Good news everyone!

Serious Sam: Tormental is coming to Early Access on April 2, 2019 so we hope you're ready! You will be able to choose between Sam Stone, Bulb, Netricsa and Bomb and help them survive the terrifying journey through Mental's twisted mind! It's very dark in there so don't forget to take a friend with you to co-op mode and confront Mental together.

This is just the beginning because we still have big plans for Tormental and plenty of content to implement in the game. We will share Early Access roadmap with you soon so you will be able to stay up to date with updates and share your feedback with us! You can wishlist the game now or join us on April 2, 2019 and help us make the game as best as possible for full release. ːsteamhappyː

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uiFUjYQC_U

In today’s post we will be talking a lot about serious weapons! In Serious Sam: Tormental we are adding bunch of completely new weapons to the usual Serious Sam roster. Along with using some of your favorites from the Serious Sam series, you will be able to demolish Mental’s hordes in ways you never could before! So let’s get started, so we can finish this quickly and get back to destroying, smashing, and burning stuff!

Harpoongun: shoot deadly sharp harpoons that stab into the flesh of your enemies and take them on a ride - until they hit the wall and explode! This is especially effective when combined with exploding enemies like the Kamikazes, as it will turn your harpoons into missiles of mayhem. It's like spearfishing, but with more explosions.



Electric Shotgun: shoots quick bursts of electricity which shocks the enemies and spreads the electric joy to any other enemies that might happen to be nearby. Let’s connect!



Boomerang: this little puppy will follow you around the level, making it possible to guide it towards the enemies and hit them multiple times. If it manages to get back to you after it has done its job, it will return you all the ammo it consumed.



Most of these weapons can be also leveled up at the weapons shop. Higher-level versions are usually more effective, but also spend more ammo.

Flamethrower: unleashes fountains of flame onto your enemies, making for a nice bonfire. The only drawback is that they will start moving rapidly, and shooting frantically, so better stay back and enjoy the show until they are burned to a crisp. Can be also used to start a nice BBQ.

Flamethrower Twin: adds an additional turret, longer range of fire (literally), requires double the fuel and stronger muscles to wield.



Machinegun: transforms into the Triple Machinegun. Double cost, triple bullets, and lots more spread, making it more efficient against multiple targets. Although emptying the clip into an enemy's face at point-blank range also works just great.



Powered-up Homing Missiles: now shoots 3 homing missiles which hunt enemies down, and also destroy any wall they happen to crash into. Caution is advised when the enemies are standing right next to you, as the explosion might just take you along with them... unless you have the Atomic Skin perk equipped, that is!




In this post we showcased 7 of the 38 weapons we currently have ready for the Early Access version, and that is only to start with!

What weapon would you like to see in the game? Do you have any deep, dark desires for the ultimate weapon of impling destruction? Hit us up with your ideas, and remember: “It ain’t the size that matters, it’s how you use it!” Unless it’s a rocket launcher… then it is the size.

Bomb is an anthropomorphic bomb - and that's all you really need to know about his personality. How he came to enter Mental's mind is a mystery, but he's been busy making the most of his stay by blowing the hell out of pretty much everything. He claims to have worked in construction and enjoys horticulture and thrash metal.

As mentioned, Bomb likes to blow everything up. While observing from a safe distance, of course.


Activate the remote detonator and enjoy the show (without blowing yourself up)!





Netricsa (the NEuro-TRonically Implanted Combat Situation Analyser) is a computer system directly linked to Sam's brain. When a part of his mind was absorbed by the Mentalopticon, Netricsa got copied along with it and manifested herself as a snarky white cube. Don't ask us how that works - we're not scientists.

Netricsa can create portals which sucks in enemies. Gather them in one place, and unleash cannons, flamethrowers, and electrical shockers for maximum area damage.





And now, Bulb. A long time ago, a dying civilization's attempt to create robotic life accidentally produced a race of sentient light bulbs. After a short period of Enlightenment, the new light bulb civilization was attacked and destroyed by Mental. This partial copy of Bulb's mind is the only remnant of his once-proud people.

With Bulb, you will need to rush - because Bulb needs electricity, making his health drop over time. Fry enemies with short-range electricity while collecting their life energy to refill yours.


Rolling into the biggest group of enemies is risky, but it's also the best opportunity for a shocking connection!





