Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure
Mortal Sin
Halloween Update: Immortal Construct
It’s the spooky season, and I would be remiss to not include some thematically appropriate content for Mortal Sin. Inspired by nemesis, I added a new pursuer enemy, the Immortal Construct.
He is more likely to appear the longer you spend on a level (but not always). The goal is to ratchet up the intensity and spice up each run so that he’s always in the back of your mind. Don’t try to fight him, you need to run! He has a fearsome attack set with a guard breaking underhand swing, grab, and the ability to shut doors on you and spawn enemy battles to add to the chaos.
This is an experimental feature, and I know it can be polarizing in some games I’ve seen in the past, but hopefully it provides more excitement than annoyance to most. The player is still very capable and mobile at the end of the day to deal with this challenge. As always, things are fluid and I’d love to hear your feedback.
Patch Notes
Added the Immortal Construct Pursuer enemy. It has higher chance to appear the longer you spend on a level, and the time is tighter on Path of Torment difficulty
Added a new curse: Hunter’s Mark. Causes the Immortal Construct to appear more frequently.
Polished one of the cave boss rooms to not look so bland.
Fixed bug where spike traps could bounce enemies out of the room
Disabled ability for enemies to go down stairs for now since it led to some janky interactions
Swapped mage and monk unlock order so people try monk first since he seems to be a favorite and a more straightforward character for newer players
Swapped Purgatory and Sinner’s delight unlock order to have an early color scheme with more contrast from the default
Art Update Addendum / Ultrawide Support!
I wanted to push sort of an addendum to the art update, because I found some new techniques that I’m really excited to share! The grainy look of Mortal Sin has always been somewhat controversial. I considered it essential to the style not only for the aesthetic, but for the ability to blend the colors and make the look have more cohesion / depth. However, I found a way to blend colors that is very close to how the colored grain does it, so it has opened up the option to disable grain completely for comfort. I hope that this makes the game more accessible for some players, and even if not, I’d recommend trying it out as it’s a fun new way to see the game.
The classic grainy look, utilizing RGB noise which mashes pixels together to give the appearance of more colors than there actually are.
Blended look that approximates the implied colors of above without the need for grain.
Visuals
Found a new method to blend colors that makes the game much less reliant on the grain! As such, it’s now possible to disable grain completely for people that find it uncomfortable while maintaining the colors mostly. There is also a slight performance boost when grain is disabled.
Unlit / faraway areas that would normally be pitch black, now go from a very dark gray to black gradually. Practically, this means you can see a bit farther than before.
Official Ultra-wide and 4:3 support! It’s not perfectly optimized for these layouts, but everything should be readable on the UI without getting cut off
Polished the color gradients for all color palettes to be more smooth and pronounced
Added a visuals customization tutorial to the starting area, removed the color note from the settings menu and made a tooltip for each selection instead.
The original darkness, where there is a strict threshold and everything is solid black.
The new darkness, where there is a slight ramp up that allows you to see enemies and obstacles a little bit farther. I might expose this later as a setting, but higher values will affect the aesthetic a lot so I'm applying it conservatively for now.
Also, true ultrawide support that will not cutoff UI elements.
Balance
Focused Strike correctly displays no durability consumed, and its damage is reduced from 1.5x to 1.25x.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a quest prompt type (“Quested Completed” to “Quest Completed”)
Fixed bug where using abilities that hide the player’s arms could get an animation stuck
Fixed bug where enemies would jitter around on stairs or inclines
Fixed bug where the Divine Retribution quest reward would copy the stats of a previous weapon upgrade quest reward during that same run
Added underside to floating spirals in portal rooms so you can’t see through them from under.
Major Art Update
Hello sinners! Since the last update, I am overall happy with the current state of the game’s combat, but I felt like it was time to revisit the second (or first depending how you look at it) most important aspect of the game: The Art.
