Alright, here we go, the last dev journal before Early Access! That's right: Friday July 24th, come hell or high water, the game will launch in Early Access. 🙌

This is something you can expect to see in the first major release after Early Access (dubbed the "Lofty" update): support for large modules.



This opens up the possibility for bigger hand-crafted areas, which I'll likely feature in the final floor of each level, but it's setup in such a way that large and small rooms can co-exist on the same floor. As you can see above, this also means bigger underwater areas, and hopefully some small puzzles and platforming areas as well.

A couple things on this front: I've moved the settings into the game--no more launch screen! (actually, Unity forced my hand on this: they removed it in the version I recently upgraded to, heh)



I've also added the ability to "Quick Start" from the main menu. This bypasses the developer note, intro story, and tutorial area. (This unlocks after reaching the first main area).

You'll see both of these features in the first Early Access build.

Looking past the "Lofty" update, what will likely follow is a focus on adding new types of enemies. I have a few in mind already.



There's the requisite spider, a super mutant miner, and some kind of underwater creature. Stay tuned for more details on this.

On that note, I've built a prettier version of the roadmap. As much as possible I've tried to group related items into major releases with easily recognizable names. This is all subject to change, of course, but hopefully it gives you an idea of where I plan on taking things.

Mark your calendars: rogue-like survival horror TOXICANT gets an Early Access release date! This is my most ambitious game yet, developed entirely in my spare time over the past 3+ years, and I'm excited to finally share it with the world on Friday July 24th!



To celebrate, I'll be playing through the game live on Twitch, answering questions, and talking about how I plan to develop it during Early Access. (You might even see a preview of some new features!)

Plus: I'll have a few copies to giveaway! (Stay tuned for more details)

Heyo! We're in the home stretch before the Steam Game Festival (ICYMI: it's been postponed until June 16). As such, the last dev cycle has been focused almost entirely on bug fixes and quality of life stuff.

The interaction points for some objects--in particular, exits--weren't super obvious since they didn't have outlines like other items. To make this a bit easier, I've added "interact dots" (thanks to God of War for the idea, heh).

This should make them much easier to interact with, especially in the heat of the moment.



Along with this, I've also added proper interaction outlines to the upgrade stations (workbench, dark altar).

Previously you would have to pause the game after dying in order to restart (inspired Half-Life 2, but I could see how it might not be obvious to some). With this change, you can now press any key to restart (a prompt will appear after 5 seconds).



Thanks to my new collaborator, Lukas, for his help with this.

The hallways connecting rooms are cluttered with props, but over time, the spawning logic kind of got away from me, and you'd end up with barrels falling over, blocking passages, etc.

I've taken the time to clean this up, and you'll now see much more consistent clutter. As a bonus, it creates these neat little hiding spots between rooms:



During the Steam Game Festival demo build--and likely most of early access--you'll be able to leave feedback by pressing F1!



We'll get the feedback through the STOMT site, as well as directly in Discord via a webhook.



Whew, lots of these! With the extra week, I was able to fix pretty much all of the bugs I wanted to, including a few that were really nagging me! 🙌

• Only allow shielding from limited angles
  
• Improve mutant miner AI behaviour (minimize likelihood of them walking intro each other)
  
• Hide beacon launcher on death
  
• Fix for beacon impact projector disappearing after pausing
  
• Fix for beacon impact projector rendering when no beacons
  
• Fix for enemies not always finding a random wander target
  
• Fix for debris culled with room, causing it to disappear in some cases
  
• Disable interaction with lockers (until they actual contain things, heh)
  
• Fix some missing colliders (was making some crate drops difficult to collect)
  
• Replace Windows NT screen with something less likely to lead to legal issues 😉
  
• Fix for rats spawning outside of level

Edit: spoke too soon, captured this choice GIF while prepping this post! 😅

I have to go now, my planet needs me.

Come hang out on the Cosmocat Discord and ask me (almost) anything.

🙆‍♂️ Examples of questions you can ask me:

• What are your plans for the game?
  
• What were your inspirations?
  
• How many cats do you have?
  
• What's your favourite beer?

🙅‍♂️ Examples of questions you can't ask:

• Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior?
  
• What is your stance on <insert super controversial topic here>?
  
• What's your credit card number?

TOXICANT (formerly Undermine) offers a sinister twist on the survival horror genre, featuring randomized levels and roguelike elements.

Back again with another dev journal!

One thing that's always felt a bit weak to me was the melee attacks, so I recently took the time to beef them up x100. I checked a number of references--including the classic Condemned: Criminal Origins--and modeled the new melee based on these. I sped the animations way up, added the requisite trail renderer, and also took the opportunity to greatly improve the collision detection and hitboxes. Here's how that's looking:



Note that this only applies to plank and pickaxe so far. I do plan to go back and do the fist at some point, although definitely not to the same extent, as it's meant to be a very light/weak attack.

Good news everyone! I'm going to be showcasing TOXICANT as part of the Steam Game Festival!



This means there will be a demo build available for everyone to check out (first two levels), and I'll also be doing an AMA on the Cosmocat Discord. Keep an eye out for more details on that. You can also set a reminder via the Steam Game Festival page.

