COVEN - Summer 2024 Demo

Alrighty, so the first time I played Coven it was... Kind of bad. Ammo was STUPIDLY scarce, magic felt pointless and overall the feel of the game was very lacking. However, with the 2024 demo a lot has changed. I am really glad that you have addressed these issues. Ammo is still scarce, but not to a ridiculous degree, kind of in a way that encourages you to experiment more. Magic system is far easier to use, I actually don't mind the fact that we don't get alt fires anymore because they weren't very useful in the first place. The atmosphere has been improved DRASTICALLY, I love how more gloomy it looks. But, I do have my fair share of issues that I would like to be addressed in the early access (or hell, even in another demo).

Firstly, please let us rebind keys and as well invert mouse scrolling. Not a huge issue because really the binds aren't that bad except for one being the magic switching. I disabled caps lock key because I don't care for it, but that also means I can't switch magic abilities.

Going off the magic issue, the system just doesn't work for me. For example, the book where you can view the magic abilities is bugged, as pressing right click doesn't do anything. And also, even though I bought the hanging spell, it didn't equip in the next level.

And lastly, this is perhaps the biggest current issue with coven: The movement. It sucks. I'm sorry, but this game feels terrible to move around in. I mean okay, walking around isn't too bad but literally everything else is just awful. Crouching and jumping for example. I'm going to be honest, I have no idea why my acid meter doesn't go up to 100 when I do these moves because the bobbing is... Remove it. Just remove it, don't even give us an option to keep it because I can guarantee you that every player will turn it off and for good reason. It is incredibly disorienting, and I don't think you'll lose much if you just axed it. Sliding and dashing have a fairly unique problem, and that's that I don't think the coding considers strafing. Sure, if you move directly in a straight line then it works fine, but this is an oldschool shooter so you'll rarely do that. I think you need to check up on that, just to make it feel a tad nicer.

But overall, I'm glad that Coven is heading in a far better direction, and I'm sure it'll be great. I have nothing but good luck to bestow upon you for this project.

It’s pretty rad!

Phenomenal game, been playing it nonstop lately ♥

Hi! I was wondering if you have any plans to add something like map editor/tools to work with? I would love to create custom content for the game. Thanks.

Hello! Nice game!
Are you interested in some cooperation? We're game music composers

That was really fun 

had a great time playing 2 episode. so fun to interact with all the stuff(especially nailing heads to the wall with crossbows :)) can't wait for the full version!

Just played it. Was stuck at 2nd level with silver door/silver key, although I thought its in my inventory it just wouldn't insert in the door. Then I went around some more and found it. I love the aestheticcs. Great job! Smashing through the enemies I really had to laugh it off cause of the great gore and ambience. Just also thought the bullet time was more anticlimatic than useful. I was looking for your Discord but coudlnt find it! Anyways, wishlisted, followed, and sure buy! 

After playing it in entirety, I definitely wanna see this one as a full fledged game, the axe was so damn good that I didn't even need the sword or the guns at all, full sigma activity, and it hits the spot on that unreal front, the similarities to to the '98 title, female protagonist, story explained through found texts, A+ imo.

Hi Ethan,

I loved the demo and was surprised that I could shoot throwing axes and break doors while sprinting. It's good that you didn't add any tutorials. It's better to experience those details and find them out yourself. You can add features like stunning the enemies after you sprint past them, or being able to play shield only, just like the type of enemy with only a shield. Also, you might want to add some text to the books lying around. Perhaps some Bible quotes, or better yet, your own mythology. It'd make the world more immersive if we could read the books.

By the way, I am an official Turkish translator. I can help out with the localization, if you want to add Turkish.

Best.

Just finished playing the Steam demo, awesome work!

To start, the atmosphere is amazing. The story and general environments are very convincing and playing as a woman believed to be a witch is very unique. I loved the weapon arsenal and the mana abilities, they all feel well-balanced and "juicy" enough in mechanics, animation, and sound design. It did take me some time to get used to the alt-fires but once I did everything went great.

