It's here! Tainted Fate is here! Fresh out of the oven and into your VR mittens it goes!
On this weird and virus ridden spooktober we are beyond excited to at long last bring the full Tainted Fate experience onto Steam. Let's recap all the updates we did throughout Early Access because we're proud of how Tainted Fate has evolved over the years:
If you want to read more about how the early access went, why we're releasing now and other development details, head on to this here post.
Be the horror.
Tainted Fate leaving Early Access this Thursday, getting a permanent discount
Our goal
We had one goal with Tainted Fate and that was to get it into as many VR hands as possible. In addition to that hopefully break even financially in the process. Practically non-existent sales and mixed reviews at the start of Early Access plummeted Tainted Fate into the ground. It just wasn't a good enough game at the start. We tried to resurrect it by updating and improving the game.
In addition to all these updates, we have been fixing bugs and adjusting levels since 2019. We now believe Tainted Fate is ready to leave Early Access. The price has been lowered from $14.99 to $9.99 in hopes to get more people to buy the game.
Plans vs reality
Looking back at our plans based on your feedback at the start of Early Access, looks like we've accomplished almost everything we set out to do during Early Access. Well, the AI is still pretty stupid. Let's say that's intentional and demons in Tainted Fate's universe love to just run at you with complete disregard for their well-being.
Release
We're releasing Tainted Fate out of Early Access and into your virtual demon hands this Spooktober just a week before Halloween. Specifically Thursday, October 29th for $9.99.
Hello everyone. We've been discussing this for a long time and have finally decided on a radical change to Tainted Fate. We were very saddened by reviews and comments deeming our game too violent and pointless. We really tried to focus on the story of the game, for the player to at all times have a clear goal and really feel like the Demon Decarabia. Alas, many people thought it was all meaningless and focused only on the gore and dismemberment. Which means we have failed in our mission to make the game fun and meaningful. For instance this video review and its comments:
"Completely meaningless!" - David Klaffke
"Honestly, I do not know why you have to test something for almost half an hour. Would have failed with me after 2 minutes. Because that's what it is: diarrhea" - e1337e weazel
"The game is sick, because the developer was really bored." - Captain A
(comments auto-translated from German)
Or this extremely thorough review:
Taking this feedback into account, we have decided to adapt the game to be less offensive and gory and, above all, to be extremely fun. We have made some radical changes to the visuals and core gameplay:
Changed all enemies into gummy bears
Tearing apart demons from hell and caricatures of prisoners was deemed too taboo. For that reason we have decided to replace every single enemy in the game with colorful gummy bears.
Replaced blood with paint
We have also decided to remove all blood from the game and replace it with colorful paint. So that when you tear apart gummy bears, you can make Jackson Pollock paintings on the floor.
Removed dismemberment gates
Seeing as how a game mechanic where you have to tear body parts off of enemies and place them into holes in a gate to satisfy the blood gods is very brutal and does not sound fun at all, we decided to remove this feature from the game.
Replaced agressive heavy metal music with happy upbeat jazz
When fighting in Tainted Fate there's a lot of obnoxious loud heavy metal music going on. We decided to put a stop to that and replaced it with nice upbeat jazz music.
That's it for this update, full release is coming soon. We sincerely hope that tearing apart gummy bears will make Tainted Fate more accessible to all.
Audio Overhaul, New Enemy, Achievements
New music, new sound effects, remixed sounds that sucked, new voice overs, new enemy type, bug fixes, gameplay improvements, achievements. We got it all.
New Enemy
This dude has four hands! That's two more hands you can tear off compared to a regular type dude. He'll show up in sacrificial pit fights in hell levels and has his own personal dismemberment gate in level 17.
Idle Mode
Enemies don't just stand around anymore, they do stuff! We've recorded more dialogues between enemies, and made more custom animations for enemies on levels. Now they push crates, pick stuff up and sit on stuff. Some of them are doing really shady stuff :O
New Music And Sound Effects
We've added music queues that start playing in certain parts of levels or when certain events happen. Sound effects for movable objects such as barrels, chairs, glass bottles, torn body parts and organs have new and more unique sound effects.
