After many years, we are very pleased to finally release a native MacOS and Linux versions of Primordia. The Windows version has had nine years for us to squash bugs, while the Mac and Linux releases are fresh out of the oven, so if you hit any snags, please let us know as a comment to this post or on the message board, and we will work quickly to address them. In the meanwhile, we hope new players will enjoy playing the game natively!
Welcome Summer Sale Customers!
Every Steam sale we have the pleasure of having new players discover and explore Primordia. Happily, most of those players come away very satisfied, but some of them are disappointed. In hopes of minimizing the latter category, I wanted to share a few notes about the game for new players:
(1) There are no dead-ends and you cannot die. Some of your choices may change the course of the game a bit, but nothing closes off "good" (or "bad") endings altogether. So playing should be a low-stress experience.
(2) If you are unfamiliar with old school (1990s) adventure games, a few tips. You can interact with (left click) and examine (right click) many points of interest in a room. You can pick up, use, and combine many items. Horatio is scavenger and a mechanic, so a considerable aspect of the game is salvaging, building, and repairing machines.
(3) If you ever get stuck, you can ask Crispin for help by left clicking on him. If the hint doesn't help, wait a couple seconds and click on him again for another hint. These are designed to get "stronger" (i.e., more direct) if you continue to pester him while stuck at the same spot. If Crispin isn't sufficient help, you can always consult an FAQ or a walkthrough, though I recommend using that as a last resort and Crispin as a first resort.
(4) Many players think that you are required to take handwritten notes. You are not. The game automatically records all necessary information (and some unnecessary information) in the datapouch, accessible by the toolbar or by pressing D.
(5) Many puzzles in the game have multiple solutions or are optional. One puzzle in particular (involving an information kiosk) often stumps players. It is an optional puzzle
(6) If you want to try a demo, you can find one on the Wadjet Eye Games website, though it's from an older build: http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/games/primordia/ If you want a taste of the setting, you can check out our story "Fallen" for free: http://primordia-game.com/fallen.html
I hope you play and enjoy the game! But if you encounter any technical snags and need assistance, come away unsatisfied, or just want to drop a line, feel free to email me at mark at wormwoodstudios dot com, message me on Steam, or leave a post in the forum. The game's coder and I check these things pretty frequently and will try to make sure that you're taken care of!
Finally, if you enjoy Primordia, check out our recent release Strangeland. It's also an adventure game, but with very different themes (and higher resolution graphics).
Strangeland Releases 5/25/21
[previewyoutube="CBqDgGlGLlw;full"] Eight and a half years after we released Primordia, we at long last are ready to share our second adventure game, Strangeland. We are grateful beyond words for the support and encouragement we've received over the years for Primordia, and we are hopeful that Strangeland will be a welcome addition.
If you're interested, please consider wishlisting: it helps raise the game's profile in Steam's sorting algorithm, and the success of a game on launch makes a big difference for whether it ever gets its legs.
You awake in a nightmarish carnival and watch a golden-haired woman hurl herself down a bottomless well for your sake. You seek clues and help from jeering ravens, an eyeless scribe, a living furnace, a mismade mermaid, and many more who dwell within the park. All the while, a shadow shrieks from atop a towering roller-coaster, and you know that until you destroy this Dark Thing, the woman will keep jumping, falling, and dying, over and over again....
Farewell to Arnold Hendrick
On May 25, 2020, Arnold Hendrick, the creator of the revolutionary board game Barbarian Prince and the revolutionary computer game Darklands, was taken by cancer, just shy of the three-score-and-ten years the Psalmist allots us. “It is too soon cut off, and we fly away.”
