A downloadable immersive sim for Windows

Please enjoy the new and improved Peripeteia demo! What was originally planned for a February release needed a few extra months in the oven to fulfill our ambitions, and hopefully, the expectations of everyone that played the previous releases. Thank you to everyone who gave us their thoughts, opinions, suggestions and critique. Expect multiple improvements, tweaks and new features: with two massive new levels, including a tutorial, revamped UI, more guns, more dialogue and more quests. As always, we hope our work will prove fun, challenging and inspiring to all that try the demo and we hope to hear your thoughts!

The demo you are about to play is a work-in-progress. We’ve spent a lot of time improving the game, but bugs and jank are still to be expected. Please inform us of them and share all your thoughts, feedback and comments in our Discord server. We'd love you to join us in the daily immersive sim discussion as well! 

With your help we can perfect Peripeteia and make it live up to its potential. You can also help us make our dream game by supporting our Patreon

Peripeteia is a cyberpunk stealth shooter/RPG hybrid, also called an immersive sim, heavily inspired by System Shock and the classics from Ion Storm. You are Marie, a cyberized super soldier; armed, dangerous and solitary, surviving and thriving as a mercenary on the streets of a post-soviet city called the International Disputed Zone.

Accept your assignment and proceed to complete it as you see fit: through either stealth or brute force. Explore and improvise. Talk to informants, hack computers and panels by mashing your keyboard to discover the password. Switch between first person and third person view. Watch your light meter and shimmy on ledges to stay out of the patrolling enemies' sight. Hide bodies and shoot out lights to hide in the darkness. 


Twitter:   @90sGraphics

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StatusIn development
PlatformsWindows
Rating
Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars
(38 total ratings)
AuthorsShodanon, Dwyer, banebigguy
GenreAction
Made withBlender, Unity, Audacity, GIMP
Tags0451, Cyberpunk, deus-ex, First-Person, FPS, Immersive, immersive-sim, Singleplayer, Stealth, Third Person
Average sessionA few hours
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard, Mouse
LinksTwitter, YouTube, Community

Download

Download
2023 Demo 889 MB
Download
Peripeteia Kickstarter Demo 801 MB

Development log

Comments

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(1 edit) (+1)

game is real cool but i somehow activated debug cam mode while i was saving lol (fixed after restart) (also ui doesnt look good on my 5:4 monitor and pc messages dont fit in their boxes)

The photomode key is pause/break, you might have hit it on accident. It's a fun tool if you wanna see interesting places or take pics.

We have a "UI scale" slider in the options. We don't check on the resolution aspect ratio for now (it's something I haven't thought of and will likely add now), so if you play some more, you can adjust it.

(+1)

i finally managed to get some free time off work to play the new demo, and i've got to say that i absolutely ADORE IT!
this game gets better and better with every update! i love everything about it! bravo!

(+1)

little janky but def a passion project

(+2)

I respect your ambitions, and the time you take will be worthwhile. Thanks for keeping your work in your own hands.

лютый ахуй

Game refuses to boot giving me that foreboding red exclamation mark.

running a laptop with windows 10 and a AMD A8-4500M APU with Radeon for cpu/graphics.

not the first time I have encountered issues with unity on this machine with a seemingly separate issue that I think had to do with the Radeon (I still don't actually understand  what happened really) since the fix involved reading old windows drivers back to windows as I understand.

updating amd/radeon drivers seemingly didn't help technical issues aside charlatan wonders gameplay has me extremely exited for the full release it honestly looks so full of promise and I personally cannot get enough of cyberpunk imsims.

any updates? i love this game

(1 edit)

Thank you, father.  Check out our stuff on https://90s.graphics/twitter  and  https://90s.graphics/discord   should satiate the need for updates until the game is done!

(1 edit)

great, thank you!

(+1)

Just amazing  . This game gives me a feeling like when I played Deus ex years ago. Can't wait for the full release. The only thing I did not like was the 3rd person view it was too clunky but I understand this is meant for the first-person experience.

(+2)(-1)

Do I need a client application or... something else not included in the download to run the game, or am I just rarted?

