Thursday, November 29, 2012

Game Development Journal - Cool Guy and More

I'm happy to announce that work on Cool Guy Bob Surlaw, though time consuming, is going smoothly. 8bit has provided me with mastered versions of the soundtrack, and it sounds great. All that's left before release tomorrow is the remainder of a dungeon and the adding of sound effects. I look forward to seeing what people think!

While I was working on Cool Guy, I also decided to take a look back at my earlier works. Two of my more downloaded releases were Walthrus: Return of the Crystals and Super Walrus Chef, released 2003-2004. There is still a lot I like about both games, but looking back on them now, I'm amazed at how much I've grown as a writer. Their dialogue is poor (intentionally so in Walthrus, but still) and they both have a lot of jokes I'm really uncomfortable with. I can say that without exception, these two years were the loneliest of my life. I tried filling a gap by writing offensive humor for an audience I'd grow to in many ways dislike, which I regret and apologize for. Even when you're trying to intentionally write a bad story, you need to set limits on how far jokes can go. I went too far with some of them and the result is disgraceful.

Rather than just moan about how trashy these games were, I've pulled a George Lucas. Like I did with Gato Sucio previously, I've gone in and rewritten large portions of dialogue for both Walthrus and Walrus Chef. I've removed the sleazy pictures you collect. I've fixed some really bad spelling errors. I've generally made both games funnier, while still keeping their cores intact. Walthrus is still the story of foul-mouthed sea creatures running rampant, but with much less mean spirited dialogue. Walrus Chef is still a cartoonish cooking competition starring a murderous walrus, but his jokes are PG/PG-13 level now, and I think that's for the best by far.

If you played and loved the original versions and think I shouldn't change them, I don't really want to say I'm sorry. I'm more sorry for writing bad jokes in the first place. The writing in these games still isn't smart, but it's now at a level where I don't feel embarrassed being associated with them. In its original form, I couldn't recommend Walrus Chef to people I didn't know. Now, I feel that I can. Updated versions of the games are available on Slime Salad, Castle Paradox, and here. Thanks for your understanding.

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