|OT| Grindwheel Games Titles

[Grindwheel Games]

Hello there! I'm Tony Wilson, owner, designer, developer and writer for Grindweel Games. This thread is to discuss upcoming Grindwheel Games' titles as they get ready for release. The best place to start would be with our first game, Pale Harbour.


The Hunters Journals series focuses on dark, steampunk fantasy with a Lovecraftian twist. Pale Harbour is the first trip into this world, using the aesthetic of an old choose-your-own adventure novel for the interface. With over 500 'pages', more than 40 images to unlock, and a unique, haunting soundtrack, it is a solid horror title with a lot of replay value.

I have always loved CYOA games, and even own all of the old Fighting Fantasy back-catalogue. I've tried to stay true to the feel of those older games, but at the same time updated the world to fit the more modern, dark-fantasy mould. With each of the books I have expanded on the lore of the world to make it a unique place of desperate struggles against mundane hubris and cosmic horror. Several of the early books were actually Call of Cthulhu and Ravenloft adventures I put together in my spare time, although modified to better fit the overall setting.

In any case, I will post updates below as new games come closer to release. I hope you enjoy them!

Tony Wilson - Grindwheel Games

 

[lashman]

awesome ... thanks for the thread!

definitely looking forward to Pale Harbour

(oh, by the way - that's probably going to be an OT, not News - you can change the prefix ... oh, and don't forget to add the cover image - to make it look prettier )

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Also, here are the front covers for the first two games. They are from my website so there is no spoiler with regards to Vile Philosophy.

awesome ... thanks for the thread!

definitely looking forward to Pale Harbour

(oh, by the way - that's probably going to be an OT, not News - you can change the prefix ... oh, and don't forget to add the cover image - to make it look prettier )

Updated the title, and I'll look into that and my custom images asap. Thanks for the advice!

 

[lashman]

Also, here are the front covers for the first two games. They are from my website so there is no spoiler with regards to Vile Philosophy.

damn, that looks amazing!!!

Updated the title, and I'll look into that and my custom images asap. Thanks for the advice!

awesomesauce! and no problem ... looking forward to it!

 

[Deleted member 113]

Glad to have you here, Grindwheel Games .

I already added your game to my wishlist, after Nyarlathotep posted about it.

 

[Grindwheel Games]

damn, that looks amazing!!!

Thanks! The page art was done by Muthur Brine after the UI artist found he didn't have time for it and the other artist I hired crapped out on us. She managed to get it all done in about 8 weeks as a favour, and did the same for Vile Philosophy when that one was ready too. Depending on her schedule we'll be going with her again for Blissful Ignorance, although I have shopped around for a few alternatives.

The art for the second book blows the first out of the water to some degree. She upped the canvas size she was working with to get in a whole load of background detail and little flourishes that really make it look spectacular.

 

[lashman]

Thanks! The page art was done by Muthur Brine after the UI artist found he didn't have time for it and the other artist I hired crapped out on us. She managed to get it all done in about 8 weeks as a favour, and did the same for Vile Philosophy when that one was ready too. Depending on her schedule we'll be going with her again for Blissful Ignorance, although I have shopped around for a few alternatives.

The art for the second book blows the first out of the water to some degree. She upped the canvas size she was working with to get in a whole load of background detail and little flourishes that really make it look spectacular.

sounds great!

 

[Ge0force]

I have very limited experience with visual novels, but your game looks very interesting to me. Great art and the writing looks fine as well. Will definitely keep an eye on this thread!

 

[Milena]

Wishlisted, the theme seems pretty interesting and the art is great

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Good morning guys! Thanks for all the support, and a HUGE thank you to everyone who has wishlisted the game so far.

In the run up to release I am posting in-game page art to Facebook, as well as the steam community pages, so I am also going to share them here. These are the 'general' images that appear through most of the book to avoid too many spoilers. Please find the first of these below!

The Filter Mask is a useful piece of kit that hunters will sometimes use depending on the nature of the creature they are hunting. They can block out some toxic gasses, and the thick leather can sometimes deflect light blows to the face.

