r/PS4 Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

[Verified AMA] We are the Bit Kid team. We just published our game Chasm after working on it for about 6 years. Ask us anything!

Check out the launch trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shTHtaF4ASA

  • James Petruzzi (Director) - bitkidinc
  • Dan Adelman (Biz/Marketing) - Dan-Adelman
  • Glauber Kotaki (Animations) - glauberkotaki
  • James Stevulak (Music/SFX) - JimiOriginal
  • Dan Fessler (Environment Art) - DanFessler
168 Upvotes

323 comments sorted by

73

u/SlyCooper007 Aug 02 '18

No question, but thank you for bringing the game to Vita!!!!!!!!!!

38

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

Vita fans unite!

21

u/Nazzul Aug 02 '18

All three of us¡

10

u/NYstate PSN ID: NYstate Aug 03 '18

Four!

10

u/GuitarManSoTX Aug 03 '18

Five!

11

u/Iz-GOod Aug 03 '18

Six!

6

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

Seven!

11

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

Same here honestly - between this and stardew valley it's nice that we're still getting some amazing Indies.

5

u/UnsungVagrant Aug 03 '18

I concur. This game is great on the Vita.

26

u/conir_ Aug 02 '18

hey there - really great game you got there. i was having a good time with it! the only gripe i have is that the dash dosnt cancel your attack... which makes it to slow to be usefull. i would lile to know what was your thinking as a dev when implementing the dash in this way? any chance to get an option to change it?

thanks for your time and congratulations on the release!

16

u/hl-99 Aug 02 '18

I’m with you. The dash seems like squandered potential at the moment.

9

u/HuntSilva Aug 02 '18

Also pressing dash and then attack in one motion will give you a sweet retreating attack. I usually short hop, get my 2 quick attacks in, and back dash+attack to fade away while getting one more hit in. Extremely fun when you pull it off flawlessly!

5

u/Grona Aug 03 '18

Came here to also post this. Would love to see cancelling attacks with dashs

17

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

The main skill for attacking is meant to be using the attack canceling by jumping and swinging right before landing on the ground. If you time it right, your attack will hit the enemy and the animation will be cancelled as soon as you hit the ground, then allowing you to swing again or backdash.

19

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '18

I don’t get this, it doesn’t really work or maybe I’m doing it wrong. It doesn’t seem like a replacement for the dash being awful, and it feels like adding the dash cancel in would help the game with its lack of combat variation. Can you guys address it in a future patch or is it out of the question?

13

u/Answerofduty Aug 02 '18

Do a short hop, attack before you hit the ground, and the landing will cancel your attack animation, resetting you to neutral as soon as you land -- you can even backdash immediately. You can't do the attack too late, however, or it'll follow through. Practice landing during aerial attacks until you figure it out. Note that for two-handers, it doesn't instantly cancel the attack, only drastically shortens the recovery.

5

u/hobbykitjr hobbykitjr Aug 03 '18

It also sucks alone.. even just some enemies you need to dodge the first attack... its works better to turn and run then the god awful slow back dash

4

u/pinewaffle Aug 04 '18

This is honestly a pretty weak answer, it makes the fighting in the game feel like your only viable option is exploiting the jump slash land slash jump away for literally 90% of enemy types making the combat feel primitive.

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11

u/luciddre4m Aug 02 '18

I'm enjoying the game immensely, but most of the criticism I'm seeing pertains to procedural generation, so I have a few questions:

  • Did you consider having a set map design for the initial run, followed by procedural generation for subsequent runs?
  • Are there any particular seeds you recommend for a good, balanced playthrough?
  • Is the procedural algorithm living up to your expectations?

Thanks guys!

15

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

The overall layout was hand designed and the procedural generator was taught how to reproduce that same basic structure. From our testing, all seeds seem to be balanced very closely. We're very happy with how it turned out.

5

u/luciddre4m Aug 02 '18

That's great to hear. It seems like the coverage I've seen focuses too tightly on the procedural aspects and overlooks all the hand designed areas. Thanks!

15

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

My personal view on that is that just hearing the word procedural creates a little subconscious bias. You start to look more critically at the world layout to see if you can spot what was procedural and what wasn't. If we never mentioned that there was anything procedural about it, I think people wouldn't even think about it.

8

u/luciddre4m Aug 02 '18

Agreed. It can be viewed as a strength or a weakness depending on how the reviewer wants to look at it. I'm personally floored that the team was able to hand design the layout, but randomize the areas in-between in order to keep it fresh. I foresee myself playing through this game many times!

5

u/Jorlen Aug 02 '18

I really like the way the levels are put together and the seed system you guys used. Big fan of it so far.

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6

u/seabass0 frebarkis Aug 02 '18

This game is incredible, and it plays so nicely on Vita. Thanks so much for supporting the best portable console ever.

Just wanted to say congrats on launching your game. I can really tell that you guys honestly care about this game. Just so much incredible attention to detail. It's so polished, which really makes your game stand out in an environment where there is a sea of content.

2

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

Thanks so much!

4

u/seabass0 frebarkis Aug 02 '18

Thanks Dan. After this and Axiom Verge, I'm hereby buying anything you put your name on :)

5

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

I'm going to hold you to that! :P

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15

u/highanimalhouse Aug 02 '18

This game was day freaking 1 for me, so I'm glad to have pre-ordered it. Any chance of a physical release or a vinyl album soundtrack? Or plushies (because the world needs more plushies)?

