Haunted Lands: Burial Grounds
A downloadable game
Dark and bloody retro inspired action platformer. Slay the grim cultists, the infernal minions and twisted nightmarish creatures that roam the Haunted Lands.
Choose from 5 playable characters, each with unique abilities and playstyle:
the Gunners destroy enemies from safe distance;
the Beasts leap, pounce and tear enemies apart with sharp claws;
the Mage possesses an arsenal of versatile lightning spells.
Explore the vast areas of the Burial Grounds mission: ruins of the old crypts and tombs, crawling with evil spirits and otherworldly monsters. Fight hordes of common enemies, their buffed elite versions and several challenging bosses.
Acquire artifacts that enhance offensive and defensive capabilities of your character. The most powerful artifacts can even entirely change some of their skills.
Craving a challenge? Try to complete every objective and find every hidden secret; descend into the very abyss of hell and come back unscathed.
Huge thanks to the incredibly talented composers who created the soundtrack of the game:
- Larrynachos
- TeraVex
Liked the game and want more? The release with more missions, enemies and bosses coming soon, wishlist now:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2980900/Haunted_Lands/
Download
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Development log
- Haunted Lands development announcement26 days ago
- Version 1.1.0Oct 27, 2023
- Version 1.0.3Mar 11, 2023
- Version 1.0.2Mar 05, 2023
- Version 1.0.1Feb 27, 2023
Comments
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Hi, my name is MadShmupper. I am a dev over at the PortMaster discord server. We port a large variety of games to Linux handheld devices. Games from Gamemaker, Godot, Love, etc.. Feel free to come and visit us on discord. I am reaching out to ask your permission to port and distribute your games, both 'Haunted Lands' & 'Haunted Lands Burial Grounds' to PortMaster. May I please distribute it? We at PortMaster receive no money for this and will give you, the game creator, proper and complete due credit. PortMaster will be responsible for the upkeep of the port and will require no other assistance from you unless you'd like to be involved, which is fully welcomed by the way🙂. On behalf of myself, the others at PortMaster, and our quickly growing, and beautiful community, I want to thank you for any and all consideration you may give my request. Again, thank you thank you. Kindest regards, MadShmupper [PortMaster](https://discord.com/invite/JxYBp9HTAY)
Hello.
Thank you for reaching out and for your offer. However, current situation with the game is that I am continuing its development under a contract with a publisher who has exclusive distribution and porting rights. Respectively, I must decline your offer. I wish you and your community all the best.
Okay. Thank you🙂
By the way..FANTASTIC GAME♥️🚀👾🤖I am excited to see any work and changes you all may decide to grace it with🤩🤩🤩excited for ya🙂
Oh! we can expect another update in the future!
I thought I'd share this image. Minimal context as to avoid spoilers: This is using the Blazing Orb, drop of wrath, wrath seal(?), and two filler slots on version 1.1.0. I think this was still possible in previous versions, and I never had to spend wrath on healing, but it's still funny. Not sure if it should be patched out since it took player skill to get to this point of absurd.
very good
Разрази меня гром если некоторые спрайты основаны не на графике из King's Bounty (кольцо артефакта) и Captain Comic (кирпичи). Отличная игра, btw. Первая часть была огонь, токо короткая.
Восприятие любит находить асоциации со знакомыми образами, даже там, где нет никакой связи.
Видел обзор Нубилиуса, на обе части? Говорит, у игры есть коммерческий потенциал. Там у тебя конечно Какодемоны патентованные, но я думаю стоит создать к игре еще дополнительно генератор уровней с редактором, и тогда можно будет о чем-то говорить в плане ее продажи. Готов участвовать.
Участвовать в чем и каким образом?
В создании генератора уровней. Как программист.
Спасибо за предложение.
Reporting in to mention that I 100%ed the game. The speedrun portion was very tough to perfect, though.
Good job!
So the time challenge was the hardest for you?
I only managed to beat it by four minutes. It took a long time to properly plan out and perfect the route, and dying even once meant that it was a hopeless attempt.
I see. Which character did you use?
Sorceress. Mystic Tome and Radiant Pearl made the difference in the successful run.
Большой поклонник оригинала, только сегодня узнал про эту версию, хотел $ кинуть(за такое не жалко :), но карта(естественно) не проходит, может у тебя boosty.to или что-то похожее есть?
Нет, ничего похожего нету. В любом случае, спасибо за поддержку.
