I Hate Running Backwards news & patch notes

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/f4dfa0a0676c4e7ace20ae0f8949c0b09072d578.png Hey everyone. We have been busy for the last few weeks as we were working on IHRB's third major update. There were many sleepless nights and nervous breakdowns involved in the process, but in the end, we managed to finish in time for the summer sale. We love our game and want to make it better with each update, but we saw the same comments on each video or post we put up on the web: "The characters look like Minecraft". It was a simple argument that we couldn't dispute. We knew that it's not common for released games to change up the art style, and we knew that it would be a huge job but if the people wanted the change who are we to think that we know better? A few arguments and meetings later we decided that we're going to do it! Our 3d modeler, Matko had a tremendous job to do. He had to remake most of the characters in the game and even add additional animations to make them more lifelike. We think he did a good job. Tell us what you think! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/a5adb9610c5ae26bf2d7e8642a29c4e29e2f35ae.png We also heard complaints that the game lacks weapon variety. At first, we weren't sure what the problem was. As we have a huge arsenal of special weapons in the game and each character starts with 2 primary weapons which are unique to the character. We found that the main issue was the lack of player decision around builds. With special weapons, there wasn't enough impact on the moment to moment gameplay. Players would save them up for bosses or for tight situations and didn't use them in a pickup, shoot and throw away way as we intended. Our answer was the weapon locker system. We introduced weapon locker that is placed in the lobby (start of the game) and at the beginning of each environment. Players can adjust their loadout in accordance with the perks they have. As the largest amount of experience is awarded after the bosses it made sense to put the weapon lockers directly after the bosses, that way the players can adjust their weapons to the perks they picked up. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/b9a237d904d1fd4d2baf9de7fa5cc56a4d012b5e.png To give the players even more options we introduced a new set of weapon focused perks. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/791ea8c32a15845d850659cc212aa2b0253c4889.pnghttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/09a5e0e62878d440f8b70971dc6b5ff7ecc2dd55.pnghttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/e6d9ef2937c1eb4e691e49f7473651ad245375bc.png The Stormchaser perk gives the player the option to fire his/her weapon while using the melee attack. This perk serves as a bridge between a melee focused build and a range focused build and gives the player more Mojo(exp) farming freedom. The skewer is a perk that gives assault rifle weapons the ability to pierce through enemies. At first glance it looks like a damage boosting perk, well it is, but its primary focus is to slow down all the enemies that get hit by the piercing bullets to give you more time for fighting. The Bomberman perk increases the radius of all weapon based explosion for the player, it's primary focus is to empower the newly added double and triple rocket launcher and velcro primary weapons, but it also empowers a lot of the special weapons. We want to know what you think! Tell us what perks and weapons you want to see in future updates? Tell us what you think here or join us on Discord. We would love to hear what you think!

Have you not heard? It was our understanding that everyone had heard. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/8d23ec718442fb33e68d8a03ff8528c6b462e49a.png We are happy to announce that the Linux version of I Hate Running Backwards is now available to download on Steam! So fire up those machines and get to runnin' and gunnin'! Those bad boys ain't gonna kill themselves, you know? Well, except for the Kamikazes. But that's just what they do.

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/00b112be5f787ba514ec536786e892156dc07e41.png Hello, Runners, we have been silent for too long, but rest assured we were hard at work to bring you another set of small tweaks, changes, ahh hahaha just kidding! We're bringing you the super, ultra cool MEGA UPDATE! That's right. This time we mean business! https://youtu.be/mpxBtVIndQ0 Members of our community wanted more variety from the start of the game and more evolving gameplay. On that end, we are introducing a new Primary weapon locker system. Weapon lockers spawn at the start of new environments and enable you to switch up your primary weapons to something that better suits you. To keep it fresh we randomized what weapons you can get in each locker to make each run a bit different! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/e98d7fb4934d7a08aacf5216d6d725c6362eef8a.png We also wanted to give you some more choices in build varieties so we are introducing 4 new perks that put more emphasis on shooting. We love the melee mechanic in our game but we felt that there weren't enough perk options for guns. One of the biggest features of this updates is the update of our characters visuals and animations. We felt that the looks of our characters didn't do justice to the legends they are. They were our heroes as we were growing up, so we wanted to show them some much-deserved love, with our own personal touch. https://media.giphy.com/media/1nc2C0VGlobysI8JRb/giphy.gif We have a lot of other features ready for you which you can check out below:

New Features

- More than 30 new primary weapons! - Added weapon locker, players can now change their primary weapons - All primary weapons got more powerful versions (mk2 and mk3) - New Perk: Stormchaser - enables shooting while spinning - New Perk: Bomberman - increases the radius of explosions - New Perk: Skewer - primary weapon bullet pierce - Added new character models for Serious Sam, Dancing Denzell, Fast Finger Freddie, Lo Wang, Chux, Rambro, Richard, Zombie Zed - At the start of each environment, the game will slow down and give you the chance to switch your primary weapons with the weapons in the weapon lockers - Added the option to browse daily by date

Tweaks and adjustments

- Deeper Pockets perk now grants 50% more ammo (up from 20%) - Mouthful Of Lead now grants 50% more ammo (up from 20%) - Improved the tutorials so that they don't stop the game and give them a more organic feel - Lady Death's ultimate ability now destroys mojo barrels and enemy projectiles - Bloater health was reduced and their explosions now to damage to other enemies - Blasphemy (The Bullets weapon) damage increased - New ultimate ready sound added - Fixed an issue where the mojo bucket would stop a vehicle - Mine explosion sfx updated - Velcro weapon projectile explosion speed increased - Updated the user experience of the traps in the environment, now it's a lot easier to spot traps in the environments - Players now start with full ammo on all weapons - Added a new mojo bar - New ultimate bars - Added a new effect for the boss health bars to make it more clear when the bosses take damage - Updated the visuals for the loading screens That's all for this update we hope you enjoy it! Come and join us on our discord: https://discord.gg/ihrb and tell us what you think! Until next time! Keep on running backwards!

