The Black Heart cover
The Black Heart screenshot
Genre: Fighting, Adventure, Indie

The Black Heart

2023 VIDEO RECAP 👻

HAPPY END OF 2023, PEOPLE!



Here's our recap video where we tell you everything that happened from our side, including both Out of Bounds and Tenebris Somnia. Check it out!

VIDEO INCLUDES ENGLISH SUBTITLES


Watch video on You Tube


Below, you'll find all our games discounted up to 75% for the next week. Don't miss them! 💸

Thank you for all your support! Have an amazing 2024!

Tobías Rusjan


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1787100

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1431780

https://store.steampowered.com/app/753590

https://store.steampowered.com/app/383930

https://store.steampowered.com/app/311250

https://store.steampowered.com/app/248470

2022 VIDEO RECAP 😎

Hello, people! How was your 2022?



Ours, full of news and a lot of different games! Here's the video recap I did telling you about the most important milestones we had at Saibot Studios (IT INCLUDES ENGLISH SUBTITLES):


Watch video on You Tube


Below are all our games discounted up to 70% for the next week. Don't miss them 💸

Thank you for all your support! Have an amazing 2023!

Tobías Rusjan


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1787100

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1431780

https://store.steampowered.com/app/753590

https://store.steampowered.com/app/383930

https://store.steampowered.com/app/311250

https://store.steampowered.com/app/248470

🚨 New game Out of Bounds is NOW AVAILABLE! 🚨

Hello, everybody! How have you been?

We're doing PRETTY WELL! Closing this crazy 2022 celebrating 🥳

And that's not only because our football team won the World Cup, but also because we have just released a new game on Steam:



Out of Bounds is a peculiar title that was originally created for a game jam the past year (Epic Megajam 2021). As a solo dev, I had 7 days to create a game that was later released for free on Itchio.

Since I liked the result of the jam, I decided to keep working on that idea for the next months and also some great devs (former colleagues from other projects) joined me to get the best results in visuals (Viktor Ahmed and Claudio "Scuzzo" Sagrera) and audio (David Levill) 🙌



THE GAME



Out of Bounds is a title about "creating" a game and "fixing" bugs... Yeah, it's crazy. You will pickup blueprints, compile shaders, test sound effects, drink a lot of coffee. But watch out for the bugs! Grab your Line Tracer and get rid of them 👾

https://youtu.be/U7Q1M-wRbMg
Things are starting to get better here in Saibot Studios and Out of Bounds is part of that process. I'm looking forward to bring you news about bigger projects in the future, but for now give a chance to this crazy puzzle shooter with humor and puzzles 🤓

You can follow Out of Bounds on its new Twitter account:
https://twitter.com/OutOfBoundsVg



NEWS ABOUT EXPLOSIONS AND GORE?



Hell yeah! The people at Humble Bundle created a new package of retro style first person shooters based on the one they did in March of this year 🔥



This time, you can get 7 awesome titles for only 12 dollars, including our own Hellbound and the great Forgive Me Father was also added to the list.

A percentage of the sales will go to charity at Able Gamers and Starlight Children's Foundation ❤️

Hurry up! Get the bundle before the next 24 hours ⏲️



If you have a Twitter account, don't forget to follow us for more news:
https://twitter.com/SaibotStudios

Cheers and take care!

Tobías

📦 COLLECTION + SPECIAL VIDEO + MORE! 🪙




Hello there! How are you? How's your 2022 so far? 😎



From here, we have a few things to tell you...

As we mentioned you in our last post, this year we reached an entire decade since we started making games as an independent team in Saibot Studios. But it was just now that we actually make something special to celebrate it. Check out the special video!

https://youtu.be/S4-E40ce_Oo

Together with this video, we built and launched a collection with all our published games, including: the Doorways saga, Hellbound and The Black Heart 😈

> LINK TO BUNDLE <

Buying the games from the bundle, gives you a 15% of discount on all the titles. And if you already have one or more of the games included in the package, it will discount you the titles you're missing without needing to buy the entire bundle 👌



TENEBRIS SOMNIA



On the other hand, we receently announced our new creation: Tenebris Somnia. This is a very unique title by the great Andrés Borghi, creator of The Black Heart 🖤



We're developing this project Andrés and I (Tobías Rusjan), together with a great team of artists. You can read more about it and the dev team in this other post we did the past week.

