I have taken a little time to play through a few FPS games that have been sitting in my library, unfinished. I completed Doom 2016, Hard Reset and most recently Dusk. I also replayed the entirety of the original Quake, just for good measure. I found so many little things that inspired me how to improve Paradox Vector.

As a result, I have been working on expanding all the early levels, and adding new features. I've been adding new features, like new enemies, fenced off areas, and vents you can crawl through. It's going to be a much more interesting game going forward.

I am trying to have everything ready mid-May for the full release, but there is still a lot to do. We'll see how everything works out. I hope to have a bunch of these new and improved levels out for testing in the near future.


After playing some of these more popular FPS games, I became reacquainted with why I love the genre so much. I realized that Paradox Vector was pretty bare-bones, and that I was relying on the impossible geometry and vector graphics to gather players' interest. However, these other games taught me that you can't replace solid level design with gimmicks! :)


Hard Reset in particular taught me that expectations are important. I felt like I should be able to crawl under things in that game, and realized that players probably expect the same from Paradox Vector. This led to the addition of a ventilation system, where the player can access blocked off areas through these smaller tunnels.


Dusk and Quake in particular reminded me of the importance of secrets. Showing players a secret area, behind an impassible window or fence served to get me more interested in finding that secret area. I am utilizing these fenced off areas now, and have expanded a number of levels to include some of these new features.


Also, the overall complexity of the levels is being increased. My levels were pretty short, making the game feel a bit empty. After enjoying Doom 2016 and those other games, I realized that a good level needs to have some more meat to it. I also want to make the combat a bit more engaging. Doom had so many different enemies, with different attack patterns. I've added a few new enemies, but I think I need to work on this more as well.

Here is a new game model I'm working on...



It's a work in progress. This is going to be the time machine. It is based on an undersea exploration vessel called a bathyscaphe. I guess it tries to capture a kind of Jules Verne, steampunk sort of vibe...

I have updated the "testing" branch to version 0.9.5.6.

Aim: The player can now aim their weapon by holding the right-mouse button. This will accomplish a few things. First, it narrows the game's field of view, effectively zooming in on a target. It slows down movement and rotation, allowing for more precise aiming. It also makes the gun and the machine gun fire more accurately.

Crouch: Players can now crouch and crawl by holding the ctrl key. Right now this is only useful on level 1, which has been updated to include some ventilation shafts. As the game progresses, I will be adding more content to each of the game's levels, as well as adding more levels. These shafts will feature more prominently in later versions of the game, but for now, it's just level 1.

Updated HUD: The game's UI got a slight update, making the score, health and ammo readouts a bit easier to see.

Health and Ammo Drops: Killed enemies will now drop a bit of health or ammunition. The type of ammo will depend on which weapons you have acquired, and is chosen randomly.

Difficulty Level:
You can now choose the difficulty level in the Preferences Menu. Your options are Normal and Hard.

Trees have updated graphics.
Urchins can now be killed with bombs
Enemy body parts should no longer disappear when traversing an impossible hallway

I've actually been doing a lot of work on this game, but most of it has been on levels that are not yet included in the Early Access version. These levels are in place and working, but still need a lot of detail work added before they are ready for release.

If you want to try the latest changes, you have to activate the "testing" branch. To do this go to "Paradox Vector > Properties > Betas" and select "testing" from the drop down menu. This should prompt a game update, and allow you to try all the new features.

I will have more news about this soon. Thank for playing!

Here is a fun little article about Paradox Vector on Gamespew. There are some great quotes in here, my favorite is when they called it "the spindly-legged child of DOOM and TRON." It also describes the game as "revisiting a genre that never existed."

https://www.gamespew.com/2020/02/paradox-vector-is-a-brain-bending-retro-inspired-first-person-shooter/

Do you know of any other publications that might be interested in writing about this game? It might help if players share articles like this, or ask other publications if they have heard of the game. I have sent out some press releases, so there are a lot of journalists who know about the game. Some have taken up the task of writing about it, like the Gamespew article, and this other one on Buried Treasure:

https://buried-treasure.org/2020/01/paradox-vector/?fbclid=IwAR0nAw-TvzCwbX2kxZDWJDnzBjYIrs4QC4sDWdDVm9PdUduwjdn_sL1icYU

However, many have not. I am hoping to reach some of the bigger publications like Rock, Paper Shotgun, PC Gamer, and ... dare to dream ... maybe even IGN.

You can help by sharing or commenting on some of the stuff that's already out there.

This is a small update. However, I also wanted you to be aware that I am working on new levels. I plan to finish the rest of the game's levels, and then release them all at once, so they can be tested out before the game's full release. At the rate I am going, it might be another few weeks before the new levels are available.

For this update, only a couple small things have changed:

Under the controls menu, there is now a slider that allows you to set the opacity of the blue, grainy overlay panel. That panel was added because people complained of having motion sickness. Since adding it, I have not heard this complaint anymore, so it seems to be working. However, others have asked to have it be made optional. Well, you can now set it as you please ... enjoy!

