Oct 07

Alcad vs DeadZone Drifter, Part Two

Alcad continues her adventure in DeadZone Drifter, and actually succeeds at two things in a row! Could her luck be changing for the better?

Sep 21

GearHead Caramel v0.930: So Many Mecha Under The Hood

Wonderful Mecha Wednesday to you all! Today’s update looks minor, but again, there’s been a whole lot of work done that isn’t entirely visible yet. You can get v0.930 from all the usual places- Steam, itch.io, Patreon, and GitHub.

The most visible change in v0.930 is the addition of biography and badges tabs to the character display. Ever wonder what your merit badges do? Now you can find out.

I’ve been working on a new scenario, “Raid on Pirate’s Point”. It’s going to revisit some locations and characters from GH1. It is also going to introduce a new type of adventure to the GearHead series. It’s also planned to be the first adventure that I create entirely using the scenario editor. But it’s not finished. And I realized this morning that trying to finish it today would be, as we say in Newfoundland, about as stunned as me arse.

Hopefully, “Raid on Pirate’s Point” will be finished by next week. Thanks for your continued support. As usual, try it out and let me know what you think.

Sep 12

Alcad vs DeadZone Drifter, Part One

After completing Winter Mocha, Alcad is back to take on Deadzone Drifter. I really like how so far, absolutely nothing has gone right for this character. But she’s still a lot of fun to play.

Sep 07

GearHead Caramel v0.928: More Character Development!

Happy Mecha Wednesday! I realize that it used to be Mecha Monday, but I’m going to try releasing on Wednesday as a change for a while. Today’s update is fairly minor but adds a lot of useful stuff under the hood. You can get it from all the usual places- Steam, itch.io, Patreon, and GitHub.

Version 0.928 adds a new intro scenario for DeadZone Drifter and some new enemy character development plots. On the inside, there are some bugfixes, music caching, and generalized world maps. I’m hoping to release some new scenarios in the near future and these changes lay the infrastructure for that.

As usual, try it out and let me know what you think. And if you’re playing on Steam, please consider leaving a positive review!

Sep 03

GHC: Alcad vs the Blitzen

For the GearHead manual, I needed a picture of a randomly generated player character so I started up the game and took a screenshot of the first character I got. Also in the manual I mentioned that beginning players shouldn’t worry too much about customizing their character; just about anyone the random generator gives you is going to be alright. Well, the truth is that Alcad is not a great mecha pilot. She was a recon pilot who quit to become a pop star and was then forced to become a pilot again when her album bombed (no pun intended). But she is a fun character to play, and that’s something worthwhile in itself. Here’s a video of me playing through Winter Mocha with this 100% random character. Spoiler: Alcad emerges semi-victorious.

Aug 29

GearHead Caramel v0.927: Random Plots and I18n Starts

Happy Mecha Monday! Today’s update adds two big features: random plots and the beginnings of internationalization support. You can get it from all the usual places- Steam, itch.io, Patreon, and GitHub.

Random plots are events which are not directly connected to the core story of an adventure. They may be missions, odd jobs, or just actions taken by the people in town. I have even added the classic Cookies plot, with updated advice for GearHead Caramel.

The game can now use Japanese, Korean, and Chinese text. Nothing has been translated yet but the fact this works at all is a big thing. Probably some other languages that use non-Roman glyphs work as well. Currently the only use for this is in naming your character. The planned internationalization system will use csv databases to store text and will require a grammar and a language processor for each language to be added. I’ve been developing a random Korean name generator but the results so far have been mixed.

In case you can’t read Korean, that first name is “Whiskey”.

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

Aug 22

GearHead Caramel v0.925: Deadly Dungeon Developments

​​It’s Mecha Monday, which means a new release of GearHead Caramel! You can get it from all the usual places- Steam, itch.io, Patreon, and GitHub.

Version 0.925 adds some new stuff for dungeons. Every dungeon level now comes with at least one special feature- an encounter or room that is a little bit out of the ordinary. Some of these features will be good for your PC, while others will not be so good. In addition, many monsters now leave behind treasure- if you have the skill to take it. Characters who know the Wildcraft skill can harvest meat, pelts, and other valuable items from slain creatures. Scientists can disassemble robots and get a variety of useful items… or at least a pile of spare parts that might come in handy later.

In addition, there are some cosmetic improvements. New signs have been added for a number of businesses and other buildings. Restaurants and taverns now have tables and chairs (Dick Valentine would approve). Some new effects and animations have been added- you should try some of this giant rat steak, it’s delicious.

If you have the commercial version of the game, the manual has been updated with a section on modding GearHead Caramel. It’s a bit rudimentary yet but a good start is better than a bad end.

Aug 15

GHC v0.924: Pets! Mecha! Easier scrolling!

It’s two releases for the price of one! I was just preparing to release v0.923 when two fairly serious but easy to fix bug reports came in. So, we skip straight past v0.923 on to v0.924. You can get it from all the usual places- Steam, itch.io, Patreon, and GitHub.

The big change this time around is the addition of pets. Characters who know Wildcraft at rank 5 or more can now call an animal companion. You can only have one active animal companion per character at a time. I have not yet put a limit on how many animals you can have in your FieldHQ… but if you have too many, 1) you have only yourself to blame, and 2) you can dismiss the companions back to the wild.

I have also overhauled the map navigation. WASD now works to scroll the map display, and you can turn off mouse scrolling if you want to. While I was at it I moved all (hopefully) the key definitions to the config file so you can remap anything. In a future release I will add in-game key remapping but now is not that day.

Two new mecha have been added: the Luna II and the Puma. Tons of bugs have been fixed. As usual, try it out and let me know what you think.

Aug 08

GHC v0.920: Bear Bastard’s Mecha Camp

Version 0.920 of GearHead Caramel has just been released. You can get it from all the usual places- Steam, itch.io, Patreon, and GitHub.

The big addition this time around is a new tutorial- Bear Bastard’s Mecha Camp. Learn everything you need to know about the game (mostly) from one of Earth’s most notorious bandits (reformed, mostly). It’s a short, fun adventure that walks you through all of the controls for exploration and combat. Plus, you get to spend the night in a wooden cabin on the edge of the dead zone. A cabin that may be infested with rats. Or worse. A good time will be had by all.

This release also adds jumping- mecha with jump jets can now use them to instantly leap over terrain. In addition, mecha designs that were jump-capable in previous GearHead games have been updated so they are jump-capable now (the Haiho, Phoenix, Trailblazer, and Zerosaiko). Note that this change is not retroactively applied to mecha you already own; you might want to hold onto those old versions, in case they become collector’s items.

Aug 03

GHC Interview in Game*Spark

I have been interviewed by Game*Spark in Japan about GearHead Caramel. I can’t read Japanese, but the Google translated version of my answers seems pretty accurate.