-Buy from here-
 
-Or Buy on Steam-
 

 

We’re currently working on getting Steam Workshop setup for it and for Viscera Cleanup Detail, so that should follow soon, or early next year.
 

Until then, keep hacking apart the traditional sacks of meat that wander about the arenas!

We just wanted to put up a brief summary of what we plan to accomplish during the remainder of the year. We will take some time off mid December and resume work early-to-mid January, as it’s been pretty hectic since we started work on VCD. I’ve been plagued by a neck/muscle problem, and as such I haven’t been able to get much of anything done. The J-HAMR would probably have been done by now if not for that. It’s recovering though, so I’ll get done as much as I can!

So, before the end of the year we are aiming to:

-Release Rooks Keep.
-Implement Steam Workshop for Rooks Keep and Viscera Cleanup Detail.
-Implement the J-HARM tool for VCD.
-Release normal VCD updates (fixes, tweaks, features, achievements, etc)

As you can see, the Workshop support for both Rooks Keep and VCD is high priority and should be complete in a few weeks. It’s a tricky undertaking, requiring a dedicated application that needs to handle the preparation, downloading and uploading of the mods.
Rooks Keep will probably be released from Early Access very soon, and Workshop support will be ported to it as we get it working for VCD. The two should get that quite close together.

So there we go! VCD updates will continue until we break for the year, and those priority implementations and releases should all happen before then as well!

Happy janitoring/slaying!

Long time, no speak; bad devs! Anyway, we’re pleased to report that our game before Viscera Cleanup, Rooks Keep, will hit Steam tomorrow after being Greenlit late last year. We apologize for the time it’s taken to get here, but VCD has kept us very busy, as well as more admin than the God of Officework himself!

Right, now as you may know, Rooks Keep has been released and available for the past year, so why Early Access? Well, I shall answer in handy bullet points! Lets see:

[1]: We want to test the new multiplayer functionality and such before a full launch. This is the primary reason!
[2]: To test game balance between the characters and modes.
[3]: And finally, time to work on Mac and Workshop support.

We wanted to get RK out now in some form rather than waiting until VCD was finished, as we’re not exactly sure when that will be! Important to note, is that Rooks Keep is as it was after original release; it’s finished, it works, it’s a full game. We’re choosing to go for a “soft launch” on Early Access basically as a Beta test for the Steam build. We want to make sure we have MP running well and game balance nicely done, as well as workshop support before a full launch. Prices won’t vary between the Early Access and full version; it’ll still be $15 (or regional equivalent). It won’t be on Early Access for long, we anticipate, given how no new content (probably..) will be added; it’s feature and content complete.

Also, based on feedback and demand, we’ll be seeing about our own dedicated servers for the game.

Oh, and Steam keys will be sent out to various retailers that sold Rooks Keep, so no none will be left out of the new build. Once we’re done with Early Access as well, we’ll update the builds for the retailers.

There you have it! Leave your thoughts below, and thank you!

First up, we’re working on fixes for the most troublesome problems in Viscera Cleanup Detail and its bonus editions. We’re hoping to be able to release updates weekly even if they only include fixes and the mostly uninteresting changes of the week. An update for the most pressing problems in VCD: Santa’s Rampage is scheduled for the end of this week. VCD: Shadow Warrior and full VCD will also be getting updates of course.

The next major step is getting VCD on Steam Early Access. It will involve a general polishing and sanding off the worst rough edges of what we already have – maybe there’ll be some new content too, we can’t seem to resist feature creep! That’s aimed at mid February.
Alongside VCD, we’re also going to be bringing RooksKeep to Steam now that it has been greenlit. The biggest change will be using Steamworks for the multi-player matchmaking and other online jazz. There’ll also be the usual raft of fixes and improvements.

All that has to happen at the same time as setting up some super serious business funk to vacuum up time and generate disruptions. Oh, and also experimental prototypes.

As for the finger puppets, we’re keeping those plans secret until the time is right to unleash the devastating fury on an unsuspecting world…

There has been a lot of this crunching because there have been many releases.
Going back to June, we finally pushed through to get Rooks Keep released which was met with a pretty depressing reception. That was not really surprising. We realised as development dragged on that it was a mistake to make such a big game with no clearly communicable hook, but we wanted it done.

