Thimbleweed Park’s one-year anniversary is this Friday, and to help commiserate (I mean celebrate) the game is going to be 50% off for one day on all platforms. If you’re thinking of picking it up, you might want to hold off a few days.
This will be the deepest discount we’ve offered, after that, it’s back to our normal price (but still less than the Guybrush approved price for a video game).
My new favorite YouTube Channel…
Does anyone out there have any good examples of top-down action/RPG games that have nice feeling combat? Preferably using pixel art and keyboard only. The combat in Nuclear Throne feels really nice, but like so many games out there, they use a combination of mouse and keyboard (keyboard to move, mouse to attack).
I’m trying to do the whole game with just keyboard (don’t ask, it’s just a requirement of mine).
Currently, I use WASD to move and SPACE/Enter to attack, but it just feels wrong and I can’t place why. Maybe it’s the best that it gets with keyboard only. Or maybe there is something little I’m doing wrong that actually matters a lot. It’s why I’d like to play some example of games that do it well.
Also, something that runs on the Mac.
And I want a pony.
UPDATE: Still no pony. But, for the commenters that are telling me I should use arrow keys instead of WASD… arrow keys work as well as the num pad. Originally, only the arrow keys worked, but then every single person I sat down to play started using WASD, so I finally implemented it.
I got some new D&D dice. Things are starting to heat up in my group and it’s time to stop screwing around.
In Star Trek, people eat food on the holodeck. Does the food disappear when they close their mouth? Why do they say it tastes good? Are they just roleplaying? Or does the holodeck special replicate the food like the replicators? If so, then why don’t the crew of Voyager just eat on the holodeck, avoiding the need for replicator rations? In the first episode of Voyager, they mention the replicators and the holodeck run off different energy signatures, this why there aren’t holodeck rations.
P.S. These are the kind of things I think about when procrastinating.
A little something I’ve been messing around with.
Side note: Tiled is a great tile editor and come a long way since I first used it many years ago.
This is a map section (SPOILERS) for the main map. It started out as a cute little story about what religion means and does to us, but the narrative is taking me in odd directions and I don’t know if it will end up there.
It’s interesting to build an RPG (using the term very loosely) where you have the option to play the entire game with no combat and it’s still fun. Undertale did this but in a subversive way. I want to do it more in a normal choose-your-own-playstyle way. Fight if you want, don’t if you don’t and it’s equally as fun but it affects the narrative. A passive player won’t see the same game as a combative one, but won’t feel like they are missing anything.
I posted some previous screenshots of this prototype, but since then I’ve ripped out all the tile graphics and started over with a much simpler (almost icon) art style. I found that during prototyping, as soon as the art started to look too finished and refined, it would distract me and I’d spend all my time trying to make it better, rather than working on the game or story.
But it can’t be crappy, or I get distracted with that. Kenney’s tilesets were perfect. Simple, but also really good.
Currently, it’s just something I’m messing around with for fun and relaxation, I don’t know if it will become a real project or not.
This video makes me seem much smarter than I actually am.
We just released the new Ransome unbeeped DLC on Steam and GOG. Give the trailer a watch, but I have to warn you, if you’re offended by words like beep, beeper, beephole, or beephead you might want to avert your ears.
It’s a little depressing that a few people are actually upset that we’re charging $1.99 for this. Making this wasn’t free. It took a lot of work. Programming, testing, audio editing, etc. It feels like people think it was just copying a bunch of audio files over. I’ve always objected to DLC that was made at the same time as the game and all they do is flip a bit. This is not that kind of DLC. The code to make this work was not written until just a few months ago. We had the idea of MAYBE doing this DLC during the development, but none of the work was done.
We’ve released two MAJOR updates for FREE since launch, so I think we deserve to try and recover some of our costs. It sometimes feels like people expect game devs to make games for free. This is my livelihood. I use it to pay my rent and buy food. Game pricing is completely screwed up, it’s why you see predatory free-to-play games and loot boxes.
The other reason it’s not FREE is so people don’t suddenly (and without warning) get a full-on unbeeped clown swearing at their kids. Having to pay something provides some parental friction.
It’s only $1.99 and you’ll support game devs trying to make a living so they can keep making games.
Of all the games I’ve released, I’m haunted the most by The Cave. I guess when a game percolates in your head for 30 years, it’s bound to mean something.
I’ve released good games and I’ve released bad games, but I always felt I knew which was which, if not before releasing, it always became apparent soon after. I’d look at the game and understand why it failed or succeeded. Scurvy Scallywags is a great game, but I understand why it failed. I have no regrets, but I understand it.
The Cave, not so much. The Cave is a great game and how it was panned and forgotten perplexes me to this very day. The other night, I literally (and I am using that word correctly) woke up from a nightmare about The Cave. If I ever venture down into The Cave, my object of desire will be a successful version of The Cave. What atrocities will I commit to make it true?
I’ve asked a lot of friends and read countless options on the Internet about what’s wrong with The Cave, so I’m not asking. Please don’t tell me in the comments, I’ll just delete them.
The morning The Cave was released, I eagerly awoke and headed to my computer to see early reviews. Buzz was good, playtesting was good, press tour feedback was good. I was optimistic. Then I read the first review, then the second, and a third. I was crushed.
I headed into work and felt horrible. Everyone on the team did such a great job and they were reading the same reviews and it was disheartening. How could I fuck this up, I kept saying to myself, all the while trying to keep a positive attitude. There is no one to blame but myself and it haunts me to this very day. Who did I not listen to? What did I not see?
Maybe it was one or two big things, like having to repeat the common areas, or maybe it was more systemic. Maybe it was just bad, boring or pointless storytelling. Maybe it just wasn’t that fun. When something fails (from rocket ships to movies to a game), it’s often (but not always) many things that form a perfect-storm of ick. For every internet theory I’ve read on what is wrong with The Cave, I can point to other games that did very much the same thing and succeeded. I don’t feel it’s a matter of just fixing one thing and we’re done. It’s kind of why it’s not a 20/20 hindsight discussion I want to have.
Over time, I can often distance myself from my games and understand (both the good and the bad) them better. But not The Cave.
After my nightmare a few days ago, I fell back to sleep and had another dream about The Cave. In this dream, I made The Cave 2, but in 2D and with new characters and fixed all the problems.
But I don’t own the rights to The Cave, and the chances of Double Fine selling them back to me are about as good as Disney Selling me Monkey Island (and I won’t work on games anymore that I don’t own/control).
I’m not sure what I’d fix anyway. My dream didn’t tell me that.
Ah, I see your problem there and it’s assuming my C++ code is “well-defined”.