CTHON is one of those games where it can be scary without any jumpscares and I love the design and soundscape. However, the Standard difficulty is too hard for most players and I find only the Beginner difficulty to be of the right balance
Funnily enough — no. I actually heard about the novel after I released Cthon, and have been meaning to read it ever since but haven’t gotten around to it. The concept of mines beneath a planet surface is eerily similar to the game though. The title Cthon was a reference to the Greek term of being “of or under the earth”, and fit well as the game uses a lot of concepts from an earlier unreleased rogue-like game I toyed with for a while about delving an ancient Greek necropolis, except Cthon sets things in the far future.
Thank you for the video game. It runs smoothly on Windows 10 x64bits. Shame it didn’t include the Steam key when I bought it. But honestly it doesn’t matter as I’m not a big fan of Steam. Thanks and happy new year!
There should be a "Claim Steam key" section beneath the download buttons on the game's download page. If that is not showing up, I would try contacting itch directly by emailing support@itch.io. This happened once to another user and they were able to get it solved.
Bought it on Steam, and I was wondering if it’s possible to have a SMG.
This is way better executed than One More Dungeon, the Unity-based Hexen-rogue on Switch/PC by Ratalaika and (forgot the dev name)
Hi! Thanks for buying it! By SMG I'm assuming you mean submachine gun? Otherwise it is a term I'm unfamiliar with. You can build the primary gun into a rapid fire weapon by activating several coolant pumps. I appreciate the kind words, and have not played One More Dungeon myself. As I'm working on a sequel to CTHON, I'd love to know what you felt was better executed here. Thanks again!
Cthon is smoother, less buggy, and and not trying to do the Diablo “hand” gimmick like 1MD.
I hope in the sequel the pumps and such won’t be weapon specific, and that you could spend coolant-mana in addition to ammo.
I’d like you to also publish a core data pack for GZDoom, which could be used with any level generators available for the engine.
Glad you like it! That's...interesting that the sound doesn't work on Wine. I have not tested CTHON on it myself though. It's possible that it's due to outdated sound drivers used by GM81, CTHON's engine. There are plans (eventually) to get the game ported up to the latest version of Game Maker which would hopefully resolve problems like that, but we've been heavily focused on a new project in the last couple years. Some day soon I hope!
GameMaker games in general seem to not have sound in Wine. I did get sound going by installing some native Windows components, but with really high latency, like 1-2 seconds.
Hello, thanks for purchasing! When you click the Download button on the game's page, it should take you to the "Download 'CTHON'" page. You should see two download buttons, one for the manual, one for the game. Then, underneath that should be a "Claim Steam Key" section with a button to get the key. Are you not seeing that?
That is quite strange indeed. Do you mind posting a screenshot of the page for me either here or send to gravity (dot) games (at) outlook (dot) com? It should look like this:
If you don't see that, I think you might need to contact itch.io support directly, as unfortunately I'm not sure if I can be of much help with this. You might also try a different web browser if you have not already. The support email for itch is support@itch.io.
Either way, please let me know if you aren't able to get this resolved after contacting them and I will see what I can do to resolve the problem.
Cool! I wish you luck in game development. Thanks for trying Pillage & Plunder, it’s not nearly as fleshed out as CTHON, but I hope you get some fun out of it!
I’d say you ought to still give it a try! Just because something similar already exists or is done well does not mean someone can’t do it better or differently, and there are certainly things about CTHON I could have done better on. CTHON was written in Game Maker as well, which is pretty easy to jump into and start using!
Hi there, saving has already been implemented. You can only save and exit in between levels, and you can continue a game by hitting Continue in the main menu. If you die or quit during a level, the save file is deleted.
Thanks for your interest! I'm migrating to the Studio version of Game Maker for my next project, and I have plans to also port CTHON to the new engine so that it can be compiled under Mac and Linux. No timeframe for that as yet, but sooner or later! On a semi-related note, I have not tested it in Wine but I'll see what I can find out.
Yeah I'm having the same problem the other nvidia user has, the game runs slow (like in the second video), but it used to run better before I don't know what happen.
EDIT: Whoops, I just now saw your previous comment in the other thread. Below is what I just wrote, but I'm guessing you have already tried this:
Hi, sorry the game isn't running well for you. Which version of Windows are you running?
One reason for the change could be that the game now uses some external files - config.ini (for control information and preferences) and a save file if you have a saved game. Both reside in the game's local directory. It seems as though admin rights are a major hurdle for the game, so if you haven't already you might try running the game as an administrator (right click -> run as administrator). I'm looking into ways to resolve this permanently, but I don't have a timeframe for it. Let me know if this helps.
The previous version was working when I initially got the game, but it started slowing down at some point for some reason (past 2 weeks), I don't know if some software I installed could've affected, but I can't quite figure out what could be the cause. I've tried running admin, SSD, even the nvidia control panel settings look to be fine.
Hmm. The only thing I can think of that might have affected it at that time was the game's use of external files, but I'll double check to see what I did at that time. I wouldn't think it was software you installed. What happens when you run the CTHON_NONFORCED.exe in the folder?
I've been running 1.10c "CTHON_NONFORCED" most of the time, but my first version 1.07 also doesn't work like it used to. I tried 1.11 just now, but it seems to be same performance wise. I noticed when playing with fraps (not recording) that frame rate was 26-27, and in some areas it dipped to 21-22 for a while before returning to 26. But since I didn't check what the frame rate was when the game worked normally, I don't know if these frame rates are normal or not.
The previous version also dropped in performance? That is super weird. Here's what I would try first: delete the version you've been working with, perform a restart, and then download the latest version and give it another try. If its impacting previous versions there is either something not right with your machine or there might be a memory leak somewhere that I need to hunt down. I have reached out to the Game Maker community as well to see if anyone can shed light on the issue.
