itch.io

Hello eSedano!

We are glad to announce that we restricted the page because we found a publisher and we got funding to finish the game!

I am sorry we did not let people know about this, but we've been playing on the game non stop. Also, the game will get a graphic overhaul! Stay tuned we will share more in the near future!

Hi papayaah!

Thanks for your comment. This is indeed an issue Mac users face when they download games outside of the itch.io client; as a direct download.

It started happening after a recent upgrade, that these kinds of apps downloaded from the internet stopped appearing in MacOS Security Settings. The fix is very simple:

(This example is going to assume you have placed your HowlingIrons_MacOS_Demo.app in your Desktop. Simply replace the Desktop for the location of your app)

1. Open the Terminal app.
2. Type: cd Desktop
3. Hit Enter.
4. Afterwards, type: chmod +x HowlingIrons_MacOS_Demo.app/contents/MacOS/‘Howling Irons’
5. Hit Enter.
6. Go to the location of your app, right lick it and select Open.
7. A pop up will appear, click on Open. 
8. That's it! Enjoy your game!

This fix will help other Mac users. I will create a formal post. 

Bye!

By the way, forgot to mention this but:

You can remap controls in the Main Menu. In this case in which you are using a trackpad then you could go and choose a different key for the melee attack.

Again, thank you for your feedback!

Hello! Thank you for your feedback.

We will review it with the team. 

Specially about the jump, we have received similar feedback and we are trying to find the sweet spot.

Hope you can keep enjoying Howling Irons! 

Hello Hellslingers!

We are proud to announce a big update to our ongoing project Howling Irons!

• Added a new area to the game: The start of the game now has you playing as Cade while alive – right before the big events that get the whole story going! We wanted players to get to know Cade a little better! This change was also made to in order to have a more interactive and action packed tutorial . Live through Cade's last moments on earth – this was originally explained in an intro cinematic but we felt it was too long and made the start of the game a little too slow. We took some parts of the intro and made them a playable tutorial in order to be able to explain events while keeping new players engaged.
• New Free Aim system added: Press a key and enter free aim so you can shoot pests more easily, similar to Metroid Dread . The rest of the time, the game plays in a "Metal Slug" kind of way. It feels awesome!
• Fixed tons of bugs and improved many mechanics.

Well, what are you waiting for?

Don't forget to share this project with your friends and colleagues. GO PLAY IT NOW!

See you in the Underworld!

Hi eSedano!

First of all, thank you for your kind words and the great feedback. We are glad you are enjoying our game and we are super happy the game plays well on the Steam Deck.

This demo has a lot of content and there is much more for you to explore and experience – so keep on playing!

As to your feedback:

Thanks a lot for it. We don't mind constructive criticism  – in fact, we can use more of it! We are developing the game right now, and fine tuning controls, mechanics, etc. takes time and sometimes we, as devs, miss or ignore many critical flaws in the game. External people playing and giving us their honest opinions are exactly what we need to polish Howling Irons!

The feedback about the player facing the direction he's walking is good. We are still struggling with the right control scheme and this latest iteration of the demo was very much an experiment to see if free aim felt good. I think the next version of these controls will feel much better to you, so stay tuned!

We will read your feedback with the rest of the team. Thank you again!

Keep an eye out for the next updates!

Thanks for the details.

We will investigate this, but it has never happened on our end. Will keep digging and hopefully get a fix that will let you continue enjoying the game.

Hi Saint Peter

Thank you for your feedback! We are glad you like the aesthetic and the gameplay. 

We're sorry you were not able to finish the demo! The Blacksmith is one of the essential features of the game because he gives you access to great items.

This bug you mention, that you are unable to click on in-game menus, we have not seen before and is very concerning. Could you give us a couple of extra details?

• What resolution are you playing on?
• Was it full screen or windowed.
• Did you have a controller connected to the computer?
• Did you try completely closing and restarting the game?
• Did it happen on ALL menus? Including the inventory?
• Is it happening on the buttons that appear when you have dialogues? The buttons where you can choose what to reply.