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/3e1255fed90ac8cb6b094778436f43312eaf3cca.png

For those of you who don't have the chance to gather with friends in local co-op - our friends from Parsec gaming have solution for you!

By using "Parsec" gaming software, you can have two people from anywhere in the world connect to one PC and turn any local co-op game into an online multiplayer. :IHRBRocket: As long as you don't live too far apart from your friend, and have a decent internet connection, you will experience almost no input delay. Setting it up is really easy - so we made a short tutorial video on how to do so! https://youtu.be/rf6Mio2py48 Join us on Discord to find new friends to play with! :)

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/3c95d6aa8765d1f99cf18ff142b8bba40c20e939.png Hello runners! We're bringing you a new update with some new fixes, tweaks, and upgrades to make your runs faster and the gameplay experience that much more fun! Let's get cooking! What's on the menu today: -Character rebalance and updates - we changed the stats on some characters and fine-tuned some of their abilities -Added Mojo buckets to vehicle events to make them more interesting and give you the chance to get even more Mojo -Hardcore mode is unlocked for all the characters once you finish a loop with any character -New mojo collection effect -Fixed achievements - the issues with the achievements have been fixed, especially "Winter is coming" -Improved game save - it won't reset now when the game is started from another PC -Jackslayer achievement now unlocks the character Bullet -Backhand achievement now unlocks the Gravity Gun weapon -Trasher achievement now unlocks the Orbital Strike weapon -Dumpster Dave location moved to Molty Python level -Added tooltips to locked curses -Added tooltips to projectiles -Added tutorials for new players -New loading screens with hints -UghZan and UghZanTank have been made easier for normal mode -New night and day lights on environments -Added more training balls to the lobby -Lava Golem curse now locks-in before shooting -Added character stats Have fun with the update. And don't forget to join us on Discord!

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/94965c069da7eb7485e44d68acd8ac9aa390374b.png We're proud to announce our first update! We looked at all the reviews we got for the game and wanted to address some of the issues that were frequently brought up. In addition to the updates listed here, we plan to add a lot of quality of life and ease of use features to the game in the near future! Update 1.0.1. Patch notes: -Baby mode gives you the opportunity to explore the game world and experience it at your own pace, giving you the opportunity to learn the basics of the game easier. -Increase of Ammo pickup spawn chances to give you all the firepower you can ever need! -Increased the size of colliders on the spider enemies to make them easier to hit. -Ultimate abilities now have a cool new tune when they charge up. -Humvee won't get stuck on buildings anymore. -Shortcuts now remain open after you leave the game to making easier to reach new environments when you fire up the game next time. -Shortcuts now glow making them easier to spot. -All curse altars are visible from the start but we put locks on the levers until you unlock them. -Added text when activating curses to make it clear when they have been activated. -A huge set of bug fixes tweaks and optimizations.

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/cd17d8c01881d4ebcdb6d6b4707c49227aad9d81.png Dear gamers, family, friends, enemies, fans and their pets, we are happy and proud to announce that I Hate Running Backwards is now available on Steam (and some consoles)! :tgrin: First of all, we have to extend our gratitude and appreciation to all our fans who were with us, enduring all our bugs and helping with honest feedback to make this game as good as possible! We can't mention all of you, but you know who you are. :tlove: https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/b62cd6e89eec49a0629a0a3ba6c17487c636a70d.gif For all info on the game, please visit our Official IHRB Wiki and for all praises, rants, hate, free hugs, random giveaways and general discussions, come to our IHRB Discord server, we promise you won't regret it or at least live long enough to tell anyone about it! :csdsick: We already prepared a bunch of useful guides on Steam so you can access them via Steam overlay while dying playing. :thumbs: Last thing we did is Kill the Streamer game mode! So if you're streaming on Twitch, you have the opportunity to play AGAINST your audience (Streamers :vs: Watchers). They will get points for damaging and killing the streamer and frustrate him enough to consider leaving his streaming career in hilarious rage and go work as a waiter on Hawaii cause the pressure is just too high! ːsteammockingː You can also connect with us and follow us on social networks to stay up to date with news and updates. Discord Official Wiki Facebook BinxInteractive Youtube Twitter Instagram Reddit Not to make this too long, we think it's about damn time you start running backwards! Good luck and see you on Discord! ːsteamhappyː https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30695457/a672438c3951c9dd080d1fd2183b468bcac85a79.gif

https://i.imgur.com/X4rJyMI.png Hey guys! We're back with some new info on the game. We're happy to show you how we set up our world and give you a sneak peak on the stuff we had to do to make it all click! As you all know IHRB is a procedural endless runner where you can destroy everything you see on the screen. We have a lot of environments in the game, and all of them are shuffled and presented to the player at different times. To optimize the game we constantly despawn grounds that exit the cameras field of view and spawn new ones ahead of the camera view to save up on memory. https://media.giphy.com/media/KYEUr49pEWN1mCvzwp/giphy.gif Our world building process had to follow some rules. All the tiles had to fit one another when they spawn, so we implemented a simple system where we have entrance grounds, middle grounds that get shuffled and exit grounds. Also all ground tiles must be of the same size in the same section. This system allowed us to have a lot of variety. https://i.imgur.com/DAcZFz5.png The base world is made up of 5 different environments. Each of the 5 environments has a set of at least 4 ground groups. Each ground group has a group of entrance tiles, a group of at least 6 middle tiles and a group of exit tiles. What that adds up to is a whole lot of different environments. And when you count in the possibility of activating or deactivating random objects in tiles you get a different experience every time you play. https://media.giphy.com/media/3qskL6W5O5MZWzJeXW/giphy.gif If you have any questions regarding any details behind the world or the game in general we're always active on the forums and we'll be glad to talk to you!