Is the Beast a male or a female? Judging by the picture I'd say it's a female, but when it recieves damage it's clearly a male's growl..
I guess Beast is the brown running crazy werewolf-like creature from Level 3 of Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion
..okay.. but it doesn't answer the question :)
Just beat the infernalist and unliving abomination today as the Veteran. That last boss was a doozy. Time to beat the game as the other classes, and thank you very much for your hard work. I look forward to you expanding on the game.
I wonder how the final boss in the full release will top that? :)
Commenting on the universal ability to store a Rage by pressing Utility while holding the Attack button: I'm not sure why it works as it does currently. Storing a Rage is conterintuitive when you can just use the rage normally, especially since the player needs to stay stationary to perform this unnecessary maneuver and leave themselves even more vulnerable. Since it is released when you let go of the Attack button - but you need to be holding the attack button to store it - and you can't move while doing it, this doesn't allow the player to effectively store a 4th bar of Wrath: for example, by having 3 bars of wrath, storing a Rage then picking up an orb of wrath.
TL;DR, The only way to use stored Rage currently is holding the Attack button, storing the Rage, then releasing the Attack button which uses up that stored Rage. Why do that when you can just press the Rage button? Storing Rage is objectively worse than pressing the Rage button.
I believe a good way to fix this is by cancelling the attack when you store Rage, thereby letting the player move freely - maybe have them do a small wind-up animation so it's still not a risk-free action (additionally communicating the charge,) and have the charge be releasable via an input separate from Attack or make charging an attack release the stored Rage.
HOWEVER, I would like to suggest turning this feature into a new mechanic. One idea I had was a bullet time effect or temporarily increased damage, maybe even have it be character-specific; like Sorceress temporarily banishing nearby enemies or Salamander gaining some kind of temporary health / damage reduction? I think this new mechanic should be notable considering it is the same cost as Rage, but I could see it being something simpler like Gunners fully reloading, Salamander refilling her pounce or Sorceress pushing back enemies in front of her.
Higher Powers! I forgot about the existence of "Haunted Lands"! And the Second Part has already been released?! You know... RESPECT you, alevgor! You resurrected "Dangerous Dave"! Thank you so much! 38^)
I legit made an account just to say thank you for making this game. Its really fucking gooood and you deserve massive credit for it. Wish I could donate some extra, but hopefully you are still going to make great games like this tbh. Looking forward for more, take care brodie!!
(also a little request, can you guys like upload the music to bandcamp or soundcloud?? Im really liking the soundtrack, thanks!)
Thank you for the kind words, glad you like the game.
For now the whole OST is available here: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1198036
most underrated itch io game i found so far!
i love the dangerous dave aesthetic good job !
Thank you!
This game is AMAZING!! My goal is to beat this game! Awesome job! Haunted Lands! Dark, Bloody, & GORY retro inspired action platformer. DOWNLOAD NOW! - YouTube
Thank you!
And good luck with your goal :)
An awesome game! I love Dangerous Dave and you made just perfect game =)
I adore this game but Forlorn cathedral boss = wall. Can't do it ;_;
Still haven't beaten the Overseer, but just came back here to say this game is absolute quality. Anyone reading this, please donate towards this game rather than buying Diablo 4 horse armor.
Hi there. I'm playing version 1.0.3 and it looks like the sorceress can't get past the room with the giant snake statue. I can't find any other means of progress and she just can't seem to blink through there. I'm guessing because the ceiling on the other side is too low for her to pass through?
That said, however, I've been playing the hell out of this game. It's so fun and very well designed. I love the bits of personality that have been sprinkled here and there. I really hope you revisit this project and expand it as I've read the possibility of in your other comments. :)
Hi! I'm glad that you liked the game. This level that you mentioned has different routes for all character classes. If you want a small hint on how to progress as Sorceress, watch a trailer video on this page.
I see! Thank you for the advice. I have spent an amazing amount of time in this game, and it's astounding how much content and depth you've managed to pack into this game while including room to expand it. I really look forward to playing any additional content, and am all in on investing in the project.
Damn checkpoints on level 2 are even more insane. Sorry not sure if my patience would be enough to finish the game. Loosing 10-15 minutes of really hard progress is very demotivating. -_-
This is already fantastic. It's a far cry from what I loved about the original, and aside from my comment on Newgrounds I don't think I've told you how much I love the original. The original haunted lands was nails hard in a really classic, and good way. Jumping had to be precise, combat was nail biting and not in a trial and error way of difficulty. There was a beautiful simplicity to everything. I must have tried it a hundred times now and I still haven't beaten it (just got to the sewer section last week)
Some changes I find odd, like reloading while moving which in the original haunted lands added a ton of tension, but I get that it's a player convenience thing.
