Happy Time Circus 3 (WIP)

Oh boi. That image legit gave me goosebumps for a moment.

Anyway, this looks cool. Finally we have a creepy mod which is not crappy.

This is pretty awesome!

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!

Ahem... yes, quite, I like the look of this. Not sure how this slipped under my radar back when you posted in July, but I'll be keeping a close on this now hehe. 

This is wonderfully promising. Might end up being one of the best map packs.

I'm almost finished doing sprites for a chaingun replacement. It took forever to get the barrel rotating to look right which is really difficult without 3d modeling. The whole sprite won't be visible on screen since I think I made it too big so the bottom 3rd probably won't be visible. It will use normal chaingun ammo instead of clown souls like most of the new weapons.

Clown Souls? O_o

Ok, you absolutely have my attention now.

Following.

Here's a video of map 10, all the maps are still works in progress and I still have to add more sounds and whatnot but this will give everyone an idea of what this mod will be like. Sorry for the poor video quality, the file ends up looking like shit for some reason when I upload to youtube. I've finished a couple more enemies and scrapped the above chaingun and made a more normal looking machine gun instead.

I always hoped for a HTC3, I loved the first two so seeing this is awesome!

It looks very good, I love the ambient sounds, the atmosphere is dark I like it. I congratulate you, keep it up

I hope the entire set of weapons will be angled.

I've been quite busy with sprites lately. This sprite is a giant mechanical pennywise head known as the soul repository, it functions similarly to the icon of sin. Instead of skull cubes it fires pennywise spheres that spawn clown enemies. The souls are stored in the hair and transferred to the soul emitter at the forehead via the four "probes" connecting to the hair. Destroying the machine will reveal the exit to the final level where the player will face pennywise.

The pennywise soul sphere:

It laughs as it flies. But the boss fight is much more complex than just shooting at it. Pennywise will fight tooth and nail to protect the device with devilish tricks. You'll be on the clock to destroy it before you run out of ammo, and it has every weapon built in to defend itself. Including the nuke. And giant lasers. And a repulsion device to prevent you from using melee, so it's important to concentrate ammo on the repository and all its devices.

Please, tell me this project isn't abandoned!

Was Happy Time Circus III canceled?

It hasn't been canceled but progress has been slow due to challenges IRL. Major Cooke and I are still working on it, we've been picking up pace recently. I'll try to speed up progress as much as I can.

4 minutes ago, Negatronica said:

It hasn't been canceled but progress has been slow due to challenges IRL. Major Cooke and I are still working on it, we've been picking up pace recently. I'll try to speed up progress as much as I can.

I'm very excited to see this monster released - the atmosphere is deeply, perfectly unsettling and all the new graphics are incredible. Good luck to both of you!

This is awesome! An evil clown wad!

Hell yeah !

Indeed… this is gonna be Awesome !!! Pennywise soul spheres  generating more clowns and monsters… and a replacement for the Icon of Sin… OH YEAH!!  Checked out the WIP video for Happy Time Circus III ( posted a while back) and That looks amazing… so, keeping my eye on this one… EPIC-ness may be incoming… I enjoyed the heck   Out of Happy Time Circus II ( after it got patched) 

Time for a small info dump before I respond to people.

First off, the mod is set to be released with an official addon sometime after that will enable the use of special hardware only features which aren't available in software render mode. The base mod will be compatible for all render modes, but the Hardware addon will allow for me to add in more creepiness, including dynamic lights, models, and better usage of 3D floors/portals for one map in particular. It's basically a little touch of me, and the insanity that lurks within my mind, infecting me from the day I first played HTC2 and fell in love with it at least a decade ago. You don't need it to enjoy HTC3's original design - if anything, it's more of a "my spin" take that just pumps out some hardware-only things that aren't needed to enjoy the game. But it's definitely worth playing through again with it tacked on.

Second, the secret levels are all accessed in ways that are out of the ordinary, and there are no super secret levels. Translation: You play the secret levels, and there are no extra secret levels within. You'll want to pay attention to your surroundings. Perhaps balloons act differently in some maps when popped... Think outside the box. Tip: There are no second exits. When you trigger it, you're locked into traversing the secret levels.

Third, the secret levels are pressure cookers. Pennywise will punish you for your deviancy, as you were not meant to stray from the Hellish path it has laid out for you. You have a limited amount of time to escape. If you choose to go exploring, beware... You never know what you'll find. Possibly something you'll regret ever laying eyes on. But perhaps, it will be worth it in the end.

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On 8/20/2023 at 2:17 PM, Lagoonatic said:

Please, tell me this project isn't abandoned!

Rest assured it hasn't. At the risk of repeating what Negatronica said, we've been busy with other things. I, in particular, have been trying to push out another project that you all will hear about soon, called Maphancer. I'm currently working hard to get that one released so I may turn my full attention to HTC3 again, as there was a sizeable lull in development where we both took time off to enjoy other things.

On 10/8/2023 at 4:20 AM, Negatronica said:

It hasn't been canceled but progress has been slow due to challenges IRL. Major Cooke and I are still working on it, we've been picking up pace recently. I'll try to speed up progress as much as I can.

A half baked turkey is still 50% frozen. Let it bask. Do not rush, and most importantly, don't add unneeded strain. 

It will be done when it's done. Not before, not after.

On 10/8/2023 at 4:28 AM, Cammy said:

I'm very excited to see this monster released - the atmosphere is deeply, perfectly unsettling and all the new graphics are incredible. Good luck to both of you!

Thank you.

In terms of atmosphere I would say this one is less horror themed overall than HTC2, and more Doom focused. However, this one has a story that will tie all three chapters together. But there is at least one map I am going to insert the atmosphere of old, because IMO it's symbolic. You'll know which one when you see it.

An update: After GZDoom recently came out with some nifty new features lately, we've made the unanimous decision to make this mod hardware renderer only. Several reasons:

1. It's faster than software rendering.
2. We can fit a lot more crazy detail with minimal impact on performance when using models.
3. Awesome special effects that isn't supported by Carmack's renderer.

Such as using gradient coloring to make a raving drug party effect.

You can in theory still run it in software mode but you've been warned: It won't look good, and key elements may be missing.

Some WIPs!

Excited for these screenshots and to hear this project is still in the works! The first two Happy Time Circus Wads are some of my favorites and easy recommendations to anyone looking for something original and genuinely unnerving (but in the best way). I'm interested to see if this more action-oriented approach will still maintain some of the skin-crawling vibes of the originals, but love the direction the project is taking aesthetically.

Oh it will. I can guarantee it. We've actually been dipping more into horror elements that make MY skin crawl. Negatronica is a GOD at developing horror and themes around it, especially with clowns.

Oh that looks funky as heck.

I can promise a lot of fun. Some secret new guns are in progress too.