Dreadveil - Atmospheric Horror Shooter - Showreel submission

[inkarian.designs]

Hello!
I am Anton, a solo indie developer from Sweden. I want to show a game that I have been working on for the past 4 years. Started in Godot 3, then ported to Godot 4 last summer!

Here is a reveal video of a section of the gameplay:

Dreadveil - Official Gameplay Reveal

Here are some screenshots of the environments:
Forest caves:

Swamps:

Inside a growth of viscera:

— The Premise / Story —
After the arctic melted, claimants began drilling the newly exposed skin for metals and oil. Among with the smog of machinery and under the feet of men, Earth exhaled something never before seen. A substance stimulating cell division assailed the air around Terra, causing lifeforms to die riddled with tumors, only to have their bodies be reborn into new organisms and die again. Over and over.
Hurried scribbles of scientists and paniced governments preceded the bloody spiral that would eventually end the world.

You play as one of two dying survivors. Regular people who have taken it upon themselves to hunt down the source of this misery and end it. So that whatever life evolves to replace mankind in the far future has a chance.

— The Gameplay Loop —
The gameplay is divided into three parts. The dungeons, the camper van, and the map.
When a new game launches, you start in a randomly generated dungeon with handmade rooms such as this:

It is nighttime and here you navigate the dungeon, exploring, searching for supplies and keep an eye and ear alert for any monstrous abominations that wander the world. Avoid them, fight them if you must and know when to flee.
If it gets too dangerous, head for an extraction which takes you back to your camper van and advances the time to the morning.

Here you use the supplies you have found to cook food, patch up wounds, cure ailments and craft equipment like weapons and upgrades for the van.

Once satisfied, you go over to the map as shown below:

Every day you have movement points to navigate the map with. As you move, dungeon opportunities and events reveal themselves. (The above screenshot shows a player contemplating risking an event)
You complete objectives taking you closer to your goal and when daytime is over and night falls, you pick a dungeon opportunity and risk your life for vital supplies once again.

Dreadveil relies on atmosphere to deliver its experience. The game is slow paced with spikes of explosive and chaotic moments at times. Sound and lighting play significant roles in the varied and moody dungeon environments taking place in cities, forests, swamps, harbors, Antarctic stations and inside enormous living giants.

Finally, here are some artworks made for the game:
These were made as 3D renders and painted over.
Main artwork:

Loading screen artwork for the dungeons taking place in cities:

Splash artwork for when you reach Antarctica:

All assets including audio, art, and code is made by me. No AI!
This game has been submitted for Godot’s 2024 showreel.
Slated for release 2025!
Thank you for your time!

[duckbanditdan]

This looks great. I’m sure it’s brilliantly tense to play.

It looks like you’ve struck a good balance between the tension building, low action, spooky noises parts, and the sudden high action dramatic parts. I particularly enjoyed the zombie bursting out of the door after the player for some reason. I was sure there was going to be something horrid in the water, it was a solid fakeout before the zombie encounter at the end.

The core loop sounds really interesting. What happens when you die? Do you start again from the start of a roguelike campaign, or is it just mission over with a more traditional campaign around it? I think maybe I read too much into the “die again. Over and over” part of the narrative but it put roguelikes in my mind and I feel like the tension would really shine there. A traditional campaign would be equally exciting, but I’m still curious to know which approach you’ve taken.

The additional environments look great as well. I’ll look forward to seeing what it looks like at release!

[jesusemora]

looks interesting

[inkarian.designs]

Hi, thanks for the comment!
You lose your progress when you die, as in a rougelike. I figured the tension of horror would mix well with the anxiety of losing your progress if you make a bad mistake. Really makes your eyes widen to every little sound cue when far in to the game.

[duckbanditdan]

Ah, that’s awesome.

I was trying to come across as impartial, since I didn’t know what your plan was, but if I’m honest that is the answer I wanted

Where are you going to be releasing? I checked for a Steam page to follow but I guess it’s either too early or it’s going to be elsewhere.

[inkarian.designs]

I intend to release it on Steam, Itch.io, Humble, Epic Games and GOG. At this time the game is not visible on any of the platforms as me being a dummy, I did not have the foresight to set this up before Godot’s showreel submission deadline. I am currently going through the process and will hopefully have a page up on steam soon.
If you want to follow the game you could follow my twitter until the Steam page is up, after which I will post when the game’s page is up!
Twitter link: x.com

[KingGD]

The art looks great, what about it? can you share us, is it made in blender only? I am talking about the models.

[rovingdevdude]

Great looking game, very good horror, but you may want to adjust the storyline slightly. Having just two people survive and it be a suicide mission might not really set a good tone for people to want to play it. I’m all for grimdark but this might take it to an excessiveness.

[inkarian.designs]

Hi!
The artworks started of as 3D renders using models made for the game. I’ve used blender to make all the 3D models. With a keen eye you might be able to spot one or two buildings in the city loading screen artwork that matches the buildings seen in the gameplay reveal video.
Also, the woman in the Main Artwork is the model used for the player in the video.
The skies in the artworks comes from photos i have taken using my phone outside.
In Affinity Photo, I have then layered the 3D rendered image with a transparent sky on top of the picture of the real sky i have taken with my phone. Using my drawing tablet i have then hand-painted over the image to give the “painterly feel” as well as correcting all the weird visuals that usually come with 3D renders.

[duckbanditdan]

I don’t have a twitter account, but I’m following this thread so if you put an update here too hopefully I’ll see it!

Good luck getting all those pages up and running, I’m sure it’s quite the ordeal. That’s a good problem to have though - it means your game is nearly at market!

[inkarian.designs]

Dreadveil now has a store page on Steam. How exciting!

[duckbanditdan]

Looks great! Wishlisted and followed