I have struggled with this post for over a year now. This update is LONG overdue.

Our game has some of the best fans and followers - seriously, how long have you been following us patiently? Some of you have even birthed tiny new gamers.


To wait until our fans multiply by procreation? Ha! Sadly no.

The truth is, the game has been on hiatus for a few years now ːsteamsadː. Please, please don't cry. It's not cancelled. But it isn't being worked on, by anyone. Which I guess you realized with the word hiatus... duh.

We have been actively working on an amazing new game, one that we'll announce soon. It shares DNA with Apocalypse Cow - think of it as a spiritual cousin, or that weird uncle. I think you will love it. We took the parts that worked from Apocalypse and made something wonderful.

As for the adventure with Penny and the gang... I simply don't know.

I love the characters we've built and I want to eventually bring them to life. I honestly don't know when that could happen. It could be in 6 months or in 600 years from now. All we ask is that you wait for 600 years. Please, stay alive. Do it for this bright face.





Ah, you're still here... okay. The truth is, Apocalypse Cow had great moments, but also many flaws.

Additionally I was unsure about many things. Do people still play linear platformers? (seriously, do you???). Should the story be mostly epic or mostly comical? Those were foundational questions that caused many reworks.

But if we want to drill to the bottom of it, we were inexperienced. I was inexperienced. We have a high bar for quality and I couldn't push the game up there. Eventually we decided we needed a break from Apocalypse Cow, to clear our minds.

So for now Penny is basking in a digital sunset, waiting for her time to come.



Until then, stay tuned for our upcoming reveal. It will make up for everything, I promise.


-- John K, Game Designer and the one to blame

"I woke up in terror from a horrible nightmare. I stepped outside to compose myself and realized… everyone in the village had woken up. Everyone." -- Baon, Village Merchant

He nodded as a flurry of regrets flooded his-

I see. If I had to narrow it down to two words, they would be "making combat satisfying".

Combat is an integral part of the game, more so than most metroidvanias. We want to go beyond the sporadic encounters with singular enemies that you destroy as you traverse. Not to say this isn't going to happen, but we have a vision!!! The combat is to be HECTIC, exciting and FUN. Quite the visionary developers, right?



To that end we built a combat prototype, to rapidly test ideas for enemies, abilities, items etc. We've already implemented several things.

• A juicing update to make hits more satisfying.
  
• Overwhelming enemies that soft lock areas.
  
• A combat flow that goes beyond the simple hit-dash-hit.

We're not fully there yet, but combat is certainly a LOT more fun than what it was.

See you next time!

John K, Novelist Game Designer

He was pacing up and down a dark room, the only light coming from a computer monitor. On it, a blinking cursor felt like a ticking clock. Judge and jury. He knew he had messed up.

“How did this happen?” he thought. “When did time disappear?”.

Outside they were celebrating the turn of the year but he was restless. He could feel the coming storm... three months without an update. He was the worst.

He inhaled deeply and started typing... let's appease the gods. Let's reveal the new hero.


He thought of Penny, the very human girl. How out of place she felt in the new, magical universe that was being magically created with code and electricity.



He nodded as his face darkened for dramatic effect... the first attempts at updating her design failed. Miserably.




It was a time of despair and sorrow. Trying to save the animation work was a shackle that had to be cast aside. And cast it aside, they eventually did.

When that happened, everything changed. The face of a new hero shined through. A hero both fragile and strong, a hero destined to fight legends. He got goosebumps.




Everything started moving faster now. Finetuning the details, sculpting the model, these were but droplets in the river of time, rushing towards the inevitable conclusion.




A hero had been born. They cried tears of joy as the screenshots instantly improved by its presence.



And then, they saw him coming alive. An arsenal of movements that's constantly expanding as a torrent of abilities and events get added in the game.


basic idle animation


run animation for a chase sequence


"That's our (still) unnamed hero! I hope you like the design" he shouted to the void and logged off. See you soon (-er than last time).

-- John K, Novel Writer

Hello friends!

For the first time ever, a monthly update that's actually one month later. It feels so weird... are we becoming professionals? Should I be worried?


As I mentioned on the last update, we focused our work on the first couple of hours of gameplay.

Naturally that means we worked on the intro video! The result was… kind of meh, to be honest. It felt a little like Star Wars 9: good looking but meaningless and you forgot you ever saw it… understandably we'll create a better version in the future.


keyframe from the intro - at least it was good looking


Yeah, BUT! We also prepared the first two biomes and the actual gameplay experience was much better. Good even! Which is nice because as a professional, I can tell you I've definitely heard gameplay is important for games!

The first biome was very cool and some characters and moments felt AWESOME. We did identify shortcomings in the 2nd biome and this month we plan to address them, but actually playing through a continuous build was a great experience!


Thanks imaginary interviewer! The game has obviously undergone many changes and setbacks so playing this build felt like sweet sweet progress (and it was a great morale boost).

And that's pretty much it!

Thank you for still believing in this game. See you soon!


-- John K, Game Designer

Okay, not on a monthly schedule yet but we're getting closer! I survived moving to a new house, I survived a spectacularly crazy heatwave (global warming is a myth) and I'm back with my team, creating this wondrous universe.

Up until now we were working on various, disconnected parts of the game.

We were trying to test particular moments that we felt were exciting, to gain a broader understanding of our game. And although it was fun, it... ultimately pissed me off. Have you seen an angry game designer before? We look like angry squirrels!

Enter, the Summer of '21. We focused on the first two biomes to fully flesh them out, adding the special rooms, the challenges, the unlocks, the bosses, the NPC's… it feels great to see things coming together. Feels like a game!

Well, speaking of NPC's, here's one you'll find in the first biome that I've fallen in love with!



The yet unnamed archaeologist.

Unconcerned with the events in the world around him, lost in his love for the ancient, trying to find an answer that will probably elude him forever but still, he's determined to spend his life chasing it.

There's more to his story and I hope you'll love him as much as I do.

And… I think that's it for now. See you early October!


-- John K, Game Designer

This post feels like proof of life. Still alive folks! Alive and working on the game, making it more awesome every single day!


And it's been 6 months without one. I know. It was the end of the year and… everything seemed possible. But I shall strive to do it! And that's a June 24th guarantee! I would never lie on (googling) Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester's birthday. He was... my favorite Earl.

Like this!



Excuse the blur - I don't want to spoil the new look of the hero just yet. Do you like it? Hope you like it! Do you? Do you do you do you do you? We'll be cool either way (prepares ceremonial dagger).

Oh yeah. With so much redesigning, we accidentally redesigned the hero too. I didn't plan to but our concept artist slipped, fell on his Wacom and through the power of his left chest a concept popped. We were all shocketh by the turn of events.

I want to make a big deal out of it, so not yet. Instead, look at this shiny new enemy you might kill!



I absolutely promise not a month will go by where I will not have hadn't inexorably delivered on the idea of concurrently realizing the new year's resolution and informing, via monthly updates.

Please stick with us. We're making something that's worth the wait.


John K, Game Designer

Hello dear fan! I know you have questions. Let’s get the most obvious thing out of the way:

Τhe game is NOT canceled. We’re still working on it exclusively and full time. And yes, we are as shocked as you that we haven’t finished the game yet! ːsteamsadː

 
That's a common question and it would be a convenient excuse, but no. We can't blame this horrible situation, we were already working remotely.
 
 
My therapist hasn’t figured it out yet and he's good, he went to school and everything!

The project we’re making is different from what we started with. It was a cool, fun little platformer. We’ve expanded that to a beautiful metroidvania with an immersive world to explore. I guess building a universe takes time, especially when you're both inexperienced and trying to create something awesome.
 

Work in progress screenshot without vfx and post-processing.
 
 
 
Honestly? It was simply easier. The game still has a ways to go, we're facing many difficult decisions and I was focusing exclusively on them and my team. But this isn't good enough.