(+1)

The demo is one of the best in the site! Really looking forward to playing this game in full!

Hopefully I'll be able to make something as complete as this is one day!

Loved the Demo, but the mission end screen is absolutely atrocious.   Just show me the time instead of counting   up   from   zero.

Loved the demo!

I found it extremely fun
However I did have some gripes I'd like to bring to your attention (as a player):
Firstly, is there going to be an option to remap the scroll wheel? 3rd person mode is of no interest to me, meaning it's a wasted input. I'd like it for something like changing weapon slots.
Secondly, the aiming felt kinda blocky, rather than fluid. was that an active design decision? cause for me at least, it made the aiming feel weird and didn't add anything to the game
Thirdly, in one quest, i found blackmail, then blackmailed the guy and then went to the quest giver (some PSR guy in a bar) but he didn't recognize i beat the quest. is this a bug or have I missed something? cause it definitely felt like a bug
Lastly, the game felt a bit unoptimized with some jitters and slowdowns, and the AI felt a bit....lacking at times. too often it felt like they simply didn't know where the bullets were coming from.

So, is the main menu supposed to be a black screen with just the discord and website and something else? Was excited to try the game, but seemingly can't. :(

Nope, lol. What's your GPU, because that sounds like a shader model version problem

(1 edit)

ATI Radeon HD 4200. It's a bit before 2010 but generally gets the job done

Yeah that won't cut it until we change our renderer, which will happen in a month or two.

aight I guess I'll check in then

I was trying to give this game try, but is disappointed when the game  won't work in my spec. Initially, i thought its  a potato friendly game but , well, let's just say the  graphics  on an HD4400 was a mess.


I  thought those graphics mess was because the character is shitfaced drunk at the time. So I skipped the level and faced the same graphical problem. Really, I can't even properly  interface with the inventory menu as  a result.  


When I skipped  the level on the Apartments,  I  somehow glitched by clipping through the ground.


BTW, I  was using the  STeam's Demo version. I wish  you can fix this, and, hopefully, make it potato friendly. Because I would love to play a game that encourages thinking while taking in  some of the recent innovations in gaming.

While your performance woes will only be solved in a few months (we're working towards it), the Steam version was updated to fix the "start mission outside the level" bug. Hope you'll give it another go when we announce the potato-friendly renderer.

(1 edit) (+1)

I'm not playing it myself but I'm watching my friend stream it.  I love how I can never tell what to expect, but *never* in a 'lol so random' way.  It's all pretty coherent, and whenever it isn't quite coherent it's perfectly thematic.  I'm enjoying it in the same way I enjoyed Might and  Magic VI (although obviously it's a very different kind of game from that).

(1 edit) (+3)

FWI This is going to be a big ass comment so strap in

Ive been following this game for a while now and i have to say im really impressed with what you guys have managed to do. The overall atmosphere and world you guys have made is amazing.
After playing through and completing both the first memorial tower demo and the current June demo, gathering my  thoughts and scrolling through the comments to make sure I didn't saying anything redundant, I have a few bugs to report/critiques I thought would be good to share. Ill try to start  light and finish heavy, but ive never been particularly good at organization

(mild spoilers to  those who care)

