The Grip of Madness Friday Update: Updated Art Direction!
Hello hello! Friday Update again! I wanted to update everyone on one of the exciting new developments for The Grip of Madness! We’re honing in the game’s style and ultimately the direction for future content.
We want TGoM to evoke that 1980s horror movie feel, and having an art style that can evoke that feel is essential. With dark environments, exaggerated effects, and bright clashing colors. Here’s a peek at that new direction and how that will change the look and feel compared to the game currently!     The new direction adds darkness with clashing colors and detail that was not previously noticeable and really pops out in the environment.
We’re super excited to further explore this direction for the game and really excited to have you on the journey. If you haven’t already, wishlist The Grip of Madness and follow the Steam Hub to keep up to date!
Join us for Madness Monday #5!
Its that time again! We'll be hosting the next Madness Monday on August 1st at 7:00 PM EST over on the RustBit Discord! We'll be playing demo of The Grip of Madness and be discussing our future plans! Can't wait to see you!
The Grip of Madness Friday Update: Get ready to Rock!
Our resident musician, Michael, has been providing the atmospheric synth-wave tracks for The Grip of Madness. But, we love all the music that came from the 80s which is why we’re so excited about our next character preview: The Frontman.
Fear of the satanic panic has whipped pearl-clutching parents into a frenzy, and the hair metal Frontman is a perfect embodiment of those fears. But he’s not here to raise hell… he’s here to keep its doors closed!
Used to playing in front of an audience, the Frontman will be the go-to choice for crowd control powers. With a strum from his mighty axe, he’ll have the power to knock back monsters or stun them. If the team needs a bit of breathing room, the Frontman will be ready for his solo.
The Frontman is also louder than the rest of the team. His voice with the proximity voice chat will carry farther than the rest. This will make them indispensable in relaying critical information to your teammates and coordinating everyone’s actions when they’re working together on our next batch of diabolical rituals… But we’ll leave that for a future Friday Update.
Join us for Madness Mondays!
The Grip of Madness team will be hosting Madness Mondays every other Monday. Our next Madness Monday is July 11th at 7pm EST. We’ll be hanging out on our Discord server to play Grip of Madness and chat with everyone. If you haven’t had a chance to play the demo yet, this will be a perfect time! Looking to join the community? Hop on our Discord server. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the game!
The Grip of Madness Friday Update - Check out these character redesigns!
Hey there! Once again, it's our Friday Update! A lot has been going on to get us to our planned early access release! Today I'd like to talk about one of the major changes you might've seen in the latest version of the demo. Lexy, our artist, has been hard at work redesigning and refining the look of our existing characters that are available to check out now! Here are some before and afters: The cop got a promotion to The Chief of Police. So we decided to redesign him this way as we dug further into his backstory: a small-town hands-on officer whose heart is in protecting his community at any cost. The Medium has a never-ending curiosity for the dark and macabre, hoping to unlock its secrets and powers one day. Therefore, we redesigned the Medium to showcase her origins in the iconic gothic subculture of the 1980s. The scientist is not all that he seems. For clean and pristine isn't his style. He has a thirst for knowledge and to improve upon the human race. Disheveled hair and a dirty lab coat won't get in his way. He dives into his experiments with blatant disregard for trivial manners, such as looks or uptight moral principles.
Join us for Madness Mondays!
As always, we're running Madness Mondays as an opportunity to play the game with the developers. So join our Discord channel and join in the fun! The next one will be on Jul 11th at 7:00 pm EST!
The Grip of Madness Friday Update: The Sleuth is Out There…
We had an absolute blast at Origins/GDEX and had a great time meeting so many fans! We’re excited to hang out with everyone on our Discord server and can’t wait to play again with you at our next Madness Monday.
Now we’re back and more excited than ever! We think it’s time to declassify the dossier on our next character: The Private Investigator!
Tears hold information on how to complete the ritual. Often, one person closes a Tear, and only they get the clue. But, when the PI is on the case, she gets a clue when any Tear is closed! Her clues can even have additional information that only she knows. With a pistol and a reliable taser to stun enemies, you’ve got another capable team member - ready to solve the mystery, complete the ritual, and stop the invasion of reality!
The PI completes the first round of character archetypes. In The Grip of Madness, each character is one of three archetypes: Fighter, Support, and Seeker. Fighters (such as the Jock) are best at fighting off the Invaders, support (like the Pizza Boy) roles are best at helping teammates survive, and Seekers (like the PI) are best at completing Rituals.
Join us for Madness Mondays!
We host Madness Mondays every other Monday. The next Madness Monday is June 20th at 7 pm EST. We’ll be on our Discord server, playing The Grip of Madness and talking about the plans for the game and how the Madness gets made. If you haven’t had a chance to play the demo yet, this will be a perfect time! Looking to join the community? Hop on the Discord server. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the game!
The Grip of Madness Friday Update: Lets go to the mall!
