|OT| Grindwheel Games Titles

[Grindwheel Games]

Due to an issue uploading the front cover I had to wait until today to get the front cover of Wight Chapel Dreams into our merch store. You can now get the screaming face of The Spectral Shrieker as anything from a tote bag to a phone case.

All of the other art from the game is also there, along with pieces from our previous titles. Take a look if you have a moment. Nothing says 'Christmas' like 'albino Harpy face masks'!

https://www.teepublic.com/user/grindwheel-games-store

 

[Grindwheel Games]

The Steam Sale is here!

Assuming I have not managed to mess it up, I have also added the first game bundle. You can now buy books 1-5 in a single chunk if you don't have them already. I picked the 'complete' option so you won't have to re-buy any if you have picked up a few.

As a side note I am plugging in the critical path for Wyrmwood as well. It is a chunky 180 pages so far!

Steam Search

 

[lashman]

The Steam Sale is here!

but i already own all of them

 

[Grindwheel Games]

but i already own all of them

Buy them for your friends! Buy Red Ripper for your enemies!

 

[lashman]

Buy them for your friends! Buy Red Ripper for your enemies!

hmmmmm

you DO make a convincing argument

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Whoop whoop! It's the sound of the Steam Christmas Sale!

Steam Search

store.steampowered.com

50% off all Grindwheel Games titles, and our 5-game bundle. In other news, I am over 300 pages into Wyrmwood, and may be able to hit 400 by the end of the year, because sleep is for the weak. That will put us in a fantastic place for 2023 as Return to Wight Chapel enters full production.

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Hello everyone, and sorry for the delay in posting this. I'm not sure if this came up, but I have been trying to move since last year, with such hilarity as the tenant in my own home refusing to move out so I could move back in, and leaving £4k in damages when he finally did go. This means I have been running around in the background trying to find a new place, going on work conferences and the like.

But, here is a quick update:

• Return to Wight Chapel has been through the editing process and is all plugged in.
• Roughs for the art pages are being worked on right now and should be available soon.
• The music is done!
• VO should be starting soon, and I am working with more streamers to get a few more characters in.

On that note, RTWC will be the last game I will do VO for. As you might imagine, editing close to 700 voice lines per game adds roughly 4 months of 60 hour weeks to the process - 40 in my regular job and 20 in evenings and weekends spent working on the lines. If the games were selling like hotcakes, with the voice acting being one of the main points which drove engagement I would just suck it up and continue, but that's not the case.

So the current plan is to use the tame saved to work on other games, like Vile Maze Run. I can also take a year off making new games and add voice acting to a game later down the line at a less insane pace.

One of the other benefits is that, without having to restrict the word or page count, I am free to write longer books. The next in the series, Wyrmwood, just passed 760 pages tonight, for instance. That's quite a hefty meatball! Without VO books can also be more easily translated, as I don't have to provide voice acting in multiple languages. And, god help us all, I can use that spare time to finally port them onto Mac, or go back and update the old games to the newer engines.

So on the whole the change will leave me with more time and creative freedom. That's why I have decided to try and go all out for the last set of voice acting, with as many characters as possible. I'll let people know how it is going and we should soon have at least one rough page to show being worked on in the next few weeks.

Thanks, and hopefully the next update will be a little sooner!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

I live! :O

And so do my games. Just posting a quick update to let people know what's happening.

First off, Wyrmwood is now finished. I have a couple of pages for unlocks to add, and will include anything I may have missed as I do the primary editing and plugin phase. I've also expanded the engine to handle a few things a little better, such as turning on dummy story triggers if multiple points of logic are needed and being able handle dead ends better should you exhaust all options.

The current entry count is a gobsmacking 955! This would take 4-5 months to edit voice clips for, so I think I am sticking to the decision to write more and edit less. It should be plugged in and polished by the end of the year too, which is nice.

Return to Wight Chapel is also pushing forward. I have not got any voice clips through for it yet, but we do have some art roughs. I will post one below so we can follow the tradition of seeing it take shape as the release arrives.

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

 

[lashman]

First off, Wyrmwood is now finished.

great news! congrats!

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

thanks, and likewise!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Hello! I have some new development on the 'work in progress' art page, so I thought I would bump things and let you know how it is all going.

