I figure it would be useful to take some time to address some points of speculation raised in various forums. Oh yes, we read what you write. Wherever Dungeons of Dredmor is mentioned, we’re all over that. (Thanks Google.) But enough faffing about, I’m going to respond to a few points raised out in the Internetlands.
Well … one more bit of faffing around first.
Those eyebrows are out of this world.
These are exciting days at Gaslamp Games. Publicity is kicking up momentum and the game is nearing completion. A handful of sites have been writing previews for Dungeons of Dredmor (hey, if you’re a writer, drop us a line to the contact email in the sidebar). Our beta testers have been furiously breaking things as well and I’ve got a few thoughts on that to share.
And here’s a diggle.
But let’s have a look at those previews first eh?
…With commentary.
Our Dredmor version numbering system has run off the rails a bit as we’ve done a lot of builds in a short time period due to quick turnaround on tester feedback. Regardless, I just did a little playthrough with a focus on our smithing craft skill and took screenshots as I went along. I’ll even try to remember what I was doing at the time of each shot.
Let us begin this tour. Be sure to click on any thumbnail to view it full size.
1. The title screen. I’ve still got to do a polish round on this art (and I think we’ve got some work to do on wherever that tutorial button is supposed to lead).
2. Choosing the difficulty of the game. I’m still amazed at home readily certain-people-who-know-who-they-are have beaten Going Rogue. It does help us find out which skills to nerf, thankfully. … I’m going to go medium, because I’m really in this for taking screenshots.
I have answers for a few questions that may be kicking around. Read on! (And here’s an image of various skill icons to distract you.)
So how is Dredmor coming along?
More slowly than we hoped, but steadily.
Nicholas and I were interviewed on the Immortal Machines podcast (an affiliate of Colony of Gamers) last week by the good bunch of guys there who were far too patient with certain Gaslampy … excesses. Now you can listen in to learn dark secrets about the Dungeons of Dredmor — about the unnatural habits of Thrusties, why Nicholas should not drink a pot of coffee on an empty stomach, and how much Dredmor isn’t going to cost. Here’s the link:
Immortal Machines episode 47: Gaslamp Games and Dungeons of Dredmor (or try the CoG post of the same, if you like)
Much thanks to the Immortal Machines guys for letting us on and to Colony of Gamers and their wonderful community for all their support!
The real question now is if they will ever make the mistake of letting us back on.
David and I are being interviewed next Wednesday for the “Immortal Machines” podcast over at Colony of Gamers. If you have questions about Dungeons of Dredmor, Gaslamp Games, or anything else that you want to know about, head on over to their forums and get askin’.
The best part? Ask a question – if it gets answered, you’ll be entered to win a free copy of Dungeons of Dredmor!
Go now! Heed the call of the Wizard-Kings!
I am actually sick with lung flu, which means I have some time to write angry rants, inspired by things on my Twitter feed, and then post them to the company blog.
(Actually, this is just shameless bait for sites like Y Combinator, who love to hear Angry Young People railing about the world at large. I… I should give up now.)
That said, we have been falling short on technical commentary here, and I did get linked to two Twitter posts this morning that are worth discussing in some detail. So let’s have at ’em.
The first item is from id Software’s John Carmack, who does things like writing an entire photon mapper in a day and then tells people that he did it – and, it’s not a big deal, you know? His contribution to the discussion:
“Floating point trick: If ( a != a ) a is a NaN”
I took a few minutes to puzzle out how this could possibly work. It turns out that in C++ – and in fact, according to IEEE floating point standards – NaNs (or not-a-numbers) will cause ANY expression to return true if they are used in an inequality comparison. Clever!
The second item that caught my attention was an advertisement for a course with a “Certified ScrumMaster for Agile Game Development”, to be held two days before GDC. This course promises that we will, with the ScrumMaster’s help and guidance, learn such things as:
“The essentials of getting a project off on the right foot”,
“How to successfully scale Scrum methods to hundreds of participants”,
“How to help both new, and experienced teams, be more successful,”
and so on and so forth. In just two days, you too can sip at the mystical elixir of Scrum, which is guaranteed to make your game ship on time, your Metacritic scores improve, and as an added bonus it’ll make all your hair grow back and your girlfriend will stop complaining about all the overtime you put in at the office. The cost of this affair? $1500 for a two day seminar, although you get $250 off if you register early. As a bonus, after you take this course (and fill in some kind of online quiz), you too can call yourself a Certified Scrum Master!
…
*sigh*
In a comment one Kyzak requested a post on work environs – who am I to deny such a request?
So come, dear reader; let me give you an exclusive tour of my workspaces.
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