A few small flaws (blemishes really, nothing major) were the music felt a bit repetitive at times. Listening to the same song for 45 minutes was a bit tiring but the crossfade of the electric guitar helped a lot, so kudos for that. Also, really minor but native ultrawide resolution (2560x1080) doesn't work properly, so I'd advise either disabling it completely or adjusting your UI canvases to scale accordingly.

Keep up the good work, can't wait for the full release!

Thanks for sharing the RD2022 demo! Really love what you are doing, love the atmosphere, the story, the progress you've made from the first demo and also that you're so responsive to people.

Best of luck, this game + Incision + Cultic are the next big three retros to look forward to with Wrath, Dread Templar, Graven and HROT soon coming out of EA! Please keep it up!

Hello!

I've seen many lets plays and want to experience this for myself, but I have a bug - after the intro when I wake up in a cave - the screen sides blink in and out of view changing the aspect ratio and FOV. I've tried launching in different resolutions, FOV, PSX mode, different monitor and changing nvidia panel not to scale anything etc. Nothing helps.

Otherwise the game is already on a wishlist on Steam!

Regards,

P

So after playing both the origonal demo, and now the Halloween demo about a hundred times. I would have to say this is the greatest retro shooter I have ever played. It feels like the perfect homage to Blood and Hexen. The concept alone using the Salem Witch Trials as a place for this shooter is just perfect. Most replica shooters still feel modern in some ways that can sometimes either hinder the experience or make it more akin to modern shooters. This feels fluid and congruent with every old school shooter with its own modernizations. 

I think my only comments would be that I kinda miss the vomit I am not gonna lie, but I kinda feel like stylistically its better without it, the green bile on the floor did tend to be distracting when you were trying to just look at the mess you made of five or so villagers.  But it was an incredibly fun and inventive attack from the origional demo. If there were like cannibal runs or no eating runs or even a morality system of sorts it would have been cool to see how the health benefit and vomit attack played into that mentality. But I dont know if that would overcomplicate the very streamlined experience as it is. 

I like all the weapon models a lot, but I feel like the look of the standard shotgun just feels slightly out of place I am not sure why. But I still love it nonethless. Also I have not found every secret in this new demo yet I am still struggling with a few, so I assume the sword is tied to one of them and I just have to get there. But the only other melee weapon I have not seen yet is the pitchfork. Again that could be tied to a secret and I just need to find it, but I just wanted to say it was nice seeing multiple options in the origional demo.

I also wanted to say I love all the new little details added to this demo, (the blood dripping off the axe in the origional is probally one of the greatest details I have seen in a game in years) opening chests with the axe or a gun, shooting off the knights armor, beheading enemies, or taking out their legs and watching them crawl away from the fight. All of those are absolutley amazing it feels just like in the origional Duke Nukem when you would find those details like being able to flush the toilet. Just another litle thing to make the game feel immersive. Even being able to change your hud and gun postion is huge to me, more games need that kind of choice and its kinda skipped out on. 

But the new enemies alone are amazing, I love the knights they are so great. But I kinda also miss the zombies, but again that whole green vs red splatter effect thing kinda made sense style wise. But they really reminded me of Thief where you could find the zombies in the mines it was a cool little touch. I tried getting the zombies to attack the villagers and even though it did not work it was nice being able to try and think creativley in a game and not feel like you would get punished for it. 

All in all I have rambled way to long but if you read this I hope you understand you have made a fantastic game and it has so much potetional and has been so much fun to play. I wasant around for big titles like Doom and Blood so being able to play this was very excting. I cant wait to see more.

(Also if theres any typos I am sorry in advance.)

i love it, cant wait to see the final project

I already really liked the area in my first playthrough but after having played this version of the stage, comparatively speaking, this is a more fun design and so much more visually impressive than the last demo. 

I like the new enemy types and landing headshots with the crossbow is my new favorite thing, well, only because the super shotgun runs out of ammo so fast but that's mostly my fault. 

I haven't been keeping up to date with this as much as I'd like to but I hope everything is going well with development and I wish you and Phil the best.

