We just released a small update. We got feedback about the difficulty of Caromble! and some players weren't aware that the difficulty (the number of mercy balls) can be changed in the options menu. Because we want all type of players to be able to enjoy Caromble! we added the 'Difficulty button' to the game over screen as well. Hopefully it will help some players to stay motivated to reach the end.
The last couple of months have been a different kind of adventure for us. Instead of programming and designing we have worked on creating a pitch deck with which we hope to find a publisher or PR-partner that can help us launch the 1.0 version of Caromble!. We shared it for the first time at INDIGO: a Dutch indie game conference we attended in June. With the feedback received there we have completed the pitch deck and we are currently pitching... a lot.
We will keep you updated on what's happening on the pitching front. It is completely new for us and we have learned a lot already. We wanted to share a few of our slides, to show what we've been up to:
Caromble! Friday #? (it's been 15 years ok): The Story released
Dear Caromble! friends,
Today is the day. After 15 years of development, Caromble! is completed with all intended features, levels and now finally with all story elements. To experience the story of Caromble! in this update, please replay the Prologue and Epilogue level.
Though Caromble! is not a narrative experience and was never intended as one, we are very happy to have these narrative elements in play. For us personally it makes Caromble! complete. We feel that we crafted an experience that now is as complete as we could make it. We hope that the added story brings some joy and somehow deepens your experience with all those multi-balls, explosions, collapses, cam-shakes and those perfectly-angled paddle-ball hits in Caromble!.
Here is a video of the beginning of the newly added story elements:
We also added our Credits to the game. These can also be accessed from the main menu. This was the final thing we added last week and in a way it marks the end of an incredible journey. We want to thank everybody involved and especially the players who dared to invest their time and money while we are in Early Access. You really helped us finish the game. Special thanks to players: foofaraw and Chiquita(ARF!) and VanAlphen whose input was considerable and invaluable both content-related as motivational for us as a team.
So what are our next steps? We will do a final internal beta-test and we will prepare a marketing plan for leaving Early Access. When we leave Early Access we will wipe the leaderboards for one last time. So please make screenshots to keep those eternal bragging rights.
From Holland with Love,
Crimson Owl Studios
Caromble December Update
This update contains many small bug fixes, graphics improvements and a few new achievements!
Caromble Steam Deck support!
Dear Caromblers!
Ever since we saw the first announcement of the Steam Deck, we knew we wanted to make sure Caromble! could run on it. Today we're excited to tell you that not only does Caromble! run on the Deck natively (at the best graphics settings), we might have to admit that we enjoy the game best on the Deck.
The work on supporting the Deck began this summer. Since we didn't have our own Steam Deck yet, we used a Steam Controller and a laptop with similar specks for our first beta versions. After we got our own Steam Deck in August, we spend many, many hours optimizing the game, the graphics and the controls. This took a little more time since testing the game on the Deck was simply fun!
Got some extra testing help - forget about that Switch!
Trying to beat a mouse as input device is no easy task. While I'm still a bit better with a mouse, I am able to get very close to my high-scores on the Deck (but it does take some practice).
My main goal: getting the controls in shape so I could finish the Race skill level om the Steam Deck. Yeah, beating VanAlphen is hard even with a mouse :)
Not have a Steam Deck yet? Don't worry, this update improves the game for everybody:
Better controller support (especially controllers with track pads like the Steam Controller/Deck)
Performance improvements
Better anti-aliasing on best graphics settings
Fixed many graphics glitches
Fixed many small bugs
Fixed selecting wrong (lowest) graphics settings on first startup
If you have a Steam Deck, please give us your honest feedback! Did the controller input mapping got applied correctly? How did you like the controls (trackpad) input? Did your run in any issues? Let us know!
Does this mean we stopped working on getting the game in shape for release? Definitely not! But more on that later...
Release of the Final Chapter and Epilogue
Dear Caromble! friends,
It's been a long time since you've heard from us, but we are very happy to share great news with you! We released the final chapter of Caromble! into Early Access. Chapter 6 combines everything we have learned as developers into great gameplay and a final boss fight in which you have to apply all your skills. After victory, there is a final Epilogue level that awaits you.
We believe with Chapter 6 we were able to push the limits of what a brick breaker can be further than we had ever done before; e.g. how can there be gameplay when there isn't even a paddle? We hope you enjoy this final chapter as much as we do.
Besides new gameplay content, with this update we fixed all bugs reported on the forum, did a lot of performance optimization and added Linux support. We are still waiting for our ordered Steam Deck to arrive. If any of you have one, please let us know whether it runs on it. We can't wait to play Caromble! on it ourselves :)
Also, we added a story introduction before the Prologue is started. If you already played the Prologue, you can also check out the mythology intro below. If you haven't and rather want to experience it ingame, don't watch it here :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfmyXFcG9c4 This intro is part of the narrative, which is the final thing we have planned to build before we leave Early Access. It's the last piece of the Caromble! puzzle, which will make our intended Caromble! experience complete.