Yes, 21-27 FPS is not normal. It should be running at close to 60, ideally. On lower end machines I normally see it run between 55-60 FPS.
Hi, I downloaded the newest version and for some reason whenever I move/interact in any way, the starting gun (can't remember its name but it sort of stabs out with a spike) 'fires'/makes a noise. I guess this could be down to remapping keys, since it didn't happen before when playing the vanilla release.
That's strange... Do you have a middle mouse button or mouse wheel? That is what the blade is mapped to by default, so if you don't have one it may be that it is retrieving a key code that is mapped to something else entirely, and its confusing the game. You may need to set it to something else in the control options, like Spacebar.
Yep, exactly. I would like to port Cthon to Studio down the road, but there's a lot of stuff that will break that will need to be fixed, so it will be a fairly major project.
Oh yes. I have a highly critical view of DRM and don't plan to implement it. The sales lost from DRM being offputting outweigh those lost by piracy I think.
Bought the game a week or so back, it's exactly what I hoped it would be. Great stuff.
That said, I'm being held back by a game-breaking bug; every time I reach the Ruins (second tileset) and fight against the "serpent / worm" enemies, the game crashes. Sometimes I can kill it, but it only delays the crash a minute or so.
Is there a log file somewhere I can send, or should I replicate it with a video / screenshot? It's the only thing holding me back from playing! ;)
Glad you're enjoying it. Sorry you're encountering a bug! Absolutely, send me a log file (it should create one on crash in the same directory as the game). The log file is called game_errors.txt I believe. You can send it to me over email, and my address should be displayed on the download page for the game. I will try to get it fixed ASAP!
Dang, that's the worst I've seen yet. I'm sorry the game is running terribly for you. Thanks for the video capture and system specs. Let me investigate the issue and get back to you. Those specs should be more than enough to run the game. I will try to have an answer for you soon. If you check Task Manager while the game is running, is there anything consuming a huge amount of CPU or RAM (including the game itself)?
Just from searching around a bit the first thing that seems promising that you might try is to check to see if you have 'NVIDIA GeForce Experience' in your Programs and Features. You may try uninstalling it, rebooting, and trying the game again; it's an optimization tool but it seems to cause framerate problems in some games, even lower-tech ones like Cthon.
I would try it with the defaults first and see what happens. Also, I was curious if you are using a mouse that utilized Logitech drivers? That's another one that seems to mess with GameMaker games. And yeah, 14-15% CPU seems a little high. 7-10% is what I've usually seen it consume.
It is a Logitech wireless G602. I've had it for quite some time, and not had any conflicts previously that I am aware of.
No change with the defaults in NVidia control panel. Still slow unfortunately.
I have left Geforce Experience installed for now, as it's the older version (pre 3.x) and I prefer it to the new one that requires a login to connect and download drivers.
The Logitech wireless mouse may well be what is causing the problem. Logitech mouse drivers seem to cause problems with GameMaker games in general, as far as I can tell; you might try switching to a wired and/or non-Logitech mouse and see what happens. Lowering the poll rate on the mouse may also help. I will keep investigating the issue.
Hi, thanks for purchasing and playing! I'm glad you enjoy it for the most part.
Remappable keys are a major planned feature. Other than bug fixing, it is my top priority right now. At the moment, the game emulates a 640x480 display that stretches up to at least 1920x1080 in fullscreen; it originally forced the display to a true 640x480 resolution, but this has caused some problems on some systems. The plan for the final Steam release is - if it does not create major problems - to include multiple resolution settings.
I would say intermediate for something like this. First person shooters (especially ones like Cthon, which could be extrapolated to a top-down shooter and still essentially play the same) are relatively easy compared to something like a real-time strategy game (super-hard), but they're more difficult that say a top-down/side scrolling shooter or puzzle game. The hardest parts of Cthon were making the player movement feel good; I did a lot of testing and tweaking to make sure collision detection felt natural and the field of view was ample but didn't cause motion sickness.
Oh. I feel a little dumb then because it seems I can't find it. ^^' So if you want to, you can e-mail me at ravensinmyth@yahoo.com (it's my proxy adress when I want to avoid spam bots).
No worries! Sorry for the confusion. I think I'll double check to see if that email is visible to buyers - it should be :/... A proxy address is actually something I never thought of - I should try it!
This game is an absolute ton of fun so far, but... the basic humanoid enemies, I'll call them zombies, attack WAY too fast and deal too much damage. If you get sandwiched between two of them in a hallway, you're basically dead.
In summary, zombies op plz nerf. Still, loving this game!
Thanks for purchasing/playing! The zombies' attacks were designed to distinguish them from the spiders, who are also melee. Use grenades to soften them up for the killing blow, and also try to accumulate armor; armor applies to each of their claw swipes, so the health you can save increases dramatically with just one or two armor upgrades. Another tactic would be to build a medium-damage shotgun, which can be used to sweep the halls and kill them in usually one hit.
Great job on the game! So much about this one is really nice looking and plays well. I didn't see a place to contact about bugs, but the player rotates on their own with no input sometimes, usually after walking a bit. Oh and I really love the robust upgrades!
Hi, thanks for purchasing/playing! There has been one other report of the player turning on their own sometimes so far; I'm still working on the fix. I believe it only does it with certain kinds of mice, at least as far as I can tell. A workaround may be to try using a different mouse, but be assured that I will continue working on a permanent fix.
