No more crosshair. That thing was designed to be used while fighting with multiple enemies, and to aim at bullets. We gave up these features because they made the game too chaotic. It's already difficult enough, isn't it? From today you can pick up all the collectibles, and destroy powerplant fragments just by walking up to them.
We also exterminated some minor bugs connected with colliders, and typos.
Still working on English translation, and the final scene.
Early Access Update #1
Hello. We've already fixed two things.
1. There was a rare case that the game changed the difficulty level. This shouldn't be happening anymore.
2. Previously, if you had played demo you probably would have had an issue while trying to play the full version. It often didn't want to start at all or the vendors were broken (pun not intended). The problem is gone.
Now we're working on the English translation (proofreading), and eliminating the crossbar (the game can cope without it).
The release date isn't confirmed, but that's the deadline we set ourselves.
Early Access!!!!!!!1111666
Here it is, guys. Thanks for being with us. We still have some things to improve, and we count on you. Especially in terms of localization and game balance.
What inspired us?
The idea was born out of the fascination with the Ghost band. We've been attracted to the atmosphere of performers like King Diamond and Danzig for a long time, and we wanted to let these inspirations sprout, but Ghost turned out to be the catalyst. We decided to present our vision of cartoon horror.
Story
Ghost invented a satanic priest. We turned his character 180 degrees and a Christian priest was born. We can say that we have turned the turned cross. It seemed natural to us that the priest must be an exorcist. After all, possessions are probably the hottest of the Church myths. We still had to put the character in a problematic situation. We decided to take the story of the Chernobyl disaster. To provide the priest with work, we built a reactor in Hell so that contaminated air could cause possessions. As I think about it now, the plot may be associated with the Doom series.
Dialogues
I did not follow anything specific. I probably soaked with vulgarity and specific pathological humor in elementary school and watching the Polish series The World According to the Kiepski Family. Some things you don't outgrow. I cannot say how the Polish version collides with the localization. We are ready for corrections.
Graphics
We like cartoons and comics. Emphasis, again, on the old Cartoon Network. Maybe Scooby-Doo and the Adams Family aren't as close to our hearts as Cow and Chicken but they brilliantly captured the aesthetics we wanted to hook up to some extent in Infernal. Everything is blue, because it is the color that adorns the kits of Barcelona, Leicester and Piast Gliwice players. The fact that the characters wear masks has its roots in the peculiar tradition of Żywiec, which I wrote about here: https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/832140/old_view/1607143370762548104
Another post where I have to mention this title. The core gameplay of Infernal Radiation is inspired by the Deep Dungeons of Doom gameplay. We enriched it with solutions that we saw in other games, but I will cite them in the relevant entries. See you there.
Steam festival stream
Yello.
A special event is starting tomorrow. We'll be streaming Infernal the whole weak. Don't leave the house.
How did the concept change?
How did the concept change?
At first, Infernal was called Priest. And it looked like this:
[previewyoutube="rt4OGwDShpo;full"]
You came to the village as a bald priest and had to perform some exorcisms in dozens of houses. You had to prepare prayers, holy water and incense, and piece together the plot basing on the testimonies of the saved. That’s a description that fits the game you can play today. However, if we look at the main mechanics, we find that we are dealing with two completely different playing beings.
First of all, in Priest there was no walking at all. Just a simple map, which I’ve spoken about here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/832140. Traveling via map-clicking works well in many games, but unfortunately Priest was not one of them. The game gave you the illusion that the order of exorcisms had a meaning. In fact, it was a little one. And that fact was easy to expose. What's more, the game was characterized by a very monotonous rhythm, in the wrong sense of the word. An exorcism, an illusion of choice, an exorcism, an illusion of choice, an exorcism... We eventually changed the map to a world you can walk on. I didn’t help a lot, because...
Secondly, exorcisms sucked balls. In fact, it also consisted of constant clicking and timing, as it is today. We had an ambitious plan that worked very well on paper. We wanted to do something like fight known from Gameboy Pokemon, only in real time, not turn-based. I admit, it is still something that I would like to achieve someday, but when we applied it to Priest... Well, it was boring as fuck, and overcomplicated as hell. You had to count mana, keep an eye on your opponent’s behaviour, and choose between dozens of actions. Ok, it still sounds good to me, but in practice it was poor. Therefore, we had one goal: leave the player's divisibility of attention alone. There were two options. Either completely rearrange those components that we had, and balance the game, or just simplify the mechanics. We decided on the latter.
