Caromble! Friday #389 Looking ahead (a little bit)
Sometimes you have to look at the past in order to see the future.
But before I'll explain what I mean with that, I would like to share this photo of our booth at EGX Rezzed in London. Thanks for the pictures Harriett!!
With the Chapter 4 levels being nearly game-play complete this is exactly what I did today.
The last time with touched any of the Chapter 5 levels is probably well over 2 years ago, when we were creating a second version of all levels before finalizing everything through Early Access. And to be honest I haven't given them a lot of thought lately, focussing mainly on the stuff we have already out there, or what we were about to release.
But actually, some of my personal favorite moments of the game are in Chapter 5, so I had a great time playing through those 'old' future levels. They will still take loads of work to complete, and some parts will be discarded and started anew.
It was also interesting how I remembered a lot of levels very clearly, but also managed to forget completely about some others. For instance, I had completely forgotten about this crazy bit of gameplay. It will look probably look quite different by the time we release it, or maybe it will be removed completely. But still I had to share it with you:
Caromble! Wednesday #388: Our Heroes to EGX Rezzed in London
It was only a few weeks ago that Thomas D. and Raymond went to PC Gamer Weekender in London, but Crimson Owl Studios is again sending a delegation to London. This time we're showing Caromble! at EGX Rezzed. This is probably one of the biggest Game Event where we will be showcasing Caromble!, so it's very exciting for us! We will be represented by our heroes Thomas D. (again!) and Frank, our marketing and PR guru. They seem very ready here at the airport don't they:
You can find them on EGX Rezzed at The Leftfield Collection. As you can see on the site, we are in good company. There a lot of good games to check out!
This will be the first event of Frank where he can work his PR magic. We expect a lot from him :) Send him your best through the comments! This will help his, as we call it in the Netehrlands, baptism of fire (vuurdoop).
Meanwhile, on our kitchen tables in the Netherlands, we are working hard on the final touches on Chapter 4 levels. Also, we are working on the experience of the Prologue level. Good stuff.
Thanks for reading and... Let's get ready to Caromble!
Caromble! Friday #386
Hi Caromblers! Hope everybody has been having a great time with all the amazing games that have been released these past few weeks? Nobody's going to blame you for not logging a few games of Caromble! with all this goodness going around ;).
Turns out we've got a little surprise announcement. It was even a surprise for ourself! Sorry to disappoint you that it's not related to a Chapter 4 release date, buuuut...There was a last-minute opening to attend EGX Rezzed in London in two weeks and showcase Caromble! there, so we jumped on it! Rezzed is a big opportunity for us to get the game into the hands of more players, get direct feedback and hopefully attract more attention to it. If you're going to Rezzed, don't be shy and come say hi to us. I'll (Frank) try not to bite. Can't promise anything about Thomas though, he looks hungry. There's still tickets available.
Progress on Chapter 4 has been a bit slow as of late. Pascal is in the middle of moving houses and Raymond and Peter still have babies to take care of next to their jobs – shouldn't those creatures be self-sufficient by now? - so Caromble! time has been a bit more limited than usual. That doesn't mean nothing is happening though! Bugs are being squished and the final area for Chapter 4 is being tweaked.
Not leaving without a WIP shot of an area from Chapter 4 though, so here you go!
Caromble! Friday #385
Hi Caromblers! Last time we spoke we were showing the game at the PC Gamer Weekender in London. Hope some of you got the opportunity to go to the event and enjoy either Caromble! or one of the other cool games on display.
We had a lot of fun showing the game there to players and press. We also did a few interviews, which you can watch back here , here and here (starting at the 00:41:51 mark). One of them got so addicted to the game's intro that he made it into an hour long loop . Guess Caromble! can really get to you :D.
Now we're back to regular scheduled programming (pun intended). We've been hard at work at getting Chapter 4 ready for release and we're happy to say that the finish line is getting closer and closer. We can't say a specific date yet, but hopefully the levels will be gameplay complete by the end of next week. Then starts the process of balancing, tweaking and sprucing things up. That can still take a while though, but as soon as we have a final release date we'll announce it here. In the meantime enjoy this WIP tease shot of the boss fight level in Chapter 4.
There's a few new threads in Discussions that we'd love to get your feedback on, so please don't hesitate to get involved. We value your opinion very much!
Oh, and there's still a week to enter a competition by Snappy-Tech to win a copy of Caromble! So if you don't own a copy yet, that's a great way to maybe win one. Or just to give away to someone you know is in need of Caromble! in their life. You know they're out there ;).
Caromble! Friday #384: Larger than life, Caromble! is in London right now!
Well in fact only Raymond is larger than life, or at least taller. I (Thomas D) think I'm only just about life sized.
The paddle has landed and the PC Gamer Weekender ball is rolling in Londen. Raymond and I have taken our positions at our booth and will be looking to show Caromble! to as many people as we can.
We are looking forward to seeing you as well! Come find us at booth E20. And very hush-hush: we might be selling the game at a discount from our booth.
Caromble! Friday #383: Meet us in London!
If you're in London next weekend make sure to come and visit us over at the PC Gamer Weekender event. Apart from playing Caromble! (awesome) you'll get a chance to talk to the developers in real-life (super awesome).
