Greetings from the dark corners of the world!
We are Byte Barrel and we’d like to welcome you to Forgive Me Father - our very own Lovecraftian retro shooter.
We’re thrilled to see that so many classic shooter fans started following us after a great reception at Realms Deep. In the months to come, we’ll do our best to repay this kindness by sharing behind-the-scenes of our game. But let us introduce ourselves first!
Frankly, there’s no grandiose story behind us. We’re basically some guys who met at a game jam and discovered we like working together. We’ve worked on some other projects, which we are very proud of, but FMF is 100% our vision, and a game we’ve always wanted to make. A classic first-person shooter, but with a personal touch that channels our deep love for the Lovecraftian mythos.
Let us tell you why this game even exists in its present shape, or: why we decided to make a retro shooter.
What we like about this genre is that it’s an inverse of modern game design. New games usually bet on variety: you walk and fight, but also drive, fly, have an open world, RPG elements etc. They do a lot of things, and they do it well, but rarely excel at any.
Meanwhile, classic FPS games perfected the use of their mechanics and the level design built around them. The levels were meant to challenge your mastery and creativity in the use of a small number of systems. I believe that’s the reason behind the staying power of the shooters of yore. This is the very definition of “easy to grasp, hard to master”, and the #1 reason why you get new mods and map packs for Doom or Duke Nukem 3D in 2021.
In a similar way, Forgive Me Father is designed around the core mechanics: the movement, the feel of weapons, the enemy patterns. We have some more modern touches, mostly to motivate you, bring some quality-of-life elements, and paint a larger world within the confines of a shooter. We’ll talk about them at some other time as they deserve their own, longer post.
TL;DR: Forgive Me Father is a retro shooter because we love the genre and we “get” it. At least we like to think so, but you will be the one to judge. :)
We can’t wait to tell you more about the underlyings of Forgive Me Father, about what we think makes for the retro shooters’ longevity, and what we want to encapsulate. Let’s stay in touch. Soon we’ll talk about game design, Lovecraft, the systems in our game, how we create the atmosphere and the visuals…
But for now, thanks for reading, and see you next time! ❤️🐙
Wishlist Forgive Me Father:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1590910/Forgive_me_Father/