The Oceanhorn Team Whishes You Happy Holidays

On behalf of the whole Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm team, we wish you Happy Holidays and a great New Year!

Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm will see the welcome return of a familiar face. 

The cleverest among you will notice that Hero in the postcard is wearing something peculiar in his head, what could it be?


Yes! That is a diving helmet!


Oceanhorn 2 will feature underwater areas and with Diving Helmet item you'll be able to go for a treasure hunt in the depths, or just enjoy and explore the subnautical scenery!


We can't wait to tell you more about diving and other features, but it is soon time to say goodbye to a brilliant and beautiful 2018 and welcome the new year with open arms.


So without further ado, see you in 2019!

Thomas Carlyle by Hector Macpherson

Missed Classic: Ballyhoo - Circus Minimus

Written by Joe Pranevich

Welcome back! Last time out, we started into Infocom's fourth mystery game, Ballyhoo. Unlike our previous mysteries, this one is not (yet!) a murder. Instead, we have a kidnapping… at a circus! We will have to use all of our investigative skills to find out who kidnapped the owner's daughter and why, even though the owner doesn't know we are helping and probably wouldn't be that thrilled to find out that some random patron was snooping around his circus after closing time. Why are we doing this again? Because we secretly dream of the Big Top ourselves! And of being a detective, apparently. Actually, I have no idea why we're doing this but someone has to save the girl and so it might as well be us.

I apologize for the small delay in getting this out. We've had "plague house" here at the local Infocom Marathon Headquarters and so much of my time has been spent either being sick, cleaning up after others being sick, or both at the same time. It doesn't make for the best head-space for writing about a fun-filled circus holiday. To compensate, I've made this entry a bit longer than usual. As they say, send in the clowns!

Has anyone seen my moongate?

Walk Down Memory Lane

Last time out, I mapped out all of the circus that I could. This consisted of several circus acts including an animal menagerie; Andrew Jenny, the half-and-half person; Rimshaw, the hypnotist; Tina, the "fat lady"; plus the Big Top itself. A guarded turnstile blocked our way further south, presumably to the crew area. While exploring, I performed a hire-wire act in the empty Big Top, scoring me a lost child's balloon which I must be careful not to drop or else it will fly away. I need to solve some puzzles if I am to advance.

The first "puzzle" that I know of is more like copy protection. The ticket included with the game has tons of fine print on it, but most importantly that three sessions with Rimshaw are included with the price of admission. This includes palm reading, hypnotism, and head-bump reading. I'm going to start this week by cashing in my extras.

While the palm reading reveals nothing but that I am going to have an interesting night, the hypnotism is surprisingly effective. I am cast back, as in a dream, several hours to when the circus was in full swing and I am sitting in the audience. The place is packed and everyone seems to be having a good time. This is a fully interactive dream, so I can interact with it in the usual Infocom way. Suddenly, I hear a rumble and a growl. What could it be? I look around, only to realize that it is my own stomach. I am hungry! (I confirm this with the "diagnose" command, a nice throwback to earlier Infocom games.) Just in the nick of time, a hawker comes to the end of my row selling tofu and peanuts. I yell down that I would like some peanuts and he flashes me the price on his fingers. I pass down that amount of money, but the press of the crowd is too much. My food never arrives and the hawker is quickly lost in the press of the crowd.

I'm still hungry, so I go in search of my peanuts. The crowd is too thick to the west, but I can push my way through to the east. I'm told that the exit is that way and down which is probably a hint. I chase the hawker through several rooms, but never catch up with him. The crowded bleachers form a maze. When I can head in his direction, I do, but I try to find routes down or east when I cannot. Eventually, I end up at the entrance to the Big Top with no hawker, but there is a concession stand set up where I can purchase food. Just as I arrive a monkey-- a literal monkey!-- lands on my back. I can't get it off.

Cheeky monkey! (And a very important photo in the history of human-simian interaction.)

Before I continue, I'll mention that this "monkey on my back" is a callback to the detective who, it is said, also had a monkey on his back when I saw him last. His monkey was drunkenness and it was explicitly a metaphorical monkey. It's very cute that I am afflicted with a literal one. Regardless of the spiritual implications of the situation, the monkey does not let me leave the concession stand area including by going back into the Big Top. I choose instead to stand in line for the concession stand. Unfortunately, the line is long but shortly after I stand in it, a second shorter line opens up. I switch over to that line and wouldn't you know it, the guy in front of me invites his friends-- and entire baseball team-- to cut in front of me. Now I'm in the long line once again. I switch to the short line, but everytime I do everyone else gets the same idea. It's a puzzle!

Just being patient doesn't cut it, nor does switching to the shorter line. I have to trick the crowd: if I pretend to get out of line to go to the short line, but instead stay in the long line, the people will cross like lemmings to the other side and leave me with a straight path to the front. I am forced to buy a chocolate covered banana which leaves me with exactly $12.81 in my pocket. I know I'm on the right path because that is precisely the amount of money that I started the game with. There is so much good humor here; it's a very memorable sequence. Highlights for me are the realization that the audience members are shockingly born exactly one minute apart from each other (a sucker is, as they say, born every minute), plus the ribbing the game gives you as you pick the wrong line over and over again. It is clever enough to point out, for example, that the person you were standing in line behind just a bit ago just got there food. It's all quite clever and my favorite part of the game so far.

Unfortunately, I make the mistake of feeding the banana to the monkey. He stays on my back and I seem to be stuck. I restore and try instead to throw the banana. He jumps off my back to get it and I am finally free of him, even if I am annoyed about the dead end. Heading back into the circus, still without food, I pass the hawker taking a break near the entrance. He tells me that he eventually gave me a granola bar and the guy sitting next to me still has it. But I didn't order a granola bar! I need to go back in and get it off of him. I navigate the maze back to my seat and the sequence ends. I have ten more points! What was the purpose of that? Was there a clue to the kidnapping that I missed? I try playing through it all again, but I don't see a clue if there is one. Could there be something else hidden in the crowd?