A player pointed out that when you reach a certain point, after clicking to close a dialogue box, you accidentally shoot at the being you are speaking with. This should no longer happen.

I have updated the "Information" menu, which gives a summary of the game's back-story. I do plan to add some kind of in-game intro scene once all the gameplay and levels are done, but for now this should serve.

The different dungeons should now show their specific kind of wall types when you see their entrances from the outside map areas. This should help players to know where they are and where they have been.

The Jump Boots, instead of giving the player a single, bigger jump, will now allow for a double jump. Effectively, this serves the same function. However, I did not like the way the big jump caused you to bump up into the low ceilings in some of the dungeon spaces.

Many things have been tweaked and improved.

A couple of small errors have been resolved, including a wrongly placed invisible block that prevented access to one of the lore tablets. Oh yes, lore is presented on tablets rather than statues now...

Now pretty much everything is restored correctly when you save and load a checkpoint.

• Ammo
  
• Weapons
  
• Monsters
  
• Gates
  
• Elevators
  
• Impossible Hallways
  
• Exploding walls

Enjoy combat with improved enemy death animation. Each tentacle of that exploding squid spider will now fly off into the air.

I have been working on finalizing the story, so the soon to be added levels will make more sense. I've decided to leave off the direct references to the work of H.P. Lovecraft. This is something I already planned to do not long after adding it in. It seemed like a fun idea at the time, but I don't think the game really matched the mood of Lovecraft's stories, and I did not know how to end the game in a satisfying way.

There may still be some references left in there, but they will be expunged completely by the next update.

The game would experience a crash right at the end of the last level. I have updated it to address this issue, and it should not crash any more.

I have uploaded some rather large changes to Paradox Vector. Note, this is the same as the last announcement, but the changes effect the default game, not the testing version.

The first level of the game has a new layout. It's not vastly different, but there are a few things that make it a bit more interesting. I plan to do this with all the levels, eventually making them longer and more complex.

Urchins are strange, jumping creatures that can be found outdoors. I am finding them quite difficult to hit right now, but I will work on that. Maybe they need to jump less, or move slower, or both...



The spiders in the normal (not hard mode) version of the game have been made a bit slower and easier to hit. There are also some new spider hiding places on most of the maps, as well as in the outdoor areas.

There was an issue with some of the alert messages, if you reached one while another was already active. This should fix the issue. For instance, if you collected a health triangle, and then reached an old one statue, the lore would disappear when the health triangle message would have. Now the game can distinguish between the times messages for pick ups, and the other messages that should stay on screen while you remain in proximity of the game object responsible.

I made a script that will make it easier to add items and creatures to the checkpoint save system. Soon I will be including things like weapons, ammo, exploded walls etc... Right now, pressing F5 will set a checkpoint (with a new alert message) and F6 will load that checkpoint. Enemies that you have defeated prior to setting the checkpoint should not reappear after loading it, with the exception of urchins, which are not quite finished yet.

I expect there will be a few bugs in this version that I did not have time to discover yet. I plan on continuing with this version a bit longer before it's ready, but I thought it would be good to upload my current progress as is.

UPDATE: I have made the changes to the main game now. You do not have to start a new game to continue playing, but you may want to try it out, as the first level is different.

I have uploaded some rather large changes to the "Testing" branch of Paradox Vector.

Since there is a lot of new content, it has not been tested as thoroughly as I'd like, so I will probably be updating this list before it goes to the default branch.

The first level of the game has a new layout. It's not vastly different, but there are a few things that make it a bit more interesting. I plan to do this with all the levels, eventually making them longer and more complex.

Urchins are strange, jumping creatures that can be found outdoors. I am finding them quite difficult to hit right now, but I will work on that. Maybe they need to jump less, or move slower, or both...



The spiders in the normal (not hard mode) version of the game have been made a bit slower and easier to hit. There are also some new spider hiding places on most of the maps, as well as in the outdoor areas.

There was an issue with some of the alert messages, if you reached one while another was already active. This should fix the issue. For instance, if you collected a health triangle, and then reached an old one statue, the lore would disappear when the health triangle message would have. Now the game can distinguish between the times messages for pick ups, and the other messages that should stay on screen while you remain in proximity of the game object responsible.

I made a script that will make it easier to add items and creatures to the checkpoint save system. Soon I will be including things like weapons, ammo, exploded walls etc... Right now, pressing F5 will set a checkpoint (with a new alert message) and F6 will load that checkpoint. Enemies that you have defeated prior to setting the checkpoint should not reappear after loading it, with the exception of urchins, which are not quite finished yet.

I expect there will be a few bugs in this version that I did not have time to discover yet. I plan on continuing with this version a bit longer before it's ready, but I thought it would be good to upload my current progress as is.

In this update, I have split up the second outdoor level into two parts, making them run smoother, and made a few minor changes to the outdoor areas. The basic flow of the game is unchanged. However, you will need to start a new game in order to play this latest version.

To try this latest version, go to "Paradox Vector > Properties > Betas" and select "beta" from the drop down menu. This will prompt the update. Let me know if you experience any trouble.

If you do not want to start a new game yet, keep playing the standard version.