Betrayer: A new FPS from former Monolith employees (including Craig Hubbard)

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/betr...lives-forever/

"Six of the key people behind F.E.A.R. and No One Lives Forever have spent the last 11 months developing a first-person shooter in secret. Betrayer, revealed first to PC Gamer, is an eerie single-player game set in haunted, early colonial-era Virginia. I’ve played the first hour and a half, something you’ll be able to do when Betrayer releases through Steam Early Access on August 14.

Betrayer doesn’t fit neatly into an existing genre. On the surface, it’s an FPS set in open, pristine American wilderness that happens to be crawling with undead conquistadors. But the game’s monochromatic art direction, gloomy tone, and sense of mystery distinguish it from other indie and horror projects."

http://www.blackpowdergames.com/betrayer/

[Damien_Azreal]

Craig left Monolith towards the end of 2012 along with some other people.
I've been waiting for them to announce what they've been working on.

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

Craig left Monolith towards the end of 2012 along with some other people.
I've been waiting for them to announce what they've been working on.

Must've been hard keeping that under wraps. Truly an end of an era. Good luck to them! Going by this interview, something major happened last that cemented their decision to depart. I know Monolith was recently hiring for a 3rd person action game. Are they stuck assisting with development on other WB properties or is it something brand new?

Betrayer looks great, and that sound mechanic sounds very intriguing. Will definitely be picking this up next week.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/1...wder_Games.php

[Damien_Azreal]

A little over a year ago, shortly after the release of Gotham City Imposters, Monolith was "unofficially" rolled up with a couple other studios and retitled as "WB Games Seattle". They were still able to function as Monolith Productions.
But, the official name legally was WB Games Seattle.

I know it was also around this time that Warner Bros laid off a handful of people at Monolith and a few other of their studios. Some of the "old timers" at Lith were very unhappy with the re-branding and layoffs.

I was also lead to believe a lot at Lith were very unhappy with the direction FEAR 3 took. As they initially tried to help Day1 craft the story, but were shut out after a while.
Then, a "special project' Craig had been working on secretly for a while had been shut down by WB.
That followed by SEGA cancelling Condemned 3 (never sure completely why, all I ever got was 'SEGA was unhappy with Condemned 2 sales'... which makes no damn sense)... the studio had been falling down for a while.

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

Such a bummer. Monolith's one of the greatest studios ever. An unparalleled track record when it comes to first-person games. I never would've guessed that F.E.A.R. 2 would be the last major release from them.

At least a bunch of the major talent is sticking together. It sounds like there's a lot of creativity going on at BlackPowder Games. Really hope it works out for them.

[Damien_Azreal]

Yeah.
I'm grabbing Betrayer day one. Craig Hubbard is definitely one of lesser known greats in the industry.
You look at how little his name is recognized, yet look at how many amazing titles he's lead and worked on.

[crunchy superman]

Might be interesting. Need to see more of that monochrome in action to decide if I like it or not.

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

Nice to see Monolith give BlackPowder Games a shout out. Classy move!

"You should. Abandon your doubts, and prepare yourself for their greatness. They mess around exactly 0% of the time when it comes to making awesome stuff. They can be followed at @BpGShooters, too!" https://twitter.com/MonolithDev

Very encouraging to see.

[KO Gilligan]

I predict it will give me a headache.

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

Another interview with Craig Hubbard. This time detailing how the team's experience with NOLF, F.E.A.R. and Shogo informed Betrayer's development.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/08/09/ho...ping-betrayer/

[Damien_Azreal]

Finished this build. It's still an Alpha build, so.. it's missing music and there's no dialog. But, the game is great.
I can't wait for them to roll out the next updated build.

[Morbid]

"Six of the key people behind F.E.A.R. and No One Lives Forever have spent the last 11 months developing a first-person shooter in secret."

And they did this..... OOOOOOK....
Those drugs they 're using... I need some of that stuff.

[Kalki]

I don't know. Sounds like the kind of drug that makes you slowly eat bits of your own face.

[Morbid]

Originally Posted by Kalki

I don't know. Sounds like the kind of drug that makes you slowly eat bits of your own face.

You got a point there, I'll skip that. Too hardcore. Maybe it's the exposure to Alma, she must have burned their minds and eaten their souls. Who knows? Another curse? They've totally lost it with this one for sure.

[Damien_Azreal]

How have they lost it?