The main goals of this update were the following:
Create a default visual setting that is a little more welcoming and smooth for new users. The classic look is cool but it takes some getting used to as it is.
Improve the game’s steam / youtube viability that suffers greatly at low bitrate due to the highly contrasting and highly saturated colors.
Improve and polish the aesthetic overall.
The main additions are:
Gradients - Instead of flat shading, the lighting and intensity of the original color gets mapped over a range of colors. This results in a look with more depth and polish overall.
Outlines - All models have distinct outlines to better distinguish them from one another. This improves the readability a lot in differentiating enemies from the background.
Blur / AA - Added a smoothing effect so the grain and edges are not so harsh
Improved lighting - More pronounced shadows, shadows retreat as you get very close to objects so you don’t clip through them as before
Importantly, all of these aspects (and more) can be customized to your liking in the new and improved visual settings menu. Choose from presets that include the original look you know and love, or dial in your own settings that work for you.
Lastly I wanted to make a special mention of one aspect that has made marketing the game a challenge: recording / streaming compression absolutely wrecking the look of the game. I put a lot of effort into trying to find a default look that fared better with compression, but in the end I found that it would require drastic change in art style which would take away from the spirit of the game. As a result, I added a specific streamer friendly mode to the visual settings as a preset as a concession to help with this issue. As I always mention, recording at a high bitrate will preserve the default look very well (and is preferred), but I understand especially on twitch the bitrate is capped low so it’s not always an option. The main things that help are lowering compression and saturation, so feel free to see what the minimum is you can get away with to preserve good quality based on your bitrate.
Thank you for your patience with this update, and hopefully the next one won’t take this long. Coming soon is more content, but for now here is the rest of the patch notes:
Optimization
Disabled HDR on cameras for a big performance boost. The result is slightly improved performance from before, and even more so if you disable some graphics options
Added option to disable shadows all together for big performance boost on low end rigs
Moved all particle effects to use the main color shader. Before they were rendered on a separate camera which was expensive performance wise and didn’t quite fit the style. Also this means effects will properly sort behind walls, enemies and the player rather than being overlaid on top like before.
Delayed level load slightly after getting into the start area so that there’s less time spent on the load screen
Bug Fixes
Fixed floor plates being pressed and still glowing after
Fixed bug where only one stat was shown for items hovered on the stats menu
Weekly Update: New Color Palette Added, Smoother Enemy / Player Collision!
This is a small but nice polish update that addresses one the major outstanding issues related to combat; enemies knocking the player around in janky ways. This was more noticeable for larger enemies before and being in large packs, but now everything will feel a lot smoother in these chaotic situations.
You are far less likely to get knocked into this pit now!
Content
Added new color palette: Sin Mortal. Similar to default colors but reversed
Balance
Bloody Palm now only triggers Blood Orbs on power strikes. This is done mostly to make it easier to control whether you want to damage yourself or not and make the effect more satisfying.
Polish
Enemies will no longer knock the player around and take you for a merry go round ride. This was done by allowing legs, arms, and weapons to pass through you. This may result in apparent clipping from some angles, but it improves the smoothness of gameplay a lot so I figure it’s worth it.
The app will run in the background when minimized while doing any kind of loading (switches to suspending in background after loading is done)
Don’t allow pressing quest objective floor plates in the middle of another floor plate event (caused that objective event to be lost)
Added a directional indicator for the last boss’ homing skulls
Bug Fixes
Renamed perfect parry quest objective to simply parry like other references
Fixed missing collision on some rocks in the starting area that allowed doing the dungeon area repeatedly
Fixed bug with fractured limbs where enemies gained way too much health
Fixed bug where player could get stuck in attack hold animation (hopefully)
Fixed bug where mousing over level blocks on the progress screen would change the icon or show the wrong tooltip sometimes
Mortal Sin is nearly at 500 reviews. If you enjoy the game and haven't reviewed yet, I'd greatly appreciate if you can take a moment to do so, it helps me out a lot! Thank you all for the support, and I'm excited to share the next major update in the not so distant future.
