So while the InnBarn website relocates to a new server, I’ve hosted the install files here on LarryLaffer Dot Net.
Maybe I should forward this great podcast that one of my friends did – about dog training and expectations to Eve so she can train Brutus to be a little more polite…
https://scentworku.podbean.com/e/managing-expectations/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/all-about-scent-work-podcast/id1394764765?i=1000557068536
All kidding aside – Give it a listen and pass it around. My friend Jessica was on this episode and she knocked it out of the park (they all did).
Whoops – this was supposed to be posted April 1st.
Under Ken & Roberta’s new company –
And if you’re wondering why they went with Colossal Cave for their game… This might explain it…
AT&T Unlocked Games Winner Reveal Stream Tuesday at 5 pm PST – Lori is a finalist!
AT&T recently started a competition for women game developers that they call “AT&T Unlocked Games.” We entered their second competition last November, and were thrilled to learn that Summer Daze at Hero-U: Tilly’s Tale has been chosen as one of the six finalists!
The winners will be announced during a livestream on Tuesday, March 8 starting at 5:00 pm PST on the ATT Twitch channel – Twitch.tv/ATT. We need a great turnout of Hero-U fans to help Lori win the Gamer’s Choice prize and to encourage AT&T to continue running this great competition. And of course to learn about the other five great indie games being developed by women!
Here’s AT&T’s teaser trailer for the event:https://youtu.be/zXhTsG7chL0
Our next development stream will be on Saturday, March 19 at 2 pm PST. I originally announced this Saturday, March 12, but we have a “real world” conflict that day. I plan to continue playing the AGD remake of Quest for Glory 2: Trial By Fire. As I stopped on day 1 last time, maybe we can make it to day 2. 🙂
Tomorrow as I write this (probably today as you read it), on Saturday, Feb. 12 at 2 pm PST, we’re doing a livestream in the usual place: https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames. We’ll run about two hours, or possibly longer. Lori and I plan to play the AGDI remake of Quest for Glory II: Trial By Fire. This is a point & click version of the game (with a typed command option) made by the fan group that later became Himalaya Games. The stream title is “A Katta’s Tail of Two Cities.”
Sunday night, Feb. 13, starting at 5 pm PST, I plan to stream a World of Warcraft event I’m doing with my guild. We’ll be chain-running Mythic+ dungeons starting from a single level 13 key, and trying to see how high we can build it in three hours. The stream is subject to whether I can get some technical details to work. I’ll be playing Maramacci, a Dwarf Shadow Priest (ranged damage class).
We will not do a stream on Feb. 26 because we’ll be on vacation with our son’s family. The next regular livestream will be on Saturday, March 12 at the usual 2 pm time.
There will be another special stream on Tuesday, March 8. I’ll post more about this very exciting event when it’s publicly announced. It will be on a different Twitch channel than our usual, and we will want as many fans to come as possible, for reasons we’ll make clear in the next post.
Collector, over at the Sierra Help forums created a Leisure Suit Larry Art player based off the King’s Quest VI art player (which he also recreated to run on modern machines, as well as created one with upscaled images). The Leisure Suit Larry VII art player uses images from PlayerNone’s blog about Leisure Suit Larry VII upscaled images.
Let’s start this year off with some fun and games. We’re doing an extended livestream this Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022 from 1 pm to 5 pm PST. As usual, we’ll be on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames.
Our plan is to play a bit of Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption from the beginning, talking about some of the design and development decisions we made, and things that went right and wrong with the game. Join us to ring in the new year and comment about what worked for you, and what didn’t!
The past few years have been rough for all of us. We’ve all been faced with different challenges and scary conditions. In our case, it’s involved extended illness, unexpected caregiving responsibilities, and more. For much of the time, our game development efforts have taken a back seat to other tasks and distractions.
We’re making some resolutions for 2022. I’m rededicating myself to playing a bigger role in design, development, and promotion of our games. I’ll have fun too; I’m just not going to let the distractions take over my entire life as they have for the last few years. We’ll release Summer Daze at Hero-U: Tilly’s Tale by Spring.
Lori is similarly committed to completing the dialogue for Ifeyo’s Adventure in 2022. JP and Al have already created the art for Ifeyo’s game. The game takes place at Hero-U in the Summer after Tilly’s Tale (and after the events of Rogue to Redemption). Strange things are happening at the school, but the Harvest Festival must go on – This time, Ifeyo is in charge. He needs to balance making new friends and helpers for the festival, dealing with an invasion of Konks, and learning a ritual to summon his very own Familiar.
The next game we are developing in the Summer Daze series is Sami’s Story. JP has created some wonderful art for this adventure tale of a Doggie who wants to be a Hero. We even have some preliminary artwork for Puzzleworthy. It’s just a Simple Matter of designing, writing, creating music, and developing the games. 😉 No problem… But it will take time.
A few months ago, I received a report from a player of the Linux version of Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption about some significant new problems in version 2.2.1 on Steam. The reported problems are:
As we have no Linux testing ability currently, and limited bandwidth for any testing, I’d appreciate it if some of our backers can help. If you have Linux, please let us know at support@hero-u.net whether you see these issues. Anyone with Mac or Windows, if you see similar symptoms, also please let us know!
If you see these or similar issues in 2.2.1, I can put 2.2 back up on the Beta channel on Steam for comparison (“regression”) testing.
I’d also like to line up some Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android testers for Summer Daze at Hero-U: Tilly’s Tale. I need to do some research on making the latter two versions available. Possibly we’ll initially launch just for PC systems, with Switch and mobile versions a few months later.
Our plan is for 2022 to be a much better year than either of the last two. We’ll release Summer Daze at Hero-U: Tilly’s Tale early in the year. Then we will focus on Summer Daze at Hero-U: Ifeyo’s Adventure for a 2023 release. In Lori’s copious free time, she’ll start writing Sami’s Story. And I’m going to start designing puzzles for our puzzle adventure game, Puzzleworthy.
We’ll continue to host Live Streams with games and prizes. Our new game is AlphaBot-ticelli. Like Botticelli, it’s a two-part game – Stumping and guessing. We come up with a name, tell you the first letter, and you try to guess it. But first you have to stump us. Each player is assigned the next letter of the alphabet, and challenges us to find a name or word starting with that letter that answers their challenge.
As an example, “My letter is Z. It’s a place you go to see animals.” An obvious answer is “zoo,” so probably too easy a challenge. But we might say, “zoetrope,” and that works if we can justify it. (We saw a zoetrope in Culver City that showed animated animals.)
If we get stumped, or if stream participants think our answer sucks, the challenger gets to ask a yes or no question about our secret name. If we answer “Yes,” they can go again or guess the name.
If the game turns out to be fun, it can become one of our staples for future streams.
We hope all of you have a magnificent – but also fun and challenging – 2022. After all, it’s human nature to love to be challenged; if the game (of life) is too easy, it’s hardly worth playing.
May your 2022 real-life games be worthy and fun adventures!