Love this game so far. Enjoying it a lot. I have it as a new roguelike series on my YT channel. Looking forward to seeing where this game goes and just what gets added in the future!
love it so far! any thoughts to adding a map? oh, and I think that either the exit didn't spawn in stage 2, or I'm a total idiot. I made a youtube video and literally couldnt find the exit lol. its here if youre interested:
Hey CDPOG! Thanks for purchasing and thanks for playing as always. Couple things: Use Tab to open your automap. As far as the exit, it was there, trust me ;) Usually when you can't find an exit it means there was a turn that you thought was a dead end, but in the many hundreds (thousands?) of times I've playtested there was always a gate to the next level. Also, if you discover the exit gate early only take it if you are confident about surviving the next level. You should almost always strive to scout the whole level and get as many items as you can, or you'll be in for a very uphill battle in the later levels.
I saw your game on Jim Sterling's Greenlight good stuff, and when I saw this, instant buy :) (I also happen to host a tiny tiny French stream of roguelikes twice a month on twitch. Yours is next in two weeks. I can't promise it will bring you much traffic because my channel is that small, but still. I love your atmosphere. :) )
Hey Morkislair! Thanks so much, I hope you enjoy Cthon. I'd be interested in your stream, even though I can't speak French :) Be sure to tell me where to find it when it goes up!
I love Wolf3D-likes and your visual style - the cover image is fantastic and evokes an Amiga feeling - but I'm not too hot about roguelike and procedural generation, as I think it often leads to impersonal and unbalanced levels. I'll still keep an eye (I also voted for it on Greenlight) and consider buying. If I can leave a suggestion, a later Campaign Mode with fixed, hand-made levels that go beyond the limits of the procedurally generated ones.
Thank you for your interest and for voting on Greenlight! I understand your concerns about the procedural-generated levels. When I set out to develop Cthon my goal was to try to create a shooter experience that felt at least a little different every time you played. Randomness is just as much a part of Cthon's DNA as its obvious references to Wolfenstein 3D, System Shock, Doom and countless others. A fixed-level mode could be interesting, but I unfortunately can't make any guarantees about whether it will ever make it into a release. If you ever reconsider, I do hope you enjoy it immensely.
Sorry the game isn't running well for you. Thanks for posting your specs. Just to make sure, have you downloaded the latest version yet? There is a resolution fix in the latest one which resolved a slowness problem someone else had.
Thank you so much for the quick response. I got the patch late, but it seems to have fixed the problem, I finally got down to playing it and let me just say you made me a big fan of your game. Keep up the great work and Thanks again.
I bought the game yesterday and I have the same problem. Though it starts out fine, it eventually, after a couple of levels, turn slow. So how do you download the latest version?
Hmm. If you bought it yesterday it should be the latest version already. That's weird that it starts okay and then gets slow. Can you tell me your system specs?
One of the things you may want to try is a malware scan if you haven't done so already. That might be messing with your memory usage. You can also email a system dump (Run msinfo32 and then File -> Export) to the support email and I can look through it.
Saw this on Greenlight, saw that we got Steam keys if we bought it here first, came and threw money at the screen. Have "completed" (read: died on) a few runs now, and think it's off to a really solid start. A few quality of life requests:
Adjustable mouse sensitivity
Ability to exit out of all menus with a single key (e.g. Esc) instead of reaching over to tap "i" again
Rebindable keys (less of a concern, admittedly - but again, reaching over to hit "i" is less than convenient)
Text is a little hard to read (though this may be caused by the resolution, which I know you folks are already working on)
Those aside, I'm REALLY enjoying the game so far, and look forward to seeing how it develops!
Let me upload a new version with a fullscreen toggle key. I'm still working on an actual in-game interface for graphics options but this will hopefully work okay in the mean time. F4 will allow you to toggle it between windowed and fullscreen. You'll also be able to resize the window from the default 640x480 size. You can still switch between windows if you pause the game.
Unfortunately, alt-tab and alt-ctrl-del seem to freeze the game and force you to close it with the task manager; I'm still researching the problem and will hopefully find a fix for that soon.
Is there a way to change resolution options somehow? The fact that it's forcing 640x480 is really messing things up, and by that I mean it's running at like 25% of the intended speed and messes up everything else in the background.
Currently there are no resolution controls, but adding them is a major goal for us in the next versions. I'm sorry the game isn't working very well for you, would you be willing to share your system specs with the support email?
A new version has been uploaded, which eliminates the forced resolution. Please download it and let me know how it goes. I hope it runs better for you.
I have already said this on Steam, but the game is running fine now that it doesn't force everything into 640x480. If you want, I can help you test the build if things like resolution options are added in to see how it goes, because I doubt this would be a problem to my system exclusively. Would be a shame to launch on steam with an issue like that in place.
No doubt! I highly doubt it is only your system; I have a feeling newer operating systems really dislike the tiny resolution. I bet if it forced it to something like 1920x1080 (for example) it would have done just fine. A little bit of the contrast is lost when its not in a forced resolution, so I will do some research on adjusting gamma so you can make the game darker if needed. I'm making a list of all the options we'll need and I hope to have them ready as one big update for the Steam release.
Yeah, resolutions smaller than 800x640 or something like that are not common anymore these days, heck, I think Windows 8.1 won't even let me select 640x480 anymore. Might be where these issues are comming from.
Actually, I just checked what Windows 8.1 lets me choose - The lowest is 1024x768
Ah! That's got to be it. No operating system could possible want a piece of software to force a resolution that it doesn't even know about! Thank you so much for helping me troubleshoot that; it was a bit of a struggle but I think it will make everyone's experience go a lot smoother from here out. I haven't used Windows 8.1 much myself, let alone checked its supported resolutions.
Hey Gravity Games! CTHON has a really interesting premise, and I am loving the art style. I know you are currently running a Greenlight campaign and are looking to release on Steam, but have you also looked into a GOG release? I think this game would do well on that platform.
Thank you for your interest in Cthon! I am considering doing a GOG release, but it will most likely coincide with the Steam release, when all the essential improvements that need to be made are in the game.
