Adding a rearview mirror to a first-person shooter might sound like a daft gimmick, but as PC Gamer’s Ted Litchfield discovered three years ago, the defining mechanic of Hellscreen is anything but: “You have a mini, lower-res screen in the upper quadrant of your view at all times, and can blow it up and shrink it back down with the shift key,” he wrote after taking the early access shooter for a spin 2023. “Left click fires forward, while right click fires backwards and does quadruple damage while you’re in motion.”
It was an idea that produced thrilling and highly unusual combat encounters, and Hellscreen showed huge promise as it launched into early access. Then, things went quiet. Hellscreen’s last Steam update appeared more than two years ago, a long time for an early access game to remain dormant.
At the end of last week, however, Hellscreen suddenly released into 1.0, while developer Jamie D explained exactly what had gone down during the game’s long silence.
“This is a bittersweet event for me,” he wrote on the subject of Hellscreen’s launch. “The game was to have three episodes but I had to cut it to one due to budget reasons.” This echoes the updated early access disclaimer on Hellscreen’s Steam page: “Due to the game’s sever[e] under performance and external funding being non-existent, I am unable to fully realise the full version of Hellscreen as originally intended.”
Jamie says that Hellscreen was originally conceived around a decade ago, though actual development time has been between two to three years. “When I started this, I couldn’t program or design levels or anything like that. I can tell that I have grown as a game maker and that’s a nice feeling.”
Hellscreen may be shorter than Jamie planned, but he says that reframed as a smaller experience like Metal Garden or Hypogea, I am very proud of it!” Certainly, what exists of Hellscreen bristles with fun ideas.
The rearview mirror, for example, reveals hidden enemies and messages in the world, meaning you need to keep a watchful eye on what’s going on behind you. You also progress through a mixture of light metroidvania-style exploration and collecting Soul Orbs, which you can plug into portals in a central hub world.
Jamie says that Hellscreen’s 1.0 version has a cut-down price to reflect its cut-down ambitions. To further sweeten the deal, he has bundled Hellscreen with his other game, Vapourwave Pinball, offering both at a 40% discount. This, Jamie says, amounts to getting Vapourwave Pinball for “basically free” while also shaving off some of Hellscreen’s cost.
Although Hellscreen didn’t turn out exactly how he planned, he intends to take what he’s learned over the project into his next experience. “I certainly would like to make another first-person game in the future.”
