Project Warlock II
Something to warm you up
For the long Autumn and Winter evenings of gaming, we also invite you to check out the upcoming arena shooter Impaler from our developer friend Apptivus.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1573090/Impaler/
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/26638/Project_Warlock_1__2/
Level Patch - Hotfix
MONSTERS
- Max View Distance changed to 999
RAILGUN
- Spread fix - Shots should not be misaligned from the crosshair anymore
LEVEL FIXES
- E1M6 - fixed issue with monsters clipping through fences
- E1M11 - fixed ghouls being stuck on top of towers
We hope you'll keep playing and having fun with the game!
Time to make a split
We’re happy to finally share with you this major update for Chapter 1 of Project Warlock II.
In this Level Patch (game version 0.2.7.51), we took the original six levels, split them, and rebuilt them into twelve completely revamped ones. They’re more streamlined, easier to navigate, and full of challenges. This wouldn’t be possible without your comments and feedback after playing the Early Access version and participating in our closed playtesting sessions.
This patch also marks a major shift in the direction in which we want to take Project Warlock II.
Your feedback made it clear that there are some areas from the original Project Warlock that you miss quite a lot. This convinced us to not only look for new solutions but also try to bring back and expand the mechanics that we all enjoyed in the previous game.
For example, we’re currently hard at work ironing out a perk system that will allow for bigger customization of your gameplay. These changes will have a significant impact on our roadmap and previously announced updates like reworking the weapons system. We’ll share an updated roadmap along with the next patch as it’s still under construction.
Work in progress look at the new Perk Shop
While Luke and Jerry are reworking, extending, and modifying the music to make it fit the new levels, we've already updated some tracks in this patch and added some new, unused tracks for you to listen to and make your play more fun. We're aiming at a tasteful combination of ambient and melody within each level's score. Please note that a major music rework update is yet to come!
For now, let’s get back to the Level Patch and have a look at the list of levels in Chapter 1:
E1M1 - Siege of Palmer's Castle
E1M2 - The Obliterated Dungeons
E1M3 - Outskirts of the Munville Forest
E1M4 - The Fall of Darkville
E1M5 - Wretched Ruins of Templepass
E1M6 - Obelisks of Torment
E1M7 - Circle Of Life and Death
E1M8 - Deathly Halls of Undergate
E1M9 - The Depths of Longforgotten
E1M10 - The Titan Apex
E1M11 - Wicked Castle Remains
E1M12 - The Ethereal Abyss
New intro graphics for the levels
12 levels now become our new standard and you can expect similar numbers in the upcoming Urd’s Redemption campaign and the yet untitled Chapter 3.
One more disclaimer is needed here. The original Level 5 didn’t meet your expectations and continuously underperformed in our internal playtests. It resulted in a decision to remove it from the game completely. We’ll yet to see if it returns in some shape or form in the future.
Below please find the full changelog of the Level Patch:
GLOBAL CHANGES
- Split the existing levels into 12 levels
- Removed level 5 completely
- Overall navigation improvements
- Simplified level flow with a more linear level progress path
- More items spawn in every level
- Miniboss encounters are now much more frequent
- More big monster encounters
- Removed some of the monster spawners spawning behind the player but NOT ALL as it's a design choice in some places
- Enlarged a lot of areas to make the movement easier when fighting monsters
- Improved various particle effects
- Changed and added more music tracks
ADDITIONS
- Added new bestiary entries for elite monsters (Turbo Knight, Skeletron, Hogdaddy, Ubershambler)
- Added new secret cameos
- Added new entering graphics for each level
- Added new Lava Shader
- Added new Water Shader
- Added new Goo Shader
- Added new glowing material to destructible goo elements
- Added new 3D explosion effects and particles
BALANCE
- Improved Necrogirls resurrection logic - they will now run toward the resurrected monster
- Increased Skeletron projectile speed from 30m/s to 40m/s
BUGFIXES
- Fixed monster landing animation issues
KNOW ISSUES (yet to be fixed)
- Ghouls at the tops of the pillars in E1M11 can get stuck even after aggroing the Player
- Minimap highlights blocked areas as reachable by the Player
- Projectiles of Laser Rifle's Railgun upgrade may be missaligned with the crosshair/gun model
- Monsters can be counted incorrectly in the intermission screen on some levels (up and down)
- Human NPC kills can count towards total monster kills counter
Go and check the new and updated levels for yourself and be sure to share your thoughts on the forum and our official Discord! All feedback is welcome and most helpful in improving the game.
Please leave a Steam review if you enjoy the game as it helps us in reaching new players.