Bought, and really enjoyed the game, but only a few things;
Can we get an options menu in the main menu?
I found that sound settings were only for that specific "life" if you will. It would be nice for some resolution controls too, at least a windowed mode.
Classic FPS Controls/Keybindings?
It would be really nice to be able to use traditional FPS controls (Arrow Keys + Ctrl) so being able to set keybindings would be nice too.
Overall it's a great game for $5 but I think that it needs a little more tweaking before it hits Steam.
Thank you for purchasing! I agree with your assessment; the game will definitely require tweaking before the Steam launch. There are likely a couple bugs still floating around and the general interface needs improvement. Rest assured this will be fixed before the Steam release.
A support email should have displayed when the game was purchased; that's probably the best place to report any issues. I would post it here but I want to discourage spam. Let me know if you can't find and I can try to message it to you privately (assuming itch supports that kind of thing).
Hi Gravity Games! I just played CTHON, and I really liked it - enough that I would like to put up a one-shot video of it on my YouTube channel, here. The video is only about twenty minutes long and features me exploring the first level of the game, dying a couple of times, and poking around a bit with the item system.
Do you have any objection to this video going up? Additionally, would you mind my using your cover photo - the one of the zombie in a pressure suit - as my thumbnail?
Hi General Confusion, I would be positively honored for you to post it! The game is absolutely Let's Play/video/screenshot friendly; you may of course use the game cover (the pressure suit zombie) in your materials, or any other graphics you would find fitting. Thank you very much for asking!
I should have done this before but I will clarify in the description that the game is exhibition friendly. I'm eager to see it!!
Thanks very much! I'll send you a link to the video when it goes up on Saturday (I pre-record my videos for ease of scheduling), and if you would like to share it around to people or use it in promotional material, please feel free; just let people know who recorded it!
Hello again! Here's that link to the video that I promised.
As I said before, I enjoyed the game a great deal! There are still a few rough spots - the entire lack of a save function (at least I didn't find one) is something that threw me a bit, since it means you have to do the whole game in one sitting if you want to play through it all - but overall I think you've done very well so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing the game expand. Thanks for your work!
One thing you should know - the gameplay in the video looked a little sluggish compared to what is intended; I have a feeling your machine is one of the ones that dislikes resolution changes, which is patched in the current version. Try it out and it should run significantly faster for you.
EDIT: Also, you may consider trying again on Standard mode, that's what is intended for pretty much everyone until you gain the experience to play on Hardcore. Hardcore is borderline masochistic ;)
Save functionality is another thing that is in the list of planned features.
Nice atmosphere and cool art. So far I've got to the second world. Really like the upgrade/inventory/energy system. Forces you to be selective with what you carry. Thanks!
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controller support?
No controller support unfortunately. It may appear in the future but I don’t have any immediate plans.
CTHON is one of those games where it can be scary without any jumpscares and I love the design and soundscape. However, the Standard difficulty is too hard for most players and I find only the Beginner difficulty to be of the right balance
Here is my full playthrough:
Sounds a lot like the novel Chthon by Piers Anthony. Any influence there?
Funnily enough — no. I actually heard about the novel after I released Cthon, and have been meaning to read it ever since but haven’t gotten around to it. The concept of mines beneath a planet surface is eerily similar to the game though. The title Cthon was a reference to the Greek term of being “of or under the earth”, and fit well as the game uses a lot of concepts from an earlier unreleased rogue-like game I toyed with for a while about delving an ancient Greek necropolis, except Cthon sets things in the far future.
Oh of course! The book is weird, but kinda good haha. I'll have to check out your game.
Thank you for the video game. It runs smoothly on Windows 10 x64bits. Shame it didn’t include the Steam key when I bought it. But honestly it doesn’t matter as I’m not a big fan of Steam. Thanks and happy new year!
Hello! Thank you for purchasing CTHON!
There should be a "Claim Steam key" section beneath the download buttons on the game's download page. If that is not showing up, I would try contacting itch directly by emailing support@itch.io. This happened once to another user and they were able to get it solved.
And thanks, happy new year to you as well!
Bought it on Steam, and I was wondering if it’s possible to have a SMG. This is way better executed than One More Dungeon, the Unity-based Hexen-rogue on Switch/PC by Ratalaika and (forgot the dev name)
Hi! Thanks for buying it! By SMG I'm assuming you mean submachine gun? Otherwise it is a term I'm unfamiliar with. You can build the primary gun into a rapid fire weapon by activating several coolant pumps. I appreciate the kind words, and have not played One More Dungeon myself. As I'm working on a sequel to CTHON, I'd love to know what you felt was better executed here. Thanks again!
Cthon is smoother, less buggy, and and not trying to do the Diablo “hand” gimmick like 1MD. I hope in the sequel the pumps and such won’t be weapon specific, and that you could spend coolant-mana in addition to ammo. I’d like you to also publish a core data pack for GZDoom, which could be used with any level generators available for the engine.
Fun game, bought it on a whim. Would still love to see a Linux version - the game works in Wine but there's no sound.
Glad you like it! That's...interesting that the sound doesn't work on Wine. I have not tested CTHON on it myself though. It's possible that it's due to outdated sound drivers used by GM81, CTHON's engine. There are plans (eventually) to get the game ported up to the latest version of Game Maker which would hopefully resolve problems like that, but we've been heavily focused on a new project in the last couple years. Some day soon I hope!
No problem!
GameMaker games in general seem to not have sound in Wine. I did get sound going by installing some native Windows components, but with really high latency, like 1-2 seconds.
https://wiki.winehq.org/Sound#DirectMusic_support
Anyhow, I understand it's a pretty low priority. Best wishes on the new project!