Sam "Serious" Stone is the Earth Defense Force's greatest hero. Fiercely dedicated to protecting humankind, he faces tragedy and hardship with laughter and keeps on fighting to the end. This is a slightly fragmented, low-fidelity copy of his mind stuck inside the brain of his greatest enemy. What could possibly go wrong?

Since even a copy of Sam is inherently awesome, he is just a bit more powerful than everyone else. He has more health, is faster, carries more ammo, and can jump in the air - which catches most of the enemies completely off-guard, since they're not used to this kind of three-dimensional strategic thinking.




These characters will create an interesting variety of gameplay styles, each adding a lot of replayability and their very own flavor of crazy. We look forward to seeing what you can do with them!

Throughout the game, the player will encounter various challenges and quests. By completing these, the player will earn keys. Up in the Vault is Mental’s last line of defense; a giant Vault door locked away by unbreakable mechanisms. All of Mental’s strengths and secrets locked away in these massive, strong chests that keep the mechanism in place are seemingly immutable. But, as with all things - there is a weakness. Mental never figured anyone would be skillful enough to overcome these numerous challenges and pose any kind of a threat of taking his library of power.

As you’re defeating Mental’s hordes of enemies and overcoming all the challenges that Mental deemed you would never overcome, you earn these keys, you unlock his most sacred chests and you get secrets and powers to use against Mental. Key by key, you grow ever more powerful as you make the ancient Vault mechanism move and push its door closer and closer to finally yielding. This will go on until you become so powerful that the Vault can no longer contain you. At this point, when the heaviest and most important door of the game opens, there’s no going back - you may only carry on. And this is where Sam gets to hit Mental where it truly hurts.

We’re finalizing the presentation of these ancient doors, their mechanism and the Vault itself. Quests are being polished and continuously being tested. We will also be adding some more supporting NPCs for those.



However, this world is not a fixed place. It is an ever-changing world inside the mind of a demigod. The only fixed points in it are its beginning (the Hub) and its end (the Vault). As you wander around using your skills, weapons and upgrades to best Mental’s horde, you’ll be encountering various non-threatening characters, hidden away in this world. These characters are Mental’s manifestations of the secrets he’s keeping. They will tell you what you have to do to obtain one of Mental’s cherished keys. And as their secret combination is revealed, Mental becomes fully aware of your discovery of them, so they appear in the forefront of his mind (the Hub). And once the quest has been completed, their reason for being is no more, so they vanish.

This goes along with the quests being polished, as mentioned earlier. NPCs are working, we just need to set them up to appear at the Hub as well. They’ll even serve as a useful reminder if you try talking to them at the Hub, so you’re never lost as to which quests required which actions of you. If you don’t like the chatter, you can always take a look at your active quest list in your inventory. But it’s still a nice way to see how many quests you’re going after without having to dig through menus.



One of the main objectives while playing is to create strong combos of upgrades that synergize with each other. For example, if you have an explosive weapon, you might want to have a perk that creates big explosions! If there’s already plenty of explosions, why not make them bigger? Creating powerful builds will be necessary for conquering later levels.
We’re working on adding more upgrades, more synergies, but also more opportunities for the player to collect these. There will be optional challenges, various shops, and trades offered along the way while traveling the world. Make the right decision and you will become OP, but get too greedy, and you might just wind up dead.



There is still some work left to do with the sounds and voices. Bomb, Netricsa, and Bulb are still speechless. We also want every weapon perk (wall ricochet, piercing, homing, etc.) to add a unique sound effect that distinguishes every weapon build.
There’s also some sound effects missing for interactive objects, enemies, upgrades - and we wish for the UI interaction to sound very satisfying.



Passive abilities, alternative stronger versions of enemies during looped runs, an introduction scene, procedurally generated Nightmare Caves, a shinier weapon evolution screen, new Bulb model, Vortex visual effects… all that remains to be done - and it needs to be good!

The game’s difficulty and game duration needs tweaking as well, to provide enough bang for your buck. We still want you to have things to play with before we roll out the first big updates during Early Access!



Finally, we also need to make sure that the world hears about Tormental.
For this we need to create epic trailers, decorate the Steam page with exciting GIFs and descriptions, and create a roadmap that will show you how the game will be growing during Early Access.

https://youtu.be/bxHZhsO6808

John has been playing the game all while recording some badass new lines for us during the past few weeks: so we decided to ask him what he thinks about the game and how he feels about the Serious Sam indie games in general!


