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BRIEF DESCRIPTION


Guide one family's generations through ancient times. An enormous tableau of the rise of western culture awaits your exploration, but the game starts with a simple, absorbing mechanic that expresses a common facet of life, two steps forward one step back.

Then, like layers upon a pearl, game play expands, allowing fresh tactics and strategies which, turn by turn, drive a sophisticated, emergent narrative. How you play defines the lives of one family's generations through the changing ages.

Watch Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/embed/gEH3IjFVcY0)


It isn't your great-grans' cabinet arcade, but it was inspired by them.

Demos now available at:

7grandsteps.com (http://www.7grandsteps.com)

Guide a family legend through the ages.


Starting the game.
(http://p10.hostingprod.com/@mousechief.com/dnlds/amSS_1.jpg)
(http://p10.hostingprod.com/@mousechief.com/dnlds/amSS_2.jpg)


Climbing the social tracks
(http://p10.hostingprod.com/@mousechief.com/dnlds/amSS_3.jpg)

Oh dear uspto :(  Hopefully the name change isn't too problematic!  New title sounds nice to me.



Looking at the screens ... I don't normally have opinions on fonts, but looking at the screen shots, I can't help feel there's something ... off? amateurish? about some of the text, especially the yellow 'resume/new game/tutorial' text.  The actual title text looks good, but all other text just doesn't integrate well for some reason.


(aside: your link to previous devlog is actually a link to a screenshot right now.)

We'll definately be changing the fonts. The game has another 30% to go before we start that level of polish. But thanks for saying so. We take comments like that to heart.

Link fixed.

It's a little weird to be reporting that the special surprise inside 7 Grand Steps is now functional and somewhat balanced.

Next, the changing of the ages!

Six weeks until the IGF deadline. Looking pretty tight, right now, even considering the ability to post updates after the deadline.


so much more to do

I've decided to submit 7 Grand Steps to the IGF next year. It's not yet the best it can be. Given the competition, a game needs to be it's best to win.

However, the sprint to try and make the IGF resulted in a lot of great work done and bugs squashed.

We're now at 60%!!!

Next goal is to present the game to journalists in late Nov. for them to preview. This requires reworking the tutorial. (not a major overhaul, fortunately) After that, I can start writing stories for the iron age! Then we'll be 70% complete!

looking forward to it,

Still really excited to try this out when it's ready :)

Thanks Destral.

minor update:
One of the benefits of skipping the IGF is I can totally munge the codebase! Ripped out the font system between pygame and pygl2d. and installed one based on python glue to freetype.

Today I finished first drafts for the iron age romance, rite of passage, and social uplift stories. Next 18 discovery stories.

Today I finished thirty 'guide' stories for the iron age. Those and the 18 discovery stories took 2 months to write. Still more to write: 7 heroic challenges and 4 Challenges of the Age!

I'm taking a break from writing and will work on the special surprise in the bronze age. Yea, I'm a coder again!

I may revert the new font system. Seems like a lot of code bulk was added, it runs slower, and there's another way to fix the original problems.

7 Grand Steps is now at 70%!!! Whew! It was a tough and important milestone.

Three days late. I had hoped to finish writing the last major story content in April. Still we have reached CONTENT COMPLETE!  ...which basically means there are sufficient stories for every part of the game, and all game feature are now in place and mostly working. We'll be adding more stories but as needed: rewriting poor stories, adding diversity to existing stories.

For the rest of development our focus will be on improving the game: POLISH, POLISH, POLISH!

First up: a new take on the tutorial. Will it work better than the okay one we have already? It's not a complex game, but it's so different and people are SO LAZY... :-)  Then we'll add connective tissue between steps and a way for multiple people to have save games, via family names.

Onward!

woo really nice to hear an update on this.  good luck pushing through the rest of development, i can't way to play!

Thanks! I can alway use a kind word to bolster my motivation, after 3 years of toil.

Very happy to receive pro SFX from Ian Stocker of Soulcaster and Escape Goat fame. We're now close to shipping first preview copies to journalists.

Lots of editing ahead:  300+ stories for over 130,000 words.

Am officially submitted to the IGF.

Hope to bring this baby to 80% in early Nov.