If you like the concept of the game, don't forget to add it to your Wishlists. We're aiming to have it ready during 2023 👍

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2121510/Tenebris_Somnia/



OUT OF BOUNDS



In the mean time, I keep working on my little jam game Out of Bounds, a rare title with action, shooting and puzzles. We released a demo in June and it's still available to check directly from the store page:



My idea is finish the full game for the end of the year. So play the demo and add it to your wishlist if you liked it! 🙌

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1787100/Out_of_Bounds/



HELLBOUND... HELLBOUND?



This month we received the great news from our (now) former publishers that they're giving us back the IP of Hellbound 🤯

What does this mean?

Finally, we at Saibot Studios are going to start receiving sales from Hellbound on Steam. Since the release of 2020, all the sales went to the publisher because that was what we stablished: they recoup their investment first, and then we split; but we never reached that last step because they never recoup their part with the sales we had.

But now after two years from the release, they're giving us back the game so we can atleast see some of the sales. Also, we got back the full rights of the project to take any desision we want from now on 🔥



In March of this year there was the Best of Boomer Shooters Bundle, the first collection of Humble Bundle focused on retro FPSs. Hellbound had the honour to be included in that package, becoming the first argentinian game in participate in the iconic Humble Bundle:

https://youtu.be/ndqIlyYFVJM

Both the sales from this collection and also the sales from now on (September of 2022) at Steam are going to us at Saibot. Yes, finally!

But unfortunately, this aren't earnings for us yet, since we still need to recoup all we put to create the Hellbound: Survival Mode in 2016-2018.

So the future of Hellbound is still uncertain... The good thing is that everything has started looking brighter now, we'll see how things turn for our Hellgore in the next months 🤞



That would be all for now, people. Hope we have some more news for you soon, follow us in our networks to stay updated:


Cheers, everybody! Take care!

Tobias

🎂 10 YEARS OF SAIBOT! 🎉






Hello, people! How are you? How did you started 2022? 🤓




In a day like today, but from 2012, we officially started a crazy adventure called Saibot that continues to date.

Actually, the very begginning was in 2011 with the conceptualization and prototype of what ended up being our first title Doorways (read more).


But it wasn't until March of 2012 that, after I partened with my Uncle and friend Ivan Rusjan, we finally started working as a team. We built the first Saibot "office", which was actually my room along side the bed and at my Mom's department, and we used some old tables as desks that my Grandma gave us ❤️

And from then, a lot of enechdotes and experiences started hapenning. With tons of fails and drop downs, but also with some wins, we were able to keep going to date doing what we love the most: creating our own games and delivering them all over the world 🌎

So I decided to take some time to build and share with you a quick recap of some of the main milestones we have achieved together with you during the last 10 years of Saibot...



2012: The Origin



  • Started the team and office with only two members (picture)

  • Started the development of the first game and saga: Doorways

  • First public presentation of the game at the event EVA 2012




Left: Tobias Rusjan (me), right: Martin Voychisko



2013: Prelude



  • Trip to E3 thanks to a contest we won at Indies Crash E3

  • Approval of our first game at Steam Greenlight after a lot of big Youtubers played it

  • Official launch of Doorways: Prelude on Steam (first argentinian game to be released on Steam after being approved on Greenlight)

  • Launch of VR (virtual reality) version of Doorways: Prelude with the Oculus Rift Dev Kit 1 (first argentinian game published with VR compatibility)




Most popular Youtuber Pew Die Pie playing Doorways: Prelude



2014: Underworld



  • Moved to new home-office with our own space

  • Team got bigger with 4 full time developers

  • Development and release of the second game Doorways: The Underworld

  • Hosted a special event with Youtubers Alfredito and international guest Xoda (Chile) playing Doorways: The Underworld live

  • Trip to Esquel (Chubut, Argentina) together with the development team (picture)




From left to right: David Levill, Sergio Juarez (my Father), Damian Teixeira, Tobias Rusjan (yo), Maximiliano Schneider



2015: Holy Mountains






Dev team members from Saibot together with the cast and live action video creators (see tags)



2016: Transition



  • Final release of Doorways: Holy Mountains of Flesh on Steam

  • Built and release of the old version of Doorways: Old Prototype created in late 2011

  • Started working on new series Hellbound

  • Team member David Levill decided tattoo himself the logo of "Doorways" on his skin because of the love he had to the project (picture)




