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skell
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The Stage Is Set

Greetings chat! Uh, I mean, greetings to all Caravel community and newsletter subscribers! This is Chaco with another Caravel status update.

A New Project Is Brewing

There's been some mentions of a "Caravel Games surprise project" or something in the past, and at this point we are ready to pull aside the curtains and unveil the cloth. There is another Smitemasters' Selection currently under production, with Mike Rimer's blessing. Our current working title is "Treacle Stew", and it will be exploring the lore of the Forbidden Gel. The hold itself is authored by yours truly, and has been done for some time, but I will be working on finalizing a script for it, and soon (probably within the next two to three weeks), starting a casting call for voice acting parts, the first step on the long road to Canonical Polishedness and Flawless Consistency.

Mike Rimer has stated that he's very busy with Twisty Little Passages' final editing, community support, and coordination of orders and shipping, but he has helped look over the script and may occasionally offer some sage advice about how the production process works.

The rest is going to be up to me, and some other helpful community members. As such, since this development process is going to be more improvised than past Smitemasters' Selections, I don't want to make any big promises about release dates or scheduling. Like always with SmSes, this is a labor of love, so I want to make sure to only call this done when it's well and truly done.

Official Contests

As this newsletter goes to press, there isn't an official contest immediately scheduled, but rumor has been circulating through the CaravelNet chat that one will be coming up relatively soon, so stay tuned for more info.

I should also mention that anyone can run an unofficial contest at any time on our forum, so if you have an idea or a prompt for everyone, speak up and you might be pleasantly surprised at the response you get!

http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewboard.php?BoardID=83

Architectural Progress Goes Boink

I've said it before and will keep saying this over and over again: the Caravel Games community is a really positive and supportive place to be. But it also occasionally builds holds, too! The highlights are once again far too numerous for me to cover all of them in a single newsletter, but a quick rundown includes a new compilation of Arky-inspired challenges, W monsters (successfully released!), an Island of Doom, small sequels to a variety of holds, a most triumphant reprise of Architect's Edition's elements, and most fearsome of all, a custom-scripted serpent type. Will wonders never cease?

All of these holds and more are available, 100% free (even if you're playing the demo version of DROD) at the Holds board, as well as the chronological downloads section:

http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewboard.php?BoardID=11
http://forum.caravelgames.com/holds.php?f=0&npp=10&ob=d&d=d&g=1#H

Don't Ask Award

It's been a long time between newsletters (too long, perhaps) and so it's also been a long time since some Big Recognition has been handed out. I had a tricky time picking just one person who's been super helpful to the community but also been out of the spotlight. This newsletter's Don't Ask award winner is KituU, who has been secretly very supportive, giving out plenty of feedback and demos on the Architecture forum, and some thoughtfully-written advice on the Hints and Solutions forum that goes beyond some boring straightforward hints. As such, they've helped many people complete projects and simply enjoy playing the game of DROD.

KituU, pick a free prize from the Prize Pile!

Closing Thoughts

Without getting too philosophical, I'm just going to go ahead and state a simple truth: It's a lot of hard work to create things. As fun as being in the middle of creating something is, there's just a lot of time, energy and motivation that goes into building anything, whether it's a hold or a newsletter or just a comment. But it's always worthwhile in the end, no matter how large or small it is, or whatever the reception is. Have an excellent 2020.

- Chaco, signing off

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02-17-2020 at 09:13 PM
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Dying Flutchman
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That's right. Praise for KituU! I can't even remember how much testing she did for my holds, and how many good suggestions came out of it.

Wonders if KituU will ever publish her own hold...

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02-17-2020 at 09:46 PM
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slimm tom
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Great and unexpected news! Always thoroughly enjoyed Chaco's holds, and I look forward to playing a new one in the extra juicy package of a Smitemasters' Selection.
02-18-2020 at 02:45 PM
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mauvebutterfly
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slimm tom wrote:
Great and unexpected news! Always thoroughly enjoyed Chaco's holds, and I look forward to playing a new one in the extra juicy package of a Smitemasters' Selection.

Downside: gel.

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02-18-2020 at 03:00 PM
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KituU
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wow! thank you so much for the award and kind words
Happy to contribute to this amazingly creative community

02-19-2020 at 04:56 AM
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mrimer
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Thank you for the news, Chaco and skell, and totally looking forward to this upcoming SmS!

I've heard from community members at various points in time that they'd like to contribute voice work to future projects, and now is a great chance to get involved.

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02-20-2020 at 07:07 PM
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Camwoodstock
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Whoa, a new SMS? Count me in! ...Just, hopefully the Steam version gets updated properly if the hold ever needs to be patched :P

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03-03-2020 at 11:22 AM
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Now that TLP testing is over, I can test the SmS hold if requested.
03-04-2020 at 11:28 AM
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Chaco
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bbb wrote:
Now that TLP testing is over, I can test the SmS hold if requested.

The main puzzle content is already well-tested by now, but we will definitely be getting our testers to do another runthrough of the hold once all the story levels, cutscenes, voice clips, etc. are added. So sure, we can probably arrange something at that time.

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03-05-2020 at 02:09 AM
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Don't mind me. I just only wanted to say (for future reference), how I would love to play an official hold as a slayer. Maybe, someday, who knows (in the meantime I will replay some Mxvladi's holds). Saying it just in case. But then again, I was only coughing, don't mind me.

