Background on the Creation of Twisty Little Passages, and Developer Journals #3 and #4
over 5 years ago
– Fri, Jun 07, 2019 at 12:38:32 AM
Hi!
There is exactly one week remaining to the Twisty Little Passages campaign. We are making steady progress, now 93% of the way to unlocking the first bonus puzzle stretch goal and 82% of the way to the second. Additional ones like the card stock upgrade and bonus metapuzzle are right beyond these, and I'd love to provide them all. I appreciate your feedback to make TLP the best it can be and am grateful for your ongoing support of the campaign and for sharing our unique puzzle gaming experience with others. Thank you!
Behind the scenes, our team is hard at work on completing Twisty Little Passages. Meanwhile, the campaign and game are getting some great fresh coverage. One of these is an interview on the background of Twisty Little Passages between Thomas Gorner of Honest Meeple and myself that I'd like to share with you.
Plus, here are two more entries from my developer journal going over design considerations in putting together the game rules and establishing graphical elements, with the purpose of making play fun, easy and intuitive so you can immerse yourself more fully in the puzzles and adventure.
Developer Journal #3: Puzzle game rules
Developer Journal #4: Puzzle game graphic design
More to come soon! Here's to a great final week of the campaign!
Mike
New Print-and-Play Backer Level, Developer Journal Parts 1 + 2, and Added Stretch Goal for Twisty Little Passages!
over 5 years ago
– Mon, Jun 03, 2019 at 09:08:09 PM
I've been listening carefully to feedback offered during the first three weeks of the campaign and I have good news to share for additions to Twisty Little Passages. As a labor-of-love project to provide a uniquely engaging gaming experience, my goal is to do what I can to provide the best product that fits your needs. I'd like to meet that goal on multiple fronts.
First, some demand for an electronic version has been expressed. I've been researching that option and am pleased to announce that a backer level for a digital-only version is now available for print-and-play. I'd personally recommend the physical book as providing the superior play experience, but if you'd rather not receive a physical book (though it will play well in your hands and look gorgeous on your shelf!) or deal with international shipping, this is an option for you to consider.
Second, I've compiled a journal on the development of Twisty Little Passages on BoardGameGeek that I'd like to share with you. It covers additional details on the background of the project and how multiple aspects of the design came together. Here are the first two parts:
Part 1: Dungeon crawl puzzle design - intro
Part 2: Puzzles with and without randomness
More developer journal articles to come in the near future. I welcome your thoughts on these aspects of puzzle design and classic adventure gaming!
And last, but not least, I've made a couple of beneficial adjustments to upcoming stretch goals. We are 90% of the way to the first stretch goal to add a bonus puzzle and 80% of the way to the second stretch goal. I've brought in the stretch goal for the card stock pages upgrade to give it a much better chance of being hit during the campaign. I'd like to provide that option if possible, and this is the best I can do. Plus, I've added a new stretch goal for a secret meta-puzzle.
Thank you again for your support! I am humbled and grateful for your interest in Twisty Little Passages, and so excited for the opportunity to produce it for you.
Have a great week, and let's hit those stretch goals!
Twisty Little Passages has surpassed 115% funded -- all five demo puzzles unlocked!
over 5 years ago
– Fri, May 31, 2019 at 12:37:32 AM
Thank you for supporting Twisty Little Passages! With the campaign having exceeded 115% of funding, all five demo puzzles are now unlocked!
You can download puzzle 1-5, Kradra Prison Escape, from the "Puzzles" section on the main campaign page.
This is a tutorial puzzle teaching you how to choose between different types of enemies to fight.
Ren has reached the ground floor of the prison and freedom is in sight! She needs to fight her way through the last few enemy checkpoints, where some nasty brutes and torturers stand guard. Take advantage of the recent confusion to surprise the guards and escape quickly before the alarm is sounded.
Here, you must decide which foes to face off with and which equipment to acquire. You won't be able to collect everything. Should you go for all the weapons, the armor, or a mix of each? Is it better to go toe-to-toe with the vicious torturers with their powerful weapons or the hardy, well-armored brutes? It's time to put all your fledgling skills to the test. Plan your strategy carefully, for only one path will grant you freedom!