Also, don't miss our special Boomer Shooter Friends Forever live stream on Tuesday, October 18, at 11 AM PDT / 2 PM EDT / 8 PM CEST. Kuba Cisło, the creator of Project Warlock, YouTuber GmanLives, and host Jared R. Bair will talk about their favorite classic and modern shooters, the boomer shooter renaissance, and more. You'll also have a chance to win the limited edition Project Warlock PC Big Box!
See you on Twitch!
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/26638/Project_Warlock_1__2/
Take a first look at Chapter 2 of Project Warlock II
You can now get Project Warlock II at 20% off during the Realms Deep 2022 sale event.
We also wanted to use this opportunity to show you the changes that are coming soon to our Early Access as well as give you the first look at the second chapter called Urd’s Redemption. Set in a Brutalist Wild West setting, it will feature a new playable character with their own weapons and magical abilities tailored to battle new types of demonic enemies.
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/26638/Project_Warlock_1__2/
Join our Community Playtest of new levels!
To get a glimpse of these changes and share your feedback, you'd need to join our Playtest Club and play a dedicated build of the game over the upcoming weekend (10-11 September). Also, you don't need to own Project Warlock II on Steam to participate.
After you play, we'll ask you to fill out a survey to get your opinion about things like the revamped level structure and revamped boss fights.
To sign up for this playtest, please head over to our Discord and follow the steps described in the #playtest-club section.
Once we go through and implement your feedback, the revamped levels will become available for all Early Access owners.
Project Warlock II at the Fear Fest: Black Summer 2022
Join us on September 6 right here on Steam for a fearful expo showcasing not only scary games but also those dark and gloomy.
All in all, Feardemic’s Fear Fest 2022: Black Summer Edition will be a celebration of games that make your heart beat faster and an unforgettable experience for horror fans worldwide.
See you here (or in hell)!
New hotfix & Roadmap Update
We’ve released a hotfix that updates the game to version 0.2.6.45 and includes:
- A possible fix where sometimes the explosion VFX would not appear
- Fixed a bug where monsters would aggro at the player too early
- Added autosave-based checkpoints to the Single Stage mode
Now you can continue to play your Single Stage run from the last checkpoint after you die on the map. It’s not possible to save, exit, and return to your run later on as they’re intended to serve as one-time only (erm, single) challenges that can be replayed on and on.
We also want to give you a quick development progress update. First, check out the updated 2022 roadmap. We’re slowly putting more and more check marks on this board!
We’re getting closer to a major overhaul of the levels’ structure. We want to divide them into more, but smaller levels. The total scale and scope of the game will not change, but the flow of every single stage should be more natural and true to Project Warlock's roots.
Weapons tuning is another major update that the team has been working on. The basic weapons and both their upgrades and the way the system works will be revamped. The idea behind this update is to remove the feeling of choosing a "downgrade" instead of an upgrade (if you buy a specific upgrade that changes the weapon and you feel like it's not as cool as the base version). Also, we will be splitting weapon upgrades into weapon-specific and universal ones. It’s still early in the works, so your feedback will help us shape it further!
You can also expect Jerry and Luke, the guys behind the first Project Warlock’s OST, to continue their work on making sure that Project Warlock II’s soundtrack is getting bigger and better. The division of the game's levels into smaller ones will result in additional tracks being added and will result in new tunes to accompany the pixelated slaughter.
We’re also working our way up the ladder to share the info on the second episode of Project Warlock II - and can't wait to hear your thoughts on that!
Thank you to everyone who has already played the Early Access of Project Warlock II and please keep the feedback coming! Be sure to leave a Steam review if you like the game and recommend us to your friends!
PS. We recently announced a special limited edition Big Box of the original Project Warlock made in cooperation with John Romero himself! Check it out below and head over here for more details.
Get this hotfix while it's hot!
This hotfix updates the game to version 0.2.6.38 where we address some of the issues that you reported after the latest content patch:
FIXES
- Fixed Player Orientation when loading the game state
- Fixed textures at the start of E1M4
- Fixed pause menu tint on ultrawide screens
- Fixed some monster placement in E1M4
- Fixed incorrect total monster count in level summary
- Fixed falling animations of Cacobots and Protosatan
- Fixed an issue where Autoshotgun fire rate would bug out
- Fixed an issue where automap in e1m4 would always be uncovered
ADJUSTMENTS
Adjusted gib amount depending on monster size:
- Smaller enemies drop fewer gibs
- Bigger enemies drop more gibs
Adjusted Necrogirls... again!
- Their projectile attacks are less frequent
- Their main focus is to revive dead monsters
We appreciate that you’re part of our Early Access and help us make Project Warlock II a better game with your constant feedback on Discord and in the comments.
Also, be sure to leave a review if you like the game. Steam gets our game in front of more people this way.
The stage is set
Welcome to the first major content patch for Project Warlock II Early Access!