Oho, just came back to this now that I noticed it's been recompiled with a newer GameMaker. Seems to work fine in Linux now!
This game kicks ass! Thanks for a fun throwback that's interesting and challenging!
Hey there, thank you very much for the kind words! I’m glad you seem to be enjoying it as much as I had fun making it!
Says purchase comes with a Steam key but I didn't get one?
Hello, thanks for purchasing! When you click the Download button on the game's page, it should take you to the "Download 'CTHON'" page. You should see two download buttons, one for the manual, one for the game. Then, underneath that should be a "Claim Steam Key" section with a button to get the key. Are you not seeing that?
No, after the downloads I only see the "get the (itchio) app" followed by the download and install instructions
That is quite strange indeed. Do you mind posting a screenshot of the page for me either here or send to gravity (dot) games (at) outlook (dot) com? It should look like this:
If you don't see that, I think you might need to contact itch.io support directly, as unfortunately I'm not sure if I can be of much help with this. You might also try a different web browser if you have not already. The support email for itch is support@itch.io.
Either way, please let me know if you aren't able to get this resolved after contacting them and I will see what I can do to resolve the problem.
sent via email
Thank you! I sent a response back.
Cool! I wish you luck in game development. Thanks for trying Pillage & Plunder, it’s not nearly as fleshed out as CTHON, but I hope you get some fun out of it!
I've always dreamed of doing this game :'( Nice work bro !
Hello, thanks! By doing, do you mean making a game like this?
Yes I was always dreaming of making a doom like with my own settings, and then CTHON showed off ( I wouldn't make a better game,and I love it)
I’d say you ought to still give it a try! Just because something similar already exists or is done well does not mean someone can’t do it better or differently, and there are certainly things about CTHON I could have done better on. CTHON was written in Game Maker as well, which is pretty easy to jump into and start using!
Sorry if I've missed the obvious, but is there a feature to save your game yet?
Edit: Ahh, I see that is a planned feature for the future (an important one in my eyes). Fair enough.
Hi there, saving has already been implemented. You can only save and exit in between levels, and you can continue a game by hitting Continue in the main menu. If you die or quit during a level, the save file is deleted.
Ok, thanks.
This looks interesting, would love a native Linux version!
Thanks for your interest! I'm migrating to the Studio version of Game Maker for my next project, and I have plans to also port CTHON to the new engine so that it can be compiled under Mac and Linux. No timeframe for that as yet, but sooner or later! On a semi-related note, I have not tested it in Wine but I'll see what I can find out.
Excellent! I shall try to keep track of your developments. Thank you for the reply!
Yeah I'm having the same problem the other nvidia user has, the game runs slow (like in the second video), but it used to run better before I don't know what happen.
EDIT: Whoops, I just now saw your previous comment in the other thread. Below is what I just wrote, but I'm guessing you have already tried this:
Hi, sorry the game isn't running well for you. Which version of Windows are you running?
One reason for the change could be that the game now uses some external files - config.ini (for control information and preferences) and a save file if you have a saved game. Both reside in the game's local directory. It seems as though admin rights are a major hurdle for the game, so if you haven't already you might try running the game as an administrator (right click -> run as administrator). I'm looking into ways to resolve this permanently, but I don't have a timeframe for it. Let me know if this helps.
The previous version was working when I initially got the game, but it started slowing down at some point for some reason (past 2 weeks), I don't know if some software I installed could've affected, but I can't quite figure out what could be the cause. I've tried running admin, SSD, even the nvidia control panel settings look to be fine.
Hmm. The only thing I can think of that might have affected it at that time was the game's use of external files, but I'll double check to see what I did at that time. I wouldn't think it was software you installed. What happens when you run the CTHON_NONFORCED.exe in the folder?
Which version are you running by the way? The latest is 1.11.
I've been running 1.10c "CTHON_NONFORCED" most of the time, but my first version 1.07 also doesn't work like it used to. I tried 1.11 just now, but it seems to be same performance wise. I noticed when playing with fraps (not recording) that frame rate was 26-27, and in some areas it dipped to 21-22 for a while before returning to 26. But since I didn't check what the frame rate was when the game worked normally, I don't know if these frame rates are normal or not.
The previous version also dropped in performance? That is super weird. Here's what I would try first: delete the version you've been working with, perform a restart, and then download the latest version and give it another try. If its impacting previous versions there is either something not right with your machine or there might be a memory leak somewhere that I need to hunt down. I have reached out to the Game Maker community as well to see if anyone can shed light on the issue.
Yes, 21-27 FPS is not normal. It should be running at close to 60, ideally. On lower end machines I normally see it run between 55-60 FPS.
Hi, I downloaded the newest version and for some reason whenever I move/interact in any way, the starting gun (can't remember its name but it sort of stabs out with a spike) 'fires'/makes a noise. I guess this could be down to remapping keys, since it didn't happen before when playing the vanilla release.
That's strange... Do you have a middle mouse button or mouse wheel? That is what the blade is mapped to by default, so if you don't have one it may be that it is retrieving a key code that is mapped to something else entirely, and its confusing the game. You may need to set it to something else in the control options, like Spacebar.
I'll try that later on today, thanks.
this looks really good! Do you have any plans to release on mac?
Thanks! I would like to port it to Mac in the future, but it will require moving it to a new engine, so it will be a while.
Ooof, I didn't realise Gamemaker can't export mac builds. If you do decide to port it, godspeed! In meantime I'll track down a PC :)
Old Game Maker versions can't, but GM: Studio can, however, you need a Mac computer, too.
Yep, exactly. I would like to port Cthon to Studio down the road, but there's a lot of stuff that will break that will need to be fixed, so it will be a fairly major project.
Are you planning to keep this game drm free in the future?