A demo update and Origins/GDEX are on the horizon! This Friday, I’m super excited to share with you one of the maps we plan on launching the full game with! We’ve decided to part ways with the mansion and introduced you to The Farrow Hill Mental Institute. The mental hospital has become a place for the local cultists to do their bidding, opening Tears into the In-Between, linking our world with the Invaders. As a result, the halls and rooms shift and change in the mental hospital, creating a different experience every time!
As we continue to add on and improve the procedural generator (in terms of content and functionality), you’ll see even more variations to come.
Farrow Hill is only the first setting we’re working on. Now we’re sharing some new concept art for a new setting! Because it's time for a night out at the mall! Starlight Mall!
Starlight Mall is the place to go! Featuring a theater, an arcade, plenty of stores, and more! If you’re looking for a place to complete a ritual and seal off the Tears to the In-Between, Starlight Mall has you covered.
Much like how the Farrow Hill Mental Institute’s hallways shift and change. So does Starlight Mall’s! Store arrangements and layouts will change every playthrough, so no two playthroughs will always be the exact same. We’ll be getting some more map locations, characters, and monsters concepted here as development continues forward.
I’m super pumped to have you on the journey with us, building The Grip of Madness and seeing it grow! If you haven’t done so already, join us on Discord and join the conversation!
The Grip of Madness Friday Update: Special Delivery!
The team is getting ready for Origins & GDEX at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. While we’re getting ready, we’ve got a special delivery for you this Friday: The Pizza Boy!
There’s nothing better than getting a fresh slice of pie on a Friday night. Deliveries are in twenty minutes, or your money back! Working late to make some dough at Planet Pizza, the Pizza Boy is fast on his feet and is ready to fight off anything that gets in the way of speedy service, even if it's interdimensional Invaders!
With the procedural generation system for the map up and running, we can produce some big maps. The Pizza Boy will be the best character suited to cover that ground when you need to deliver an item or find a ritual component.
The Pizza Boy also has a handy fanny pack. Trendy or a fashion faux-pas, you can’t deny its utility. The Pizza Boy can store an extra item in his fanny pack, carrying twice as much as other characters! We’re excited for everyone to get a chance to run a mile in his shoes, making deliveries all around the map.
Join us for Madness Mondays!
The team will be hosting Madness Mondays every other Monday. The next Madness Monday is June 6th at 7 pm EST. We’ll be hanging out on our Discord server and be playing The Grip of Madness with everyone there. If you haven’t had a chance to play the demo yet, this will be a perfect time! Looking to join the community? Hop on our Discord server. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the game!
Friday Update: Come see us at Origins/ GDEX 2022 and other events!
Hey there! Patrick here; this week, I wanted to do an update about our upcoming events.
To kick things off: we will be at Origins/GDEX on June 8-12, 2022, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio!
We’ll be showing off The Grip of Madness, doing giveaways, talking about the game, where we are taking it, and more. We’ll be over at booth 220 during the show! Make sure to register for Origins and get your badge now!  Throwback to GDEX 2021, where we first showed TGoM off to the public!
Not to mention that GDEX will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this year! And RustBit is super excited to be a part of it.
Additional events are on the horizon!
The RustBit team will also be talking about The Grip of Madness over at World Gone Geek. Live this Sunday, May 22nd, at 7:00 pm EST! We’ll be talking about RustBit as a studio, what’s new with The Grip of Madness, and just all around geeking out! Check it out on Youtube!
Also, you might have been seeing that the game is getting a new logo along with a new style! There’s more to come on that here soon! 😉
The Grip of Madness Major Demo Announcement
Hey everyone, Patrick here! We’ve got some really exciting news talking about The Grip of Madness!
In 2021 we demoed our early prototype at GDEX and the Cleveland Gaming Classic. Players got their first chance to be gripped by madness. We also got a lot of feedback that we’ve been building upon! In our first of many Friday update posts that we’ll be starting, it is my pleasure to introduce you to our exciting new map: The Farrow Hill Mental Institute!
Step inside this abandoned mental hospital and fight to save (or doom) reality.
Farrow Hill is a dark place, once meant to be a haven to help care for those in need. Farrow Hill was shut down in 1982 once news of medical malpractice and unsettling experiments performed on patients came to light. Now condemned, it quickly fell into disrepair. The Brotherhood of the Claw has started performing dark rituals within its walls. Some say that the halls and rooms shift and change because of their evil rituals. The cult’s most recent ritual has opened a rift to the In-Between: a realm that links our reality to the beyond. Otherworldly invaders are pouring through, and it’s up to you and your friends to stop them. Are you in?
The Grip of Madness now uses a wickedly cool procedural generation system that we’re excited to showcase in our upcoming demo. So keep your eyes out for the changing wards of Farrow Hill; it's a real game-changer!
Also, to our fans on the other side of the globe: 你好! We’ve heard your feedback on localizing the game to Chinese, and it’s something that is definitely on our priority list. If anyone wants to be involved with The Grip of Madness localization, please reach out!
We’re excited to hear your feedback on Discord. We can’t wait to get the next update out the door on May 2nd!