Haven't played a ton yet, but it's nice. There is a LOT more variety and complexity in this version, which surprised me. Curious to see where this goes. It looks like it already has a ton of content. The original felt like a love letter to the games that inspired it, and an attempt to fuse all of them, doom, Bio Menace, Commander Keen, Duke Nukem 1&2 etc. I only have less than an hour in right now, but This feels a little more like an attempt at a more "modern indie game" take on the same ideas.
If you ever do a full paid release, and you should, this is awesome, see if you can include the original haunted lands as a bonus. Maybe as a "Retro" version.
Hello there, was wondering how one is supposed to "return to base" but after the first level i have not seen the truck and returning to main menu deleted my save. I am curious what i should be doing to return to base and sort of upgrade my stuff?
There are two return points: one in the first level and one roughly in the middle of the mission.
Can you please clarify what do you mean by "returning to main menu deleted my save"? This is the first time I hear about save being deleted.
i returned to base from sepulchur. attempting to hunt again brings me back to the start of level one, with no shortcuts etc.. perhaps there are just no saves or i am missing them somehow.
When you leave to the main menu and select your save file, there should be message window asking if you want to continue from the level you reached. Like here, for example: https://youtu.be/pMzSpaDM6kU
If you choose to not continue previous run, you loose all silver and artifacts that you found and will need to collect them again.
To bring everything to base you either need to get to one of two retreat points (red car) or to complete the mission.
Love the art direction, pure nostalgia for me. Really nice work! Threw you a couple bucks.
Thanks :)
And one more crash on that giant bone hands boss.
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object obj_player_push:
Unable to find any instance for object index '301152' name '<undefined>'
at gml_Object_obj_player_push_Step_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_player_push_Step_0 (line -1)
It seems that the artifact causes problems in some specific cases. It's an easy fix, I'll publish the new version soon.
Not sure why but exit opened before I killed that second roll snake.
Oh no. After so many tries I completed those arenas as sorceress and could go a little further than usual in that spike zone afterwards and that's what I got. -_-
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object obj_player_push:
Unable to find any instance for object index '137843' name '<undefined>'
at gml_Object_obj_player_push_Step_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_player_push_Step_0 (line -1)
It happened when I teleported to that green slime thing on the wall.
That's really unfortunate. Do you by any chance use the artifact called "Jade Figurine"?
Can I check it now somehow without quitting to character select screen?
And again game crashed at the same place when I teleported.
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object obj_player_push:
Unable to find any instance for object index '125421' name '<undefined>'
at gml_Object_obj_player_push_Step_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_player_push_Step_0 (line -1)
It creates exploding decoy on teleport.
Ah yes. It is equipped indeed.
This looks pretty cool!
odd question, is this haunted lands 2? i'm asking out of curiosity and so i know what to name the shortcut
This is the second release, so it could be seen as a sequel, kind of. But it was planned to be a free version, a demo of sorts, of a bigger game with few more missions, characters etc. Though whether this bigger game will be made or not is currently unknown.
nice! good luck with it!
And one more camera problem here.
Never seen this one. Did something specific cause this?
Not sure. Played as sorceress. Encountered it two times.
Okay, thanks again.
BTW - I stuck here again, now as sorceress. ^_^ Indeed check-point just after the third arena, near (or even instead) health altar would help a lot.
Stuck where exactly?
I broke something hitting through the wall here.
One more bug/glitch found.
Camera locked on this room after I took a secret up above and cleared this room (god knows how many tries it took...).
Hmm. Could you please clarify so I can better understand what happened: you took the secret chest above the room shown on the image, then you cleared the room on the picture, then you somehow got outside but the camera keeps locked on the room, is that right?
Yep. It wasn't difficult to get outside - just a pounce attack with double jump.
I see. Thanks reporting these problems.
I first heard about Haunted Lands from Alpha Beta Gamer's video covering this 4 hours after he released said video. I haven't stopped playing it for the past 3 days! I'd like to compile a review of excitement, constructive criticism and bug finds in no particular order.
I haven't updated to the 1.02 version, keep in mind.
