If you've listened to me a while, you'll know that I'm comfortable with the rather bleak image of myself plodding slowly through the snow, uphill, carrying the heavy corpses of my non-surviving sled dogs on my back. In fact, I'm a little quick to apply these kind of stoic metaphors to my situation as an independant game developer. "
Oh, poor Erik, he works so hard for so little--that brave hero!"
There are just two ways to break free of this obnoxious self-enoblement.
The first way is to have really bad luck, i.e. a beaver gnaws off your arm because your cologne smells too much like a limb of scotty pine. Then you gain perspective of what a truly hard situation is, and how you were doing spectacularly well up until that beaver latched onto you.
The second way is to have really
good luck. How can you see yourself as the Last Great Underdog when the cosmic tides turn in your favor?
And thankfully, it was good luck that saved me. 2006 has grabbed me by epaulettes and screamed, "
Wake up, dull boy!"
into my faux-stoic face. A series of odd events brought about coverage of
DROD on Penny Arcade, Slashdot, GameTunnel, and Adrenaline Vault, among others. Our server held up under the strain of over 15,000 visitors in two days. Sales came pouring in, breaking our previous records from the April '05 release of
DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold. And then, just to make sure I'd get the point to lighten up, dammit, my wife won a contest giving us an all-expenses paid trip to Australia. Oh, yeah! Whether it be the decision of Olympian gods, karma, or the ghost of Hunter S. Thompson, January Ought-Six is the month made for Erik.
...and you too! I'm not leaving you out on this. There's enough good fortune to spread around.
Renewing Our Vows
A lot of people joined CaravelNet last year--some, as early as April. What will happen when your CaravelNet membership runs out? Well, it's no big deal, really. All the holds you've downloaded prior to the lapse will stay on your
DROD installation. And your high scores will stay on the board, unupdated, patiently waiting for you to resume your membership. So don't freak out on me about your membership running out. You just won't have access to the online features after it lapses.
There is also the option of renewing your membership. Or just "
newing"
your membership, if you don't have one already. Why would you want to pony up twelve bucks for a year of CaravelNet? Well, let's just skip all the cheesy "
support the team"
reasons. I told you I was going to stop making "
poor lil me"
noises, and I meant it! Let's talk about what you, the selfish consumer, are going to get for a dozen dollars.
* To start, Renewers (and Newers) are getting 3 extra months if they renew this month, before February 1st. So 15 months instead of 12. Spending this extra season with CaravelNet means you'll get 5 Smitemaster's Selections instead of 4. Starting this April, we are changing how Smitemaster's Selections are released. From that point, members will only receive selections that are released during the time of their membership. Now is a good time to join because you can still get the previously-released holds that came with Summer and Fall 2005 Smitemaster's Selections. These are
DROD: King Dugan's Dungeon,
The Choice, and
Perfection.
* The private download area of CaravelNet will soon be containing additional exclusive content for members. We are making deals with audio drama producers to carry some science fiction and fantasy stories. I'm also talking to game makers and musicians to bring us other cool stuff.
* New CaravelNet features are already coded and working in our upcoming
DROD: The City Beneath release. With the
DROD 3.0 engine and a CaravelNet membership, you'll be able to do some really cool new things. Like, for example, rate other player's holds from inside the game or download user-created graphical styles to use in the editor.
* Of course, all of the old features will be available too, including Caravel-produced Smitemaster's Selections, over 8,000 (!) rooms to download and play from the server, internet high scores and player ranking, downloadable gameplay demos, game hints that reflect your current progress, and private beta-testing boards on the forum.
More info
Order page
It may sound presumptive to suggest that
DROD people are this enthusiastic, but if you would like to renew or gain membership,
please just order one year. To make sure we can keep all of our promises, we have to refund any membership orders that extend into 2008.
MeckMeck Wants to Control You
So he's set up a hold-building contest for January in which rather strict rules are set on what construction materials you can use. You can barter with other contestants to use more game elements in your hold. So winning should involve social as well as architectural skills. Anybody who is interested can enter the contest. In theory you have until the 11th, when the bartering phase ends. But I think for best results, it would be wise to begin bartering with other players this weekend.
Contest info
Thirty-Three Hermetic Puzzles
We had a contest where people made puzzles which are shown inside of a box. Tahnan won first and second place, because he was masterful. Dali showed himself the able contender as well, picking up third. We're done voting, but the puzzles are still sitting in their boxes, waiting to be solved if there are any takers. Have a quick look if you haven't already. Some of these are really good!
Hermetic puzzles
Topic Picks for January
You can't see it all. Don't even try! I myself only read a subset of the Caravel Forum posts. So of course, I wouldn't expect you to read all 85,053 posts to find the best stuff. I'll just clue you in a bit.
The Penny Arcade Thing
A
DROD fan thrusts a bottle of Jagermeister and a copy of
DROD at Tycho. Months later Tycho barely mentions the Jagerdrod on Penny Arcade. Bam! 10,000 visitors.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=8719
Odd Jobs, monsters and mazes, The Wrong Way, war7, war8, Idiot's Castle, Fun Park, TAPAKAHbI yCaTbIe, Lendy's Dungeon
These are all the new holds (level collections) that have been released since the last newsletter--a small explosion! Larry Murk's
Odd Jobs actually has three different versions for novice, medium, and expert difficulties.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewboard.php?BoardID=11
The Ctrl Key Challenge
A player calling himself "
Beef Row"
came up with a new way to play certain rooms of
DROD.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=8715
The Game is Too @#*&% Hard!
Here you see the hardliners defending
DROD's insane difficulty level against those struggling a little too much for enjoyment.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=7581
Tile Modders Rejoice
Coppro has written a wonderfully detailed schematic of how all the tiles work together that will be useful to people making graphical mods for
DROD.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=8734&page=0#88044
Rainbow Combo Clock
Wesley Chua made a nice clock you can use instead of the one that comes with
DROD. Is this the start of the Clock Wars?
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=8632
Beethro in Toscany
In a rather inspired move, Leroy created a new tileset based on Italian architecture.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=8628
Reliable Game Reviews?
The forum's favorite curmudgeon wonders where a badger can find halfway decent game reviews.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=8681
Haiku for You
It's always the right time to write a haiku.
No, this stanza will not attempt to be one.
Too obvious.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=8510
In case you are wondering, there are no secret offers in this Illumination. Sometimes we just don't need them.
-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 05:43 AM]
Oh how I wish DRoD would not require Internet access for CaravelNet to work... 
WHY ME, DROD GODS?! 
That's been there since way before JtRH's release.