https://media.giphy.com/media/2w4NSiBfQj8dzp13GG/giphy.gif Shiny We wanted to give you guys a bit of insight into what goes on behind the visual effects in I Hate Running Backwards. There are a lot of effects in the game and as a first rule we try to make them functional and visually appealing. The problem Functionality and visual appeal are subjective terms and it often boils down to us having to iterate on different effects to mold them into what they need to be in the end. The first part we work on is functionality. In this step we try to give the effects context in the world. If we're talking about weapons we try to make the effects give visual feedback on the speed of the bullets or the radius of explosions. After that we work on visual appeal. We try to make something unique for every new weapon or character we introduce to the game. Here is an example of the two parts working together to make a portal effect. First we made the colors of the middle part of the portal more saturated than the outer parts to attract the eye towards the middle part of the portal. Than we added the sparks that indicate to the player the part of the portal he can interact with. To spring the portal to life we added the less saturated parts the lights on the ground infront of the portal and the small pulsating crystals. When it all comes together we get something like this: https://media.giphy.com/media/5YfcY11tbKACdqGXPX/giphy.gif Iteration Ahh yes the bane of game development. Well it is a huge part of effects design. For the next example we have a flame explosion that stays on the ground after the initial impact. In its first iteration the effect didn't have a good representation of the damage radius and we had to redesign the effect to make it easier for the player to see where the danger is. We added a flaming circular indicator and the overall strength of the effect got a visual upgrade. We increased the duration of the flame to show where the danger is and it also indicates the duration of the effect. In the end we added some ground cracks with less saturation just for contrast the intensity of the core. Old Effect: https://media.giphy.com/media/58FpunRsznVfbkCgeP/giphy.gif New Effect: https://media.giphy.com/media/2rACpmTu2VznAPTqyA/giphy.gif The difference is sublte but it gives the player more information than the first iteration. Effect Layering We usually layer different textures to make more complex effects. For example to make the above flame effect we had to layer different shapes like: the small flame licks, sparks, ground cracks and the radius indicator circles that have lava like scrolling noise moving over them. And as a last treat we'll show you a breakdown of our lvl up effect. https://media.giphy.com/media/9XXXdqnBfGqjjzDnY0/giphy.gif https://media.giphy.com/media/9zZm533qbkCmzuCi8W/giphy.gif https://media.giphy.com/media/1AeRkIIRxWWNAncDYG/giphy.gif https://media.giphy.com/media/2kKjWVFd1IUH54rwmJ/giphy.gif https://media.giphy.com/media/1xmXev7zukYdApMdtM/giphy.gif https://media.giphy.com/media/5UH3EgSiJ0xGwQzYVw/giphy.gif And when it all comes together we get something that looks like this: https://media.giphy.com/media/1ZnBdWLRdSOzzUq1Ns/giphy.gif Thanks guys and stay tuned we'll share more cool stuff soon :)

Shiny We wanted to give you guys a bit of insight into what goes on behind the visual effects in I Hate Running Backwards. There are a lot of effects in the game and as a first rule we try to make them functional and visually appealing. The problem Functionality and visual appeal are subjective terms and it often boils down to us having to iterate on different effects to mold them into what they need to be in the end. The first part we work on is functionality. In this step we try to give the effects context in the world. If we're talking about weapons we try to make the effects give visual feedback on the speed of the bullets or the radius of explosions. After that we work on visual appeal. We try to make something unique for every new weapon or character we introduce to the game. Here is an example of the two parts working together to make a portal effect. First we made the colors of the middle part of the portal more saturated than the outer parts to attract the eye towards the middle part of the portal. Than we added the sparks that indicate to the player the part of the portal he can interact with. To spring the portal to life we added the less saturated parts the lights on the ground infront of the portal and the small pulsating crystals. When it all comes together we get something like this: https://media.giphy.com/media/5YfcY11tbKACdqGXPX/giphy.gif Iteration Ahh yes the bane of game development. Well it is a huge part of effects design. For the next example we have a flame explosion that stays on the ground after the initial impact. In its first iteration the effect didn't have a good representation of the damage radius and we had to redesign the effect to make it easier for the player to see where the danger is. We added a flaming circular indicator and the overall strength of the effect got a visual upgrade. We increased the duration of the flame to show where the danger is and it also indicates the duration of the effect. In the end we added some ground cracks with less saturation just for contrast the intensity of the core. Old Effect: https://media.giphy.com/media/58FpunRsznVfbkCgeP/giphy.gif New Effect: https://media.giphy.com/media/2rACpmTu2VznAPTqyA/giphy.gif The difference is sublte but it gives the player more information than the first iteration. Effect Layering We usually layer different textures to make more complex effects. For example to make the above flame effect we had to layer different shapes like: the small flame licks, sparks, ground cracks and the radius indicator circles that have lava like scrolling noise moving over them. And as a last treat we'll show you a breakdown of our lvl up effect. https://media.giphy.com/media/9XXXdqnBfGqjjzDnY0/giphy.gif https://media.giphy.com/media/9zZm533qbkCmzuCi8W/giphy.gif https://media.giphy.com/media/1AeRkIIRxWWNAncDYG/giphy.gif https://media.giphy.com/media/2kKjWVFd1IUH54rwmJ/giphy.gif https://media.giphy.com/media/1xmXev7zukYdApMdtM/giphy.gif https://media.giphy.com/media/5UH3EgSiJ0xGwQzYVw/giphy.gif And when it all comes together we get something that looks like this: https://media.giphy.com/media/1ZnBdWLRdSOzzUq1Ns/giphy.gif Thanks guys and stay tuned we'll share more cool stuff soon :)

SO…WHADDUP?