Each of the 4 playable characters feels potent and great to control. I immediately gravitated towards cowgirl but have completed the game with each character (Still working on beating the secret boss w/ each!) Whilst I originally disliked the gunners being incapable of healing, being able to respawn with up to 5 silver crosses definitely evens that out, and I've been happily surprised how many enemies the cross explosion can dispatch in a pinch (they're called "gunners" anyways, tanking hits is the last on my to-do list!) Beast being able to heal from dealing damage felt addicting and I personally run a pounce-oriented equipment set: Speaking of, the 2 cultists in the dragon lair? I didn't realize they were more than setpieces until I took a swipe for the heck of it, and I love that you put them there to compensate for the boss being bloodless, that decision made for some frantic chaos during the latter half when I was going for heals and trying not to die to the two minions. Speaking for additional characters, it would be interesting to see a divine-centric character, maybe a priest or paladin-esque motif. I'm genuinely curious to see what could be added to the roster!
I saw one comment saying that they disliked how pressing up or down halts horizontal movement. As a keyboard player, this hasn't been an issue at all for me, and I would argue it makes lining up diagonal shots as a gunner much easier and consistent. For the other characters, it only effects beast (since sorceress can't attack midair) and negligably at that.
I felt like the placement of checkpoints & quicksaves are very well done so far. There's been various times where I was nervous about dying and being sent to the last checkpoint, and others where I was happy for the safety net such as before bosses. Having a quicksave AND checkpoint actually made for some interesting decisions, such as when I entered the dragon lair as a veteran w/ a pre-activated retribution, but only 2 of my 5 starting crosses! Do I take the free damage or extra hits? If both options weren't available, that kind of critical thinkng wouldn't be present.
I've managed to crash the game 3 times so far. The first two involve Beast's pounce on the first purple elite w/ the damage shield: the first time I pounced him when he spawned and crashed the game on contact. On a later playthrough, I had the idea to use the Beast's retribution for its basic attack to douse the shield, then immediately pounce - this led to a second crash, I think the shield came back up just in time. The third crash was during the secret boss: To avoid spoilers for those who haven't played, I used sorceress' chain lightning on the boss's spawned obstacle and crashed. Whilst these crashes definitely cost me some time (The third example, I had to replay starting from boneyard) they were easily avoidable once I knew of their existence. I hope they get patched, regardless.
Enemies! I genuinely enjoy how damage works in this game. Excluding elites & bosses, I started counting shots early on and memorizing how much damage each foe can take, and since this seems consistent amongst each character it feels like a design choice in my novice eyes. A lack of damage randomness & clear indicators of sustained damage made keeping track of which enemies I could and couldn't engage so much better in the heat of the moment. If I couldn't see the gore a damaged foe had, it would be a lot harder to dispatch enemies and make target priority less reliable. Speaking of, I originally despised how the healers can tend one another, but found reliable strategies for each playable character (preemptive reloads w/ gunners so I can mag dump, Beast's pounce, and a 3-charge bomb into some follow-up shots w/ sorceress.) I think some people hate them because they're healers, not because they're designed poorly. They force target prioritization, that's for sure! In fact, the only enemy I have legitimate criticism for is the (current) final boss in the Dragon's Lair. In the last phase specifically, when the dragon coats the whole ground in flame (from claw to claw in one breath,) I've yet to find any method of avoiding damage as the Gunners. This got me killed quite a few times mere shots from victory. The attack just felt a little cheap, especially in the fleeting moments before defeating such a foe. Of course, I'm aware I could be missing some knowledge to reliably dodge it, and bringing the bat wings for a double jump could theoretically remedy this (Haven't tested this yet.) The attack doesn't feel bad with the Beast or Sorceress due to Pounce & Levitate, but as I said before, how do Gunners dodge it with their lack of mobility options?
Overall, I can't wait to see what else you have in store and was shocked this was a free product. Everything about the game, from character design, level geography and even checkpoint placement felt spot-on for me to make for an experience that was equally rewarding and unforgiving. It reminds me of classic consoles and developer mentalities such as the Dark Souls franchise: each damage taken is meaningful, every shot an opportunity. Each mistake feels like my own, and experience is half the battle. I have never wanted to speedrun a game faster than this.
Perhaps, in the Haunted Lands, each hunt can be an expression of oneself. With your relics in hand, take up your trade's tools of war - Survival is for the quick, cunning, and ruthless. You may not succeed on your first attempt - or your first several dozen - but with persistence comes perfection.
Wow, thanks for this huge feedback! Glad that you liked the game.