My new year’s resolution is to write up a small update at the end of every month, even if it’s just a short sentence telling you we’re alive. Oh, and maybe get the project closer to the finish line. We'd like that!

You see, the game we’re making right now is our dream project. I know we’ll have to work hard to win back your attention but I believe the game will do it for us.

Thank you for your awesome patience. I wish you're safe and happy, wherever you are! ːsteamhappyː ːsteamhappyː

John K - Game Developer

Hello GameWalkers,

Lets start with the obvious. We won't make our 2019 release goal. Which I think you've guessed by now, but still makes me feel like a bad Santa. You wanted a game? Here's a delay! ːwinter2019sadyulː

I know it sucks. I can't sugar-coat it... but I'll try. Lets take a first peek at our updated graphics!



As you know we're reworking big chunks of the game (updating the story, adding enemies, bosses, abilities etc). All of these gradually shifted the tone of the game and what started as a silly comedy is now an epic action saga that combines fun with awe.

To reflect the new quality and tone, Konstantinos and Christopher are pushing our visuals to the limit. We're trying to capture something... nostalgic, wrapped in a modern style. Something that feels current but also classic. And I think we got it.

I'm very happy with the universe we're building. It's one you'll definitely want to explore.



our room, the start of an adventure

We're very excited with this new vision for the game and in our hearts we know it's the game we wanted to make. But we're making it for you, so I think I should ask:

What do YOU want from Apocalypse Cow? Do you like where it's headed?

If you have a moment, leave a comment and let us know. We love you either way. Thank you for your continuous support. You've been awesome over the years and I truly believe we have the coolest fans ever! ːwinter2019coolyulː

Happy new year and may the upcoming decade be your best.

John K, Game Designer

Hello incredible fan! Here's another update for you - proof that we're busy working and not vacating somewhere tropical. Because who cares about Fiji when you can develop games in a basement!

Lots of stuff. Like, all of them. All teh stuff!

• Creating and updating characters.
• Reworking all of them animations.
• Extending the lore and the story, ironing out any wrinkles still there.
• Testing out bigger maps with optional exploration.

Alex (our animator, known as Animator Alex) always wanted 3d models in his workflow. He claimed he'd do a better job with them or something, I don't know - I kind of phase him out when he's saying things. <3

With the new story we had to redesign many characters and that's when he chose to strike - sneaky bastard. He created this sample to convince us to redesign them in 3D.



As you can tell, it looks much better so I caved and greenlit it. It's also going to really improve our cutscenes and ultimately tell the story in a better way. Yeay!

You've probably noticed: I can't shut up about our new story. The lore we wrote is extensive, allowing us to build wonderful worlds for you to explore. But up to now the game was linear.

Now the worlds are more open. The path forward is still fairly obvious so you can play in a linear fashion if you're in a hurry. But you can also choose to explore, see more of the world and learn more of its history. It's up to you! ːsteamhappyː

And that's all the time we had for today. See you next time! *runs away in terror.

What a glorious morning! It's been raining non-stop, creating the perfect mood for epic world building! But it's time I take a break and let you amazing people know what we've been up to.

Apocalypse Cow has not one, not four but three absolutely distinct worlds to explore and uncover their stories. Our main focus these past few months has been the world known as Arcadia.

I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just say that every world is a rich continent split into many areas with deep lore. These are a couple of the concepts for an area in Arcadia called The Barrens.



In tandem with each area we also work on its inhabitants. Through the course of this adventure you'll come across many different characters - some will help you, others will try to stop you.

The Barrens specifically are inhabited by a race called Beerks. It's what we call a Digi-Primitive race. These were some of our initial concepts for them.



We saw potential with #4 (he kind-of resembles Star Wars, doesn't he?) but we kept pushing the digital aspect of his design, eventually creating a being with his own, unique identity.



At the end of this post you can see the actual in-game render in his hostile version.

The universe we've been dreaming is slowly coming to life and the feeling is hard to describe.

See you next time!