The alpha build is great and shows some huge potential. And, for those that can't get past the black and white visual style, they've added some sliders to the game.
Some that allow you to adjust the brightness and tone of the black and white. And another that allows you to adjust the color.

So, you can play the game now in complete color. Only, playing in color is boring as shit. The game completely loses it's atmosphere and feel. It's cool that they added it in, but the game can be very engaging in black and white.

[Kalki]

Originally Posted by Morbid

You got a point there, I'll skip that. Too hardcore. Maybe it's the exposure to Alma, she must have burned their minds and eaten their souls. Who knows? Another curse? They've totally lost it with this one for sure.

Hardcore yes but I'm sure some fans of horror appreciate it. So I wouldn't say they've lost it.

[Morbid]

Originally Posted by Kalki

Hardcore yes but I'm sure some fans of horror appreciate it. So I wouldn't say they've lost it.

I meant the drug being too hardcore.

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

New Craig Hubbard interview:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013...ders-betrayer/

I loved my time with Betrayer. It's a daring, imaginative game. I can't wait to check out the new content when they release it.

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

https://www.idlethumbs.net/tonecontr.../craig-hubbard

Awesome interview with Craig Hubbard. Lots of talk about Blood, FEAR, NOLF and Betrayer.

[Damien_Azreal]

We apologize for the lack of news lately, but it’s only because of how busy we’ve been!

After the last update, we decided to shift our focus to getting the rest of the game done instead of continuing with staged releases. One reason was that preparing each update took a lot of time away from moving the game forward and making it better. Another was that we didn’t want to keep resetting everyone’s progress over and over. We also feel Betrayer will be best enjoyed by playing at your own pace instead of being at the mercy of our release schedule.

We've made lots of improvements and additions, many of them based on the great feedback and suggestions you've provided, so we wanted to share a few recent highlights:

Blake
UI artwork for clues and inventory.
In-game clue and inventory models.
Couple of new enemy weapons.
New character fx.
Various performance improvements and visual polish on existing effects.

Brad
More enemy types!
Added more detail options to control performance and look of the game in the menus and under the hood.
AI behaviors improvements, such as dodging shots, leading player when shooting, and handling animations better
Added Headshots and more violent hit reactions
3 monitor support added with proper FOV.
Engineered low difficulty setting to make it easier so you can play the game more like an adventure if you choose.
Waterskin healing inventory item.
Player will respawn with a small amount of ammo so they don’t start from nothing with no money.

Craig
Finished the script! Well, mostly. There are some loose ends to tie up, but the majority is done.
Completed an initial gameplay pass for the entire game.
Lots of balancing and pacing refinements.
Came up with a couple of new concepts that help tie the whole experience together. Don’t want to spoil anything, though!
Pestered various people with countless requests for features or fixes to improve the game, many based on community suggestions or complaints.

David
Updated all the UI maps to incorporate changes in existing levels and making the new ones.
Made new loading screens that use the maps giving an overview of the coming world.
Built new enemy models (We won’t spoil it by telling you what they are yet!)
Took the game on the road for the Good Games Club indie event in SF and meeting with the press.
Went back and polished up existing characters.
Social media updates (more in the coming weeks).

Larry
Unified and improved the look of the Interface across the game.
Got the HUD and screens working properly in 3 monitor surround mode.
Updated the HUD to report more information about weapons, water skins (health); more information presented to the player.
Visualization of listen mechanic for those having difficulty hearing it or with a subpar listening setup.
Easier way to go from Store to Inventory and back, as well as usability improvements to both.
“New” icon in Clues, Notes and Colonists screens to notify what has been added to your "journals".
Boring business stuff and trailer work.

Ron
Lots of tweaking to existing enemy animations.
New character animations (again, can’t tell you what they are just yet).
Added animation to the "colonists".
Rigging of David’s new enemies.
Tweaks to first person weapon animations.

Wes
Worked on wrapping up all the remaining environments.
More iteration and polish on lighting and atmosphere.
Investigated more anti-aliasing options with Brad and settled on some custom AA options that players can choose from.
Shader material upgrades across the game with the inclusion of a 3rd quality setting for materials!
Performance benchmarking and optimizations on content and shaders.

We removed spoilers from this list.

New Features
Added more detail options to control performance and look of the game.
Ability to Save&Continue, in addition to Save&Quit. F5 also does a save.
Multiple monitor support added.
A low difficulty user setting to reduce the enemy damage.
Headshot damage multiplier.
Enemies will sometimes drop broken weapons, which aren’t usable by the player.
Player will respawn with a small amount of ammo so they don’t start from nothing with no money.
4 new enemy types: secret, you’ll have to find them.
Waterskin healing inventory item.

