Pre-Test Anxieties

Cullen
It’s playtest weekend! For the tester, this is a chance to explore a new game for a few hours and then talk about it with people who are desperate for their opinions. For devs, this is the test of all our hard work, our crucible, where all our best ideas will be casually bent and broken. The hour is nigh.

What’s changed since the last playtest:

  • An entire new zone of levels
  • Complete rebalance of loot distribution
  • Level loading and unloading logic, which didn’t exist at all before
  • Total rework of enemy AI
  • Countless UI and code improvements
  • Loads more secret areas
  • Very significant changes to the early-game “mechanic-learning” experience

And we did all that with plenty of time to spare, I promise. It probably won’t all burn down.

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ThoughtSpike’s 2017 in Review

Cullen

A quick look at all we’ve been up to in the year of surprises.

Work, unlike blog posts, has not ceased. While I juggle my day job, development, and existential horror, Reinan is a wizard who has mastered the “doesn’t sleep” potion recipe so, due mostly to his eldritch efforts, we have accomplished some wonderful things.

Stroll past the roll for a list of what’s online, fully functional and playable, with pictures!

Come on in!
Come on in!

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Wizard’s Tower Still Breaking Our Brains

Cullen

A month has gone by since we started our new prototype. Reinan had a little break to go visit family over memorial day weekend. I spent the time gaffing for a small but very cool independent film. Now we’re back in, and we’ve chosen to continue prototyping our new platforming mind-bender, working title: Wizard’s Tower. The concept is good, but there are details that need to be attended to before we’re confident it will actually sell.Continue reading

Where There Be Dragons

Cullen

There have been a few unreported landmarks in the last year – an understatement, but its been an interesting journey and I’ll tell you about some of the milestones we’ve passed since our last update.

We’ve come a long ways, as you might expect in a year of labor – task after task is step after step toward a distant goal. It helps keep my head in the game to think of the process as a quest, a mission, a work of journeying to the promised land.

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