I ask Rimshaw to read the bumps on my head and he tells me two interesting bits of information:

• For romance, a woman will soon come into my life.
• For travel, I will soon visit the grand canyon.

Since I doubt either of those things will happen in this game, are those clues to future Infocom adventures? Rimshaw comments that I like Infocom adventures (how true!) and tells me that his favorite game is Enchanter, so that seems to be a good possibility. I think this is too early for Plundered Hearts to be referenced, but could those be references to Leather Goddesses and Trinity? I have played neither so I have no idea.

A 19th century hypnotist. With angels for some reason.

Interview with a (Former) Lion Tamer

After failing to find a way to get the radio from the bearded lady or how to get past the elephant, I work on passing through the turnstile into the crew area. That passage is guarded by "Harry", a blind man inside of a repurposed (and burned-out) animal cage. We saw him let Chuckles and Thumb through in the beginning of the game, but he doesn't recognize me to let me through. Since he's blind, I can't just wear the clown mask. I'll have to come up with an alternative path.

As it turns out, Harry is a plethora of information about the rest of the circus staff. He'll talk to me about just about everyone, with two special exceptions. In my conversations with him, I learn that:

• Chuckles had a lot of pride in his craft, until… what? He doesn't say.
• Tina has tried to lose weight, but Munrab forces her to eat.
• The Roustabout fell out of the social safety net and Munrab is forcing him to live in a cage instead of a trailer.
• Jenny is trying to keep Andrew on the straight-and-narrow, but Andrew considers her a thorn in his side.
• Rimshaw is worthless and we shouldn't waste our money. (We already know that he's a skilled hypnotist!)
• Gottfried, the new lion tamer, is a glory hog and stays one step ahead of the ASPCA.
• Munrab, the owner, is struggling. His dreams are not panning out and he is putting the squeeze on everyone. The circus is dangerous because of his pressure and cut corners.

Harry has less interesting things to say about the remaining staff (like Comrade Thumb) and doesn't seem to know some names from the manual at all. I also learn that his blindness is caused by being mauled by one of the lions. He even shows me his scars. The two lions in the circus are Nimrod and Elsie. He pointedly tells me that Nimrod refuses the whip while Elsie can only be tamed by it. That won't possibly come in handy later. I should note that he'll only talk about this once so you better take good notes!

There is a small puzzle while talking to him, although it doesn't seem to lead anywhere. If you ask about Chelsea, Munrab's daughter, he tells you that he told you already. If you took good notes and realize that he didn't do that, you can argue with him, eventually ending in a volley of "did not" and "did so" just like in cartoons. If you switch and say "did so", he'll get confused ala the Looney Tunes and say "did not" and then finally he'll talk to you about Chelsea. At least at this point in the game however, all he says is that he hasn't seen her all evening. A little underwhelming for the mini-puzzle that I had to pass through to get that information, but at least it was fun. Pointless trivia: this verbal sparring was first used in the Chuck Jones cartoon, Rabbit Fire, in 1951. Nearly 70-year old gags are still funny!

Even after all of those interviews and the trick to talk about Chelsea, none of that helps and I have to keep exploring.

Yummy discarded granola.

Healthy Snack

In my next explorations, I end up back under the bleachers in the Big Top. The entrance was moved since the stands have been put back into place, but I can now climb under the fabric of the tent on the Midway to gain access. Since I have been recently hypnotized, I recall where I was sitting and go there to discover the lost granola bar that the hawker tried (and failed) to give me. I could eat it myself, but knowing that the Fat Lady is trying to be on a diet, I go there instead.

In her room, she has been oblivious this whole time just listening to her radio. Her "room" is actually two connected rooms with her in the center. I am either on her left or her right, with passages to the northeast/southeast and northwest/southwest to cross to the other side. If I try to take the radio, she passes it into her other hand and I have to go to the opposite room to see it again. That much I had discovered last week. However, if I stand on the side with a free hand, I can give her the granola bar which causes her to notice me. She offers me her hand which I-- after a moment of confusion-- shake in a show of friendship. She puts down the radio in the process and I can head to the other room and grab it quickly, scoring a few more points in the process. Tina is portrayed as "simple" (my words, not theirs), a gentle giant, but it's not at all flattering. Yes, it's all for maximum pathos but it doesn't completely sit right with me, especially since we've now essentially stolen a radio from an adult child. I hope at least she enjoyed her granola bar; it probably came from the granola mines of the Great Underground Empire.

That said, the radio is (for now) useless and only plays static. There's an ad for a classical radio station that I mentioned last time so I follow the instructions to change the channel to AM 1070. That causes a brief burst of music before it returned to static. I try carrying the radio around the grounds to see if it gets reception somewhere else, but I never find any. It'll have to be a mystery for later.

They're finally here!

Send in the Clowns

Let's skip over another one of those impossible-to-narrate sections where I screw around with stuff and nothing much works, but I discover one thing: I can open the balloon and breathe the helium inside. Thanks to my new (and very brief!) high-pitched voice, I impersonate a clown much more effectively and manage to fool Harry. Even though he's blind, I put on the clown mask just to be on the safe side. He lets me through into the staff-only section of the circus. I hope that the mask is enough to fool anyone I might come across because I don't have the rest of a clown outfit handy.

There are only two "rooms" back here, but both seem promising:

• The east end has Katzenjammer's trailer. He's the new lion tamer. Both his trailer and an external baggage compartment are locked.
• The west end has a dilapidated trailer with a warped front door. I try to pry it open, but do not succeed. It too is locked. More on that in a second.

The other interesting bit is that there is a pleated cloth wall in the north west. By climbing under the cloth, I arrive back in the prop tent. I also spot a piece of wood that wasn't there before. In classic adventure game form, I reach down to pick it up and… well, I can't spoil the joke by explaining it. I guess we'll do a rare "screenshot of text"!

Profanity is funny!

In any event, the mousetrap and its accompanying cheese are now mine and I am sure that one or both will come in handy in the near future. More importantly, I can now go in and out of the staff area without passing through Harry's gate, which is good because I am out of helium.