BIG DAY for Mousechief! Here is the official (preview) video trailer for '7 Grand Steps'.

http://youtu.be/A6TFwXtyK-U

From your website and video, I gather the game plays sort of like single-player Mario Party (really the only comparison I can make, although I've never played Mario Party), where you advance on a 'board', and play mini-games to earn points (beads)?

I'll be watching this.

Thanks IzzyReggie,

It's somewhat like that, except the gameplay challenges you to move efficiently around the wheel, so you can use your resources to empower your descendants. The only mini-games are short IF (heroic tales) and another kind of emergent story telling games played on the ruling class track.

VIDEO URL:  http://youtu.be/A6TFwXtyK-U

hope that helps,

We're making a major change to one game element, the 'day in the life of' tales. Each family experiences up to three short tales in their lifetime. Currently it's interactive, which sounds great, but because the outcomes are random, they're not as fun as they could be.

Due to some artsy-fartsy notions of the game designer (ahem) the tales were intended to let the player express the personality of the family head, of each generation. In a very boardgame-ish video game, like 7GS, gamers want to GAME not role-play. So we're going front-load these specific story interactions into an express choice of personality. Then the tales will reflect that personality.

I strongly feel that players should 'get to know' every family. Not all ancestors will be good people... We're not selling rainbow ponies here.

I've made a few attempts at boardgames, and always got bogged down with trying to add role-playing. Good to see you overcame it! Maybe one day, so will I  8)

I like this. The stories of bad people will generally be more interesting/dramatic than good people, anyways.

Good luck, IzzyReggie. There are plenty of good boardgames with RPG elements. Dungeon is a classic.

btw, had a nice write up over at G4tv, alone with a few other, choice IGF entrants.

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/729283/igf-entrants-than-you-need-to-know-about-that-indie-column/

The official love has begun! :-)

Just saw the post in the topic about PyGame's relevance. It's a little different, but the overarching idea kind of reminds me a bit of King of Dragon Pass, and that idea makes me more than a bit excited to see what the game actually plays like.

Hey Johnki,  KoDP was certainly an influence, but the core mechanic is entirely different.

All of the scripts have come back from the editors, and I've wrapped up a last minute design change. Time to crank the counter to 80% !!!

About the design change. In one generation, the family head will have up to three small stories presented about him or her. Originally they were choice based stories, but now they are personality based. Instead of choosing how the character reacts to a situation, at the beginning of a generation the player picks a personality type for the head of that family. The 'day in the life' stories then react based on his or her personality.

Heroic legends are still choice based adventures, but now their outcomes can affect the head of the family's personality. Heroic legends can change a person. Pretty cool.

Played the demo :D And enjoyed it, lots. I played the tutorial a number of times since that seem to give me more rounds than New Game option ^^; even if just a few bit more.

And I couldn't help it, even though I do know making a game (especially one so filled with stories and details - and looking at one of the review of... well one of the game review site out there, I forgot which, but it has the ruling family screenshot and advice to king option on war or not, it seems that the game is huuuge and the demo barely touch it all) is no easy thing to do, I did thought "FINALLY~!!" when I first saw the demo link on the website and then was all "NOOOOO!! only the demo!!?" But congratulations on finally having (completed the game? is it completed? or is it in the bug finding and polishing stage) and released the demo.

You might not remember but I was the one who asked about the game some (almost) 2 years ago XD when it was expected to be released in the (as per your word) optimistic estimation of dun dun dun... early 2011. This is now 2013. And so YEEESSS Finally.

Looking forward to spring time and the released game. Will there be any early order and suchs? If so when will it start? And any estimate on the price? Because I now has started working and therefore am earning my own money as in comparison to 2 years ago. So I'm definitely saving some on this XD Yay~!

Fan-Girl Mode ON

Yea, Ailea!

Thanks for the reassurances. It's great to hear after a long development period! The game is not quite finished. I have a list... :-)  Weather the list shrinks or grows depends on the next round of testing, which started this week.

When the progress bar on this forum-thread hits 90%, then you'll know that we're in the final phase of getting it out the garage door.


cheers,

o: I do hope the game reach that 90% before spring come ^^

And I would like to say me! me! Can I test??? But I know if I do I'd just be playing instead of bug finding or looking at what needs to be improved/fixed etc etc etc. And so good luck to the testers. Lucky you.

