"When the world was young they emerged from the depths of our minds.
The Deep Ones—as we now know them—were born alongside our own consciousness.
When we first heard them whisper inside our heads, offering us great power and wisdom, we couldn’t resist."
Morbid
is an R/T-rated isotopic soulslike, where you battle against the darkest parts of human psyche,
manifested as horrendous nightmarish monsters. The game will have dark stygian steampunk aestethics,
Lovecraftian horrors, and plenty of Cronenbergian gore.
You are a Striver of the Order of Dibrom, the last beacon of hope for humanity.
You have been purposely trained since your birth, to be sent out to the world, to take down the Deep Ones,
horrendous physical manifestations of the dark side of human psyche.
All fighters chosen before you have failed in their mission to destroy the Deep Ones.
One by one, they have fallen for their Highlords, whom have turned them into their foul servants
Want to see the game come true? Want to help us?
It's still the early days of the game, and we're not 100% sure yet if we'll be able to make the game.
It all depends on whether we get a funding for the project or not.
Help us make this game into reality, share the video to your friends, and let them know about the game!
Join Still Running's Discord server!
Join the party!
Just realized I haven't yet invited you to the party! So feel free to do so, all the cool kids are there already, so be one of the cool kidz! (I'm there too..)
Well, why not? We're talking about The Walking Vegetables there, what the future holds for the game, ZKW, and generally all kinds of things! Just make sure you're not an jackass first, mkay?
In the channel you can also suggest any ideas you might have for the game, what we should do with it, if something needs to be fixed and so on. The whole team will be there too! :)
I'm still around and alive
Helloes everyone, for it is I, REllU.
First things first, I'm really sorry I haven't been posting anything for well over a month now. I don't really have any announcements to make in this post, so this is more like one of those "I'm still alive" post's.
So, make yourself comfortable, as I'm quite sure this will be a long one.
The reason why I haven't been posting anything, is.. Well, there are actually multiple reasons. For one, I haven't been actually working on anything for about two months now (so, nothing new to show you) I also moved to a new place just a week ago, so my life (as well as my apartment) has been a real mess for a few weeks because of this.
Today I was able to just sit comfy, without having to do anything, which is why I'm writing this now.
The current situation is this. I'm looking for a "real" job. For the first time in almost four years, for the first time since I founded Still Running. It really eats me inside, but it's something I just have to do if I'm willing to live yet another day.
For well over a year I've been insanely stressed. First about "abandoning" ZKW, then about working on TWV and releasing it, and now about the success (which is non existent) of TWV. And ofcourse, money. Through the four years I've been working full time on making games, I've had just enough money to buy some food, and pay my rent. And I was just happy about that. Ofcourse, since my incomes have been irregular through this whole time, I've always been stressing if I was going to get enough money to pay for the next rent. Now however, I can't even afford my rent anymore. Which forces me to look for another job.
This all has affected on me as well, as you'd imagine. Because of all of this stress I've had through the years, I've slowly become depressed. No, it's nothing too serious, don't worry. But because of it, I haven't been able to work for two months. In a way this two month non-work period has been a good thing. I've gotten my mind off of The Walking Vegetables, and I've been able to do other stuff.
I'd like to get back to work on The Walking Vegetables. I have so many ideas I still want to make, and my team has just been so awesome with everything that I must continue. However, because of this whole job thing, I can't work on The Walking Vegetables (or any other future projects we may have) full time. This means that while I'd still be working on stuff, everything would be taking a lot longer than before. Please try to understand the position I'm in, and just be patient with the updates and new content. There will be more. I didn't name this company "Still Running" just for funzies. There's actually a deeper story behind that name, but I'll have to tell you about that in some other wall-of-text post.
-REllU (if you managed to get this far (no cheating!) you've deserved yourself a pat in the back.)
News for the new update!
First things first, yes, hi. I'm still working on the big update even though I haven't posted anything here.
Been a while. How's it going?