  • Running sound effect plays in the air when just walking off a ledge instead of jumping
  • The ending train scene where your time / kills are displayed would benefit from having the speed of the counter scale with the time taken. With my final time of 13706 seconds (oof) i was sitting there for a while.
  • Also the background of the train doesnt loop very seamlessly
  • Some elevators seem buggier than others with Marie's dress and firearm spazzing out. Not really important  but still mention worthy
  • The saving system could benefit from:
    •  having the latest save at the top of the list 
    • having a timestamp of when the save was made/last overwritten
  • Grenades could benefit from a counter to let you know how many you have
  • Similarly, the   grenade launcher could use a separate counter for gas grenades, i had a similar experience to Quietly Perverse
  • The hurtbox for the windmill extends way further than expected
  • You mentioned in other comments how because you can mantle ladders theres no need to program a    'typical FPS ladder'. I understand, but would suggest letting the player hold space to jump up instead of having to mash it
  • Furthermore some ladders end up being rather slow to climb with marie jumping up ~1.5 rungs, then falling down to 1     rung (hope that makes sense)
  • Elevator buttons seem to be randomly assigned as to whether or not the first floor means up or down, etc
  • The glowing purple computers in the reactor change their state to  armed  regardless of whether or not you have the charges (or at least change their text)
  • 3rd person camera clipping through objects when in tight spaces such as vents or elevators (perhaps force 1st person here?)
  • The flashlight is locked in the 'safety' position, meaning unless youre aiming down sights you cant see whats in front of you     (intentional?)
  • Occasionally pressing left mouse while in your    inventory  causes you to fire your gun, fixed with reloading a save
  • I really like what you guys did for the hacking minigame, its a fresh idea and really fun to mash away at your keyboard, but:
    • i feel like there are instances where youre a bit stingy with the time (i cant be the only one who struggles to type 'roadsidepicnic' in 5 seconds even when I know its the answer)
    • The permanent lockout after 2 tries is a bit harsh and only serves to promote save scumming
    • Adding a 2 second cooldown between tries would be appreciated. as currently stands, by the time ive realized the attempt has  ended, ive already mashed the f button and started the second attempt
  • The lowerable bridge was particularly buggy, at least for me,  including:
    • An invisible walkway above the bridge  on the control platform
    • Falling onto the bridge from any height not causing any falling damage
    • The door leading from the windmill to the controls  would occasionally not open for me, fixed with reloading saves
    • attempting to step off the bridge causing you to plummet downwards (i assume your velocity is still increasing while on the  platform)
    • attempting to walk across the platform while lowered  causes you to glide and you cannot jump (which was otherwise used to cancel out the plummeting)
    • Reloading a save would revert the bridge back to the raised position
  • The tank battle at the end could have been handled a bit better
    • The first time the player ever comes into contact with one, they are pitted against a whole squad of them, without any experience or knowledge on how to take them down
    • The phrase "Introduce, Demonstrate, Complicate" comes to mind
  • Running to the end of each side of the railway leading to an abrupt dead end with nothing there was a tad disappointing 
    • also showed the inside of geometry  on the tunnel side, and let the player walk on the floor outside of the wall
    • Perhaps to avoid the player seeing the abrupt stop the train track could steeply dip up or down at the end 
    • have some magic Jesus wizard hobo at both ends that teleports you back to the station if you ask him to
  • Using the communist orders to continue could have been made more apparent (perhaps adding 'press use to contact the polish general' or something similar  in the item inspect?)
  • The polish general in the train station that gives you orders to see what the communist orders are is given the same 'polish officer' description and blends in with the other officers
  • Moving the mouse while aiming down sights leads to the gun jittering, further compounded with some guns (particularly the silenced pistol) not having the shots line up with the top of the gun model,  rendering aiming down sights to feel less accurate than  hip firing
  • Spaces in the game with no way out requiring a save to be loaded (eg: dip in hospital roof  with 2 air conditioning units and slopes you cant walk up)
  • The overwhelming majority of tracks in this game are excellent and fit the mood perfectly, however:
    • The tracks that start playing when in some combat heavy areas are a bit too intense while you arent detected  imo
    • The trap beat that plays in the windmill is the only song that I would say feels 'out of place' for the setting 
  • The lighting and visibility system seems  so inconsistent to the point that im genuinely curious  about how your visibility is actually calculated
    • being fully visible in darkness, being invisible while in light, etc 
    • lighting coming through walls 
  • and finally:



[ SIGNPOSTING, GETTING   LOST AND MAP SIZE]

This is probably the major issue that is preventing me from recommending my friends to try out the demo. 

