mrimer
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For April Fool's Day, 2021, I felt we all likely have enough problems as it is piled up over this past year, so no pranks this time. Just good gaming news!

The Godkiller: New Trailer and Release Date

Erik Hermansen’s brand-new puzzle game The Godkiller is slated for release on January 1st, 2022! The Godkiller takes the turn-based puzzling of DROD and adds a third dimension, fast and fluid block puzzling, and more staircases than you ever knew you wanted.

You can watch the new trailer at https://store.steampowered.com/app/1449570/The_Godkiller__Chapter_1/ – be sure to add it to your Steam wishlist while you’re there!

And check out http://seespacelabs.com/the-godkiller/ for more updates and information.



I enjoyed and am intrigued by the new trailer and am fascinated by the design aesthetic. Very looking forward to the evolved production and worldbuilding possibilities in Erik's new game. I've seen concept snippets of how Erik has been percolating several of these puzzle elements for years, and I'm looking forward to picking up a copy and playing through when it's out!

Treacle Stew Voice Acting Auditions

Treacle Stew, a new Smitemasters Selection hold being produced by Chaco, is steadily moving forward. There are a few spoken parts still available to fill if you're interested in participating in the production. Sign up and have some wholesome thespian fun with Chaco and the team as they move toward the finish line!

https://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=44457

Twisty Little Passages

Mike's unique puzzle adventure book, Twisty Little Passages, has been well received by the gaming community, including a positive review by Tom Vasel of Dice Tower. This is just a preferential note to the Caravel community that there are only a few dozen copies remaining of the limited edition physical print run. At this time, there are no plans to mass print another batch, and pricing on the reseller's market will probably go up in the near future. If you'd like a copy for yourself, family, or friends before they are all gone, you may order copies from our website:

http://www.caravelgames.com/Articles/Games_2/TLP.html

Stay safe, stay healthy, and happy puzzling!

- Mike


____________________________
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.

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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mrimer wrote:
This is just a preferential note to the Caravel community that there are only a few dozen copies remaining of the limited edition physical print run.

You're going to sell out your first print run. Congrats! I know the business side and personal motivations are often more complicated. But it seems you could keep going with those books.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Jacob
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Have all the physical copies gone?
The site only seems to give me the option for the digital version...

____________________________
New to DROD? You may want to read this.
My Holds and Levels:

mrimer
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Jacob wrote:
Have all the physical copies gone?
The site only seems to give me the option for the digital version...

Whoa, don't know what happened there. The physical copy of TLP was marked hidden from the store inventory, and I don't know why. Maybe a low inventory count issue. I appreciate you calling this out and my apologies for the inconvenience. I've updated the book SKU and inventory count so TLP is visible on the store page again and you should be able to see it there now. Please let me know if there are any other issues.

____________________________
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.

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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ErikH2000 wrote:
You're going to sell out your first print run. Congrats! I know the business side and personal motivations are often more complicated. But it seems you could keep going with those books.
-Erik

Thank you!

Yes, I'd love to make another book, and I appreciate the encouragement. Receiving feedback like this makes a difference. I have plenty more ideas to fuel a second book with.

Also thinking about producing a board game variant, which may garner even more interest. I think I have a solid game play model that should be a lot of fun. I'm planning to put together some assets in Tabletop Simulator and starting trying out some prototypes.

____________________________
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.

Pinnacle
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I'm curious: is The Godkiller based on the sketches of the top down 3D grid concept that JtRH was originally planned to explore before solidifying into a more traditional DROD game? It definitely looks like it.

____________________________
Once (adv.): Enough.
Twice (adv.): Once too often.
~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

ErikH2000
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Pinnacle wrote:
I'm curious: is The Godkiller based on the sketches of the top down 3D grid concept that JtRH was originally planned to explore before solidifying into a more traditional DROD game? It definitely looks like it.

Good eye. Yes, somewhat.

The images you see in The Dreamplane show me playing with cutaway views. It occurred to me later that a topdown (or mostly topdown) camera view elegantly moves the camera to a good place most of the time. And for overhanging ceilings, the camera simply ducks under.

It's a design principle in GK that the player must never fidget with the camera. The player only moves the position of themself, and the camera reacts. And the player is allowed to move very quickly to different points in the level with the use of "flinging". Plus, the levels are designed to include good viewpoints.

