Thanks for such a great campaign!
almost 7 years ago – Mon, Jul 03, 2017 at 04:22:40 PM

Hello Blasphemous Backers!

When we embarked upon this Kickstarter adventure, we were hoping to gather enough attention and support to continue working, struggling day by day, to complete the game's development on it's most basic form. We were not prepared for what happened the moment we published the campaign!

With your support, you have enabled this humble, small group of creative people to spend the next year and a half passionately working on creating something very unique, with more resources than we could have ever hoped for!

Additionally, this campaign has given us the opportunity to kick off a thrilling community of gamers, to develop the game with. As we promised we will give you countless opportunities to provide feedback and help us make the game as awesome as it possibly can be. For starters, this campaign has delivered a tremendous influx of suggestions, ideas, and proposals that we have incorporated into the project to the maximum extent of our capabilities.

You have made it easy for us to find the right developer partner, to secure nothing less and nothing more than The Game Kitchen's first ever console release! Believe when we say that every single member of the team has dreamed countless times about having a game released on these platforms. Thanks to you, that’s now a reality!

You have made it possible for us to broaden the scope of not just the core features but the entire game. Crushing the stretch goals one by one, you have provided the means, and the motivation for us as a team to deliver a game with more depth, larger in scope, higher production values and packed with more awesome opportunities than we could ever of imagined!

From the bottom of our hearts we the Blasphemous team would like to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to pursue our dreams and continue to do what we strongly believe in... Making great games with creative freedom!

What's happening next?

We're setting up the online platform we will be using to interact with you the backers during the entire development process, and once that is up and running, we will be sending you an invite. In this platform, we will be unifying all backers from both Kickstarter and Paypal.

After that, the work on Blasphemous resumes, and we plan to tell you everything about it!  

Thanks, and enjoy the ride!

Final sprint is here, loaded with novelties!
almost 7 years ago – Sun, Jun 25, 2017 at 11:02:38 AM

Hello!

We're facing the final days of our amazing campaign! It's been a hell of a ride and we cannot but thank you all for the awesome support you have shown us so far. But this it's not over yet! As you might have expected, we have one final move to make for the final days!

Extra PC Download Key 

Many of you have asked for a way to pledge for a second copy; so you can play the game on two platforms, or give away to a friend. Now you can do just that with the new ‘Extra PC Download Key’ add-on! Please note that platform holders do not allow the resale of console keys, which means that this add-on can only refer to the PC version. If you want Console + PC, please make sure your base tier is a "Consoles" one. Unfortunately this also means that you cannot pledge for a combination of two different consoles, sorry about that!

 

PayPal support

Countless people have reached us soliciting an alternative payment method. We finally have managed to setup just that! The platform we're using is a bit limited, that's why we had to limit the tiers we offer through Paypal to the base 3: The Penitent One (PC only), The Follower (PC or Consoles), and The Disciple (PC or Consoles). But on top of that, you can also choose add-ons so, in the end, you'll still get pretty much the same choices (except for the tiers that are limited).  

The road to Voice Acting!

Our 300,000$ stretch goal looks impossible, but it really isn't! We are going all in to make it happen and the good news is you can help us get there:

• Head over our second Thunderclap campaign and support us with a tweet/share exactly 24 hours before the end. It's 100% free and there's a nice treat in exchange: Carlos Violas' newest masterpiece for Blasphemous soundtrack!
• If you use Facebook, click here to spread the word!  
• If you use Twitter, click here to spread the word!
• Get creative: Mention or message your friends, favorite influencers, or anyone you think might like the game!

Together we can still make the final days of this campaign truly exciting and legendary!

Thanks!

Frequently asked questions about consoles
almost 7 years ago – Wed, Jun 21, 2017 at 11:18:03 AM

Are Console reward tiers physical copies or digital downloads? Is there going to be a physical release?

The console versions in all reward tiers refer to digital download at the moment. Physical releases are complicated to plan, and it was impossible to have them sorted out during the campaign, but we want them to happen as much as you do! That’s why we will continue to pursue this and the moment we figure out how to do it, probably after the campaign, all console backers will be offered a fair choice to upgrade from digital download to physical copy.

What’s the real estimated release date?

With the success of the funding campaign, we’ve incorporated a lot of new and exciting features into the game. That’s why we now feel more inclined to estimate the official release window to be during Q1 2019. Multiplatform support doesn’t really have much to do with this, since it’s going to be handled simultaneously by our specialised development partner. We have used the new date on the new tiers, while the previous ones still reflect the original date because Kickstarter doesn’t allow us to edit tier information once the campaign has started.

If I choose a console reward tier, can I play alpha/beta/prototypes?

Console policies do not allow for easy publishing of unfinished or pre-certificated content. This means that Alpha, Beta and Prototypes are not going to be available to play directly on consoles, BUT if you pledged at those tier levels, you will still be able to download these to play on your Windows/Mac/Linux computer, and also participate in the development loop by providing feedback.

Why is this [other platform] not supported?

A shot at a multiplatform release (6 platforms supported as of today) is already a challenge for a small team like ours, even if we take into consideration that three of these are going to be outsourced to a much more experienced team. This doesn’t mean that Vita, Nintendo DS or other platforms won’t happen in the future: we will continue to explore possibilities, but at this time, we don’t feel comfortable making promises we might not be able to hold, or compromise the overall quality of the game.

Projects We Love

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is simply put, the hottest game right now on Kickstarter. If you are into role, tabletop games or rpgs you should definitely check it out!