Improvements
Aiming to interact with items in the world much easier
Arrows will slide less on the ground.
Wind will make AI have harder time hearing the player.
Updated BurningMen to turn on flames when they are aggravated.
Play unique sounds when reading notes or examining objects.
AI now align their feet to the ground.
Announcement when player retrieves their dropped loot.
Dead AI bodies will not disappear in plain sight.
More performance options are used to better tune the detail levels.
Ability to scale fire rates. Useful for balancing the different bow weapons.
Show a HUD element when player can’t pick up a dropped item they are at capacity with.
Enemies will play an audio hints when they are beginning to detect the player or spot the player.
Play special sound when player inflicts bonus damage for hitting unalert enemies.
Initial setup to support lowering ambient sounds when listening.
Play different sounds when collecting loot from different categories, such as money and weapons.
Option to show locations of areas to listen to on compass.
Added 3rd material quality to help spread out the performance options for different detail levels.
Show the ammo count of inventory in the store.
Fixed internal system to help identify unlocalizable text.
Killing enemies while undetected is less likely to alert nearby enemies.
Initial setup for supporting more languages.
Play some animations on enemies using the full body, such as melee.
Enemies can now lead the player when firing.
Added some utilities for game design to store information between worlds.
Show a “new” flag in the menus when something has been added to your “journals”
Enemies can now run serpentine towards player to avoid getting hit.
Enemies can vary their movement speed to make them less predictable.
Enemies can be setup to have better peripheral vision.
Show art when examining an object.
Enemies use better equipping animations.
Laptops with nVidia high performance discrete graphics cards will be automatically detected and use that card instead of the integrated one.

Bug Fixes
Fixed AI doing frequent friendly fire when trying to hit the player.
Fixed AI reinforcements not sprinting the full distance into action.
AI now play their pivot animations when turning in place. Some animations are still missing.
Fast traveling to Last Location would show the wrong area name if a map load was required.
Fixed AI sliding around when doing melee or reload.
Falling through the world on death.
Fixed problem with losing inventory if player quits while dead.
Enemies sometimes not able to see player when player was standing near walls.
Fixed bug where player couldn’t access map until they killed all the AI in the level.
Fixed destructible crates sometimes becoming invisible.
Fixed enemies not reliably notifying nearby enemies of danger.
Fixed melee always doing loud damage.
Fixed melee not properly doing extra damage when enemy was unalert.
Fixed issue with death effect not playing reliably.
Fixed issue with player not being able to walk off ledges while crouched or walking.
Fixed issues with detail level getting forced to “Medium”.
Fixed enemies getting stuck in place if shot from behind.

SO glad I got this when I did.

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

Me too! That's a huge list of improvements.

Here's a new Betrayer trailer:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8u3zgPwUcA

[Jiminator]

eh, I ordered it. I'm not going to play it early access though, doesn't make much sense to me since for most of my games I either don't play them or play them once.

[Damien_Azreal]

I've played it twice.
And, I'm going to give it another run once the next update comes out.

[Stevey Boy]

Yeah, played through this a few times, probably wait til it's finished before I play it again

I've been following this game's development ever since it was announced. And I've been dying to get my hands on it.

But I'm waiting for the full version to be released, so that I can experience the game in its full glory!

I've always wanted to play a game like this. A black-and-white horror FPS with dark forests, creepy enemies and all kinds of weird shit going down.

And knowing that it comes from Craig Hubbard and the leads behind F.E.A.R. just makes it THAT much more awesome!

[Damien_Azreal]

The newest update from Craig...

Originally Posted by Craig Hubbard

Just wanted to let everyone know that other than some loose ends, the game is nearly finished. We should be able to announce a release date very soon.

We're really grateful for everyone's patience and feedback and enthusiasm!

Personally, I can't wait.
All the time I've spent with the various Alpha builds have been a ton of fun. And I can't wait to get my hands on the final build and experience the full game.

[KO Gilligan]

How in the hell is this supposed to be some great game for so many people, and ROTT was looked on as if it were hammered crap?

The very first time I watched a gameplay video, I was like, "yea, cool, the foliage blows around nicely..."
Then I seen how the arrows fly, and how the pathetic looking baddies take damage, and how melee works, and the "honor system" weapon store in a box, and the dismal maps. Where is ... everything? This is worse (albeit is probably much longer) than some of the odd stuff they create at my community college...


