Return on PAX-East

Over 1000 Players sacrificed their Friends during the event !

Last March at PAX East, we had a wonderful time showing you the game in its early stages. Everything you saw and played there was the result of only 3 months of work on this new build and a lot has evolved since. We receives almost 500 drawings from you guys, characters, monsters and weird hybrids, and we chose 3 of them that are being implemented into the game as we speak. We will present them soon.

Since then…

We made a lot of work in the last few months. We had 3 playable arenas at PAX, and we now have 8. The same amount are currently at various stages of progression. There’s now new characters such as Baby Cthulhu, the Mad Author and the Innsmouth’s Fishfolks. All the menus and UI are being remade and a lot of small implementations were done. What’s more, the online multiplayer is getting more promising day by day.

New game modes

There was also a complete overhaul of the game modes with multiple win condition options (by lives, by kills, by time, by points). You’ll now have access to :

Team play (any mode) : Players with the same color play as a team. Simple as that !
Deathmatch : Typical melee, the quintessence of the party brawler.
Capture the Zone : Be the one staying into the ritual circle the longest time.
Hoard the Idols : Dread Lord Cthulhu lost his Idols again, leading to mad chase to determine who can hoard the most.

Upcoming July Private Alpha

We’re still tying everything together at this point. We aim to deliver to you guys a private Alpha in Mid July. We hope this build will allow us to get your feedback on what we’ve done so far, to test a few new mechanics and to validate and stress the online support. This Alpha will feature :

1 full campaign (of 5 in the main game).
Online multiplayer support
New maps and characters

What’s next? Madness Overhaul

Everybody on the team is involved in how SYF evolve.

We’ve put a lot of thoughts on the game unicity. While we think the actual gameplay is competitive and fun, we’d like to expand the experience SYF has to offer. Something that would put the game deeper into the depths of madness. We’ve given us new elements to add to the game in the coming months :

Madness and Cults of the Old Ones

This is a major overhaul of the game offering a better progression system that will expand the “madness” mechanic. We introduce the idea of “Cults” in the game, each dedicated to a single Great Old One. As a player, you will be able to select the cult to which you make your sacrifices. Each kill (sacrifices) or points you make while playing the game will be dedicated to this cult, growing its connection to the ancient. As you progress as a member of this cult, you will unlock the ability to incarnate an apparition of the Cult’s Old One directly into the game.

This will happen when your stress bar is maxed and you press “Y” to explode into a burst of Madness. Instead, you will transform yourself into an apparition of your Cult’s Old One for a short amount of time. Each apparition will have personalized attacks, powers and controls linked to the Old One’s abilities. Killing players or scoring points while in apparition form will allow you to stay in that form longer.

We want to add this new mechanics to give the players a better sense of progression and customization. While you’ll be able to unlock each cult, you’ll have to choose which one to explore first and select which one to play with for each match. We hope that unlocking all the apparitions will be a way to keep the game rewarding for the experienced player. It will also be a way for us to integrate more of H.P.Lovecraft’s lore and creatures by letting the players control them.

Map progression – Through the eyes of madness

Each arena is filled with hazards and dangers that are linked to the progression of the game. This progression is based upon the winning conditions, such as the amount of sacrifices. As the game approaches the ends, everything becomes more chaotic and dangerous. This is already working well, but now we want to add visual effects to embrace this descent into madness. Weird stuff will begin to appear, the perception of the map will change as if seen through the eyes of your character losing its sanity.

The dead keep playing

SYF is a party brawler and is meant to be enjoyed by anybody without discrimination. With the competitive aspect of the deathmatch, we understand that some players get frustrated if they are eliminated too early and may leave the game. We want everybody to stay involved in the game till the end. Nothing is final at this point, but we aim to offer and alternative to eliminated players and will be looking for the best answer for the game. When your character loses it’s last live, you will become a “Ghostly apparition” that would still be able to interact slightly with the game by moving items or by lightly pushing other players.

Community’s input

Please tell us what you think about the game and what we will be adding into it ! We really want your input 🙂 . Thanks for being there with us in this journey.