We really hope you like Chapter 6, the Epilogue and the new story intro. We are very happy to hear your feedback, remarks or anything you want to share about this update. Let us know on the discussion forum
We are almost there!
Thanks for reading and stay tuned.
Raymond Thomas D. Thomas S. Peter Pascal
Caromble! September Update
We're very happy to announce that we've released another Caromble! update! No, no chapter 6 just yet (for the Caromble! conclusion you'll just have to wait a little longer - we need to get the narrative elements up and running first).
What you do get is a ton of bug fixes all over the game and the first set of achievements!
While we are working towards the final release, we're wondering how you want to be involved in further development: would you like us to release very early versions of the narrative+chapter 6 (maybe as a dev-build you'll need to select in steam), or do you want to wait until everything is more polished (to get the 'real' experience)? Let us know!
Enjoy!
The Crimson Owl team
Caromble! Friday #610: Sneak Preview
Dear Caromble! friends,
Since our last update, another baby was born in the Caromble! team! Also, Thomas the artist has married and became insta-dad of two. Furthermore, I (Pascal) am about to become father for the second time next October. This means, that since we started working on Caromble!, at the end of this year we will have transformed from fatherless chaps, to all five a father of two. Wow! You might think, if we weren't so busy procreating, we would have have completed Caromble! way sooner...
Anyhow... we have made some progress in Caromble as well. We have completed parts of the story and even included a narrator. For a small sneak preview for the atmosphere, check the video below: [previewyoutube="wb9Now7IfVc;full"]
The skybox is still dummy art here, but this intro part is complete now. Last announcement we mentioned that we are gameplay complete. Since then, Peter has worked his magic on prettyizing the final level and the last boss fight. That is almost done now too.
The last big task is completing the story narrative, for which we had shown some concept art before. Unfortunately, our story helper artist was too busy to continue on Caromble!, so that has delayed us a bit. I am currently working on it with programmer art, adding animations and making compositions, so Thomas S. can later replace it with pretty stuff. If you want to see how glad we are with a real artist, look at the next image to see how Caromble! would have looked if I'd make the art:
That's it for now. I hope the next announcement will be for the release of Chapter 6 and the narrative. Hopefully until then!
Kind regards,
The Caromble! team!
Caromble! Friday #584: Gameplay complete!
Dear Caromblers!,
It's been a while. We hope you are well. We all are. A new (human) baby was born in the Caromble! family. This is the 6th baby since we conceived Caromble!. Wow... how far we've grown.
(this is not a picture of said offspring)
Today we'd like to inform you that we are finally gameplay complete! We wrapped up the gameplay of the final boss fight and the interactive epilogue. What's left to do is tweaking the lighting and some environmental art in those areas. Furthermore, we are still working on the narrative intro and outro.
We can't imagine we won't leave Early Access in 2021, so I dare to say, right here, right now: Caromble! will go into full release in the second half of 2021!
We'll share more when we can, but know that we're still working on the first of the 7 Caromble! babies.
Thanks for reading. Cheers!
Caromble! Friday #561: The final fight
Hi Caromblers,
Here is a little sneak peek into the final boss fight. We have almost implemented all gameplay now. The aim of this fight is to challenge the player to use all the skills the game has teached you so far and in the same time providing something new, fresh and exciting. For us it is also a final practice in applying all game design lessons we have learned in this final area. It's been quite a ride making Caromble! and we have learned a lot, also by making mistakes of course. It's taken long, too long, but Caromble! is nearing completion!
We hope this small video (sorry for the low framerate, I have my casual devtop here now) makes you excited for the final chapter and the final battle!
[previewyoutube="GdEOJpzA__o;full"]
Stay safe!
Crimson Owl Studios
Caromble! Friday #531: Stay safe
Hi Caromblers!,
We hope you're doing okay in these strange and confusing times.
All of us are healthy and we are all working our day-jobs from home (in the Netherlands). Due to the situation, some of us had to ramp up the amount of (regular) working days to full time. Furthermore, we're trying to restrict our screentime and increase our family time when we're not working on our paying jobs. This helps keeping us sane (at least as sane as we were).
You may understand this also has its effect on our Caromble! progress. We're keeping at is as we can. This screenshot is from the area that leads to the final boss fight. We added ourselves to the game if you don't mind. We even have a gameplay role there:
We're trying to be safe, healthy and sane and we hope you find ways to do the same. We are thankful for games to help us in this time (I'm currently playing Outer Wilds on PS4, love it!), but we are also thankful there is so much joy to be found outside of screentime. These times help us realize that more than ever.
