Several months ago, I'm sitting in a cafe in Eugene, Oregon and having a really hard time remembering to eat the grilled tuna sandwich I ordered. My mouth is opening more often to ask questions than to put food in it.
"
So this thing sounds kinda like... uh... GameTap?"
I say.
Jeff Tunnel quickly disagrees. It is nothing like GameTap. At another point in the conversation, he grudgingly grants that I could refer to it as a "
portal"
, but that's like calling the Mona Lisa an accumulation of dried paint. It's safest to just call the damned thing "
InstantAction"
, and Jeff wants Caravel to give him a game to put on InstantAction.
We leave my cold, half-eaten sandwich and head over to GarageGames world headquarters, which, true to their name, does have something like a garage in it--a cement-floored, high-ceilinged chamber which probably served as a loading bay for the last tenants. I get a quick tour of the place, and count lots of college-age hipsters bustling around. There are people working on games and people working on websites and people working on marketing and accounting and ordering up rolls of toilet paper to stock the restrooms. You can't quite think of these guys as "
indie"
, especially now that they've been bought up by IAC, which also owns businesses like Ticketmaster and Match.com. The scene looks like a proper company diligently going about its business with enough money to avoid cutting corners. As it should be.
I set up my laptop to pitch a few game ideas. First, I launch
DROD RPG, which is Mike's baby, a resource management puzzler inspired by the unexpectedly wonderful
Tower of the Sorcerer. And Mike's not here, so I feel extra-obligated to show
DROD RPG in the best possible light. I explain that even though they are seeing a lot of familiar elements on the screen that look like an almost-too-ordinary RPG, the real genius to the game is in the unique play mechanics. They are underwhelmed. I feel like they don't understand the game, but the valid point is made that someone playing a demo of the game is going to suffer from the same short attention span and lack of understanding. If I can't grab their interest in a 5-minute explanation-accompanied demonstration, then why should I expect the game to fare any better in the harsh marketplace?
Fine, fine, let's just move on to the next game, which I call "
Mister Slam"
. I show them a prototype I built up in Torque Game Builder for
Mister Slam. It's a bit like
DROD, with the same stepping controls. But your main character has no sword. He attacks enemies by slamming into them, which sends them hurtling across the room in a satisfying way. If you can remember the scene in
Matrix Reloaded where Neo fights hundreds of Agent Smiths, you get an idea of what the game is like. Little men swarm around you. You knock them away. They stand right back up and march towards you again.
The GG guys kinda like
Mister Slam, but honestly, what they really want is
DROD. That was what they brought me here for.
So we talk about
DROD, and a few months later, with more conversations, what came out of it is a game called "
Frogs and Mice"
.
Frogs and Mice
Remember how I said in that arrogant, elitist way that
DROD: The City Beneath is not really for new DROD players? Well,
Frogs and Mice goes the other way. It is not a game for existing DROD players. I'm not saying you won't enjoy it when you play it, but we aren't going to make any compromises to make you happy. This game is all about bringing in the newbies.
Frogs and Mice is not set in the Eighth, and it is not technically a "
DROD"
game. But it's got a dude with a sword, killing enemies and solving puzzles in exactly the same way Beethro does. The game will be rethemed to follow the ancient fable of
The Battle of Frogs and Mice. Most of the changes you see will be graphical. Your main character will be a mouse. An evil eye becomes a sleeping rabbit. A brain becomes a frog captain.
There will also be some new game elements. For example, some levels will have an interesting "
stealth"
style of play. Cosmetically, the game will have some nice improvements like fully animated sprites.
Frogs and Mice will be released exclusively with GarageGames. It won't appear on our website--at least not initially. Now at first glance that sounds kind of sucky, but here's the whole story:
* Purposefully, I rethemed the game so it didn't have the DROD name or story in it. The home for
DROD isn't going anyplace. I had no interest in exclusively releasing a DROD game anyplace other than caravelgames.com.