First...the art:

Spooky indeed!

Overall the art is progressing steadily. The first batch of pages has been delivered, and the next will include everything I need to get the Steam page up like the front cover and general pages.

The VO has been recorded in record time! All of the pages have been recorded, meaning it is down to me to grind through them. I am ~300 in, so just a little under halfway, and should be done by August at this rate. This is good progress, but also another indicator that I have to drop the Vo if I don't want to burn myself out.

On that note, we have a number of streamers and others from the Rubber Ducks discord voicing characters at the moment. So, as promised, the final book with voice acting will be a bit of an extravaganza to say goodbye to the feature.

That's all for now - next update will likely be the front cover reveal!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Oh hi, I didn't see you there. I was just dropping off the cover art for Return to Wight Chapel, featuring the Wailing Widow.

I have also got all of the general art plugged in and ready for the lead up to release. I will make a start on the steam page next weekend as a break from the voice over, which is going well. We have another streamer joining the team, which will be interesting.

Also, as is now tradition, since we have the reveal of the latest front cover I have also picked which book will follow Wyrmwood in 2025. That will be...Rogue's Gallery! More details to follow.

Have a great weekend!

 

[lashman]

Oh hi, I didn't see you there. I was just dropping off the cover art for Return to Wight Chapel, featuring the Wailing Widow.

whoa, that looks awesome, i love it!!!

Have a great weekend!

right back at ya!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Summer is here, and so is the Steam Summer Sale!

Steam Search

store.steampowered.com

All titles are 50% off, and even more so if you buy the handy-dandy bundle.

Have a great weekend, and enjoy the sunshine!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Whoop whoop! It's the sound of da Steam page!


Return to Wight Chapel's steam page is up. I will be bundling this with Wight Chapel Dreams too, when it goes live. I should have all the current dialog plugged in by the end of the week, so it is just down to some additional voice lines for the extended voice cast.

 

[lashman]

Whoop whoop! It's the sound of da Steam page!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

The game has been approved, and gone through some intensive testing. So now I can share the trailer below!

With this all squared away I will be able to QA Wyrmwood and get onto Rogue's Gallery for next year. Wyrmwood is now a stonking 982 entries in size, with exactly 100 story triggers to change the plot. It also has some new mechanics to allow for smoothly handling dead ends when all clues have been exhausted, and a simplified back end to let me trigger story points based on combinations of other story points. Something I have had to do manually up to this point with specific code.

I am not sure if every books is going to be this big from now on, but this is where the night took me for this particular one. We shall see...

 

[lashman]

The game has been approved, and gone through some intensive testing.

heck yeah! congrats! can't wait

 

[Grindwheel Games]

It can't be spooky season yet...the first art page from the new book has not been posted!

Let's fix that now.

The new page and story is below, and we just got the last of the voice acting in today as well. So we're all good to go with the launch! Hope everyone has a good week!

While some hunts happen almost spontaneously, it is normally the case that a significant amount of legwork will be involved before one is launched. In the case of The Crawling Horror and its aftermath there were literally crates of documents to be sorted, read and cross referenced in order to make sure things were finally settled. It was this attention to detail which led to the discovery of the runaway Galvanics in the first place.

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Hello all! Here is the next general page and a bit of news. The last voice actor has provided some lines for another of the villains, which means we have an even larger cast this time around. More details when I have a chance to update my website with the credits.

Anyway, here is the art and story!

Ink is one of the primary methods of creating magical runes. In secular circles it can be enhanced with ingredients such as corpse ash and powdered bone, although this is considered illegal outside the halls of academia. Blessed ink is created through prayer to wholesome deities, while this particular example was empowered through more malevolent means.

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Get ready for the weekend with some Spirit String! Just 3 more images to go...then the weekend, Monday, and finally launch day!

One of the few mass-produced magical items in the UIC, Spirit String comes in spindles of varying sizes. It can be used for a number of purposes, with the most common being placing it across all the doors in a new house overnight. If any of the string breaks or loses its vibrant red colour in the morning, that shows the owners that there is a ghost or other spirit present.

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Got slightly distracted by a few things, but here is tonight's page image, only slightly delayed!

