DEVOUR News

Trick or treat?

Here at DEVOUR, we're celebrating spooky season with our yearly Halloween Event, which will run until November 6th at 9am PST. In this update, we're also thrilled to bring you a brand new emote system, a new playable character, new outfits, and more. We've also listened to player feedback asking for more to work towards and unlock in the game. Read on for more details!

[h3] The Manor [/h3]

Before we explore the current update, we want to reassure players that we're still hard at work on our upcoming new map The Manor, due Spring 2024. If you haven't seen the concept art for demonic April, check it out now in our recent news post! We'll publish more news as soon as we can with a look at what we've been working on for the map's environment. We can't wait to show you more.

Without further ado, let's check out update 4.2 - it's a big one!

[h3]Kai's Halloween Outfit[/h3]

To unlock this amazing, unique cosmetic for Kai, you need to beat any map on hard or nightmare while playing as him. If you miss out, you'll also be able to purchase the outfit after the Halloween event has ended.



[h3]Pumpkin Robe [/h3]

Unlock this awesomely spooky robe by finding the 50 creepy Halloween pumpkins hidden across all 5 maps. Once unlocked, you'll still be able to wear the robe after the Halloween event has ended. After all, pumpkins are for life, not just for Halloween!

Note: Players who already unlocked the robe during last year's Halloween Event might need to find the 10 pumpkins on the new Slaughterhouse map to retain ownership of it (we understand that this is frustrating - from next year onward you won't have to do this anymore).



[h3]XP Boost[/h3]

Many players enjoy DEVOUR over the Halloween period, so we're enabling a 1.5x EXP boost for the duration of the Halloween Event. Time to grind those cult ranks!

[h3]New Playable Character - Frank Morello [/h3]

Introducing Frank Morello, DEVOUR's newest playable character. A New York native, Frank is a former fisherman and baseball fanatic who left the big apple behind to join the cult in the hope it would bring the power and fortune he craved.



[h3]Emote System [/h3]

We know the character emotes are popular with players, so our devs have been hard at work implementing a brand new emote system, with 35 emotes we think you're going to love.

9 of these emotes are character unique, and can be unlocked by beating any map on Hard difficulty with that character. The rest can be unlocked by spending Ritual Tokens, or by purchasing them as a cosmetic. To find them, go to the Outfits section when in a Lobby, and click on the new Emotes tab. We hope to add more of these in future.

Note: We've also added a Classic Emote Behaviour gameplay setting, which allows you to use the game's 4 original emotes without changing the camera angle.



[h3] Outfits [/h3]

Introducing 10 brand spanking new, purchasable outfits for your favourite (mostly) fashion conscious cult members (click to enlarge):



[h3] Unlockable Golden Robe [/h3]

Beating any DEVOUR map on Nightmare difficulty is a real achievement. Now you can show off your demon banishing skills with this prestigious new Golden Robe, which can be unlocked for each character by beating any map on Nightmare difficulty while playing as them.



[h3]Crow Pet[/h3]

Want your own little bundle of winged darkness following you around in game? Our new crow pet is now available to purchase.



[h3]Full 4.2 Changelog[/h3]

• New playable character: Frank Morello
  
• New, revamped in-game emote system, along with a variety of unique, unlockable emotes that are earned by completing any map with a playable character on Hard difficulty (with new associated achievements)
  
• Golden robes that can be unlocked for each playable character by beating any map on Nightmare difficulty (with new associated achievements)
  
• New purchasable pet: Crow
  
• New Halloween unlockable Kai outfit: Hollow. Unlocked by completing any map with Kai on Hard or Nightmare difficulty during the Halloween event. After the Halloween event ends the outfit will become a purchasable outfit.
  
• A whole range of fun, new purchasable outfits!
  
• 10 new pumpkins to collect on Slaughterhouse to unlock the Halloween robe (Note: Unfortunately it's possible you may need to collect the new pumpkins to retain use of the Halloween robe if you had it before. This won't be necessary again, sorry!)
  
• Fixed issues with flashlights not unlocking correctly after purchase
  
• Fixed a spot on the Town where a player could escape out of bounds if crawling
  
• Fixed gas tank texture appearing reversed on Slaughterhouse
  
• Fixed an issue where hold mode for crouch didn't work correctly in VR
  
• New controller glyphs for Dualshock/Dualsense controllers
  
• Height of the VR camera in the menu now corresponds to player height in VR space for more realism
  
• Vive controller VR hand synchronisation now more correctly matches controller rotation
  
• The Invite Player button in lobby is now hidden in VR if you are not using SteamVR as your OpenXR runtime as a host
  
• Corrected an issue that could cause a player to not laugh on completing a map objective on some maps
  
• Keybinding UI changed from a grid to a list
  
• Animals no longer lock on to food that they can see but they cannot get to. This was often a problem on the Asylum with rats seeing food through the shortcut drop hole
  
• New mouse glyphs are used in keybindings and tutorials
  
• Speaker icon in lobby used to indicate mic activity no longer flickers erractically
  
• Fixed issue where tooltips were empty if a player menu was open in the lobby
  
• Fixed resolution picker not opening in single player
  
• Fixed the description text on hover for outfits/perks/pets/emotes from disappearing when you click the item
  
• Improved the hitbox on Slaughterhouse boars so they are easier to kill if they are very close to the player
  

We'd like to thank everyone who's supported us as we've transitioned to map release schedule of roughly once a year. While we want to continue making new maps with original demons, we're also keen to avoid the developer burnout that is sadly all too common in our industry. From the conceptual stages through to release, maps simply take time to get right. We're still as committed as ever to the future and longevity of DEVOUR - we love bringing you all new scares!

