Caveman Craig Discovery Update!
Hey folks!
I’m excited to announce a new update to Caveman Craig, currently available on steam (Mac and Windows)! Version 1.2, or as we’re calling it, the Discovery Update! As a finished game, we typically wouldn’t add in new features, instead updates would strictly be bug fixes and compatibility updates. But we want players to discover all the hilarious, cool, or plain random moments that happen in the world of boggdrop, so we’ve come up with some new achievements for incentive! Plus, we listened to initial feedback and decided to add in some new functions.
Here’s the complete changelist for version 1.2
- Added 12 new achievements! These achievements encourage players to try new things and just feel generally productive and special. Including 4 “Gold”, 4 “Silver”, and 4 “Bronze” achievements. Extra imaginary points are awarded to anybody who takes a screenshot or video clip of these achievements being unlocked!
- You can now combine the flaming rocks and double/triple rock rewards for extra ridiculous power!
- In the caveman overview screen, you can now right click on the task icons to make units of the selected type unfollow Craig*.
- The 2nd player can now be controlled by keyboard as well as game controller, or have those keys mapped to an otherwise unsupported controller. Click here to learn how to play co-op! *
Plus some tweaks & fixes..
- Summit Showdown no longer skips first opponent.
- Fixed a bug with one of the cheat.
- Fixed crashes caused by engine update in 1.1c
- Tweaked the difficulty in 1st level (if you haven’t finished that level yet, now’s a good time to give it another crack!)
- Fixed glitch with spacing between characters in in-game text.
* features marked with an asterisk were available for Windows only in a recent patch, but was originally intended for this update.
Now’s a great time to pickup Caveman Craig and give in to your instinctual urges to thump dinosaurs!
-Rhys
Update in the Works
Happy New Year!
It’s been some time since I’ve written a post here – Tim and I have taken a break from game development beyond keeping Caveman Craig patched and participating in the Steam community. We decided the wisest move would be to see how well Caveman Craig is received and determine our next steps from there. Good ideas take time!
I have, however, been working on an update for Craig, which on top of fixing a few bugs and making some tweaks, will include some exciting new content as incentive to explore everything Caveman Craig has to offer.
Primarily, we’ll be including at least 15 more Steam only achievements, encouraging players to try new things. We’re also looking at adding a Father Daughter mode, which allows mature players to play Caveman Craig with their child or young relative, without hindering their ability to play through the game. It’s something we’d like to include in all our future releases if we can.
It hasn’t been a smooth experience working with Game Maker of late, having had to jump back and forth between early access and standard releases and stable and beta builds in order to fix various issues with the game. Unfortunately, even if I completed the update today, we would not be able to release it until some bugs are fixed in an update to Game Maker.
We’ll keep you informed!
-R
Gamedev Detox
This past week has been a welcome break after months of working on Caveman Craig for Steam. We’ve been so happy to receive all the positive reviews of the game and Let’s Play videos, and the privilege of having a game on Steam is itself a reward.
For those who’ve been following us over the years, you’ll know that we are not as active as many game developers tend to be. In fact, game development is an after hours thing for us. Tim and I balance full time jobs in I.T Administration and Animation, respectively. On top of that comes family & social life, involvement in the Church, and other hobbies and ventures. Our energy in game development comes in hot bursts, with long cool periods. It’s probably not the right way to run a business, and there’s admittedly an amount of consistency we need to achieve, but that’s what happens when you have 10 fingers and a lot of pies.
I promised myself that following the release of Caveman Craig, I would take a well earned break from game development (with the exception of supporting the game with bug fix updates and public relations) and focus on my still very non-established music vein.
So the past week has felt like a game dev detox, as I perform all the cleaning tasks too menial to bother doing when there was a time-sensitive stack of jobs to do on the computer. Now the house is clean, my brain is clean, and my office is clean and primed for music composition!
Here’s a shot of my game dev office, which doubles as a mini recording studio. Some highlights for those who are interested include…
- Mechanical “DAS” Keyboard. Still works beautifully after many years of service, except the USB hub smells like an electrical fire.
- Windows Surface RT which is capable of doing pretty much zero, but using SplashTop actually works has a handy substitute for a second display. When I need to fill my screen with code or notes, the Surface works nicely as a reference screen – to read a document off, or have a youtube video passively there when I get bored.