Thank you for playing the game. We will take a look and try to fix this issue, although you are the first person we hear this happens to.

Cheers!

Thanks for your feedback. We already fixed some of these issues:

1. Flask is given automatically now
2. Put shrines in strategic locations
3. Ammo is filled to max whenever you rest on shrine
4. Other fixes

hope you give it a shot now.

Have fun!

Hello Cowboys from Hell!

We are pleased to announce a new round of builds with some nice fixes and improvements – all thanks to the great feedback we're getting.

1. Keyboard Mapping: We changed a couple of keyboard map actions to better suit the 'expected' mappings and also to make playing the game more comfortable with keyboard+mouse.
   1. Interact is now done by pressing 'E'
   2. Healing Flasks are now used with 'Q'
   3. Bombs are now thrown with 'X'
   4. Dash is performed with 'Left Shift'
2. Melee Attack: We improved the Melee attack, since we saw some people struggling when they ran out of ammo and feeling like the melee was too punishing to the player. We also got some nice feedback and players were not too happy with it.
   1. Added a knock back to keep enemies at bay.
   2. Increased the range of the attack.
   3. Increased the damage.
   4. Made the motion a bit faster.
3. The Ambrosia Flask: we saw many players miss the flask or almost miss it. To solve this, the flask is now given automatically after our dialogue with Death. No more runs unable to heal mid fight!
4. Added two more shrines: We saw players struggle on some areas because they were heavily damaged and scared to continue exploring due to the fact that if they died, the last shrine was too far away.  Added shrines to key locations to let players save and heal more often (added them near or after big challenges).
5. Ammo replenished by resting on shrines. Some players complained that they were unlucky and ran out of ammo too often on some areas (or after dying to a boss). Resting on shrines will now fill up your ammo reserves to keep you blasting those guns non stop!
6. Bug Fixes:
   1. Fixed a weird bug where playing the game on screens with a non 16:9 aspect ratio would result in the HUD being absent.
   2. Fixed some animations that were not working correctly.
   3. Fixed a minor bug where the collision of the torch remained after destroying it.
   4. Fixed the Intro Cinematic that did not play from the beginning. It now has more content and a little more context for the game.
   5. ETC!

That's it!

We hope you enjoy these changes and we encourage you to keep playing the demo and exploring! 

As always, thank you all for your great feedback! 

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

See you in Tartarus!

Hi Lampazzu!

Thank you for the info. We fixed the HUD issue and improved the melee attack + some other changes (Including key mapping).

About the new key mapping, the game is currently saving the mapping so even if you try this new update you won't see the new mapping unless you delete your save data and start a new game. Sorry about that!

Here is the summary of the changes made.

We hope you'll give the game another shot now. Your feedback has been super valuable to us!

Enjoy!

Hi Lampazzu.

Thanks for the info and for the detailed feedback.

A. I agree that we need the Melee to be super reliable if its the only option left after running out of bullets. We will definitely take a look at that and try to improve it as much as we can. We might need a better animation that also increases the range, as you suggested. Maybe a kick or simply having a machete or something. We will think about it.

B. The missing HUD really bothers me. I have never seen this issue before – and I have seen other players try the game + some videos and they don't have this issue. Could you tell me the specs of your computer/screen? Maybe, for some reason, they are appearing outside of your view due to resolution or something. Could you share a screenshot of how your game looks?

About the UI:

• Do you see dialogues?
• Is your inventory working fine and are you able to read item descriptions + lore?

C. The patch should not have Save Data. It was probably the save data in your computer from your previous session.

D. Thank you for the suggestion son mapping. I was already thinking about using E for interaction. Using Q or 1 to heal sounds reasonable. Maybe 1 so you avoid healing by mistake.

Again, thank you for your feedback and for testing the game. We really appreciate it. We promise to fix these issues and deliver a great experience!

Hi Matt!

Thank you for the kind words! And for the video... we watched it from start to finish!

Such a shame that you got that weird bug at the end... we are investigating to try to prevent it from happening again!