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Hello again all! I was going to split the updates up to Monday and Friday only, but we have 6 general page images per book (and plenty more specific ones to unlock) so I decided to go Mon/Wed/Fri instead.

As such, please enjoy the next page image below! As a note, a lot of the equipment related images have been drawn to make the hunter as generic as possible. I didn't want to ever give them a specific face to help people project themselves into the story, and Muthur Brine really did a great job on making them look like sinister mannequins.

Hunters are often forced to explore dark and dangerous places. While carrying a lantern is often the best way to illuminate the area, they do tend to require the use of a hand. Flares, especially the powerful Naphtha Flares seen here, can be lit and discarded to provide bright light without encumbrance.

 

[lashman]

Hello again all! I was going to split the updates up to Monday and Friday only, but we have 6 general page images per book (and plenty more specific ones to unlock) so I decided to go Mon/Wed/Fri instead.

damn, that does look good! i'm seriously getting excited for that game!

(by the way - just a reminder about that thread cover )

 

[Grindwheel Games]

damn, that does look good! i'm seriously getting excited for that game!

(by the way - just a reminder about that thread cover )

Thanks! I had forgotten about that.

The current plan for the logo is to keep the basic lozenge shape but add a specific embellishment per book. I can't go into what the serpents and antlers are for this one, or the face-masks in the second. But all will be revealed in time...

 

[lashman]

Thanks! I had forgotten about that.

no problem ... it looks much better now!

The current plan for the logo is to keep the basic lozenge shape but add a specific embellishment per book

that's a really cool idea!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

that's a really cool idea!

Thanks! It came from the initial plan which was to have the logo be as it is now, but with something behind it, like a pair of filter masks, or a beast skull. That would be 'the' logo and used on every book. But that went out the window when we have to get an artist in for page art specifically. While we were booting around ideas for that and the text on the front cover, it was suggested to go with a different logo per game. It made sense, and acts as a bit of an in-joke if you play the game.

 

[lashman]

Thanks! It came from the initial plan which was to have the logo be as it is now, but with something behind it, like a pair of filter masks, or a beast skull. That would be 'the' logo and used on every book. But that went out the window when we have to get an artist in for page art specifically. While we were booting around ideas for that and the text on the front cover, it was suggested to go with a different logo per game. It made sense, and acts as a bit of an in-joke if you play the game.

yeah, i agree ... and i really like it!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Good morning all, and happy Pre-Release Art Day! Also known as Friday in the Gregorian Calendar.

Please find below the latest of the art pages, which some of you might notice resembles Lantern Chan before her moe update!

Thanks to advances in galvanic technology, it is now possible to produce a battery small enough to fit into the base of a lantern. Hunters can find these crank-powered Dynamo Lanterns invaluable, as they do not give off a flame or much heat. Some beasts, especially corrupt nature spirits, cannot see by the light they give off. This makes them perfect for setting up ambushes.

They can also be used to light the darkest of places, but only because they want to. B...baka!

 

[lashman]

They can also be used to light the darkest of places, but only because they want to. B...baka!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Don't you think Lantern-Chan is best waifu? >_> Heresy!
Good morning everyone! There is only a week to go before Pale Harbour hits the digital shelves for real, so here is the next of the page images for you to enjoy.

A hunter often carries some sort of firearm to deal with foes that attack at range. After a lot of experimentation and legal issues, they are limited to something that can be carried in one hand, and contains no more than ten shots. Trusty revolvers and duelling pistols are the standard option, but some eccentrics still prefer the stopping power of a hand mortar.

As a side note, I ended up watching a load of episodes of the Forgotten Weapons channel on Youtube while looking for old, steampunk-like weapons. They have some interesting stuff! Sadly, I shared this with my Call of Cthulhu gaming group, who then started talking about getting things like the 50-shot pistol or replacing everything on their keyring with key pistols. That's what I get, I suppose!

 

[lashman]

There is only a week to go before Pale Harbour hits the digital shelves for real

HYYYYPE!!!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

HYYYYPE!!!

Speaking of hype...