Thanks for making games!

It says its an extractable file but its not a zip folder how do i run this?

The new demo is challenging but good and the dash came in very useful at the end section

Great game so far, have been looking forward to this update! Here are a short gameplay vid :) Will make a longer soon.

This was an awesome game to play! I hope you continue to work on this. also I kept trying to break open those coffins to see if I'll get an Easter egg. I tried hitting every one of them.

Great game! Atmosphere, movement, moment-to-moment gameplay and overall design are absolutely great. Can't wait to hear more about this project since I want to play more!

Really awesome little demo! This, Incision and Cultic are the future of the retro FPS genre. Awesome atmosphere, really cryptic, love the fact that you can light lamps to progress, eat corpses for health and puke on enemies. Really novel, evil, ugly, dark and all-round general good stuff! Nice weapons too.

Only criticism: the voice acting. I know it's  question of taste, but the voices of the enemies sound pretty terrible.

Otherwise, good shit! Really looking forward to future releases!

Just finished the demo, and I really liked it!! I'm a huge fan of Blood, so seeing this game makes me really excited to follow its development. Hard to explain, but the game just felt really nice and cozy.

What angle do you think you're going to take the game in the future? Maybe go for a really campy vibe, something a little serious, or somewhere in between? I can see mechanics like eating and vomiting getting really fun and sillier as development goes on... vomit based puzzles would be a joy to see lol

Can't wait to see where it goes from here!

This as potencial, I like the gore and the time period. I hope that the gun sounds get better in the future because now they sound a bit weak and it would also be cool when I shoot a shotgun shell at point-blank the enemy model gets always bloody (because sometimes they dont get bloody).

Overall I'm looking forward to see this evolve and become a great game!

Played the demo and was very impressed! I agree that the torch puzzle (part 2 for me) could be a little more clear but I see it was already addressed. My only other complaint was that the axe felt a bit finnicky with its short range. That really could be me playing poorly and it was helped a lot with the time mechanic so it's not a big issue. I had a blast and I really wanted to keep playing after level 1!

My god your game is the best indie fps (aside from Dusk) I have ever played. You definitely *spoilers* earned the highest grade possible in my review video. Do you have a patreon or kickstarter because I'd love to donate

Well done! I enjoyed Coven, there is some stuff I think it's worth mentioning.

First of all, I loved the weapon variety, I think I've discovered all the available weapons for the demo (Axe, fork, dual pistols, shotgun, xbow, grenades). All the weapons were great but I really liked the xbow, specially because of the alt shot. I think you're going to address this later but I feel the grenade is quite cheap in terms of VFX (loved the resting hand pose though).

The visuals were great, I liked that the environment is breakable and that you can pick up some stuff like torches and crates.

At some particular  situations I found myself running around without knowing what to do, specially the torch puzzles parts, maybe you can find a way to highlight the task the player must do.

I liked how you can slow down time (even though I didn't use this too much, I think it will be useful on later stages). Eating stuff is disgusting and I love it.

Overall this is a good demo, I really liked it. Keep it up!

When I was messing around with sliding, the witch slowed down permanently, even out of crouch (I think because I alt+tabbed?)

Ok, first of all, I'd like to say that this game is great! So far I haven't come across any issues. The weapons are mostly satisfying, though it's kinda easy to run out of ammo (around the big tree I ran out of shotgun and almost ran out of pistol ammo). The melee weapons feel a bit weak though. Something I'd add is more ambushes, John Romero style, you know - really dicky ones - because on highest difficulty, the game still felt too easy, I only died once and that was because I wasn't paying attention. Otherwise, I really liked the visual storytelling, the notes, the health mechanics, the easter eggs. Keep it up! This game has great potential!

Awesome game my friend and my viewers really liked it. The game ran fine for me and I didn't experience any issues/bugs. Yes it was difficult but I did make it through the level :P I think I played an earlier version so things may be different now.  I had some great reaction in this one and I would recommend it to others. I play tons of horror games and this one was another fun one. Hope you enjoy my video :)

Tried out the Demo!