At the same time, kinda curious about what the Storyline of the new SmS is going to be, I always care about the lore as much as the puzzles. It's certainly going to be groundbreaking.

[Last edited by Illusionist at 09-21-2020 12:43 PM]
08-29-2020 at 10:16 PM
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Chaco
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You get to play as a Slayer for an extremely short amount of time in Suit Pursuit, but yeah, I think there is some unexplored territory there. If anybody wants to try making a Slayer player role hold (even an easy one!) and submit it as a Smitemasters' Selection candidate, it's worth a shot!

As far as the storyline, I don't want to give too much away before the release, naturally, but I've written the whole structure up myself and I hope that it fits in relatively well with the existing canon, both in world consistency and in tone. There will be a reason that Beethro has to deal with this much Gel.

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08-30-2020 at 02:32 AM
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Chaco wrote:
You get to play as a Slayer for an extremely short amount of time in Suit Pursuit, but yeah, I think there is some unexplored territory there. If anybody wants to try making a Slayer player role hold (even an easy one!) and submit it as a Smitemasters' Selection candidate, it's worth a shot!

As far as the storyline, I don't want to give too much away before the release, naturally, but I've written the whole structure up myself and I hope that it fits in relatively well with the existing canon, both in world consistency and in tone. There will be a reason that Beethro has to deal with this much Gel.

I wish I could convince Shendy or Mxvladi to submit one, as I love their holds. I don't know if they're still active, though.

Overall, I'm glad that there is something new, considering that I am new to DROD as well he he. The main website needs some updates btw, it seems like the time stopped at 2014. Imagine my surprise when I've learned that annual deadlies are still going, and going strong.

In the current time, it's a good idea to dust off the DROD and remind people about the good things in life.;)
09-05-2020 at 06:20 PM
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navithmastero
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mxvladi is still active as far as I'm aware. He pops up in chat from time to time.

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09-05-2020 at 06:26 PM
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mxvladi
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navithmastero wrote:
mxvladi is still active as far as I'm aware.

I never really left, but I'm in lurk mode for the foreseeable future

Also since someone mentioned my holds, I did submit one recently, apparently it wasn't too well received (but it wasn't really a slayer role hold so it may be beside the point), so I don't really see any good reason to work on anything else
09-06-2020 at 07:35 PM
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navithmastero wrote:
mxvladi is still active as far as I'm aware. He pops up in chat from time to time.

I want you to know that you're also on my "best of" list of favorite DROD architects

mxvladi wrote:
I never really left, but I'm in lurk mode for the foreseeable future

Also since someone mentioned my holds, I did submit one recently, apparently it wasn't too well received (but it wasn't really a slayer role hold so it may be beside the point), so I don't really see any good reason to work on anything else

I understand. I mentioned you, because I've played a lot of your Slayer holds recently, and they were very impressive.

[Last edited by Illusionist at 09-21-2020 12:39 PM]
09-09-2020 at 05:24 PM
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kurwaa wrote:
I want you to know that you're also on my "best of" list of favorite DROD architects

Why thank you! I've got a new hold in the works at the moment which I'm hoping to get published later this year - fingers crossed you'll enjoy that one too. Alternatively, if you want to help with testing and provide some feedback, you can find the architecture board here!

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09-09-2020 at 06:51 PM
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Howdy folks! It's been a while since the last update, so I just want to reassure everyone that I am still working on this project behind the scenes. It's been slower going than I would like, but I have been putting together a few more art assets, and generally trying to polish up the hold aesthetically to make sure it's got that extra Smitemasters' Selection level of sheen to it.

I'll be going through the script soon and making some semi-final assignments of roles to people, and thankfully I've gotten a couple more people onboard to help fill out the roster. I'm really excited to put this whole thing together and start getting it into shape, so I sincerely hope it'll be worth the wait.

This is around the time when we published teaser screenshots of Finding the First Truth, so I think it's only fair to let all of you see a little bit more of the hold today too.

Talking with Vonnifa and Halph

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09-21-2020 at 02:22 AM
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09-21-2020 at 02:23 AM
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09-21-2020 at 02:23 AM
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[Last edited by Chaco at 09-21-2020 02:27 AM]
09-21-2020 at 02:24 AM
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A historic day is upon us. For finally a reveal has been made of something that has been present but unseen since the very first version of DROD. We've always known it was there, but only now do we actually lay our eyes upon it.

THE CEILING OF KING DUGAN'S DUNGEON!

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[Last edited by averagemoe at 09-21-2020 02:36 AM]
09-21-2020 at 02:36 AM
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mrimer
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Spoiler alert!

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09-21-2020 at 07:00 AM
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I see that the new patch is in development:)
Any info in regards to what it'll fix?

[Last edited by Illusionist at 09-25-2020 06:47 PM]
09-25-2020 at 09:41 AM
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mrimer
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Illusionist wrote:
I see that the new patch is in development:)
Any info in regards to what it'll fix?
Yes! You can read about what's been fixed for the new patch in this topic. And this topic for DROD RPG.

There is more forthcoming, and we'll add notes for fixes and improvements to those topics as we go.

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Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.
09-25-2020 at 08:30 PM
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