Seems to depend on what time one ask's a question like this. Right now though? Things are going! I've been working on the randomized level system for a few weeks, and that part of the update is basically done now (the technical side of things, that is)
This is what the generator looks like right now. It's just a bunch of code basically at this point, without too much of anything visual. So if you don't understand what's going on, don't worry.
Basically, the grid represents sections. Each section is crafted from four pieces, that have been hand crafted (which hasn't been done yet, more on that later..) What this means, is that every single section and room will look like it had some thought put into it, and they make sense, BUT still every single one of the sections will be unique, and with every play through you'll meet a set of new sections (every play through will be different!)
Right, what else?
I've been doing the transition from GameMaker Studio 1, to Studio 2.
So far I've been constantly learning new stuff (which I very much enjoy!) and all in all things have been going pretty good. The jump from Studio 1 is far from finished, as the differences between the two were much bigger than what I expected (I have over 10 years of experience with GameMaker, and this is the first time I've really had to stop and scratch my head from jumping to a newer version of GM. Which is a good thing though!)
One thing I learned from moving to the new engine, is how to monitor the use of resources within the software itself! This is a huge thing to me, as I'm kind of sort of obsessed with optimization (The Walking Vegetables already runs at steady 60FPS 1080p with only intel i5's onboard graphics) but with this new tool, I managed to squeeze in a few more FPS's here and there. Check this out:
Before
After
All you need to understand from these two pics, is that I managed to optimize a couple of scripts in particular that were fairly heavy without me even knowing about it, to less than half of what they used to be. This won't boost your FPS by 500, but it could be a life or death situation on the less powerful PC's out there (or maybe one day even mobile..? Who knows..)
So yeah, the transition from GMS1 will be taking longer than expected. But if everything goes smoothly (nothing ever does) we should be able to get a new update for The Walking Vegetables before the end of the year! (fingers crossed!)
How's life then?
Well.. For those of you who don't yet know this: I actually had to move out from my office just last week. It's been rather hard on me, as I can't really put it in words how much having an office really helped me out. The feeling you get when you actually go to work. And not in a negative way, I mean like.. I had an office, just for making games. And that's what I did. I went there, and I made games every day. Well, a game. But still, point stands. It was definitely a turn of page in the book of Still Running.
Ofcourse, that doesn't mean I would work any less, or stop entirely. So don't worry about that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JqHYuSq_pw
I also went to Vaasa Game Days which is a local, small, game event here. Fun fact, Vaasa Game Days 2016 directly affected on The Walking Vegetables (fun fact #2: original idea for TWV was to actually make a small mobile game in less than a month. We had been working on TWV for only two weeks for the last VGD, and people enjoyed the game already back then, which resulted in me realizing that holy shet, we had something much more in our hands than just a simple mobile game..)
Vaasa Game Days 2017 was a success to me! People were LINING in front of my stand to get and try out The Walking Vegetables!
Okok, that's enough, geez
Yeah, I feel like that's enough text for one evening. I don't hate people enough to write anything longer.
I really hope people understand why there hasn't been weekly updates for a long time. I will say however, that this update will be worth the wait! I'm really excited about it all, and I hope you guys are too!
Big news for The Walking Vegetables' future
Next couple of weeks will probably be update-less.
Alright, helloes to you all!
We've been discussing about the future of The Walking Vegetables a-lot within the team for the past few days, and there's one thing we all wanted to change about the game.
We're going to overhaul the way the main area works.
Each level has one main area, which is used as a "hub" for the sections and buildings. This was supposed to work like the level selection "screen" in the first Crash games, but instead, we made the center area too big, and now, it only serves as a time waster. You're forced to go back every time you clear an area, or building. You're forced to walk around without a purpose. And that's what we thought was wrong with the game. And that is what we're going to change.
What's replacing the center area then?
Well, that's not yet 100% sure, but we do have a plan for it. The way the new system is going to work, is to make the game feel more like you're actually progressing. You aren't stuck in one area, just to get into another, but rather we'll make the whole level out of these smaller areas. This also makes it random, every single time, every time you play, the game area is randomized. So you won't be seeing the exact same places time after time.
Now notice that I said "exact same"
We'll make the smaller areas by hand, and let the game randomize them. This way, while the whole thing is practically randomized, it all will still make sense. So you won't be seeing a cactus in a middle of a road, road ending to an ocean, or anything silly like that.
It's still all in idea stage right now, but I'm fairly confident about how it all will work out. I'll start working on that new system this week, and will keep you guys updated on how things are going.
There was also a few other things we want to change and update in the future, but this was the biggest issue in the games current state.
Switching the game engine
I'm also going to update the game engine we're using, which alone will take some time (porting the game into another engine basically.) We're moving from GMS 1.4 to GMS 2, so it's not entirely another engine, and I won't be making everything from scratch.
So yeah, I think that's all!
Halloween update is HERE! (New boss, new enemy, new weapon!)
But.. It's not Halloween anymore..?
Yeah, oops.. Halloween isn't really a big thing where I live, and I wasn't aware that halloween was actually a specific day (yesterday) So, that's on me!
Whatever. What's new?
New boss! -Punk'o Lantern will haunt you on the Part 2 from now on!
New enemy! -Punk'o Lantern also brought his minions into the game!
New weapon! -Magical wand, that does strange things to the enemies!
Smaller tweaks and bugfixes etc
|GAME| -Complitely re-written collision/movement system for player
|WEAPON| -LiLiGun and PlasmaG now use less ammo
|WEAPON| -AlienShotter's screenshake has been reduced
|MISC| -Small pickups don't disappear while the game is in a cut-scene
|MISC| -Miniboss aliens can no longer spawn right next to you
|MISC| -Coco&Loco's aliens don't spawn at the same spot all of the time anymore
|ITEM| -OMG Grenade doesn't need to land on anything anymore to start the "OMG" chore and explode
|BUGFIX| -Money and ammo no longer hang out in the world for forever, but they disappear if they're not picked
|BUGFIX| -When the other player is dead, their ammo is no longer being spawn (so you won't be getting bazooka ammo unless you have a bazooka..)
|BUGFIX| -Couple of small visual glitches on enemies fixed
Halloween is coming! (Friday update!)
Who's ready to get SPOOKED!
Halloween update is coming to The Walking Vegetables next Wednesday (1st of November) and will bring you guys HATS, NEW MYSTERY WEAPON, and A NEW BOSS
Coolio. So what's on this update then?
-You can now switch between mouse+keyboard and gamepad without any hassle! Just move around using keyboard or a gamepad to change between the two
-The auto switching also allows you to play CO-OP with only one gamepad! (Just switch to keyboard+mouse before entering the co-op mode, and you're good!)
-New melee weapon! (Spice Mace has been added into the RadBox!)
Smaller stuff
|PAUSE| -The static in pause has been reduced, as some people found it irritating
|MISC| -Death/Winscreen font has been changed, and made so that it's easier to read
|WEAPON| -Screenshake for MP40 has been reduced
|ENEMY| -The big pea has more health now
|BUGFIX| -Game window no longer jumps between two screens (if you've set the game to run on another screen that it starts with)
|BUGFIX| -No more mysterious "Pulpinator" error when fighting off vegetables with a bazooka
|BUGFIX| -Indoor treasure chest spawning improved (shouldn't block your way anymore)
|BUGFIX| -Wall issue with one of the buildings is now fixed
|BUGFIX| -Dead players now stay dead, and don't respawn as ghost's anymore
For now, yes. The times after the launch of The Walking Vegetables have been rough on me. A real rollercoaster of emotions. But I'm here.
I'm Still Running.
Ok, have fun!
New enemy, melee weapon, and item! AND MAC support!
Another Friday, another update!
This time around, you guys are getting a nice amount of content!
Bigger things in this update
-The Giant -New melee weapon that was voted on Facebook and Twitter! This melee weapon doesn't need to be unlocked from the RadBox, but it's already in the weapon pool!
-Peas -New, unique, enemy type! These giant peas can be a pain in the backside real fast, so get them out as quickly as possible!
-Mac support -YES! Finally! The Mac is now supported. As for the port, I haven't been able to test on anything else but my own Mac (MacBook Pro, early 2015) in which the game seemed to be working flawlessy. In case there are any problems with the game, please let me know!
