Coven
Another bunch of fixes!
Patch notes
- changed "beer devoured" to "beer quaffed"
- brightness is now saved properly
- added option to disable view tilt when strafing
- fixed e1m5 to use correct music
- added tutorial in e1m5b
- fixed an issue where enemies would stop reacting to the player
- fixed start of level checkpoints not working properly
Pushing a small patch
Mainly:
- A mesh in the church in e1m1 which the player could get stuck on has been fixed
- A soft-lock which was possible due to an item not saving in the town level.
- Fixed up the journals menu on the pause menu, as it wasn't saving journals correctly.
That is all. Thank you all for playing <3
COVEN - Early Access Out Now!
I'll be releasing regular updates with fixes, more content etc.
So aye, enjoy! And as always drop any feedback/bugs into the steam discussions and I'll reply ASAP.
Demo update!
In the update:
- minor bug fixes
- removed checkpoints, added save shrines
- replaced the shite old weapon/spell wheel
- added key rebinding
- UI improvements
Enjoy!
Demo hotfix now up
- Journals are now displayed properly on the pause menu
- Money is carried over into the next level
- Weapon mods are carried over as well
- Some minor level fixes
Enjoy!
The new demo is now out on Steam!
It's still called "Summer 2023 Demo" as I'm waiting to get the name changed but you have to go through Steam support to do so. But aye, you can now play the new demo.
Enjoy! And thank you all for the continued support.
A new demo is coming very soon
So I have a new demo right here but I have to wait for steam support to get back to me before it goes live.
For now the demo is available on itch here: https://gatorshins.itch.io/coven
It should be up on steam in the next day or so if Steam support get back to me.
I lost my job!
From the end of May I'll be jobless so I'll be moving to working on Coven full time for a good few months. I'll be living on savings and the goodwill of my partner so I can put in as much time into Coven as possible. For the last few years Coven has just been worked on in the evenings after work, well into the late hours and on most weekends/vacations. I'm very excited to be able to work on it full time and see how much progress can be made.
Here's some tasters of where the game is heading:
Massively overhauled visuals:
I recently upgraded engine as well as the render pipeline so I've been able to add more visual effects and generally just improve the overall visual quality. I've also been upgrading a lot of assets which were pretty old and outdated compared to the newer ones I've made.
Upgrading the render pipeline means I have better access to shaders, so expect better water, volumetric fog/lighting/clouds, better post processing etc.
I've also been improving the particle effects for weather, explosions, blood, water, weapon impacts etc.
Improved AI/Enemy behaviour:
As well as all of this I've been improving enemy AI, allowing enemies to block your attacks as well as giving them the ability to dodge/jump out of the way when you're aiming at them or attacking.
If you'd like more regular updates I post often on the following pages:
Twitter: twitter.com/GatorShins
Patreon (a mix of free and paid posts): patreon.com/imaenith
As always any support via patreon is massively appreciated, it helps me to fund development whether it's buying plugins for unity, sound effects or at this point just feeding myself 😅
Changing the release date
So aye I'll be changing the release date from Halloween this year for Early Access to "when it's done" basically. Working full time and then on Coven in my spare time has gotten to be a bit problematic in terms of having a life and not being burnt out constantly. If I could drop my day job and just work on Coven I would of course but bills have to be paid ːsteamfacepalmː
The delay won't be too long, not like a year or anything. Most likely release in the first half of next year, possibly earlier. Just wanted to let you all know so you're not disappointed on Halloween when there's no release.
The original plan was to just crunch and pretty much not sleep for a couple months to get it out for Halloween but I've decided against that for two reasons. One being that I'd most certainly end up burnt out and going into early access already burnt out isn't great for me or the game. The second reason is that I don't think the quality would have been up to the standard that I want it to be if I was to work under those conditions and I'd really want the game to release in the best state possible even if it's an early access release.
So... The first episode will be out before summer next year, not 100% on when. It could be earlier in the year or closer to summer. We shall see.
- The first episode will consist of 10 levels set in the 1600's (at latest Summer 2024 release)
- The second episode will consist of another 10 or so levels set not too long after the first but in a different place entirely, so the general vibe and colour palette will be different. Will include new spells and weapons. (Q4 2024)
- The third episode will be set hundreds of years in the future and again consist of around 6-8 levels. Will combine old weapons from the first episodes with a bunch of newer modern weapons. (2025 release)
That's the road map for now. Thankfully with the way I've set up the gameplay systems, adding new weapons/spells and making changes to the player abilities isn't a massive ordeal so I can change things up and improve the gameplay while I make new levels. It's still quite a lot of work of course but certainly manageable. I've also been toying with releasing some interlude levels as well, which would be the odd standalone level here and there in between bigger releases to flesh out the universe and just give people some more Coven to play while they wait for the next episode.
Again, sorry for the delay but in the end it will make the game better and keep my mental health from falling into oblivion ːhuntedː
Summer 2023 Demo - Small update
Some small bug fixes but also some new modifiers for the new level select/custom game menu.
- Rainbow blood (each blood drop is assigned a random colour)
- Hardcore mode (harder game mode with no checkpoints)
- Big head mode (all enemies have huge heads)
These modifiers become unlocked on finishing the third level so if you've finished it already just give it another playthrough and you'll unlock them.