New Voice Over
Characters that sounded, let's say, um, not very believable have been re-recorded. Demons have more grunt sounds, hurt sounds, screams, quips they yell at the player and so on. Non humanoid enemies now sound suitably wild and scary.
Final Boss Fight Finished
We've been overhauling the final boss with every new update and didn't feel satisfied with the fight until now. There's thunder bolts and lightning, very, very frightening you. There's checkpoints between parts of the fight, there's more dialogue, the gameplay flow is more fun. The bugs have been exterminated. It's finally a suitable end to the slapstick gore-fest that is Tainted Fate. Also you get these flamey hands:
Achievements
We're really happy to announce that we've implemented Steam achievements! Some are obtainable through just playing the campaign, others are harder to achieve and will test your exploration and demon tearing skills.
All changes:
-spiky dismemberment gate torn off hand would act weirdly - fixed
- after you tear apart an enemy with a sharp object, they go directly to ragdoll instead of into animation and then ragdoll
-torso mesh deformation when cut with sharp object fixed
-3d text shader changed in all levels so you can't see it through other objects anymore
-enemies that talk before the player approaches them don't continue talking during fighting anymore
-enemies now wait a second before attacking after they are alerted to player's presence, so player has a chance to instakill at least one enemy in group
-ambient music fades out when fight music starts, fades back in when fight music finishes
-minion shuts up if it's turned into iron (on pressure plate)
-added idle mode - some enemies now play custom animations before player interrupts them
-added new enemy - HandyBoi complete with anims, sounds, parts to tear off etc.
-when you touch exit level object on some levels, it automatically loads the next level (you don't have to teleport into all level exit objects anymore)
-in some levels you can now "open" the exit level door to advance to next level (previously you had to teleport into exit level doors)
-fixed bug where you could spawn an infinite number of explodable lanterns in prison island puzzle
-catacombs puzzle fixed
-enemies can't tear their limbs off on axes and shovels around the levels anymore (they would just walk onto a shovel and their legs would fall off)
-fixed critter bug in church boss fight
-fixed sound bug in shipwreck puzzle
-shipwreck and church intro dialogue does not play again after dying anymore
-doubled max pixel light count (no more "one eye has light, other doesn't" bugs)
-improved enemy AI, they don't try to go to starting position after losing player anymore (this resulted in them walking into walls etc)
-doggo now has proper demonic sounds
-new screams for tearing
-more quips for enemies to yell at you
-new sounds for objects (metal, glass shatters, gates opening,...)
-more ambient music in certain parts of levels
-ambient music fades out during fights when metal music is rocking
-death drums play when u dieded
-fixed critter voice over mistake
-new voice over for lesser cultists
-replaced voice over for cultists with new voice over
-fixed trails on lesser cultist and final boss glowy balls
-fixed surfaces where you couldn't teleport but should
-fixed surfaces where you couldn't free walk (certain stairs and inclines)
-thunder and lightning added in final boss fight
-completely remade final boss fight level environment
-changed final boss fight flow and difficulty
-added new player power for end of boss fight
-new checkpoints in middle of boss fights
-you can't fall off of edges of surfaces anymore in free walk mode - you just stop (less dizziness for players, less bugs for us) - this may not seem like a big one but it's a big one. Trust me.
-implemented Steam achievements
This update finishes up our update path for Tainted Fate. We will do one more big round of testing and bug fixing, but you can expect the full release very soon. We'd like to thank our fans who reported bugs and proposed features throughout the early access period. We would also like to thank everyone who gave positive and negative reviews, as long as they contained some constructive criticism we learned from them and fixed the stuff you didn't like.
Thank you for playing Tainted Fate. We <3 u and hope to get a lot more people playing on full release day!
Halloween Slasher Mega Update
Get ready for Tainted Fate's biggest update yet and just in time for Halloween! (Obviously our favorite day of the year.)
In the two months since the last update we focused on improving the graphics and overall look of the game, we've added new gameplay features, dismemberment gates, new ways to tear apart enemies (sharp objects, yay!), blood stains, we've started the final boss fight overhaul, new levels and bug fixes and other things we forgot to mention. Fun stuff!
