Sep 18

GearHead Caramel v0.956: A Minor But Important Update

I’ve just uploaded GearHead Caramel v0.956. You can get it from all the usual places- Steam, itch.io, and GitHub.

This version corrects some bugs that were discovered last week. It also adds two new eyecatch cards by the amazing cartoonist Radou, and some sound + portrait improvements from Anton Risberg. Here’s the complete list of changes:

  • Added two new eyecatch cards by Radou
  • Fixed AutoJoiner/AutoLeaver crash at world creation
  • Plots may now modify cutscenes
  • Added checkout sound fx to shop
  • Some portrait bits tweaked by Anton Risberg
  • Fixed crash if no boss monster generated for The Night Stalker plot
  • Fixed numbers typo in DZD Wujung entry cutscene
  • Fixed bug where campaign would remain in memory after quitting because of pbge.my_state.view

As usual, try it out and let me know what you think.

Sep 13

GearHead Caramel v0.955: Just One More Thing

I just made a quick bugfix release. Some old save files were broken because of a “deactivate_on_win” bug; that should now be fixed. You can get v0.955 from all the usual places- Steam, itch.io, and GitHub.

Sep 12

GearHead Caramel v0.954: Dangerous Dungeon and Display Stuff

I’ve just released GearHead Caramel v0.954. You can get it from all the usual places- Steam, itch.io, and GitHub. This version makes dungeons slightly more dangerous- personal scale damage has been increased, and certain monsters are more likely to hit your characters. Some new equipment has been added to shops to help you deal with these new threats.

Another change is the addition of a config option to indicate your party members on the map. No more will you enter a building and wondering who’s on your team and who isn’t. If you don’t like it, you can turn off the indicators from the config menu.

Plus, there are a bunch of smaller changes. Multiple bugs have been fixed. Carrying capacity is now shown in the backpack display (for characters- you can load your mecha with gear until it can’t even move). There are some new portrait bits. Here’s the complete list of changes:

  • Carrying capacity now shown for characters in backpack display
  • Athletics skill now increases carrying capacity
  • Right and left keys can be used to scroll through lancemates in inventory interface
  • Increased damage of personal scale attacks
  • Rebalanced some monsters to make them more dangerous
  • Added config option to indicate lance members on map
  • Fixed music volume bug
  • Added some new portrait bits
  • Fixed crash if PC name has space or special character in it

As usual, try it out and let me know what you think. Thanks to everyone who reported bugs and/or requested features.

 

Sep 05

GearHead Caramel v0.952: Hacker’s Delight

I’ve just released GearHead Caramel v0.952. You can get it from all the usual places- Steam, itch.io, and GitHub.

The biggest change this time around is the help system- while using the combat/skills interface, pressing F1 will now bring up a helpful panel explaining what the invocation you’re looking at actually does. The same text appears in the mouseover tooltip so whether you use keyboard or mouse you will get more information than before.

The Wildcraft “Take Cover” ability has been changed to “Stalk Prey”. While in effect, your character gets a bonus to their cover modifier and enemy units you target get a penalty to theirs.

The Computers skill now has Hacking abilities. These abilities can be used whether or not the mecha you’re in has an EW system. Your Computers skill must be at least rank 3 before these skills will appear.

I’ve fixed a lot of bugs. Thank you to everyone who reported problems.

Aug 26

GearHead Caramel v0.951: Of Course There Were Bugs

Bugfix update v0.941 has just been released. You can get it from all the usual places- Steam, itch.io, and GitHub.

Aug 23

GearHead Caramel v0.950: Our Gamedev is not Permadead Yet!

I’ve just uploaded version 0.950 of GearHead Caramel. You can get it from all the usual places- Steam, itch.io, and GitHub. This is the first release of 2023, and I have to tell you, being sick really really sucks. But giant robots? Giant robots are always good.

Lots of bugs have been fixed. In fact, as far as I know, every bug that has been reported to me has been repaired. Game balance has been adjusted and certain abilities from previous GearHead games have been added. The Scylla mecha from GH1 has been added. Enemy models now get indicated by a different info box style and targeting cursor. The accursed combat clock troll bug has been fixed.

As usual, try it out and let me know what you think. I hope to get back into making regular, smallish releases from now on. We’ll see how it goes.

Jul 02

Steam and itch Summer Sales

GearHead Caramel is 50% off during both the Steam and itch.io summer sales. Actually, everything is 50% off at my itch shop. Get it while it’s hot, as they say. Unless you’re in the southern hemisphere, in which case get it while it’s cold.

Mar 22

Half a Century of Joe: Our Gamedev is Still Broken

A picture of me holding up my pet hamster, Peanut.
I think I look pretty good for a fifty year old cartoonist/gamedev. And Peanut looks pretty good for a year-and-a-half old hamster.

It’s been a while since I’ve let you all know how I’m doing. After getting Covid and opportunistic bacterial pneumonia, I caught influenza at the end of December. This is when my troubles started. After that I had a bad case of asthma exacerbation, Covid brain fog, one case of acute sinusitis, a second case of sinusitis with simultaneous laryngitis, and finally, days after my 50th birthday, swimmer’s ear. I repeat, swimmer’s ear. I haven’t even gone swimming in months.

Because of the brain fog I was unable to work on GearHead for January, February, and most of March. It’s some scary stuff, let me tell you. Especially when it tag-teams with my other conditions. And being 50, I have a lot of other conditions.

As of this month, I’ve spent over half my life in South Korea. It’s a nice place. You should come for a vacation sometime.

Recently, the fog has started to clear and I’ve gotten back to work on GearHead Caramel. You can expect a new release soon… as long as I don’t catch any more weird diseases. I don’t really know what tennis elbow is but if my doctor told me I had it I would just nod my head and sigh.

So that’s what’s been happening. I hope all of you have been doing better than me. Stay tuned for new GearHead stuff soon.

Dec 15

GearHead Caramel v0.946: Our GameDev is Broken

Happy Techno Thursday! I’ve just uploaded version 0.946 of GearHead Caramel. You can get it from all the usual places- Steam, itch.io, and GitHub.

This update has been delayed by the fact that I’ve been seriously ill for the past month- first severe Covid 19, then an opportunistic lung infection, followed by my lungs just being stupid jerks because they are stupid jerks. If you want to hear all the gory details (and trust me, it gets gory) you can join the GearHead Discord.

The big new feature this time around is procedural cutscenes. Basically, this means that the cutscenes will be tailored specifically for your character’s history and lancemate relations. Right now there’s only one- the intro you get when entering Wujung for the first time in DeadZone Drifter. In the future, I intend to replace more of the old-style hardcoded cutscenes with procedural ones.

This release also improves pistols in personal scale combat. All pistols now have the Linked Fire attribute, so if you have two of the same pistol equipped you can fire with both of them at once. Plus, as usual there are a number of bug fixes. Thank you to everyone who has submitted bug reports and feature requests.

Nov 26

November 2022 Itch.io Creator Day Sale

For two more days, all the stuff at my itch.io shop is 42% off, or you can buy one of everything for $23. Even better (for me), during this period creators get 100% of the money. They should have called it the November 2022 Creator Four Days Sale but that isn’t so catchy.