Gamichicoth is LIVE! 5hr of new story and gameplay. PSA: have spare underwear available. Details inside.
I've just released the Gamichicoth update to Left-Hand Path, my Dark Souls-inspired horror RPG for the HTC Vive (only), where you cast powerful spells by drawing glyphs with your hands.
The Gamichicoth update adds around 5 hours of gameplay. Yes, you did read that right.
In fact, combined with the content already in Left-Hand Path, I think this makes Left-Hand Path the longest single-player narrative (i.e. not wave-based) dedicated Vive game available at around 9-10 hours total play time.
Here's more detail on what you'll encounter in the streets, tunnels and caves of Gamichicoth:
To reflect the fact that Left-Hand Path has more than doubled in size, the price of the game has increased to $24.99. (People who already have Left-Hand Path get Gamichicoth and all future updates before full release for free.) I'm still planning to add two more areas before full release, and anyone who buys now will get access to them too when they come out.
The price will probably increase one more time before full release to reflect those new areas: if you buy it now you'll get them for free, of course..
Or if you already have Left-Hand Path, you can access the new area from the gate behind the final boss in Sathariel, which used to lead to The End.
(If you really, really don't want to fight the final boss of Sathariel again, contact me and I'll tell you the Secret Way to get to Gamichicoth without having to do that.)
I'm really looking forward to hearing what you think. Please do feel free to contact me on Reddit (PM or comment - www.reddit.com/u/cairmen ), on Twitter, or on the Steam discussion forums - and if you enjoy it, please do leave a Steam review too! This is still an Early Access title and I'm a one-man band, so there may be some bugs - contact me if you hit any and I'll get 'em fixed!
As always after I do a launch, I'm going to be hammering F5 for the next couple of days so that I catch any early issues.
Thanks, enjoy, and try not to go through too many pairs of underwear on your way into the depths of Gamichicoth...
Gamichicoth trailer - coming this week with 5+ hours of content!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BImvq_-yLAs
Left-Hand path 0.4.0 is out for Halloween! MASSIVE graphical upgrade, new locomotion methods, other new features...
Hey everyone!
I've been working like crazy to get Left-Hand Path's latest update out in time for Halloween, because appropriate. And I've just about made it!
Many of the criticisms I have recieved about Left-Hand Path were about the graphical quality. So this update massively improves the graphical quality.
I've completely redesigned the first area, Nehemoth, from the ground up.
I've made significant improvements to the graphics in the second area, Sathariel:
I've also made a number of graphical improvements generally:
I've also added rather a lot of new features including some that I've had a lot of requests for:
I've also fixed a load of bugs. Notably the archers no longer vibrate on the spot, I've fixed a bunch of pathfinding problems, and I'm afraid Sathariel's guardian no longer spews Husks like a fountain when she dies.
I've also made a few other minor balance changes. Notably, I've lessened the power of the dark spirit known as RNGsus over the Soulless in Sathariel.
All of this, by the way, is in preparation for the release of the next big area in Left-Hand Path, Gamichicoth. That's coming in a few weeks, and it's huge - it more than doubles the length of the game. (It's been delayed because I got rather ambitious with it, and the bugfinding is taking forever.)
Enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think! I'll be F5ing my messages on Reddit, Steam and Twitter like crazy this weekend, so if you hit any problems, give me a shout and I'll work to solve them, as 24 would say, in real time.
Gamichicoth Update
I'm literally a couple of days away from having a beta of Gamichicoth ready.
Left to do is half a boss, a couple of animated scenes, and some flavour speech.
After that, how long it takes to come out is dependent on how many bugs we hit in testing! I have some big testing sessions scheduled for tomorrow and the day after, so we'll see how we do.
As always in game development, When It's Done.
But hopefully that won't be too long now. Thanks for your patience, everyone.
Frequent development updates on Twitter
If you'd like to keep up with Left-Hand Path's development on a day-to-day basis, I update at least once most days on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/hughhancock/
Look forward to seeing you there!
Update on Gamichicoth, The Next Area
Hey everyone!
Just thought I'd check in to let you know how the next part of Left-Hand Path is coming along. The answer is "really well" - and it's looking big. At least the size of Sathariel, possibly significantly bigger.
We've got:
<*>A multi-section new area, Gamichicoth, featuring both tense underground exploration and an extremely spooky (if I do say so myself) city-like environment.