Don't like reading? Here's a short video showing off some of the stuff in this update: CLICK ME
Double Texture Size
We have enabled the highest setting for textures that were lowered in production and have created new higher res versions of textures that were already at their highest setting. Every single object and creature in the game is now two times sharper when viewed up close (and you do that a lot in VR).
1080p comparison sreenshots:
Example one Example two Example three Example four We changed the textures section of the settings menu to have three options: Low (this was Medium in previous update), Medium (this was High in previous update) and High (new setting).
New Water Shader
Up until now we just used Unity's standard shader for the water in Tainted Fate, which resulted in the ocean looking like a bumpy piece of hard plastic.
We're now using a better shader with transparency when you're near, foam on the edges where the water collides with terrain and objects, nicer colors, more believable waves and light reflection.
New background vistas on many levels
In VR one of the most visually stunning things you can see is environments stretching far out into the distance. While the island in tainted fate has some locations where the vistas are impressive, the hell levels were all just floating islands with not much around them. That has bothered us for a long time and we decided the hell levels need environments around them to feel like a real place and not a video game level made only for the sake of gameplay.
(we added this in the previous update and forgot to mention it because we're kinda slow!)
Dismemberment Gates
Dismemberment Gates are Tainted Fate's new gameplay feature to make the dismemberment system have more use than just making enemies die. The player must tear apart enemies and put torn off body parts into their corresponding holes in the Gates. When all the body parts have been set the gates open and allow the player to continue. We have a few different gates; some require just one enemy to be torn apart, some require a whole group of different enemy types to be slaughtered and ripped apart and placed into the Gates.
Expect to find dismemberment gates throughout the story campaign.
New ways to dismember (on the road towards Dismemberment System 3.0)
Surprise! As promised, we've started adding new ways to dismember. The first one of these is cutting off body parts with sharp objects. If you happen to find an axe, or maybe a shovel, or if you're really lucky, a chainsaw - you can cut off enemy's body parts with it and feel like a slasher horror villain. Throw an axe at an enemy's head to split it open. Or grab him and start cutting away. Or place the axe on a table and throw an enemy on it like a real surgeon would. Sweep an enemy off his feet with a chainsaw like in the best romance novels. Hold a chainsaw in front of you and wait for enemies to run into it because the AI sucks. The choice is yours.
Blood stains (decals)
We've added blood stains that spray on the surface where you tear an enemy's limb. If you throw a body part with enough force into a surface it also creates a stain at the contact location. Thrown organs create pools of blood also. This makes fights more bloody and turns fight areas into blood soaked battlefields. Look back onto a fight area after a particularly hard battle and enjoy the bloody trail you left behind.
Many materials turned into PBR
Although Tainted Fate mostly uses physics based rendering (a modern approach to textures and materials which makes them more believable) on its materials, some of the materials use textures that were designed for the old (diffuse+normal+specular) system of shading. We've adjusted many materials and textures to make use of true PBR rendering, which results in the game looking a lot more coherent.
Level of detail adjustments
The level of detail (LOD) is the way our game reduces the complexity of objects based on how far they are to the player's view. This was set to quite near so objects would pop in or change shape suddenly while you were walking through levels. We have increased the distance at which objects change complexity so you can now see objects from further away and there is drastically less pop-in.
New shader - smooth level of detail transitions
In addition to being able to see objects from further away, the transition between the different LOD stages is now smooth like in modern AAA games. Objects now fade into view instead of popping into view and you can barely see them changing from low poly versions into higher poly versions because of the smooth transitions.
New levels
02HellJobAdditional: After the first level there is now a level introducing the dismemberment gate gameplay feature. You get to see some hellish sculptures on the way.
11CatacombsAdditonal: There is a new catacombs level that starts after you finish the old catacombs level. In this one there is a giant cavern with a dismemberment gate in the middle.
19BossIntro: There is now a final boss intro level where Baal throws his giant flaming balls at you while you jump from platform to platform trying not to get killed by Ball's balls. His balls hurt. They're not blue tho. They are, in fact, orange. (this level was introduced in the previous Puzzles Galore Update but we forgot to mention it!)