Grindwheel Games - Our Games

The trailer for Vile Philosophy is here!

I know that it is very similar in layout to the first. But basically my father, who is the narrator, is going to be away for three weeks. So the choice was between getting fancy and using a whole different script, or go with something that is close enough to the first that we can have the trailer there and ready for the store page while he was away.

Oh, sorry, did I just double-spoiler this by noting that the steam page for VP will be available soon too? Happy Monday everyone.

 

[lashman]

The trailer for Vile Philosophy is here!

TRAILER HYPE!!!

for all the lazy people:

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Good morning all! Sorry this page is a little late. I woke up to find the Vile Philosophy build had been rejected by Steam for a number of reasons, all of which were present in Pale Harbour. Specifically they don't like linking to the musician's Bandcamp page, as that means Steam can't collect money of any digital purchases you might make there. So I had to go in and correct that, and remove images of the front page fro the screenshots on both pages as that's also not allowed.

Still, better to find out now than have the games go live and then be banned when someone from Steam finally checks them!

Both games are now sorted and seem fine to me. VP is back with Steam for review and should be live by the end of the week as planned. I should also be getting Blissful Ignorance back from the editor soon too. Oh, and yesterday I finished the critical path for book 4 (Red Ripper). It took a while, as it features a large dungeon bash near the end, which should give plenty of exploration paths when I start writing those up.

But that's not why you guys are here. Please find the penultimate Pale Harbour page below!

Despite most noble houses favouring spears or halberds, hunters are restricted to using a single-handed weapon with only one cutting or striking edge. As hunts often include swashbuckling shenanigans like fighting atop coaches, swinging on chandeliers and the like, hunters do find having a hand free to keep from falling is often invaluable. Spectators also appreciate them not waving around a bardiche at neck height.

 

[lashman]

Both games are now sorted and seem fine to me. VP is back with Steam for review and should be live by the end of the week as planned.

that's good to hear! still looking forward to it!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

that's good to hear! still looking forward to it!

Well book 1 is approved at any rate. I guess this means that there are at least some humans involved in the Valve processes. I either got a bot the first time, or the guy I got last time didn't care about external links. Either way, the current score is as follows;

Pale Harbour - Looks good for release Monday.
Vile Philosophy - On route for store this week and a July release.
Blissful Ignorance - back from editing this week.
Red Ripper - Critical path and new mechanics defined.

Now I just have to pick between Tattered Sails and Martyrs Dance for book 5...

 

[lashman]

Well book 1 is approved at any rate. I guess this means that there are at least some humans involved in the Valve processes. I either got a bot the first time, or the guy I got last time didn't care about external links.

oh, there always is a human checking those but yeah - guess the first one didn't care (or didn't check, at least) about the links

Pale Harbour - Looks good for release Monday.
Vile Philosophy - On route for store this week and a July release.
Blissful Ignorance - back from editing this week.
Red Ripper - Critical path and new mechanics defined.

sounds good to me!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Good morning! I would like to say that the delay in posting has been down to a deliberate attempt to build hype, but sadly my machine was (and still is) churning though an update. As such it keeps freezing on me, so I had to wait until now to be able to get online to post.

But, I have some good news! Blissful Ignorance is back from the editors and slowly being made ready for the next steps in the pipeline. I might actually post about that next week, assuming a smooth launch of Pale Harbour. Fingers crossed!

In any case, here is the last of the Pale Harbour pages. Ironically it is also the last thing most players will see on a run, as it is the generic 'death' image used for dead ends, combat deaths, and if you loose too much stamina due to a page event. Please enjoy it, and have a great weekend!

Not every hunt ends in success. Combat and poor decision making, as well as dangerous traps, can all lead to your sudden demise. Your only hope is to pray the gods are on your side and try to be as careful as possible.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Specifically they don't like linking to the musician's Bandcamp page, as that means Steam can't collect money of any digital purchases you might make there.

Hey, how come you don't just have an HTML button on your title screen / options screen / credits screen?
It'd probably send them more traffic than on the store page, and its pretty easy to do if you're using Textmesh Pro (plus you can use fontawesome or something to have icon links instead of text links, and get them to scale with the UI nicely)

Worth putting links to your twitter and homepage there while you're at it too, imo.