The team of archivists and hunters assigned to mop up the missing Galvanics have had their names and identities withheld for legal reasons. It can be assumed they are amongst the best available given the importance of the case. The above is an artists impression of them at work, as the matter was far too serious for them to take frivolous pauses to be photographed or sketched.

 

[lashman]

Got slightly distracted by a few things, but here is tonight's page image, only slightly delayed!

damn, i soooo love the art in these games! they're all great

 

[Grindwheel Games]

damn, i soooo love the art in these games! they're all great

Muthur Brine has knocked it out of the park once more, for sure.
Speaking of art...only two pages to go before launch. And here is the next, roughly on time too.

The final tally of missing Galvanics was five. All of them were from Pattic Claine's insane 'Broadsheet Killer Rehabilitation Program', meaning they had the minds of lunatics locked in bodies of iron, brass and bone. But, was there some greater force at play here? Only the hunter assigned to the case would be able to reveal this.

 

[lashman]

Muthur Brine has knocked it out of the park once more, for sure.

yes, absolutely! every single time!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Behold...a page you will see at least once.

If there is one good thing about dying in Wight Chapel, it is that you do not have far to get to the closest crematoria. Of course, this assumed you stay dead, which one would hope for given the alternative. There have been reports of hunters rising from the grave before, and it never ends well.

In other news, all Grindwheel Games titles are in the Steam Scream fest. There is some new pricing rules which means I cannot offer them at 50% price this year because that takes them to below some threshold, but with the bundles in place you can still get a good discount on buying them.

Steam Search

store.steampowered.com

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Happy Halloween!

There is so much stuff to discuss today. Let's start with the obvious - Return to Wight Chapel is now live on Steam.


As usual we launch with a release discount, and the game is in the Scream Fest. So all good there! It is also part of the small bundle The Wight Chapel Affair, which will give you a further discount if you pick up that. Even better!

The game is also live on Google Play...and apparently has been for some time. Due to ticking the wrong checkbox my pre-release build was pushed directly onto the store instead of waiting for me to give it the go ahead this morning. But, since nobody buys the game on Google Play it is not like it was too much of a spoiler.

Next, Lovecraft Video Games has finished playing and posted a review: The Hunter’s Journals – Return to Wight Chapel: A Solid Conclusion - Lovecraft Video Games

A solid conclusion is a solid rating in my opinion, and I am glad they liked it. Also, they picked up on a bug which has slid past all the testers - the games intro page said it was Tattered Sails. So I had to scramble a build together last night and post that up ready for today. Big thanks to them for that, as well as the kind words.

And finally, if you have been enjoying the artwork posted over the past few weeks, why not wear it on your body and/or walls?

https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/52505404-the-sorrowful-widow

All of the pages have been posted as apparel on our tee public web store, with today seeing the launch of the Sorrowful Widow in all her glory.

I am pretty sure that covers everything! Now to have a cup of tea, make sure the launch has gone well, and maybe get a bit of a nap.

The current plan is to get Wrymwood squared away by the end of the month, and start work on Rogue's Gallery this Sunday, using my weekends to get the core of that written and in place. As an aside, I am thinking of expanding the selection of Heirlooms for the next game by bringing back items from previous games. If anyone has any preferences or ideas for new items, I would be glad to hear them.

 

[lashman]

Happy Halloween!

There is so much stuff to discuss today. Let's start with the obvious - Return to Wight Chapel is now live on Steam.

aaaand bought

 

[Grindwheel Games]

aaaand bought

Hope you enjoy it! Have a spoooooky day!

 

[lashman]

Hope you enjoy it! Have a spoooooky day!

i'm sure i will! thank you, and likewise!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Time for another sale!

All Grindwheel Games titles and bundles are discounted for the Winter Sale. Grab them now if you have not got them already!

Steam Search

store.steampowered.com

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Hello all!

So the start of the year has been a bit busier than my usual routine, including some computer troubles and post-work-work issues. But, I have an update on the state of how things are going.

Wyrmwood is back from the editor and all plugged in. I have gone through and made the tablet version and just posted the art document off to Muthur Brine so she can work her magic. I will contact Cryo Chamber this weekend with a music request, as well as take care of a few minor things like custom loading messages for the game. Then, barring throwing it to the QAers, Wyrmwood will be all wrapped up.