It's a nice system. It seems to work pretty well, though the playtesters, (all being DROD players at this point) have moments where they want to see the whole level and can't.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Illusionist
Level: Master Delver

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News = good. Patrick read news, now Patrick can go to sleep peacefully

Btw, system requirements for Godkiller?

Also, it's something I wanted to ask Sir Erik. What is your opinion about 3d games? Me personally, 3d games are hard to pull off, and they look dated very quickly. Meanwhile, there is a huge trend towards 2d / retro games, and the games with lesser graphics (like undertale or cave story) tend to get better and more loyal fanbse than 3d games. Personally, I prefer pixel games, but it's more about aesthetics, than gameplay, and we are currently at the specific point in gamemaking history that people very often chose worse engine to give a better gaming experience, instead of making the best game possible with the best possible engine, which was a mentality in the 90s and 00s. I don't want to write an essay, but the reason that games like DROD are given a second, third and fourth life is because people are finally appreciating gameplay over looks. And from what I've seen Godkiller will have both, so you don't have to worry about that, there is also a huge trend toward games that break the mold and put the player out of the comfort zone, which means that Godkiller might reach a very wide audience, if promoted properly

---

[Last edited by Illusionist at 04-03-2021 05:30 PM]

ErikH2000
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Illusionist wrote:
Btw, system requirements for Godkiller?

A mid-level Mac or a Windows PC you could purchase today. Or a high-end from 5 years ago.

Vague, I know. There are specific reqs on the Steam page, but to be honest, I copied them from the game, Obduction, which seems to perform near the same thresholds as mine.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Illusionist
Level: Master Delver

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ErikH2000 wrote:

Illusionist wrote:
Btw, system requirements for Godkiller?

A mid-level Mac or a Windows PC you could purchase today. Or a high-end from 5 years ago.

Vague, I know. There are specific reqs on the Steam page, but to be honest, I copied them from the game, Obduction, which seems to perform near the same thresholds as mine.

-Erik

Hmmmm....


Minimum:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer
Processor: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce 660 GTX w/1GB / AMD 7700 series w/1GB equivalent or better
Storage: 10 GB available space

Recommended:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 64 bit
Processor: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970 w/4 GB / AMD R9 290 w/4 GB equivalent or better
Storage: 10 GB available space


It seems that the game should work on most modern systems, which is cool. As a matter of fact, it should be universally working. I like it, I probably should watch some streams, I am a little behind...

---

[Last edited by Illusionist at 04-03-2021 05:36 PM]

averagemoe
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ErikH2000 wrote:

Illusionist wrote:
Btw, system requirements for Godkiller?

A mid-level Mac or a Windows PC you could purchase today. Or a high-end from 5 years ago.

Vague, I know. There are specific reqs on the Steam page, but to be honest, I copied them from the game, Obduction, which seems to perform near the same thresholds as mine.

-Erik

And here I thought cartoony graphics were easier to render than realistic ones.

____________________________
There are two types of sheep in the world. Those who jump off a bridge when told to, and those who jump off a bridge when told not to. Don't be either.

ErikH2000
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averagemoe wrote:
And here I thought cartoony graphics were easier to render than realistic ones.

Kind of. There is definitely a low-poly look to the game that helps with performance.

GK has the same technical challenges as DROD had in the 90s.
* Many small things moving on the screen at once.
* Calculations for all moving pieces must be performed with no noticeable delay or frame drop after each step.

Add to that:
* The shader work on adding the "cartoon" lines around things.
* Calculating camera position on the fly.
* Running 4 extra instances of the game to predict the consequences of movements.
* Some next-gen stuff with audio like analyzing speech audio samples for natural interruption points or playing musical sound effects in the same key as a playing song.

The engine is actually fairly ambitious and needs a bit of juice. So far, all the playtesters except one were able to run the game though. And I think the one fellow that had problems could run it today with a more recent optimization I made.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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Illusionist wrote:
Also, it's something I wanted to ask Sir Erik. What is your opinion about 3d games?

Missed this earlier, but it's an irresistible topic for me. Constraining your question a little further to "3D puzzle games".

I like 3D puzzle games when they make good use of the three dimensions. Some of my faves that pull this off - Lemmings 3D, Portal, Qube, Manifold Garden, Cyan games. We usually give up that nice ability to see everything at once with 3D. But if the game can make up for that by adding some interesting challenge around the extra dimension then it can be worth it.