Very shortly afterwards, born from a thread of otherwise rather cynical contemplation, inspiration struck and we dove into Viscera Cleanup Detail.
After that we had the deal to do VCD:Shadow Warrior and that took longer than expected. Following that a major update for VCD and the insane idea of VCD: Santa’s Rampage came up. We could either cram it in before Christmas with a very tight deadline or wait a year (yeah, that’d work…)

We crunched to get VCD v0.2 on the date we’d set for the end of November and went straight into VCD:SR for 2 more weeks. Arn started working on Santa after regular VCD work and I gradually started as VCD v0.2 neared its target. It wasn’t all *gruelling, but it was not healthy and the team needs a break.

All in all, it has been a pretty punishing schedule and it was all compounded by my eye surgery and subsequently complicated recovery which devoured lots of time before and around VCD:SW.

However, time management has been steadily improving – we somehow got 5 significant releases out on schedule in the last 6 months – but it’s not nearly good enough.
Getting this right is a major focus of mine for the coming year. Properly spacing out milestones and being disciplined about feature creep is going to be challenging, especially since ‘feature creep’ introduced some of the most interesting elements of VCD. Allowing space for unexpected changes and time to experiment will need to be done. This is challenging because it is planning around the unknown, combined with the perpetual certainty that there is not enough time to do everything already on the list.

It is also vital to make sure there is time to continue experimenting with new prototypes. Game jams and experimental projects are not just a way for studios to possibly scoop a new hit, for indies, I feel they are essential to long term survival, because the ability to produce crazy, unique and unconventional games is one of our best edges compared to big studios with massive production capacity. Making one new crazy game that stands out is great, but once that becomes old and done, we need to have something new up our sleeve and it better be damn good and it better not be the same as everything else. In order to reach that, many prototypes must be produced and discarded in the process. Somehow, those have to be produced while still developing the main, proven games.

That will be an interesting challenge and it won’t happen at once. It will be a continuation of the process that has (I think) been evolving and improving. I will just put more concious effort into it and try to push myself to better understand where the limits of the game development process are for us.

TL:DR – Less burnt-out devs, more crazy stuff, time will kill us all – don’t say I didn’t warn you!

*some of it really was; fucking physics, yeah you!

 
Huge news, very huge!

 
Once we’re no longer overwhelmed and this year is over, we shall work on getting Rooks Keep onto Steam, and with that we should be able to cure RK’s troublesome connection issues once and for all!

 
So hold fast loyal rogues and squires alike, interesting times lie ahead, very interesting. ]:)

 
And lastly, a huge thanks to everyone who voted for Rooks Keep!

It contains all the class files to use as a reference for making your own mods and maps, also included are several basic text files explaining how to add the various elements to the game.

Download on IndieDB

Note: The files included are to be used for reference ONLY, do not reproduce them, attempt to compile them, or in any way violate their copyrights, doing so will result in a brief and painful stay in the king’s arena, solely for the kingdom’s amusement.

Have at it, rogues!

Head over to get your hands on it RIGHT HERE!
Oh, and please consider buying direct

Also, don’t forget to give us a “Yes” on Steam Greenlight.

Rooks Keep is releasing on June 14th, 2013! Woohoo!
Also, the price is set to be $15 at launch.

Please, keep an eye on the ‘BUY’ page on the Rooks Keep site.

First things first, enjoy this pre-launch trailer:

Also, please vote for Rooks Keep on the Steam Greenlight page.

Here a a few recent-ish (April) videos of combat in action:
5 minutes of Deathmatch across two maps:

3 minutes of Deathmatch against medium bots:

And enjoy a few more screenshots:

Thank you everyone for supporting RS!

Plenty of things have been happening quietly behind the scenes since the last update, including a new trailer and a Greenlight page!

Firstly, please vote for Rooks Keep on the Steam Greenlight page. You can find all the images on there too.

I will now briefly document improvements and similar such otherworldly things. So, head deeper down to view videos, images, links and details!

Firstly, you can enjoy this glorious new trailer:

-Combat:
—–
Plenty of combat improvements since the last update:

-Weapon highlighting: Weapons are highlighted certain colors when various moves are performed, giving players a better indication of waht is happening in fights.
-Character skills: Each character gets a special attack/skill/ability.
-Blocking and parrying improvements: Blocking is now more effective against quick attacks and parrying grants a temporary attack speed bonus on following attacks.
-Better AI enemies

-Chess:
—–
A short video of Combat Chess ins action here:

Another short video of the Classic Chess victory event:

-Maps:
—–

Crimson Keep

Emberfel Abbey

-UI:
—–

A whole host of UI improvements, some of which are:

-Options Menu
-Awesome new color selector
-New Chess HUD
-Custom team manager

-Other:
—–
Gamepad support on most areas of the game now (UI, combat, Chess, etc)
Mutator support

Now enjoy some pretty pictures!