I'll grab it and play it in color when it hits $3...

[Damien_Azreal]

So... an unfinished very early Alpha build with place-holder art, unfinished animations/combat and enemies isn't good enough?

Sad.
The game has gone through a TON of improvements over the past few months. They've reworked the combat, how enemies react, how the arrows fly/fall and react to the the Spaniards armor.
They've held off on doing anymore updates to the game, wanting to get it finished before rolling out the next update.

And, after playing RotT and this... this feels better. Already had a more finished feel to it, even in it's ungodly early Alpha state and all it's placeholder art.
Also... you can play it in color... but it completely ruins the atmosphere of the game.





But, you don't like... you don't like it. That's fine.

[KO Gilligan]

Fair enough....

Afterall, I haven't even played it, and the color looks good
...and when ROTT came out, it wasn't $15
I suppose your investment is part of what will help them get it together.
Still holding back on supporting the developer with my $15 though.

[Damien_Azreal]

Their history is enough for me to support them.
The creative lead behind Shogo: MAD, No One Lives Forever and FEAR. The group of guys behind this are the guys behind all of Monolith's best games.

So, I will gladly support them with their independent game. Self funded, self published... these guys deserve a chance.
Giving they refused to buckle under Warner Bros bullsh*t killing of Lith.

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

I like Betrayer because it's creative and bold. It's a unique experience, with a great setting and truly oppressive atmosphere. The story gets under your skin.

ROTT was a rote shooter with nothing to say. It's one of the worst shooters I've ever played. Unlike Betrayer, ROTT was hyped for a year before crawling onto Steam in a broken state. BPG were up front about the state the game was in, listened to feedback and concerns the community had and made something interesting.

I can't wait to play the final version of Betrayer!

[Damien_Azreal]

Betrayer Completed! Launches March 24th!
We are very happy to report that the game is finished and will be released on March 24th for a retail price of $19.99. The $14.99 Early Access price will still be available until then.

This was posted in the Betrayer forums. Those of us who already own will receive an update on the 24th, updating out build to the final one.

[Damien_Azreal]

Been playing the final release the past few days and I love it.
Firstly, the differences between the Alpha test build and the final release are huge. As they should be.
But, going into the first camp I was very happy to see they had changed it around. Placement of items, added new items... removed stuff. Even the first investigation you get is completely different from how it was in the alpha.

Gameplay wise it's still very much like it was before. Combat is not what you should be trying for. Avoiding enemies is the best path, but if you must take them on... stealth is your best bet.
Using the gusts of wind to muffle the sounds of your steps. Lining up headshots to drop enemies silently and quickly. The bow is still my go to weapon.
The musket and pistol are powerful, but load and slow to reload. Making them not very effective as they tend to draw other enemies to you. Leaving you open while you try to reload.
They've added in "waterskins" or health packs you can carry with you. Which is good since you are very fragile. It doesn't take much for you to go down, but having a couple health packs on you makes it easier to get through some tougher encounters and get back to the camp to replenish your health.

But, probably my favorite part is the feel of the game.
There is such a stark and bleak feeling of isolation to it. You are "dropped" in these vast open areas... yet they feel so unsettling. It can be beautiful to watch the wind blow through the grass and trees, but you don't want to stand in the open.
Add in some brilliant sound design. There's no ambient music... which I was worried they might do. But I'm pleased to see they didn't.
Leaving the world eerily quiet. The occasional gust of wind, chirping of birds or crickets help to give the world some depth, but the silence adds to the uneasy feeling of the place.
And again I say, yes they added a color slider to the options to try and please those complaining about it. But, the main thing I've seen in feedback... is even those who asked for color... play the game in black and white.
The game looks good in color, but it completely kills the atmosphere. The dread of the world goes away in color. There's a reason the developers made in black and white, and it should stay that way.

As for the story, so far it's not clear to say much about it. But that's something else I love.
I've seen people claim such game doesn't hold your hand... and that game doesn't lead you around. But, in the end... they do.
But, Betrayer really doesn't. You are dropped into this world and left on your own to figure out what you can, how you can. You're not given objectives, HUD markers to go towards...
It's up to you to discover clues, items, ghosts, graves and notes to build the story of what happened. To find the clues that fill in the blanks and help finish the various investigations.
You will get out of the story only what you find.

[Stevey Boy]

Finished it today, awesome game.