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.

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,

Yea! Steam selected my game for its daily deal.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/27400/

Mac and PC

Finished watching the second season, over the weekend. It's a cute show, about cute girls doing cute things. Fun, but forgettable. If more seasons are made, I'd like to watch them.

Magical Girl Madoka is my pick for the year. The World God Only Knows, in a solid second place. There's a lot of buzz about Madoka, but indie gamers NEED to see the latter. It's definately silly, even dumb at times, but it really grows into something very thoughtful, especially for game developers.

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

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.

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


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

Demos now available at:

7grandsteps.com

Guide a family legend through the ages.


Starting the game.




Climbing the social tracks

How about a game where the player controls successive generations of families over a vast sweep of history? It would be a narrative with a simple, core mechanic where you cooperate and compete with peers for resources, where you spend resources not only to keep the family alive, but use them to raise children to be capable of surviving change. Where how you raised children affected how they interact with each other as children and adult siblings. Where interactive stories reward or penalize, but their purpose is to immerse the player in how cultures changed as civilization advanced. Where major goals are to make discoveries, elevate the family social status, or go on short, heroic adventures.

just wondering,

How are you planning to drive traffic to the site?

It'll ship first on Mac and PC as downloadable. If the the game is successful, I think it would be great to try selling it on pads/slates. The interface translates easily to touch controls.

Here is a good place to test your skills.

http://www.choiceofgames.com/

They accept externally written games, and they pay you. Not much, but more importantly, you can get feedback from an established audience.

Read some of the top titles to gauge their quality bar. Then take a swing at writing one yourself. Seriously. Their system is the easiest of all for writers. Basically, you can write your game in a text editor. It's pretty simple. Your writing skills will be properly exercised.

Prepare for dealing with bed bugs. Which is true for many hotels, not just hostels.

Here's what the game looks like once your family has climbed the social tracks:

Here's what the game looks like when you first start:

Here's the splash screen:

Here's the imagery that inspired the look for 'arcada mia':

Okay, now you TIGers can see what I've been working on. Because it's a new kind of game, pictures really don't convey the fun of the game. (there's nothing to compare it to) But they are still cool pictures.

Feedback on our updated webpage would be appreciated.

http://p4.hostingprod.com/@mousechief.com/arcadamia/Site/by_Mousechief.html

In the vein of "yo mamma is so fat..."

Indie games are SO mainstream, yesterday, I caught my illegal-alien maid playing Braid.

I should also mention that my next game, 'arcada mia' is being written in Python and Pygame. This time, however, I'm adding PyOpenGL, for a bit more speed and better special effects. Here's the link to my dev page:

arcada mia

I wrote Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! and I wholeheartedly recommend Python and Pygame. They're great if you're making the kinds of games they can support. So, yeah, not a panacea. But they let me make a good game because iterating the design was almost trivial. Several of the mini-game were entirely re-imagined and re-written in a week. If something sucks, or is simply weak, it won't take long to try something completely different.