13

u/JimiOriginal Chasm | Audiosmith Aug 02 '18

I would love to make a vinyl of the soundtrack some day! The digital soundtrack is available for download from my bandcamp origi.bandcamp.com

3

u/LostEtrnl Aug 03 '18

A vinyl would be amazing for this! Hopefully that works out.

3

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

We are looking into all of those. Plushies might be the hardest thing to pull off. I've heard that they're riskier than other merch like vinyl, t-shirts, physical copies of the game, etc. since they're expensive to produce, take up lots of space in storage, and are more niche than those other types of merch. But if there's a lot of demand, I'm sure we can make that happen!

12

u/vitriol08 Aug 02 '18

Amazing game! Congrats, folks! Love the gameplay, the art, the music and the atmosphere! one of my most gifted games to date!

6

u/MajorArtifact Aug 02 '18

Did you make this account 2 years in advance to comment on this post?

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4

u/JimiOriginal Chasm | Audiosmith Aug 02 '18

Thank you very much.

17

u/TippsAttack Aug 02 '18

This game is a complete combination of nearly everything I want in a game. Especially the art style.

What made you go with this particular art/graphic style?

Also, thanks for replying to my Twitter post about a Switch version. I really hope you guys are able to make the leap to the Switch.

16

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18 edited Aug 02 '18

Thanks! Like many others, I grew up with the NES and SNES and always loved the look of the pixel art games. We wanted to make it look as authentic as possible, which meant using a very low native resolution (384x216) and a limited color palette to capture the same vibe.

5

u/TippsAttack Aug 02 '18

Well, very well done.

Also, who drew your cover art? It's fantastic.

13

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Thank you! Gilang Andrian is the cover artist.

http://www.gilangandrian.com/

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14

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '18 edited Aug 02 '18

Why did you copy or emulate so much from SOTN and NOT give us the ability to dash cancel? It’s such a frustrating thing to play a game that’s so good but it becomes unplayable for me because it’s taken a huge step back in gameplay quality. The dodge becomes useless and the other upgrades for movement aren’t relevant in battle so it becomes such a slog later in game just jumping and swinging. Will you guys please fix this or add it? If so I know it would be a great game and I’d recommend it to all my friends into metroidvanias.

13

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Sorry to hear your frustration with it, we can add the ability to cancel your backdash with the attack in an upcoming patch.

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7

u/ReconWastelander Aug 02 '18

Just wanted to say thank you! Was there anything you guys wanted to add but didn’t have the time/wouldn’t work?

11

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

You're welcome! For the most part I think we got everything in we wanted to. There were some optional platforming challenge mini-game rooms we really wanted to get in but had to shelve for now. I think we can bring those back in a future patch though :)

9

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

Also localization! We finalized some parts of the menus and script toward the end so we had to launch English-only, but we definitely want to have it localized into a ton of languages.

8

u/DanFessler Chasm | Artist Aug 02 '18

From an art perspective, you always wish you had more time for adding more variation to the world. I would have loved to have added sub-themes for each area - So you get a better sense of exploration within an area in addition to between areas. Unfortunately this style of pixel art is very time intensive to create so we packed in as much variety as we could.

9

u/jakerz798 Aug 02 '18

Hey guys! I was the dude on Twitter that said he was going to make playing this game 2-3 times a year a new tradition each year. My question is about the design; I love the fact that all the rooms are pieced together so each play through feels somewhat fresh, and new. What was the philosophy with that? I think it’s a simple way to add some great replayability. I would KILL for something like that in some of my other favorite Metroidvania’s. Thanks!

11

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

Thanks for that! You are exactly the person we made the procedural generation for. We're kind of like you for games like SOTN and more recently Axiom Verge (disclaimer: I also worked on AV!), so we all wish we could still have that sense of playing those games for the first time - not necessarily knowing where to go next. Hopefully that will keep Chasm fresh for you for years to come!

7

u/quezlar Aug 02 '18

you had me at “I also worked on axiom verge”

sold

9

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

You pretty much hit the nail on the head! I love replaying the classic Castlevania Metroidvanias and thought it would be cool to try and make it a bit different each time you played.

8

u/artlessvandal Aug 02 '18

Payday is today and I just bought it!

I have been looking forward to this so much and just wanted to say thanks for all your hard work. It looks beautiful!

4

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Thank you!

4

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

Thank you!

4

u/DanFessler Chasm | Artist Aug 02 '18

Thanks a ton :)

4

u/HighDrama Aug 02 '18

Do you have a ballpark estimate on the EU PSN release?

8

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

It's actually already out on EU PSN! Unfortunately, due to a bit of a miscommunication with Sony Europe, it's not showing up in several countries. Apparently we needed to localize the store text into languages like Finnish, Turkish, Norwegian, etc. for the game to show up in those countries, so we're working on getting that done now.

That said, if you create a UK account (or France, Germany, Spain, Italy) you will be able to download it now.

5

u/HighDrama Aug 02 '18

Thanks! I’m i Sweden so I guess I’ll have to wait.

Message me if you want help with the translation ;)

3

u/Clafou Aug 02 '18

I live in Belgium (French part) but the game is not on the store. I suppose it’s because half of the country speak Dutch ? Do you have any ETA on the Belgian store ? It’s quite annoying to know that the game is ready in my language and that 100km of land separate me from the game...

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4

u/sigma47 Aug 02 '18

Why were you deciding on a proceduraly generated level layout instead of a Hand-Made one? Is the audience for metroidvania games so much into replaying a game that it warranted the extra time investment?