Dayummm have we got news for you! Last time you heard from us our heads were up in the clouds from the amazing feedback that we got from both the press and players at Gamescom 2017. The award was a nice touch too 😉 We were also participating at Reboot InfoGamer 2017 that took place in Zagreb in November, where we showcased the game once more. Last year we took home the “Best Gameplay” Award at the same show, so this time around we were not eligible to compete again. But just because we haven’t posted a blog article since then doesn’t mean we’ve been sitting on our butts and doing nothing. Au contraire! Well we kinda were sitting on our butts since that is pretty much the life of every game developer – but we managed to put in a s***-ton of changes and features into the game! There is so much to go through that we literally don’t know where to start!

YOU DID WHAT?!

Ok, so we’ll just put in the most noticeable changes and upgrades: Leaderboards – We integrated Steam Leaderboards so that our beta testers can compete for glory and fight each other over who has the biggest score! That one might be a mistake because they’ve gotten so good at the game that none of us devs can now beat those high scores. Guess we’ll have to do a reset and wipe those leaderboards clean and save ourselves from the embarrassment. Daily Challenges – To spicy it up even more we added Daily Challenges to the game. All players get one shot each day to get their name on this leaderboard. Every player will get to play the same character and the same level layout. You might even get to play a Daily Challenge with a character that you didn’t unlock, if the game decides so. It’s a cool feature that gives the players a sneak peek at the content that they still haven’t unlocked. Improved N.E.T.R.I.C.S.A. – We actually made this bad girl function properly. All the info about the characters you unlock, weapons you pick up, enemies you run into and bosses you defeat, all under one roof! Who doesn’t like a good read? I know, right? Final Boss – We added the final boss in the game. The mighty Ugh-Zan robot! It’s our very own take on this monstrosity and this battle will really test your nerves. And just when you think that you defeated him – he comes back IN A TANK! This flammenwerfer-rotating-boost-charging-rocket salvo-firing beast will make you beg for mercy! New vehicle – Speaking of final boss fights, we forgot to mention that Ugh-Zan is so freakin’ huge that you are going to fight him in a chopper! That’s right! We added yet another vehicle in the game. After jeeps and boats, it’s time for helicopters. Fire your minigun and missile launcher at the monster while dodging beams and deflecting his rockets with your rotor blades. Fun times, eh? https://media.giphy.com/media/26DN8E0bISvGPXsMo/giphy.gif New characters – Boy do we have those, along with their passive and special abilities. But we’re not gonna say who they are. It’s a surprise. And a big one at that. You’re gonna love this one and it’s definitely going to be worth the wait. Achievements – We have a lot of those. New icons are finished and being implemented as we speak. Completing tasks and unlocking achievements will be necessary in unlocking the content of the game like new weapons and characters. What? You thought that we were going to serve those on a platter? Updated environments – We went through every environment and updated all of them. And of course this wasn’t our first time doing it. Or 10th. Or 20th. We’re probably going to go over it again and update it once more. But we just wanted you to know. Carry on. Obstacle destruction – Our environments were destroyable from the beginning but there were some objects that we decided could not be destroyed. Well now you can destroy those objects as well. Destroying is fun, so knock yourselves out. Environments explode into tiny blocks when they get hit and now these blocks have a cool bounce to them. Looks super cool! https://media.giphy.com/media/xUOwGk0OuW5CLifPCU/giphy.gif Mojo & perks & scoring – And since we’re on the subject of environment destruction, we added more reasons for players to do it. Points and perks! Every obstacle and enemy you destroy will explode into tiny cubes. Some of those cubes will be golden and players will automatically collect them. Those golden cubes are called Mojo and will count into your overall score in the end. We also added a dedicated MOJO BAR on top of the screen, so when players fill up that bar, they get a perk. It’s not restricted to destroying bosses to get perks anymore. You can get them before you even get to the first boss. Maybe even 2 perks if your skilful and a bit lucky. So it’s not only important to get far, but to destroy as much as you can. https://media.giphy.com/media/26DN0Verv7y9yCZ0Y/giphy.gif Sheep – No serious game can go without sheep. You gotta have sheep if you wanna be one of the cool kids. So we got sheep in our game. You can find them in the Medieval aisle. https://media.giphy.com/media/26DN8wAr0ySsEL5g4/giphy.gif New enemies – Besides creating new playable characters for the game, we wanted to add more enemies as well. So we did! CUCURBITO is a pretty nasty pumpkin head that runs at normal speed at first but charges at you if you piss him off. And how do you piss him off you ask? Well by shooting at him! See what we did? You’re gonna piss him off eventually. Or die trying. https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7WIz5rLMBC4P8aXu/giphy.gif MUMBO JUMBO is a very bulky looking shaman dude with lot of HP. What he does is he swings his shaman staff and upgrades all enemies that are near him to a higher tier. So be sure to get rid of Mumbo Jumbo ASAP once you see him. https://media.giphy.com/media/l4pTorrG03wYQcEmI/giphy.gif THE MUMMY? Oh that one you’re going to have to shoot. You can’t use melee attacks on him because he unwraps and wraps back up again every time you try to do that. Just try not to let it get too close. Ok? https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohs4jqS69ljVS4KEU/giphy.gif ULGUMP is a goblin like creature that will appear at the bottom of the screen and spend some time there before shooting a giant energy ball that will block out a part of the screen. The energy ball is so powerful that he does a somersault shooting it and just disappears off the screen. Get in the energy ball’s way, and you will get hurt. Just like Shaman, it’s best to destroy him before he has a chance to act. https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohs4rSSs63LjE3aPS/giphy.gif BLOATER (not the final name) is a huge dude filled with acid-like green goo and he explodes when he dies. We don’t need to emphasize that it’s in your best interest that you are not near him when he does! https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7WIOhF5hDbQ9oZPy/giphy.gif Now KNIGHT is a tricky enemy since she will have a shield in front of her at all times, so bullets will be blocked. When she gets close to you she will bump into the players knocking them back. This is especially dangerous if you are near a ledge as you will most likely be flying off of one at that moment. Best tactic is to circle around and hit her from the back. https://media.giphy.com/media/l4pTpABT32DaiYzIc/giphy.gif Traps – There are even more traps now! So watch where you’re walking! Some will damage you immediately, and some will lock you in place until you break free with a melee swing. Watch out! https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohs4A4WuVQQhRDsHK/giphy.gif Flawless victories against bosses – Skilfull players will now get extra Mojo if they defeat bosses without getting hit. So any players get a Flawless Victory are sure to get a perk, no matter how much their MOJO bar is filled. AI – Enemies are a bit smarter and some, like Kleers, a bit faster. Not every enemy will ram into a wall. But if some do, they will start damaging the obstacle and eventually get through. Other enemies like Mummies will completely avoid walls and obstacles. Even the walls that you put in front of them using the Seismic weapon. https://media.giphy.com/media/xThta0QP4MQjWTP3Q4/giphy.gif Weapon System Rework – We spent a lot of time working on our primary and special weapons system. All characters would have the same primary weapons – assault rifle and shotgun, and they would get random special weapons out of crates that you would need to smash in game. If you didn’t fire a single shot from a filled up special weapon, the next time you destroyed a crate you would get a different weapon. If you used up some of the ammo and then destroyed the crate, your special weapon would only get refilled. With a dedicated button to discard a special weapon, players could choose between refilling or getting a new weapon. But if you would use up the special weapon all the way, your character would throw it away. We reworked that. Now there is no more discarding of weapons button. When you deplete the ammo it stays with you and you can refill it by picking up special weapon ammo. But if you destroy a special weapon crate, you always get a new weapon. We also added unique primary weapons to every character in game. So playthroughs with different characters will be different – unique even! New menu – The menu is now completely overhauled! Camera transitions over a 3D scene depending on what your selection in the menu is. Looks super sweet and way better than before. Just look at that moonlight! Still working on it so it’s bound to look even better. There will also be a special lobby that will allow players to enable various challenges and curses if they want a higher difficulty in their session. https://media.giphy.com/media/l4pT6MlraAEfLIJzy/giphy.gif End game screen and rewards – Remember those achievements and tasks that we mentioned earlier? Well we added a cool screen with Tokens for the stuff that you just unlocked – characters or weapons. Looks really cool plus there is a nice shot effect when you keep pressing “Continue”. You’re gonna love it! https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohs4xQAsSTjxaVXBC/giphy.gif New perks – since we dropped the weapon dropping mechanic (aaah wordplay) we had to get rid of the perks that were activated when using that mechanic. So we added perks related to the newly added special ammo pick up. Special Delivery and Special Reload. One perk increases the amount of ammo that you will be able to pick up, while the other enables players to completely refill the special weapon once they get the special ammo pick up. Visual improvements, UI additions and optimization – you get the picture. No seriously – here’s a picture for you to see. Two pictures even! https://i.imgur.com/eqwHmIn.png https://i.imgur.com/091B30L.png Consoles! – we are optimizing and developing the game for consoles! Switch, PS4, Xbox One – we got you covered. Since the game is nearing the end of development it’s time to put the pedal to the metal and start crunching. So we’ll probably lock ourselves up in the studio and come out some time after spring starts. Maybe not shave until then as well. Yeah, that would be fun. If you guys have any questions that you want to ask or want to know more about the game, feel free to contact us. You can also visit our Steam page and join our little community that is bound to grow bigger soon.

