. We've fixed every reported bug and things are very stable now, so we've decided to call it the final Alpha patch. It's hard for us to walk away from the Alpha, but we know it's time for us to move on and finish up the rest of the game. Here are the past few change-logs since the 0.5 release:
0.53 Change-list (Final)
Fixed possible crash when backing up from 3rd option on Crone or Blacksmith shop menu and pressing Confirm
Fixed Critical Hits not working for Cut damage weapons
Fixed foreground decorations covering button label in Catacomb lock room
Fixed Candles appearing in front of Shrines
Fixed game showing as Normal if you start Hardcore game and quit before first Campfire
Changed music to fade low on pause
Added deer back in (!)
Tweaked Wraith sound effects and positioning
Tweaked Keep prison and Catacomb tutorial sections
0.52 Change-list
- Fixed crash when creating a new save where outdated save file is
- Fixed not being able to sell a non-equipped item if you have the same kind equipped
- Fixed Skeleton's boomerang disappearing after returning sometimes
- Fixed Maggot flash if you hit him when you first enter
- Changed Boss doors to not open until you pick up their crystal
- Changed magic weapons to not die when hitting lanterns
0.51 Change-list
Fixed bug where endcap rooms were treated as branches in dungeons
Fixed bug in dungeon generator that would sometimes leave unblocked doorways to nothing
Fixed crash when backing out of Potion menus and then selecting one
Fixed Elemental FX on knife and two-hand
Swapped green and purple gold bag colors
Limited Altars to items from their respective area
Removed tier 3 items from Scavenger
Reduced mana potion price to 50 gold
Fixed Boomerang being included in random treasure chests
Fixed Wraith materializing with hands in ceiling and set minimum distance when teleporting
Indiecade East
We're returning to Indiecade East this weekend for the second year in a row! A new Chasm demo will playable on PS4 there, so if you're in the NYC area stop by the Museum of the Moving Image and check it out!
PC Gamer Feature
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_keG1ucoSNA#t=217
Chasm was picked as one of PC Gamer's four under-the-radar games to watch for in 2015! They requested some new 1080P footage for the piece, so we recorded a couple minutes of gameplay from the latest Alpha for them. It's a big honor to be featured by a publication we've been reading since we were kids!
Next Steps
As of this week, the entire team has transitioned back into new content creation. We've got a couple tilesets to finish up, a few more songs to record, a couple more bosses to design, and a whole bunch more enemies, platforming challenges, and puzzles to program and animate. We'll be working as hard as we can to finish up the core content this spring to put us in position for the final lap this summer. We're super excited for everyone to see beyond the Catacombs, so stay tuned for the next production update in March!
0.5 Livestream Celebration
We'll be having an informal livestream tonight for the Chasm Alpha 0.5 launch with the team! Get a first look at the final Alpha release, ask the team questions, and maybe even win some prizes. We hope to see you there!
JANUARY 27TH, 9:30 PM EST http://www.twitch.tv/discordgames
Alpha 0.5 Coming 1/28
We're excited to announce that Chasm Alpha 0.5 is finally coming on January 28th for our Alpha backers. This final Alpha update was a long time coming, and we want to apologize for the wait. We decided to make some final changes to the gameplay after analyzing the feedback our amazing Alpha backers gave us, and it took a bit longer than expected to get it out the door.
It was a hard decision to go back to the drawing board on some different facets of the game instead of moving on, but we feel that what we have now is finally up to our expectations and much closer to our initial vision. It was also important for us to get things right so we can move on to the final content push without worrying about systems changing. We think the Alpha access phase was a huge success, and we can't thank everyone enough for participating and giving their honest feedback!
Happy Holidays!
We just wanted to take a second to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday! 2014 was a big year for both Discord and Chasm, and 2015 is only looking better. Thank you so much for your continued support and patience while we make Chasm the game we've all been dying to play!
We're still working away on the last Alpha update, but we're getting close to wrapping it up now. We'll have more news soon about the exact date it will go live, but in the meantime here's a few new screenshots!
A new enemy, the Undead Crusader, lurks in the Catacombs.
The Wraith miniboss awaits you in the depths of the Catacombs.
Improved text rendering, journal, and keyword highlighting.
Chasm Steam Community is Go!
Hey everyone!
Just wanted to drop a quick note that the Chasm Steam Store page and Community are up and operational. I'm hoping everyone who followed the Greenlight gets this announcement, but I haven't been able to find any info one way or another about that. A couple quick things to mention:
Alpha Access launched a couple weeks ago for Kickstarter Backers and Humble Pre-orders with the game's first two areas. We've received tons of great feedback from the community since then, and we feel grateful to have such passionate fans to help us make this game as good as it can be.
As of this moment, we have no plans for launching on Steam Early Access. After talking with several industry people, we feel it would be a mistake for us to launch as an Early Access title with a game that's not really "sandbox" in the way other EA games usually are. This is not to say we will never go Steam Early Access, only that we have no plans to at the moment.
The old 1.06 demo has been removed from IndieDB in order to prevent any confusion with the Alpha we recently launched. A couple previews popped up using that, so we decided to just remove it to keep people from checking out the wrong thing.