All changes:
-all textures doubled in size (new low, med, high texture setting)
-new water shader added on all levels
-background vistas for scenes MainMenu, 01helljob, 17HellParty, 18TwistedDimension, 19BossIntro and 20FinalFight
-changed lots of textures from diffuse+normal+specular to albedo+normal+metallic+smooth+AO
-changed LOD settings on all objects
-most objects now use shader with smooth LOD transitions
-added spawn effects for priests in catacombs and village
-more checkpoints in prison island and shipwreck (so you don't have to replay puzzle if you die after it)
-more checkpoints on just about every level
-reworked 12Woods atmosphere (every tester said the graphics on that level sucked. It was so ugly to some, they thought there was a bug with the lighting)
-new decorative objects on levels
-changed opening scene to have more interesting environment
-many textures changed to better fit into their environment
-added dismember gates gameplay feature
-reworked and prolonged first level into two levels to accommodate Spiky dismember gate
-reworked fight in cave after boss to have a Spiky x2 dismember gate
-added new catacombs level with Doggo dismember gate
-added mixed giant epic dismember gate in level 17HellParty instead of lame fight at end of level
-put stairs at end of 16Island4 instead of jumping on rocks - not confusing where you need to go anymore
-added new level - Boss Fight Intro
-level exits that are pure white now have a fade so it looks more pleasing
-bottles now break when thrown
-wine bottles have new label (this is the change you have been waiting for all your life)
-"water" in final boss's stomach has a green haze now
-fixed number one (1) in main font so it doesn't look like a seven (7) - confused people in high scores
-more blood decals on levels
-when final boss hurts you it plays hurt sound instead of eat sound
-more dynamic objects in house level
-set up light probes on multiple levels so dynamic models are affected by baked lights
-Oculus Rift only bugfix: tunneling (vignetting) now works in free walk mode
-Oculus Rift only bugfix: after you start holding a body part vibration stops (before it would vibrate a second longer)
-no more delay between explosion and reaction in puzzles
-no more delay between enemy spawn effect and enemy actually spawning
-enemies now go into ragdoll when they die from natural causes (not killed by player, killed by minion or environment)
-if a headset is not detected, instead of looping an error message 90 times per second, the game tells you there was no headset detected
-blood now sprays on floor and stays there when you tear an enemy
-torn parts also leave a blood stain if thrown with enough force
-organs spray blood on the floor if thrown with enough force
-axe, rasp, shovel and chainsaw now dismember limbs of thrown with enough force
-axe, rasp, shovel and chainsaw while held in hand can now be used to chop up enemies
-final boss fight reworked - 50% on the road to greatness
-fixed lighthouse light rotation bug
-Locked doors have handles that can be moved now
-Cupboards, electric boxes and other small objects with doors on them can be opened
-chainsaw now usable - chain rotates when picked up and can cut up enemies until fuel runs out
-player can't walk through green rocks anymore
-temporarily removed ambient occlusion from options (we'll bring it back when we fix all bugs with shaders)
-goat heads and brains don't spin indefinitely anymore
-changed sharp object placement on levels for more fun!
-enemies that die from natural causes (killed by other enemies or minions or env hazards) now go into ragdoll instead of staying in last animation frame
-plugged a lot of holes where you sneaky speedrunny bois would skip portions of levels or softlock the game
That's not everything, but it's everything we have written down! We hope you look forward to the next update in which our main priority is to overhaul the audio side of the game to be more meaty and polished. In addition to that we will polish the tearing system to be more responsive and remove some bugs we found with cutting with sharp objects. We'll also add tons of new sounds and ambient music and continue the Dismemberment System to be more versatile. Thank you for playing Tainted Fate. We <3 u.
Puzzles Galore Update
Tainted Fate's second update is live! The Puzzles Galore update reworks many of the levels in the game, adding new, more interesting puzzles to the mix. This update resulted from many players quitting the game in the first third of the game because the gameplay was too repetitive. We're trying to add more varied stuff for the player to do in an effort to keep you playing beyond the first third of the game.
First minion functionality
Many players found the first minion to be basically useless since he was a weak boi and had no use outside of fights. We've added pressure plates on which our boi must stand to open gates. This feature later gets more complex as the player has to stand on a pressure plate together with our boi, use the slow down time power to run through a gate while it's closing etc.