I loved the demo. Great job with this game

Thanks again, Ailea, Andy.

The best way to help, right now is to spread the word. Fortunately, the game is getting a lot of good press to point to, even a couple video bloggers loved it.


http://killscreendaily.com/headlines/ever-wanted-play-game-life-set-copper-age-heres-7-grand-steps/

http://indiestatik.com/2013/01/08/first-playable-demos-of-7-grand-steps-released-to-celebrate-igf-finalist-status/

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/08/the-generation-game-7-grand-steps-demo/

http://www.gamezebo.com/games/7-grand-steps/preview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOgBpdukMik

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdK9G8giXZo


Oh, and a video blogger interviews me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMHgtEaCNMU

Say, I noticed that the .exe installer for the demo is up on the site. So I downloaded and installed it. But... about 5 seconds into the game it gives out the error 'This game was interrupted by the monkey.' and close on itself. ><!!?

Thanks for posting that!

Re-download the file and re-install. I've replaced the bad file.

Another something for you to work on. Seems like a minor error though. Happens when I completed the legend for hero (the next legend I chose after the tutorial social round) in tutorial.

That was a good bug find. I'm surprised my testers hadn't found it, but it's possible their build doesn't have this recent change.

Fixed, and resubmitted to the website. Thanks again for helping out Ailea. I'll make sure you get a free copy of the beta, if your still interested in buggy betas... :-)  Now less buggy because of you!

Well, the zipped demo didn't have those bugs so they are probably only in the recent build.

Now, I am at work, so have yet to try out the new demo. And no problems, I am a little surprised myself that I haven't gotten bored of playing the demo yet XD (considering that it covers only a short period of time). And yay~~!! I definitely am still interested in buggy beta :D

Dun Dun~~

Here's another. I think it happens when I try to click on the owl? Character have yet to marry despite almost reaching the end of his life (I chose the option about following his destiny when the pop up about him being unmarried came up and a woman pop up but refuse to marry him when he tried...). Anyway, I am not sure if the error is caused by that or not... but I thought I should mention it anyway just in case.

And here's the log:

And lookie even a screenshot for you. Though I don't know if it'll help. And... by the way, will there be save slots?

(http://s8.postimage.org/odpf72ry9/7steps_error01.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/odpf72ry9/)

Oh, and another question... I already discovered the 2nd track (what do you call the different tracks by the way?) and the went down to play the lowest track while doing social advancement legend, when it's done I got uplifted into the 2nd track instead of the 3rd. Is that because I'm on the lowest at the time I got uplifted? So does that mean I must be playing on the 2nd track to get uplifted into 3rd?

This one will take a bit more work, but thank you for bring it to my attention. Tomorrow, I have to do taxes, but then I'll get right on it. I suspect it's a string that's missing from the demo build, but is in the full build. We'll see.


Edit: It wasn't what I thought it was, but the solution was quick to fix. (The advantages of waking up in the middle of the night.)

Fresh builds up. What else have you got, Ailea? Bring it! :-)

Yay ^^ Good for you.

Went out and play with my cousin yesterday :D. So I just tried the new build, so far I haven't encountered any problem through the tutorial route. Have yet to try out the new game option though.

The 'regular game', (new game option) is a bit more challenging than starting with the tutorial.

Played the regular game, no problems encountered there too ^^

Whew! Thanks, Ailea.

Hmmmn... been playing the game over and saw this one. Probably not a bug but... since I'm not sure what it is exactly, I shall ask. (By the way any news on the game progress?)

What Point exactly did we earned here?

There doesn't seems to be any different in bead counts nor does it adds anything to the avatar (in the hovering over info)

(http://s7.postimage.org/l551s4mlj/7s02.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/l551s4mlj/)

That is a bug. The GainPoints is code that gives you three legend points. But the CODE tag wasn't properly assigned. This is a problem with thousands of lines of game script. I'll probably never weed out off of the typos, but every one found makes the game better.

thanks.

Another of not sure if it's a bug or not. Maybe a code is missing for the name?

And no problem. Glad I could help, although... the demo and the game is probably of different build...