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Hey, how come you don't just have an HTML button on your title screen / options screen / credits screen?
It'd probably send them more traffic than on the store page, and its pretty easy to do if you're using Textmesh Pro (plus you can use fontawesome or something to have icon links instead of text links, and get them to scale with the UI nicely)

Worth putting links to your twitter and homepage there while you're at it too, imo.

Thanks for the advice, and I might look into that while I am waiting on art for book 3.

The issue at the moment is that I didn't want Pale Harbour to go live, and then be taken down due to a complaint. So I took the path of least resistance to make it acceptable today. That way I can build in a system that Steam won't get upset about later down the line.

Oh, and speaking of Steam...


My machine was dying on it's metaphorical rear end all of yesterday to pull down some updates, so I was not able to put the store page to live. I thought it made more sense to push Vile Philosophy out today rather than mess with things on launch day, especially if there are issues that require my attention.

Anyway, as you can see, I'm going for July 15th for the release. I won't be keeping up this pace in the future; I just have these two ready to go now! As it stands it looks like I can get one story completely finished per year while working a full-time job. Since I'm able to focus fully on them at the moment I can get them done well within that time-frame.

 

[lashman]

Oh, and speaking of Steam...

 

[Deleted member 113]

Grindwheel Games , sorry if I missed it, but at what price point are you planning to launch each game?
Thanks

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Grindwheel Games , sorry if I missed it, but at what price point are you planning to launch each game?
Thanks

I have them down for $5.99 on Steam. If Android ever gets back to me it'll be cheaper due to no VO on the tablet versions. I have seen some text games go for less, and some for more, but the ones that go for more have a lot more visual novel elements, as well as 3d artwork. I think this seems like a decent place to put it.

 

[Deleted member 113]

I have them down for $5.99 on Steam. If Android ever gets back to me it'll be cheaper due to no VO on the tablet versions. I have seen some text games go for less, and some for more, but the ones that go for more have a lot more visual novel elements, as well as 3d artwork. I think this seems like a decent place to put it.

That's a very reasonable price.
I actually expected something more along the lines of $9,99.

 

[Grindwheel Games]

That's a very reasonable price.
I actually expected something more along the lines of $9,99.

I'd love to sell them for that much, but I have the feeling that with just plain text and 2-d art, people would question the purchase at that point. I'd rather not have to pull a Fallout 76 and start dropping the price day 1 because people are complaining.

 

[lashman]

I'd love to sell them for that much, but I have the feeling that with just plain text and 2-d art, people would question the purchase at that point. I'd rather not have to pull a Fallout 76 and start dropping the price day 1 because people are complaining.

i don't think you could do that even if you wanted to i believe volvo has a "cooldown" on newly released games ... 30 days i think

oh, wait ... i was wrong ... you CAN change the price whenever you want, but volvo recommend you don't do that for a while

but you CAN'T do a discount for 30 days after release

Q: How often can I change the price of my product?
A: We suggest that you wait at least two months after release before you change your price. That is the same period of time you should wait until you first offer a discount on your title.

Q: Can I participate in major sale events if my product recently launched?
A: Generally, you cannot submit a discount within 30 days of release or 30 days from when the launch discount ends. However, you can submit a launch discount to take effect when your game first releases, and if your product releases within 7 days of a major sale event (like the Steam Summer Sale, for example), Valve can help you extend that introductory launch discount to last through the sale event.

There are always future opportunities to put your game on discount, so you shouldn't feel pressured to change your release date for the sake of a seasonal sale event.

 

[MegaApple]

Hello, awesome to see developer OTs here.
And wishlisted!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Happy release day! Pale Harbour is now live!


Now to sit here like an idiot, praying that nothing goes wrong...

I will be monitoring stuff all day, but from what I can tell by having passed some people test copies it seems to be working fine. There was a bug that (for some reason) only showed up the first time it was run on a machine that put it in a stupid resolution. I think that is fixed, as the last test copy I gave out didn't have it, but that will be a bugger to test if not! Other than that I just have to hope it runs fine on all machines.