Prison Island Puzzle
There's a valve and some steam. And explosive lanterns.
Shipwreck Puzzle
There's a control board with a crack and electricity sparking out of it. The only door in the room is locked.
Puzzle Changes
Twisted Dimension teleporters puzzle now a bit harder. Lighthouse puzzle now a bit harder.
Collectibles
We've added collectibles in levels and a counter of how many you collected in the main menu.
All changes:
-reworked first scene (helljob) to accomodate new puzzle
-added minion puzzle in helljob scene
-added minion+player puzzle in house scene
-reworked catacombs scene to accomodate new puzzle(s)
-added minion+player puzzle in catacombs scene
-added minion puzzle in boss intro scene
-added prison island valve and steam puzzle
-added shipwreck puzzle
-added island4 scene (before lighthouse) critter+minion puzzle
-added collectibles in many levels
-added collectibles counter in main menu
Known bugs:
we've just discovered these new bad boys (in addition to our giant internal bug list) and will fix them in the next update:
-Oculus Rift only: tunneling (vignetting) does not work in free walk mode (except when you press in the thumbstick)
-Oculus Rift only: vibration lasts a second longer than it should after you start holding a body part
Arena Mode Update + Online Leaderboards!
Tainted Fate has been updated for the first time in Early Access! We've added loads of stuff based on your feedback and are working on a lot more.
Here are the biggest changes:
Arena Mode
Played through the story and want a bigger challenge? Don't care about the story mode at all and just want to compete with people from around the world in who will more creatively dismember enemies before the timer runs out? Then this is the mode for you.
But wait, there's a twist! The sacrificial pits you throw enemies in for major points are tricky this time. Every map has a different pit. Sometimes they move, sometimes they're on the ceiling, sometimes they're in an unreachable location...
There are 3 Arena Mode locations - Hell, Island and Crypt with 3 arenas each for a total of 9 new maps.
Online Leaderboars
Take a shot for the top place on the leaderboards of Arena Mode!
More Blood
Blood now trickles from torn limbs longer, the blood particles are bigger.
Censorship Shader
We noticed you like to look at butts and breasts and were disappointed we only put a black box to cover them up. So we added a censorship shader to hide our guillotine victim's private parts <3
Body part highlighting
The body part your hand is touching now gets highlighted with an outline so you know what you're grabbing.
New Level
In preparation for the Final Boss Redux Update we've added a new level before the final boss. There's still functionality missing, but it works.
All changes:
-Arena mode added
-made hell arena 3 maps
-made crypt arena 3 maps
-made island arena 3 maps
-online leaderboards for each arena location in main menu
-blood particles bigger, stay longer
-censorship shader added
-final boss intro level added - needs functionality in next update
-all ambient music now looping
-removed normal maps from rock material detal maps (performance gain)
-reworked many Very High textures in preparation for Graphics Bump Update
-added puzzle pieces in prepration for Puzzles Galore Update
-reworked levels in which minion 1 will have new functionality
-spit anim for final boss
-body part highlighting
-every major character (Aamon, Baal, Lucifer, Decarabia) now has a unique sigil design
-more sigils on levels
-vignetting/tunneling no longer appears while a scene is fading in
-changed icon from Unity default to custom TFate goodness
-fixed scene 18TwistedDimension nav mesh and placed backers to teleport player back if he falls off the level
If you want to see what else we have planned check out this post.
Hope you like the stuff we've added to TFate and see you on the leaderboards!
We Hear You
In preparation for the first update of Tainted Fate we've gathered all the feedback from your reviews, emails and youtube videos. We've taken your criticisms to heart and have discussed what we need to change in the story mode to make it more engaging in the first hour so you don't get bored with the game. It seems that players who play longer than an hour are more satisfied with the game, since that is when you start getting better power ups and more puzzles / gameplay elements. From what we've gathered:
Dismemberment is too "samey" and "gets old quickly": We are going to add more dismemberment options. We've seen many people swing their arms horizontally trying to tear apart enemies. That does not work because you need to grab two individual parts of the body and pull them apart. We will add the ability to tear apart a single limb/part of the body so you will be able to just wave your hands like a maniac and torn body parts will fly all around you.