I head back and knock on the door of the trailer. Chuckles only glances at me a moment before letting me in, probably because I am still wearing Malcolm's mask. (What happened to Malcolm anyway that he lost his mask and hasn't been seen around the camp? Is that part of the mystery?) In a slang-ridden conversation-- all helpfully translated by the circus slang section of the manual-- Chuckles complains about "Johnny Tin Plate" (the detective) snooping around, but he's pretty sure he won't find their "grift" (illegal gambling) because you have to put "Annie Oakley" (ticket) under the old front. I file that information away. Comrade Thumb is also in there, but he mostly ignores me while staying on his bunk-bed. During the conversation, Chuckles pauses at one point to ask me to close the door, but he doesn't catch on that I'm not who I say I am and I'm not dumb enough to do more than nod along. I expect that speaking will ruin the disguise. I search and find an ashtray with some ashes in it. Further snooping reveals that it the ashes include some unburned newsprint with a large-font letter "M" on it. Could this be a sign that one of the clowns worked on a ransom note? I haven't seen the note yet, but ransom notes often use cut up newsprint, at least in detective fiction. After a few turns, he realizes that I am not Malcolm and kicks me out.

Text adventures seem old, but by this point we are only a year before Leisure Suit Larry. That version of blackjack (above) was one I spent many hours on as a kid.

Infocom's First Minigame

I took the bit about the illegal gambling as my next clue, so I search for the "old front" and find it quickly behind the elephant tent. When I slide my ticket under, a compartment opens up into a gambling hall where circus-goers and staff seem to be having some fun. I'm not sure how anyone finds out about this place to get in, but I'm sure word gets around the seedier circles. My options at seem to be poker and blackjack, but the game doesn't let you try poker as it is a private game. At first I think I can't play blackjack either, but it's just a verb problem. If you type "bet $1" (for example), the game starts.

This looks like Infocom's first minigame! It's actually quite simple, only using yes or no questions for all the game mechanics except betting. The maximum bet is $2 and I stick to that because I can always restore if I lose too much. I lose the first couple of hands, but soon the "won" hands stay about even with the "loss" ones. Blackjack is a fairly simple game, but I did not pay enough attention to tell if they accurately simulated multiple decks or did a new set every hand. The only missing feature is "splitting" hands. That's when you are dealt two of the same card and are given the option of splitting them into two hands (with additional bet) so that they can be played individually. Even Leisure Suit Larry had that, but it's not a huge deal. In the end, I can't really get ahead without save-scumming and nothing magical happens when I double my money. If there's a plot point here, I don't see it... until I quit.

As soon as I get up to leave, my character gets an impulse to play one more hand. That time, instead of playing as before, there are taps on our feet. It only takes one hand to realize that the taps are revealing the value of the dealer's hole card! That helps less than you might think and I still lose, but why is something helping me cheat? I sneak a peek under the table and it is Comrade Thumb! Is this his way to repay me for helping at the water fountain? The dealer quickly catching me looking under the table and realizes what is going on. He kicks both Thumb and I out of the gambling den and will no longer let me back in. I hope I didn't miss anything. I can always restore if need be.

We can't rewind; we've gone too far.

Radio Killed the Text Adventure Star

With no further leads, I embark on another round of searching for new things to do. I start behind the elephant tent near the gambling hall and realize immediately that I must not have tried hard enough before. My first discovery is that I can climb the cage there and then clamber further onto the elephant's tent itself. It's dark and I don't have a destination in mind, so there's no place it lets me go. The one good thing is that the radio works up there! It does me no good immediately, but knowing the radio works with altitude could be a clue. Climbing down from the cage causes you to fall off and die. Just kidding, you just fall off and bruise your ego, complete with a fake death scene. Cheeky.

The cage itself was my next win. I had thought for some reason that the cage door was on the inside of the elephant tent, that I was seeing the rear, but in fact this is the front. Peering inside-- which I assume I could always have done but never thought of it-- I see a pair of keys on a nail. Using my tightrope-walking pole, I can poke in and grab the keys and slide them down to me. Not surprisingly, the keys unlock the cage door and inside is a makeshift home for a person. A bit dehumanizing perhaps, but he or she does have a nice pair of cassette headphones which I pocket. There is also a bucket of raw meat which I'm going to assume wasn't for him, unless we have a werewolf or something. The headphones have a location counter (currently 372) plus play, record, and rewind buttons.

I play the tape and at first don't notice anything funny. It's all Jimi Hendrix solos and the author didn't even bother to find the names of real Hendrix songs. But when I rewind and play from the beginning, there is the distinct sound of Rimshaw hypnotizing someone from locations 124 to around 250. Did Rimshaw use these headphones to hypnotize someone into kidnapping Midrab's daughter? Does the kidnapper even know that he or she did it?

No one will ever kill this radio star. Well, other than drugs.

The recording feature on the headphones is pretty neat. I am able to climb back up on top of the tent, play the radio, press record on the headphones, and then record as many turns of classical music as I want up until the end of the tape. The system is even smart enough to let me fast forward part of the way through the tape (past the hypnotism) and record only in the latter portion. It's a pretty neat object, a neat little puzzle, and a clever bit of coding. I'm very impressed! It seems silly, but it's one of the more clever object puzzles of the Infocom canon so far, which I was not expecting from Ballyhoo. Now I have "music to soothe the savage beast". That sounds like it will come in handy! I also show the headphones to Rimshaw and he as an unguarded moment where he seems about to panic before he composes himself again. He's guilty. It's him and the clowns? I also realize they are too small to fit me so they might be for someone young. Were they Chelsea's? Does she like Jimi Hendrix? I doubt it. Who did they belong to?