Fingers crossed!

I'll be updating my social media and even this page with a Vile Philosophy theme as of next week, which is also when I will begin releasing the page art for that game.

 

[lashman]

I will be monitoring stuff all day, but from what I can tell by having passed some people test copies it seems to be working fine. There was a bug that (for some reason) only showed up the first time it was run on a machine that put it in a stupid resolution. I think that is fixed, as the last test copy I gave out didn't have it, but that will be a bugger to test if not! Other than that I just have to hope it runs fine on all machines.

Fingers crossed!

woohoo!!! good luck!!!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

woohoo!!! good luck!!!

Thanks! There have been no errors today, so I will check the sales tomorrow and see how well it did. With payday coming up near the end of the week I think it'll be more likely to see a spike then too.

 

[lashman]

Thanks! There have been no errors today, so I will check the sales tomorrow and see how well it did. With payday coming up near the end of the week I think it'll be more likely to see a spike then too.

don't forget the Summer Seal is starting tomorrow

 

[Grindwheel Games]

don't forget the Summer Seal is starting tomorrow

That's a good point! Urgh...I don't know if that'll hurt it because it isn't part of the sale, or help because people will be checking out low-cost games using the price filters. :S Between that and E3 I might have better initial results with Vile Philosophy.

Still, it is out and published! So that will draw in some money at least.

 

[lashman]

Between that and E3 I might have better initial results with Vile Philosophy.

here's hoping! fingers crossed

 

[Deleted member 113]

Still, it is out and published! So that will draw in some money at least.

Well, I bought it.

But, considering the rumours around that users may be getting discounts on the upcoming sales based on the amount of purchases they make during the sale, I have no doubt some people will wait for tomorrow in order to buy games.

 

[Exzyleph]

So I tried playing The Hunters Journals; Pale Harbor, and while I mostly enjoyed the writing and the art, the overall impression was not particularly strong either way. There's potential there, but I don't think the game currently delivers it.

My time with Pale Harbor can roughly be described like this, and while that is to be expected from a CYOA game, it was also annoying since the game only features one manually managed save slot. I ran into a lot of situations where I'd make a choice, die, and then hope that I saved recently. In a physical CYOA you can easily follow a choice and then easily return if that choice immediately led to your death. Having that ability in this game would have been nice. This is because saving frequently easily comes back to bite you in the ass, due to the many opportunities for missing quest items. At the end of my current play-through, close to the end of the games I think, I had missed an item not far back (key 2 out of 3 keys), but my save is past wherever that was and so I'll simply have to start over and try to remember what I did to get there.

That was just one point, though, and I did end up with a number of annoyances of various severity:

• There is a shop early on in the game, in which can buy additional (pretty much mandatory) items. If you buy an item the text changes from "Buy" to "Sell", but it honestly wasn't until was writing this that I even noticed that the text changed. At a glance it just looks the same, so I'd recommend also changing the color of the button or something similar to more visibly highlight that it has changed function.
• When you unlock new art, a badge will appear on the bottom right, and slowly leave the screen (unless you click on it). It not only covers the choices for the current screen, but it is also animated at roughly 2⅓ frames per second. It looks terrible.
• Combat is utterly pointless. All you do is watch die being rolled until you either win or lose, possibly having taken some damage if you win. There is absolutely no interactivity and it does not feel engaging, and the only reason to not outright disable it is that you'd then have to remember to check your stamina after every combat.
• The UI feels weirdly inconsistent. On the in-game screen the bookmark in the center fold is used for saving. On other screens it is used to close those screens. There is also a X in the top right corner of the window, but unlike what you'd expect, this simply prompts you to close the game, no matter the context. Finally, the (modal) stats screen is closed by clicking outside of the window that pops up. For consistency, I'd suggest using the same X to close all screens (clicking outside the modal stats screen could be kept as an alternative), with it only ending the game when used on the main screen.
• The combat screen is poorly laid out (dice rolls and calculations take place on the left side, results are written on the right), making it hard to keep track of what is happening despite the simplicity, made worse by values that simply tick down with no persistent log of what happened.
• The stats screen looks like it was wiped together in five minutes (even the options screen looks better!). In addition, the button says "Stats" but the screen says "Character Sheet". For consistency, you could replace "Stats" with "Character", which I think would still fit the button.
• On the stats screen, marks are used to indicate the number of medical supplies you have (out of 12), but not the number of stamina points you have. Instead, marks on the stamina bar indicates damage taken. Additionally, the screen writes out the number (1-12) of medical supplies you have, but no the number of stamina points you have. Preferably, both bars would use marks to indicate what you have and both (or neither) would include the exact number.
• Scenes will occasionally include text like "If you have X then Y", but this is merely appended directly to the end of the descriptive text and tends to blend in with it. Visibly separating it and giving it a different look could potentially look much better and perhaps something like a check-mark/X could be used to visibly indicate if you met those requirements.
• It would be nice (but not necessary) to have an indication of what choices you've previously picked across all your playthroughs. For extra bonus points, have it indicate if the choice result will be different than previous runs.
• The game suffers from a lack of sound effects. Why isn't there a page-turning sound effect when I make a choice? Where's the sad jingle when I die? Where's the combat sounds? If you play without voice-over (as I did), then just about the only thing you hear is the music and dice rolls.
• The game uses left aligned (ragged) text, while most books (including CYOA books and games) will use justified text. It simply looks better (and more book-like), so if it is at all possible then I would recommend switching to that.
• No Lantern-chan

The game also features voice-over, but I turned it off after about 3 screens since it got annoying to wait for that bloke to slowly read text that I could blaze through at a much faster clip.


Edited to add:
Thinking about it a bit more, I think my biggest issue with the game was that it completely failed to invoke a sense of dread or even the unease that I associate with good Lovecraftian horror. That is why my reaction is so lukewarm. There were some neat events and a few interesting critters, but the game peaked pretty early in terms of horrors and then it just became a conga-line of blobs, cultists, and seaweed, with my options rarely being anything other fight or flight (if I even got an option). Even the more memorable enemies failed to make much of an impression when fighting them simply meant clicking 'Fight' and 'Skip', and then reading the outcome. Lovecraftian games tend to be most effective when you're crawling through the dark, fearful of what's around every corner, rather than when you're punching out Cthulhu.

It is possible that playing the game on expert would have mitigated that somewhat (I played on intermediate), since that forces you to avoid combat as much as possible due to limited healing items, but you'd still end up fighting everything while mapping out the correct path through the game

 

[Grindwheel Games]

Good morning all! Exzyleph, I do have a reply for you, but I would like to keep that separate from what I am about to post. I do hope you understand.

With two weeks until Vile Philosophy is live, I am going to be doing the same program of page art release as I did with Pale Harbour. Please find the first of those images below!

With the constant re-shuffling of the heavens and hells, certain ghosts and spirits become preeminent in power while others fade into obscurity. Clerical scientists work tirelessly with geomancers and mediums to calculate the relative powers of different shades and spirits, and publish their findings in the yearly Almanac of Dread Shades.

As you can see, the page size for these images is way higher than with Pale Harbour, allowing Muthur Brine far more room to add in background details and polish. On which note, I was a little quiet last week as I was dealing with the editing and plugin for book 3. That has all been taken care of, and the tablet build updated to let me pick pages for art, compile an art document, and get that off to the artist. So a release of Blissful Ignorance this year is absolutely on the cards, and I will share a few of the sketches with you guys as they become available.

(Valid feedback and constructive criticism)

Thank you for your purchase! I am just sorry that the game was not as entertaining for you as I had hoped. I'd also like to thank you for putting the review here rather than on the Steam page.

