itch.io

No worries! I'd love to hit you up with some questions. I'm curious about the process and tools around level design - do you use a brush based tool like Trenchbroom, or model the level and parts in Blender or similar? Do you plan everything (or most things) in advance, or do you just start working and iterate?

When I figured everything out I can do a 0 kill Mastery in <4 minutes and it's not so hard. Far harder was actually was to get all 41 Hellionaires, while maintaining Mercy and Prowess. Couldn't do it without exploity tactics like luring enemies away one by one, or running away to get them to deaggro and picking them off slowly. While hand to hand is fun alone, having *no* access to weapons, and also having to spare the workers who are all too happy to kill me is too much :).

Edit: Don't think it's possible to do it while also maintaining Grace.

I'd also like to add that, while the level felt quite large in my first playthrough with slow exploration, it is in reality quite compact enough that retrying from the start to get the special objectives was not a pain at all (Edit: ate my words. For stealth not a pain, for trying combat with hand to hand only, very difficult and it became a pain xD). I find it hard to resist save scumming and think games like this are more enjoyable when you have to adapt to your mistakes and finish a chunk (level) in one sitting. Filcher and Cruelty Squad come to mind. Still, I know a lot of people are highly opposed to this, as well as other limited saving (like save spots).

I for one love the inventory system and don't really find it clunky.

It worked! The issue did crop up once or twice again when the game got choppy though, but that wasn't game breaking.

I finished the demo and I am absolutely stunned! I am very happy to see a sequel to Brush Burial which is definitely in my list of favourite games ever. I just played without going for the challenges (Grace, Prowess, Mercy), aggressively (killing pretty much everyone) and with this in mind I can say:

- Same as the first, the vibes/style/atmosphere - absolutely beautiful. The world is dark, but also never oppressive, so I feel invited to stay and enjoy.

- The combat is just right, with each encounter feeling tense and interesting but overall never being so challenging as to frustrate. Resources felt tight, but never scarce.

- The level design is just right, with a big non-linear space, just winding enough so you can get a little bit lost, but not so much you can't find your way back. Climbing and looking around vertically for spaces to reach very pleasing, and I also always feel properly rewarded for exploration, because the side bits are fun, engaging, beautiful, *and* have goodies.

Apologies for the lack of (constructive) criticism, but you are literally making my dream games. I can truly find no major fault. I can muster a few suggestions though:

- Option to make the inventory UI always visible. Very slightly annoying to fail putting a item back to the inventory the first time because I forget which slots are taken.  Oops. Missed the tab and g key, cause I was reading the readme with half a brain :').

- I was having difficulty stunning some enemies. Not sure what it was about. The dual wielding axe men I couldn't stun at all, and some others I just couldn't stun sometimes. (Edit: It was a skill issue, I got better, though I still don't know what exactly I'm doing, I'm just better at doing it). If it's due to their animations or the range, maybe a bit better signposting as to when they are stunnable (Perhaps a particle alert like when they are getting alerted?)

- As for bugs, apart from the refresh rate issue, I also noted that some items I interacted with and dropped would disappear when I come back. 

Will be replaying to go for the challenges and will report back on the experience with stealth.

Edit: Are you publishing somewhere about your development process by any chance? If I understand it well, you are a solo dev, and the fact that you pull this off alone is amazing and an inspiration.

Edit #2: Did it!

Took a couple of tries. Mercy and Prowess were easy to get when trying for Grace (but failing :P). Grace had 2 pain points for me. Took me a few tries to figure out the timing to pickpocket the Apartment Key from the worker in the basement without alerts. Also, even when I did it was finnicky cause the hitbox on the key seems to be small (maybe it could be a bit more permissive?). Secondly, the guards at the armory where the Stronghold Key confused me before I realized that taking them out sneakily wouldn't break Grace. The rest of the stealth was smooth sailing given I knew the level layout. I did appreciate it more now that I used the sneaky routes. Also totally missed the tools at the beginning on my first (violent) playthrough.

Prowess would seem to be crazy difficult to do in a combat playthrough given how I was having difficulty getting stuns in, and how quickly enemies can interrupt the takedown animation. Still gonna try though. Also wonder if it's possible to do all the challenges with no takedowns. Or taking down all the guards for the secondary objective while also doing the challenges. Hmmm...

The completionist in me also thinks that gathering all gold should be a special objective (Greed?), and given how fluid and fun the movement is, a speedrunning special objective to beat a certain time might also be fun (Haste?)

And a final note, after starting the game for a second time the refresh rate issue was gone even with a high refresh rate. Great, but odd...

Hey I loved the first one! Very hyped for this. Sadly as soon as I ran the demo I encountered a bug that makes it kinda unplayable. The game speed will seem to switch randomly between everything being in slow motion (movement speed, falling speed) to everything being hyper fast, and movement being like almost teleporting/jerking forward. 