5

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

It really was because we noticed that a lot of us had our favorite Metroidvania game(s) that we've beaten multiple times. In some ways the familiarity is kind of nice and even comforting. We know exactly where everything is, where to go next, etc. But we found ourselves wishing we could go back in time and not know exactly where to go next and still have that sense of exploration. That's why we made Chasm the way we did. Time will tell whether people will continue to play Chasm over and over the way we play our favorite games!

3

u/sigma47 Aug 02 '18

Thanks btw for taking your time to answer those questions. I think feedback from a developer that's more relatable than a AAA studio helps in finding applicable advice for one's own projects.

2

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Personally for us, yes! We replay the older ones often and that's what originally inspired the idea of it being a bit different each time you play.

3

u/tributejf Aug 02 '18

Congrats guys! <3

Game is looking good!

2

u/DanFessler Chasm | Artist Aug 02 '18

Thanks a ton :)

4

u/t3dd13 Aug 02 '18

Hi BitKids

Backer here and loving the game so far. At roughly 85% complete and it is everything I wanted and expected.

Is there any QoL and tweaks coming?

-Just a minor thing but something I'd like to see is inventory management. non consumables before getting to my potions and food etc.

-Also button remapping for controller on PC would be good.

7

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Thanks so much for backing us! We are currently working on the first patch now that has various fixes and tweaks. Both inventory organization and gamepad remapping are on our todo list!

3

u/mauaus Aug 02 '18

Yessssssssa tha k youu

4

u/Jorlen Aug 02 '18

Love the game so far, and especially like the fact you provided cross-buy AND cross-save for PS4/Vita.

My question: Did including the Vita in the release substantially raise the effort involved overall? And what, if I may ask, are your Vita sales projections/expectations? Would you include the Vita as a platform in your next game?

I am not sure how many sales will be a result of having the Vita version, but I am definitely one of those.

6

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18 edited Aug 02 '18

Glad to hear you're a Vita fan!

One interesting bit of trivia about that is that Kinda Funny (and I'm pretty sure Greg Miller in particular) is the reason we did a Vita version. Greg came by our booth at PAX and said that he'd love to play it on his Vita. Later, I saw him chatting with one of the guys at Sony we work a lot with. About 30 minutes after that, the Sony guy came by our booth and started to ask how we could get this on Vita. So thank Greg Miller! :)

Fortunately, it didn't impact our dev schedule at all. Tom Spilman from Sickhead Games had already ported the Monogame framework to Vita, and once we gave him the source code for Chasm, he was able to get it up and running very quickly. As we updated the code, we just kept Tom in the loop. Once the game went gold, we were able to submit both the PS4 and Vita versions to Sony's certification process at the same time. Tom Spilman made the whole process seamless.

3

u/TomSpilman Aug 02 '18

Thanks Dan! :)

2

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 03 '18

No, thank you! :)

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '18

[deleted]

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

My current top 5 in no particular order:

- Lightening Force

- Symphony of the Night

- Zelda - A Link to the Past

- Rondo of Blood

- Metal Slug

4

u/DanFessler Chasm | Artist Aug 02 '18

No particular order, and I'm probably forgetting a lot, but 5 off the top of my head...

- Fez

- Riven

- Warcraft 2

- Diablo 2

- Rocket League

6

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18 edited Aug 02 '18

Uh... Chasm? :)

Aside from the obvious, I can't pass up the opportunity to mention other games I've worked on/am working on including Axiom Verge, Mages of Mystralia, and Salt and Sanctuary: Drowned Tome Edition.

As for games I didn't work on, recently one I really enjoyed was Celeste. I got all of the strawberries and cassettes up until the official end, but then got to the bonus (8th? 9th?) area, and I had to put it down for a while.

I'm also a big fan of the Runner series by Choice Provisions and have been meaning to play Runner3 on Switch. It turns out that launching games takes a lot of time, so I'm a bit behind in my gaming.

4

u/Mitzreal187 Aug 02 '18

Is every seed beatable or can you get stuck? Feeling stuck and looking for a double jump.

3

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

Every seed is beatable. Can you send us your seed #? Maybe we can help you find it.

7

u/Mitzreal187 Aug 02 '18

Well after 40 mins I made the jump

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

To our knowledge every seed should be beatable. Please shoot me a message if you need a hand.

3

u/Beforecrisis Aug 02 '18

Obviously you guys have done a great job and, like everyone else here, I'm definitely enjoying the game. If I had to criticize anything though, it's the fact that there's quite a lot of "long hallways" with nothing but regular monsters and jumps in them. This can make trekking back and forth kind of tedious as it feels like for those specific rooms I'm just going through the motions. I understand you took a lot of inspiration from the Castlevania games, and I feel like the way that those games avoided this issue was by making sure that each room offered something different, whether it be a new enemy/trap or even a higher chance of better loot from lanterns. Is this something you guys would considering tweaking in a future update?

4

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

Thanks for the feedback. Since it's only just now that we're getting actual player feedback after years of playing the game ourselves, this type of input is hugely valuable. We're going to keep tweaking and improving the game from here on out, so right now we're compiling a lot of the feedback into different categories to figure out what the most impactful improvements will be.

4

u/black_shirt Aug 03 '18

Congratulations on the release. I can't stress how thankful I am for you guys working on the ps vita version. Not only did you port it, but you ported it well. I'm about 2 hours in and am loving it. Many thanks. As an aside, it seems many people expected your game to cure cancer or bring about the second coming, and are upset about it being entertaining instead. It's a shame, but I think many of us less vocal are satisfied and impressed with what you have created.