Oh yes. I have a highly critical view of DRM and don't plan to implement it. The sales lost from DRM being offputting outweigh those lost by piracy I think.
I totally agree. Sold.
Bought the game a week or so back, it's exactly what I hoped it would be. Great stuff.
That said, I'm being held back by a game-breaking bug; every time I reach the Ruins (second tileset) and fight against the "serpent / worm" enemies, the game crashes. Sometimes I can kill it, but it only delays the crash a minute or so.
Is there a log file somewhere I can send, or should I replicate it with a video / screenshot? It's the only thing holding me back from playing! ;)
Glad you're enjoying it. Sorry you're encountering a bug! Absolutely, send me a log file (it should create one on crash in the same directory as the game). The log file is called game_errors.txt I believe. You can send it to me over email, and my address should be displayed on the download page for the game. I will try to get it fixed ASAP!
Looks more like Pathways Into Darkness than anything else
Just purchased and downloaded from the link on itch.io (V107)
I wonder if the performance issue is related to NVidia cards? I know there's at least one other game I've purchased recently that has similar issues.
I have a performance issue even in the initial menus where you pick your character and difficulty level.
System Specs:
Win 10 pro x64, all updates applied.
Intel i7 940 @ 2.93 Ghz
12Gb Ram
MSI NVidia 970
Here's a short video capture:
https://youtu.be/Y_Tdnkjtjho
Overall, much better gaming experience.
Dang, that's the worst I've seen yet. I'm sorry the game is running terribly for you. Thanks for the video capture and system specs. Let me investigate the issue and get back to you. Those specs should be more than enough to run the game. I will try to have an answer for you soon. If you check Task Manager while the game is running, is there anything consuming a huge amount of CPU or RAM (including the game itself)?
The CPU use for the CTHON.exe is 14-15%. This seems a bit high to me since that's 14-15% of the 4 cores. 25% would be monopolizing one.
Memory profile looks ok.
Just from searching around a bit the first thing that seems promising that you might try is to check to see if you have 'NVIDIA GeForce Experience' in your Programs and Features. You may try uninstalling it, rebooting, and trying the game again; it's an optimization tool but it seems to cause framerate problems in some games, even lower-tech ones like Cthon.
Sorry for the forum spam ;)
Here's another thing you might try: forcing the game to run on the NVIDIA GPU; Game Maker games like Nuclear Throne seem to have similar issues.
1. Open NVIDIA Control Panel.
2. Go to Manage 3d Settings, then select the Program Settings tab.
3. Use the Add button to browse to Cthon's exe file and select it.
4. Click the Apply button and then run the game.
Any special tweaks I need to apply here?
I would try it with the defaults first and see what happens. Also, I was curious if you are using a mouse that utilized Logitech drivers? That's another one that seems to mess with GameMaker games. And yeah, 14-15% CPU seems a little high. 7-10% is what I've usually seen it consume.
It is a Logitech wireless G602. I've had it for quite some time, and not had any conflicts previously that I am aware of.
No change with the defaults in NVidia control panel. Still slow unfortunately.
I have left Geforce Experience installed for now, as it's the older version (pre 3.x) and I prefer it to the new one that requires a login to connect and download drivers.
The Logitech wireless mouse may well be what is causing the problem. Logitech mouse drivers seem to cause problems with GameMaker games in general, as far as I can tell; you might try switching to a wired and/or non-Logitech mouse and see what happens. Lowering the poll rate on the mouse may also help. I will keep investigating the issue.
Nice little game. Good job. :)
I may be echoing some of the comments already posted, but my thoughts thus far are:
Things I like:
* The sound is very good indeed, and the music, although a tad repetitive at times, is still well done.
* The atmosphere is very tense and although I'm not normally a big fan of rogue like games, this is one of the better ones I've bought.
* The ability to upgrade, forge and expand your inventory space (and so on) is a very nice inclusion.
* Quite a nice visual style.
Things I would like to see included:
* Being an old school mouse and arrow key user, I would love to see remappable keys.
* Information about the resolution used would be nice; is it set according to your desktop res, or not?
Many thanks for your efforts, and I look forward to seeing it develop further. Keep up the good work! :)
Hi, thanks for purchasing and playing! I'm glad you enjoy it for the most part.
Remappable keys are a major planned feature. Other than bug fixing, it is my top priority right now. At the moment, the game emulates a 640x480 display that stretches up to at least 1920x1080 in fullscreen; it originally forced the display to a true 640x480 resolution, but this has caused some problems on some systems. The plan for the final Steam release is - if it does not create major problems - to include multiple resolution settings.
Thanks for the reply. :)
By the way, what level of coding experience does one need to make a game like that? Thanks.
I would say intermediate for something like this. First person shooters (especially ones like Cthon, which could be extrapolated to a top-down shooter and still essentially play the same) are relatively easy compared to something like a real-time strategy game (super-hard), but they're more difficult that say a top-down/side scrolling shooter or puzzle game. The hardest parts of Cthon were making the player movement feel good; I did a lot of testing and tweaking to make sure collision detection felt natural and the field of view was ample but didn't cause motion sickness.
Thanks. :)
Does Gravity Games have an e-mail? There's a few questions I'd like to ask you.
The support email should be accessible if you purchased the game. I would post it here but I want to avoid spam bots.
Oh. I feel a little dumb then because it seems I can't find it. ^^'
So if you want to, you can e-mail me at ravensinmyth@yahoo.com (it's my proxy adress when I want to avoid spam bots).
No worries! Sorry for the confusion. I think I'll double check to see if that email is visible to buyers - it should be :/... A proxy address is actually something I never thought of - I should try it!
This game is an absolute ton of fun so far, but... the basic humanoid enemies, I'll call them zombies, attack WAY too fast and deal too much damage. If you get sandwiched between two of them in a hallway, you're basically dead.