<*> A new staff upgrade system offering new ways to manipulate magic and your environment.
<*> 4 (so far - more may join the list) significant new spells including a supremely dangerous new combat ritual and another melee option with its own unique twist.
<*> A number of new monsters that I won't reveal so as not to spoiler (it's higher than 3), which my playtesters describe as "between horrifying and disturbing", and which are pretty major combat challenges to boot - in ways you haven't seen in LHP so far.
<*> Major performance improvements meaning even existing areas should get significantly prettier.
<*> Both continuations of the main Left-Hand Path plotline and a seperate story for Gamichicoth alone.
Gamichicoth should also feature Left-Hand Path's first lipsynched and motion-captured NPC characters - just firing up the mocap system now!
Release date is, as always, subject to Hugh Being Terrible At Predicting Release Dates, but I'm aiming to have a playable build for Ian The Playtester to break within the next week or two.
We Who Watch The Well await...
Patch 0.3.3 released - better gesture recognition, spell-blocking bug fixed
Hey everyone!
Yep, I'm getting on the patch train in time for the Steam VR sale (which Left-Hand Path is included in, like almost every other Vive game).
This is a smaller patch fixing issues rather than adding new content, and will be the last balance patch before Left-Hand Path's first major content patch, about which more below.
Fixes:
Significant gesture recognition improvement. In particular you no longer need to be looking in the same direction that you're gesturing, and casting upward and downward is significantly improved. Still work to be done but this should be a quality of life improvement.
Spell-blocking bug fixed. Your spellbook, when invisible, will no longer block missile spells! I know a few people were finding this bug really annoying.
Achievement fixes. Notably including the "The End" achievement, which will now fire when you get to, erm, the end.
Geometry fixes in Sathariel. Various bits of dodgy geometry in Sathariel have been un-dodgied.
Demolished invisible walls. I've removed a couple of bugs where spells would be blocked by invisible obstacles, notably outside the tower in Sathariel.
Next up for Left-Hand Path is a major content patch, which will include the next part of the Well Of All Reward, Gamchicoth. It'll have new spells, new characters, probably a new customisation system for your staff, new enemies, new boss fights, and of course both new plot (including a new voiced, motion-captured adversary) and a continuation of the main story of the game. I'm also aiming to port to Unity 5.4 for major performance improvements, and there may be other goodies in there too!
Enjoy, and as always, very interested to hear what you think and how you find Left-Hand Path. If you hit any issues, please do let me know ASAP either here, on the Steam Community or via Twitter and I'll do my best to fix them.
* Improved feedback in combat, both on being hit and being killed.
* Better zombies - they're no longer impossible to hit up close, they have better animation, a reaction if they enrage, and their speed has been tweaked a bit. They should still be a challenge but not annoying.
* Much improved head-through-wall scripting. You now teleport back a la Vanishing Realms when you stick your head through a wall.
* Improved explanation for husks, health, rituals and lots more.
* Improved interaction with Julia in Sathariel
* Screaming Head now by the Wall in Sathariel
Bug fixes:
* Inverted text on hand is gone - just your health remains.
* Lots of flow fixes to Sathariel, from fairer tower mobs to more easily accessible heads.
* Fixed exploit where you could get to the boss in Sathariel without going through the puzzle.
* Vis no longer starts so far away from the staff, so is more usable close up.
* The Lillim is no longer invulnerable when roaring.
* The Guardian In Sathariel should no longer bug when killed.
* Zombie sound effects have had several fixes.
* "Lower Your Head" now works more reliably in several ways.
If you have ANY problems, as always, let me know and I shall respond ASAP.
I'm going to put up a rough roadmap for the next couple of months of Left-Hand Path development in a few days: look for that if you want to know when new areas will be added and other big changes will be made (like New Game Plus mode).
Interview with Hugh Hancock, dev of Left-Hand Path, on MMIORPG.com
Here's an interview with Hugh, the developer of Left-Hand Path, talking about the inspiration for the magic system of Left-Hand Path, the background, what's coming up next, and more:
Interview with Hugh Hancock, dev of Left-Hand Path, on MMORPG.com
Here's an interview with Hugh, the developer of Left-Hand Path, talking about the inspiration for the magic system of Left-Hand Path, the background, what's coming up next, and more:
