I'm a dad! The baby girl and mom are both healthy and things are going well so far.
Now let's talk Nightmare Reaper. Brouzouf Jones is almost done with the new enemies and, oh boy, it's some of his best work. Andrew has also started weapon sound design and, as you can expect, it's still gold. I've also contracted an artist I love for a new cover image and I'm extremely excited about it.
I'm done creating all the Chapter 3 assets. Now the next step is to create hundreds of rooms with them.
I've also added a bunch of improvements, for example, now there are silver and bronze tiers to level completion bonuses, so you can feel less bad about missing some of the conditions.
I'm also working on a little something for Realms Deep this year. More soon.
It's about time for me to update you guys on the status of Chapter 3 and what I'm working on. I also have good news for me, but bad news for you. Let's get this out of the way.
My wife is pregnant and we're expecting a baby in May. Sadly for fans, this will definitely slow down development of the game. I have no idea what to expect, as I'm not a father yet, but I think you should expect a couple months of delay since I'm the only developer on the project.
As for progress on the project, all my work on enemies and weapons is done! Brouzouf Jones is still working on the enemy art and weapons are still in need of audio. That's 16 new enemies for a total of 48 and 22 new weapons for a total of 80!
I'm now going to start on level design for Chapter 3. I've already decided on the themes, layout and setup of all of it, I just need to create a ton of content and hundreds of rooms. This should occupy me for at least two months.
Extra news and teases
Nightmare Reaper was featured at Demonights 2021, an event that features indie developers from Quebec, Canada. I also did a small interview, check it out here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/902182966
We've released a new patch for the game with a bunch of fixes for crashes or issues and also changes for improved quality of life in many areas.
We're hard at work on Chapter 3. The enemies are all coded, but still need art. We're currently working on creating all the weapons, so it's your last chance to give suggestions.
Check out the patch notes below, there's some cool things in there.
Fixed : Street level could spawn enemy inside truck.
Fixed : Infinite magazine weapons would freeze the game.
Fixed : Crash when activating challenge room switch.
Fixed : Door wouldn't unlock if enemy escaped room.
Fixed : Freeze when exiting the level bounds.
Fixed : Forcefield could overlap switch.
Fixed : Third mode for a weapon wouldn't change the weapon stat via the doc.
Fixed : Freeze when opening weapon interface when entering minigame door.
Fixed : Floating plank in ship level.
Fixed : Village signs overlapping switches.
Fixed : Z fighting textures in street levels.
Fixed : Grappling hooks don't hit where you're aiming.
Fixed : Possessed elevator in tutorial 2.
Fixed : +Attack weapon stat for alternate fire is removed after reflection powerup is done.
Changed : Made many chapter 2 challenge rooms easier.
Changed : Clarified doctor question text.
Changed : Removed homing stat on scrap launcher.
Changed : Lowered non-volumetric fog density.
Changed : Reduced chance of pull and kickback weapon stats.
Changed : Right click no longer goes back a page in the options and minigame.
Changed : Mouse wheel no longer changes values in options.
Changed : Activate key now closes notes and credits.
Changed : Made casing sounds louder.
Changed : Made green foliage less bright.
Changed : Added grapple switch tutorial 2.
Changed : Added disabled grapple over open water tutorial 2.
How to get more frequent updates
Follow @NightmareReape4 on Twitter for up-to-date news and bi-weekly previews.
Join the Discord channel for minute-to-minute updates and to chat directly with the devs.
I've been saying that the release date for Chapter 2 of Nightmare Reaper would be at the end of summer, and as you know, summer ends later this month. This won't be enough time to complete it and I felt that I had to tell the community and also give you a hard release date to make up for it.
Nightmare Reaper Chapter 2 will release on october 31st 2020, on Halloween.
Open testing for the beta will start at around two weeks before the release date. All you need to do to participate is to own the game and ask for access to the beta on the Discord.
Updates
Did you watch Realms Deep 2020? It was a crazy boomer shooter event last weekend and it features footage of a ton of retro shooters, including Nightmare Reaper.