Thomas and Raymond will be there the whole event to answer all your questions and collect any feedback. So how do you recognize them? Well that's easy, take a look at our website!
Chapter 4 is coming along nicely as well. This will be the first chapter in our Commercial theme (see below).
Caromble! Friday #382: Highscore screen. Request for feedback!
Hello Caromblers and Caromblers to be. Last week we have been on the retro game fair in Tilburg. Unfortunately Frank couldn't come, because he was in the hospital. It was a bit scary, but it seems he is doing better now and that he can go home next week. So I went to Tilburg alone and as you can see I was having a great time :P
More importantly, we are redesigning our Level Complete / Game Over screen. One important aspect we want to include is Steam leaderboards. Now we have local highscores, global highscores and highscores of friends. Furthermore we have a best score and a best time. Besides all of this we want to show whether you have unlocked the medals with your score. This is a lot of information! I would like to focus on the unlocking of the medals. Another team member on the global highscores and yet another one wants to focus on the highscores of friends. But what do our players want? That's probably more important! Therefore, this request for input. I have made a concept of how we could do this (the purple text is added for explanation and is not part of the concept):
Or only one list where you can click the medals to change between Best Scores and Best TImes:
So what do you think? Is this what you want to see in a Level Complete screen and as Leaderboards? Please leave all of your feedback and suggestions in the comments below. It's very much appreciated.
Caromble! Friday #381: Scissors and Sales
No way, a Friday announcement on a Friday! Does that mean we will start writing them on time again? Well you better believe it, because that is indeed our intention.
So what did this week bring? First of all it brought the chrono gg sale. It was an awesome experience for us. We got a lot of very positive feedback, and we reached a lot of new people who had never before heard about the game. It also brought the Caromble!'s first appearance on Twitch. Thanks Brotatoe!
Another thing that is coming up is the Retro Game Beurs Tilburg. So right after I finish uploading this post, it is out with the laptop, and in with the scissors and glue. We will sell gamekeys at the event, and we will create some nice boxes to put the keys in.
And of course there was also some good progress on the levels as well. We are polising up the first two areas of the next chapter, and finishing up the gameplay of the last area. We have been working on the last sub-area and the boss fight at the same time.
Finally a gif, that gained a lot of traction on FaceBook last week:
Caromble! Friday #380: Stacks and Switches
Another Friday Announcement on Sunday. We have been Carombling! on Friday, but we have been so busy with focussing on the game, that we postponed writing this development blog (because that is how we use this announcement don't we) until today. As you might know, we are currently working on Chapter 4. Where Chapters 1-3 have a industrial theme, Chapter 4-6 will take place in a city environment. We finished our gameplay iteration of the 4 levels of this new Chapter where we introduce switches. Now we are doing a graphics/styling iteration on the 4 levels. When taht's done, we do another thorough playthrough of all levels, collect the feedback and do one final iteration. Then it's time we bring this new awesomeness to you. Peter is currently working on styling the second level. Here is a gameplay video of this level and his playing 'skills':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPhwvY-MvXM&feature=youtu.be
We hope you are excited and eager to find what's behind every single switch. Perhaps a new Nintendo console? #badjoke
There is one more thing we have been working on this week. We have been preparing for the Retro Game Beurs Tilburg. This is a retro games fair in the Netherlands, where we will showcase Caromble!. We wanted to bring some merchandise, so we have been making this:
What do you think? Do you als want to smash it?! If you're around next week and want to brick break a stack of boxes you are all very welcome.
Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing our gameplay video on all of your social media :). Until next time!
Caromble! Friday #378-379 - On a Sunday!
Because the title of this blog series we may have given the false impression that all blogs are written on a Friday. However we have been super busy lately, and we had to resort to writing this on a Sunday afternoon. There is so much to tell!
For instance about the Crimson Owl New years event. Our annual get together where we renew our vows to get Caromble! finished this year for really real. But also just to have a nice meal and some drinks and a good time. And also to play some Dixit. One of the following cards is describing Caromble!, can you guess which?
And also look at the fun where having:
So besides having a good time, what else have we done?
Well, first of all we are still working really hard on getting Chapter 4 out there as soon as we can. So a lot of time is going into making new art, and new levels. We have made good progress and most of the levels are gameplay complete right now, except for some tweaking and gameplay testing. On the technical side, we have been working on our Mac and Linux support.
And apart from that we thought it was time to get out and actually meet some of you! So in the coming months we have planned two events:
The first is January 29 in Tilburg, the Netherlands: Retro Game Beurs Tilburg. It looks like it is going to be a great event for people who get a bit nostalgic when they think about video games. If you get curious about chapter 4, and can't wait until the release of the next chapter, Tilburg would be a good place to play some of the stuff we are working on.
And if traveling to the Netherlands isn't your thing, no worries. We actually do get out of the country from time to time, and February 18 and 19 we will put Caromble! on a plane, and fly it all the way to... London! We will exhibit Caromble! on PCGamer Weekender It is an exiting show for us to be at, and meet some people who might enjoy our game but don't live in the Netherlands.