- MacBook Pro Retina 15″ – Man, I love Apple laptops. I hate to say it, but if it weren’t for GameMaker, Games, and my DAW of choice, I’d be all Mac. Anyway, having this laptop off to the side is useful for testing Mac builds of games and fiddling with Logic Studio. It also hooks up to the monitor as a second source for when I’m focusing on Mac-related work. Plus I take it around with me everywhere I go.
- The desk – the main desk is a simple but elegant unit from OfficeWorks, so nothing special. The desk raiser on which I sit my display & studio monitors (and under which I store bits and pieces) was actually a lucky find at work which was no longer needed, and it fits nicely with the desk. The space on the main desk usually houses a bunch of tablets that we use for testing apps, or the MIDI keyboard if I need to get more hands on with it & the DAW.
So what’s next for Parabox?
Years ago we announced that we’d decided on some new projects – Nightbear and Stadium Builder. Nightbear had some concept art put together and we had many conversations about the design of the game, but the teddy was ultimately shelved because we realised we had to approach it from a different angle. Meanwhile, Stadium Builder had gone some way as you might have seen on youtube years back, but then we lost the project files amidst technical difficulties. Some progress had been made to get that project running again.
These games are still interesting ideas for us, and over the past few years we’ve also toyed with other concepts. Tim and I will need to meet sometime soon to work out the future of Parabox. We need to reconcile the gap between what we love making, what we have time for, and what is feasible as a business.
And we’ll endeavour to keep you informed along the way!
-Rhys
CAVEMAN CRAIG now available on Steam!
Our flagship game, CAVEMAN CRAIG: THE TRIBES OF BOGGDROP, is now available for Mac & Windows through Steam!
Purchase the game within the first week for a 15% discount, bringing it down to just $9.34 USD.
CAVEMAN CRAIG is a remastered version of Caveman Craig 2, featuring re-imagined levels, new dinosaurs, co-op, and a list of improvements we can’t begin to count!
Check out the recent Let’s Play that I did with my mate Nat.
Own Caveman Craig 2?
If you already own the older game, Caveman Craig 2, you are eligible to receive a Steam key for Caveman Craig: The Tribes of Boggdrop (don’t let the names confuse you – Caveman Craig: The Tribes of Boggdrop is a new, remastered version of Caveman Craig 2).
To register for a Steam key, please .
One more sleep!
Caveman Craig will be available for purchase on Steam tomorrow!
We’re offering a 10% launch discount, making it feel like a bargain at under $9.99 USD (But seriously, it’s worth it)!
If you haven’t already, add Caveman Craig to your wishlist here!
We are very excited, but also so tired after months of late nights and meeting unreasonable deadlines (which we put on ourselves, so I guess we can’t complain). A couple of weeks ago, I took a break from all the lines of code and heartless BETA testing and actually played Caveman Craig, recruiting my real life caveman friend, Nat, and playing co-op! Check it out, you might learn some new things about the game!
A big thank you to everybody who helped make this possible. To our pre-launch party testers, our BETA testers, our friends & family, the Greenlight supporters, and last but not least our faithful fans! It means a lot to us to hear your stories of playing Caveman Craig since its conception in 2008 and beyond.
Bring on tomorrow!
-Rhys & Tim
Hello August!
August is going to be a great month for Parabox Games 
As you all should know, Caveman Craig is coming to Steam this month! Caveman Craig is a ‘remastered’ version of Caveman Craig 2, with split-screen co-op, re-imagined levels (plus a new one), Steam integration, and more.
A big thank you to our squad of BETA testers who are sinking their teeth into the game already and spitting out all sorts of bugs and glitches they’re coming across. Thankfully, so far 90% of the reports were an error that I was able to fix over the weekend in a new update.
Our BETA keys are now exhausted, so we can’t offer any more out. Sorry, you had to act fast! If you owned Caveman Craig 2, you are still eligible for a free copy of Caveman Craig once it is released.
There’s a lot of work still to be done on the game, and Tim and I have put together a roadmap of when the final features and fixes are expected to be rolled out.
Everything is going along swimmingly, so it’s time to ‘lock in’ a release date! We have decided to stick a pin on August 28! So add Caveman Craig to your wishlist on Steam if you haven’t already, and BETA testers… pressure’s on!