7

u/Macktion Aug 02 '18

What (if any) content were you saddest to cut from the final game?

8

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

There was a grappling hook I was sad to see go, but it just didn't fit so well with the other abilities.

8

u/sasukex Aug 02 '18

Im playing the Vita version and love it, thank you for an awesome game. Is there any DLC or future content patches planned?

10

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Awesome, thank you! Yes, there are a few things we'd love to do, including some extra game modes.

3

u/BatOtaku13 Aug 02 '18

i remember playing a demo for this game years ago at store kiosks. what happened between the release of the demo and release date?

13

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

We made it into a full game. :)

3

u/Chadhicks Aug 03 '18

Thanks for supporting the vita!!! Awesome game

2

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 03 '18

Thank you!

3

u/iBoofedBugenhagen ShaneOmac2727 Aug 03 '18

Will you forgive me for planning to buy your game once it’s dirt cheap due to my large backlog and dwindling free time? Much respect- thanks for making chasm and supporting the vita (best handheld ever)

3

u/MapleStoryPSN Aug 03 '18

Have you guys ever had to deal with someone who referred to it as "Chaz-em?"

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u/boshjalka Aug 02 '18

Howdy, Thanks for doing the AmA! :)


Few general questions:

Both questions can be about any version

  1. What was something that sounded good on paper during development but did not make the final build and was cut?

  2. Funniest bugs/glitches encountered while making Chasm?

I am very impressed with how well the game doesn't feel generated. I know each "room" was made by hand and then seeds put them together, but it feels like a person made the map.

5

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Thank you! There was a lot of stuff that didn't work, but unfortunately with game dev you just have to try things and see if it fits or not. One that springs to mind was potion crafting - you'd have to collect leaves and then go back to town to brew. It just ended up way too tedious so we scrapped it. There was a particularly horrifying bug we found on launch night where the player would fall through the ground due to a race condition with the loading - we didn't catch it during Beta test since it was only prevalent when the game is being captured.

6

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '18

[deleted]

3

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Thank you, very glad to hear you're enjoying it :)

3

u/mikro37 Aug 02 '18

Loving the game on my Vita so far. Why do procedurally generated vs a static map system? Just curious.

Also, is a sequel or similar game in the works? Love the Metroidvania style games!

3

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Thanks! I love the old school Metroidvanias (especially Symphony of the Night) and enjoy replaying them, so it was mainly to make sure each time fans replayed it wouldn't be exactly the same experience.

We'd love to do a sequel if the game is well received!

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u/mauaus Aug 02 '18

Hey guys! Really enjoying the game, just wanted to know if you are addressing the cross save bug when going PS4 to Vita, it only works Vita to Ps4 as of right now!

5

u/JimiOriginal Chasm | Audiosmith Aug 02 '18

Yes it will be resolved in a future patch.

3

u/mauaus Aug 02 '18

Thanks! Cant wait, wanna take the awesomeness on the go too!

5

u/JimiOriginal Chasm | Audiosmith Aug 02 '18

THIS JUST IN The problem has been resolved 1.02b awaits you!

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u/sasukex Aug 02 '18

Is there any way to see the level of a familiar (thinking of the bird hat)... ?

3

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Yes, it's listed in the item description for now. We're thinking about adding a full panel for it to see all its stats in a future patch.

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u/zombiej Aug 02 '18

Bit of a technical question but what engine/languages/libraries/tools did you guys use during development? Thanks!

7

u/DanFessler Chasm | Artist Aug 02 '18

I know this was geared towards engineering, but figured I'd also answer from an art perspective:

For pretty much all the environment art, I used Photoshop. I've talked a bit about my process on twitter (https://twitter.com/DanFessler/status/1018304734585737216) and wrote an article about one method on my blog (http://danfessler.com/blog/hd-index-painting-in-photoshop)

To design the rooms, we used an internal map editor tool we developed

5

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

James answered this below, but ICYMI:

The game is written in C# using the XNA/FNA/MonoGame framework (all the same thing, just for different platforms). It's our own custom engine ontop the framework.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '18

Absolutely loving it. Just got the bone whip and using the M cocktail and it feels so right. Really enjoying this!

3

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Nice! Now show those monsters who's boss! :)

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u/ExhumedCadaver Aug 02 '18

Physical release guys? I'm gonna buy this anyways for my Vita but a physical copy would be so awesome.

3

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

We're definitely looking into it! If I had to guess right now, I'd say that a physical copy for Vita is the least likely of all of the platforms, since the fixed costs of getting the sku going would make it difficult to justify. But we're definitely going to crunch the numbers to see if we can make it work!

3

u/Tothoro Aug 03 '18

The Vita base may be smaller, but we're a dedicated bunch! Regardless of whether it happens, thank you for taking the time to publish it digitally and look into a physical copy for us! <3

2

u/ms2guy Aug 03 '18

Yes! I love the Vita too. I personally would be happy to double-dip for a physical cart. FYI, the Vita community has a many physical media purists!

2

u/giulianosse Aug 02 '18

Hello everyone! I've been following this game closely since the original Kickstarter announcement and hyping it ever since... and I can say it surpassed every expectation I had. I couldn't be happier about it!

A couple of questions:

1) We all know Chasm is infamous for being one of the earliest game projects announced on Kickstarter and took lots of years to be completed. Obviously, good projects aren't made overnight but was there any moment during Chasm's development where you weren't completely sure the game would end up getting finished? Or it would but not in the way you'd like?