(http://s4.postimage.org/k32t1uz5l/7s01.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/k32t1uz5l/)

Check your PMs. I sent a code for the beta to you.

Yay ^^ Much thanks. Got it. Today is a work day though (as opposed to yesterdays and the few days before yesterdays) so it might take a while before I have anything.

Question: if I find any bug and the likes do I continue to post it here or should I pm you?


[Edit]Ah, found two somethings. I'll just post it here first. Both happens in tutorial mode by the way.


And the below, when I got knocked down the ruler class to noble, I can't seem to see the other neighbours of the noble class until I play on a different track.

(http://s7.postimage.org/vn7li89iv/7s01.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/vn7li89iv/)


[Edit 2] !!! I sawww on the website.

Its best to post your bugs here. I may not be as responsive, as I'm struggling to promote and work on the game.

Thank you, yet again.

Alright, here's some more ^^

I got it in the hero quest about that strange dream, chosen to see high priest and then the option that the cities are killing the animal nature of the gods or something along that line...


And some more names missing in hero quests:

(http://s8.postimage.org/g9elhv1bl/7s01.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/g9elhv1bl/)(http://s9.postimage.org/3rirpvgnv/7s02.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/3rirpvgnv/)(http://s17.postimage.org/7na1s2gq3/7s03.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/7na1s2gq3/)

Loving the game! I have something that might be a bug or might just be something I can fix from my end.

Usually, my games end like this:


Usually, this is after I've been entirely eaten by the crocodiles with either a very young heir or no heirs. (I've also had the game backtrack to my next possible heir, so I assume it's not Game Over.)

I'm on Windows 8. Don't know if this is something I can fix myself or if there's a workaround.

Kolnikov,

The game is crashing, but the message is saying the game isn't allowed to write the crash log file. If you run the game in administrator mode, it will write out the crash log. Post the log here, and I should be able to fix it for the next build. (next month)

It also helps if you can describe what was happening in the game before it crashed.

glad you're enjoying the game, otherwise,

Here's what I've got:


What's happening immediately before is that I'm on the last square before the crocodiles, with one junior heir. Pushing the next turn button leads to everyone else making their move, the wheel revolving, the crocodiles eating me, the sound effect, then that message displaying. It's happened in the past under similar circs - young or no heirs and all adults eaten.

Thanks for your help!

Played the beta for hours without any technical problems.  As the Iron Age ended, the game crashed and reloading did not help.

I then started a new game, and got another non-recoverable crash during the first generation.

In case this helps you, I am posting my log. 

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "main.py", line 94, in <module>
  File "main.py", line 43, in main
  File "main.py", line 69, in gamemain
  File "faceEngn.pyo", line 90, in RunFaces
   
  File "begatAround.pyo", line 195, in Core
   
&


  File "fnfEvents.pyo", line 108, in PumpEvents
   
  File "fnfEvents.pyo", line 144, in HandleTheEvents
   
  File "faces.pyo", line 204, in ClickPtToFeature
   
  File "ftrePicts.pyo", line 148, in ClickPoint
   
  File "begatAround.pyo", line 890, in DoNextTurn
   
  File "tales.pyo", line 1215, in StartHeroicChallenge
   
  File "faceEngn.pyo", line 195, in UpstageFaces
   
  File "tales.pyo", line 758, in Core
   
  File "fnfEvents.pyo", line 108, in PumpEvents
   
  File "fnfEvents.pyo", line 145, in HandleTheEvents
   
  File "faces.pyo", line 187, in DoLitAction
   
  File "tales.pyo", line 1460, in DoHeroChoice
   
  File "tales.pyo", line 1528, in ConcludeHeroicTale
   
  File "tales.pyo", line 1543, in FinalizeConclude
   
  File "saveGame.pyo", line 1005, in SaveEndOfGame
   
  File "tokTray.pyo", line 330, in GetEndTokens
   
TypeError: 'list' object is not callable
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "main.py", line 94, in <module>
  File "main.py", line 43, in main
  File "main.py", line 69, in gamemain
  File "faceEngn.pyo", line 104, in RunFaces
   