-Rhys
Caveman Craig BETA Program Invite
Hey everybody!
The pun is inexcusable, but we are “full Steam ahead” with the upcoming release of Caveman Craig. If you’ve been following us on twitter, we posted a few weird screenshots of our BETA testing experiences over the weekend.
You should soon see the game details on the Steam store, and more details will arrive soon after on pricing, dates, and so on.
We do have a sort-of unfortunate announcement regarding the BETA program mentioned in our previous post. While we would love to provide early BETA access to everyone who owns Caveman Craig 2, we found out that it’s frowned upon and not always allowed by Valve, for a mass distribution of BETA keys.
So instead, we are offering any purchasers of Caveman Craig 2 to ‘opt in’ to the BETA program. We only have a limited number of spots, and our schedule is really tight! So if you are interested in working closely with us to make Caveman Craig as awesome as it can possibly be, please opt in using the Google Form!
CAVEMAN CRAIG: THE TRIBES OF BOGGDROP – Coming to Steam in August!
Parabox Games are excited to announce that, following Caveman Craig 2 being greenlit on Steam, we will be releasing a revamped, refreshed, and updated adventure with our hero, titled Caveman Craig: The Tribes of Boggdrop, or simply Caveman Craig for short. We plan to release Caveman Craig in August, 2015!
Caveman Craig will include a grokkload of new features and improvements, including the long awaited and embarrassingly over-delayed Dudu Forest DLC!
“Wait.. what?? Didn’t you release Caveman Craig 2 like.. 3 years ago?”
That’s correct, we did! And Caveman Craig is, as far as our existing fanbase is concerned, simply an overhaul of Caveman Craig 2, but with a new name. Our chore-list for a Steam release got so long, that we realised we’re releasing a sort of reboot. Branding this reboot as simply Caveman Craig allows the game to stand on its own two feet and attract our new Steam market.
“Ok – so what are the new features in Caveman Craig?”
If you’ve already bought & played Caveman Craig 2, here are some features that may be particularly interesting to you..
- Engine Overhaul - The game has been ported to GameMaker: Studio from GameMaker 8 for massive performance benefits, plus making a number of other new features possible and fixing a number of crashes that were caused by the ageing GM8 engine with newer machines.
- Sound Engine Overhaul - Better positional audio, dynamic effects, new & replaced sound effects. plus an expanded soundtrack by Ricky Garcia.
- Graphics Engine Improvements - Better scaling, new lighting/shader engine, tweaked animations, and m
ore! - Support for Mac OS X – Native and full support for Mac OS X! Play Caveman Craig and wear a scarf!
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Dudu Forest DLC - Included by default in Caveman Craig will be our long-awaited Battle at Dudu Forest DLC. Featuring:
- A whole new Conquest level with a new dinosaur, playable character / enemy, and other secrets..
- Unique challenges and unlocks added throughout the campaign. Harvest mushrooms, collect the rare colourful Scansoriopteryx feathers, or find the long lost tablets of caveman wisdom and literature!
- New achievements and unlocks, including some really stupid cheats!
- Multiplayer - Invite your friend over to your house like we did in the 90s and play Conquest or Survival mode in 2 player split-screen co-op! Requires a game controller (PlayStation or Xbox controllers are good)
- Custom Games – Play a customised game of Conquest or Survival mode – make it super hard, super easy, or super weird!
- Gameplay and control improvements - Dinosaur behaviour improvements, improved HUD and learning curve, and heaps more – too many to list!
- Steam only features - Friend leaderboards for various game statistics, Steam achievements, Profile and game save sync over Steam cloud.
“I already own CC2! Do I have to buy Caveman Craig? Wasn’t the DLC meant to be free?”
Do not fear! Caveman Craig will be free for existing owners of Caveman Craig 2. In fact, if you own a copy of the game, we would like to warmly invite you to participate in our BETA program on Steam. More details on this to come soon..
We want to thank our long term fans for their continued support of the Caveman Craig franchise. It is so exciting to bring the game to a new market, and breathe new life into our game.
(re)Launch Party!