You could see me in the Dreamplane art trying to work out a good 3D puzzle version of DROD. Not just a TLK-style 2D-to-3D port of DROD - but a 3D-first puzzle game. GK is 3D because its gameplay needs it to be.

Me personally, 3d games are hard to pull off, and they look dated very quickly.

Yeah, but again if the gameplay justifies use of the third dimension, then it's not a decision made for aesthetic reasons alone.

Meanwhile, there is a huge trend towards 2d / retro games, and the games with lesser graphics (like undertale or cave story) tend to get better and more loyal fanbse than 3d games.

I appreciate these kinds of styles when done expertly. But lately, it's been feeling... hmm... like a dodge. Indies don't have funds to pull off something artistically magnificent, like say "Cuphead". So they pick a "retro" style as a solution. I empathize, but there are other ways to come up with cheap art styles. So I guess I would hope for the range of cheap styles to branch out a little more.

The GK style is cheap too. Low-poly 3D models, hand-illustrated 2D animated face overlays, use of surreal geometry. I don't aim to impress. I just aim for likable.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Illusionist
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Ha, you didn't miss it the first time actually, I just edited the message. I'm a sneaky editor

That's a good mind setting.

That's an interesting debate, for example 3d does not equal 3d. Like, you have Mortal Kombat 4 which was 3d, and then you have GTA V, which also is 3d. I do feel that 3d graphics aren't explored fully, but that's the thing when people go for 3d, they don't go for aesthetics, they go for realism and I think that was the thing that players wanted with the games at the time, and that's something that games like Postal were aiming for. For me, Earhworm Jim 1 and 2 were superior to Earthworm Jim 3d, not because of the gameplay, but because of the graphics. IMO 3d graphics complicate things, Lemmings 3d or Worms 3d looked fabulous and pro, but gameplay-wise were too complex, and as a result when compared to previous games less fun. There are some interesting indie games with 3d graphics, but they are mostly horror games, so maybe I'd rather not post them here, but they look much better than many official games.

I have to say that the world changed a lot. Internet and free content was a tool that gave people from all over the world equal opportunities at creativity. Obviously, indies have no budget, but the fun part is that the main limit is time, and the idea. I recommend checking out Ludum Dare, it's a contest when in 48 hours you have to create a game about a specific given theme.

There are also creators like Venbrux or Virtanen, who started as amateurs, and went real pro and nowadays they design mobile games, which is where all of the money goes. People seem to enjoy simple games more.

With that said, I look forward to Godkiller. What makes this one interesting is the concept behind the game, I'm kinda thankful for the streams - I don't think there is anyone who did this before, so for a noob like me, it's interesting to see how the game is being developed. I wonder if Godkiller is going to have recognizable aesthetics like DROD did. And the final thing that should be added - what gave DROD longevity were fanmade levels. if GK has such feature, it will live for as long as DROD

---

[Last edited by Illusionist at 04-04-2021 06:20 AM]

t_z
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Just stumbled across this. Looks fantastic!

What are the chances of seeing a Linux port of GK? Any technical hurdles that would make this difficult or is it just a business/resourcing decision to launch with Windows and Mac only?

- Long time DROD fan and Linux user

ErikH2000
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t_z wrote:
What are the chances of seeing a Linux port of GK?

0% this year. 32% next year.

Any technical hurdles that would make this difficult or is it just a business/resourcing decision to launch with Windows and Mac only?

It's just a business/resourcing decision. Every build target/release channel adds a constant multiplier on the effort involved around releases and support.

In theory, the "port" wouldn't be a port so much as just redoing some engine code so it's more platform-independent. And working through the inevitable platform-specific bugs. The game is written in Unity. There is a build option for Linux. I've never tried it.

I want to open-source The Godkiller next year in the same hybrid way we did with DROD, keeping the media/levels unlicensed. So my hope is that some person kind of like Gerry Jo Jellestad (Trick) pops up and wants to help with this kind of thing.

That's asking for a lot of luck, though!

There's other ways it might become a feasible idea. I would like to have it on Linux.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

t_z
Level: Delver

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ErikH2000 wrote:

t_z wrote:
What are the chances of seeing a Linux port of GK?

0% this year. 32% next year.
...
The game is written in Unity. There is a build option for Linux.
...
I want to open-source The Godkiller next year in the same hybrid way we did with DROD...

Thanks for responding. Sounds quite encouraging, actually.

Best of luck with your release!

---

[Last edited by t_z at 06-10-2021 09:08 PM]

jhuy
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nice