Interview on the Development of Twisty Little Passages
over 5 years ago
– Thu, May 30, 2019 at 08:02:42 PM
Just a quick update today that Twisty Little Passages is over 113% funded!
We're working toward the first stretch goal of adding a bonus puzzle featuring some special items and distinctive enemies voted on during the campaign.
Also, we're just about ten new backers away from unlocking puzzle 1-5, Kradra Prison Escape. There's a great chance we'll get there today and you can help by sharing your impressions of Twisty Little Passages with a fellow gamer or puzzle fan.
Meanwhile, I'd like to share an interview with Nick Welford of Board Game Exposure on the design of Twisty Little Passages. Nick and I recorded this interview live a week ago and had a lot of fun chatting. It's just under 30 minutes and covers some background and considerations that went into the game design and also a bit about where we might take the concept in the future.
Enjoy!
Mike
Meet the team behind Twisty Little Passages
over 5 years ago
– Wed, May 29, 2019 at 02:07:56 AM
Hope you had a great weekend! Twisty Little Passages is steadily gaining additional backers and there has been some good discussion about the finer details of the project. I appreciate your interest and support for our puzzle game. We've just passed 110% of our funding goal and I anticipate in just a couple short days, at 115%, the final introductory area, puzzle 1-5, is going to be revealed. Get ready to put on your thinking caps!
Though I'm the public face of Caravel and our campaign, I'd like to underscore the fact that the production of Twisty Little Passages is a team effort. Here, I'd like to highlight the contributions and past work of the other core team members, in no particular order.
Kieran Millar has designed many of the more challenging puzzles in Twisty Little Passages. His concepts and solutions are amazing. As I have play tested his areas, I was left in awe at the design and a consistent and renewed feeling each time that "This is a beautiful puzzle!" As an adventure puzzle design veteran who frequents the Caravel Games forum, frequently producing excellent content, I am honored with the chance to develop the core puzzles of Twisty Little Passages together.
Gregory Shipp is cartographer who has been involved in a ton of projects, bringing worlds to life for novels and online games. He is illustrating the maps in Twisty Little Passages. He transforms our initial, rough black-and-white concept puzzle sketches into the beautiful living, breathing places you see mapped out for each puzzle area. I'm also excited to have him producing the bonus world map.
https://www.lostinmaps.co.uk/
VShane is an experienced fantasy and sci-fi illustrator and designer with 30 years in the industry doing illustration and concept art for gaming, novels and character concept. Shane produced the wonderful cover image for the book and many of the illustrated scenes, enemy encounters, items and equipment. He is a natural at bringing the world we imagine to life in a beautifully detailed and engaging way:
http://www.vshane-art.com
George Patsouras produces stunning character art. Just as much as the maps and locales, beautiful characters bring a world to life. George is excellent at taking a very brief description of each character and reading my mind to produce a gorgeous and compelling rendition of many of the characters and monsters you see in Twisty Little Passages.
http://cgmythology.com/
Todd Sanders is a graphic designer and also a game designer. Todd has done much to improve the layout and visual impact of our early prototype versions. He's worked on a mammoth number projects, some of which you can see here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/65610/games-ive-re-designed-or-created
Sonja Hatanpää is a graphic designer and illustrator. She produced the beautiful video trailer linked at the top of our Kickstarter page. You can check out some of her other great work here:
http://sonjahatanpaa.net/
There are so many good things I could say about each team member, though I'd like to keep this update somewhat brief. In addition to our core team, there are many early reviewers and play testers I can't all list here who have provided useful feedback to help make our project shine. I consider each suggestion and bit of feedback they have provided as a gift, and that makes them a contributor in my eyes.
I cannot overstate the beauty and creativity each individual has contributed to this project to bring it to life. It is a pleasure to collaborate with all of these fine folks, and it is an honor for me to have their work included in Twisty Little Passages.
Mike