Last week, we ran a ‘re-launch’ BETA testing party. This was very similar to our ‘pre-launch’ party back in 2012, but of course stress-testing the new features in Caveman Craig and evaluating its potential on the Steam platform.
Caveman Craig is now in the hands of a number of private testers, and we are on the final stretch to release!
The day was a massive success, at least in our eyes – the testers diligently entered issues into a bug tracker *cough* google spreadsheet over 8 hours of playtime. There were some pretty major bugs and errors to fix up, but that’s what a BETA test is for!
Over 200 issues were entered throughout the day – but this includes duplicates and suggestions.
The buggiest part of the game was saving & loading – which presented a catch 22 to players. Do we save our game and risk losing our progress if it crashes during the save? Or do we take another risk in playing through the whole level without saving? This caused a fair bit of frustration amongst the testers.. which was unfortunate but showed how invested they were in the game.
We setup split-screen co-op on the big screen, for people to take turns playing together. Working together to take down the enemy proved to be lots of fun!
Some other key areas to test included..
- Mac OS X – Ran almost flawlessly!
- Steam leaderboards and achievements – It was heaps of fun comparing our scores with other players in the room.
- New dudu forest level – presented a unique challenge, that many spent lots of time on. The level is beautiful and serene, with a fantastic celtic soundtrack by Ricky Garcia.
Co-op on the big screen! The way multiplayer should be..
We had a couple of game developers and professional testers with us, and there was no shortage of merciless, brute force testing of the game. One managed to get a ridiculous tribe size before crashing the game..
And now, it’s time for me to shift gears entirely and complete some contractual app development work. After pouring every spare hour into Caveman Craig for the past month, a well deserved break is going to do me and the game some good. We can’t wait to release the game, and after some meetings and plans, we will be excited to announce something more official very soon.
Regards,
Rhys
May’s Etc
The new face of the savage land of Boggdrop
Dev Update
This past week or two have been big ones for me – working every weeknight and all through the weekends to keep on schedule. I’ve been playing with the new lighting engine of choice – a modified version of prettylight by Nik Sudan. It looks even better than in Caveman Craig 2, and has the added benefit of a gaussian blur shader which we’ll use sparingly for a layer of polish. It looks especially pretty in the main menu, as we blur the background scene when the menu elements appear.
Each level has added unique charm. The new level, originally to be part of DLC, set at Dudu Forest, works a little more like Survival mode as far as dinosaurs go. Rather than having a director ‘unleash’ groups of dinosaurs at chosen intervals to provide a crafted pace like most levels, dinosaurs are spawned at random, at any given time. I call it “frenzy” mode, and it will be an option when playing custom games, another feature we’re adding.
We had a lot of feedback about the ending of Caveman Craig 2. The final challenge, in which you lead the other tribe leaders into battle with a family of T-rexes, was an unexpected change of pace from the rest of the game. It was fun, though perhaps implemented poorly. In the new update, the T-rex challenge will become part of the final conquest level against our furry friend, Steve. It’s heaps more fun because you can enlist your entire tribe to take down the nest together, and strategise accordingly.
There’s still a lot to do, and my next big job is to implement Steam leaderboards. The current plan is to include leaderboards for each Conquest level, plus the mini-games. I’m not a big fan of global leaderboards, where seeing the number 1 player in the world only discourages you from bothering to even try. So we’ll be focusing on comparing scores with Steam friends only.
How do you measure how well you played a Conquest level? How quickly you finish it? How much damage you inflict? There are many different ways to play each level , and we want to encourage you to play the game in different ways and be rewarded for it. Each level will have a few standard high score measurements, but there’ll be some unique challenges as well in each level.
(re)Launch Party
Our Steam update is nearing a private BETA release, the commencement of which will be flagged by a Caveman Craig re-launch Party, scheduled in a couple of weeks time. Before we initially released Caveman Craig 2 in 2012, we ran a testing party for a private group of friends. It proved very helpful in ironing out bugs, getting feedback, and generally prepping the game for final release.
With the amount of changes Tim and I have made over the past couple of months, we decided that another testing event was in order. With the use of Steam’s API, testing with a larger group of people is especially necessary to see how well everything works with regards to leaderboards, achievements, cloud sync, and so on.
Soon after the re-launch party, we hope to announce a release date and some more official details about what you can expect in Caveman Craig for Steam.
