Hey-ho Isaac fans, it's your old pal again Nikola Antibirthovic. As you know, I am the lead room creator for repentance and also creator of the Rainmaker. Today we're talking about some new enemies you'll be seeing in the upcoming dead horse beating (that's what DLC stands for).
I know one thing and that's enemies, so sit down, grab some orange juice and look at the gifs of these new monsters.


--Bulbs--



Let's get the biggest bastard out of the way first, the Bulbs. These are enemies you most commonly see in item rooms and other special rooms. Their movement is twitchy, they're hard to hit, and worst of all they take away your active item charge instead of your health.



The good news is that these guys are not variants of existing enemies, so I have to place them in levels manually rather than some fly enemy being randomly replaced with these guys. A while ago I saw a mod that makes every character start with the D6, sounds like that'll be stressful with these guys around for every single run.


--Grudges--

Now that Ed teased the Mausoleum track last week I suppose the cat's out of the bag. Yes it's true, the new mausoleum floor exists, please keep calm and contain your excitement.
The grudges are brand new traps that you can find on this floor, they come after Isaac much like the Slides you see in the Depths sometimes. There are a couple differences of course, like how they stay where they are after they hit a rock and can even press buttons to solve puzzles.



Oh yeah, and they can turn enemies into a bloody paste.



It's a great addition to the mausoleum floor and all we had to do was rob Derek Yu blind.



--Level 2 Willos--

After watching a bunch of videos of people playing the antibirth mod, we've discovered that people really hate the willo enemies from downpour.



Obviously the correct solution here is to also make level 2 versions of them for Repentance!



The good news is that these ghostly flies orbit monsters rather than you, making them actually less dangerous than you'd expect. They still shoot at you, effectively making these guys orbiting Horfs. They also have this neat behavior where if their host dies they move on to another enemy to orbit around.



What a great detail! I'm sure whoever added that little feature lost sleep over it!



--Holy Mulligan--

Last time everyone's reception to the new four souls enemies in repentance was overwhelmingly positive. Everybody was on the streets parading the return of holy eyes in Repentance. People pulled over random strangers on the road to talk about their holy bonies, it was nuts.
Anyway, we're going to show off one more as a little bonus. It's the Holy Mulligan!





As you can see it's a cathedral mulligan that spawns little angel babies out of it's head. That's pretty cool, he seems happy enough about it.


Okay, Ed's telling me to get me off his computer already, so that's my cue to end the post here. I hope everyone enjoyed those gifs and I hope the rest of the repentance team gets some rest soon. As for me, I'm going back to my wooden hut to make some more rooms, Goodnight.


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BONUS ADVERTISEMENT (yay!)



are you aware that the binding of isaac is also a multiplayer card game!? well its true! but sadly it has been sold out for the past year... but dont worry! we will be reprinting it along with adding a HUGE expansion to it with loads of repentance themes! and with every kickstarter we do, there will be TONS of exclusive merch!


(this could be you!!!!)

sign up here to be notified of the upcoming Isaac events and limited promos and also gain 2 exclusive bonus cards when you back the kickstarter!

SIGN UP HERE!

see you next week
-Edmund

Its new track time! "Walls of Denial" is the track for the 3rd alternate floor in repentance called... The Mausoleum! what's inside these mausoleum walls you ask? NOTHING! NOTHING AT ALL I TELLS YA!


yum yum gimme some! am i right? well i am, and you will be getting some of this yum yum in only like 7 more weeks! 7 fucking weeks! anyway im keeping this post repentance light mostly because i have some additional extra special binding of isaac mega news!

for those of you that missed the mega kickstarter 2 years ago, Four Souls is a binding of isaac card game for 2-4+ players ( though soon to be 1-4+ ). It plays kind of like a game of MTG commander but you draft your build out of 3 giant decks of cards oozing with themes and mechanics from the video game... and its quite neato if i don't say so myself!

Not a week goes by without tons of people on twitter asking how to get their hands on the game, or isaac figures and plushes.. well it was all from that damn kickstarter and i hope when we do it again in a few months you guys will be there.


look at all that stuff!
for now though, if you sign up early we will also send you 2 exclusive promo cards that you can only get via early sign up! ( signing up costs nothing, but if you sign up and back the kickstarter you get these bonus cards for free! ).



Even if you aren't into the card game, just signing up and backing the entry tier will enable to you to get your hands on some of this crazy shit up there! so do it!