OMG I really should check my itch more often! Hyped.

XD indeed my friend

Thanks, that was quick!

I remembered seeing this a couple of days ago and just decided to download it and check it out, and lo and behold a minute old update! Must be fate! :D

Edit: Goes to unresponsive black screen when I examine crystal bug, forcing me to force quit the window. Reloading the save has the same problem when I examine the bug. I can send you the save if you tell me where it's stored.

I'll be keeping an eye out! Thanks for letting me know. Happy holidays!

Eh pity I got crashes near the start when some tutorial messages pop up. This is certainly a Linux thing. I don't have much time now to mess around and try to make it work.  Congrats anyway on your release :)!

Gonna replay it now :D! No access to Windows at the moment, but it seems to start ok on Linux with Wine.

Hi, can't run the game. I get an error saying:

The following component(s) are required to run this program:
Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime.

No required version is specified in the error message. What are the requirements?

Edit: This may be relevant: https://www.reddit.com/r/unrealengine/comments/1451prs/players_have_to_download_... 

The comments suggest some Unreal Engine settings that bundle the requirements

Edit: Installed the latest redistributable from MS, and now I get a different error - procedure entry point CreateFile2 could not be located in KERNEL32.dll. I assume this is because I'm on Windows 7, and this function was added somewhere later on. Any chance of a compatibility build for Windows 7?

My pleasure :)! 

I finished the game, so I'll just shortly add my thoughts for the rest. 

Each challenge in the Baths was very interesting and beating them was very satisfying... the first time. But by the time I figured out how the glyphs work, I had to play through each of them a lot, and it was starting to get tedious. However, discovering various tricks to speed it up kept it fresh. All in all I do love it. Incredible atmosphere. The change of pace to more puzzle solving and platforming was nice.

The final boss was a bit underwhelming though. The design of the witch-god and the location felt "flat" in comparison with the rest of the game, and beating it was quick, easy and obvious.

No impressions were soured though. It's always about the journey and not the destination.

I'll also add that I love the constrained inventory that forces you to think about what you bring with you.

In conclusion, a wonderful game that I enjoyed very much!

Just reached the Baths and wanted to chime in with my thoughts.

This is one of the best games I've recently seen. So glad I stumbled upon this. A real gem and a joy to play!

As a fan of golden age immersive sims, I am amazed. The environment is huge, very vertical and non-linear. You explore it using just your own wits; no map, compass or markers. Exploration is rewarded with items and gold and many, many alternative routes through the world. The atmosphere is mesmerizing, and makes getting lost in the world a pleasure, and finding your way back, or a new way around, even more so. You can sneak or run past the enemies or take them on in combat both using tricks and brute force. Every one of these ways to play is incredibly satisfying, and you can switch between them seamlessly. There are also light puzzle solving and platforming segments. The story is minimal, as it should be, but what's there in terms of writing is charming and interesting. Particularly the monologues when interacting with doors / keys. Most little things are interactive which totally immersed me in the world. The game fully lives up to its promises and more so!

I have encountered no serious bugs, but would like to report some minor stuff. Firstly, when playing with a 5:4 aspect ratio monitor the dialogue and options screens go outside the edges of the screen cutting off some words. This never prevented me from using the options or understanding the dialogue, but please do spare a thought for us few still clinging to 1280x1024 monitors :). Second, near the exit of the tutorial area, where you're climbing up the vines to the two bandits near the campfire, there are some narrow cave-like holes in the cliff; when you enter them, the camera clips through the walls and you can see out into the void. I didn't fall out, but I could see through the walls. Though given the surreal nature of the game and that area, that may well be intentional, and it totally works for the atmosphere. And finally, I did experience a framerate drop at the entrance to the friendly sewer town when looking in certain directions (this is the only point I've seen a performance problem).

I also have some suggestions. It was somewhat clumsy to drop gems into the shopkeeper's gem bag to sell them. I would often just miss and the gem would bounce away. Maybe that would work better as a direct "use key" interaction. It was also sometimes difficult to spot what was interactable, notably the grate unlocked with the smuggler's key. Maybe some highlight or rim lighting when hovering with the mouse over an interactable object would help. And lastly, a pure matter of taste, but I'd strongly prefer to play at my native resolution, without the pixelization low-res effect. I am a huge fan of old games, and retro graphics in newer games, but low resolution is one of the things that are not part of the charm for me. Assuming this is just a post-processing effect, I think it would be easy to add an option that disables it.

Congratulations on your first release, and best of luck in your future projects! I hope you keep on making similar stuff, as you've clearly got a "touch" for this special kind of game.

Sure, my discord username is mlad.bumer.