As always, thanks for the constant feedback, comments, messages, Discord chats, and Steam reviews as they help us shape Project Warlock II into a better game. Please keep them coming!
As we have mentioned in the latest patch notes:
All game saves will become incompatible with new versions of Project Warlock II starting with this update
It’s a necessary downside of how the game’s structure is changing during the Early Access.
Moving onto the changelog, it is a big one, so buckle up.
Features
Added Single Stage mode
- It lets you replay any selected level which was completed at least once in campaign mode.
- You cannot save during single stage run
- There are no autosaves
- Death is equal with end of single stage run
- Tracks your level progress
- Secrets
- Cameos
- Bestiaries found
- Best time
- High score
- Secrets
Added visual and audio cues to all enemy spawns
New Main Menu Graphics
- New Bestiary Font
- New UI Graphics
- New UI Sound Effects
New Pause Menu Graphics
- New UI Graphics
- New UI Sound Effects
Additional changes
- Added Language selection in-game
- Added new hit particles for Boneys and Skellies
Fixes
- Fixed Laser Rifle Projectile hit detection
- Changed secret location in e1m1
- Added collisions to the gravestone decorations
- Fixed some monster spawns in geometry
- Fixed an issue where grenade from grenade launcher would explode on impact with dead bodies
- Fixed an issue in e1m2 where fire before the village near the tree would be invisible
Balance
- Adjusted Protosatan's charge speed depending on difficulty level
- Halved the HP of Minibosses to make the fights less tedious
Optimization
- Optimised billboarding of sprites to increase performance
- Added Monsters and Items to Object Pooling
Quick explainer: There should be less drops on the floor, reducing the clutter- Load times should be decreased
- Performance should be improved
- Load times should be decreased
Adjustments
- Adjusted minimap height colors
- Removed Red and Green height differences
- Adjusted uncovered terrain to white
- Adjusted covered terrain to dark gray
- Removed Red and Green height differences
- Adjusted some blood effects
- Adjusted water textures
- Lowered global sprite framerate to 20fps
- Adjusted controller sensitivity multiplier to allow for faster look rotation
Overhauled Save/Load menu
Simplified to increase usability
- 1 Quicksave slot
- 1 Autosave slot
- 6 Manual save slots
Level changes
E1M1
- Slightly reworked some areas to improve visuals and navigation
E1M2
- Reworked some areas to improve visuals and navigation
- Added tree textures to forest areas in e1m2
- Added some monster spawners
E1M3
- Reworked some areas to improve visuals and navigation
E1M5
- Improved level navigation
- Improved overall level visibility
- Increased the size of the miniboss arena
- Adjusted particle effects
- Removed some of the purple goo from the floors
- Adjusted geometry for easier navigation
- Improved monster spawner locations and amount
E1M6
- Added some new geometry
- Added monster spawners
- Replaced destructible goo with new prefabs
That's it for this patch. Once again thank you for all the feedback as it helped us get here and shape this patch. We'd also like to invite you to our Discord server as our community continues to grow.
Also, please make sure to leave a review if you like the game. Steam likes that and gets our game in front of more people this way.
Upcoming patch details, popular questions answered
New patch is playtested at this very moment, and will be available shortly. Below you’ll get a taste of what you can expect in that. Also - we pulled the most popular Project Warlock II questions from Steam and Discord and answered those here.
Since we launched the Early Access version of Project Warlock II we’ve received a ton of feedback from you, released a number of patches and fixes, as well as revealed our roadmap until the end of the year. And there’s still a lot more to come!
Some of the areas of the game we’re working on are:
Totally redesigned saves system for clearer designation of all saved games, and limiting the number of manual saves and quicksaves
Introducing Single Stage mode for revisiting previously completed levels
Adding more pronounced audio and visual cues to enemy demons spawning in
That and a whole variety of balances, fixes and adjustments across the board that will be fully outlined in the upcoming patch update.
Each and every suggestion or a bit of feedback provided by you makes its way to our internal database and is reviewed case-by-case. When we said we want to shape the game according to your feedback, we meant it.
It’s not always possible to respond to all messages or comments and some of them might tackle topics that we’re already aware of and work on, so we’ve prepared this handy list of responses and updates about some of the most frequent topics.
1: There’s a lot of clutter on the screen - specifically cooldown reduction orbs, ammo, health, and armor, but also some environment elements sometimes make it hard to see what’s happening on the screen. Are you planning to address that?
ANSWER: In one of the upcoming patches (coming: soon) we’re reducing the number of dropped items. We’re also repositioning some of the trees as they have been reported to obscure enemies, who (being vicious demons from hell) predictably used that to their advantage.
2: Enemies are sometimes getting stuck in walls, trees, pillars, and other elements of the environment. What gives?