-Edmund

In OG isaac, items were designed to combo together on a basic level without hard coding, this worked well enough for most tear effects, visuals, and stat based combinations... but when adding in an oddball tear effect like brimstone or moms knife, the effect would just override your existing tears.

In rebirth i wanted to make sure the items that would overwrite existing tear combinations could fully combo with other items, it took a lot of hard coding but we ended up with really neat stuff like, homing brimstone and quad shot moms knife.

fast forward to repentance... at this point there are so many possible item combos its impossible to keep up, but Vinh was up to the challenge and spent more hours than i feel comfortable posting here on a TON more custom combo effects.

now not only do these effects combo how they should logically, a lot of them add totally new visuals and mechanics to the game that should catch even the most jaded isaac pros off guard.

the following are a few neat ones for your viewing pleasure.















and since i got you here

were you aware that there is official BINDING OF ISAAC MERCH!?
ITS TRUE!



over the past few years we have made tons of badass isaac items, most are sold out but a few remain in the Nicalis Store.

this year we will be greatly expanding on this merch via an upcoming kickstarter for Four Souls: Requiem ( the binding of isaac card game some of you own ) for those unaware of it, here is how it plays...



this kickstarter will launch in June and should be quite a wild ride.. so make sure youre following me on twitter to get updates and take part in polls / QAs so we can make sure this kickstarter features everything you guys want when it comes to amazing isaac swag.

till next week!
-Edmund

First and foremost, Repentance is now up for preorder on steam!!! GO GET IT!


NOTE: Repentance requires all previous DLCs to work! ... so we did you a favor! To celebrate the preorder announcement we put all previous isaac DLCs and the core game on sale for 50% off!!!

Get the full collection HERE! (this includes the repentance preorder)
or if you are waiting to see how things go but still want the DLCs at 50% off, get them HERE!

but if that wasn't confusing enough.. i bring you THE BLUE KING COLLECTION!


The Blue King Collection is a bundle of ALL OF MY WORK that was just released on steam in one very discounted bundle! this bundle includes 8 of my games + 3 dlcs and you even get the ultra cheap basement collection that features over 7 more of my games from the flash days! that's 15+ games for less than the cost of 9 Tall, Cinnamon Dolce Latte's from Starbucks!

but i hear you screaming... NO ONE CARES! BRING ON THE NUDE BOY! WE WANT MORE CHILD ABUSE! WE WANT POOP! WE WANT BLOOD! and i agree.. on to the GIFS!



and what do we have here? some kinda mine cart ride to hell? and those poor children on that ride appear to have their heads cut at the jaw.. SHOCKING!



oh and look at this! on this episode of "preteen mom" a little demon girl appears to be showing off her 4 kids to a few angry neighbors who simply do not approve of her lifestyle choices!



and finally we end with this dapper young chap who appears to be firing small rockets so hard he's shitting out little turds that seem quite impressed with his ability to murder.

now lets cap this post off with a little QA! ( answers pulled from twitter )

Q: how many visual and mechanical changes have been made to the game?
A: we honestly haven't been keeping track but 100s of changes have been made over the years, a lot of the old stuff will feel fresh and new and a great deal of the art will look more vibrant, varied and more squishy. its really impossible to list it and it's still actively happening.

Q: will there be new challenges in Repentance?
A: yes! there are currently 7 new challenges.

Q: is there true co-op ( 2 isaacs ) and can i play online?
A: Isaac will feature true co-op and support up to 4 players, it wont have traditional online functionality but you can def try it out online with steam's "remote play together".

Q: is repentance just the antibirth mod ported over ?
A: no, repentance is the antibirth mod + a ton more content + super secrets + ultra secrets + poop physics. really though it takes the mod and expands on it greatly, ties it into the games story and adds a lot more content over the top that i cant talk about without spoiling too much...

Q: will you be porting more mods officially into the game?
A: no, we have no plans in doing anything like that.

Q: will you be making some of the new repentance characters into plushes and figures like you did in previous kickstarters?
A: for those of you who missed it, we have released official azazel, isaac, Lost and Guppy XL plush dolls via our kickstarter as well as a series of small figurines. we will def be making more of both for the next kickstarter but sadly no, none of the planned characters will be created due to us polling people on what characters they would purchase. next on our Plush list is Lilith and Bumbo, then possibly Keeper and Blue baby. but ill do a post about this when we get closer to the next kickstarter.

