So what have I been doing this whole time, with only a couple website updates in the last several months?

I’ve been making a new game.  Not Soulcaster III (yet), but an all new franchise.

Presenting…

ESCAPE GOAT

The features and story have not been nailed down, and it’s still in prototype phase, but work has been steady on it. As you can tell from the video, it’s a single-screen action puzzle game, with some Metroid-style adventuring and exploration.

What makes it unique? The goal is to give the player the experience of being trapped in a dungeon that has a mind of its own. Machinery changes the world and you must find a way to wrangle with it to reach new areas of the game. You find items and powerups to gain new abilites, which allow new solutions to puzzles. It’s not a linear game where you have to find items in a specific order–rather, you make decisions about which items to get given the paths you take. Many gates and puzzles will be solvable with more than one “key” item.

The mice are also pretty special, but more about them when I get a better grip on their design. I’m still figuring out how best to use them.