Firstly I just want to say that while i was really lost at the start,   by the end of the level, i had  come to know the map fairly well, and   more or less managed to map out the area in my head through trial and error. While the lack of visual variety did make some of my time playing a bit dull, the overall atmosphere kept pulling me back in and kept me going 

While getting lost and exploring did eventually become enjoyable, it really took a lot of effort for me  to push through that initial phase of not knowing what to do, which id imagine is  one of the main things that causes players to decide to not continue

While the lack of a journal/log was also present in the previous demo, its absence is felt even more in the current demo due to its size and lack of   always visible    weenies (particularly at the default draw distance). 

I can absolutely respect    wanting to give snake creative freedom, so if you are totally against the idea on making the maps smaller, I would suggest the following (scaling again from lightest to heaviest):

  • Journal and Objective list(which im aware youre already working on), complete with a simple 'you did it' sound effect for completed objectives because theres nothing that keeps a player going like pavlovian conditioning.
  • Add literal signposts everywhere. I only knew about the elevator going to the street level coming back up because there was no marker leading me to it. Furthermore the signs that are in the game are too blown out with light to make out half the time
  • Since a 2d map would most likely cause frustration given how vertical the world is, perhaps a scaled down 3d model with the players position and objective position    marked (a la doom eternals map system) and/or:
  •  Adding a waypoint system to the compass. Either one of these would lower the bar for entry  (of course have the option to turn it off for the hardcore crowd)

 I am probably one of the last people to be advocating for waypoints in a video game, but considering how large and open  the map is, I feel like it would be appropriate   (if cruelty squad   can have an indicator  of exactly where your  target is on  screen,  anything goes)

I bring all this up because i can see how much love and effort went into bringing all these areas to life , and it would completely break my heart to see all that time and effort spent only for the reception percentage    to be lowered  and refunds to be given because of players who got lost, didnt know what to do, and just gave up and concluded the game wasnt worth their time

I hope what I've said hasnt been too redundant, or given the impression that I didnt enjoy my time with the game. I wouldnt have spent the time to write all this up if I didnt care. Im really excited to see where this thing goes, good luck and godspeed 

(+2)

I came here to offer similar feedback on getting lost - I really really like the map design and think it's very cool and evocative, and probably my favorite thing about the game right now. But I had real trouble finding where to go  and still am not certain what the actual objectives are. The first guy you see who you can talk to says you can talk to "the commander in the apartment blocs" for work, but I could not figure out where that is - everywhere I went seemed to have people who started shooting at me. Similarly, you can talk to the woman at the bar nearby, and she points you to a guy you can presumably go after "at the docks", but I still have no idea where the docks are or how to get there. Again, I really like the map design, I just think some signposting or additional information would really be helpful.

(+1)

I've played both demos, although I didn't finished any of them. While I appreciate Blade Runner  but PRL    and try  to recreate Deus Ex mechanics. The game either for me has many issues or ends up it is not my cup of tea after all - at this moment. Maybe final version would be more satisfying. These nitpicks are subjective, it should be taken with grain of salt.

  • Both demos (partially tutorial too)  for me suffer from too much emptiness, long  massive corridors and rooms, that  are mostly waste of space and time to travelling through them. In the current demo, while exploring can be rewarding, finding path back or backtracking feels the reward is not worth  of pressing shift  and w for those minutes. I am unsure if it is artistic choice , since it feels like the exaggeration is too great.  I wonder if the same effect of empty wasted space and grandness of  architecture and mass of it would be still achievable if many places would be shrunk by half.
  • Because of that, there are places, where I think shouldn't be available.  Like the train tracks that leads to outside.  I am not sure if they lead to somewhere for really patient players, or its purpose is  to punish cheeky players that would explore anywhere they can.
  • Due to that long way from one interesting   scenery to another, I had little to no motivation with "completing" the level.
  • Another thing, I feel like the jumping and climbing still needs polishing and subtlety. The jumping sequence between three thin bars deep in metro tunnel was frustrating.  Do climbing a ladder is about pressing  spacebar rapidly?
  • AI of allies is weird? After taking down enemies with sleep bombs, the allies came to do mass execution.
  • It is really nitpicking but poster of Wedel's cocoa powder is too sharp comparing to other posters.
  • It is subjective and personal, but seeing character model breaks immersion for me. I understand the inspiration with her design, and I suspect after talking with propaganda woman why main character looks as she looks.   Yet     her look compared to men in this world is too off.  Like custom anime GTA  mod made by someone who is beginner in the craft.