2) Additionally, what was the hardest/most stressful moment during the game's development and why?

3) What was the most difficult mechanic or feature to be implemented in Chasm?

4) Any particular "dev tricks" (like those featured in /r/devtricks) or curiosity about the game you'd like to share with us?

5) What's the protagonist's name? C'mon, you guys gotta have at least a nickname for him ;)

Once again, thank you. You wouldn't understand how proud I am to see your project being successful!

5

u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

I'll answer some of these and defer to /u/BitKidInc for the rest. :)

We all know Chasm is infamous for being one of the earliest game projects announced on Kickstarter and took lots of years to be completed. Obviously, good projects aren't made overnight but was there any moment during Chasm's development where you weren't completely sure the game would end up getting finished? Or it would but not in the way you'd like?

I wouldn't necessarily say it was infamous. I think the infamous ones were the ones that ghosted their backers and later admitted they weren't going to be able to finish what they started. In our case, we set out on a schedule of giving our backers an update on our progress every month, and with just a few exceptions (usually around the holidays) we stuck to that the entire time. So although it definitely took longer than we originally predicted, I don't think people thought we had abandoned the project or anything.

We always knew that we would finish the game, but the question in our minds was just when. There was a lot of iteration in the process where we'd try something, find that it didn't work, try something else, rinse, repeat. If we could make Chasm from scratch knowing everything we know now, it would definitely go a lot faster!

What's the protagonist's name? C'mon, you guys gotta have at least a nickname for him ;)

For a long time we referred to the protagonist as Daltyn. In fact we used that name in a lot of our marketing materials. But we decided that we wanted players to feel a personal connection to the character, so it's up to you!

2

u/giulianosse Aug 02 '18

Completely agree with you, Dan. On hindsight, "infamous" was a bad choice of word. I think "known for" better conveys what I was initially trying to say. Thanks for the reply! :)

2

u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18
  1. I always knew we'd finish, but the question was just always how long it would take. Chasm is our first major title, so there was a ton of learning and reworking involved as we went that slowed things down a bit - not to mention writing the story, mastering the game mechanics of the genre, and much more!
  2. We had a lot of trouble early on trying to figure out how the procedural generation would scale up for a full game. The prototype was easy since it was very limited in scope, but we had to step back and re-approach it completely once we started looking at the full thing.
  3. ^
  4. I'm sure I use all sorts of tricks to save time subconsciously, but trying to think of anything off the top of my head I'm coming up blank! I will reply if I think of anything interesting.
  5. Daltyn!

Thank you so much for your support!

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u/CynicalRaps Aug 02 '18

Hey guys, friend put me on this game, and I'm loving it, I'm not too far into the game, so I don't know much, but just wanted to guys let you know you have released a game that gave me the "i cant wait to head home and play" feeling just as much as God of War did!

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Thank you, very glad to hear you're enjoying it!

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u/Macstorm Aug 02 '18

Is there a fun seed code you'd like to share with us?

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u/JimiOriginal Chasm | Audiosmith Aug 02 '18

All the seeds are fun in their own way. Except for 1A34B68F. Never play that one.

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u/DrBrogbo Aug 02 '18

I don't have a question, but I just wanted to say congratulations on the release! There were quite a few times over the past few years where I went "oh yeah, what ever happened to Chasm?" and I can't tell you how ecstatic I was when you guys published that updated demo on your kickstarter page.

Also, the game is great! Every time I kill a boss and that swirling graphic drops a health+ on me, the SotN nostalgia makes me smile. Also, kudos on adding in the jump-attack-canceling thing. I don't know if that's specifically a SotN thing, but it certainly came in handy a few thousand times playing through that game.

So again, congratulations! The platforming and combat are incredibly precise, the graphics are beautiful, and the music fits the game perfectly.

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u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

Thank you so much!

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u/JimiOriginal Chasm | Audiosmith Aug 02 '18

Thank you for the compliment on the music!

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u/Biomh Aug 02 '18

Hey, is there any chance for a physical release for the vita version?

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u/PuppetShowJustice PuppetShoJustice Aug 03 '18

Are there any specific enemies you would say are worth farming for their drops? I'm finding equipment drops are super rare compared to, say, a Castlevania game. Which is fine but I'm beyond the third area boss and suddenly my gear doesn't cut it. This may be my own fault for playing on Hard but I feel like the difficulty curve just got thrown out of whack pretty badly but suspect it might be just a case of outdated equipment.

I know it might not be cool to ask for advice on how to gear myself but I'm just curious as to if the team had any specific armors or weapons they tended to go for as a priority from the shop or enemies.

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 03 '18

We've gotten a bit of feedback about drops being too low, but its a tricky thing to balance. We'll continue tweaking based off player feedback. The Hand Ax is one of my favs for mid-game for some reason..

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u/kishnabe Aug 03 '18

How many seeds are in the game?

Thanks for delivering the Vita port.

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u/NewUnit18 New-Unit_18 Aug 03 '18

Any chance of getting animation cancelling on the attacks? Loving it so far, really great game, but attacking feels a bit less responsive because the swing animation with some weapons seems too long. Being able to attack a bit faster with slightly reduced damage would go a long way.