SO…WHADDUP?

Dayummm have we got news for you! Last time you heard from us our heads were up in the clouds from the amazing feedback that we got from both the press and players at Gamescom 2017. The award was a nice touch too 😉 We were also participating at Reboot InfoGamer 2017 that took place in Zagreb in November, where we showcased the game once more. Last year we took home the “Best Gameplay” Award at the same show, so this time around we were not eligible to compete again. But just because we haven’t posted a blog article since then doesn’t mean we’ve been sitting on our butts and doing nothing. Au contraire! Well we kinda were sitting on our butts since that is pretty much the life of every game developer – but we managed to put in a s***-ton of changes and features into the game! There is so much to go through that we literally don’t know where to start!

YOU DID WHAT?!

Ok, so we’ll just put in the most noticeable changes and upgrades: Leaderboards – We integrated Steam Leaderboards so that our beta testers can compete for glory and fight each other over who has the biggest score! That one might be a mistake because they’ve gotten so good at the game that none of us devs can now beat those high scores. Guess we’ll have to do a reset and wipe those leaderboards clean and save ourselves from the embarrassment. Daily Challenges – To spicy it up even more we added Daily Challenges to the game. All players get one shot each day to get their name on this leaderboard. Every player will get to play the same character and the same level layout. You might even get to play a Daily Challenge with a character that you didn’t unlock, if the game decides so. It’s a cool feature that gives the players a sneak peek at the content that they still haven’t unlocked. Improved N.E.T.R.I.C.S.A. – We actually made this bad girl function properly. All the info about the characters you unlock, weapons you pick up, enemies you run into and bosses you defeat, all under one roof! Who doesn’t like a good read? I know, right? Final Boss – We added the final boss in the game. The mighty Ugh-Zan robot! It’s our very own take on this monstrosity and this battle will really test your nerves. And just when you think that you defeated him – he comes back IN A TANK! This flammenwerfer-rotating-boost-charging-rocket salvo-firing beast will make you beg for mercy! New vehicle – Speaking of final boss fights, we forgot to mention that Ugh-Zan is so freakin’ huge that you are going to fight him in a chopper! That’s right! We added yet another vehicle in the game. After jeeps and boats, it’s time for helicopters. Fire your minigun and missile launcher at the monster while dodging beams and deflecting his rockets with your rotor blades. Fun times, eh? https://media.giphy.com/media/26DN8E0bISvGPXsMo/giphy.gif New characters – Boy do we have those, along with their passive and special abilities. But we’re not gonna say who they are. It’s a surprise. And a big one at that. You’re gonna love this one and it’s definitely going to be worth the wait. Achievements – We have a lot of those. New icons are finished and being implemented as we speak. Completing tasks and unlocking achievements will be necessary in unlocking the content of the game like new weapons and characters. What? You thought that we were going to serve those on a platter? Updated environments – We went through every environment and updated all of them. And of course this wasn’t our first time doing it. Or 10th. Or 20th. We’re probably going to go over it again and update it once more. But we just wanted you to know. Carry on. Obstacle destruction – Our environments were destroyable from the beginning but there were some objects that we decided could not be destroyed. Well now you can destroy those objects as well. Destroying is fun, so knock yourselves out. Environments explode into tiny blocks when they get hit and now these blocks have a cool bounce to them. Looks super cool! https://media.giphy.com/media/xUOwGk0OuW5CLifPCU/giphy.gif Mojo & perks & scoring – And since we’re on the subject of environment destruction, we added more reasons for players to do it. Points and perks! Every obstacle and enemy you destroy will explode into tiny cubes. Some of those cubes will be golden and players will automatically collect them. Those golden cubes are called Mojo and will count into your overall score in the end. We also added a dedicated MOJO BAR on top of the screen, so when players fill up that bar, they get a perk. It’s not restricted to destroying bosses to get perks anymore. You can get them before you even get to the first boss. Maybe even 2 perks if your skilful and a bit lucky. So it’s not only important to get far, but to destroy as much as you can. https://media.giphy.com/media/26DN0Verv7y9yCZ0Y/giphy.gif Sheep – No serious game can go without sheep. You gotta have sheep if you wanna be one of the cool kids. So we got sheep in our game. You can find them in the Medieval aisle. https://media.giphy.com/media/26DN8wAr0ySsEL5g4/giphy.gif New enemies – Besides creating new playable characters for the game, we wanted to add more enemies as well. So we did! CUCURBITO is a pretty nasty pumpkin head that runs at normal speed at first but charges at you if you piss him off. And how do you piss him off you ask? Well by shooting at him! See what we did? You’re gonna piss him off eventually. Or die trying. https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7WIz5rLMBC4P8aXu/giphy.gif MUMBO JUMBO is a very bulky looking shaman dude with lot of HP. What he does is he swings his shaman staff and upgrades all enemies that are near him to a higher tier. So be sure to get