I never met him; I know next to nothing of his life story. But all the same, Mr. Hendrick had a direct and significant impact upon me. Our upcoming game Fallen Gods is inspired by both Barbarian Prince and Darklands. Both games are marvelously inventive and brilliantly realized. Sometimes works of fantasy are called “escapism.” To “escape” literally means to shed one’s cloak. (One can ponder the age of brigandage when slipping a robber’s clutches in that manner was frequent enough to coin this expression and put it in common currency.) Mr. Hendrick’s games were the opposite—the player does not shed his cloak so much as garb himself in another’s clothes. Contrary to the genre’s name, most RPGs do not achieve this effect. The player’s role is not that of a hero, but that of a hedge fund analyst, crunching numbers, maximizing upside and minimizing downside. But in Barbarian Prince and Darklands, the player is immersed in the characters and the setting. For a while, he sees a different world through different eyes. A person is greatly enriched by such an experience, while merely shedding a cloak—in contrast—leaves one a little poorer, even if we sometimes need to escape to survive.
When I began designing and developing Fallen Gods years ago, I tracked down Mr. Hendrick’s email address. When our game was ready, I wanted to show it to him as tangible evidence of the impact and inspiration of his work. But I kept delaying the email because I wanted to make sure Fallen Gods was worth his time. Now there is no time left.
So I must end where I started: I never met Arnold Hendrick; I know him only through his publishedgames and articles about game design. To me, all of them bespoke an abiding curiosity, a creative vision, and an overflowing generosity toward his players. The man put 136 saints in Darklands. May they speed him to his Maker.
Welcome Summer Sale Customers!
Every Steam sale we have the pleasure of having new players discover and explore Primordia. Happily, most of those players come away very satisfied, but some of them are disappointed. In hopes of minimizing the latter category, I wanted to share a few notes about the game for new players:
(1) There are no dead-ends and you cannot die. Some of your choices may change the course of the game a bit, but nothing closes off "good" (or "bad") endings altogether. So playing should be a low-stress experience.
(2) If you are unfamiliar with old school (1990s) adventure games, a few tips. You can interact with (left click) and examine (right click) many points of interest in a room. You can pick up, use, and combine many items. Horatio is scavenger and a mechanic, so a considerable aspect of the game is salvaging, building, and repairing machines.
(3) If you ever get stuck, you can ask Crispin for help by left clicking on him. If the hint doesn't help, wait a couple seconds and click on him again for another hint. These are designed to get "stronger" (i.e., more direct) if you continue to pester him while stuck at the same spot. If Crispin isn't sufficient help, you can always consult an FAQ or a walkthrough, though I recommend using that as a last resort and Crispin as a first resort.
(4) Many players think that you are required to take handwritten notes. You are not. The game automatically records all necessary information (and some unnecessary information) in the datapouch, accessible by the toolbar or by pressing D.
(5) Many puzzles in the game have multiple solutions or are optional. One puzzle in particular (involving an information kiosk) often stumps players. It is an optional puzzle
(6) If you want to try a demo, you can find one on the Wadjet Eye Games website, though it's from an older build: http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/games/primordia/ If you want a taste of the setting, you can check out our story "Fallen" for free: http://primordia-game.com/fallen.html
I hope you play and enjoy the game! But if you encounter any technical snags and need assistance, come away unsatisfied, or just want to drop a line, feel free to email me at mark at wormwoodstudios dot com, message me on Steam, or leave a post in the forum. The game's coder and I check these things pretty frequently and will try to make sure that you're taken care of!
Primordia Patch
Primordia Patch
We are delighted to release what we hope will be our last substantive update to Primordia (we may release future hotfixes if bugs are found). This patch was made possible only through the tireless efforts of French, German, and Spanish translators, a dedicate group of testers, and the labors of our coder, James Spanos, who shares the spirit of no game left behind! But the motivating force behind it was the ongoing love and support our players have shown for this game over the years -- your loyalty to Primordia compels a return of that loyalty on our part.
Among the changes:
The underlying game engine is updated to a recent version that is much more compatible with today's hardware (such as widescreen monitors and Logitech mice) and operating systems (such as Windows 10).
The French, German, and Spanish translations are now fully integrated into the game, and do not require separate downloads. Those translations have also been updated and improved in various ways.
Certain modest quality-of-life improvements, such as the ability to change between windowed and full-screen mode by using alt-enter.
An additional music track, which had been mistakenly deactivated, has been reactivated in an important scene.
A persistent crash relating to how the underlying game engine handled dynamic sprites has been fixed.