The keys do not just open up the the cage. Trying them around the yard reveals that they also open the gorilla's cage on the other side of the elephant tent. The gorilla's name is Mahler and he's not completely happy to see me invade his space. If I stay too long or get too curious, he "kills" me with a fate worse than death: permanently maimed and forced to act as a circus freak. I am able to locate a trap door hidden under the straw in his cage, but going anywhere near it results in that death. The solution turns out to be the music, although I'm not sure I should do this yet. If you play the headphones, Mahler will snag them off of you and calmly listen to classical music. (Hendrix is not his thing.) That lets me open the trap door, but it is empty except for a red ribbon. What is the significant of the ribbon? I have no idea. Unfortunately, Mahler destroys the headphones as soon as the music stops. I make a note of this detour, but I still expect that I'll need to hypnotize someone so restore back.

I did not wear a tutu while playing this segment.

Cowardly Lion Tamer

Leaving the menagerie, I find the detective slumped down on the midway. He's alive, but barely. It doesn't look like foul play, more like a drunken stupor. He's still holding his "cure-all" flask and will not let it go. I try to search his coat but I am told that I cannot while he is wearing. He's too heavy for me to get it off of him also and this could be something to come back to later, if I find some help. Is there a circus strongman around someplace? I was hoping that he had the ransom note in his pocket so I could compare it to the burned newsprint from the clowns' trailer.

Trying my key all over the place, I discover that it doesn't unlock any of the trailers or the main office, but it does unlike the storage compartment under the lion tamer's trailer. It also unlocks the lions' cage in the western ring of the Big Top. The storage compartment contains a bullwhip which I grab. I now have a whip, a chair, and a bucket of raw meat, plus access to a cage of wild lions. It's my turn to be a lion tamer!

Letting myself in with the lions, I discover a large podium in the center of the ring and a closed grate to the south. The lions won't let me near either. Although they are patient, I will get mauled if I stick around too long. My guess is that I am trying to "tame" the lions into letting me open the southern grate. From there, it's either a place that I need to go or that they do, although I'm not sure which yet. Throwing the meat around calms the lions a bit, but they still do not let me go near the center podium. They do let me open the southern grate, but the game thinks that I am stupid for trying to climb in there so I'm guessing that was not the right call. Instead of tossing the meat immediately, I try the whip and chair. I spend a lot of time trying to find the right verb for whatever real tamers do with their chairs, but I eventually give up. Instead, I crack the whip over each of the lions. This is the point where I should remind you-- and wish I had reminded myself-- of Harry's conversation about the lions. He said that Elsie could be tamed by the whip while Nimrod could not. Of course, I have no idea which is which and the game forces me to address them as the "shaggy lion" and the "smooth-bodied lion". When I crack the whip over the shaggy lion, he gets really angry and kills me immediately. When I crack it over the smooth one, she calms down and goes into her routine. My guess is that is Elsie. That isn't enough since she isn't so docile that she lets me past.

And I admit that here's where I took a hint. I was absolutely convinced that I needed to do something with the chair, but I could find no words that worked. In the process of looking up a walkthrough to see the command for the chair, I realize the real problem was that I didn't crack the whip three times. The first time is just the start of the act. If you want her to do more, you have to keep doing it. Once she has been "tamed" three times, we can now open the grate again. Why Nimrod lets us now and not before Elsie was tamed will have to remain an exercise for the player. With the gate open, I can toss in the meat and… then what? I find that if I leave the cage and come back, they naturally went through the grate to retrieve the meat and that is good enough for me to be able to close them in. Lions managed! Now I can finally search the center podium to discover a cigarette case hidden underneath. What good does that do me?

It's a mystery to everybody.

Wrapping Up

With no other leads, I start working on the (literal) case. Harry is still my best source of information for things around the circus and he tells me that the case belongs to Andrew. I take it to Andrew Jenny's trailer and show it to both of them. Andrew doesn't respond, but Jenny throws a fit. She fights with her other half, somehow remembering that she was involved in something that she didn't want to be. Was she hypnotized? How do you hypnotize half of a half-and-half person? She reveals that Andrew and his "fellow thugs" are supposed to meet later this evening by Katz's trailer. Jenny (somehow?) chases Andrew out of the tent and they are gone. Andrew is involved in this but not Jenny? That's… logistically difficult. I'll just roll with it. This means however that the clowns, Rimshaw, Andrew, and Katz are all involved. Is there anyone besides Jenny that is not?

I climb the stairs in their trailer and quickly discover that they are fake intended to lift you over a partition into another part of the otherwise flat trailer. On the other side of the partition is Andrew/Jenny's half-and-half wardrobe with clothes that would make the Batman villain Two-Face envious. (Do you think he'll be showing up in Batman Returns?) In the wardrobe is two outfits and I take both. Searching their pockets, I also discover a veil. I have a feeling that this will be enough to impersonate the duo myself. Why would I do that?

And that's it for tonight. When I visit Katz's trailer, I am told that it is too early. I spend time instead searching for new things to do but largely come up blank. Here is what I'm still working on:

• I can't find a way past the elephant into its tent. I was thinking that I could catch a mouse with the cheese, but I haven't found one. Elephants hate mice, right?
• I can't wake up the detective or search him. He's still dead drunk on the fairway.
• I can't get into either the office or the lion tamer's trailer.
• I can't get the ribbon without destroying the headphones and I'm not certain I should do that yet.

This is a fun game, albeit a strange one. The circus-themed puzzles are unique for the games that we have played so far and that makes them somewhat more fun than they otherwise might be. Overall, the game is going a great job balancing out its humor with its darker mood. Not everything is perfect, but I'm pretty happy with the experience overall.

Time played: 6 hr 25 min
Total time: 7 hr 35 min
Inventory: mousetrap, President Taft, bucket, ribbon, skeleton key, newsprint, cheese morsel, ticket, headphones, gorilla suit, $19.81 (plus other stuff that I found but are storing such as the whip and stool)
Score: 120 of 200 (60%)

SOMA - Two Years Later

It's over two years since we released SOMA, so it's time for another update on how things have been going.