-OMG Grenade -A new item, that lost it's vote to the Sponge. OMG Grenades need to be unlocked from the RadBox, but trust me, they're worth it!
Smaller stuff, tweaks and bugfixes
|ENEMIES| -Enemies who don't care about the player (onion for example) are smarter. They try to get into your view, and not goof around on the other side of the level
|SFX| -Dragonfruits dizzy head now has SFX
|MISC| -Small improvements to the engine (makes things a tad easier for me)
|BUGFIX| -Not all treasure chest's inside the Shop spawn medkits.. (Oops)
|BUGFIX| -Dragonfruits heads jump SFX was timed wrong. Fixed now
|MISC| -Wheel of fortune CLING sound isn't pitched anymore
|SFX| -Wooden chest now makes a breaking sound when you hit it
And that's it for todays update!
Also! Hats are coming into The Walking Vegetables for next Friday as Halloween update!
Let us know what hats would YOU like to see in the game in the comments below!
16.10.17 Monday update is here!
Respawning medkits, more fair Dragonfruit!
|ENEMY| -The Dragonfruit has been nerfed (made more fair) by adding a small "dizzyness" time for the heads when they land on ground. Now they don't just run back to their body right away
|SHOP| -The medkit in the shop is now worth 600, AND it respawns after purchase. It also increases in value after every purchase + on every Part of the game
|SHOP| -SkillComputer has been added into the shop, so you can keep track on the skills you haven't unlocked. You can't switch between skills here though.
|BUGFIX| -Dropping into oblivion didn't work on one of the buildings. Works now.
|BUGFIX| -Another player can't steal the others medkit HP anymore, by standing near the medkit while the other one opens it
I'm aware that this update wasn't anything much, BUT we have "fixed" a couple things people weren't.. happy about.
First of all, the MedKits in Shop now respawn after use! Meaning, that if you have the money for it, you can now buy multiple MedKits from the shop.
We've also made the final boss (Dragonfruit) more fair. The heads that drop off from the body now stay in "dizzy" mode for a while, before they start jumping towards the body. So you'll have more time to react.
SkillComputer has also been added into the Shop, for tracking purposes. You can now see exactly what skills you have yet to unlock, and what do you need in order to unlock them, while in game! So you don't need to go to the police station anymore in order to do that.
Friday 13th update! (Featuring Bob!)
For this weeks Friday update, we have a-lot of cool stuff to show you guys!
Important changes and new stuff
Bob, the exploding ghost!
Over 10 new buildings!
Sponge added as an item! (You voted for a sponge, so you'll get a sponge)
Re-skinned treasure chest's!
BlunderBuss added as an unlockable weapon!
Not so big and important stuff
|WEAPON| -AlienRifle's spawn rate tweaked
|WEAPON| -ChiliGun has been slightly nerfed
|WEAPON| -ShroomGun's origo fixed
|WEAPON| -VeGu is now a regenerating weapon, and doesn't use Plasma anymore
|CHESTS| -Chest's spawn chances tweaked (what they can contain)
|MISC| -Mushroom spit now has breaking animation
|MISC| -New and improved indoor spawning system (treasure chest's shouldn't spawn in front of the exit anymore)
|FEATURE| -Wheel of Fortune has been added into the game
|MISC| -Door locks aren't solid anymore
|MISC| -Version number now shows in the left down corner on "press any button to start" screen
|MISC| -There's no timer anymore on building doors that need to count down before letting you in
|OPTIONS| -You can now adjust the strength of the gamepad vibration
|BUGFIX| -RadBox no longer gives same weapons and melee weapons you've previously unlocked
|BUGFIX| -ShopKeeper can no longer talk when you're in a weapon unlock screen
|BUGFIX| -You can no longer see the same buildings twice during one run
|BUGFIX| -Small visual bug fixed when both players use weaponwheel at the same time
|BUGFIX| -When the other player dies in 2p mode, and enemies can't find their way to the remaining player, they won't be stepping on the dead player anymore