Various small fixes have been implemented to issues like sprites occasionally being misaligned by a pixel, or the years-long labeling oddity that could arise if players combined the sensor parts in an unusual order.
Unfortunately, old saved games will no longer work due to the significant engine-level changes and added content.
Hopefully we have not introduced any new bugs in fixing the old ones, but if you spot any, let us know.
If you have any concerns or questions, feel free to email me at mark at wormwoodstudios dot com.
Upcoming Primordia Patch
Primordia Patch Incoming
After a long development and testing process, we are gearing up to release what we hope will be our last substantive update to Primordia (we may release future hotfixes if bugs are found).
Among the changes:
The underlying game engine is updated to a recent version that is much more compatible with today's hardware (such as widescreen monitors and Logitech mice) and operating systems (such as Windows 10).
The French, German, and Spanish translations are now fully integrated into the game, and do not require separate downloads. Those translations have also been updated and improved in various ways.
An additional music track, which had been mistakenly deactivated, has been reactivated in an important scene.
A persistent crash relating to how the underlying game engine handled dynamic sprites has been fixed.
Various small fixes have been implemented to issues like sprites occasionally being misaligned by a pixel, or the years-long labeling oddity that could arise if players combined the sensor parts in an unusual order.
Unfortunately, old saved games will be incompatible with the update due to our upgrading the underlying game engine. We apologize for the inconvenience or annoyance that will cause -- if you are midway through playing and do not want to restart, we recommend finishing the game soon. Our view was that the update merited the disruption to saved games because it will allow Primordia to continue to be enjoyed on newer systems.
If you have any concerns or questions, feel free to email me at mark at wormwoodstudios dot com.
"Strangeland" and "Fallen Gods"
While we've posted a lot on our social media and website about our upcoming games, we've neglected to put an update here. Time to correct that!
A man awakes in an otherworldly carnival and watches a golden-haired woman hurl herself down a bottomless well for his sake. He seeks empty answers from mocking ravens, an eyeless scribe, a living furnace, a mismade mermaid, and many more who dwell within the park. All the while, something wicked screeches from the top of a towering roller-coaster, and he knows that until he destroys this Dark Thing, the woman will keep jumping, falling, and dying, over and over again ....
Strangeland is a point-and-click adventure, smaller than Primordia (it began life as a competition entry) but similarly inspired by the classics. Anyone who enjoyed Primordia's beautiful art, philosophical musings, or melancholy tone will find them here as well. We are hoping to release it by the end of this year, but realistically it may not come out till early 2019.
You can watch a teaser trail here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOWpyVHeKRE&lc=z23vzxngrpq1urewa04t1aokgyro01xznpxyy05is4x5rk0h00410
And you can read more about it here: http://www.wormwoodstudios.com/2018/03/announcing-strangeland.html
Once, the world was better, the gods greater, the wars over, the end farther. You were born in the Cloudlands during those days, one of the Ormfolk, forever young and strong, worshiped by those below for your forefathers’ deeds. But all is not well. Now, wolves and worse haunt the night, the law holds no sway, and men’s hearts grow hard toward your kind. Fearful of their dwindling shares of souls, your brothers turned against each other ... and against you. And so you were cast down from the clouds, a fallen god broken upon the bitter earth. You rise, still free from death, with only the slightest hope of winning your way back to the heavens that are your rightful home.
Fallen Gods is a narrative, exploratory RPG designed for repeated replaying. At the core of Fallen Gods are choose-your-own-adventure vignettes in the spirit of classic gamebooks. Each of these events, accompanied by a hand-painted illustration, consists of a series of decisions that depend upon the skills the god knows, the items he bears, and the followers he leads. Inside and outside of these events, the player will be able to explore the word, lore, and mechanics of Fallen Gods, and the more he comes to understand them, the better his odds of success.
We've been working on Fallen Gods for about five years now, and given its complexity, depth, and personal importance to me, there is no rush to finish it. Hopefully it will be released sometime in 2019, but if not, it will be done in the fullness of time.
You can watch a teaser story trailer here:
https://youtu.be/DBodb6NSIL0
We've posted extensively about its development, so there is lots to read if you are interested:
