Hey Cultists,
Another development update for our 2nd month. To begin we wanted to announce that we’re nearing 5000 Wishlists! This is something we’re continually grateful for – especially with the traction gained from being featured on IGN Live last week, which we’ll dive deeper into later in this very post. Onto the game now, we wanted to use this time to talk about the demons of Blood Reaver.

As anyone who’s played a horde-shooter before knows, one of the most important things to get right is none other than the horde itself! The hardest part about designing a horde is how we display the evolving strength of the horde. Some earlier concepts we cooked up were undoubtedly menacing and ‘demonic’ for lack of a better word. Yet so much so we decided to reserve them for greater threats some of which you may in the coming months...

These initial designs (not shown here) gave the impression that the demons were holding back rather than constantly pursuing the player - which is something we wanted to avoid. After going back to the drawing board and trying a new angle, we found a healthy mix of ‘shambling husk’ and ‘bloodthirsty demon’. We’re pretty happy with what we came to, but we’re bursting with excitement to see what you all think of our expanding horde.

Wanting to exemplify how each demon in the horde is twisted and warped in their own way, something we want to strive for is variation in appearance, this can range from different pigmentation of flesh, largely distorted head shapes, grotesque wounds staining the skin, and other such additions.

"A soul twisted and warped. Stripped of its will and body, now it only has one craving. Blood. To quench its eternal thirst is its mission, its purpose."

The inevitable outcome of all who douse their bellies in blood. A bloater’s body is a vessel, it’s not uncommon for other demons to kill these sacks of liquid crimson to feed themselves. Yet, these beings yield a crueller fate – in a fruitless effort to continue feeding their hunger, they will drink and drink and drink until it’s too much. They will burst in fiery blood.

Once again, these incredible concept pieces were created by our concept artist Matthew Dobrich.

As mentioned, last week Blood Reaver was featured during the IGN Live as part of the Indie.io showcase alongside many other games. During this our game directors gave some insight into the game's development and what inspired us to start making Blood Reaver to begin with through a short developer interview.
We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have presented some of our pre-alpha gameplay and we’re even more motivated now to continue making this game the best it could possibly be!

Later this month, the Hell Byte team will be showcasing the game at Avcon in Adelaide, South Australia. So, if you find yourself close by on the 28th to the 30th of June, then you can come and catch us in the indie games room!
If you’d like to hear about the updates for Blood Reaver first, make sure to find us through our socials and community discord linked on the store page!