Most of my time lately has been focused on getting ready for this, including fixing any blatant bugs, and adding an in-game mechanism for leaving feedback.

I'll be launching in Early Access Shortly after the Steam Game Festival; I'm aiming for sometime before the end of June, though I'll put a more firm date on this in the weeks to come. Be sure to keep an eye on the Early Access Roadmap to get an idea of how things will progress during EA!

Thanks for reading, until next time,
Adam/The Cosmocat

P.S. I've got a few Cosmocat games up for grabs in exchange for filling out a quick survey about how you use Discord!

Hey folks, I'm going to start trying to post these more regularly now that I'm headed into early access. It will mostly be an amalgam of odds & ends from the #toxicant channel on Discord and the devlog, so I would encourage you to follow those if you want things hot off the press.

Some of the feedback from the last beta was that the "on-boarding" was a bit challenging; there was a lot to learn, and not enough instruction. While I'm not a big fan of hand-holding in games, I certainly don't want the initial experience to be frustrating or confusing. To that end, I've added a simple tutorial area. It sets the tone (you spawn in a pitch black room at the bottom of mineshaft!) and introduces some of the basic concepts and controls. It may eventually also serve as a hub for some interesting things (shortcuts a la Spelunky? special buff items?), but nothing really set in stone yet.



I finally got around to adding something I had been planning for a long time: breakable walls! (The satisfaction of breaking walls in DOOM Eternal gave me the extra bit of motivation I needed!)

While it's a fairly small thing in the grand scheme of things, they really add a lot IMO. They'll be used to hide secret rooms more effectively, and create small shortcuts between areas. As well, they can only be broken with certain items, so they will encourage more exploration and resource management.



From the beginning I've been set on not having guns in TOXICANT. I stand by that, but I also recognize that it's a staple in this genre and I feel I would be doing fans a disservice by not including something. To that end, I've prototyped a basic shotgun. There's no guarantee this will be included in the main game, but I am contemplating a secondary mode--sort of like a dream sequence--that will be heavily action focused.



I welcome your thoughts!

Hey folks, just a quick note to let you know that I'll be running another closed beta shortly. If you're interested in that, you can find the sign-up form here.

Apologies for the silence over the past little while. I wanted to get a few smaller games under my belt, and now that I've done that (Cosmic Ray, Brainmelter Deluxe, Super Rocket Ride) I will be switching back to TOXICANT as my primary focus.

You may have also noticed the name change from Undermine to TOXICANT. This was due to the fact that there was another game being developed by the name of UnderMine and I didn't want to create confusion. (that game looks great, BTW, check it out!)

I've done a few sprints over the past year or so and made some solid headway. The biggest one entailed upgrading the game engine and moving to a more of a retro style (grittier point-sampled textures). You'll notice the screenshots on the store page reflect this new aesthetic, and I'm quite happy with it:



I've also done some work on the combat: I've added a "shielding" mechanic for melee weapons, improved animations, hit detection, etc. Somewhere along the way I also greatly expanded the capabilities of beacons, adding a dedicated "beacon launcher" and multiple beacon modes (radar, explosive, freeze).



More recently, I've been exploring the idea of switching to multi-floor procedural level generation. I think this will open up some interesting new possibilities, such as some light back-tracking to unlock items that were initially inaccessible, stock up on supplies, etc.



This game has been in a playable state for about two years, so my top priority continues to be launching in early access as quickly as possible. I will most likely be doing a soft-launch early access on Itch, so do follow me over there if you're interested in that. The purpose of this soft-launch will be an expanded alpha test of sorts, with the mainstream early access to follow on Steam shortly thereafter.

If you're looking to see how things are unfolding, your best bet is to follow the TIGForums devlog. I've also been streaming development regularly, and posting highlights to YouTube.

Last but not least, don't forget to join the official Cosmocat Discord to stay up to date about my games and chat with other players about the things that matter in life (mostly: games, beer, cats and music).

Thanks for your patience as I try to wrangle what is my most ambitious project to date! I'm confident it will be worth the long wait 🙂

I'm pleased to announce my latest game, Super Rocket Ride!



It can best be described as a cross between old school lander games and classic platformers of the SNES era: a simple control scheme, lush pixel art, and unforgiving levels fraught with obstacles and hazards.

Super Rocket Ride is being developed in collaboration with Unruly Games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYiYXqGusUs
Features
🚀 24 hand-crafted levels (with more on the way)
🚀 Analog controls
🚀 Over-the-top physics-based deaths
🚀 Contemporary atmospheric soundtrack featuring music from Snug, JFS and Ogotu

The game will be hitting Steam in the next few months. If you're interested in checking it out ahead of that, we're running early access on Itch for the next little while.

We're also offering advance copies for streamers, reviewers, and curators. All we ask is that you reflect the early access status in your coverage, and update it when the game releases in full.

Last but not least, don't forget to join the official Cosmocat Discord to stay up to date about my games and chat with other players about the things that matter in life (mostly: games, beer, cats and music).

Hi guys, just a quick note to let you know that I'm working on a version of Brainmelter Deluxe for Android. If this sounds like something that may be of interest to you can pre-register here, or stop by the Discord to register for the upcoming closed beta.

P.S. iPhone/iPad users, fear not! If the Android release goes well, an iOS version is not far behind.