Q: i hear you are planning on updating the keeper so he's "more fun", how are you doing this?
A: yes the keeper will get an update, 2 actually.. they wont be ground breaking but they will fix a lot of issues people have with him that feel "unfun". he was designed to be a challenge character like the lost and blue baby.. but yeah, he's getting tweaked.

Q: do you feel like repentance is the definitive DLC to isaac? and does the the game feel complete to you now?
A: yes, isaac feels "done" to me now, in fact it feels like a sequel has been pushed inside Rebirth in a very nontraditional way, a great deal of mechanics and ideas i was saving for a sequel were added to Repentance and its hard for me not to think of it as a new release, kinda like how spelunky 2 built off existing areas and mechanics but didnt reinvent the wheel.. repentance to me feels like a slightly lesser version of that idea, its like isaac 1.9 and i think it closes the book thematically and storywise finally.. so yeah lets call it complete!

GO PREORDER IT!

-Edmund

As some of you know, Repentance will feature a very lush and fun alternate path that runs slightly parallel to the main game. maybe you also know that these alternate chapters will feature a slew of new enemies, bosses and even mechanics that make the game feel super new... and its possible even a few of you remember the initial track we spoiled for the first alternate chapter "Downpour" but ill post it again so you can let it play while you read this post.. i warn you you may feel a bit damp after you do...

now i dunno how many of you played the end is nigh, (probably the best game ive ever made that doesnt feature a crying naked child) but if you havent, FOR SHAME! WHAT KIND OF PERSON ARE YOU!? DONT YOU LIKE THINGS THAT ARE GOOD!??! but i digress.. turns out the dev team are fans of said game ( such great taste ) and decided to include some enemies from it.. here is Fissure!



look at em go! flip flopping all around the room looking to dive back into the unknown depths below!



but why bother you with this enemy nonsense... you guys dont care about alt paths and new enemies... you just want some sweet sweet items! well im a people pleaser and prepare to behttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/HZVxNCTYbEgVupMD8PX_0GCJURQ1GJdbSeGb1ZRQw7dxD5mRq2ZxdyrR-B_cvVg9Q_2EBKdkwwKIrUrNT1wiliCkuWNHsZkXe3KFTp3eYKF-Mfwspleased.





it appears to be an item called Neptunus and it does something something.. i dunno i cant read that chicken scratch, and you aren't reading this anyway so i can probably say whatever i want here and it wont matter anyway cornhole beetle wax isnt orange anymore mama, please hug my fun wrinkles.



oh oh! also i designed this fat thing that pukes!







and finally we leave you with a little boss we call Min Min... she starts out in a really snazzy getup that appears to be the husk of something long dead and salted, but once she does her little turn on the runway she drops that baby and shows it all! her future is so bright, you gotta wear shades! am i right?





Anywho, only a few months go to people! sure hope the world doesn't end by then... what do you guys want to see next? more general posts like this? or something totally different. post your suggestions in the comments! like and subscribe!

xoxo - Edmund

To punch up the fact that this is not only the final DLC but the definitive isaac experience, the boys at the Ridiculon HQ have redone the title track Genesis one final time.


for those of you that missed last week, Repentance will be launching March 31st! that means we roughly have 2 months more of dev time then a few weeks of heavy testing before release, that also means its time to lock it down and just finish what we have left of our list.. but... a few days ago we decided we NEEDED to add 34 more unlockable items... dont worry though we are still on for the 31st.

Now on to a little QA section!

Q: how much will Repentance be?
A: $14.99

Q: is it stand alone or will i need isaac to play it?
A: you will need Rebirth, Afterbirth and Afterbirth + to play repentance.

Q: will Repentance fix/change/update X Y Z?
A: Repentance has so many balance changes, visual and gameplay updates and fixes its impossible to keep track anymore.

Q: is the features list on the steam page actually true or are you hiding content from us?
A: of course we are hiding content.. we still go back and forth on spoiling stuff via feature page updates or just leaving stuff for you to find then updating it after launch.

Q: will it come to Mac?
A: No.

Q: will it come to console X Y Z?
A: Yes, the goal is to have it launch on more than one console by the end of the year, probably a lot sooner than the end but lets just say the end so we can beat expiations!

Q: will you do booster packs again?
A: I'm gunna publicly confirm that there will be NO booster packs for repentance because last time we did that it felt terrible when we packed in content to each booster and people complained that we didn't just release smaller boosters every month.. that said im sure there will be bug fix updates and content balance updates post launch.

i leave you with this...



see ya next week!
-Edmund-https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQsv2839VKw80JynB1JNIzizDdPe8wmAfxfuA&usqp=CAU

LETS WATCH!