- What do you think about the game so far?
It’s a blast. I die in it. A lot. But just enough to where I feel challenged to push myself forward. I love that they are bringing back the old school hippie blood mode settings as an option, too. That kind of silliness was one of the things that always made me smile about the old school Sam games. The more non-Serious side of the franchise, with things such as that, seems to be the heart and soul of Tormental. I mean, the intense action defines the series. But the tongue in cheek attitude is really ramped up here too. And that’s a good thing.

- What's your favorite weapon to use in the game, and why?
Right now? The minigun has been treating me well. But my attitude on favorite weapons changes regularly. A lot of it depends on how the level randomly generates and what enemies I’m facing. The minigun just spits out ammo at such a rapid rate that I’m finding it a good go to weapon for a variety of situations. Also, it’s good for eating walls quickly to give you some space to dodge enemies in tight corridors.

- In the game, what's your favorite weapon combo to play with?
Ricochet bullets. Always bet on ricochet bullets. Man, I love those things. They even have a right trigger weapon called the bouncer that spews out ricochet bullets in every direction. You only get a few of those on a pickup. But, blessed hell, are they fun!

- Which bossfight in the game was the most enjoyable for you?
They really nailed it on the first boss fight. Werebull are the bane of my existence, so that Rodeo bossfight was perfect. Set the tone for the entire game. I still haven’t finished the game, though. And they still haven’t finished development. So I may change my mind later. Just saying that they set the bar high early on.

- We've heard your voice in other smaller projects such as "I Hate Running Backwards", "Serious Sam's Bogus Detour", "Serious Sam Double D" and we'll also be listening to your voice in "Tormental" once it comes out.
How do you feel about Serious Sam being part of these smaller indie titles, and the support that Croteam gives towards these game developers?
Croteam is probably the best developer in the world to work for. They never forget where they came from or how they started off as a tiny little indie studio themselves. And the support they give to other small developers is beyond what anyone could expect. I think it’s great how they lend out their core franchise so readily to take a chance on helping the next generation of talent get a leg up. Also, we get a huge variety of quirky new games to play out of it. So it’s a win / win.

- Do you think we'll ever see an end to Sam's fight against Mental?
Yes and no. At some point, I think we will have Mental as an end boss. But Mental is more of an abstract concept at this point. It’s like asking if we will ever see an end to the darkness. Well… yeah. When morning comes. But the clock always turns. Darkness always returns. And when a game messes around with time travel and flippant lunacy as much as the Serious Sam series does, there are always going to be some loose ends to tie up regarding Mental.

- As a last thing, is there any message that you would like to give to the Serious Sam community?
Yeah. Don’t be afraid to take chances. Nobody lies on their deathbed wishing they had taken less risks. Daredevils die more often, sure… but they die with less regrets. Go out there and do the thing. Whatever that thing is. Stop second guessing yourself. The only true failure in life is to never have tried. Also, buy Tormental. And Serious Sam Planet Badass, of course.

He was also kind enough to answer some less specific questions sent by the Serious Sam community. You can read those right here!

All walls are destructible now! In the previous update, wall destruction was only possible in specific levels - but now it’s possible to destroy any wall using explosions or serious weapons.
By destroying walls, it’s also possible to find pickups and the good ol’ secrets, but finding them depends on chance - so use your ammo wisely!




Ever since we first started development on Tormental, we have constantly been changing how the shop works. In this update, we finally have a version we’re satisfied with! Killed enemies drop FIGs (FIGments of Mental’s imagination), which can be traded for powers and items with the moody shopkeeper. Hey, why does Sam need to have all the fun, anyway?




We’ve made a great deal of progress on the Nightmare Caves area, where you can find Mental’s nightmares lurking around. Nightmare enemies (the ones that look like green ghosts) cannot be killed with normal bullets - they only die from explosions, or when all other enemies in the are are killed. So Sam will need to keep running from them and focus on other enemies!




All the while, we are working on many other things for the game, so stay tuned. We cannot wait to give you a chance to play and improve it based on your feedback! Let’s make this game great - together.

Please check out our Twitter for up-to-date news on the current development and features being added. We are also available for chat on Discord!

Hey everyone, here are some updates on what we have been doing lately!


First, we have made some improvements in the combat system, like there being more places to take cover in. And we’ve made the enemies more aggressive, so this will definitely come in handy. Altogether, it’s a more exciting combat experience!