ANSWER: These issues are two-fold. One - after one of the redesigns of the levels, some of the enemies seemed to be stuck in walls with their spawners. Two - some of the doors and breakable passageways cause enemies to behave strangely. The placement issue has been resolved in the latest hotfix patch as well as the enemies getting stuck.
3: Why are some enemies shooting through the walls?
ANSWER: This was an issue with misplaced spawners of some monsters. It has now been resolved in the latest hotfix.
4: Enemies are getting stuck in the floor - mostly in E1M5.
ANSWER: This issue has been addressed in the latest patch, we’ve modified the size of the space with problematic floor material.
5: Sometimes the player character gets stuck on the stairs, slopes, and walls.
ANSWER: That was an issue with the Player controller and has now been resolved in the latest hotfix. Special thanks to those who attached images or videos of problematic spots in their feedback posts. You know who you are, and we know not all of you wear capes!
6: The enemies spawning behind the player after picking up every key/weapon/spell are a problem.
ANSWER: The upcoming patch has more pronounced visual and audio cues to make the monsters spawning in more noticeable as per the screen on top of this post. That same upcoming patch will also result in a do-over regarding the monster spawn placements. The aim is to eradicate those instances that feel unfair to the player by not giving ample time to react.
7: The levels are bigger than in the original Project Warlock, which makes them difficult to navigate through and it’s very easy to get lost and wander in circles.
ANSWER: We’re looking at the scope of the levels and making sure they are more accessible. One thing that emerged from the playtest and subsequent feedback is that we will be going for a division of the levels into smaller and more approachable areas. This is coming in the future.
8: Some of the secrets are too hard to find.
ANSWER: Well… yes and no. We believe that most of the secrets aren’t that problematic and are well-indicated, whether by a red target mark, a button, or a destructible wall. But we’ve heard a lot of voices. In the previous point, we’ve mentioned redesigning the levels. We believe it will help this issue as the levels will be smaller and secrets should become easier to find.
Also, the Single Stage Mode (coming in the next content patch) will allow players to jump between levels to find secrets they’ve missed.
9: Are more game modes coming to PW2?
ANSWER: Yes. Single Stage mode is now being extensively tested and will be a part of the next content patch. Stars of one of the future updates - the Mutators will also have a significant impact on the way you play the game.
10: The music in Project Warlock II feels repetitive and just not that good, whereas it was one of the best things in the original Project Warlock.
ANSWER: Jerry and Luke - the guys behind the first Project Warlock’s OST are hard at work on making sure that Project Warlock II’s soundtrack is as memorable - or waaaay more - as that of the first game. The issue with the tracks right now is that the concept for dynamic music that was originally in place had to be reconsidered. It just didn’t work that well and was changed. Currently, some of the tracks might need that extra ooomph, but that's because most of them are devoid of their more dynamic, combat parts. There will be new tracks, as we’re working on the PW2 soundtrack to hit the bar we’ve set with the original game. Adding the tracks as well as dividing the levels into smaller parts should reduce the feeling of repetitiveness.
11: The loading times in Project Warlock II seem excessively long, what’s going on?
ANSWER: We’ve got a two-part fix planned for this. First, in one of the upcoming patches, we’re improving the overall optimization of the levels. Secondly, the loading times will be shorter once we divide the levels. There’s also a topic of the overabundance of saves that also has an impact on this. Upcoming patch addresses that by limiting the number of manual and quicksaves and also by redesigning the save menu.
One important thing to note here, though. The upcoming patch will render all the saves up until that point useless. So if you want to finish up that playthrough with your current save - now's the right time.
12: Some of the weapons and their upgrades feel lackluster.
ANSWER: Weapon tuning is one of the major updates that the team has been working on for the past couple of months. It will require quite a bit of testing so we have no timeframe to give, but this will be happening very soon. If you'd like to give it a go - please apply for a playtesting role on our Discord to participate.
In the Weapon update basic weapons and both their upgrades and the way the system works will be revamped. For example, instead of upgrading the Rifle into the Heavy Rifle, you’ll be able to add an additional barrel, sight and ammo capacity. This will result in a chance to expand the capacities of a particular weapon more significantly than just with a short upgrade tree. As we said, it’s early in the works, so your feedback will help us shape it further!
13: The automap is hard to read, any plans to address that?
ANSWER: In the upcoming patch, we’ll adjust the minimap’s height colors. More specifically by removing Red and Green height differences, making uncovered terrain white and covered terrain dark gray. This will help you navigate through the levels and find areas you haven’t explored yet. We’ll continue to closely monitor your feedback to make sure we get it right.
14: When can we expect more levels?
ANSWER: New levels are coming in the second episode. We don’t have a specific time frame yet, but you can check out our roadmap for 2022 below.
Thanks for being here with us and look out for the incoming patch!