We tried to create exorcisms in the shape of 2D souls-like games. You had to watch the bosses, learn their behavior and avoid the attacks. With a slight difference: it was necessary to say the prayers in the order from the prayer book. This was a transitional concept. And it was slightly less annoying than the original one. That damn divisibility of attention again.
Mechanics needed to be minced once again. But this time like totally. We decided to make exorcisms just one of the gameplay elements. Most of the time, the player would have to renovate the church, struggle with Satanists, manage resources, trade, craft... And, well, we started to do it. Only that concept was so far from the original assumptions that it had to be a different project, made with new people. And this is how we started working on Priest Simulator:
In order not to confuse people with similar titles, we've changed the name of Priest. Still, the problem of its complexity had to be solved. A happy accident helped... It was called Deep Dungeons of Doom, which I will probably quote until I die. Once upon an evening, just to take a break from games, I decided to play a game that looked promising on the trailer. The game you play only with two fingers. Damn hard, damn frustrating and damn satisfying. And it had no problems divisibility of attention. Yes, it was a natural simplification of Infernal. I'll tell you more about it soon.
What genre is it?
A priest called me offering help with growing the wishlist numbers. While preparing a sermon, he had a problem with one thing. What the hell is the genre of Infernal Radiator? As a courtesy I did not correct the old man but I hung up confused. Genre? What was he talking about? Infernal is not a genre game. Indie games are like independent cinema, they don't have to be generalized. But who gives a funk? We all seek for what looks familiar.
So I go to Steam to remind the tags. Horror, dark fantasy, high level of difficulty. OK, that's all right. But what does it tell us about the gameplay? It’s not like I’d never thought about it, but when it finally came to the official declaration, I had a problem verbalizing my thoughts. So what should I have answered?
Since we've borrowed some of the Deep Dungeons of Doom (please buy this awsome game) gameplay, maybe we can also borrow tags.
Their Steam says: RPG, adventure, dungeon crawler, casual. Well, everything is correct... except that nothing is correct. We have RPG elements, but to call Infernal RPG is like to call Minesweeper a war game. Adventure is just an add-on to the gameplay. I guess Infernal is not a dungeon crawler too, because we have neither dungeons nor crawling. And it also seems too epic to call it casual... Or maybe that's a clue? Maybe it's just an epic casual.
I followed this path inventing hybrids, hoping to find one that already exists in the collective consciousness of players. I liked "hardcore clicker" the most. After all, that’s what Infernal really is. For most of the game we just click the left / right mouse button, but the game is hard as funk. The "clicker" label sounded perfect, but unfortunately it has already been taken by a completely different type of gameplay. If someone does not know what a clicker is, I recommend checking it out:
https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Clicker/
So, unfortunately, clicker is not perfectly accurate... Jesus, Infernal has one of the most primitive gameplays you can imagine, there had to be a genre that defined it well. One billion people had to come up with the same idea, it’s so simple. You bounce the fucking balls and make sure you don't get hit. Really, it is difficult to find a less sophisticated idea. I started with the history of video games. It didn't take me long.
Pong? We have to bounce the ball. Yes, this is the essence of our game. Asteroids? We have to shoot the opponent. Yes, this is the essence of our game. Space Invaders Hit and don’t get killed. Nothing more than that. Yes, this is the essence of our game. Breakout? Hit and bounce. Nothing more than that. Yes, this is the essence of our game.
Christ, Infernal is simply an arcade. Sure, there is a plot, character development, "something like" an open world, 3D graphics, 4D music, bosses, exorcisms, and wonders on a stick... but in essence, it's just a well seasoned arcade. Infernal is, in the most primitive sense, bullet hell. You can't even jump! You bounce and attack. Only two buttons and a million bullets. At heart it's bullet hell in the old, arcade version. Why hiding it? Arcades are awsome.
I called the priest back, and tell him to call it hardcore arcade. That’s what he did during sermon. People stood up and clapped their hands. Everyone promised to add to the wishlist. All five of them.
Infernal Radiation Demo
Infernal Radiation demo is public now. You can buy it for $0. ːthumper_beetleː