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That's right, Repentance will finally be in your hands, hearts and souls on march 31st! me and the team are quite excited for this beast to finally rise from the depths and consume your every waking hour for the years to come, we just want all of its features to be perfect and testing to be a bit more in-depth than our last little release that will go unnamed.

that amazing trailer was done by Alex Hicks and is packed to the brim with nods to the past, present and future... it just all depends on how wide your eyes are when watching and if you have an IQ over like 340.

anyway next week we will get back to the usual blog posts, we have 11 or so left so we gotta make em count! what do you want us to talk more about and spoil without spoiling too much?

hold on to your buttholes!

-Edmund

Hey there! My name's Vinh (maybe better known by some of you as _Kilburn ), and I handle most of the programming and game design stuff in Repentance, along with a few artsy bits such as item sprites and visual effects. Today I'd like to talk about one of the upcoming characters in Repentance: Bethany!



Bethany is my attempt at giving Magdalene a more challenging, attack oriented counterpart. At first she was a white mage type character with an entire set of holy themed spells and a mana counter that would fill up with soul hearts, but I quickly realized that was way overcomplicated and she eventually shifted towards a more exorcist-like archetype, catching souls and using their power to defend herself.

When playing as her, soul hearts will drop more often, but instead of granting health, they count towards a new "soul charge" counter, adding 1 charge per half soul heart. Active items will then draw from that counter when used on an empty or partial charge. This allows you to use your active items more aggressively while still saving charges for when you need them the most.



She also starts with a neat active item: the Book of Virtues! When used, this book spawns one wisp familiar that orbits you, blocks shots, and fires low damage tears. This might not seem like much but...



...this wisp will also follow you between rooms and stick around until it dies! Which happens whenever it comes in contact with an enemy or gets hit by too many projectiles. This means if you play carefully enough, you can end up with a whole bunch of wisps lighting up the room while protecting you.



If you've already experienced the Antibirth mod you're probably thinking "wait I know this character, she sucks, no one wants to be stuck with the same active item and no devil deals for the whole game!!!". Well you got me, I lied, the Book of Virtues isn't quite an active item. Check this out:



That's right, when you pick up any active item, the book will open up and the item will combine with it, allowing both to be used at the same time! You can still swap active items as normal but the Book of Virtues will always stay in your active slot and attach to whatever's in there. Losing your active item, for example after activating a single use item, will simply result in the book reverting to its closed state.

On top of it, many active items will grant a unique effect to the wisps they spawn, which either compliments their original purpose or brings them in a completely different direction.
For example here's My Little Unicorn in action:



As a general rule you can expect items with a short cooldown to produce fragile wisps that are easy to lose, and items with a long cooldown to produce sturdy wisps that stick around for longer.
As for single use items or items with no cooldown? Who knows? Anything is possible!

Okay fine, how about this:



Using How to Jump offensively? Nonsense!!!

I'm very happy with how this turned out (thanks for the design input Edmund!) and I hope this will be a good incentive for you to give some of your least favorite active items another chance!

Of course, keep in mind things are still subject to change before release.

Repentance is coming along well and I really appreciate how understanding the community has been. It will be worth the wait. You guys rock.

Until next time!

Uhhh hey, is this thing on? Nevermind, it is. Silly me.

Hi there, I'm Not Your Sagittarius (or Sag, for short). You might know me as the lead sprite artist on Repentance. Or you might not. Either way, I'm in this weird phase of existing and not existing in some peoples' eyes. But let's get right to the point - those monsters and bosses full of mystery and personality, that stinky green floor that disintegrates noses upon entry, returning characters
and other things looking cuter than you last remember them and so much more? I'm the one that makes all the art for them. Or... most of them anyway. My two hands could only do so much before they get occupied for other things.

But enough from me! In this blog post I'd be happy to show you an insight in the process of what I do as a sprite artist.

Before an enemy gets its invitation into the game, we start with a discussion of what kind of enemy to add, and for which floor. Either that or Nik drops his 51st concept art onto the table. Sometimes it's not always him though - I make concept art too, though despite my artistic background it's not Mona Lisa grade at all.

The usual routine for making an enemy or boss is simple - one of us draws a concept laying out what it does, then I take the concept and make the sprites for it, and finally Kil adds it to the game. Of course, more complex monsters takes more time.

Here's some concept art I made for two mucky new additions to the Dank Depths - something I'll go in "depth" later! (please get the joke...)