In summary, zombies op plz nerf. Still, loving this game!
Thanks for purchasing/playing! The zombies' attacks were designed to distinguish them from the spiders, who are also melee. Use grenades to soften them up for the killing blow, and also try to accumulate armor; armor applies to each of their claw swipes, so the health you can save increases dramatically with just one or two armor upgrades. Another tactic would be to build a medium-damage shotgun, which can be used to sweep the halls and kill them in usually one hit.
Great job on the game! So much about this one is really nice looking and plays well. I didn't see a place to contact about bugs, but the player rotates on their own with no input sometimes, usually after walking a bit. Oh and I really love the robust upgrades!
Hi, thanks for purchasing/playing! There has been one other report of the player turning on their own sometimes so far; I'm still working on the fix. I believe it only does it with certain kinds of mice, at least as far as I can tell. A workaround may be to try using a different mouse, but be assured that I will continue working on a permanent fix.
Love this game so far. Enjoying it a lot. I have it as a new roguelike series on my YT channel. Looking forward to seeing where this game goes and just what gets added in the future!
love it so far! any thoughts to adding a map? oh, and I think that either the exit didn't spawn in stage 2, or I'm a total idiot. I made a youtube video and literally couldnt find the exit lol. its here if youre interested:
Hey CDPOG! Thanks for purchasing and thanks for playing as always. Couple things: Use Tab to open your automap. As far as the exit, it was there, trust me ;) Usually when you can't find an exit it means there was a turn that you thought was a dead end, but in the many hundreds (thousands?) of times I've playtested there was always a gate to the next level. Also, if you discover the exit gate early only take it if you are confident about surviving the next level. You should almost always strive to scout the whole level and get as many items as you can, or you'll be in for a very uphill battle in the later levels.
ahhhhhhh, there was a map. now i feel dumb. lol.
I saw your game on Jim Sterling's Greenlight good stuff, and when I saw this, instant buy :)
(I also happen to host a tiny tiny French stream of roguelikes twice a month on twitch. Yours is next in two weeks. I can't promise it will bring you much traffic because my channel is that small, but still. I love your atmosphere. :) )
Hey Morkislair! Thanks so much, I hope you enjoy Cthon. I'd be interested in your stream, even though I can't speak French :) Be sure to tell me where to find it when it goes up!
I love Wolf3D-likes and your visual style - the cover image is fantastic and evokes an Amiga feeling - but I'm not too hot about roguelike and procedural generation, as I think it often leads to impersonal and unbalanced levels. I'll still keep an eye (I also voted for it on Greenlight) and consider buying. If I can leave a suggestion, a later Campaign Mode with fixed, hand-made levels that go beyond the limits of the procedurally generated ones.
Thank you for your interest and for voting on Greenlight! I understand your concerns about the procedural-generated levels. When I set out to develop Cthon my goal was to try to create a shooter experience that felt at least a little different every time you played. Randomness is just as much a part of Cthon's DNA as its obvious references to Wolfenstein 3D, System Shock, Doom and countless others. A fixed-level mode could be interesting, but I unfortunately can't make any guarantees about whether it will ever make it into a release. If you ever reconsider, I do hope you enjoy it immensely.
Decided to get it in the end, also knowing that it has passed Greenlight and will eventually land on Steam ;)
Maybe it is just my computer, but for some reason my game is running slow, like everything is in slow motion,
My Specs
Operating System:
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU:
Intel Core i5 4690K @ 3.50GHz
Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM:
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 801MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard:
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Z97-P (SOCKET 1150)
Graphics:
Generic Non-PnP Monitor (1440x900@60Hz)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (Gigabyte)
Sorry the game isn't running well for you. Thanks for posting your specs. Just to make sure, have you downloaded the latest version yet? There is a resolution fix in the latest one which resolved a slowness problem someone else had.
Thank you so much for the quick response. I got the patch late, but it seems to have fixed the problem, I finally got down to playing it and let me just say you made me a big fan of your game. Keep up the great work and Thanks again.
Hi
I bought the game yesterday and I have the same problem. Though it starts out fine, it eventually, after a couple of levels, turn slow. So how do you download the latest version?
Hmm. If you bought it yesterday it should be the latest version already. That's weird that it starts okay and then gets slow. Can you tell me your system specs?
I don't know too much of what goes on behind the screen, but here goes:
xin 10 home, 64bit
intel core i5-3230m, 2.6ghz
8gb ram
nvidia Geforcre GT750M, 6087 mb
1920x1080 60hz
its a lenovo laptop
Yeah it is weird, it seems like it happens pretty sudden the shift to slow...
thanks for the answer and the promising game:)
Those specs should be more than enough to run it. I'll see if I can replicate the problem and find a fix for it.
Hey there,
One of the things you may want to try is a malware scan if you haven't done so already. That might be messing with your memory usage. You can also email a system dump (Run msinfo32 and then File -> Export) to the support email and I can look through it.
I ran a scan and nothing showed up. I'll email you the system info.
Just to mention it, I haven't experienced the problem since, but I'm still none the wiser. I did get to the last levels though, it really kicks off!
I've got a performance issue too. The version I pulled down was the latest I saw = 1.07.
I wonder if it's NVidia specific? I know of one other game having framerate issues on NVidia.
My PC is a 2009 vintage i7.940 @ 2.93 Ghz
Win 10 Pro x64
12Gb RAM
MSI NVidia 970
1920 x 1080 27" monitor
Response seems slow in the starting selection screens, and movement within the levels is also sluggish.
I've posted a youtube capture:
https://youtu.be/Y_Tdnkjtjho
Note that upload should be complete in about 3 mins. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Saw this on Greenlight, saw that we got Steam keys if we bought it here first, came and threw money at the screen. Have "completed" (read: died on) a few runs now, and think it's off to a really solid start. A few quality of life requests:
Is there a way to alt-tab out of this game or play it windowed?