A couple of comments about your run:

1. Right at the beginning, you missed picking up the Flask of Ambrosia (which is the health flask used to heal mid combat!). Its probably bad design on our part... it is right next to the statue but you just moved forward and did not pick it up. Your run would have been significantly easier if you had been able to heal outside of the shrines! We will add a safe to make sure people pick it up. Maybe freeze the player until you grab it. Sorry about that!
2. We are very interested in knowing your honest opinion about difficulty and level layout. For example: 
   1. Do you think we need to add more shrines ? Did it feel like a chore whenever you died because the last shrine was too far? 
   2. Do you think it would be better if we gave players more ammo? 
   3. What did you think of the melee... should it be stronger?
3. Any other comments or feedback would be greatly appreciated. 

We enjoyed watching you play and experience the game. Thank you for a wonderful video!

Please, keep playing the demo... there is a LOT of content that you did not experience in it... a couple of areas that you did not discover, for example ;)

Hope to see you soon!

Edit:

Hi Lampazzu

We are about to upload a new build with some fixes for some of the bugs you found, and also you'll be happy to know we managed to improve the movement of the player.

Just a quick explanation: We are planning to get this game released on consoles (eventually), so we put a lot of emphasis on controllers. We usually test the game with a gamepad so we had not realized how "heavy" the player felt on keyboard (and how slow shooting up and down was on keyboard) – these problems are not present if you play with a controller.

So, thanks to your feedback, we took a look at the code and fixed it! Now, keyboard controls are much more responsive, Cade won't feel as heavy as before and you'll be able to shoot up and down as soon as you press the up and down buttons.

We are also changing the mapping of some keys – the dash and melee attacks. 

This update will be up later today. Be sure to give it a go!

Thank you for your great feedback!

Hello Lampazzu!

Thank you so much for your review and the great feedback! We will definitely take it into consideration. Also, thank you for letting us know about the bugs you found... its super helpful!

About the HUD bug... this is weird. Once the game starts, the HUD is off but its supposed to be activated once you pick up the Ambrosia flask next to the statue that you talk to. Did you pick up this item?

Again, thank you for your kind words. We will keep improving the game. Hope you continue enjoying it... this demo has enough content for well over an hour of gameplay.  

You are Cade Black, an infamous gunslinger that lived in the American midwest in the 19th century. After being betrayed and murdered in mysterious circumstances, and due to your deeds while alive, your soul is sent directly to the lowest part of the Underworld, known as the ‘Tartarus’ or Hell. As a result of this betrayal your wife and daughter end up dying as well, and you leave the world with thoughts of regret and anger.

As you reach your destined punishment, though, an unknown force takes your soul with promises of freedom and deliverance for your family’s souls in exchange for your aid in a conspiracy taking place in the Underworld.

DOWNLOAD THE DEMO HERE

DISCOVER CADE'S PAST

There is a lot to learn from our protagonist. What led him to become a legendary gunslinger, feared by all? What were his motivations? Who was he, before he took the mantle of The Reaper?

AN EPIC QUEST TO SAVE YOUR LOVED ONES

Your journey begins at the lowest levels of Tartarus. Emerge from the Abyss in a quest to reestablish order and find salvation for your murdered family. Traverse strange and otherworldly scenarios as you approach your objective: The Great Mausoleum at the center of the Underworld.

EXPLORE AND UNDERSTAND THE WORLD

Talk to the different characters or read through tomes and item descriptions to piece together the story and understand other character's motivations and the world around you. Learning about the world may help you unravel its secrets.

AIM AND EMPTY BOTH YOUR BARRELS!

Blast away at enemies using your two trusty revolvers. Mercilessly fill them with lead as you open a path forward. Don't let anyone stop you! 

WEAR MAGIC RINGS TO MODIFY YOUR GUNS

Exploration is rewarded by finding useful loot and materials. Use them to craft a variety of magical rings that will help you improve your combat capabilities.

You can wear 5 rings on each hand, and they will transform your guns independently. Combine different elements and decide which gun to shoot first in order to find great synergies. 

Study your enemies to find their weaknesses and equip the right rings to completely destroy them.