Twitter: @DEVOUR_GAME
Discord: https://discord.gg/q4tTa2Z

We know many of you have been waiting for some solid information on our next map - so here it is! Please also check out the rest of the post for info on our upcoming 4.2 Halloween update, which will include some awesome new features and content.



We've been hard at work brainstorming the major written, artistic and gameplay elements for a map we're calling The Manor.

With The Slaughterhouse, we pushed the gore factor in a way we had never done before, and we've been thrilled to see the positive response players have had to its bloody themes and claustrophobic feel. With The Manor, we are challenging ourselves again. The map will feature April as the demon, evil crows as her minions, and will be set in a Victorian-era manor house (and its gardens) in England, UK. We're working on creating a haunted, ghostly feel, which is something we've long wanted to do properly. We can also confirm that players will likely be moving around in a way that's completely different to our previous maps.

We don't have a firm idea yet of when the map will release, but it will likely be the first quarter of 2024. We know this might feel like a long wait, but as a small indie studio we do our best to put out new maps of a high quality as quickly as we can. We really appreciate your support and understanding!

Without further ado, please check out our concept art for demonic April and her crow minions:







Halloween is our favourite holiday of the year! We can confirm that our annual event will take place again, running from 10am PST on September 28th until 10am PST on November 2nd. During the event there will be pumpkin collecting across the maps, a new character-specific Halloween outfit to unlock, and the usual XP boost.

The Halloween update will also include lots of other exciting stuff:

• A new playable character called Frank (who we know you're going to love!)
  
• A whole new, revamped in-game emote system, along with a variety of unique, unlockable emotes
  
• A prestigious golden robe that can be unlocked for each playable character by beating any map on Nightmare difficulty, plus new associated achievements
  
• Purchasable pet crow
  
• A whole range of fun, new purchasable outfits
  

Full details to come when 4.2 drops in September. For now, take a look at a couple of teaser images for the update:

Say hi to Frank Morello:


Emote wheel:


As ever, thanks for your fantastic support. We'll drop more details and some previews of The Manor environment and assets when we can - probably later in the summer. Until then, hold onto your goats..

Twitter: @DEVOUR_GAME
Discord: https://discord.gg/q4tTa2Z

- Fixed a regression where Anna could not knock players out that were inside of a cage

Hello goat sacrificers!

We've finally had time to dig into our backlog since The Slaughterhouse update and we're pleased to bring you a number of the most highly requested features and fixes, as well as a new purchasable outfit for Sam (bonus points for those who recognise where it draws its inspiration from!)

We can also confirm that work on the next DEVOUR map is well underway, and that the team is really excited about its direction. We'll share more info about our schedule for the map when we have a clearer idea of it ourselves. Please see below for a look at Sam's awesome new outfit, and a detailed change log.



Full 4.1 change log:

• New purchasable 'Victory' outfit for Sam
  
• Players can vote to skip ending cut-scenes
  
• Game will pause in single-player when the menu is opened
  
• New button for hosts in the menu to "Exit to Lobby" (instead of exiting back to the main menu)
  
• When opening a locked door with a key for the first time, an unlock sound will play
  
• Keys are now greyed out in the list once used (all maps)
  
• Single player can now use text chat (useful for making notes for yourself whilst playing)
  
• Added camera shake to the elevator during the intro on The Asylum
  
• Improved performance for hosts when opening/closing doors. (Older machines may
  have previously had some stutter with this, but it's now been eliminated)
  
• Fixed an issue where Inmates and Demons would sometimes ignore UV flashlight after a player reconnects to a game
  
• Added a warning to the server browser when joining public lobbies of the potential for meeting hackers when playing with people online
  
• Boar charge on Slaughterhouse will cancel if a door suddenly blocks the boar mid-charge
  

Twitter: @DEVOUR_GAME
Discord: https://discord.gg/devour

We're aware that some players are finding Slaughterhouse much harder than previous maps. Please note that this is by design! We wanted to really challenge you with this map. That being said, we're seeing most people can complete the game on Normal mode after practicing for a little while. If you are still finding it hard, feel free to pop in to our Discord server where the community will be more than happy to share some tips!

• The late game max speed of boars has been reduced by 15%. Their early game starting speed has been increased by 15%. Ultimately, this means they have less of a differential in speed across the course of a game.
  
• The curve by which Nathan increases his speed has been smoothed. In practice, this means he starts out a bit faster but ends at the same top max speed. Overall, his speed will feel ever so slightly reduced until the last 2 sacrifices which have not been changed. This does not impact his vent speeds.