Tattoo painted by Fernando Muzzio (main artist from Hellbound) over the left arm of David Levill (music director and SFX composer)



2017: New Beginning



  • New team members were introduced for a much bigger project in Hellbound

  • Recorded motion captures (MoCap) for animations of Hellbound (Hell Knights, Vladers)

  • Built and published Hellbound's teaser trailer (picture). For the creation of this particular video, we did live action takes as references, then did motion captures (MoCap), and finally rendered everything with high quality specs; everything done here in Argentina 🇦🇷




Watch the first presentation of the teaser trailer at the expo EVE 2017



2018: Survival Mode



  • Launch of Hellbound: Survival Mode as Early Access

  • Created a Kickstarter campaing for Hellbound to complete the funds for the campaign

  • Had a TV showcase with Santiago Do Rego and Sebastian Di Nardoon at TNT Sports about Hellbound's Kickstarter

  • Allied with NGD Studios (currently named Nimble Giant Entertainment) to publish Hellbound's campaign mode

  • Hellbound wons an Unreal Dev Grant for the development of the project (first argentinian game to get one)

  • Hellbound: Survival Mode wons a price at expo EVA 2018 as best game created in Unreal Engine (picture)




From left to right: Paulo Souza (Epic Games evangelist), Tobías Rusjan (me), Miguel Martín (director at ADVA)



2019: Campaign Mode



  • Moved with the team at a bigger and better home-office located in the town of Vicente Lopez (Buenos Aires)

  • Definitive launch of Hellbound: Survival Mode (first published argentinian game to have animations withe motion capture)

  • Launch of Hellbound's demo (campaign mode) together with a presentation at EVA 2019 (picture)




From left to right: Juan Caratino, Federico Tessandori, Fernando Muzzio, David Levill, Viktor Ahmed, Tobias Rusjan (yo)



2020: Hellbound






Hellbound's launch trailer



2021: The Black Heart






Cover art created by Fernando Muzzio (Hellbound) for The Black Heart by Andres Borghi



2022 (coming next): Out of Bounds and MORE...



  • Final release of Out of Bounds on Steam (picture). See the last development updates here

  • And more... (news coming soon!)




Add it to your Wishlist!



And this right here is just a quick recap... We thank you all of you for being part of this adventure, for playing our games, for sharing them or just for writing and supporting us 🙌

We have more news to reveal you soon. So follow us on our social networks!


Cheers and take care!

Tobias

Steam Trading Cards 🃏🀄️🃏

Happy-creepy 2022, creatures from the other world! How are you?

To start this new era of darkness, we have a present for you that we brought directly from Chaos...

THE BLACK HEART OFFICIAL TRADING CARDS! ːpeketoː




That's it! Now, every time you play the game, you will get some cards. And to complete the set, you will need to trade them with other players.

And as you complete the sets, you will receive new badges from the game and also special items (like backgrounds or emoticons) to upgrade your Steam profile in black and red ːanimusː





BTW, don't miss the Winter Sale discounts! You still have 24 hours left!

For you or a friend of yours, you can get the game and soundtrack at 20% OFF. And if you get both items with the Chaos Bundle, the discount goes to 32% 💸


https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23176/The_Black_Heart_Chaos_Bundle/


I want to take this opportunity to thank you all once again for supporting this amazing project of the creator Andres Borghi. We wish you all an amazing (and spooky) 2022 🎇

Follow us at our social networks to stay in touch:


Cheers, everybody! Take care!

Tobías

2021 Video Recap 🤓

🎉 Happy new year, everybody! 🎉

As always, here's our 2021 video recap by Tobias Rusjan. We talk about Hellbound, The Black Heart by Andres Borghi and the upcoming projects 👾

https://youtu.be/BHg3TkYGutc

Don't forget the sales! All our games are discounted up to 90% OFF 💸

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1431780/The_Black_Heart/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/753590/Hellbound/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/383930/Doorways_Holy_Mountains_of_Flesh

https://store.steampowered.com/app/311250/Doorways_The_Underworld

https://store.steampowered.com/app/248470/Doorways_Prelude

And Out of Bounds is coming soon... Add it to your Wishlist!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1787100/Out_of_Bounds/


Wish you all an amazing start of 2022! Cheers!

Tobias

Music video + Discounts 🎸

ROCK THIS OUT, EVERYBODY!

