- 2025 YEAR-END DEVELOPMENT UPDATE - 9 November 2025
As we pass the 11th year of development, it's time to provide yet another update. COMPLETEDThe game is 99% complete and only missing some final musical and text elements as outlined below. All game elements (levels, cutscenes, menus/systems, etc.) have been merged together into a single, fully-playable build. This is a significant milestone to have a fully playable beta.Voiceover underwent a casting call and final recordings of NPC characters to complete the roster for cutscenes. All scenes are now fully voiced in English. There are no plans at this time to have cutscenes voiced in other languages.Final voiceover selections have been completed and are now in the core game. Across all cutscenes, there were over 6 hours of voiceover that required review and editing for final-use composites. This was a staggering undertaking from an editing perspective.Sound effects have been added to cuts…
- Development progress and 2017 demo deactivation - 14 March 2025
Hello, everyone! We wanted to post an update here regarding the current development status and deactivation of the demo that was previously available. For those of you that haven't followed the project, we announced Anathema in 2015 when indie games wishing to release on Steam required a community approval known as Steam Greenlight. During that time, the game was far from ready but we wanted community feedback if there was any interest in the game concept before we pushed forward into a lengthy development cycle. Now, the process of listing a game on Steam is much more straight-forward and does not require a community approval cycle to be listed on Steam. In 2017, we released an early pre-alpha demo of the game in its state at that time, but still very far from completion and release. We continued to work on this project for years in our free time outside of family, friends and day-to-d…
- 2023 YEAR-END DEVELOPMENT UPDATE - 27 December 2023
As we gather to bid farewell to 2023, this seemed like a great (and long overdue) opportunity to provide an update on Anathema's development. Overall, 2023 was subjected to multiple setbacks and delays due to somber personal life-events that took precedence and attention away from Anathema, but we managed to exit the year nonetheless with some major milestones. Please read below for further details! GAME-RELATED All in-game audio has been completely remastered. This allows for more headroom in the digital audio spectrum and should produce far less "clipping" audio and artifacts that was present in the 2017 demo. The cover artwork is currently being drawn by our good friend Craig Daversa (his game can be found here). We can't wait to unveil it when it's ready; the work-in-progress updates we've seen have been fantastic. The polish phase has commenced. Below are select comparison screensh…
- October 2020 Development Update - 24 October 2020
Happy Halloween!!! Where to begin? If you've kept up with prior development updates, you're aware we are working on this project around our day jobs with our free time. When Covid hit earlier this year, our employers responded like most - reduced work schedules or even furloughs. In a way, this was somewhat of a blessing in disguise because it allowed extra time to make significant milestone progress. Since March of this year, we have completed all level's designs, layouts, and art assets. I repeat - all levels are fully functional and completely built, save for that final bit of polish at the end of all development cycles to make them shine their best. This may not be very exciting for you, but this is huge progress. In the end, Anathema will end up with 13 levels total, instead of the originally planned 12 levels. The second major milestone achieved is 100% of all enemies are complete…
- October 2019 Development Update - 20 October 2019
Happy October! We don't have as much this time around to share with you as we did last month, but this time around we will show you some audio/visual goodies! In last month's update we shared images of the work-in-progress for the newest level we've been developing - The Ossuary. In this video, we share a brief look of this level in motion, including one of three mini bosses you will encounter. The player can progress through this level's three routes in any order they choose, but must defeat all guardians before they are allowed passage into the next area - the Vampyr Den. Feast your eyes and let us know your thoughts! To change things up this month a little bit, our resident composer has whipped up a special remix just for you. For those that have played the demo, you will be familiar with the tune this remix is an arrangement of - Gravekeeper's Hollow. When thinking of games' stage 1…
- September 2019 Development Update - 15 September 2019
Happy September! It has been an excruciatingly long time since our last update, but I assure you we have been hard at work! In this update we will go over the latest information about the status of development, showcase a brand new player sprite, new HUD and latest level! There is a LOT to share below so let's get started! We would like to start by unveiling the re-design of the sprite for Aurora Delacroix. When development of Anathema began in October 2014 we began using pre-made, royalty free assets available on the web to make pre-rendered sprites. As development has progressed we became disenchanted with the design currently in the demo. We knew that it was important to give Aurora some original flair of our own design. Around May 2018 we reached out to our friend, Craig Daversa with Pyroklastic Games who has a great game that can be found here, that has worked with us on prior arti…
- Demo V1.2 Now Available - 26 August 2018
Hello all, A new version of the demo was pushed out today. Following is a list of changes/updates. Let us know if you run into any issues! Fixed bug where cutscene would not play before the final boss fight of the demo. Fixed a control bug where the player could become stuck on the ladder if they attacked while rapidly pressing left or right. Fixed an animation bug where the attack animation froze when attacking immediately as the player dismounts a ladder from the bottom. General bug fixes with the config tool.