Fairly simple enemies while you're still in the early game, the Butt Slicker is a devious variant of that one enemy you forgot existed, now stickier and shares a mob mentality with other Butt Slickers!



Messier than their bloodied cousins, the Sticky Leaper hops around spreading their tar and making messes around the battlefield!



Now I'd like to talk about visual changes for Repentance. If you haven't noticed yet, many of the characters and monsters have been getting beauty treatment. That's right - characters like Blue Baby are getting visual upgrades - not only for costumes but for the thing you'll see 70% of the time in your run - their hair. I made sure every character gets a free bottle of shampoo. It seems to be working wonders for the characters with hair. Not sure about the bald ones, though.





As for bosses and monsters - this is an interesting topic I'd like to talk about. You might have noticed Fistula getting a visual upgrade - and it does not end there. I'm retouching as many bosses as I can and bringing back details from the flash version that were lost in translation and a little more.
Say hello to the new Gemini.



With a little guidance from Ed, I'm also upgrading some visuals for the monsters you've known from Antibirth. Here's one you might be familiar with - the Whipper.



As for floors... I've given it some thought to revamp some of the afterbirth alts to enforce their theme a little more. One floor in particular is the Dank Depths - I've completely remade it from the ground-up to tailor to my tweaking. It's more or less the same dank depths you know and love (or hate), but with some much added detail to bring out its mucky theme. By working with Kil we've made the dank depths more danker than it ever was. Check out the difference!



There's still a lot of work I have left to do for bringing new monsters into the world of Isaac as well as making everyone else cuter, but I'm enjoying it all the same. I'm so excited for you guys to get your hands on this! I made sure to puts lots of love and care into every sprite in
the game.





Now if you'll excuse me, I'll get back to drawing girls.

...right after I play Isaac and laugh and die horribly to the _____ ____ for the 7th time.

Hey it's me, Nikola Antibirthdesigner, I made 3 million levels and Baby Plum. And as the guy who makes the rooms for Repentance, I am very fond of enemies and making new levels with them by pressing buttons on my mouse a bunch of times.

Because of this, Edmund has generously threatened me into writing about all this in today's blogpost. Let's not waste any more time and start with the first enemy I wanna talk about.


**Needles**


Originally made for one of the booster packs, the concept of these enemies is simple; they're just mini-pins that try to get ya by jumpin' around the room.



You'd think "This is no big deal! I've beaten Pin a few thousand times before, how is this supposed to be a difficult enemy, huh!" Not a bad assumption actually, but they DO start being a problem when there's like 3 or more of them in one room along with other enemies you gotta deal with.



Keeping up is especially difficult if you're a beginner, but where they truly shine is when you've had thousands of hours in the game and are on auto-pilot 'cus you have approximate knowledge of all the rooms in the game. Unlike most enemies in the game they do not make their presence known as soon as you enter the room, not even a puff of smoke when they spawn.



So if you come across a room that looks pretty generic like you've seen it a hundred times before, it might have one of these suckers dive bombing at you.


**Holy Eyes**


I know I know, everyone reading this is sitting on their seats foaming at the mouth screaming "Come on! Where's a guy gonna get some Four Souls stuff!" Well you're in luck, we got another brand new enemy in repentance based off this fancy Four Souls©™ card!





Wow! What a Great Card probably!
When making rooms, a good enemy dynamic is having monsters that attack you when alive for a while, and monsters or obstacles that distract the player so that the other monsters get a chance to do their thing. The Holy Eye is a Cathedral enemy that's an example of the former. When it does it's attack it'll surely make the player move their ass anywhere they are in the room, which is good 'cus then they might dodge into another enemy's attack.



Thanks for the gif, Vinh. Hope you get some sleep after I make you record these gifs at like 3AM.


**Bishops**


Another returning favorite from the Antibirth mod, this time with a new look! This is a stationary enemy that protects every other enemy in the room, so the player has no choice but to focus on him first and then everyone else. A great example of a "distraction enemy", the only way it could be more distracting is if it came out of your screen and robbed your house.



Vinh also gave them a new self-defense attack that doesn't look too bad, but you'd be surprised by how tricky it can be to dodge in some room layouts.
(Just ignore the fact that they attack in the cardinal directions despite being bishops)


Well it's the end of the blog post, and last week Tyrone shouted-out a random song he found, so this week I'll keep that up and shout-out this <random youtube channel that I like.>


That'll be all from me, enjoy analyzing those gifs fellas, I'm going back to my cave.