First of all, let's talk about sales. As I've said many times before, sales are not straightforward to count, and the number you come up with is reliant on many different factors. For instance, SOMA was part of the Humble Monthly Bundle, which meant that everybody subscribing to that service was able to download a copy of SOMA. These are not really "sales", so should we count them? It's also worth noting that pricing differs a lot between different sales. A single unit sold at full price means more than one sold when the game is 75% off. I think it's important to think about these things, and remember you can't directly compare the sales of two games.

With all that said, what I'm going to do here is to basically take every single download of the game as a sale. Doing so gives us a total of 650 000 units, a 200 000 units increase since the the same time last year. This is a very good result.

It's interesting to compare how sales have changed across the two years for SOMA. The normal day-to-day income, when there are no discounts or anything, is 33% of what it was the same time last year. However, when the game is at a discount (such as a Steam summer sale), the generated income is about 75% of what similar events generated last year. This means that discount events are extra important this year.

Taken as a whole, the sales that we make from all our games will cover all our expenses every month, and even make us a profit. This is quite amazing. Given that we currently have about 16 people working with us full time, we have a pretty high burn rate, and to still be able to support all that on your ongoing sales is great.

This means that we still have a good buffer from our launch sales. While it will by no means last forever, it gives us peace of mind and lets us take the time we need. While we'll continue to generate income next year too, I'm not so sure it'll be enough to cover all our costs. This is when that initial buffer comes in handy, and will let us continue working on our projects without any monetary worries. To put things in perspective, it is worth noting that most companies start using up their buffer just a few months after release, so we are in no ways in a dire situation right now - quite the opposite!

However, this also makes it very clear that we need to be able to release games at a more regular rate. We were lucky that SOMA was a hit, and that the money is easily able to sustain us for the time we need to complete our next project. Had SOMA been a flop, the situation would have been a lot worse now. That's why we are focusing on becoming a two project studio, and the goal is to be able to release a game every two years. Had we managed to set that up prior to SOMA, we would be in the process of releasing a game right now. Needless to say, it would makes us a lot more financially stable, and able to handle a less successful release. In turn this should allow us to take greater risks, which I think is a key element in being able to create great games.

This leads me to another thing that's been on my mind. A few months back someone asked me: "How do you get people to buy your game?". This is a fairly basic question, but it really made me think. When it comes to sales made during launch, the answer feels quite self-evident. We generate a lot of buzz, there are reviews, let's plays and so on. There are a number of fairly obvious ways that people learn about our game.

But what about the customers that buy our game two years after release - why do they do it? That's a much harder question. I think most of this is via word-of-mouth recommendation. When the right circumstances arise (e.g.: "I feel like playing a game tonight") and when external influence (e.g.: "your friends said they liked our game") is strong enough, that's when a sale happens. I know that Steam and other stores have some forms of discovery tools, but I don't think they play a major factor. What really matters is not a single source, but the slow build-up of good will around a game - eventually this will make a player consider buying it. Discovery tools, such as "you might also like"-adverts, surely help, but they are just part of a much larger process [1].

Because of this, and considering the sheer number of games that are currently being released, I think the best strategy is to focus on unique experiences. You want to create the type of experience that is not only hard to get elsewhere, but also leaves a mark on those who play it. This is now a core philosophy here at Frictional. I guess we sort of always had it unconsciously, but we have now made it official. Our goal is to create games that are more than forgettable escapism. We want people to come out of their experiences feeling changed. A lofty goal? You bet. While it'll be impossible to make sure every single player has this type of experience, it feels like the perfect thing to strive for.

Now I will round of this post with a brief discussion on the status of our current projects.

The first project is in full production, and about 80% of the team is currently working on it. The focus for most of this year has been on creating the first few maps of the game to create a solid vertical slice based on our experiments last year. However, we recently came up with some new avenues that we wanted to explore. The stuff that has come out of this recent detour is feeling really great and I am certain it'll make the game feel very special. All of this came out of what I just discussed: our focus on making games that leaves a mark on the player. I'm not sure we would have gone down this route if we hadn't explicitly stated that goal, which makes me confident it's a really good way of thinking. I'm afraid I can't go into any details on this, other than to say that the project will be horrific in nature. There will be no release this year, but we hope to announce something during the first six months of next year.

As for the other project, that's also going well. We've been a bit delayed due to new tech taking longer than anticipated to develop [2]. The upside of that has been that the game has had  more time in pre-production than any of our previous games. This has been incredibly valuable, as the things we aim to tackle in this game are quite difficult, and allowing it all to brew for a bit has meant many of the basic aspects are clearer for us. This game will be less about direct, visceral horror, and more about the player gaining an understanding of different concepts. This can, as we know from working on SOMA, be quite tricky to get right and requires a slightly different approach than when working on a more direct horror game. Release for this game is quite far off though, so don't expect to hear any concrete details in the near future.

That's it for this update. I'm incredibly excited about the things that we have planned, and I'm very eager to give you all more updates. I also want to thank everybody for the support over the years, and rest assured that while we might not reply to every single mail, tweet, etc. that you send us, we make sure to read every single one!


Notes:
1) For games that are heavily based around online communities, such as a Rocket League, I think things work slightly differently. There is still a word-of-mouth zeitgeist going on, but a lot of it comes from your game become a habit for your players, something that they participate in on a daily basis. This forms a feedback loop that helps drives new buyers, which I think is quite different from how our games work.

2) We are currently working on the fourth iteration of our HPL engine for this game, and due to some of the things we need to be able to do for the game, we've been required to make some major adjustments. These things take time, but luckily we have most of it done now.

I Am Setsuna Review (Total Spoilers Alert)

By accident when I was watching a video on the Nintendo Switch, I caught a brief description of the game I am Setsuna which the show promised would be coming to the Switch, I loved the sound of the brief synopsis of the game- the allusions to Chrono Trigger, the 16 bit style RPG genre, and above all the idea of escorting a sacrifice on a mission to save the world. I was overjoyed when I discovered I could already get the game, so I bought it on Steam and played through it within a few month. I had a few days away from the parish on a break in mid-January and that's when I knocked in a few hours tapping at my computer keyboard and conquering this epic RPG. 