-Nikola
8/20 Combat Tweaks
Hello, hope you are enjoying the major combat update so far! I wanted to make some tweaks to sharpen it up even more. Although the most fun and effective way to play is by alternating between attack, kick and bash and utilizing combos, I realize some people do like to simply spam attack and hack n' slash. As such, I want this to be smooth and viable as well even if it's not optimal.
Removed the delay incurred by resetting the animation to neutral stance when using the same attack twice in a row. This mean mashing attack will flow a lot smoother than before with less downtime!
Another notable side effect of this change is that releasing your block and going into an attack will be much faster now, rather than having to wait to reset to neutral as it was before.
Increased the range of the left hand punch slightly.
Greatly reduced the damage of the final boss' homing skulls.
Tweaked the staff bash animation so it doesn't cross directly through the player's face.
Hid the social media buttons on the main menu when using a controller.
Fixed a bug where it was possible for the dialogue box to disappear when talking to npcs.
Major Combat Update
Hello sinners! It’s been a while since the last update, but there is a good reason for that. I’ve been hard at work at the single biggest update since release, a complete and total combat overhaul! Every single player attack and animation has been reworked to look nicer and be more responsive, and the combo system has been revamped entirely to be smoother and more rewarding in the context of Mortal Sin’s frantic combat encounters. This changes the game dramatically, and many of the old cheesier, spam friendly strategies have been nerfed or removed all together. In their place is a more polished, more varied, and more rewarding combat experience that is closer to the original design intent.
New heavy attacks that hit so hard they'll make you squeal with sinful delight!
The monk can now charge his attacks, perform thrusts, and perform whirlwinds, opening up his play style.
Quaffing a potion takes some time now, so think before you use it. Sometimes it's best to kick your enemies away before you go for a drink. Glug glug.
Performing combos has never been easier with a new buffering system and the ability to keep comboing after blocking. Also, every combo has been reworked to have different animations and more potent finishers.
But that's not all! Here is a comprehensive list of the major changes in this update:
Content
Completely reworked every player attack and animation in the game! Attacks should read a lot better now and feel more impactful than ever before.
All weapon sets (including fists) have access to the common set of combos with some move variations. This means that with fists for example, you can charge power strikes, do thrusts, do whirlwinds and more!
Spell casting revamped: You must power strike in order to cast your spell or else you will get a melee staff attack. However, there are far more ways to power strike now from combos and also staff durability has been increased across the board to make them more viable as main weapons. All of the magic classes are now tightly integrated with the combo system which makes them much more rewarding and interesting to play.
Added new attack types such as power thrusts, fast power strikes, fast whirlwinds and (slow) whirlwinds.
Every combo has either been reworked or replaced. There is always a tradeoff in time to execute versus how desirable the finisher is and this must be weighed into your decisions.
Combos can flow into one another seamlessly!
Drinking potions now has an animation making it a more strategic consideration.
Blocking, drinking or swapping your weapon does not reset your combo, allowing you to “hold” your combo and pick up where you left off.
Added a buttery smooth action buffering system that makes performing combos way easier than before.
You no longer need to actually hit something to perform a combo in most cases
Added active frame canceling, which allows you to cancel the recovery animation time of your current attack by performing any other action (even if you don’t hit anything). There is also still hit canceling as before, which is even faster than active frame canceling.
You can cancel the early startup frames of any attack with a block now.
Balance
Whirlwind is now a baseline ability that doesn’t need to be unlocked
Overall player speed has been reduced a bit, so I lowered all enemy attacks, movement and projectile speed by about ~25% or more to compensate. Also helps with parry timings which were somewhat unreasonable before.
Enemies are stunned for quite a bit longer than before
Enemies will now flash briefly before blocking or attacking
Enemies no longer animation cancel with defensive options such as dodges or blocks
Most whirlwinds have a slow startup so that spamming whirlwind is now longer the go to option in every situation. Sometimes you need to use the faster combo strings in tight situations instead.
