Creators of Caveman Craig, Teka Teki, and more.. 

Almost There!

Sorry for the wait, guys!
We’re just as anticipating Caveman Craig SE’s release as you might be. Truly, it’s in its final form, Tim just has to get some final bits and bobs done, like remastering some of the sound effects and making a few more graphics. Then we’ll package it all up, send it to some lucky peeps who get to test it for us, make a few adjustments, and then it’s all yours! Any more delays will be due to testing and cleaning out bugs – because once you buy a copy of the game, we haven’t got any way of giving you any fixes without you buying the game again. Though… now that I think about it, I might be able to incorporate some sort of update tool. I’ll sort it out!

The Caveman Craig website is just about done, with a few pages ‘ere and there to go. Check it out here: http://www.cavemancraig.autumnhouse.com.au. We’ll be getting the domain soon too.

Regards
Rhys Andrews

How’s things going?

Hey everybody.
I haven’t posted here in a while, there just hasn’t been anything special happening other than the development of new additions.

However, with only a few weeks away from release, we can safely give you a list of the new features that Caveman Craig: SE will include. We are also putting the new Caveman Craig website together. To see its progress (keep in mind this is still being designed so you may see placeholder text and so on), visit http://www.cavemancraig.autumnhouse.com.au.

Caveman Craig: SE will be a revamp on the original, award-winning indie game. For only $5.99 US, any Caveman Craig fan can enjoy these additional new features:

  • Rewritten engine for optimised performance and elimination of glitches.
  • 6 new bonuses, including pet dinosaurs, meteor strikes, and more.
  • The ‘dilophosaurus’, a frilled-neck dino that spits poison at his prey.
  • No limit on the frequency of your saves!
  • A brand new and challenging minigame – ‘Meteor Shower’ (as well as the old ‘raptor’ minigame, which is recreated to be more enjoyable).
  • Prioritise your gatherers and preparers to choose fruit over meat, or vice versa!
  • Gather up your hunters to take down dinosaurs together!
  • An extended map size, now twice as long as in CC Classic!
  • Remastered, high quality sound, and a whole new soundtrack!
  • Probably some other stuff that I’ve forgotten!

I hope this entices you guys to purchase a copy. Remember, by spending just a few dollars on this very special edition of Caveman Craig, you are supporting and funding our development of Caveman Craig 2, as well as other projects that Tim and I are working on, for both YoYo Games competitions and commercial sales.

Later!
Rhys Andrews

Special Edition Update

Hi everybody!
I know we haven’t been blogging lately, this is partly the fault of our commitment to getting the special edition of Caveman Craig completed as soon as possible. However I think now’s a good time to tell you a bit more about the specifics of this special edition that is perfect for anybody who spent a good slice of their time playing the original.

Caveman Craig SE will be based on the original but with lots of added features. That is, many more bonuses, new dinosaurs, another minigame, a larger map (about twice the size!) and lots of optimisation and engine revision to ensure that the game runs fast and more consistently. The special edition will have full-quality sound, a revised and audible tutorial, and LOTS more goodies.

“So if the special edition is going to have all these extra goodies, what’s left for Caveman Craig 2?” – Caveman Craig 2 will be much different to the original and the special edition, with a focus on caveman-tribe warfare – defending your cave against dinosaurs is just one half of the game play! With plenty more dinosaurs, much more control over cavemen, and lots of mini games, Caveman Craig 2 is quite different to the special / enhanced version of Caveman Craig 1, which will be available in a month or so.

Regards
Rhys Andrews

Vote for us in the GMC Cage-Match!

The three winners of the Ancient Civilisation Competition at YoYo Games, which includes Caveman Craig, Ancient Ants Adventure, and Tut’s Test, was chucked into the new edition of the GMC Cagematch, where users vote for their favourite game and the winner goes onto the next round.

Caveman Craig won the first round, and is now up against the winner of the previous YoYo Games competition, Frozzd. This game is all in fun, but why don’t you help us out and vote for what you think is your favourite game of the two? Click here: http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=390144

In Other News
Tim and I are working hard on the special edition of Caveman Craig, and while we do that new ideas are spilling out for Caveman Craig 2, so in effect we are working on both. There’s a whole list of goodies we’re adding to the special edition, so we’re both very excited. We are also designing the official Caveman Craig website, which will be home to all our downloads, our e-store, and will also link back to this blog (which will not be dying!).

Thanks everybody
Rhys Andrews

Caveman Craig 1 Special Edition

Hi, everybody.
Tim and I are happy to announce that we are developing a special edition of the original Caveman Craig, as a side project for our anticipated sequel. The special edition will include:

  • New bonuses
  • A gigantic map
  • New dinosaurs
  • Rewritten engine for faster performance and more intelligent cavemen
  • More tactical control of your cavemen
  • Many more features, some yet to be decided!

Tim and I will be taking many of your suggestions into consideration, especially those which we would’ve liked to implement but couldn’t because of time or engine restrictions, which are now removed. Caveman Craig SE will be perfect for anyone who spent hours playing Caveman Craig and supporting us so loyally. The game will be available in a month or so, for less then ten dollars. It will likely be released with the launch of our new Caveman Craig website.

Thanks for your support
Rhys Andrews

Caveman Craig 1.5 – Second BETA

Hey guys!
Thanks very much for your feedback on the first beta release of version 1.5. Most of you thought the game was already too difficult and we’ve put that into consideration – we understand that the difficulty angle is probably the part that needs the most work, not the actual difficulty overall.

You can download the second BETA of 1.5 below. The difficulty is significantly easier than the first BETA, and both easier and harder than version 1.4, depending on what aspect you look at. I have done a few bug fixes, most of them very small. I would appreciate your feedback on this, telling me what you thought of the difficulty angle – were you able to complete the game / receive the mini-game bonus? Without cheats, obviously.