Rogue's Gallery was paused while all this went on, and is currently 10 pages away from the core path being plugged in and given the first editing pass. I will then focus on all the sides, and it looks like this chunky boi will land in at ~200 pages in the core path, so about the same size as Wyrmwood. I will keep people updated on that one as I hit various milestones in development.

Overall things are looking good, and the best thing is I am not feeling the sense of mounting dread the voice editing phase would normally put me in this time of year. Not having to pull 60 hour weeks for 3-4 months leaves me with enough time to maybe work on some other games...or sleep. Sleep would also be good.

Anyway, hope you are all having a great weekend, and I will start teasing you with art WIP's as they come in.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Great to see you're still in there working hard, with projects starting to come together for release and you finally maybe possibly getting some proper sleep!

 

[lashman]

Anyway, hope you are all having a great weekend, and I will start teasing you with art WIP's as they come in.

likewise! and i can't wait to hear more!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Time for another sale! Grab any titles you might have missed, or buy extra copies to give to friends and family as very late (or very early) Christmas presents!

Steam Search

store.steampowered.com

 

[Jav]

Time for another sale! Grab any titles you might have missed, or buy extra copies to give to friends and family as very late (or very early) Christmas presents!

Steam Search

store.steampowered.com

Which one would you recommend to begin with?

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Which one would you recommend to begin with?

So the official order is:

• Pale Harbour
• Vile Philosophy
• Blissful Ignorance
• Red Ripper
• Tattered Sails
• Wight Chapel Dreams
• Return to Wight Chapel

However, Pale Harbour and Blissful Ignorance both have 'death loops', which I have steered away from in later games, and Red Ripper is 'Deathtrap Dungeon' levels of hard. As such I would recommend Vile Philosophy as a starting point if you want to keep to canon order. Also, Wight Chapel Dreams is technically a bit of a 'tutorial' as it does act as a retrospective of your first case, with a mentor figure guiding you on. So that could be another good point to join in, especially as the heirloom and trait systems were both in by that point.
Just don't be surprised if you join in for WCD, then go back to Pale Harbour and find it lacks a lot of the complexity of the later titles. I have expanded the engine with each release. Sometimes in visible ways and others with tweaks to make story options more complex.

 

[Jav]

So the official order is:

• Pale Harbour
• Vile Philosophy
• Blissful Ignorance
• Red Ripper
• Tattered Sails
• Wight Chapel Dreams
• Return to Wight Chapel

However, Pale Harbour and Blissful Ignorance both have 'death loops', which I have steered away from in later games, and Red Ripper is 'Deathtrap Dungeon' levels of hard. As such I would recommend Vile Philosophy as a starting point if you want to keep to canon order. Also, Wight Chapel Dreams is technically a bit of a 'tutorial' as it does act as a retrospective of your first case, with a mentor figure guiding you on. So that could be another good point to join in, especially as the heirloom and trait systems were both in by that point.
Just don't be surprised if you join in for WCD, then go back to Pale Harbour and find it lacks a lot of the complexity of the later titles. I have expanded the engine with each release. Sometimes in visible ways and others with tweaks to make story options more complex.

thank you very much for your answer, I will listen to you and I have opted to start with Vile Philosophy. I'll tell you how it goes!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

thank you very much for your answer, I will listen to you and I have opted to start with Vile Philosophy. I'll tell you how it goes!

Thank you, and I hope you have fun!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Sorry for the delay in updating - I have been dealing with a few health issues which left me a bit wiped out. :S

Thankfully they did not seriously delay development, so things have been rumbling ahead at the usual pace. That means that Rogue's Gallery has been gathering steam, with it looking quite likely to breach the 1k pages mark. :O We also have music and the start of art for Wyrmwood, which is why I will present our WIP page below. It might get finished after the front cover, but I think it will work to keep people guessing about how, and why, you end up seeing this.

Have a great weekend all!

 

[lashman]

Sorry for the delay in updating - I have been dealing with a few health issues which left me a bit wiped out. :S

awww, sorry to hear that, hope you're feeling better now!

and thanks for the update, as always

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Here's a quick update on the state of play.