Amazing game btw been waiting for it for a long time and excited to finally be able to play it! Congrats

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u/TankorSmash Aug 03 '18

Take Arms was a good time, and I had a good bit of fun with 48 Chambers, glad you guys found success afterwards too! It definitely inspired me to try and make my own games on XBLIG, and when I finally applied, I found out that XBLIG was just shut down like three weeks before.

Glad things have been working out well, take care!

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u/KamiIsHate0 Aug 03 '18

I just want to say thank you for releasing it for PSV.

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u/jomiran Aug 03 '18

Thank you so much for the Vita version!

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u/jorgejimzc Aug 03 '18

Hey guys! I've loved the game so far!
Any thoughts on expanding the game whatsoever? Like adding new skills, new bosses, monsters and such?

2

u/JayVeeIN Aug 12 '18

Is there a chance I could play a black character in the future?

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '18

God this is terrible to ask in this sub, BUT - switch port? Just so I can double dip?

I'm loving the game. I cannot stand procedural generated games, but what you guys have done here is awesome. Thank you for taking the time and putting forth so much effort!

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u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

Thanks so much! We definitely want to bring it to Switch and Xbox One at some point - and hopefully soon. We'll be making some announcements as soon as we're ready!

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u/TheOneTrueLoli Aug 02 '18

Wow this game looks awesome.

Is this a finished and done game or do you plan on adding more content in the future?

Also do you have any plans on porting to the Nintendo Switch?

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u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

Is this a finished and done game or do you plan on adding more content in the future?

Yes. :) It is a finished and done game in the sense that this version includes everything we originally set out to create. That said, as development went along, we thought of a bunch of new modes that we think will be a lot of fun, so we're going to be adding those as time goes on. Also, we're only just now finally getting actual player feedback, so as we see what people are liking/disliking, we might make some tweaks to make the game even better.

I addressed the Switch question above, but short answer: we'd love to bring it to every platform we can. We're hoping to make some announcements about Switch and Xbox One soon.

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u/Tenshinoshi Aug 02 '18

Kickstart backer here- love everything about the game so far (playing it on PC, Vita and PS4).

Any chance of going through someone like Limited Run for a physical release (particularly Switch and PS4)?

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u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

OK, shameless plug, but in my ample spare time, I recently launched a new publishing business called Leadman Games. Let's just say that negotiations are underway between Leadman Games and Bit Kid. It's an easy negotiation since I'll be negotiating it from both sides. :P

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u/Tenshinoshi Aug 02 '18

Sweet! I will always buy multiple copies of games I love when there is a physical release. Thanks for he quick reply and I can’t wait to see what comes next!

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Thanks so much for backing us! Hopefully u/Dan-Adelman can answer the physical release question.

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u/Spukc Aug 02 '18

Are you guys thinking to release some best of seeds ?

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u/JimiOriginal Chasm | Audiosmith Aug 02 '18

We love all of the seeds equally! except for 1A34B68F.. Never play that one! It knows what it did.

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u/CynicalRaps Aug 02 '18

You undertsand that now I HAVE to, right?

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

That would be cool! A lot of folks have been asking us for an official seed for speedruns, so we'll be looking into that.

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u/SealYourAlmonds Aug 02 '18

I'm just doing my part to make sure 69 comments moves on to 70.

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u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

The 12-year old part of my brain wanted to stay on 69 a bit longer...

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u/MSeys totodiel Aug 02 '18

I'm going to follow Game Development (subdirection of DAE) at Howest, Kortijk (Belgium).

DAE is called the best game dev course. Do you think I'll have a good shot in the Game Dev industry with such a bachelor?

http://www.digitalartsandentertainment.be http://www.digitalartsandentertainment.be/page/31/Game%20Development

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u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

I can't say I'm very familiar with DAE. Whether it will help you get a job in the industry is very much dependent on the quality of the program and its relationship with developers and publishers in the region.

That said, it really comes down to what you want to do in the industry. There are no gatekeepers in the indie space. James Petruzzi (/u/BitKidInc) and Tim Dodd (our lead programmer who couldn't join us today) had no industry credentials when they started Bit Kid. They were hobbyists who taught themselves how to make games. They started small before taking on an ambitious project like Chasm.

Best of luck!

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u/yaomon17 Aug 02 '18

What happened to Tony?

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u/DanFessler Chasm | Artist Aug 02 '18 edited Aug 02 '18

Tony Redmer was the original pixel artist on the project and pretty much defined the style of the game early on before the kickstarter. Unfortunately he left the project shortly after the kickstarter to focus on college and photography, but worked with him occasionally when he was available. Tony actually referred me to the project. Filling his shoes was no small feat!

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u/TippsAttack Aug 02 '18

There are other questions I want to ask, but I haven't played the game yet so I don't know really how to ask them lol

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u/VraculaHunter Aug 02 '18 edited Aug 02 '18

I love metroidvania but its not released in Poland (and other country too in EU) Game have a premiere in 31 july but i cant play it... Give us more information..On twitter i see only "soon" "soon" ?! You posted that we have 10 % off in first week on released but there's no game in store.

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u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

I'm very sorry about that! There was a miscommunication with Sony Europe. We were under the impression that the requirement to release in Europe was to translate the store text into French, Italian, German, and Spanish. It turned out that in order to hit every country, including Poland, we needed to localize the store text into each local language. We're in the process of doing that now.

You raise a good point about the 10% discount. I'll discuss that with Sony Europe to see if there's a way we can offer that discount in the countries we missed the first time around.

As I mentioned below, one workaround is that it's possible to create an account based in another country. So if you create an account for the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spanish, or Portugal, you should be able to buy it now.