The crash caused by pounce on shielded elite, that you mentioned, is already fixed in version 1.0.2. The other bug with chain lightning I'll definitely look into.
I was wondering if players would be able to discover small non-obvious things like healing opportunity on the final boss for the beast. Kudos for figuring it out.
I assure you that every attack of the final boss is avoidable. Final phase is tricky indeed, but it's possible for every character to beat it without taking any damage.
Thank you for responding! I'm glad and grateful this game seems active both from developer and player activity. I have been hesitant to stray towards the claws on the sides during the final boss fight, I might try that next run. There's so much room for player expression with the content already presented, and I'm excited to see how this game evolves from here.
I think there should definitely be a save point in the crypt after three floors of arena fights. Just near the health altar. Counting that there is also a little starting segment on the graveyard after you defeated Overseer it's very tiresome to complete all these areas again if you fail near that huge statue of cobra.
Very fun so far, been chipping away at the stages. The hand as the lizard was quite hard but fun.
A couple of issues in 1.0.1 I encountered:
Hi, thanks for reporting this issues. Can you please show an example of the area with infinite loop?
This area as the lizard doing a jump will get stuck trying to cross it.
And this area the camera doesn't pan down where it goes to the maggot spawners.
Yes, this is not how it's supposed to work, will be fixing this asap.
Much obliged for the fixes!
Found another issue spot, the mage can teleport into the red zone and sort of falls off screen somewhere.
Awesome game! Can you please add v-sync? Thanks!
If nothing goes wrong, I'll add it in the next version.
Not sure that someone mentioned it already but I think I found a bug. Changed reloading button from V to D but reloading function stayed on a V button. At the same time charged special attack works on a D button.
Yeah, it's a bug. Thanks for reporting, I will fix it in the next version.
Really rough that shortcuts opened don't remain when you retreat… Thought I was making progress when I opened a shortcut back to my car! Unfortunately, no :C
It should remain. Pressing left/right on mission map screen changes starting level.
I can confirm it works on Linux with Wine. I must say that I never liked old DOS games' looks, because of the color palette, especially because I was into Amiga, but I have to admit that this game looks really nice. Somebody has a great talent for pixel art and great knowledge how to use colors to make the atmophere. I'm seriously impressed.
The only thing stopping this from being absolute perfection is the controls. Pushing up stops you in your tracks - and its extremely difficult to avoid that happening while jumping around or trying to outmaneuver the enemies. ESPECIALLY with a gamepad.
What would seem to eliminate this would be:
Being able to shoot while moving and jumping would be awesome, but I appreciate the game has probably been designed around this so it might unbalanced the game.
Hi, thanks for the feedback.
The interaction between levitation and up/down control is indeed an oversight and will be fixed.
Pressing up/down during the jump should not stop your horizontal movement unless you let go of left/right movement control, but in this situation pressing up/down doesn't matter at all, you'll drop down in place anyway. There might be a problem specific to a gamepad control, I'll look into it.
Hmm interesting, then could be the gamepad, its a D-Pad (not thumb stick), maybe it cant register up+left at the same time.
The up/down during jump thing tho would be awesome, I'm sure that will save me a good number of deaths.
I have 2 issues with this game...
first being the precision to make specific landings while dodging on either stages and bosses (The dragon boss difficulty is absurd, you require chirurgical precision to not land on the fire, and the fire last too much for being fire on paviment), the chaman demons healing enemies just makes things more tedious than fun, since they end up healing themselves and you have to either rush towards waves of enemies in order to hit them, which risks to get multiple hits.
second is about the control response, as it seems that it has a delay of 1 second to repeat the same command (Such as dodge or jump), while the bosses' response is almost immediately (Like the hand boss or the whip ghouls) and during a dodge you have no response until you finish the animation.
the game is good, but this things kinda ruin it for me, since is absuredly hard, is hard for the sake of being hard, not for the sake of challenging, take for example Bloodstain, it has enough difficulty for casuals and hardcores to play it and have fun, but this game almost rivals with the difficulty of Ninja Gaiden 3 of NES.
6/10, rework this aspects cuz the punishment shouldn't come from not being milimetrically accurate or just spawn enemies for the sake of spawning enemies... but by mixing patterns and failing to read the opponent's movement (Like jumping when the enemy is shooting a straight projectile) (The A. I. should outsmart the player and not the game should put absurd situations).
If you notice a surge of new players downloading the game, blame us! :p
Thank you for covering the game!
thanks for all the light you're shedding on those remakes!