rid of Mumbo Jumbo ASAP once you see him. https://media.giphy.com/media/l4pTorrG03wYQcEmI/giphy.gif THE MUMMY? Oh that one you’re going to have to shoot. You can’t use melee attacks on him because he unwraps and wraps back up again every time you try to do that. Just try not to let it get too close. Ok? https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohs4jqS69ljVS4KEU/giphy.gif ULGUMP is a goblin like creature that will appear at the bottom of the screen and spend some time there before shooting a giant energy ball that will block out a part of the screen. The energy ball is so powerful that he does a somersault shooting it and just disappears off the screen. Get in the energy ball’s way, and you will get hurt. Just like Shaman, it’s best to destroy him before he has a chance to act. https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohs4rSSs63LjE3aPS/giphy.gif BLOATER (not the final name) is a huge dude filled with acid-like green goo and he explodes when he dies. We don’t need to emphasize that it’s in your best interest that you are not near him when he does! https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7WIOhF5hDbQ9oZPy/giphy.gif Now KNIGHT is a tricky enemy since she will have a shield in front of her at all times, so bullets will be blocked. When she gets close to you she will bump into the players knocking them back. This is especially dangerous if you are near a ledge as you will most likely be flying off of one at that moment. Best tactic is to circle around and hit her from the back. https://media.giphy.com/media/l4pTpABT32DaiYzIc/giphy.gif Traps – There are even more traps now! So watch where you’re walking! Some will damage you immediately, and some will lock you in place until you break free with a melee swing. Watch out! https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohs4A4WuVQQhRDsHK/giphy.gif Flawless victories against bosses – Skilfull players will now get extra Mojo if they defeat bosses without getting hit. So any players get a Flawless Victory are sure to get a perk, no matter how much their MOJO bar is filled. AI – Enemies are a bit smarter and some, like Kleers, a bit faster. Not every enemy will ram into a wall. But if some do, they will start damaging the obstacle and eventually get through. Other enemies like Mummies will completely avoid walls and obstacles. Even the walls that you put in front of them using the Seismic weapon. https://media.giphy.com/media/xThta0QP4MQjWTP3Q4/giphy.gif Weapon System Rework – We spent a lot of time working on our primary and special weapons system. All characters would have the same primary weapons – assault rifle and shotgun, and they would get random special weapons out of crates that you would need to smash in game. If you didn’t fire a single shot from a filled up special weapon, the next time you destroyed a crate you would get a different weapon. If you used up some of the ammo and then destroyed the crate, your special weapon would only get refilled. With a dedicated button to discard a special weapon, players could choose between refilling or getting a new weapon. But if you would use up the special weapon all the way, your character would throw it away. We reworked that. Now there is no more discarding of weapons button. When you deplete the ammo it stays with you and you can refill it by picking up special weapon ammo. But if you destroy a special weapon crate, you always get a new weapon. We also added unique primary weapons to every character in game. So playthroughs with different characters will be different – unique even! New menu – The menu is now completely overhauled! Camera transitions over a 3D scene depending on what your selection in the menu is. Looks super sweet and way better than before. Just look at that moonlight! Still working on it so it’s bound to look even better. There will also be a special lobby that will allow players to enable various challenges and curses if they want a higher difficulty in their session. https://media.giphy.com/media/l4pT6MlraAEfLIJzy/giphy.gif End game screen and rewards – Remember those achievements and tasks that we mentioned earlier? Well we added a cool screen with Tokens for the stuff that you just unlocked – characters or weapons. Looks really cool plus there is a nice shot effect when you keep pressing “Continue”. You’re gonna love it! https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohs4xQAsSTjxaVXBC/giphy.gif New perks – since we dropped the weapon dropping mechanic (aaah wordplay) we had to get rid of the perks that were activated when using that mechanic. So we added perks related to the newly added special ammo pick up. Special Delivery and Special Reload. One perk increases the amount of ammo that you will be able to pick up, while the other enables players to completely refill the special weapon once they get the special ammo pick up. Visual improvements, UI additions and optimization – you get the picture. No seriously – here’s a picture for you to see. Two pictures even! https://i.imgur.com/eqwHmIn.png https://i.imgur.com/091B30L.png Consoles! – we are optimizing and developing the game for consoles! Switch, PS4, Xbox One – we got you covered. Since the game is nearing the end of development it’s time to put the pedal to the metal and start crunching. So we’ll probably lock ourselves up in the studio and come out some time after spring starts. Maybe not shave until then as well. Yeah, that would be fun. If you guys have any questions that you want to ask or want to know more about the game, feel free to contact us. You can also visit our Steam page and join our little community that is bound to grow bigger soon.