I was hoping that the game would offer a different better take on the whole "I must sacrifice myself to save the world" than FFX ended up producing, I was bitterly disappointed when FFX turned out to be an occasion to preach moral relativism, the sham of organised religion, and the ineptitude of sacrifice.... would the plot of I am Setsuna be more noble? I couldn't wait to discover. 

Like always my review is going to be focusing on to what extent the game endorses a Christian worldview/ philosophy... whether it can be a propaedeutic for the values of Christ, whether it inspires the gamer to seek the truth, and to live the moral life.


Character and identity
So, does the game present a clear acceptance of free will and the ability of good and bad uses of the will to alter and pervert character? Does the game have an understanding of vocation- of characters trying to become what they are called to be, of growing closer in approximation to whatever likeness of Christ they are called to reflect?

I know guys, we are talking about a videogame and not a novel, and not real life for that matter either, so our expectations won't be super high, but there should be something that supports a Christian anthropology. 

The characters in I am Setsuna are not overly developed, we get some back stories, especially in the optional side quests, but a lot of the characters are still a little unfleshed by the end of the game, that's ok, a lot of the modern FFs go crazy in trying to put every character in the psychiatrists chair, and they end up doing a really awful job. I am Setsuna is closer to a 16 bit game in the level of characterisation. Chrono had very little depth, Ayla hardly any, and even Marle and Lucca only really had their one special focused sidequest. I am Setsuna gives you enough on each character, and what it gives you, frankly, is pretty good.

Those who follow Setsuna are all wounded in some way, they are all broken, following a broken dream, with a broken past, or destined to be broken to pieces very soon.

A strong thrust of the game is the harm of hatred in corrupting a character, the message is repeated throughout the game that power and hatred and playing God all lead to personal disaster.  

The game faults in failing to present the corruption of evil as corrupting right down into the inner core of the person. Too often in the game it is revealed that the bad guy is a good guy deep down inside, underneath all the hatred and anger that he had worked up. The reality is though, evil reaches the core of the person and whilst, in one sense, everything that participates in being is ontologically 'good', mortal sin makes the very person evil. 

Setsuna, our deuteragonist (alongside a silent player-character called Endir on the lines of Chrono), has the annoying trait of always trying to see the good in everyone, now usually that is virtuous, but you get the sense that if she got thrown in a cage with an angry lion she would try and stroke it rather than shoot it with a gun. This is Setsuna's character, she is a one off, she is the sacrifice, she is the girl that has been chosen to give her life to hold back the monsters, much like Yuna was to give her life in order to bring a period of calm.

Setsuna embraces her call and has no doubts about it throughout the entire plot. Setsuna is resigned and she is resolved, she will be the one to bring life to others. I found it moving when some young guy tells her that he would like to have married her, to which she responds, "I guess you will have to experience this happiness for the both of us", there are some great lines and great moments of motivation for the Catholic Priest who is himself a living sacrifice, and who in celibacy renounces much in order to more effectively renew Christ's sacrifice for the benefit of the world.

None of the characters are escaping their vocation, no one is depicted as finding fulfillment through running away from the pathway that nature and providence has put before them. 

The main gripe I had with some of the characterisation was the role of women in the world of Setsuna. It is a poor cliche of RPGs that they insist on including a woman who is tougher and stronger than all of the men around, in this game there are 2 of them! God's design for women is not to be the bad ass leader of an army who inspires fear in her soldiers due to her strength- this is unnatural and frankly ridiculous, especially in a medieval RPG setting. Setsuna is fine, she is a essentially a white mage, but Julienne, who is the strongest character in the game is given far too many male qualities and the fact that she was female really added nothing to the story, it only made the thing seem ridiculous. The same can be said for the NPC Freyja. I would love to see an RPG which really presents a woman as aspiring towards motherhood, we never see that and yet Almighty God's design if for women to exhibit maternal, nurturing, empathetic virtues. Setsuna in some way fits this mold but it is unfortunate that aside for her there are no maternal icons within the game.

Reality of Objective Moral laws.

Are the actions of characters that are wrong depicted as breaking some moral law, of pricking the conscience, or of harming themselves in some way?

There is clearly a sense that harming another is wrong, that definitely comes across, but, as I mentioned above, sometimes to attack an agressor is virtue, and sometimes evils need to be opposed vigorously. Whilst I am Setsuna clearly presents the abuse of power, and the use of others against their freedom as terrible evils, there is a tendency to justify the evils that people commit by some explaining factor in their past. The monsters are only bad because they keep being given a hard time, the ultimate evil boss in the game had his generosity abused and became the subject of experimentation thus beginning the evil within him,  and so on. A proper Christian worldview should accept that people are characters chose to become depraved by repeated choices of evil- they change.

Occasionally the main character gets a dialogue choice, I think unfortunately sometimes the two options are both immoral, perhaps one is a lie and the other is rude. If there are going to be dialogues and the main character is meant to be the player, the player should be able to make moral choices in his speech, anything else is to trivialise virtue.

Chrono Trigger style dual techs are fun and numerous

Interior Struggle to pursue the good.

We see a couple of instances of this in I am Setsuna. Kir goes through a little bit of a struggle in order to make a choice of self sacrifice, and we are allowed to hear a little bit of his thinking. Again, with Nidr perhaps there is a struggle to overcome his past ghosts and the mistakes he made and to now put things right. Ultimately however Setsuna, who could have had some struggles in her vocation as sacrifice, doesn't really voice them.... the good for her is easy, or so it seems, which is great for her, but not much in the way of encouragement for the gamer's own life struggles

Divine Providence working through free will.
Fate certainly gets a mention throughout I am Setsuna, and there is a sense at the very end of the game that the main character- Endir is somehow a providential and fated individual who has entered into the cycle of sacrifice offerings and will now be able to break that cycle for the good of the world. Setsuna sees this from the very beginning of the game, she has dreamt of Endir, she knows that he is essential to completing her mission, and she knows that she must complete this mission.