David "Davyd" Levill, who was in charge of the remastering and guitars of the Soundtrack, recorded himself playing "Heart Ripper" (composed by game creator Andres Borghi) 🤘



  • Click here to watch the video on Twitter


Get the entire Soundtrack including 15 original songs and amazing guests with 15% OFF!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1786650/The_Black_Heart_Soundtrack/


And the game is also on sale right now! So if you get both items with the Chaos Bundle, you get a total discount of 28% 😱

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23176/The_Black_Heart_Chaos_Bundle/

Have an amazing-creepy weekend, guys! Cheers!

Tobias

Quick update + Discounts + Steam Award 🏆

Souls, creatures and some humans! How are you?

Tobias Rusjan here, the guy who's helping creator Andres Borghi with the release of his game.

The Steam Awards 2021 started, and I wanted to invite you all to nominate The Black Heart for the category "Labor of Love" ❤️

After working with Andres during the last year and after learning all about the background and details behind this wonderful project, I can tell you without hesitation that this is a unique and passionate work that truly deserves this recognition. So... Let's vote it!




On the other hand, both game and Soundtrack DLC are currently 15% OFF because of the Autumn sales. And if you get them from the Chaos Bundle, the discount increases to 28% 💸

If you already have those items, this would be a great opportunity to buy them for a friend. Thank you!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23176/The_Black_Heart_Chaos_Bundle/

Finally, we have just made a quick update for the game with some fixes. So check it out from your library to get it 🔧

Don't forget to follow us on our social networks for more news:

Have an amazing-bloody weekend, everybody!

Tobias

Game Update v1.5 ⚙️

Fighters from this world and from the other! How are you? 👻

Since the release of last month, creator Andres Borghi has been working on improvements and fixes for The Black Heart. And today we have the new version 1.5 ready, which includes:


  • New options on Practice Mode




  • Fixes and visual tweaks for the interface






  • Balancing improvements



And a lot more! Below you will find the full change log 👇


Don’t stop playing the game and giving us all your valuable feedback! And remember to follow us on our social networks for more content:

Cheers and let’s try out the new 1.5 version!

Tobias

-

Lista completa de ajustes y mejoras en la nueva versión 1.5

General:

  • Improved Practice mode with more options.
  • Fixed image bug in movelists.
  • Added macros to execute double punch or kick with 1 key.
  • Updated engine to Ikemen_GO_v0.98.1
  • In Practice mode you can choose any stage.
  • Changed background animation in options menu.
  • Every normal launcher can be blocked mid-air.
  • Fatal moves performed in Practice mode don't produce bugs.
  • Killer modes executed mid-combo consume half a green bar for every character.
  • Normal weak jumping attacks produce more stunts to standing enemies to facilitate combos.


Peketo:

  • "tele-cut" uses 2 different animations varying between weak or strong.
  • "Tele-cut" is slightly slower.


Ananzi:

  • "Super crawling birth" bounces only 2 times before disappearing.
  • "Super crawling birth" allows only 1 egg onscreen.
  • "Arachnid requiem" is faster and produces slightly more damage.
  • Animation for "Super black trap" is a little faster during HIT.
  • "Prey" is now overhead.
  • You need more distance from the enemy to execute "Black trap".


Animus:

  • Weak "Nadasdy spear" now leaves the enemy closer when hit.
  • JP-HK in dash is not overhead anymore.


Shar-makai:

  • "Saliva attack" is now a hard knockdown.
  • St-hp has more reach.
  • Fatal move has more reach and is unblockable.
  • "Small army" allows to continue the combo.
  • Jp-lp has cooldown to prevent constant spamming.
  • Worm spawned in "Rock skull" now dies if Shar-makai is hit.
  • St-hk is now overhead, except during combo.


Hashi:

  • "Seeding" tree now has more pushback when blocked.


Noroko:

  • "Snow woman" can be executed only 2 times without touching the floor.
  • Reduced juggle.
  • "Soul Punishment", "Bloody end" and "Kwaidan" have more recovery.


Final:

  • "Sanguimancy" clones now die after a certain time.


Janos:

  • Fixed some hitboxes
  • "Negative saw is now executable in mid-air and is now a launcher.
  • Projectiles in "Black blade" and "Black blades shred" are destroyed when clashing against an enemy projectile.
  • "Dark puppet" clon has less life and last less time.
  • There can only be 1 "Dark Puppet" onscreen.