    Sorry for harsh words, good luck with the game! I am still looking forward it completion.
(+1)

Hey Łycha, thanks a lot for the comments. They aren't as harsh as you'd think. Many of these we are aware of and want to address and some are conscious decisions, which will likely keep getting mentioned. We went through an additional art pass for the previous demo level, with added detail, quests and props and we were hoping for a three level demo but our discoveries regarding performance issues of that build led to us deciding the “memorial tower” level needs a complete remake in Hammer editor, instead of Unity’s built in ProBuilder (its use allowed the current demo runs better while being way bigger). Same with the current demo, we hope to add variety to the areas between points of interest, other than hidden goodies. We have no intention of scaling the map down, but filling it with cool stuff – most definitely.

Stuff like the endless train tracks will stay – it’s that artistic touch I don’t want to refuse Snake, the level designer and lead artist. We are happy with people’s reactions to Marie, whether they find her disturbing or cute. Both are intentional. We have received opinions that there are areas in the level that should be blocked off from the player but we decided to embrace our movement and allow people to go wherever they please, with more advanced techniques allowing places that you wouldn’t even expect reachable. You’ll find a small battery or an overpowered gun there, but it’s entirely optional. At the same time, our ambition is for the game to be hard but completable without using the movement tricks but that hasn’t yet been achieved yet. As for ladders, we believe there’s no need for a typical FPS ladder if Marie mantle them like any other object.

Thanks for giving us further chances. We hope that future iterations will address some of your issues, like AI becoming more refined (it’s not really "ally" AI, every NPC uses the same set of behaviours regardless of faction standing – like killing their enemy whether they are concious or not), nitpicks being fixed etc.

(+1)

Glad to read the response. Especially since  some of my concerns are actually fully aware decisions; stick to them.

So the railway is rewarding. I guess I didn't had enough patience, and I thought I have some after Pathologic! I understand the wish to keep the world open, as streets doesn't had invisible walls either, and they can lead to non interesting places.
I will give more tries to demo in the meantime to check if maybe stars were in wrong position, or I expect too much from demo at this stage of development. Since I enjoyed the tutorial since I had directions what should l do, and have initial goal.

(+1)

May I ask, how does the Hammer editor make levels more lightweight? As someone just starting with Unity I'd love to learn such thing before I make something without thinking about it and have it bite me in the butt =P

Deleted post

Thanks for playing and the kind words. The bugreport is very useful. I'm currently looking at the issue with the keybind menu. I hope to move this bug  to the "fixed" column soon. https://trello.com/b/8rr6ZIda/peri-june-21-demo-bug-fixes

As with many things, the nade launcher probably will need extra explaining and refining. In real life, the RWGŁ is a blank firing rifle, with grenades placed inside the nozzle. This is how it works in peri as well. The ammo count displayed is the number of blank rounds inside the gun, while an additional reload will place one of the available grenades inside the launcher (they are green round cans in the inventory). The commander gives you less grenades than the gun holds blanks. Hopefully loading in nades will be more obvious when the animation for it is ready.

In case of problem 3: the save file and log file will come in handy to get to the bottom of what happened. If you are using discord, I cordially invite you https://90s.graphics.discord, as this will be the easiest way for you to send the files (and be guided how to find them).

Hey, I'm the guy in charge of saves, was curious if you remember a few things about your third issue: if you reloaded your save, was it acting normal? Did you save while this was happening? If you did, did it persist after loading that save? Do you still have the same save where this happened? Also did it only happen in the immediate area or did it seem to work normally if you went somewhere else?

If this happened in the last or second to last time you've launched the game, the details might be in one of your log files. These are at "C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\LocalLow\Ninth Exodus\Peripeteia\". If you could send this to us (our discord would be a good place to get in contact), and possibly the save file (and anything in the error logs folder, since that might be relevant), we would greatly appreciate it, since this isn't something we've heard of with the recent builds. Glad to hear you liked the game, and we really appreciate the feedback and bug reports.

