May 2024 Development Update
Hi all, Tom here!
This has been a bit of an odd month, thanks to being in the Puzzle Showcase, so let's debrief...
First off, a special hello to all the new wishlisters joining us! The Cerebral Puzzle Showcase was excellent for CRT7 this year, and there is over 1,200 new people here to explore the dark. If you didn't know, I'm Tom and I'm the solo (ish) developing the game in my spare time.
You also might have seen that The Escape Roomer gave CRT7 a lovely little preview as well: “I really, really enjoyed playing CRT7 and cannot wait for it’s full release. It’s part escape room, part detective game, part procedural music game and part Y2K retro goodness.”
As you might imagine, preparing for the showcase took up much of the month as I was polishing and fixing up the demo to get it ready! It did, however, act as a really good test of the the new systems, like the rebinding and hotspots - they seemed to work mostly well! Also, seeing a few more people streaming it has highlighted a few areas I would still like to tweak in the early game.
If you've not tried the demo yet, it's not going away in the next month or two, so I hope you get a chance to enjoy it!
So what's next? Well, I want to spend the next couple of months sorting out the next few large puzzle sequences. The demo allows you to find two door codes, but the later ones are going to be more involved to find... and it's time to get them sorted! In the next couple of weeks I'm going to figure out the order the next puzzles are revealed to players. This sounds easy, but with so many moving parts it can often have hidden complexity and needs a bunch of testing. I've already gotten started though tweaking some of the visuals, and working out what to do next.
So! Step one is for me to go and unlock the rest of the room. Step two, well step two is the fun part... it's time to bring more devices back to life...
- Amicable Animal
This has been a bit of an odd month, thanks to being in the Puzzle Showcase, so let's debrief...
More Visibility of the Dark
First off, a special hello to all the new wishlisters joining us! The Cerebral Puzzle Showcase was excellent for CRT7 this year, and there is over 1,200 new people here to explore the dark. If you didn't know, I'm Tom and I'm the solo (ish) developing the game in my spare time.
You also might have seen that The Escape Roomer gave CRT7 a lovely little preview as well: “I really, really enjoyed playing CRT7 and cannot wait for it’s full release. It’s part escape room, part detective game, part procedural music game and part Y2K retro goodness.”
As you might imagine, preparing for the showcase took up much of the month as I was polishing and fixing up the demo to get it ready! It did, however, act as a really good test of the the new systems, like the rebinding and hotspots - they seemed to work mostly well! Also, seeing a few more people streaming it has highlighted a few areas I would still like to tweak in the early game.
If you've not tried the demo yet, it's not going away in the next month or two, so I hope you get a chance to enjoy it!
June Lighting Up the Basement
So what's next? Well, I want to spend the next couple of months sorting out the next few large puzzle sequences. The demo allows you to find two door codes, but the later ones are going to be more involved to find... and it's time to get them sorted! In the next couple of weeks I'm going to figure out the order the next puzzles are revealed to players. This sounds easy, but with so many moving parts it can often have hidden complexity and needs a bunch of testing. I've already gotten started though tweaking some of the visuals, and working out what to do next.
So! Step one is for me to go and unlock the rest of the room. Step two, well step two is the fun part... it's time to bring more devices back to life...
- Amicable Animal