- May 2018 Update - 30 May 2018
Hello! Thank you for joining us for our May 2018 update! Since we have been experiencing tropical weather causing flash flooding, I thought it would be appropriate to go with a water-based theme for this update. Following are images that tie together for one particular level in Anathema. CONCEPT ART - "The Shipwreck Graveyard" This is a stage that we knew early on we had to have in Anathema. If you are fearful of deep waters (and what may dwell within them) then this may be one of the creepier areas in the game. A torrential storm rages across this vast ocean, causing violent waves and disturbing its inhabitants. The player must use the floating wreckage of fleets torn apart by the tempest to attempt to make it to the nearest shore for safety. The problem is there are all kinds of monsters of all sizes in the waters waiting for you, including the behemoth Dragon Turtle. Some of you may…
- April 2018 Update - 29 April 2018
Hello all, We're back with another monthly update! Today I'd like to bring you some interesting new developments in the asset creation department. As some of you know, we've used Daz Studio since the project's inception, as none of us were really artists at heart. Daz provided the best solution for graphics that weren't downright atrocious. We initially wanted to present the game with pixel art, but quality artists were well beyond the scope of our budget. Unfortunately, for the amount of animation we wanted, pixel art would be been incredibly expensive and we simply couldn't afford that out of our own wallets. As a result, the pre-rendered art style was essentially born out of necessity. In the end, we think this is a nice contrast to the current happenings in the indie market as it helps Anathema stand out visually against other titles. Some might say pre-rendered graphics should have…
- March 2018 Update - 14 March 2018
Hello all, I apologize for the delayed update. I had hoped that there would be more info to share after a slight delay but unfortunately that is not the case - so I will be sharing a lot more concept art and behind the scenes images. We have a developer's meeting this weekend so there should be more juicy tidbits in the next update. In the meantime, here we go! CONCEPT ART - "The Snowpeak Village" This level is an important moment in the story of Anathema and is a real turning point in the narrative. This is an early concept art and doesn't reflect all of the ideas we now have for this level. The plans for this level are to implement a heavily vertical element - think the Waterfalls stage in Contra, but with horizontal elements also. As you progress through the level you will encounter windmills that introduce some new elements to the platforming. The player will be faced against strong…
- March 2018 Update - 14 March 2018
Hello all, I apologize for the delayed update. I had hoped that there would be more info to share after a slight delay but unfortunately that is not the case - so I will be sharing a lot more concept art and behind the scenes images. We have a developer's meeting this weekend so there should be more juicy tidbits in the next update. In the meantime, here we go! CONCEPT ART - "The Snowpeak Village" This level is an important moment in the story of Anathema and is a real turning point in the narrative. This is an early concept art and doesn't reflect all of the ideas we now have for this level. The plans for this level are to implement a heavily vertical element - think the Waterfalls stage in Contra, but with horizontal elements also. As you progress through the level you will encounter windmills that introduce some new elements to the platforming. The player will be faced against strong…
- February 2018 Update - 2 February 2018
Hello all, As mentioned in the December post, our goal is to bring you regular updates throughout the course of development. Our first update is some general information regarding concept art and a new tool in development for Anathema. CONCEPT ART - "The Ossuary" If you're like me, you've played the demo and you're familiar with the first few areas of the game. It's incredibly refreshing to be able to create new areas and concept art. I'm bored of looking at the areas in the demo and am so happy to sink my creative teeth into new areas. The first new area concept art that I would like to unveil is The Ossuary. This is planned to be the stage immediately following the swamp area and will probably have the most gothic aesthetic in the game. The image speaks for itself, but among the litters of bones will be numerous traps and hazards waiting for the player. While we have made a conscious…
- February 2018 Update - 2 February 2018