THERE’S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING And wouldn’t you know it…it was our first time at Gamescom. Being part of a show that is as big as Gamescom is pretty overwhelming. The amount of people that visit the show, the exhibitors and members of the press is just astonishing. It’s been a while now since Gamescom 2017 finished, but we can say that we are still under the impressions from exhibiting at the show. What are our impressions after it? – “Hooooly sh**! That was awesome!” The press loved the game, the players loved the game, and we love both the press and the players! “I Hate Running Backwards” was a success, at least in the terms of the feedback we got, the coverage in the press after the show ended and the awards that we won. We were present on both the business and public halls of Gamescom! Being a part of the Croteam Incubator initiative, we were present at the Indie Arena Booth in Hall 10.1 where Croteam reserved a spot for us along with the other studios from the Incubator. But there are also some other news: Devolver Digital are officially the publishers of the game! And with Devolver as the publishers we were also present at the their booth. And that’s where we got to present the game to a lot of the media that were at the show. We already heard back from some of them and they expressed their excitement over the project and that they will closely follow the development process of the game.   A BIG THANK YOU! We had a chance to showcase the game in front of a wider audience which is something that we last did at Reboot InfoGamer 2016 in Zagreb, at least when we’re talking about a larger public. Plus we gathered a bunch of e-mails from players that were more than interested to get the game once it is released, as well as players that were interested of doing beta testing before the game goes live. And there were people returning each day just to play another session of IHRB and some even saying that it was the best game they played on Gamescom 2017! You can only imagine what that means to us and how excited that gets us! We would like to use this opportunity to send out a massive THANK YOU to all the players and to all the members of the press that visited us at Gamescom and played “I Hate Running Backwards”. Your feedback and reactions to the game is a driving force that will keep us moving forward in development and we would like to nurture that relationship. We strongly encourage everyone to communicate with us and other players interested in IHRB through our Steam Page, that went live yesterday! https://i.imgur.com/3BsfMw5.jpg https://i.imgur.com/sgJo8ff.jpg https://i.imgur.com/blzAnGY.jpg https://i.imgur.com/zQOO5qt.jpg https://i.imgur.com/y86DhHl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Yg4T153.jpg https://i.imgur.com/VVAuCJn.jpg https://i.imgur.com/33gYBLj.jpg STEAM PAGE IS LIVE? Yes it is! You can add the game to your wishlist and get the latest news regarding the development of the game there as well. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your girlfriend, your boyfriend, grandfather and grandmother! Tell your brother, your sister and your mama too! You get the picture 😉   AND THE WINNER IS… …well, we are! One of the winners that is. Can you see our ego rising? Here’s the thing: There are usually a bunch of media outlets present at Gamescom and one of the media that were present at the show decided to give their “Best Indie Game of Gamescom” award to our game – I Hate Running Backwards! So we would like to use this chance to say a big THANK YOU to the people of GameGeekz.eu for giving us the honor of being their preferred indie game of the show. This means the world to us and lets us know that we are on the good way to create something really special and fun for everyone! https://i.imgur.com/jNMmCVC.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ondGGO1.jpg WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO? Well, we have been all Rihanna like and just work, work, work, work, work! We made the in-game UI a bit more cartoony, animated the icons when the players fire their weapons, added control hints so players never lose track of the control scheme. The Aztec Jungle level has been completely re-textured, along with the Scorpion King and Scrap Jack. We still need to do the same with Lava Golem and Biomechanoid bosses. We also added a cool looking slow-mo effect on player death so that the other player will know when he/she is left alone for the next 99 meters. Oh and since the game is very difficult at the moment, we made the game a little easier, at least for the first loop. But don’t expect to survive for too long on your first run 😉 The work on the last Greek-ish looking environment is being worked on, along with the huge-ass final boss that is going to make you bleed. A lot. There is still a lot more that is being done and we will report on that soon. For now you can savor some of these super sweet screenshots containing the new UI, as well as some of the promo screenshots that we were sending to the press last week: https://i.imgur.com/gwAPglw.png https://i.imgur.com/6lo2b9l.png https://i.imgur.com/E2RFEd6.png https://i.imgur.com/m3GAGiV.png https://i.imgur.com/pXz2u5O.png https://i.imgur.com/yaulDUI.png Oh and we can’t wait to show you how we re-made the Medieval levels! You’re going to want to jump in as soon as you see the pictures! Stay tuned for more super-sweet, uber-sexy, super-destructible juiciness from yours truly 😀

