There are many fun little secrets that come from the world of Deathstate!!!
Here are just a few...
Deathstate Cover Art
- The original concept for Deathstate came from an HTML5 game jam in late 2013.
- Originally the game was titled “Motherlode” as a reference to the line “Bring back the motherlode, Barry" from Beyond the Black Rainbow. It was then changed to Deathstate due to the game series “Motherlode” and “Super Motherlode” already owning the name.
- Originally there was only going to be a male / female character selection, and characters didn't have individual powers.
- Deathstate was first shown to the public at PAX East 2015 and was included in the Indie Megabooth. Our spirits were bolstered by the overwhelming response at the conference and the game was worked on full-time leading up to it’s release in October 2015.
- Gur'chuul the High Starchild (aka: Fat C'thulu) was the first boss created for the game and was shown at PAX, but was not present at launch. He was re-added in the 1.10 content patch as the boss of the new Temple of Qit world.
- Matt Leffer, the lead developer, added mouse controls to the PC version to make it more friendly to people with physical disabilities who can only play the game with one hand. The setting can be found in the options menu.
- The Succubus and Slime were two planned playable characters that were never finished due to their complexity. You can see their sprites in the Achievement icon for unlocking all characters.
- The Desecration system evolved from a desire to let players increase difficulty without going through a traditional Difficulty Menu. Insanity Mode was added in a post-launch patch to challenge the top-end players.
- The music in Deathstate was inspired by horror movie soundtracks and contemporary synth wave music (Perturbator, Umberto). When making the music it was mostly composed with touchstone gothic sounds and synth instruments; some of which intentionally resemble audio from a Sega Genesis.
- A lot of things added to Deathstate have been from fan ideas, suggestions and bug reports in the Steam forums and other social media. Overall the fans have been a huge motivation to step up our game. Secrets we’ve added have been found very quickly, inspiring us to keep creating more difficult challenges.