Hello Devil's Punishment enthusiasts! I thought it would be a good time to clarify some things about our game and what makes it stand out from the rest of the horror games, since our current description of the game can be a bit vague. This is going to be a long post so be prepared for some extenuating and revealing reading.

The indie horror game scene and where our game stands

Most indie horror games nowadays have a very similar approach to horror. Many use cheap jumpscares and have a walking simulator gameplay where you are left without being able to protect yourself from anything that tries to harm you, be it a ghost or a more physical being. The walking simulator thing pretty much started with games such as Penumbra and Amnesia that used these types of mechanics and many other games started to copy the same type of gameplay. And especially when the P.T. game was announced a lot of developers started to make copies of that same game. Don't get me wrong, I believe it is a good approach to horror but it is definitely something that has been overused and I'm a strong believer that horror is more than just a picture in your face with a loud noise. Not only that but many games have failed on creating something as basic as creating a good setting for their games, all we have nowadays in the horror genre seem to be haunted houses where the player needs to hide from something in order to survive while you pick up and rotate objects.

I created Devil's Punishment as a way to show to the people that creativity still exists within the indie horror developers and wanted to create something new, fresh and exciting that would stand out from the rest of the horror games.

The unpredictability of things

First of, in our game there won't be any jumpscares, instead we are basing most of our gameplay in the unpredictability of things and our AI. Our random map generation will make sure that every time you play the game you get an entirely new map. You can't predict anything, from how our creatures behave to the aspect of the game itself or where the items are located in the map. And every creature that we have in the game has a purpose and behaves in a different way, I'll get to our creatures later in this post.

As an example of the unpredictability of things, in the starting of the match/game you'll find yourself in a storage room in which the main and only door is barricated. Behind that door lie night terrors that will start breaking the door and try to get to you, notice that these can also move through the air duct and guess what... The storage room also has an air duct in the ceiling! There is a slight chance that they can also enter through there. As a way to escape that room we have added 2 air duct entrances that are in the floor, it will be up to the player to select which one is the best route to escape, but what lies at the end of these 2 air ducts is a mystery.

Our game as a hybrid

We have tried a slightly different approach to the usual hide and seek gameplay that most horror games have. In our game I like to describe it more as a "hybrid". You'll first start the game as a cuffed prisoner without being able to use any weapons, hiding from your enemies would be your main tool for dealing with the creatures in this part, but as you progress through the map and the objectives, you'll eventually get uncuffed. Once uncuffed you are allowed to use weapons (but be careful! Ammunition is scarce and you have a limited inventory too!) in here the game transforms more into a horror survival, in the old school resident evil term of it. But of course, you are allowed to play the game as you want, either shooting or hiding are effective ways to deal with the enemies.

The setting and why this is not a story linear game!

The setting of our game is sci-fi, and not only that, it is also based in a sci-fi horror novel that I'm writing. I'm very sure that this adds an immense depth to the backstory of our game. But, we are a small team of developers, this is why this whole game is only based in a scene of the book and not the entire thing. We also aren't exploring much of the lore in this game, so do not expect a story line/linear game like The Last of Us or God of War. This is a game based in matches, like for example Counter Strike or SCP: Secret Laboratory, in the sense that when all players die the game then restarts. We'd like to explore more of the lore in the future if the game is well received by the public and our fans.

The difficulty

Our game won't be easy at all. I like difficulty in games and I believe it adds to the horror in a game. So do not expect an easy option for this project! I want this game to be a challenge for the players, one in which they can overcome by having a strategy and thought behind their actions.

The AI

I mentioned before the AI, and I will explain that in more detail. We have 4 creatures in the game: The parasite, night terror, spider and the progenitor. Each one of these behave differently and some may easy to kill and some very difficult, what they share in common is that every one of these are extremely deadly and dangerous. The parasite is dangerous at close distances, the spider is some sort of "stalker" that will only attack you if you are not careful enough, the progenitor can drag you from long distances and the night terror acts as a chaser and is the most intelligent of the creatures. You can deal with these creatures in 2 ways as I explained before, you can either avoid them or confront them. There's also the infection probability in the attacks of these creatures, so you'll have to be careful not to get too damaged by them and you might start to mistrust your friends if you are playing online, because any of them could get infected and turn into a night terror.

Sadly we can't show to you the rest of the creatures other than the parasite, but trust me when I say all of them have been modeled and textured, but as in horror movies, you don't want to spoil the baddies to the public before they get to see the movie!

The multiplayer

You will be able to play with up to 10 players in this game. Surely you'll think that things will ease up with more people helping you complete the objectives. Wrong. As the game may get easier with more people, the difficulty actually increases with more people. Our elimination mechanic will make it so every time a player dies the creatures will get stronger and will have more health. Finally when you turn on the generator, the number of creatures that will appear will be affected by how many players died until that point. So take care of your fellow prisoners and make sure they stay alive!

Conclusion

We are trying to bring something new to the table in the indie horror scene and we hope we can finish this game and achieve that. We do not follow trends, and try to avoid as many cliches as we can and will continue doing so for the rest of the development of this game.