"I don't know what I'm grabbing": We've added a highlight system (will go live in next update) so the body part you are currently touching is highlighted with an outline. This is a double edged sword since it makes the game more cartoony. We'll see what you think of it and possibly revert this feature.
"Choosing rotation before teleport is not precise": When playing on an Oculus Rift in Front Facing mode, you can rotate the direction you are facing before teleporting. It seems you prefer just rotating by pressing the right trackpad left or right. We will add and option to choose the rotation method in the options menu.
"The first minion you can spawn is useless and gets killed too quickly": We've added more health to your minion. We're thinking up possible other uses for him. He will probably be used to open locked paths. We will give him the ability to walk on surfaces the player can't teleport to. So you will need to spawn him on hot coals or lava and he will go and pull a lever to open a door for you. We will add gates that need two levers pulled at once to open them. You will need to spawn your minion to help you open them.
"The graphics are muddy": We're preparing a Graphics Bump update that will enable a "Very High" textures settings. We're going to double the size of every single texture in the game with this setting. Textures that don't have a higher res version currently are being reworked.
"Objects you can grab aren't useful in combat" Objects you throw at enemies will dismember their limbs (if thrown with enough force).
We will periodically add the above listed features along with the other updates we have planned:
-Arena Mode
-Final Boss Redux
-Collectibles and Achievements
-Puzzles Galore
-AI and Animation
-New Game Plus
-Voice Over Update
-Dismemberment System 3.0
-Graphics Bump
We can't promise we'll implement every single feature you request, but we'll certainly try.
So you know we don't only think about the negative stuff in your reviews, we're very happy that not a single player has reported performance problems or crashes and many have enjoyed the story mode even in this early access state.
Our mission is simple: to make a VR game you enjoy playing and are satisfied after you finish it. Through the upcoming updates we have planned we hope to reach this goal with as many of you as possible.
Tainted Fate Out Now In Early Access!
The time has come. Tainted Fate is finally leaving the confines of our hard disks and going out into the wild. We really hope you like the game. We will continue working on Tainted Fate until it fulfills the vision of the game you want it to be and the game we want to make. We believe we're close to that goal, so check back often for new updates on our progress.
The story will be polished up, the final boss fight redone and extended, the challenge mode is coming soon for those who want more than just the story. The AI is being reworked, the audio refined, voice acting is being re-recorded, visuals are being updated, we're adding collectibles, achievements and so on. Basically, there's a lot of work to be done, but we're looking forward to it. Hope you are too.
Please send us your complaints, bug reports, hugs and kisses, angry letters and so on to taintedfate@deltareality.com
Cheers from the team at Misfit Village and Delta Reality!
<3
Steam Page Live, New Trailer!
Hello Steam! We finally have the Steam page for Tainted Fate up and running. Our Early Access release is in 6 days and we're really hoping you'll like the game. We decided to go into Early Access to have more flexibility around making big changes in the game and general improvements based on what you, the players, say works or does not work in Tainted Fate. We also have a lot more content planned, as outlined in the "Why Early Access?" part on Tainted Fate's Steam page.
In these final days before release we're trying our best to have the game work on everyone's headsets and hardware configurations, but if it crashes for you or doesn't run well, let us know. Making sure it works for everyone is our primary goal, then comes the changes and additional content.
The new trailer is out too! The previous trailer was just a demonstration of the dismembering system (which we greatly improved since then) and felt it didn't represent the game accurately. The new trailer has a bit of the story in it, a bit of the boss fighting, a bit of dismemberment. Something for everyone!
Finally, here's a word from Tainted Fate's director Mladen:
I've been making this thing for six years and am really glad it's finally going public and into player's hands. It's been six years through which the game shifted from a serious horror game to a VR slaughterfest. Making models, texturing, drawing concepts, writing the script, recording sh***y temporary voice over for all the characters, level design, all that jazz. And at last when I finally figured out you can't do everything alone, partnering up with Delta Reality in this last year to save Tainted Fate from becoming another endless project and actually finish it. I couldn't have done it without you guys. It's all been worth it and I hope you have a blast playing Tainted Fate. We'll keep working on it until it's reached the standard we and you are satisfied with.