  File "begatAround.pyo", line 728, in TransitionIn
   
NameError: global name 'GameEndFace' is not defined
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "main.py", line 94, in <module>
  File "main.py", line 43, in main
  File "main.py", line 69, in gamemain
  File "faceEngn.pyo", line 90, in RunFaces
   
  File "begatAround.pyo", line 195, in Core
   
&


  File "fnfEvents.pyo", line 108, in PumpEvents
   
  File "fnfEvents.pyo", line 144, in HandleTheEvents
   
  File "faces.pyo", line 204, in ClickPtToFeature
   
  File "ftrePicts.pyo", line 148, in ClickPoint
   
  File "tales.pyo", line 571, in DoGuidance
   
  File "faceEngn.pyo", line 195, in UpstageFaces
   
  File "tales.pyo", line 758, in Core
   
  File "fnfEvents.pyo", line 108, in PumpEvents
   
  File "fnfEvents.pyo", line 145, in HandleTheEvents
   
  File "faces.pyo", line 187, in DoLitAction
   
  File "tales.pyo", line 991, in DoChoice
   
  File "tales.pyo", line 1015, in ConcludeTale
   
  File "<string>", line 1
    Goodwill('PARENTS') if random.randrange(2) else pass
                                                      ^
SyntaxError: unexpected EOF while parsing

Hmmmm.... not entirely sure what triggered this one, but I was in bronze age, ruling class (am at the topmost tier - that's the ruling class right?), just had a discovery, and... I think all other discoveries has been discovered and I got the choithe challenge of the age didn't occured right after that. I was given the choice of either heroic or power so I chose heroic and ended the turn. The error came after the neighbours made their play.

I have the save game right before this happened too (that is to say after I made my choices and right before clicking the end turn button), so if you need that do tell me.

More great bugs!  Thanks. I think I've fixed them. Now to run the game by myself for a while. Then back to working on the stories. (really haven't spent much time on them, even though they are my priority... sigh)

7 Grand Steps is up for an audience award. Go vote!

http://www.igf.com/audience.php

A bug or two:

The logfile 'C:\Program Files (x86)\7 Grand Steps\7 Grand Steps.exe.log' could not be opened:
[Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\Program Files 9x86)\\7 Grand Steps\\7 Grand Steps.exe.log'

It happens whenever I try to advance past the Iron Age. When I try to run it as administrator it glitches again but this time says:
See the logfile 'C:\Program Files (x86)\7 Grand Steps\7 Grand Steps.exe.log' for details.

Also, sometimes the text for the choices in the story line get mixed up. The words will overlap, run off the screen, or appear out of alignment.

Hi Peanutterz, thanks for the report. That's a bug hiding a bug, that you see. The game engine can't write the log file for the real bug. It's okay. I'm pretty sure your description matches a bug I've already fixed. It should be fixed in the next build, next month.

I'm sure a lot of the iron age stories need editing. It's an important issue, I'm also trying to clear up for the next build.

Important news! Purchasers of the 1st beta of 7 Grand Steps can now download the 2nd beta, using their Humble Store code/link.

Important news! Purchasers of early betas of 7 Grand Steps can now download the 3rd beta, using their Humble Store code/link.

And we're now at 90% finished with the game. Final version should ship in May.


see you all then,

Finished the game. It will release on Steam and mousechief.com on June 7th. (just a week from now!)

Other good news, IndieCade selected 7 Grand Steps for their showcase at E3!

http://www.indiecade.com/2013/E3_Games_2013/


cheers, everyone!

Hello! Just bought the game on steam after reading about it on Rock Paper Shotgun.
You have created an amazing and intriguing game. I love it!

Hopefully this is the place to make bug reports. :P

My family's heir was unable to find a spouse, and I chose the "prefers the company of men" option. Then I was told that my heir paid a woman to bear him a child. So I played that generation with a single adult and a single child. That generation is now over, but I still receive the message "This family's tales will be available when the next generation has begun" when I click on the grave. I tried waiting another generation just in case, but I still can't read the story of that family.

Here's a picture to illustrate:
(http://i.imgur.com/ocX1i5s.jpg)

that's not a bug, that's called living in hell forever

It's certainly a bug. Thanks for reporting it. It'll go on my list of work after E3.