Perhaps in Julienne's side quest there is a sense that her recovery of her kingdom is a fulfillment of prophecy and that, nonetheless, she is co-operating to bring it about.

Self Sacrifice for others
Here obviously is the big one for this game. Setsuna sets out selflessly to go to the Last Lands on a pilgrimage to offer herself in sacrifice to somehow keep the monsters at bay for a period of time. Unlike in FFX this is not revealed to be a sham invented by a corrupt religion- the sacrifices do actually work! The only problem is they are less effective than they used to be and so the decision is made that the party will try and kill the source of all the evil rather than keep him at bay by sacrifice of Setsuna. Ultimately however, after they defeat the evil he manages to flee back in time, Setsuna and Endir follow him, Endir manages to destroy his mortal frame, but his spirit seems to be out there seeking another host or something... Setsuna steps in the breech and embraces his spirit, she consoles him, she seems to allow it to enter within her and then, as she has him in her grasp calls on Endir to sacrifice her, in hope that it will also do away with this spirit, will bring him to the next world, and to peace. That's how I interpret the end of the game anyway and I think that is a legitimate reading of it. So Setsuna becomes the last sacrifice who does away with the source of the evil. But ultimately the evil originated in the lust of power, the abuse of magic, through human experimentation and through the accumulation of anger and hatred in an individual. The real roots of evil remain, but the present danger and the source of the monsters is now eliminated through this sacrificial offering.

Alongside Setsuna, Kir is another beautiful example of sacrifice, he allows his lifespan to be drastically shortened, essentially, he catches a deadly disease of magic poisoning in order to help our Setsuna on her pilgrimage and restore her to health.

Finally there is Aeterna who is a projection of the Time Judge who is keeping the great evil at bay, once the great evil is defeated, the Time Judge will finally be able to go to her eternal reward and so Aeterna will disappear- a little bit like Tidus being the dream of the Faith. Aeterna has no probs with this fate, but nonetheless it is still very noble of her.

Basic Christian Theodicy- Monotheism, Goodness of creation, understanding of eternal reward/punishment based on moral behaviour.

This is where the game has a couple of unusual Japanesy dodgy bits. There is clearly "a next world" but it seems like a kid of spirit world- we see Setsuna enering this domain at the end of the game. At the same time it seems possible for a character' spirit to inhabit a magic stone and so to remain with the character, watching over them in someway- this is very Japanese, the Kami of Shintoism which are spirits that inhabit inanimate objects. How far this is from the truth! Once we experience death we are immediately judged by Almighty God and go to heaven, hell or purgatory based on the state of our immortal soul. There is no sense in IAS that evil characters go to hell because basically, deep down, everyone is good- that is dodgy and has to be rejected totally- it sounds like some dodgy Redemptorist who has long abandoned the writings of St. Alphonsus, and thinks everyone is going to heaven now.

So whilst we have that unfortunate view of the next life, the positive theodicy is the acceptance of the importance of prayer- that comes across, many characters tell the sacrifice that they will be prayer for her. My memory doesn't serve me on whether there was any mention of God in this game, there certainly wasn't any public religious cult which was unfortunate, so whilst there was prayer, it didn't necessarily make any sense- prayer is directed to a person, or it isn't more than human esteem and empty hope.

There is also a certain reverence towards the sacrifice as a consecrated person, I liked this- sacred things and people should be respected. 

Conclusion

Overall, I really enjoyed this title, I felt that it made up for some of the mistakes of FFX, Yuna finally got sacrificed and in doing so she really did bring calm to the world, the longed for calm. The game isn't a big budget title, it would have been great to see this story and this world on a scale of one of the FFs- that will never happen though. 

There is something a little unfinished or unpolished about the game which stops it reaching the heights of Chrono Trigger, if there had perhaps been another 10 hours of gameplay, a few more side quests and a little bit more narrative, the game would have been a masterpiece. 

The battle system is good, but again, the enhancement of the spritnite with extra qualities didn't come out great in execution. Dual techs were good, as were triple techs. The game has the battle system that Chrono Cross should have had, a slightly tweaked version of CT with a little more depth. 

The soundtrack is enjoyable and keeps the mood of the game, although at times the tracks play for far too short a time- a track will play to catch the mood of about 5 dialogue boxes, them we will get another track!

There is a lot of good in this game and a lot of fine examples of heroism and self sacrifice, the big downer is that evil is not appreciated for how hideous it really is. We are in a battle and we have real enemies who want to drag our souls to hell, I am Setsuna gives the impression that if only our enemies sat in with a bit of talking therapy they would come round to being nice and we could all live in peace- unfortunately that isn't the case, evil can't be trivilialised, sometimes it must be conquered by force.

What The Heck Is Going On?

So, at this point, I'm a week late for a new episode. Don't fear, a new one is coming. Probably next week. I recognize that I've skipped weeks before and haven't ever said why, except perhaps in passing. Normally, it's because I'm off performing my two weeks of annual training for the National Guard. But not this time.

It's like this. I need to get my life to a better place. Mainly with my health, but also my relationship with my wife and kids. I have high blood glucose and I need to get it under control. I've drastically altered my diet and am exercising more. That means earlier mornings, which require earlier nights. That means less time for recording and editing and everything else that goes into making the podcast.

If you're reading this, I assume you're a regular listener. For that I thank you. I owe you quite a bit. For example, I owe you more and better content. It's coming. Exactly what form that is, I don't know.

But back to my main point.

I'm exercising more, eating better, working harder on my Cub Scout commitments (I'm Cub Master for the Pack my son is in), working harder in my National Guard posting (Senior Platoon Trainer NCO for Officer Candidate School), and wanting to do more "hobby stuff." All of this takes time. Unfortunately, all of these things take a higher priority than simply banging out a podcast when it comes due.

Now, there is some cross-pollination in there. It's especially evident when it comes to my National Guard pursuits and my hobby. For example, Henry Hyde will be publishing an article I wrote as a direct result of my recent military education. Additionally, I'll be writing about my experience in planning a staff ride for the Officer Candidates. More on that later. Furthermore, I'm planning more articles for Henry.

