In the pipeline

The year had ended. I have been busy with new responsibilities at work and two kids at home. But yet there is the spark of creativity that creates needs that must be fulfilled. I have crafted some things for my older son but those are of no consequence for this blog. What is however is, what I have in the pipeline: A new video game and the third piece for my cardboard arcade.

New video game

The video game I'm currently working on started, as many of my projects do, as another attempt to make a roguelike. I wanted to put the sense of exploration and the idea of a cool cast of vaguely historic badasses that I enjoy so much in Darkest Dungeon into a card-based game. I created rules that would work on the tabletop, made up rooms and traps and monster-encounters as well as three dozen different characters to send to their doom.

Then I decided that making a physical board game is quite a hassle and has yet to yield any real good results for me production-wise. So I sent an e-mail to my long-time coding-collaborator Niels. We're currently in the early stages of the project (I have written a design document and charts with numbers/stats but have yet to make mock-ups of the GUI. Niels has made a prototype out of that which I haven't seen yet. We have no original graphics at this point) but if it works it's going to be what I call a Full Release, not just a tiny game. We're also in talks with a friend who might do artworks (because pseudo-historical badasses kinda live in the art). I aim at a release next summer-ish.

When it's done, you, my fives of readers, will be the second ones to know. Right after my followers on itch, because they get notified automatically when I drop something on the platform.

New cardboard arcade cabinet

This one too is in the early production stage. After the pinball machine and the Labyrinthmaschine (which I have recently played a few times with my older son – we can't seem to find that damn katana-treasure), I have long thought about what to make next. I knew I wanted to involve magnets and thought about making a game where you steer a climbing monkey through a maze of branches with two winches and a magnet behind the scenes. Then, a couple of days back, we went to a baby store for unrelated things and I saw a little maze-toy where you use a stylus with a magnet in the tip to steer a metal ball through it.

So the idea for the Marble Temple was born. It's going to be a vertical maze with the whole thing tilted just slightly backwards. That way there can be passages behind the scenes where you drop the metal ball by letting to of it with the magnetic pen. It then rolls/falls down a channel to be spat out of another doorway somewhere below. This means I can make a maze with traps and secret passages that allow one to reach other parts of the maze that, on a 2d-plane, are completely cut off.

I have decided to go a bit higher graphics-wise than I have with the previous two machines. I have already made a background art with cave- and temple walls and thus created the maze. Now I need to print that stuff out and then comes the long, arduous work of making it 3d with lots and lots of cardboard. Currently I am making the tunnels that run behind the visible part of the labyrinth. I think my older son will love the thing when it's done. I estimate that to be the case sometime come spring 2020. Pics of the build will, of course, follow on this blog.

PS

After another year with few blog posts I plan to do more this year. A weekly post is my personal challenge (which I am already failing, let's be honest). Let's see if I have enough to say for that. I may just post updates on the Marble Temple situation. Estimations are that it will be at least as much work as the Labyrinthmaschine was, albeit on a much smaller cabinet.