Hello all, As mentioned in the December post, our goal is to bring you regular updates throughout the course of development. Our first update is some general information regarding concept art and a new tool in development for Anathema. CONCEPT ART - "The Ossuary" If you're like me, you've played the demo and you're familiar with the first few areas of the game. It's incredibly refreshing to be able to create new areas and concept art. I'm bored of looking at the areas in the demo and am so happy to sink my creative teeth into new areas. The first new area concept art that I would like to unveil is The Ossuary. This is planned to be the stage immediately following the swamp area and will probably have the most gothic aesthetic in the game. The image speaks for itself, but among the litters of bones will be numerous traps and hazards waiting for the player. While we have made a conscious…
- More Updates Coming Soon - 24 December 2017
Hello all, First, I must apologize for the silence. Working on Anathema in our spare time means that we don't usually get to invest as much time on development on a daily basis as we would like. Our goal is to really change this in 2018 and we've spent the last few months really planning the rest of the game out to the most minimal detail. During the course of these meetings and plans, we've refined many of the details of the game on many of its layers and hope to wrap up the planning completely. Up until now, most of the game was planned as we went and drastically slowed development down, in tandem with working within the confines of our means available to us. The goal is to have everything planned out so from there forward it is simply a matter of making it happen. I will be making it a goal to issue monthly updates in a blog style format to really showcase what we have been working o…
- More Updates Coming Soon - 24 December 2017
Hello all, First, I must apologize for the silence. Working on Anathema in our spare time means that we don't usually get to invest as much time on development on a daily basis as we would like. Our goal is to really change this in 2018 and we've spent the last few months really planning the rest of the game out to the most minimal detail. During the course of these meetings and plans, we've refined many of the details of the game on many of its layers and hope to wrap up the planning completely. Up until now, most of the game was planned as we went and drastically slowed development down, in tandem with working within the confines of our means available to us. The goal is to have everything planned out so from there forward it is simply a matter of making it happen. I will be making it a goal to issue monthly updates in a blog style format to really showcase what we have been working o…
- Demo Version 1.1 Is Now Available - 19 August 2017
Hello Everyone! Apologies for the delay in the patch. We had hoped to release it last week, but there were unforeseen delays with our group of external testers so we did as much internal testing as possible. Unfortunately, there are only so many bugs that we could squash in this patch and really wanted to get more external testing in. So please note that this patch has only been moderately tested and you may run into some bugs. Please do not hesitate to forward any information on bugs you find as it will help us ensure a higher quality experience. Being that we're just a few guys and rely on the goodwill of outside testers when they can test, it's tough to catch everything. But please know that we do want to whip this into top shape, we just don't have many avenues to get the feedback needed before releasing to you publicly but this may be the best avenue. Below is a list of everything…
- Demo Version 1.1 Is Now Available - 19 August 2017
Hello Everyone! Apologies for the delay in the patch. We had hoped to release it last week, but there were unforeseen delays with our group of external testers so we did as much internal testing as possible. Unfortunately, there are only so many bugs that we could squash in this patch and really wanted to get more external testing in. So please note that this patch has only been moderately tested and you may run into some bugs. Please do not hesitate to forward any information on bugs you find as it will help us ensure a higher quality experience. Being that we're just a few guys and rely on the goodwill of outside testers when they can test, it's tough to catch everything. But please know that we do want to whip this into top shape, we just don't have many avenues to get the feedback needed before releasing to you publicly but this may be the best avenue. Below is a list of everything…
- The Demo is Live! - 14 July 2017
Enough talk, the demo is now live on our store page! Available a day early for everyone on Steam! Thank you all for your support and Greenlight votes. We've got some great things in store for you!
