It’s a numbers game - 05-25-2024

Exciting news is like waiting for the bus. You wait ages and then multiple show up together!

Time Fenix

Twisty Little Passages, Caravel’s puzzle book based on the gameplay of DROD RPG, is getting a spiritual successor, Time Fenix. Much like its predecessor, Time Fenix is a solo-only, fully resettable, puzzle-adventure resource management campaign game, and it's in board game format. Time Fenix improves and innovates on this formula in a number of ways. There’s vastly expanded play flexibility, increased player freedom with Metroidvania-style player progression, a deck of resource cards to manage, and more.

For more information, visit the forum thread and then head over to the Kickstarter preview page to sign up to be notified when the campaign goes live later this year.

DROD RPG 2

Twisty Little Passages isn’t the only Caravel RPG product to be getting a sequel! DROD RPG will be returning with a brand new full-blown adventure!

While we aren't ready to disclose too much at the moment, development is well underway. The project is being spearheaded by community members kieranmillar and hyperme. The game engine has been undergoing a lot of improvements, with many features from The Second Sky engine ported over, alongside some TSS features being given an RPG twist, plus brand new elements and features beyond those seen in the DROD RPG 1.3 alpha.

Keep on the lookout for new information as things develop. We're estimating DROD RPG 2 will release sometime in 2025.

Leaf’s Odyssey

We’ve really been enjoying "Leaf’s Odyssey", and we think fans of DROD will feel the same. It’s a stepping puzzle game by Alex Diener, a longtime community member and prolific DROD Let’s Player. The game has heavy DROD inspirations and its own forum thread with more information and player impressions. Leaf's Odyssey can be purchased from Steam and itch.io:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2880750/Leafs_Odyssey/
https://themsalltook.itch.io/leafs-odyssey

Entry Point

This massive DROD hold envisioned by forum member Nuntar remains in active development. The progress bar on this incredible creation has been steadily creeping upward and is now closing in on 99%! Given the unprecedented scope of this effort, there's still a lot to do, but I expect the team can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. If I were a betting man, I'd give good odds this long-running project could release sometime this year.

--Mike (with a big thanks to Kieran for wordsmithing most of this info!)

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Out Of The Oven - 12-12-2022

Out Of The Oven

We've been holding our breath for this one... but, with a sigh of relief,

The Main Course - TREACLE STEW is PUBLISHED

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A Watched Pot is Boiling - 01-04-2022

A Watched Pot Is Boiling

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

Treacle Stew is Nearly Done

With the Bar now at the prime percentage of 89%, development on the upcoming Smitemasters' Selection, Treacle Stew, is nearly completed. We're at the point where final end-to-end testing is in progress, and in general will be putting together all the pieces for final publication. I'm as excited as anyone that the hold is getting this close to being done, but there's still plenty of work ahead.

Artistic Outreach

Unfortunately, we find ourselves without some CD cover art for the hold. While I doubt at this point we'll be doing a physical print run for this Smitemasters' Selection, we could still use that cover art both for the Caravel Games website and the Steam release. Both Mike Rimer and I have reached out to the previous artists we've worked with for prior games, and generally they are either unavailable or busy working on other projects. So, I must turn the question to you, the DROD community: Do you know of any artists interested in producing CD-quality art for a puzzle game? We're willing to dip into the war chest to help fund this properly.

Making Good DROD Levels, As Though We Didn't Have Any

The Make a Good DROD Level Contest Compilation is, at the time of this writing, nearly through the Hold Administration process. How does "making a good DROD level" need to be distinguished, for an official contest? It's an outgrowth of the "Make a good X level" idea from several other established communities, e.g. "Make A Good (Super Mario World) Level", "Make A Good Mega Man Level", "Make a Good Level X".

In short, it's an excuse to have a contest about literally anything, and being able to recognize and reward our hard-working level designers for doing what they do best - making fun, novel, and slightly tricky experiences that show that a good level isn't just good the month it comes out - it's good forever. People will be playing and enjoying the Make a Good Level contest compilation not just in 2022, but in years to come.

Contest thread:
https://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=45276
Compilation architecture thread:
https://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=45392
(Addendum 2021-01-04: Now published!) Holds board thread:
https://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=45503

The Godkiller - Chapter 1 - Out Now!

Erik Hermansen has just released his new puzzle adventure game The Godkiller - Chapter 1. The Godkiller combines DROD's stepping gameplay with the third dimension and inventive new block-pushing mechanics. Other features include a full musical soundtrack with vocals, death as a puzzle mechanic instead of a failure state, and Erik making bird noises into a microphone. The Godkiller is now available on Steam at https://store.steampowered.com/app/1449570/The_Godkiller__Chapter_1/.

Recognition for Not Asking

It's time for another Don't Ask award, for those who help keep the community going during these quiet periods where large projects have been released for several years, and hype and excitement have cooled off and turned to a more patient satisfaction.

This newsletter's Don't Ask award goes to hyperme, for his tireless work fixing bugs and implementing some neat feature requests for the upcoming 5.1.1 and 5.2 releases of DROD. A true display of the open source ethos at work; this deserves at least a little reward.

hyperme, pick a free prize from the Prize Pile!

Closing Thoughts

Well, this has been another tough year. We've all had to struggle to make it this far, but all in all I'm glad you're still around, dear reader. And if our community can be a good place to forget your worries and have some hearty discussions, then all the better. Until next time!

- Chaco, closing out the year

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The Godkiller - New Trailer and Release Date - 04-01-2021

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.

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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

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More DROD Soundtracks Released on Steam - 10-31-2020

As we enter the holiday season, we have exciting news to share on multiple product releases, updates, and sales promotions.

Travelogue Soundtrack Releases

Travelogue's soundtracks for DROD: The City Beneath, Gunthro and the Epic Blunder, and The Second Sky are all available starting today on Steam!

I've been listening to these a lot. I think everyone will have their own favorite tracks, but I'll share just a couple that have grabbed me.

The Second Sky's soundtrack includes "Elizabeth", a hauntingly beautiful track that didn't make it into the game.

And just listening to "Ambient No. 2" in The City Beneath's soundtrack, which is played right at the end of the game, brings me such a feeling of nostalgia. There's much more to this track than what's featured in the game.

You can grab them at a nice discount this first week that they're up for sale.

Travelogue's The City Beneath Soundtrack
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1441510/DROD_The_City_Beneath_Travelogue_Soundtrack

Travelogue's Gunthro and the Epic Blunder Soundtrack
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1441030/DROD_Gunthro_and_the_Epic_Blunder_Travelogue_Soundtrack

Travelogue's The Second Sky Soundtrack
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1441490/DROD_The_Second_Sky_Travelogue_Soundtrack/

Steam: Smitemaster's Selection DLC CaravelNet Fixes

For our next news topic, we've released fixes to Smitemaster's Selection DLC on Steam that weren't working properly with CaravelNet.

The following holds have been updated to the latest version and now work properly with CaravelNet on Steam.

* The Choice
* Beethro's Teacher
* Complex Complex

Development continues

Development on DROD and RPG fixes and improvements is actively ongoing. Great progress has been made to smite many bugs and provide multiple quality-of-life improvements to your gaming experience. You can track and try out these changes here:

DROD 5.1.1/5.2 development
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=44738

DROD RPG 1.2.8/1.3 development
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=44739

Stay tuned for release candidate builds, coming soon!

Holiday sales goodness

Be on the lookout this weekend and later on this holiday season for solid discounts on DROD games on portals like Steam and GOG.

If you haven't picked up some of the games yet, or are looking for a digital gaming gift to share with someone, this will be a good time to do so.

Happy holidays,
Mike

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