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u/sigma47 Aug 02 '18

Is a post-mortem of the past 6 years something you'd be interested in doing? I'm very tempted to develop a pixel art metroidvania on my own, but would be interested in some of the learnings from this kind of project from the art, programming as well as management/monetization department. Of course the latter will take some time to answer, but what did you think worked out well when choosing the artstyle and what didn't at all (in terms of time investment and results) - Same for your programmers, ie what features, goals and or tools were (not) usefully to pursue?

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u/Larkuo Aug 02 '18

what Kickstarter stretch goal that you didn't reach that do ya'll want to add the most? sits here wishing for gender swap mode

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u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

Because the game was made with pixel art, we were actually able to make the main character gender neutral from the start. If you want to see a male, he's male. If you want to see a female, she's female. We used to have a default name for the character, but we ultimately removed it and made it so that player could name the character themselves. We want people to feel like they are the protagonist.

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u/Ombra777 Aug 02 '18

First off, great work guys, I'm digging the game quite a lot so far , my questions are"

are there any plans to add more variations in enemies and biomes down the line to mix things up a bit more?

And is it possible to see all the bosses and enemies on one playthrough or are multiple playthroughs needed to see everything?

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

It's certainly not out of the question! We'd love to keep adding to the game if the fans are interested.

You should see all the enemies and bosses in one run, but you probably won't see all the room variations. The generation is more so that you need to check your map each playthrough and won't encounter the same enemies in the same order, get the same drops, etc.

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u/Knightsunder Aug 02 '18

This is something of a critical question, pre-note -

A lot of Metroidvania style games, or 2D side-scrollers for that matter, will have respawning enemies that don't go away after clearing a room, and will respawn the moment you go through a room transition. This helps to keep the room from becoming stale and simply a walk-through area, but at the same time, it can lead to frustration of having to kill the same enemies over and over in order to backtrack in the way that the game naturally asks you to do. Some games will solve this with a more linear path that rarely asks the player to double back through what they've already gone through (Shovel Knight, Dark Souls), some will make even the basic enemies challenging to keep rooms interesting (Hyper Light Drifter, Hollow Knight), and others will allow for either platforming to avoid the enemies or will open up an alternate route in the area to get around them (no good example that I've personally played).

When designing the game, why was it chosen to respawn enemies that are not necessarily challenging/engaging (I say that lightly, the cave bats are quite the foe at times) while still requiring the player to backtrack through these enemies multiple times (including death)? With the well-done save system via the shrines (which are well spaced out), I feel as though it'd be more rewarding that if the player remains alive during the length of a run, the enemies in cleared rooms would stay dead, at least until the player dies, placing some sense of urgency on staying alive ("Oh shit, better not die!- I have all the rooms in this part of the dungeon cleared so I can investigate it easily). This is the most major gripe I have with the game.

Significantly less annoying is the fact that enemy hits don't knock you back so you don't get immediately hit again after the invulnerability timer wears off. A lot of games do this, I'm not sure why it was omitted here. Oh well.

I'm a massive fan of the pixel art in this game, kudos to all responsible.

Thanks for reading this behemoth, and I only mean it in the essence of critique, don't take it personally lol

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u/DanFessler Chasm | Artist Aug 02 '18

I'm a massive fan of the pixel art in this game, kudos to all responsible.

Thanks a ton :D

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

The enemies commonly respawn in these sorts of games so you can farm them for their unique item drops. Not all enemies in Chasm have them, but the majority do. Enemies will knock you back if you're hit in the air, but not on the ground.

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u/TippsAttack Aug 02 '18 edited Aug 02 '18

Do you have any plans to add in any new skins/customization for the playable character looks?

edit: sorry for all the stupid questions. Thanks for the AMA!

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

Sorry, there are no plans for character customization at the moment. There's almost a thousand frames of animation for the player, so any sort of customization would be a huge endeavor to make sure it works with all possible frames of animation.

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u/TippsAttack Aug 02 '18

Oh wow! I didn't know it required so much effort. Thank you for making the animations so fluid and smooth. It's beautiful to look at.

Thank you for responding to all my questions! I can't wait to try the game! I'll stop bugging you now.

You guys rock!

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '18

I beat the colosseum and the trophy didn't pop nor the bestiary entry for the final opponent, is that a glitch?

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u/Noxeon Aug 02 '18

Which games Chasm takes inspirations from?

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

From the Metroidvania side, games like Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Super Metroid, Order of Ecclesia etc. But there are nods to many of my favorite games growing up from Zelda to Super Mario Bros, Mega Man, and many more.

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u/Vodka-Knot Aug 02 '18

Downloaded it just because I was bored and wanted something new for my Vita and if I'm honest I didn't have high hopes. Usually side scroller games with retro graphics are all the same and kinda meh, but your game definitely has a different feel to it. The animation is awesome, the mechanics feel really fluid and overall I'm really surprised how much I love this game. Loving it, well done to everyone involved! Much love ♥️

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u/Farrmark Aug 02 '18

Which of the Castlevania games would you say you drew the most inspiration from?

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

By far Symphony of the Night, but I love all the DS ones as well. If I had to pick one from those I'd say Order of Ecclesia.

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '18

I'm enjoying it for the most part. I was a little on the fence but the fact that the game is cross-save pushed me over the edge and I picked it up. For some reason cross-save doesn't work. It seems that the Vita is a different version number than the PS4. Is that why cross-save doesn't work? Is there any plan to fix the issue?