Destructibility is definitely a fun part of any game, so we also added destructible walls. Wreck even more havoc with your weapons!






Brutal kills, where you can kill the dying (flashing) enemy by rolling into it, has become more important than ever. Every enemy is different, and successful brutal kills will require some training. The rewards are health pickups and a huge thrilling satisfaction!





Also, we got some new members in the team, Verena and Jonas (Talos Principle & Serious Sam writers) are helping us with the narrative. Damjan Mravunac and Sanja Doric are working on the soundtrack, and we also have one more track made by Jukio Kallio (Nuclear Throne, Luftrausers).

This is just small selection of the things we did. Tormental is our huge passion and we will keep adding and improving stuff ‘til we think it's ready for you guys. More info about quests and the Vault (deepest, darkest area of Mental’s mind, where he keeps all his secrets), will be coming soon!


Please check out our Twitter ( https://twitter.com/TormentalGame ) for up-to-date news on the current development and features being added.
We are also available for chat on Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/BABujdy

Hey all,

unfortunately, we have to postpone the game release for a bit. First of all we apologize for this. We had some team problems, we didn't plan well, we still have some testing and polishing to do on the existing features, as well as more ideas that are close to completion which we really want to finish implementing and thoroughly test before the release. It’s really important to us that we give you the best game possible for Early Access. The good news is we sorted some stuff out and we are picking up the pace. This delay won’t be a long one.

We are still planning on releasing the game in August, just a little delayed. We don’t have a specific date yet, but we will announce it a week earlier so stay tuned for updates on our Discord, our Twitter, Facebook and Steam forums.



But to end this post on a brighter note, we will post a contest on our Twitter tomorrow and you will get a chance to win Tormental pre-Early Access key and play the game even before release. So keep an eye on it! :)

If you still haven’t, please visit our Store page and wishlist the game if you’re interested in it.
You will see updates to store page as well as we will get closer to release. And also, expect a new gamedev blog from our programmer soon!

Cheers!

Game development is a long process that involves not only technical skills like programming, 3D modeling or art, but also sacrifice. Dropping something that doesn’t quite work and replacing it with something better is a part of that process.



And we just did that. We changed the camera view, added new rooms and reduced the number of enemies on the screen. What did we gain with that? With zoomed in camera, players now cannot see the whole room and their field of view is not as wide anymore, which means game is now played at even higher pace adding more action to the gameplay and making it more intense. We also reduced the number of enemies that can spawn at once on screen, due to limited room visibility. We also introduced new rooms but we’re not done yet.



After changes like these it’s good to stop, take a deep breath and ask people for feedback. We organized playtesting in Croteam office and collected valuable feedback. First of all, we have to say big thank you to the guys who jumped in and helped with testing. They were all experienced game testers which was very important to get relevant feedback. They tried Tormental with mouse and keyboard, controller, in single player and co-op mode.

To get the most data, we decided to show them new build of the game first, to get the general “feeling” if we’re going in the right direction with this. When they were done with the new build, we intentionally asked them to try the older version too. Then they got a form to fill which covered everything we wanted and needed to know.



What’s interesting is that literally all of them liked the new build better which gave us much needed confirmation that we are indeed going in the right direction. We also saw some potential problems in co-op which we are already working on. We are doing our best to deliver a unique and fun gameplay experience and we are looking forward to seeing more of you when Tormental hits Steam Early Access.

Don’t forget to join our Discord channel for all Tormental related questions! :)
https://discordapp.com/invite/BABujdy

As promised before, here is a little showcase of Netricsa's special ability - Chronosphere!

The sphere slows down the movement of any objects trapped inside of it - both enemies, player and bullets.

https://youtu.be/g-ZdX8zDW5U

It enables some tactical options, both for offensive and defensive play:

• Slow down the ongoing bullet hell to make it easier to avoid projectiles while running through the battlefield.
  
• Slow down enemies and run around them to shoot them in their back.
  
• Activate the bomb and see the enemies trying to run away, but failing to do so before the lethal explosion.

But it shines even more with super upgrades:

• Armaggeddon - Bullets charge up in the Chronosphere. Once the Chronosphere disappears, they all fly out at the same time - demolishing everything nearby.
  
• White Hole - Attracts nearby enemies, enabling you even more to manipulate enemy positioning.

There are many more synergies we could mention, especially with various Serious Weapons, but we will leave that out for you to discover - really soon!