Removed Brawler passive skill since it would allow fists to reach silly levels of speed
Removed Swap Cancel technique. It was a little too spammy and I wanted to encourage other movement techniques, although swapping your weapon and bashing is still the fastest movement option technically.
Infinity Blade has been renamed to Pins and Needles. Now allows you to hold thrust for up to 2.5 seconds (was endless before leading to some silly abuse).
Spellweave now shoots a fireball instead of waveblade and works for any staff thrust
Guard break / Guard Flinch state now trigger with fists and bash as well instead of just weapon swings
Thrusts no longer cause you to dash forward
You can stop your dash by releasing movement input now (kept going forward before). This means you can now reliably bash in place without moving from the dash that goes with it.
Whirlwind weapons now do a weaker half-duration whirlwind as their basic attack. This makes it so that you still need to either charge or combo to get the full power strike whirlwind.
Increased the range of kick slightly
Cheat Death now has a 30 second internal cooldown
Polish
The final boss’ scares are now a different color to stand out more against the floor of the maw of sin.
Reworded Perfect Parry to simply parry (parry versus block so no need to distinguish further)
Reworded various unlockables, descriptions and tutorials to be more clear
Removing enemy shields with a parry now plays a special effect
Gladiator’s Battle Cry ability has an animation and plays an actual battle cry sound now
Made Bloody Palm blood balls smaller so its less intrusive
Gave the forest swinging branch trap a blue hue to make it a bit easier to see
Bug Fixes
Fixed the alignment of the ability icon UI in all resolutions
Holding block no longer cancels your ability right away
Removed Tainted Treasure curse for now since it is likely to be causing crashes
Removed Darkness curse since its intrusive and causes some performance issues
Fixed many player animation bugs related to the old clunky animation system which has been replaced
Fixed bug where the player death animation would sometimes cause the camera to clip through the floor
Fixed bug where Helena’s level up ding effect would keep playing after coming back to the starting area each time
Thank you for all the support and I hope you enjoy this update! It was a lot of work but I believe it has taken the game to a new level of quality. As always, if you have feedback, feel free to stop by the discord server. I'd love to hear from you!
First of all, welcome to all the new players who came from the summer sale! I am hard at work on the next major update which will involve many improvements to core combat. Since this is so critical I want to make sure I get it right, so it may take a little longer than my usual fast update schedule. In the mean time, here are some bug fixes I wanted to try out.
Bug Fixes
Trying an educated guess fix for users some users who experiences crashes and freezes in the dungeon area (please let me know if this helps or not)
Fixed Divino not having his head flash when hit
Fixed Divino sometimes going elite which was unintended (SUPER DIVINO!)
Thank you for playing and stay tuned for some exciting updates coming up!
Mortal Sin Soundtrack Now Avaialable!
Pleased to announce that the Mortal Sin Soundtrack is now officially available for your listening pleasure! I've gotten a lot of requests for this, and happy to finally provide it in high quality along with some unreleased bonus tracks. Huge shoutouts to Mikko Norojärvi who composed every single track (with the sole exception of the starting area theme), creating a memorable and unique style all it's own with progressive, metal and classical influences all wrapped in one.
Every single class in the game has been updated to have new special abilities! These abilities can drastically change your playstyle and make each class more distinct than ever before. Also, the soundtrack has been entirely remastered with superior clarity, detail and quality. Enjoy!
Content
Added 15 new active abilities, one for each class. Some examples are the Mage’s Timestop, which freezes all enemies and traps, the Monk’s powerful flaming uppercut, and the Vampire’s ability to turn into a bloody mist. These are a real game changer, and further expand the already strong foundation of Mortal Sin’s combat.
Newly remastered soundtrack with superior clarity, quality and detail for your listening pleasure. Every single track has been re-recorded from scratch with various enhancements added.
