Hell Cleaners

Hey everyone, yOKzONa here. I'm the lead designer on Hell Cleaners.For the whole month of October I'm going to be streaming live, playing the game, talking about how we made it, and answering any question you throw at me. Game questions, dev questions, "why did you make the Doombas so dumb" questions. All of it is fair game.Watch here: This is our first game ever. Our team is small and I have spent almost a year vacuuming demon bodies, so honestly I just want to hang out with the people actually playing it. If something in the game annoys you, come tell me to my face. If something makes you laugh, I want to hear that too. The stuff you tell me goes straight into the update plans.A few things worth knowing:The big content update just went live last week, so if you have not played in a while there is a bunch of new stuff waiting for you.The game is 30% off in the Autumn Sale through October 8. Cheapest it has ever been.If you have ideas, complaints, or weird strategies you want to show off, bring them to a stream. I will be taking questions live every time.Come hang out. I will be the guy in hell with the vacuum.yOKzONa WFP Entertainment

The Big UpdateHey Cleaners,This one took a while, and here's why: we spent it steering the game back toward what people loved about the demo, then pushing past it. Here's what's in.PerformanceThis is the big one. Our worst-case stress test is 50+ Doombas, 6 grinders running, every zone unlocked and bodies everywhere. That used to run at about 12 FPS on our test PC. It now runs at around 40.Better frame rate from the first minute through a full late-game base.About 3 GB less video memory used in that same late-game test.Loading a save is much faster.Loot piles are backFor performance we had changed the grinder to drop fewer, more valuable pieces of loot. It worked, but it lost the thing that made the demo fun: massive piles of loot. With the performance gains above, the grinder is back to volume. Big piles, like the demo.The Hell Dump is backLeave a portal open too long and bodies dump into the area all at once. It breaks up the routine and gives you a real reason to get those portals closed.Work orders, rebuiltA new work order board in the Field Manual: zone tabs, cards you can click to track, and rewards you claim in the book.A clear path through every zone, from your first portal to finishing the game.Finishing a zone now tells you exactly what's left ("12 more Brutes").A progress bar on the HUD, and markers that point you to what's new.More tutorials for the mechanics that needed a better introduction.The Cathedral gate now has four spiked counterweights on chains. Load them with limbs, or tether one and pull.MinionsLimbas, Hurlas and Creepas now pop out of the purifier tubes when you buy them.Hurla navigation has been rebuilt from the ground up.Fixed Limbas spinning in place inside the Cathedral.Doomba names now stick.Known issue: Hurlas can still get stuck in a couple of spots in the bell tower. We know. Still on it.Worms, portals and gatesThe final portals are in, including worm portals that drop grubs you can vacuum up right away.Fixed the stretched, unkillab...

What We're Working On + The Plan for MondayHey Cleaners,Wanted to give you guys a rundown of what we're working on right now and what we're aiming to have ready for Monday. The plan for MondayA full new work order list. We're building out a complete work order list with zone-specific work orders that take you all the way from closing the portals up to completing the game. Every zone should feel like it has a clear path now.More tutorials. We're adding some additional tutorials to help explain a few of the mechanics that we know could use a better introduction.Body physics fixes. We know about the bodies getting glued to the floor, floating, and getting stretched and warped when they spawn out of the portals. We're working on all of it.The final portals. We're adding the last portals to the game, including two worm portals over the worm area. These will drop small worms that you can vacuum up into limbs immediatelyPolish and FPS. More overall polish, and we're continuing to chip away at frame rate and FPS issues. The Hell DumpIf you played the demo, you remember the Hell Dump. The reason it's not in the game right now, and why you're seeing a slower trickle of bodies instead, is honestly just performance issues. But we've been working on it, and we're exploring how to bring it back. We want that really cool cinematic moment where bodies just aggressively dump into an area if you haven't cleared it or closed those portals. It made an impact, and we want it back.We're also working on more cool little cinematic moments in general. One example: when you ring the bell, there's going to be a fun little hand animation to go with it. LocalizationWe've noticed we have a growing Russian-speaking audience, thanks to several players and streamers who have picked up the game and really enjoyed it. So we're actively looking into localization. Based on where our players are right now, Russian and German are at the top of the list, so those are probably where we'll start. Down the r...