The last book in my Pilgrim’s Path trilogy is up on Amazon.
Archive for the ‘ArmageddonEmpires’ Category
Entropy’s Heralds
Thursday, July 1st, 2021Rock Paper Shotgun – Humble Bundle
Thursday, September 4th, 2014Apologies to all for the lack of updates on this blog. As you have probably figured out my game making has been on a hiatus. But today is a big deal for Cryptic Comet’s future. The wonderful gang at RPS has included Armageddon Empires in it’s 7th Anniversary Humble Bundle Weekly selection. It’s a huge honor.
https://www.humblebundle.com/_widget/weekly
So what does the future hold in store for Cryptic Comet? I am working on a new game. It’s a turn based strategy game with a map, units, locations and very board game like. The idea is for the player to use a completely different rule set than the 4 AI’s that he is competing against. I don’t want to reveal the setting but I think it is going to be pretty far out there. The player is besieged on all sides and has to manage limited resources to hold off the AI’s until a certain objective can be achieved. Rorke’s Drift is a big inspiration for this but there are no Zulu’s and your victory condition is pretty nihilistic…so it’s Rorke’s Drift meets the end of John Carpenter’s The Thing. I’ve always wanted to make this game.
Armageddon Empires Retrospective
Sunday, July 15th, 2012Matchsticks for my eyes has done a great design analysis of Armageddon Empires.
Occult Chronicles is all about exploration so I’m hoping it scratches that itch as well as AE did. I’ve also thrown in a what’s behind curtain #1 slot machine type mechanic. There are no rolling apples, oranges, stars etc. but each time you have to determine a reward or punishment you start turning over 10 face down cards. How many you can/have to turn over depends on how well you did in the Tarot card challenge. A rare few encounters have the “Instant Death” card hidden among the 10 face down cards. It’s like that card that will kill you instantly in Dungeon Quest….the huge scything blade one…but you feel like you had a choice rather than just picking it from the top of the deck. Good times.
Tom vs. Bruce Rides Again
Tuesday, May 29th, 2012If ever there was a kickstarter project to get behind this is it. When they are playing a game, these guys are funnier than the two guys in the movie “Step Brothers.” I’ve always thought I would love to see a Tom vs. Bruce magazine so this was my chance to contribute to helping that dream become a reality. Please check it out and consider contributing. I really want to see them play some board games like Twilight Struggle or Hannibal Rome vs. Carthage.
Forgotten Blog Hiatus
Friday, January 14th, 2011I apologize for the lack of updates to anyone who still checks this blog for something new here. Six Gun Saga is taking a lot longer than I had expected and I knew I was cursing myself when I hazarded that “couple of months” guess on when it would be finished. I’m going to put this blog on a hopefully short hiatus until I have something positive to report.
AE Cameo
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010Soren Johnson has a google tech talk video up on youtube (hat tip thanks to Inge) that features his “Playing To Lose: Good vs. Fun AI” presentation. At approximately the 4 minute mark you can see a screen shot of the map of Armageddon Empires on one of the slides. That’s pretty cool 🙂
Netbook Mods (Beta)
Friday, May 14th, 2010I’ve come up with a way to re-size the viewing space for both Armageddon Empires and Solium Infernum to 800 by 600 so that it can function on netbooks which usually have the resolution height fixed at 600. The results are not as pretty as the regular resolution but everything seems to work just fine. If you want to give your copy of the games a go on your netbook you can apply either of these two “mods.” If you have any feedback then you can either email me at my info or support emails or just post in the forums.
Solium Infernum Netbook Mod ZIP Version 1.06a or better required
Armageddon Empires Netbook Mod ZIP Version 1.08 Tip of the Spear or better required
After you download the .zip file you must overwrite one file in the install directory for each game. The install directory is typically C:\Program Files\Cryptic Comet\Game Name i.e. Armageddon Empires or Solium Infernum.
IMPORTANT: The mods ONLY affect full screen mode and will not work with the windowed executable. The mods compress the view area into a 800 by 600 view space so that there is no clipping on a netbook.
Trinkets Available At Cost
Thursday, January 28th, 2010I realized when I signed up for the $5 a month shop at Cafe Press that I was not going to be the next Penny Arcade t-shirt shop. I added 3 or 4 bucks to the already high prices that Cafe Press charges thinking that I might make back the fee and also the cost of getting the graphics made….although my sister did the work and she does a lot of work for me with a deep big brother discount and is a bargain to say the least. But after you add shipping who wants to pay $20 for a mouse pad or coffee cup? Anyway, I’ve decided to change the prices to just cost ($10.99 cafe press base cost) and offer it as a service to any player fans who are crazy enough to want it…….crazy in a good way of course. 🙂
Thanks to all the crazy people who have purchased AE and SI.
Cryptic Comet Souvenir Shop
QT3 Jason Lutes as Guest Podcast
Thursday, December 17th, 2009Tom Chick and Jason Lutes talk about SI and AE but make sure you listen to the whole thing as the discussion of emergent narrative is absolutely awesome and thought provoking…especially the examples cited. I’m in the early game design planning stages (when I get burned out on bug fixing and AI tweaking stretches) of my next project and emergent narrative is going to be a big part of the experience that I want to provide.
Also, just to set the record straight: The writing talent on display in the flavor text is completely attributable to Russell Marsh. And Russell tells me that he has made some very subtle literary allusions throughout the texts. 🙂
Armageddon Empires The Merchandising…
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009….Where the real money from the game is made.
I made a mouse pad a while back but like so many things I never really finished it off and got a Cafe Press shop online and integrated into my Cryptic Comet website. I do have a shop up now. You can catch it here if you want to check out the mouse pad.
My idea is to add some coffee mugs, another mouse pad and maybe a flame thrower. If you have any favorite images from AE that you would like to see on such bling bling then let me know by replying to this thread in the forums. List your top 5 or so images and I’ll make a tally to get an idea what the most popular images are. Then I’ll try and get some merchandise up on the Cafe Press shop.
