Here’s something I bet you didn’t see coming... and neither did I.  This week I have a guest video done by ‘J’ one of the alpha/beta testers.  This video shows a map he made where CRPL controls terrain, creates message boxes, creates units, and monitors the existence of units.  The purpose?  Well, old Ben Franklin would be proud!

I’m not sure many strategy games have been used to create something like this before, but in any case classrooms of the world best watch out.  The Creeper’s coming for ya…

And if you stop and think for a moment…. if J could make this with a map, what matter of delight/horror might you create?

Watch this video on YouTube.

Many civilizations across the vastness of time fought the Creeper.  Many of them developed ever more desperate measures to hold back the inevitable…  One, many eons ago, developed the technology to mask technology from the Creeper.  It was very expensive and would only work over a small area, but it could be used to conceal precious technology.  Subsequent civilizations came to call these vessels ‘Artifacts of Odin‘ and continued to use them to conceal from the Creeper things that were very important.  Sadly, but to our benefit, the items that were of most use to civilizations in their final hours were Weapons of Creeper Annihilation.  Now that the last of human civilizations have fallen and slipped quietly into the long night, their few remaining WCA’s are left scattered across worlds.

Watch this video on YouTube.

One of the most common requests I get is to provide lots of control over the fractal map generator.  So I said, “why not?”  It always bugged me that some games would have fantastic engines, yet come with only dozens or hundreds of maps.  Why not billions?  This week’s video goes over some of the options available in CW3.  With great power comes…  just watch.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Recently, the crack staff at Knuckle Cracker has been doing some research into the next big thing.  We always strive to find that next innovation, that next breakthrough before anyone else can.  And, I dare say we’ve found it.  Announcing today, April 1, 2013, Knuckle Cracker is out of the primitive video game business and will be pursuing the next major breakthrough in home entertainment.  It’s just too amazing  to not devote 100% of our efforts to, and even with Knuckle Cracker’s vast resources, we need all hands working on this next project.  As CEO, I’ve made this call but I have done so with 100% of the support of Knuckle Cracker staff.

With no further ado  I give you the next major breakthrough in home entertainment!  Introducing a fully 3D, tactile, immersive  battle environment!  The system includes amazingly precise physics that literally operates at the scale of quarks.  Temperature, gravity, evaporation, it’s all there.  Lighting is also 99.999% accurate (at least that is what our testing reveals, though our lead tester does wear glasses).  What’s better is that this fully 3D environment can operated for years without the need for recharging.

The first product planned for launch with this technology is actually based on the Creeper World video  games.  But, I’m sure you will all agree that the potential of the new technology is just light years beyond the old video game versions.  Just imagine you and your friends huddled around this fully 3D environment in your own ‘holodeck‘.  Interact with your friend in real time for a full multi-player experience like you have never experienced.  And yes, AT LAST ONE OR MORE OF YOU CAN PLAY AS THE CREEPER!

Now, even with Knuckle Cracker’s vast,  mountain-sized treasury, we still need your help.  I’ve been informed by my CFO that it doesn’t matter if we already have gazillions at our disposal, we still need to raise the money for this project as if we were poor… ha.. imagine that… uhh anyway…  So, we are exploring making early versions of this new tech available via a KickStarter campaign.  For just $500 USD (or was it $5000… I’ll check on that) you can reserve a special platinum box of Creeper Agent.  Trust me, when you play as the Creeper this will allow you to alter the physics of your Creeper in absolutely amazing ways.

And if it isn’t already clear, yes this means that CW3 will not be released…. not as a video game anyway.  I know this may disappoint some of you, but I really doubt it at this point.  What with this new tech it would be like releasing a new propeller design after anti-gravity was invented.

Each kit is planned to include: 1 large bottle of blue food coloring, 1 box of Creeper Agent (white glue), 1 box of Borax (combines with white glue), 1 large container of mold-able clay (for terraforming map),  over 100 tiny little sponges, giant table sized play area, coupon for 10 poster sized print outs of Creeper World maps.  Note:  Customer must provide water (H2O, or Dihydrogen Monoxide) to complete the setup.  Bottles of Dihydrogen Monoxide are planned to be available from Knuckle Cracker for a nominal fee of $100 per bottle plus shipping and handling of an undisclosed amount.

Finishing a game takes lots and lots of work.  I often get asked by aspiring game developers what they need to do to get started…  My answer is usually that ‘getting started’ isn’t the right question.  It’s figuring out how to finish that should be of primary concern.  So I’ve been intensely working for the past… how many weeks is it now?  The video this week shows some of my progress as I make my assault towards the release.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Game development is a fickle beast.  One day you are the hero of Maxia, the next you are on the bridge of the Stargazer under the control of a big glowing ball.  Hard work, smart thinking, and most of all consistency are the keys to success.  In that regard I’ve been busy adding in all of the necessary support for various mission types to Game 3.  Everything from custom missions hosted online to the story missions, to many procedural worlds.  All necessary work, but very time consuming and not a lot of flashy visuals to show for the work.  But… during the process I did manage to create a new ‘titan’ enemy structure.

The missions of game 3 are organized into star systems.  There are many star systems and each system contains some number of planets.  Jumping from system to system is constrained by your ability to warp to nearby systems.  But, there is a problem.  Many (most) systems contain an Inhibitor that prevents these physics defying warp maneuvers.  You have to journey to the planet that contains this Inhibitor and take it out before you can journey to other nearby systems.  These Inhibitors, well, you’ll just have to see…

We recovered the coordinates of “world of interest” and investigated.  The following mission log documents the results.  Let’s just say, Mission Command will be pleased…

(Btw, at 12:10  there was a recording glitch in the audio that ended up sounding hilarious when I heard it… I left it for your amusement.)

Watch this video on YouTube.

What would happen if towers from ChopRaider made their way onto a Creeper World map?  Insanity!  Well, it sounded insane enough that I just had to give it a try.  What better way to try out CRPL scripting and some of the new features in this week’s build?

So, another year has come to a close.  It’s been a great year for the Creeper Nation.  But if you thought everything up till now was cool, just wait for what will happen in 2013.  I have high hopes, so here’s to making it all happen as early next year as possible…

To close out this year, I thought I’d share a video for CW2 I did a while back for an indie game contest.  It had to be 1 minute long.  I took some creative liberties as you will see.  Of course it flew right over the cuckoo’s nest for the people I sent it to, but I’m confident the fans of Creeper World will appreciate the humor.

Watch this video on YouTube.

In case you don’t get the references, it’s a parody of 2001 A Space Odyssey.

Introducing the KC-48 Creepulator with Creeper Reverse Polish Language support.  Need enemies to have that extra little bit of A.I. you’ve been dreaming of?  Then come on in, and try out the latest in Creeper Processing Units!

Been wondering how events, waves, or custom maps might work in game 3?  Then this video is for you…  Map editing is straight forward and will lend itself to thousands of interesting combinations.  But the new CRPLTower, with a built in KC-48 Creepulator…. well, that opens up Pandora’s box.  I take that back.  It doesn’t open the box, it blows the box to smithereens.