Let me upload a new version with a fullscreen toggle key. I'm still working on an actual in-game interface for graphics options but this will hopefully work okay in the mean time. F4 will allow you to toggle it between windowed and fullscreen. You'll also be able to resize the window from the default 640x480 size. You can still switch between windows if you pause the game.
Unfortunately, alt-tab and alt-ctrl-del seem to freeze the game and force you to close it with the task manager; I'm still researching the problem and will hopefully find a fix for that soon.
thank you for your prompt response, I look forward to seeing these solutions implemented in game.
Is there a way to change resolution options somehow? The fact that it's forcing 640x480 is really messing things up, and by that I mean it's running at like 25% of the intended speed and messes up everything else in the background.
Currently there are no resolution controls, but adding them is a major goal for us in the next versions. I'm sorry the game isn't working very well for you, would you be willing to share your system specs with the support email?
A new version has been uploaded, which eliminates the forced resolution. Please download it and let me know how it goes. I hope it runs better for you.
I have already said this on Steam, but the game is running fine now that it doesn't force everything into 640x480. If you want, I can help you test the build if things like resolution options are added in to see how it goes, because I doubt this would be a problem to my system exclusively. Would be a shame to launch on steam with an issue like that in place.
No doubt! I highly doubt it is only your system; I have a feeling newer operating systems really dislike the tiny resolution. I bet if it forced it to something like 1920x1080 (for example) it would have done just fine. A little bit of the contrast is lost when its not in a forced resolution, so I will do some research on adjusting gamma so you can make the game darker if needed. I'm making a list of all the options we'll need and I hope to have them ready as one big update for the Steam release.
Yeah, resolutions smaller than 800x640 or something like that are not common anymore these days, heck, I think Windows 8.1 won't even let me select 640x480 anymore. Might be where these issues are comming from.
Actually, I just checked what Windows 8.1 lets me choose - The lowest is 1024x768
Ah! That's got to be it. No operating system could possible want a piece of software to force a resolution that it doesn't even know about! Thank you so much for helping me troubleshoot that; it was a bit of a struggle but I think it will make everyone's experience go a lot smoother from here out. I haven't used Windows 8.1 much myself, let alone checked its supported resolutions.
Hey Gravity Games! CTHON has a really interesting premise, and I am loving the art style. I know you are currently running a Greenlight campaign and are looking to release on Steam, but have you also looked into a GOG release? I think this game would do well on that platform.
Thank you for your interest in Cthon! I am considering doing a GOG release, but it will most likely coincide with the Steam release, when all the essential improvements that need to be made are in the game.
Sounds great! Can't wait to try it out. Cheers.
Bought, and really enjoyed the game, but only a few things;
Can we get an options menu in the main menu?
I found that sound settings were only for that specific "life" if you will. It would be nice for some resolution controls too, at least a windowed mode.
Classic FPS Controls/Keybindings?
It would be really nice to be able to use traditional FPS controls (Arrow Keys + Ctrl) so being able to set keybindings would be nice too.
Overall it's a great game for $5 but I think that it needs a little more tweaking before it hits Steam.
Thank you for purchasing! I agree with your assessment; the game will definitely require tweaking before the Steam launch. There are likely a couple bugs still floating around and the general interface needs improvement. Rest assured this will be fixed before the Steam release.
Awesome!
I'm going to go sink some more time into this now!
If we do run into any issues (bugs) or have any suggestions, where is it best to reach you?
A support email should have displayed when the game was purchased; that's probably the best place to report any issues. I would post it here but I want to discourage spam. Let me know if you can't find and I can try to message it to you privately (assuming itch supports that kind of thing).
Hi Gravity Games! I just played CTHON, and I really liked it - enough that I would like to put up a one-shot video of it on my YouTube channel, here. The video is only about twenty minutes long and features me exploring the first level of the game, dying a couple of times, and poking around a bit with the item system.
Do you have any objection to this video going up? Additionally, would you mind my using your cover photo - the one of the zombie in a pressure suit - as my thumbnail?
Hi General Confusion, I would be positively honored for you to post it! The game is absolutely Let's Play/video/screenshot friendly; you may of course use the game cover (the pressure suit zombie) in your materials, or any other graphics you would find fitting. Thank you very much for asking!
I should have done this before but I will clarify in the description that the game is exhibition friendly. I'm eager to see it!!
Thanks very much! I'll send you a link to the video when it goes up on Saturday (I pre-record my videos for ease of scheduling), and if you would like to share it around to people or use it in promotional material, please feel free; just let people know who recorded it!
Hello again! Here's that link to the video that I promised.
As I said before, I enjoyed the game a great deal! There are still a few rough spots - the entire lack of a save function (at least I didn't find one) is something that threw me a bit, since it means you have to do the whole game in one sitting if you want to play through it all - but overall I think you've done very well so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing the game expand. Thanks for your work!
Hey there!
Thanks for the video.
One thing you should know - the gameplay in the video looked a little sluggish compared to what is intended; I have a feeling your machine is one of the ones that dislikes resolution changes, which is patched in the current version. Try it out and it should run significantly faster for you.
EDIT: Also, you may consider trying again on Standard mode, that's what is intended for pretty much everyone until you gain the experience to play on Hardcore. Hardcore is borderline masochistic ;)
Save functionality is another thing that is in the list of planned features.
Nice atmosphere and cool art.
So far I've got to the second world. Really like the upgrade/inventory/energy system. Forces you to be selective with what you carry.
Thanks!
Thank you for purchasing! I'm glad you are enjoying it so far. Updates will be ongoing so be sure to check back here often for the latest version.