Deleted post

Thanks a lot, that's very useful info. I would appreciate the link.

Deleted post
(1 edit) (+2)

Thanks a lot. I ran your save on the current build, and it seems that it was an issue I unintentionally fixed the other day while cleaning up problems that would spam the log. The NullReferenceException in LightDetector.lightUpdate() was throwing errors every tick on the starting screen (that was also the PlayerMovement error you were seeing, which was only on start screen but also annoying me), so I added a check that also happens to catch the issue on your save (whatever is causing it I can now get a closer look at with your save since it's definitely a bug).

Basically what was happening is that LightController iterates through the entire list of LightDetectors, and at some point early on in that list one of them was broken in a way that threw that exception, causing most of the lights to stop working properly with our visibility system. Thanks again for your help figuring out the issue.

(-5)

developers scammed me out of my Vbux and caused me to flip my truck do NOT buy

As it is, the game runs pretty bad on my computer resulting in my aim being way off, but I do look forward to seeing where this game goes.

Hey Bo,

We recently had an update that runs better compared to the demo you tried. Please let us know what you think of it.

(1 edit) (+1)

Ah yes, now it's like 90 percent less lag, very good. Are there completely new levels now, I don't remember anything I'm seeing :P

Excellent! Yeah that's completely new levels in that demo, as the previous level is getting an overhaul.

(+2)

tons of bugs, but i love it

(+1)

Less bugs now, please give the new demo another go. Hope you enjoy it as much.

(1 edit) (+1)

man, the new demo it's awesome! And  i didn't find any bugs  for now

the save and load feature  isn't working

Oh yeah, it was rather broken in the old build. Please try our new demo. It still has its hiccups  but is way more usable now.

(+1)

Just saw the game used as background footage while talking about how good new    ImSims are in Charlatan  Wonder's Postal 2 video the other day, just wanted to pop in and say Congrats :D

Charl IS wonderful

(+1)

Seems good

Hope you find the new demo better!

(+1)

Really, really, really love the big Half-Life 2 Beta vibes. Really looking forward to it!

(+1)

Needs a ton of work, but has the potential to be fantastic. The atmosphere is the best thing it has going for it right now, the multiple paths through the level is the other. Other than general fixes to the graphics, performance etc. the thing I'd like to see improved on the most is the writing, the setting is very interesting but for the most part the people in it aren't.

(+1)

Please fix this game for linux . Running the x86_64 executable file refuse to work.  

(+2)

Can't wait to see where this goes. Please keep working on this, it is fantastic. 

Are you supposed to be able to get more ammo for your silenced pistol or is that intentional?

(5 edits) (+1)

Peripeteia is a gem in the making. I expect good things from it in the future. It feels like the 1     city block game model Warren Spector uses when acting as creative director for games.

This comes to no surprise as the developers of Peripeteia take direct inspiration from the level design of System Shock 1 and 2, Deus Ex, etc.
However, they have added their own creative twist and expanded on the rare niche set of games that has been coined "immersive sims."

Well done. I am looking forward to the games final release. :)


(+1)

This is the best video game junk i ever experience, decide all signs showing this is not ready for demo   i still killed the  target and got stuck in elevator which punished me out of bound, great game please fix

(+1)

I know that I haven't been able to play the game due to my computer specs, however, I'm really impressed by you and snake's work.

From the moment I saw the game advertised in my email from my itch subscription, I knew I was going to love it.

Super excited and good luck with  your game!

(+1)

My first complaint was "Damn this game is dark"  but it took me 2 hours to find the nightvision.

Also... do all doors  blow off from blowing up barrels? Been dragging barrels around  to open some... distant doors. Easter eggs out there?

(+2)

Seems like this has E.Y.E. and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vibes, which is freakin' rad. Really looking forward to this!

(+1)

this is amaaazing, the only game on itch i'm actually excited for

(+1)

looks extremely cool, can't wait to  see more