Wyrmwood is frolicking towards completion as the art is done with the pencils/detail stage and is moving into colouration, hence the update to the image below.

Rogue's Gallery is about 700 pages in and still going strong. I have had a few things distract me the past few weekends, but I should be able to get it over the hill and into polish and testing as planned.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Just a quick one as I am dealing with taxes, re-subscribing to antivirus, sorting out my google play account and a load of other stuff.

In the meantime, here is the cover of book 8 - Wyrmwood!

This messy boy will be glorping his way onto your raft on Halloween as planned. I will hopefully be setting up the Steam page next weekend, as art is about 50% done, so I can get the build up at least. Have a great weekend!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Oh look! A totally harmless doll for now well explored reason.

Art is all in for the book, so I have made a start on the Steam page. I should have that all locked down this week, although the trailer will take a little longer. In the meantime I will get the build over to the testers and we'll see what they can come up with.

Have a great weekend!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

I actually remembered there was a sale on for once!

Steam Search

store.steampowered.com

All Grindwheel Games titles are reduced, so you can huddle indoors, trying to to burst into flames by chilling your spine with our spine-chilling content.
Also, I don't know why the images had vanished from the thread. They seem to be back now and we'll just have to all pretend they never left for the sake of appearances.

 

[lashman]

Also, I don't know why the images had vanished from the thread. They seem to be back now and we'll just have to all pretend they never left for the sake of appearances.

yup, they're definitely here, haha must've been a hiccup with the image host or something, who knows

 

[Grindwheel Games]

yup, they're definitely here, haha must've been a hiccup with the image host or something, who knows

And people still reacted like they were there, so that is all good.

 

[lashman]

And people still reacted like they were there, so that is all good.

oh no, they were DEFINITELY there when you posted them, i saw the images haha

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Ok, looks like he pictures have vanished again, not sure what is up there.

In the meantime, something which will not vanish is the following ->
The Wyrmwood steam page is now live! Unlike the gloppy mess of a beast on the front cover.

I will be updating the website and such shortly, but I have the usual other announcement to go with the release of the steam page: the next book in the series. I have decided to do one more focused on the Capital, which both Wyrmwood and Rogue's Gallery do. I will then package all three into A Collection of Capital cases on Steam, and follow this up with some classing 'wander around the wilderness getting stabbed' fare like the good old pre-plague days of 2019. That means the next case will be The Box, which I hinted about earlier and decided to push back.

News on that will be forthcoming. In the meantime I have finished the first pass at Rogue's Gallery and I am in the plugin process for it. It's come in a little slimmer at under 900 entries so far, but the good thing about this new format is adding extra paths and complex choices is way simpler without a voice over to worry about. I'll let people know how that goes!

Have a great weekend!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Well, Google deleted my developer account.

The reason was 'inactivity', but the actual reason was that I was unable to proceed with an account details update without help, and they didn't send me the help before the deadline the update needed to be in for. I was already leaning towards dropping the tablet versions, as according to the stats they were selling a hefty 0 copies apiece, so this is not too bad overall.

If there is some major issue and people begin pestering me about this I will maybe bring them back, but otherwise this leaves me free to focus on the PC versions.

On that note, Wyrmwood is getting QA'ed right now, with a few issues and bugs popping up to keep me busy for the rest of today. And Rogue's Gallery is storming through the page plugin stage, with ~700 out of 900 pages done. I should be finished by the end of this month, giving me my internal QA pass for the rest of the year before moving onto The Box to start the writing process.

All in all, losing the google account actually saves me a chunk of time every year, as I don't have to port over the PC changes to the tablet engine, re-order the entries, make the art smaller to fit with the file size restrictions, etc.

Hope everyone has a good weekend! Time for me to go fix bugs!

 

[lashman]

Well, Google deleted my developer account.

well that sucks

On that note, Wyrmwood is getting QA'ed right now, with a few issues and bugs popping up to keep me busy for the rest of today. And Rogue's Gallery is storming through the page plugin stage, with ~700 out of 900 pages done. I should be finished by the end of this month, giving me my internal QA pass for the rest of the year before moving onto The Box to start the writing process.

and some good news too looking forward to that one!