Thank you very much for the compliment and the kind wishes :). Of course it's ok to ask, always. I am not a professional artist, so I do these just for fun as a hobby, when I have time and I'm in the mood for it. I'd love to do 3D modelling more often, and have some free time now, so if there's something specific you'd like to see or need for a project- please reach out and inspire me.

THANKS!

Thanks! Nice avatar, love System Shock :). Will check out your game.

Thank you for your hard work! I'm enjoying Panama very much! Found another bug though.. Lee's terminal in the Deep Canal level seems to be the same as the Ronin terminal previously. It has a disable android/cyber hounds option even though there's no android/cyber hound etc.

Hi, I have a bug.  After loading a save, I can't switch to a party member (Ballistic). I got a message that went something like: Error, the player must be a living and sentient object. Restarting the game (quitting and opening again) fixed it. This is Brigand v9.4E and Panama v6.2.

Edit: Another bug, throwing a poisoned glaive at Kalfu pirate-- I got message: Error: unrecognized command 'effect'.

For anyone trying this on Linux with a recent Wine version, it requires dinput8- the one provided by winetricks didn't work for me, but putting a 64bit dinput8.dll from here (https://www.dlldownloader.com/dinput8-dll/) in the same folder as the exe did.

As for the game, I gave it a quick try, and it looks like fun. Didn't play past the tutorial and intro story bit yet though. I get lag spikes every 3 seconds exactly, though I don't know if that's a Linux thing, or not. And sorry, but the pathfinding is also really bad.

No problem! Thank you.

Hey, bought the bundle recently and I just want to say that this is a great game. That special vibe that classic immersive sims have-- you nailed it. Some of my favourite moments were storming Junk Fort with the piano music playing in the background, getting lost in the jungle after dark, and discovering Marvin's lab in the caves.

I've almost finished my first playthrough (I've reached the finale with AARFY). I did have to cheat a bit on the Polyphonic: used editor mode to make a save prior to opening the bridge doors. Already looking forward to replaying with another character type and trying out Panama/Nightmare.

Also some (minor) bug reports (v9.3B). None of these influenced gameplay at all.

1. Medkit mastery is a passive ability, but the in-game description doesn't say so. It lists a range and meta cost, and if I try to use it I get -- ERROR: File does not exist: 'scripts\.bsl'. It works as it should though (I heal 40, cause I also have efficiency)

2. When I tell a ghoul refugee in my party to stay put I get -- ERROR: Unrecognized command: 'aifaction'. Only tried with the ghoul just outside south Pochutla.

3. When I killed the ITIC guy on the Polyphonic with Parasitic Touch I get -- ERROR: Unrecognized command: 'effect'. Don't know if it happens for others, cause he's the only one I actually finished off with Parasitic Touch.

4. One of the loading screen tips references a spell called 'Ally of Chaos', which is called 'Demon Friend' in the manual. No idea what it's called in game, cause I didn't find it.

Edit:

I just reloaded the save before the oil rig, and found another bug. I went to the house in Loma Larga where all the party members wait for you, and there was Boris, offering to join me on the last mission, however when I try to talk to him, I just get the dialogue options from before when he was in his shop.

Edit:

Finished it (Normal difficulty). Score 7/10. Sided with Eleggua. Made friends with Ghouls. Played as a rifle/voodoo guy for most of the time, expanding into other stuff as needed. Barely used party members at all. I am crazy about this game. The only things that annoyed me were the tedious inventory management and that fighting enemies with laser guns felt too difficult in an unfair and unfun way.

> I spent some time trying to come up with a wrapper game; something like a map of a city with all the individual buildings you can infiltrate on it. I’d like there to be an overarching mystery to unravel, or threat to unmask. Figuring out how that should work has been a challenge.

I can see that as being a great game, especially if it would also incorporate the more supernatural elements from Thief (wizard's towers, pagan forests, ancient trap filled tombs). Best of luck when/if you try it out! 

Just to throw a few ideas out there:

On the big map, a player could strategize which district (each with it's own level generator, obstacles and items) to play next- depending on what they're ready to handle, or which loot they want. Staying too long in a single district makes it more difficult (e.g. increases guard presence) or eventually temporarily blocks it from play completely. Random events force the player's hand to play certain districts or special levels (e.g. city watch raid the hideout). Occasionally story events hint that a clue/story item can be found in a certain district.

> It’s true there isn’t much game here.

There's quite enough game for something I'd play when I'd usually fire up Minesweeper. It's fun, the rules are simple and it's catchy in that way. My comments were from a perspective of a traditional roguelike lover more than anything else. For an arcade-y game, all you'd need to do is add some kind of highscore tracking (based on progress, number of alerts, etc.), and you could call it done.

