Flesh Everest cover
Flesh Everest screenshot
Steam
Genre: Adventure, Indie

Flesh Everest

Flesh Everest Devlog #4: March Release
Unfortunately, due to an unprecedented incident in my professional life, I have been unable to make developments for the past two weeks as my attention has been focused on my job. Due to this setback and some further introspection, I've decided to push the release date to March. This adjustment will provide ample development time to address the loss of time and give me space to make any necessary adjustments.

Apologies Again,
Derek

Flesh Everest Devlog #3: Release Delay
Unfortunately, after some demo critiques and internal testing, I'm not confident in releasing the game in its current state. I feel I've grossly underestimated the amount of work it would take to make this game feel complete, polished, and bug-free.

I also feel I've been rushing the release and have omitted adding some features and additions, e.g., steam achievements, ending cinematics, etc. The extra time should allow me to add these and polish the atmosphere of the game for what I'm trying to convey.

The new planned release date is now 1/23/2024.

Apologies,
Derek

Flesh Everest Devlog #2: Demo Release
A short demo has just been released to showcase the main gameplay of Flesh Everest. This demo should take around 15-20 minutes to complete. In addition, here are some of the recent updates made to the game:

Summarized Gameplay Additions

  • Demo for Steam Scream released
  • New Demo Trailer
  • Added new interaction sounds
  • "The Attraction" section polished and finished
  • "The Tunnels" section added
  • "The Lab" section added
  • Snakes added
  • The Eye added
  • The Runner added
  • Hitbox adjustments for some of the monsters
  • General bug fixes and improvements


Development progress has been a steady grind at the moment, so stay tuned for a solid release date of the full game! The current expectation is between December 4th to December 11th.

Flesh Everest Devlog #1: Teaser and Updates
DEVLOG #1: Teaser and Updates
First off, apologies for the lack of communication and development log updates. Development has been consistent throughout the course of the last year, yet being a solo developer has made development slow. Many additions and improvements have been made in the past year, much of which I'd like to quickly share in this log. Currently, I would say the main functionality of the game has been completed, the shift will now be on polishing up numerous aspects of the game and finishing the ending sections of the game.

The game is currently signed up for Steam Next Fest in October, a short demo will then be available. Release will be near the end of November.


Summarized Gameplay Additions
  • Visual Overhauls: Numerous visual effects have been added and changed, including post-processing and enemy visual effects
  • Revamped options menu, can allow the adjustment of visual effects such as blur, pixelization, depth of field, etc.
  • Added intro cinematics
  • Revamped and polished in-game and main menus
  • Added 3 new starting pistols that spawn randomly
  • Added a new shotgun, two assault rifles, and a hunting rifle. (In total, there are 15 planned weapons; 6 are finished and polished, while 9 are in development)
  • Reduced all monsters' HP pools and reduced ammo spawn rates (testing found that current AI was too difficult and ammo was too abundant)
  • Added basic save system with a permadeath option (there are only 3 save points during a run, which will be at the start of each chapter)
  • Added the perk system
  • Added a randomized ammo and enemy spawn system (the balance of spawn rates is still under development)
  • Overhauled optimization of the game. Now in the main gameplay chapters, frame rates hover around 200–300 fps for mid-range systems (mid-range being an Intel I5 processor and 3060 gpu). This should be sufficient performance for the majority of systems.
  • Added monster texture variations
  • Added 6 new monsters with various attacks (planned 20 different monsters, although this could change, 8 monsters are 'polished," with 2 under testing and development)
  • Added 'too many to count' audio effects for the environments
  • Added stats system that keeps track of a bunch of player statistics throughout their playthroughs.
  • Added death screen that shows the player's statistics for that run
  • Added numerous player interactions with the environments (things like vending machines and toilets)
  • Added notes
  • Added player notification systems for tasks
  • Added simple inventory system
  • Added 3 NPC characters and dialogues (planned 6 characters, 1 polished)
  • Added the heart
  • Added tutorial slides inside the intro level
  • Revamped the lighting
  • Chapter 1 environments added: the welcome center, the dome, the pool, and the employee commons
  • Various secrets have been added

Store Page Changes
  • Teaser Trailer(In-game footage but no gameplay, a gameplay trailer will be released around the October Next Fest)
  • New Store Page GIFs
  • Some description changes

Flesh Everest Devlog #0
DEVLOG #0

This is the first of many devlogs on Flesh Everest that I plan to publish throughout the entirety of the game's development. The goal for these devlogs is to be written and published bi-weekly, but with how unpredictable development is, I might just publish them at random intervals or when something noteworthy is completed. As some background, Flesh Everest has been a project I've been working on for 6 months now and has heavily been influenced by Silent Hill, SCP: Containment Breach, and Resident Evil. I haven't really seen many horror games do a rogue-like approach with gunplay, so I decided to develop it myself. The goal is to make this game dark and super surreal. Many of the monsters will look ridiculous, and the gameplay will be slow and gritty. If nothing else, it will definitely be unique. 

Current Focus



  • Game Trailer #1

  • "The Attraction" level and randomization (aka the first section)

  • Preparation for Demo in October's Steam Next Fest



Thoughts

Currently, the main focus of development is the refinement of the Steam page and preparation for a Steam Next Fest Demo. This includes improving the screenshot quality, adding better bullet-points with gifs showcasing the main gameplay loop, and most importantly, adding the main gameplay trailer. I feel the steam page at the moment does not do justice to the actual gameplay of the game, and feel that an actual trailer would do a better job at explaining it, rather than just screenshots and text. So I'm working on that. 

In addition, I'm also focused on developing the first third of the game for a Steam Next Fest demo. This would do a great job of gaining attention for the game, as well as giving a taste of what the game has to offer. This development includes refining the monster AI, creating additional new monsters, and developing the first section of the facility (which is the attraction section based on old 80s liminal malls and theme parks). 

This section of the game introduces the plot as well as lets players learn the game in general. However, I would say that 95% of the game and this level are pretty much non-linear and open-ended. There's very little handholding besides some popup text telling you what things are for the first time.

For the demo, I may only release a limited section of the first level so as to not give too much away and ease development requirements.

As for release, I'm aiming for a 2022 release soon after October's Steam Next Fest. This is not concrete yet, however, so stay tuned. 

That's pretty much it. I'll be updating the game's progress here on Steam mostly. If you want to see little snippets of development, you can check out Flesh Everest's Instagram and Tiktok.