* The source code for
Frogs and Mice is the same source code for
DROD. We are basically building version 3.5 of the DROD engine with this project. Upcoming Smitemaster's Selections will feature new game elements developed for
Frogs and Mice. A little further down the road, I can see us beefing up the graphics inside of
DROD with fully-animated sprites for Beethro, his friends, and his enemies.
*
Frogs and Mice players are going to finish that game and look around for something similar to try.
DROD and CaravelNet will be waiting for them. So this will be a great way to gain new
DROD players.
* I won't go into details of our agreement with Garage Games, but one thing is certain: we will make money. In fact, we are getting dangerously close to putting Mike or I on full-time Caravel work. (Shhh! Don't tell my day job boss.) If we can reach that point it will mean even more Caravel games getting made, like
DROD RPG,
Mister Slam, and many others from the beautiful heap of unstarted projects Mike and I have piled up.
If the Eighth Had a Newspaper
"
The Eighth"
is what we call the world of
DROD. Its where Beethro lives, and probably where some people on the Caravel Forum would like to live, but as far as I can tell, noboby's found their way there yet. Suppose you were in charge of a newspaper distributed across the Eighth--what would it look like? This is a great contest for the creative types out there. And if you win, you get a prize. Which prize? There's a whole fracking pile of stuff to choose from, actually--books, computer games, mousepads. So swing by and check the contest out!
Contest info
Smitemaster's Selections Revitalized
Just because you do not see us talking about Smitemaster's Selections doesn't mean stuff isn't happening with them. Oh, ye of little faith. Okay, we haven't mentioned them for a long time, and some people maybe don't even know what they are at this point.
Smitemaster's Selections are level collections (holds) created by authors inside the DROD community but produced by Caravel. We notice that someone in the civilian population makes a really great hold. Then we invite that person to work on it with Caravel to add canonical DROD story and voice acting. After the hold goes through our process, the result is a high-quality puzzle-solving experience for everyone to enjoy. We stamp "
Smitemaster's Selection"
on the thing, and sell it like an expansion pack for
DROD.
One of the interesting aspects of Smitemaster's Selections is that we get to deputize somebody from the player community. So in theory, you, the reader could be working with Caravel, combining your creativity with ours to release something really cool.
The Smitemaster's Selection process has been revamped a little. Now every hold that is submitted for publishing on our site that meets the minimum requirements for a Smitemaster's Selection will be put under review. If there is something really good out there, we won't overlook it. In fact, we have two Smitemaster's Selection nominees under review now. I'll post more about them later.
Would you like to know more about how to become a Smitemaster's Selection author? I wrote up (probably) everything you need to know at the URL below:
Smitemaster's Selection FAQ
Tim's Topic Picks
Tim would feel very bad if you did not know about these recent posts on the Caravel Forum. Very, very bad.
Latest patches of TCB
Warning: read the instructions and backup all files first before patching!
(Windows, 3.1.0.54 Official patch)
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=15530
(Linux, 3.1.0.54 RC patch)
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=17837
(OS/X, 3.1.0 demo - testers needed)
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=6184&page=4#214480
The Infested Castle, The Goblin, A Slayers Weakness, Maze Nineteen,
Below Witherwood
These are the holds released since the last Illumination list.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewboard.php?BoardID=11
Missing DROD Monster Reference
Interested to complete the Monster Reference? We are looking for you!
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=18504
The Fourth Annual People's Choice Awards
You have until November 15th to submit nominations for the "
Deadlies"
!
(Info)
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=18249
(Nominations)
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=18269
Wonderquest Subforum: French translation of Wonderquest
A French version of Wonderquest is available here.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=18326
DROD Halloween 2007
Our great friend Clayton has created another great DROD art for Halloween.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=18482
Remember to keep your swords sheathed in mixed company, my friends.
-Erik
____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals |
twitch stream |
youtube archive (NSFW)
[Last edited by mrimer at 05-18-2008 05:27 AM]
I hope you guys make LOTS of money with this!
/dy
They're kind of piling up now, after all..
As CuriousShyRabit said last month there are lots of persons who deserves it (and no, I don't think they have disquallified themselves by PMing you and asking for it). 