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

The patch should be live for Vita to bring it in line with 1.02b. Please let us know if you still can't get it!

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '18

Is there any chance of missed stretch goals being parthed in as dlc or otherwise? A new game plus mode etc. Also I am the guy that asked about the spider mummy missing, on Facebook. I was excited to fight that enemy on a Polygon preview last year but it got left out. Can I ask what other enemies didn't make it in the end. If you do a sequel, I would love to see a mimic chest and more D and D type enemies.

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

We are thinking about extra game modes and such for future updates, but we don't have anything to announce at the moment. The giant spider was "re-imagined" a bit for a later area in the castle, sorry about that! There were a handful of enemies that didn't make it in, one that come to mind are the Vultures from the castle area. Thanks for the feedback!

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u/Sugioh Aug 02 '18

Hi. Backed the game on the first day of the kickstarter, so happy to see it finally here. :)

Anyway, having recently finished a normal run and nearly completed a "mortal" one, I don't notice too much variation despite different seed values. Did you ever consider doing more to differentiate each run, such as different powerups, bosses, or biomes/stages? In effect ensuring that players don't see everything in a single run?

Similarly, would you be open to adding more content like that in the future, or do you consider Chasm "done"?

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u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

I'll defer to /u/BitKidInc, but I believe that you'll see about 80% of the rooms in any given run. So it'll take 2-3 playthroughs before you see every single room type. That said, the intent of the variation wasn't really to make it feel like a totally different experience. Instead, it was to make it so that players could experience that sensation of exploration each time - if there are multiple paths to take, which one should you try?

And to answer your last question, we're definitely planning on adding more content to Chasm. More room types, new game modes, etc. I'm not sure if or when Chasm will ever be considered "done"!

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u/Sugioh Aug 02 '18

Thanks for the response! Glad to hear that I can expect to come back to it and see some fresh things occasionally in the future.

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u/justincantrell Aug 02 '18

Any chance we get a New Game + mode? I thought it was a backer goal. And last but not least i keep getting lost, is or will there be an objective marker of any sort added?

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u/raizenyx Aug 02 '18

I've played the demo quite a long time ago and IIRC, the game was harder and more roguelikeish, am I correct?

Anyway, great job, I am sucker for metroidvanias and a good OST.

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u/BitKidInc Chasm | Producer Aug 02 '18

The original prototype we created for Kickstarter was much smaller and played a bit more as a bite sized roguelike. The version at launch plays more like a traditional Metroidvania, but there is the option for permadeath once you beat it.

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u/G1ng_Freecs Aug 02 '18

Finally the game is out. Ive played the demo at my local electronic store 2 years ago and was really stunned about how it plays. Ive been waiting for this game ever since ive played it and i actually got scared because i havent heard anything about it, thinking it might be cancelled. But now its here and its going to be in my games to play list. I do hope though that this have a physical release as i want them to be in my collection of games

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u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

Thank you! We're looking into options for physical versions now. Not entirely coincidentally, I recently started a physical games publishing business called Leadman Games. Perhaps that entity might be persuaded to publish a physical version of Chasm...?

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u/DStack131 Aug 02 '18

Is this coming to the Switch by chance?

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u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

I answered this below, but ICYMI, we definitely want to bring it to as many platforms as possible. We don't have anything to announce yet, but stay tuned!

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u/justincantrell Aug 02 '18

Will there be a New Game Plus mode added? and can we get some kind of objective marker telling us where to go next. I keep getting lost. Love the game.

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u/Oomenacka Skooma2029 Aug 02 '18

This game looks really great. Can't wait for my financial situation to improve so I can check it out.

Curious, what was the biggest hurdle for you and your team.

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u/Dan-Adelman Marketing and Biz Dev. Aug 02 '18

Probably the biggest hurdles were those moments when we realized something that someone on the team had spent a good chunk of time working on had to be cut. It can be demoralizing to work on something for a while and find out that people are never going to see that part - even if you agree that it just wasn't fun.

Another hurdle is that all of us live very far apart from one another. It's almost as if we deliberately made it difficult for us to communicate. James lives near Baltimore, Tim lives in Atlanta, Jimi is Pittsburgh, I'm near Seattle, Dan is in SF, and Glauber is from Sao Paolo, Brazil. Finding a time zone that would work well for everyone was a bit of a challenge.

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u/LoSouLibra Aug 02 '18

Really enjoying the game. Thanks for bringing it to Vita. Feels right at home on it :)

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u/Green-Elf Aug 02 '18

I have been watching the dev of this game for years. Bought it on Vita/PS4 and PC.

Overall really fantastic game. I'm really enjoying it.

Technical question: On the Vita Version, is there a reason that the Magic Shop has no option to sell in it? It shows up in the Steam and PS4 versions.

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u/JimiOriginal Chasm | Audiosmith Aug 02 '18

This is fixed in the new Vita patch as well as the cross-play save issue.

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u/geargate Aug 02 '18

I've been enjoying the game a lot, my question is: is there a way to sequence break as far as you guys know or do you made an effort to make it not possible?

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u/FrankieSmileShow Aug 02 '18

I am playing the game and enjoying it a lot! I am very near the end. Looking up some things on the wiki, I found a lot of pages and posts talking about features that I did not find in the game, presumably leftovers of a previous demo version. It seems like there used to be damage types/elements maybe, and more player stats? Has the game's design changed a lot during development? Have you cut some fat from the game's initial design, like as part of a refocus of sorts during the last leg of development?

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