As for the hobby stuff, I want to spend more time with my kids. Luckily, they both want to paint figures with me and play more games. Anticipate that generating more content for the podcast and maybe more blog posts here. For example, the projects I'm actively pursuing include:
- A semi-secret Seven-Years War project
- My son's 40k Orks
- A Full Thrust project using Halo ships
- A microarmor game I'm developing with my brother Chris
- Rommel in 3mm
- The Commands & Colors Epic Fantasy (not BattleLore) project (and I might have a writing partner for this one now)
- The space station project I talked about previously for sci-fi skirmish (possibly Oldhammerish)

Lots of other stuff is ruminating as well. What can I say, I'm a gaming magpie from way back. In the meantime, I'm trying to read more history, historical fiction, self-help, US Army doctrine publications and even the occasional hobby magazine!

I'm a busy guy. Part of this little pause has been taken up with some thought, soul searching, prioritizing, planning, and figuring what the hell I'm doing next. Part of that is going to take me becoming more personally disciplined in how I go about things. I've never scheduled "free time" before, but I might have to start.

We're all busy. So, I hope you can understand why I might be late with the podcast. I hope you'll forgive me. One of these days, you might even think what I produce was worth what you paid for it.

That is all.

Our Game Spaces Are A Reflection Of Us

CW/TW - brief mention of sexual assault issues.

Yea, this post is because of the revelations of abuse by former girlfriends Mandy, Vivka and Hannah of Zak Smith (Sabbath). If you haven't read them, go here and here.

This post is about privilege and the hue/cry I've seen about "Why does real life intrude on my game?!?"

That's because those two things have a lot in common, with these images:

 

None of these accusations were a surprise. I've kept my distance from Zak since Porngate/TARGA exploded in 2010. I've watched his toxic attitude and behaviors and they were huge red flags for me.

Talk to women in your family. Go ahead. Have that conversation about if things have happened. In fact, DON'T talk, just listen. It'll make you sick. Sex and power and how that has been used and abused is a thread that runs through our history and who we are.

There's another meme I want to share with you before I take a deep dive:




The world is changing. #metoo #blacklivesmatter #occupywallstreet As someone who likes to read to learn, I've been reading a lot about how life changed in the 60s. The kids, the hippies, the changing attitudes towards civil liberties, sex, the government and life in general. I'm pretty sure I would have been a hippie, but I digress...

We're living similar changes now, only we're on the other side as the older generation. Our kids and grandkids don't give a fuck about things the way we give a fuck. They are shaping the world, just as we shaped the world in our youth.

So what are we, the older generation going to do?

Adapt or die. But also put forth our values, the best ones, so that the DNA of those values carries on. Share the wisdom of experience and hard knocks and make it relevant so that the DNA carries on.

So what does this have to do with Princess Bride and the Buddha?

One of the refrains I'm seeing on reddit, on Twitter, on the forums, podcasts and blogs is this idea of "I'm sick of this (real life stuff and/or politics) coming into my games!"

Well, I believe that those things have always been in our games, swirling around us.

As youth, we either didn't give a shit, or we were on the side of games. For my generation, it was Satanic Panic over D&D. We didn't care, but I'm pretty sure that there was the grognardly grumbling over it from folks who didn't like seeing the 70s gonzo feel get altered by TSR as they adapted to the market and their audience.

So now the world is changing. Change is painful. It's constant. Both the Princess Bride and the Buddha say the same thing - life is about pain. But how we deal with that pain says much about us. Pain is mandatory. Suffering is optional.

I get the call of seeing games as a refuge. As a place where we can avoid the pain of life. But for me, as a white heterosexual cismale in the middle class, I shit, breathe and eat privilege. This is what I got in life. And it's been my observation, anecdotal as it may be, that the vast majority of those grumbling about politics and real world intruding on games have a healthy amount of privilege -- and they don't like the pain!

Well... how we react to pain, to life, to events like these is how we show the values and character of who we are.

I believe that fervently.

I get that some of us don't want our games to focus on inclusivity, on being thoughtful and considerate of our presentations of our worlds because it's.. .well... painful to change. To let go of the things that we've done/had/lived for 30, 40, 50 years.

Life is pain. Adapt or die.

I believe those things.

Look, I don't focus on the fact that I have tons of same-sex couples as NPCs. I present the fact as normal in my games and I move on. My minis are colored with many different racial colors because that's the way it is, without prejudice or show. I've had transfolks, gay folks, abuse survivors at my table and I've kept to these rules: Your fun doesn't overshadow someone else's fun  and don't be an asshole at my table.

To me, this is just what it should be. Respect. Consideration. Awareness of the issues surrounding the people that come to my table.

Because people are affected by the world, just as they are affected by games. I would submit that there's a real truth that our RPG games are just as much of the story-telling, myth-relating tradition that we humans do with books, music, art, etc.. We might not be Plato, Chaucer, Shakespear at the table, but the things we do speak and reinforce things in our cultural DNA as much as the story of Gilgamesh does ... and there are threads that we all share!

I want my games to have the DNA of the values that I think are important. They are going to be political because we are political.

So these discussions are important. Because our niche of a niche has the same makeup as the real world.

There are abuse survivors.

There are abusers.

There are wonderful people, assholes, trans folks, homosexual, conservative, liberal folks and they bring the best/worst to the table. We are sharing space and sharing who we are.

So I get it, it sucks that real life intrudes. Life is pain. The kids don't give a shit if we don't like #metoo or we support it fully. This is the way the world is going.

Adapt or die. Because life is pain, princess. It doesn't mean it has to hurt.

---

PS. I enforce Laura Antoniou's "porch rule" - this blog is my front porch. I welcome discussion! I even want disagreement, tell me I'm wrong! But if you're going to spew hate, bullshit or just being a troll, I'm going to delete your comments.

You want "free speech" - then go protest against the government, which is what the Constitution of the United States guarantees to the citizens of the USA. Otherwise, my blog, my front porch, my rules.