THERE’S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING And wouldn’t you know it…it was our first time at Gamescom. Being part of a show that is as big as Gamescom is pretty overwhelming. The amount of people that visit the show, the exhibitors and members of the press is just astonishing. It’s been a while now since Gamescom 2017 finished, but we can say that we are still under the impressions from exhibiting at the show. What are our impressions after it? – “Hooooly sh**! That was awesome!” The press loved the game, the players loved the game, and we love both the press and the players! “I Hate Running Backwards” was a success, at least in the terms of the feedback we got, the coverage in the press after the show ended and the awards that we won. We were present on both the business and public halls of Gamescom! Being a part of the Croteam Incubator initiative, we were present at the Indie Arena Booth in Hall 10.1 where Croteam reserved a spot for us along with the other studios from the Incubator. But there are also some other news: Devolver Digital are officially the publishers of the game! And with Devolver as the publishers we were also present at the their booth. And that’s where we got to present the game to a lot of the media that were at the show. We already heard back from some of them and they expressed their excitement over the project and that they will closely follow the development process of the game.   A BIG THANK YOU! We had a chance to showcase the game in front of a wider audience which is something that we last did at Reboot InfoGamer 2016 in Zagreb, at least when we’re talking about a larger public. Plus we gathered a bunch of e-mails from players that were more than interested to get the game once it is released, as well as players that were interested of doing beta testing before the game goes live. And there were people returning each day just to play another session of IHRB and some even saying that it was the best game they played on Gamescom 2017! You can only imagine what that means to us and how excited that gets us! We would like to use this opportunity to send out a massive THANK YOU to all the players and to all the members of the press that visited us at Gamescom and played “I Hate Running Backwards”. Your feedback and reactions to the game is a driving force that will keep us moving forward in development and we would like to nurture that relationship. We strongly encourage everyone to communicate with us and other players interested in IHRB through our Steam Page, that went live yesterday! https://i.imgur.com/3BsfMw5.jpg https://i.imgur.com/sgJo8ff.jpg https://i.imgur.com/blzAnGY.jpg https://i.imgur.com/zQOO5qt.jpg https://i.imgur.com/y86DhHl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Yg4T153.jpg https://i.imgur.com/VVAuCJn.jpg https://i.imgur.com/33gYBLj.jpg STEAM PAGE IS LIVE? Yes it is! You can add the game to your wishlist and get the latest news regarding the development of the game there as well. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your girlfriend, your boyfriend, grandfather and grandmother! Tell your brother, your sister and your mama too! You get the picture 😉   AND THE WINNER IS… …well, we are! One of the winners that is. Can you see our ego rising? Here’s the thing: There are usually a bunch of media outlets present at Gamescom and one of the media that were present at the show decided to give their “Best Indie Game of Gamescom” award to our game – I Hate Running Backwards! So we would like to use this chance to say a big THANK YOU to the people of GameGeekz.eu for giving us the honor of being their preferred indie game of the show. This means the world to us and lets us know that we are on the good way to create something really special and fun for everyone! https://i.imgur.com/jNMmCVC.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ondGGO1.jpg WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO? Well, we have been all Rihanna like and just work, work, work, work, work! We made the in-game UI a bit more cartoony, animated the icons when the players fire their weapons, added control hints so players never lose track of the control scheme. The Aztec Jungle level has been completely re-textured, along with the Scorpion King and Scrap Jack. We still need to do the same with Lava Golem and Biomechanoid bosses. We also added a cool looking slow-mo effect on player death so that the other player will know when he/she is left alone for the next 99 meters. Oh and since the game is very difficult at the moment, we made the game a little easier, at least for the first loop. But don’t expect to survive for too long on your first run 😉 The work on the last Greek-ish looking environment is being worked on, along with the huge-ass final boss that is going to make you bleed. A lot. There is still a lot more that is being done and we will report on that soon. For now you can savor some of these super sweet screenshots containing the new UI, as well as some of the promo screenshots that we were sending to the press last week: https://i.imgur.com/gwAPglw.png https://i.imgur.com/6lo2b9l.png https://i.imgur.com/E2RFEd6.png https://i.imgur.com/m3GAGiV.png https://i.imgur.com/pXz2u5O.png https://i.imgur.com/yaulDUI.png Oh and we can’t wait to show you how we re-made the Medieval levels! You’re going to want to jump in as soon as you see the pictures! Stay tuned for more super-sweet, uber-sexy, super-destructible juiciness from yours truly 😀