Overall, the only thing I can say is that I am taking this on board and I am going to update those bits of the engine it is within my power to correct by the end of the day. Anything related to UI changes or new assets might take a while longer to come about, as my UI guy has extremely limited time. I was going to go through your points one at a time with a reply where possible, but since you don't know me and my tone can sometimes be a little dry, I didn't want to come across as 'one of those' devs who can't take criticism. I also am not going to justify some of my design decisions and the re-use of assets as any reply I came up with smacked of making excuses and pleading poverty. I could always have found more time or money to push things that little bit further, and if the final product has rough edges as a result there is nobody to blame on a one-man team but myself.

So, thank you for bringing up some points and even a minor bug. Specifically there are page turn noises, and if you didn't hear them you should not have been able to hear the dice! The things that can be fixed will be fixed, and as soon as it is possible to do so.

I would like to let you know that I had already taken some story and mechanical issues into account with book 2. Specifically I updated and streamlined combat in that game to add variety to enemy mechanics. For instance, there is a monster that deals random damage, another that can regenerate, one that you have to beat within a certain number of turns to get the good ending, etc. I also added 'Staged Combat', which means that you fight a round against an enemy, then have a choice of options as to how to proceed before the combat continues.

Book 3 also contains an experimental system to allow items you are carrying to modify the combat results, which I am expanding in book 4 into an 'Heirloom' mechanic. That means you can start with an item that takes up a slot in your backpack but can apply unique in and out of combat mechanics. My plan for book 5 is to further expand character customisation with a 'Traits' system, and so on and so forth.

Thanks again to yourself and all the people who have picked up the book. I'm not going to throw Pale Harbour under the bus, but I am going to say that I have put effort into improving the games with each story. Unfortunately, being blocked from releasing means that I have several books all lined up using the same (albeit tweaked) engine. I will push to make sure all possible upgrades can be made before those later ones get released!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

(Valid feedback and constructive criticism)

Thanks again for the feedback. I have just uploaded a bunch of changes that I could get done from my side without leaning on the artist. I do have some work for them, but that will have to wait for a while depending on the schedule. I would appreciate your thoughts on what has changed so far.

• Items you have not bought now appear in bold. When you buy them they lose the bold tag and gain a tick special character.
• I was not 100% happy with the alerts, but whenever the system was tested people seemed to ignore them after they worked out they could pop the notice with a click. Your comment has prompted me to rethink this position and do a rework. Now pop-ups appear from the top of the screen and work down to the bottom, and simply appear without movement, hang around for ~5 seconds, before vanishing.
• Stamina is now displayed on screen in the same way as skill, in addition to the visual prompt of the boxes.
• The character sheet has been renamed Character Statistics.
• Dice roll sounds will no longer play if you have sound effects muted.

I have left messages with the UI artist. Currently doing a full rework of some elements, like the character sheet background and even the pop ups, is not on the cards for the immediate future. I have requested that they change the style and/or colour of the medical boxes so there is less confusion between the red crosses and red slashes. A row of green ticks showing which boxes are full, or even just green crosses, should help for now.

Everything else on your list is on my handy checklist of things to investigate! I just thought I would let you know that I'm doing what I can. These fixes should also all be in Vile Philosophy shortly.

 

[lashman]

snip

all great updates ... it's always great to see when devs try to fix bugs quickly (within reason)

 

[Grindwheel Games]

all great updates ... it's always great to see when devs try to fix bugs quickly (within reason)

Yeah, the good thing about the engine I put together is that a) I know all the ins and outs to get these fixes done and b) it is simple enough to change things around like this. The bad thing is that, obviously, a simple engine leads to a simple game. Hopefully the constant improvements will lead to better engagement, and feedback is always appreciated!

 

[lashman]

The bad thing is that, obviously, a simple engine leads to a simple game.

simple games can be (and very often are) good too, you know!

 

[Grindwheel Games]

simple games can be (and very often are) good too, you know!

I believe a wise man once sang;

"Just because your game is simple, doesn't mean that it's lame" - Dan Avidan


I also accept that there are a few more systems that I have planned that adding to the books will make them a little more engaging and interesting. Combat is unlikely to ever change to (for instance) a block puzzle or timed maze, but having mechanics that make doubles more interesting, or equipment that works better with certain enemies will make it a little less tedious to watch.