> Disguiser was a semi-successful attempt to add disguises as a tool although their exact role isn’t settled in my mind. There is a slightly newer version over on https://mcneja.github.io/ that changes the role of disguises a bit.

Just tried it for a little bit- am I correct that the difference is that the guards of the same colour as the disguise will still get suspicious if you get too close, while the other colour ignores you completely (unless you steal/hide of course)? A nice way to add depth, and it makes sense. Though I'd call disguises a success (without the semi) in both cases.

> It was also an attempt to learn Rust, JavaScript, WebAssembly, and WebGL be able to move games to the web for a lower barrier to getting people to try them. The native version runs faster but it’s much better for people to be able to easily try it.

I always prefer native for a different reason: Relying on an environment is, in my experience, quite bad for the long term. I've been trying out old 7DRLs and I couldn't get a single one that uses Python or Java to work. And when I say old, I don't mean 20 years, I mean just a few. I would be especially wary of browsers, which have a history of destroying technologies that were used to lower the barrier before in the same way JS/WebAssembly/Whatever is now (like Flash, Java Applets and similar). Not to mention that players can't easily use an offline copy: If you say, decide to take it off the web, even if I have your source code compiled, I couldn't play it without a local web server-- or possibly disabling security features in my browser to allow local file access, if that's the only problem-- in any case not nearly as straightforward as a binary executable.

Have you considered writing against SDL/OpenGL and then using Emscripten to cross-compile for the web? That way, you could have (almost) the same source code for web and native versions. The best of both worlds, I'd think, though I don't know how that would interact with Rust. 

> I’ve made these while also making big games; the last one, Ghost of Tsushima, took seven years or so. One of my daughters finished elementary school, went through middle school, and started high school in that time window.

That must have been a journey; thank you for sharing a bit of it. Congratulations on your successes :)!

> I should have set up a counter for the throats I slit. Maybe ten thousand? Which is why the thief in these games has no capacity for lethal violence.

Quite understandable. The lack of a way to incapacitate guards (lethal or non-lethal) also makes them feel much more dangerous. Trilby: The Art of Theft (stealth-platformer), had a system where you have a limited number of tasers you could knock out guards with, though using them lowers your final score. Kind of a balance between the two approaches.

> I always envisioned it being a game where you’d kill one person, near the end.

That's a great idea. Very evocative even without any backstory to it.

> Thanks for recommending Harmonist to me; I hadn’t heard of it but will try it out. 

You can't go wrong with Harmonist. It's closer to a traditional roguelike, but it's also based around non-violent stealth. It also has a unique atmosphere to it.

> Another that I really enjoyed is https://dragonxvi.itch.io/skyrogue. It is short and the levels are pre-made but it’s fun and looks and feels great.

Likewise thank you for your recommendation. I checked it out, though for this kind of game, I highly prefer your style: clear graphics, single screen maps, and no animation (making play faster). Additionaly since it has handmade levels and guards that get you in one hit, Skyrogue feels more puzzly and should really have save/load/undo. Making a mistake and then having to replay the same level the same way from the start is tedious; that's why I stopped at level 5.

I love Thief and I love roguelikes, so this is perfect. Hope you develop it further, since it does get a bit repetitive after a while. The thing most missing for me is variety in enemies and a lack of items that would give you variety of choices on how to handle a situation. If you aren't already aware of it, you could check out Harmonist, also a stealth roguelike. 

Really fun and easy to get into! Won it after a couple of tries, with clone and stun spells. That was really crazy. Thanks for a great game :)

No problem. My pleasure. Nvidia drivers do things a little differently. For example I recently discovered that linking shaders without compiling them explicitly first, works just fine on my Nvidia GPU and is  an error on my Intel GPU laptop. Just things to keep in mind.

Hi guys,

Running on Windows 7 with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960, I get the following error message when launching the game:

Error
tile.lua:187: Shader uniform 'borderColour' does not exist.
A common error is to define but not use the variable.
Traceback
[C]: in function 'send'
tile.lua:187: in function 'drawFunc'
camera.lua:51: in function 'drawTo'
tile.lua:182: in function 'drawCanvas'
world.lua:14: in function 'draw'
game.lua:247: in function 'draw'
main.lua:82: in function 'draw'
[C]: in function 'xpcall'

I fixed it with the following change to the glow shader code:

vec4 borderColour_force = borderColour; // This line added
if (closestDist == 0 || closestDist > glowSize) {
    return vec4(0, 0, 0, 0);
} else if (closestDist <= borderSize + 0.5) {
    return borderColour_force; // This line changed
}

I assume that the uniform borderColour was somehow optimized away by my graphics driver, and the error was caused when the CPU code tried to access it. 

I think the problem is borderColour was never referenced outside the if statement. Referencing it outside the if statement by assigning it to the new local variable borderColour_force fixed the issue for me.