Consoles confirmed!
almost 7 years ago – Wed, Jun 21, 2017 at 11:17:54 AM

We are immensely happy to announce that we have welcomed a very experienced partner on board to handle the console ports of Blasphemous! We’ll update you more on this as soon as we can, but we really wanted to share that we can now confidently say that Blasphemous is going to release simultaneously on all of these platforms:

Prefer to play Blasphemous on console?

This is what you have to do, to get a downloadable for console instead of PC:

• If you haven't pledged yet, just pick a reward tier with “(Consoles)” in the name and you're good to go!
• If you have already pledged from $40 up to $120, you can change to console from PC free of charge. Simply click “Manage your pledge” from the Blasphemous Kickstarter page, then “Change your pledge” and select your tier’s “(Console)” counterpart.
• If you pledged $200, $350 or $500, you don't need to do anything, since you will be choosing your preferred platform when the campaign finishes.
• Finally, if you pledged $1, $15, or $20, please upgrade to 'The Penitent (Consoles)' at $25. This upgrade includes some nice extra perks, like a digital download of the OST, and your name featured in the game's credits.

You will be able to specify your choice of console platform in an online form shortly after the campaign has ended.

New reward tiers!

What better way to celebrate Blasphemous getting released for consoles than with a fresh round of new reward tiers? Check them out:

• We have secured 60 more units of ‘The Tabernacle’ with CuadrosPixels.Com, more of those beautiful frames to welcome our console players with.
• Check out 'The Martyr' if you want to get your pixelated face into the game’s credit sequence.
• A second, and final, chance to get 'The Immortal' and your name as an in-game collectible item, which players will have to collect in order to unlock a trophy/achievement.
• A second, and final, chance to get 'The Prophet' and collaborate with the design team in the creation of an equippable or consumable item, that puts your name into the game's lore.
• Revamped 'The Blasphemer' now includes a fancy dinner and night out with the developers, a guided tour of the creepiest corners of Sevilla where all the inspiration of the game comes from, and a super exclusive custom PS4, Xbox One, or Nintendo Switch with a hyper-exclusive Blasphemous design skin!

New stretch goals!

Fasten your seatbelts, because we have surprises ahead! The second half of the campaign is going to be really exciting because we will be revealing a lot of new stretch goals in the upcoming days, and you are going to love them!  

Today, we are revealing a very exciting one, something many of you have asked for:

Technology behind the game
almost 7 years ago – Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 02:58:55 PM

Our project is fairly simple from a technological standpoint, but nevertheless we have a few interesting things in mind that we want to tackle, once we’ve gather the fundings for it.

We have created a framework for accurate presentation of pixels on-screen, or what everyone knows these days as ‘pixel perfect’. First we settled for a “virtual frame” resolution of a fixed 360 pixel height, and its corresponding width (calculated from the aspect ratio of your monitor). Then we let the player choose among different ways to upscale the “virtual frame” selecting between preserving pixel-perfect (with letterboxing or cropping) or just doing whatever is needed to fill the screen. Regardless of your monitor configuration you will have pixel-perfect if you want it, or just regular upscaled full-screen if that’s what you prefer.

On top of this, we will include a filter selector that adds scan-lines and other visual “aberrations” to simulate the feel of several arcade/retro platforms! This nice touch was a courtesy of you crushing the $90,000 stretch goal in little more than 48h!

Eye Candy

Pixel art is at the core of 'Blasphemous', both in the scenery and character elements. So far we have shown you pure handmade, pixel by pixel assets. We want this to remain the case, but, additionally we want to perform a certain research on eye candy techniques that may be applied on top of that to make everything look more dynamic and vivid.

We are playing around with the concept of permablood: make the blood splatter out of the bodies with a combination of hand-painted sprites and physical particles, and then let them stain the floors and walls permanently.

 We are also experimenting with objects that react and move physically, but they remain on point with the rest of the hand-painted pixels. And finally, we really could use some more dynamics in water and other fluids.

Powerful AI System

Our goal is to create an AI system that is able to deliver powerful, challenging and meaningful opponents for you to fight against. But we’re not stopping there, we also want an AI system that is able to impersonate a human player! “Why?” You’d ask. We want to take advantage of what is know as “automated testing” which is having the game being able to play itself overnight, finding holes in the collisions of the level and other systematic bugs. That would allow us to deliver a better quality game, despite not having key resources (like a dedicated QA department in the studio). 

Cloud-Based Features

Cloud based features are and will always be optional.The game will work just fine without an internet connection. But if you have one, you can opt in for online features:

• Persistent boss creature: There’s a hideous, ancient and indestructible creature in Orthodoxia, brought back by the grace of The Twisted One each time it is slayed. You can try your luck against this creature and if you are skilled enough to beat this optional boss, it will be reborn a little bit tougher, in every other player’s playthrough. 

• Campaign extensions: We have designed a feature that will enable us to put more stuff within the campaign, without requiring the players to update the game. This feature requires an internet connection, and hence they would be completely optional. Our goal is, once the game launches, having weekly challenges or easter eggs the community will have to work together to solve.

• Seeds: Exploring the lands of Orthodoxia you might find scattered seeds. Collect them to progressively unlock a library of seeds in your inventory. At any point you can choose one and have it planted in the ground. The seed will eventually grow into a plant, but in someone else’s playthrough! When exploring, you might find fully grown plants placed by other players, which you can collect and consume. The effects these produce depend on the type of seed used by the player who planted it, and you won’t know which type they used, so the consequences will be a surprise for you.