New character added: Divino. Divino replaces the old practice dummy in the starting area and serves to properly teach the advanced techniques in Mortal Sin. He can also be beaten up on to practice your combos. Don’t worry about him, he actually enjoys it! In addition, Divino can be set to aggressive or defensive modes so you can practice your timed techniques such as parries freely.
Added new radial visual indicators to warn you of enemies outside of your peripheral vision, which direction you are taking damage from, and which direction enemies are charging from. These serve as a sixth sense during hectic combat encounters or even while looking at items. They can be toggled in the settings menu if you prefer the original experience, but you might find it hard to go back!
Balance
Boss health has been adjusted to values that make more sense. Previously, the forest boss had the most health despite being a caster. Now its health has been reduced, and the cave / dungeon bosses have had their health increased since they are melee based.
Slowed down the dungeon zombie’s kick, which was very difficult to parry before.
Polish
Audio polish on all enemy footsteps in the game. Enemy footsteps now sync to their audio correctly, and are much louder than before, so it’s easier to hear enemies coming up behind you.
Wraiths have new audio to give fair warning for when they approach from behind
Audio polish on all enemy projectiles so it’s easier to hear them coming
Enemies play their aggro sounds consistently now when initially aggroing and before attacking, so there is always feedback if they are actively in combat with you
Adjusted wording of many tutorials and abilities to have more consistent and clear language.
Made the Maw of Sin entrance portal much larger and more distinct, so it’s harder to miss.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug with the unlock / quest notification UI where the first time it appeared it wouldn’t show the icon properly
Mortal Sin has been updated frequently since its launch in March. I take early access seriously and am committed to actively expanding and improving the game up to the full release. Here are some major highlights from the updates so far:
Six new playable classes: Paladin, Gladiator, Warlock, Stalker, Hoarder and Enigma
Alternate color palettes
Endless runs for infinite replayability
Saving your run’s progress
Two new weapon styles (one hand and shield / long staff)
12 new battle arenas to keep each run fresh
Many new weapons, items and skills!
And much, much, more…
New Class: Paladin! One Hand and Shield Weapon Style
Added one of the most requested new classes... The Paladin! Big damage and broken armor got you down? Try a more forgiving route and learn the ropes of combat at your own pace!
Shields have unique properties which include reduced guard damage, a bigger perfect parry window, greater knockback from blocking / bashing, and a souped up shield bash attack which actually blocks WHILE you are bashing. Use this to close the distance on projectile enemies or safely initiate on a large group of enemies.
Content
Added a new class, Paladin! The Paladin is a defensive power house shield user. If you have had trouble completing the game so far, give this class a shot as it’s very very forgiving.
Added 4 one hand / shield weapons. The Longsword, Morning Star, Sceptre and Divine Justice (ultra rare wide spear)
Added 6 new boss room alternates (2 per area) to give more variety between runs.
Added a new weapon, Devil Hand! The Devil Hand is a severed arm capable of paralyzing enemies with a very high stun value
Balance
Cloned enemies can no longer have unholy rage
Polish
Greatly improved the performance of the starting area (~20-30 fps boost)
Now showing a prompt at the start of an endless round explaining you have lost acquired innate skills (i.e. helena innate item skills / trial of resolve special skills)
Completing the game will show “Next Round” instead of “New Game” for endless runs
Reduced max number of blood ritual explosions to 10 to save some performance
Settings drop down menus will now confirm when clicked instead of scrolling first, then having to click again
Bug Fixes
Fix showing hard mode unlock on hard mode completion
Made dungeon walls thicker to avoid clipping through them at high speed
Banned legs for Helena limb quest objective if there aren’t enough legless enemies. Also don’t use head objective if you have head hunter
Fix endless run round number not showing on game over screen
Dashing / Bashing no longer crouches for a frame which causes it to clip through wall spikes and some projectiles.
