ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2796
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I am tripping over myself with announcements. I am like Conan O'Brien trying ten times harder than usual to convince the audience that tonight's show is really, really good. Typically, I would wait until the beginning of the next month, but this stuff is too dramatic to wait on.

"Roaches in Our Midst" Concluded

Patrick Fisher ran this excellent contest for March, which involved people trying to fashion everyday objects into the likelness of a cockroach. There are several funny and frightening photos to be seen.
Have a look!

Clayton Weiss' contest career took a turn for the better when his Scrabble-fashioned bug claimed first prize. Wesley Chua grabbed second with the Lego Roach. Eytan Zweig, third-place winner, made a cockroach out of beans and then ate them all.

More info about contest results

"The Secret" Begins

It is not too late to join this very popular contest, but we've had so many entrants that I'm not even going to try to entice you. I mean if you want to enter, fine, but don't expect me to do some elaborate dance to draw you over there. No way, Jose! Besides, I can't tell you what the contest will be until after you've already entered. So even if I wanted to explain, I couldn't really.

Contest info

A Measure of Skill, Stubbornness, and Available Free Time

There is a simple way for us to tell exactly how good you are. In fact, it all boils down to a single number. In the future, people will judge you by this calculated rank, and everything you say will be evaluated in its context. Want to see your number? Want to see your number right now?

Player rankings

Not All Installations are Created Equal

If you obtained your copy of DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold before April 13th, you really ought to get the patch. I'm not going to force you to, but it's definitely in your own best interest.

Information about the patch including download links

CDs Were Shipped

We sent CDs out to everybody who ordered them in the last two weeks. It was a horrific amount of work, but I suppose we were obliged to do it after taking people's money. Don't worry, I'm not going to make an announcement every single time I ship CDs, but this time is special--historic even! It's the first shipment of a physical product that Caravel Games has made.

More about the CDs

Smitemaster's Selection

A lot of people have been scratching their heads about CaravelNet, our online service. What's it really good for? We diligently pointed out that you could download level collections from our server, compete for highest score with other players on the internet, and watch movies of other people playing. And then after a slight pause we were mildly congratulated by whomever we were talking with. Well, today we announced the next improvement to the service, guaranteed not to underwhelm even the most jaded.

Each quarter of the year, we will make an exclusive release of new levels on CaravelNet. If you are a member, as anybody who purchased DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold is, then you get this for free. The new holds will integrate into the existing story and meet the same quality standards we set for our previous releases.

Full announcement for Smitemaster's Selection

What Did I Miss?

Gobloads of stuff. There just isn't enough time to go into it all, so I'll talk about the rest in May. After this message, I'm really going to try to keep these announcements down to once a month. I don't want people to think I'm getting spamhappy.

-Erik

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

NoahT
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1187
Registered: 06-17-2003
IP: Logged

Erik-a question about the CDs-would it be alright if a tester brought a CD to the house of a friend who wants the full version of the game and use the CD to install the full version free, or is that not even possible?

-Noah

____________________________
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

My stuff:

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2796
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

NoahT wrote:
Erik-a question about the CDs-would it be alright if a tester brought a CD to the house of a friend who wants the full version of the game and use the CD to install the full version free, or is that not even possible?

-Noah

Noah, for simplicity's sake, I'm assuming you're talking about yourself and a friend of yours. That full version copy is only for you and maybe other people that live in your house--basically for one person to play the game at any given time. Your friend would need to buy his own copy of the game. On the CD is a demo version of JtRH and full version of DROD:AE. If you like, you can install those on your friend's computer using the CD. In fact, I encourage that, but please, please, please, don't install the full version on your friends' computers.

-Erik

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

techant
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 854
Registered: 06-08-2004
IP: Logged

I understand about a friends house but what if you have two or more players in the same house and they have different computers. Would you have to get a CD for each member of the family who had there own computer, cuz that could get expensive $$$.

Or do you only need one CD that is one (1) actually subscription for the family and like with cable you can have different members of the family on the same subscription even if they are on different computers.

While I do not know exactly how that would work for the online aspect, wouldn't it be the same as when you have one game installed on one computer with multiple players using it, each with their own player name?

If that seems unfair to you and you want them to buy a CD per computer then maybe you could offer a discount on purchases of 2 or more. Get the second one at half price or something like that or buy 3 get the 4th free.

____________________________
DROD RPG Released!! You must try it out it is Great!!

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2796
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

techant wrote:
I understand about a friends house but what if you have two or more players in the same house and they have different computers. Would you have to get a CD for each member of the family who had there own computer, cuz that could get expensive $$$.

No, no, you don't have to do that. Both the legal license and the software allow you to install to multiple computers. The concept here is one person using the copy at one time. So if you are playing, then you stop playing, and let your brother/wife/roommate/dog play it, that is following the license. If you are both playing simultaneously, then it's not the most horrible crime in the world, but you really ought to buy a second license. If your friend has a separate copy installed at a different site, then you can't really control his usage, so it's really the same as using two copies.

There's still a few grey areas, and I don't want to explore every single weirdo case, but in general think "one person at a time" for one license, and you will be in the clear.

While I do not know exactly how that would work for the online aspect, wouldn't it be the same as when you have one game installed on one computer with multiple players using it, each with their own player name?

The CaravelNet connection actually enforces the "one person at a time" rule at least for online features. If you try to have two people using one account simultaneously, one of them will get kicked off. If we see a lot of kick-offs on one account, we'd look into it as potential piracy, too.

There are also inconveniences of using one CaravelNet account for multiple players. You will only have one identity on CaravelNet, so your progress, scores, demos, or holds for different players in one household can get jumbled together in confusing ways. To avoid problems, I recommend one player per CaravelNet account as we intended it. In general we don't support multiple players per account and future features might behave in unreasonable ways for piggybacking. A solution is to have just one player in the household use the CaravelNet key. In the future we might do something to sell CaravelNet accounts separately at a lower price, but that has to be thought out.

Hmm. I guess I kind of talked about some extra things there in anticipation of more questions. Sorry for answering phantom questions.

-Erik

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

techant
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 854
Registered: 06-08-2004
IP: Logged

Great answer it really was good you elaborated, Thanks

____________________________
DROD RPG Released!! You must try it out it is Great!!

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1181
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

In reply to Erik

So what actions would be taken (if any) against a potential pirate with many account kicks? A warning email? Discontinue the account? Send hired goons over to spit in their milk?

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Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2796
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

DiMono wrote:
So what actions would be taken (if any) against a potential pirate with many account kicks? A warning email? Discontinue the account? Send hired goons over to spit in their milk?

I don't like to make threatening noises, especially when most anybody reading this is well-intentioned and wants to help us out. We always prevail on people's moral side first, i.e just say "Buddy, would you please quit it?" That works just about all the time. After that, yeah, there's things that can be done. They are mostly pretty obvious, and I hate sounding like I'm brandishing a big billy club waiting for somebody to step out of line.

-Erik

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