Download Version 1.5 BETA 2 Here: http://www.autumnhouse.com.au/files/ccraigbeta.zip

Regards
Rhys Andrews

Caveman Craig 1.5 BETA – Download Now!

We aren’t sure whether version 1.5 is too hard or too easy just yet – so I was hoping you guys would try it out for us, and tell us what you think.

The main change in 1.5 is that the game has a smoother increase in difficulty and is a bit more difficult overall. Please tell us if you were able to finish the game (without cheats obviously) in version 1.5, how hard it was, how long it took, etc. Also tell us whether you found it more or less enjoyable, etc.

After a while, we’ll make some adjustments according to your verdict and will release it on YoYo.

DOWNLOAD HERE: http://64digits.com/users/RhysAndrews/ccraigbeta.zip

Regards
Rhys and Tim

Caveman Craig 2 – ‘Mini Hud’

One issue that Tim and I wanted to fix in Caveman Craig 2 was the ugly looking hud above the cavemen. You have their name (which fades out when it’s over another caveman) and two little icons on either side of them to show what skills they know – and a brain that throbs when they are learning.

To do this, we’ve designed a ‘mini hud’ which only appears on cavemen when your mouse is rolled over them, or when they’re following you. With this hud you can see their health, their progress towards learning their two skills, and their name.

The cool part is that you can prioritise what the cavemen do. In Caveman Craig 1, if you want a gatherer to take berries instead of carcasses, you have to only teach him the berries task so that he ignores the carcasses. In Caveman Craig 2, you can pick which task the gathere should prioritise. If a gatherer prioritises fruit, he will only go for meat if there is no fruit to pick, and vice versa. For hunters, you can pick between prioritising carnivores or herbivores. Furthermore, you can grab fully-trained hunters to follow you and they will attack whatever you attack – team effort!

Below is a diagram showing the mini-hud that we’ve designed. Please tell us what you think, and make any suggestions if you like. Speaking of suggestions, I’ve created a page that you can access on the right if you want to make general suggestions about Caveman Craig 2. This is just so we don’t clutter the blog section with comments about the suggestions. I’ll also put in a list suggestions that have already been made.

Caveman Craig 2 - Mini Hud Concept

Thanks!
Rhys

Caveman Craig v1.5 plans

When Caveman Craig 1.0 came out the game was very hard and people played for a long long time. Unfortunately, Tim and I made the game a little too easy as versions past and now a lot of people are saying that they found the game pretty boring once they got 10 or so hunters. I want a strong replay value on Caveman Craig, so as a result Tim and I will be working on version 1.5 in the next week or so. Luckily, making the game more difficult is just a matter of tweaking. However, if you guys have any ideas on how we can make the game more difficult without adding much / anything (just tweaking), feel free to comment here!

In other news, I’ve recreated the AI for the hunter, preparer, and gatherer for Caveman Craig 2. In caveman craig 1, I made many holes in the AI that would cause them to act strangly, and as we were very restricted with time I patched up the holes by adding more code, not modifying the current code. So this made the AI a little less efficient (though effective). In CC2, I have made sure the AI is programmed efficiently in a manner where no ‘holes’ / bugs are produced. So far, so good – all cavemen are working perfectly with old and new features. Tim and I really appreciate your suggestions, guys. We’re reading them through and bringing many of them to the table to discuss. Some of them are a little too much concept for too little gameplay, but we’ll of course consider them all.

Concept Art and Screenshots for CC2 soon!!
Rhys

I’ve created a monster!! + Dinosaur List for CC2

Today I recreated the Gatherer AI. I’m quite surprised to see that he is running around doing things as he should without too much testing – I slimmed down the code (HEAPS) from the other game, optimised it, and modified it to fit the new engine, and after a few quick fixes he’s happily dragging carcasses around and ripping out berries.

I’ve centralised the actions and code between Craig and other cavemen so that conflicts and visual flaws are minimised. Instead of gatherers having a unique code for walking and ducking that’s different to Craig, they simulate key presses according to their actions, to ensure they act just like Craig does. For instance, a caveman can no longer move unless his image is the walking animation – there is no exceptions. The restrictions on when they can perform certain actions is very strict, and clear, and I’ve filled gaps to ensure that a caveman doesn’t stop doing things just because he is too restricted. This also assures minimal redundancy of code and faster performance.

In other news, I’ve laid down a pretty good idea of what dinosaurs we’ll be implementing into Caveman Craig 2. At the moment, there are 5 herbivores, and 5 carnivores, plus a few ‘background dinosaurs’ that will be present but not on the actual battlefield.

Herbivores
Stegosaurus – Huge and hard to take down.
Pachycephalosaurs – A fiesty herbivore who charges into anyone who attacks him.
Triceratops – He’s back and more irritating this time!
Parasaurolophus – The loudest dinosaur ever discovered. These guys run in herds and are hard to hit.
“Herbivore” – No scientific name as such. This is the green dinosaur you see in the original Caveman Craig.

Carnivores
Velociraptor – They still leap on you, and they still eat you.
Allosaurus – A taste of the t-rex. Eats cavemen whole, but is a bit slower in its attack (though runs fast).
Compsognathus – Attacks cavemen in huge packs and hangs until either they or the caveman dies.
Tyrannosaurus Rex – This big ol’ grumpy beast still roams the prehistoric land in CC2.
Dilophosaurus (Jurassic Park style) – A bit like a frilled-neck-lizard except freaking scary, and spits poison at cavemen.

Also present – brachiosaurus, pterodactyl.

I am still going through all the suggestions you guys have (and good suggestions they are) to revise the list.