It's been a while since we've done an update on Steam. Time flies when you're having fun :p.
We've completed most of what Chapter 2 will hold, but still have to finish some level design, the new skill tree levels, enemy sounds, new random events and the general polish and testing. Keep close to our Discord for when the time for testing comes if you want to help us with that.
I know you want to ask, when will Chapter 2 come out? We're still aiming for end of summer.
Here are a bunch of update videos, mostly from our Twitter, which we update every two weeks. It's going to be a big one!
A short while ago we were contacted by the people at Project Warlock. They reached to us and to a couple of dev-friends that launched well received, gore-filled, fps games. The reason? To discuss the possibility of launching a new bundle. One that would collect all of our games and offer it at the best possible price to all the fans of the genre.
Five large email threads, tens of discord messages and some really cool concept art and brainstorming later we arrived at what you see before your eyes: the Quad Damage Bundle featuring the barbaric Elderborn, the half-orcish Hedon, the mysterious Nightmare Reaper and brooding Project Warlock.
Each game is a passion project by the creator, or a small handful of creators that managed to pour their heart and soul into lines of blood-sprayed and dismembered code. Do check them out.
This bundle is both about the chance to get all of these games at a reasonable price, and to discover titles you might not have been familiar with. So, without further ado: introducing four games to satiate your thirst for brutal, high-quality, no-nonsense fps.
Pry the secret of eternal youth from a cursed city as a powerful barbarian in Elderborn.
Take control of a pissed off Half-Orc in her quest to repel a cultist invasion in Hedon.
Solve the mystery of the nameless heroine in a mental asylum in Nightmare Reaper.
Face the minions of hell as a magic-wielding, gun-toting loner in Project Warlock.
Elderborn, Hedon, Nightmare Reaper and Project Warlock combine to bring you:
- 97 power-ups & skills !
- 101 weapons & spells !!
- 107 levels and stages !!!
- 120 enemies & bosses !!!!
Please remember: you only pay for the games you don’t yet own here. Also: for the best deal you might want to buy Quad Damage Bundle between 01.06-08.06!
Check out these videos if you want to know more about each invidual games.
It's that time again to get you up to speed with some updates to the game. We continue to work hard on Episode 2. All 24 new weapons are done, the music is done, all the enemies have been designed, but still need art and we're currently working on level design. We've also recorded more voice acting for the main character and we've made many improvements to the game in general.
We have a major announcement, we've hired an artist to redo all enemy graphics and to make the new ones. Say hi to the incredibly talented Brouzouf Jones.
Here's an example of his reimagining of the regular melee zombie:
Here's a comparison to the old version. It's a huge improvement.
Since many of you probably don't follow our Twitter very closely, we figured that we could give you more frequent updates in the form of these news posts.
We've been working on tons of new weapons for episode 2 and wanted to share three of them:
We've currently completed 19 of the 24 new weapons and it was tough to pick which weapon would make it in and which one would have to wait for episode 3. We decided to let the fans decide what the last two weapons would be and this was the result:
The Black Hole Gun was the clear winner, so that'll make it in episode 2, but we'll also add the Akimbo SMGs. Can you imagine the reflection powerup with these akimbo guns?
That's it for now. Keep following the game and giving feedback!
How to get more frequent updates
Follow @NightmareReape4 on Twitter for up-to-date news and bi-weekly previews.
Join the Discord channel for minute-to-minute updates and to chat directly with the devs.
We've just realized that we haven't really given any official update since the last patch, so we wanted to take a moment to tell you about what we're working on and what the plans are.
Episode 2
All of our time is now spent working on episode 2 and you shouldn't expect a game update before then, except if there's a major issue, but things have been pretty smooth for the last few months.
When?
We don't have a precise date, or in other words: "when it's done". We can say that we'd love to have something for middle to end of summer 2020.
Got any progress to share?
We're currently hard at work making new weapons. 24 new weapons! We've got 10 done so far, but here's a look at two of them.
We're fixing many bugs, adding new features and doing a ton of small improvements everywhere. Episode 2 is going to double the content of the game and essentially bring it to another level. We're excited.