- Grim Earth : Release Day! - 15 October 2021
I can't quite believe it, but Grim Earth has just left Early Access, after two and half years ... it's nice to see the game's store page without the Early Access branding! I'm delighted with the game, it feels like the right time to release the full version. Of course I intend to keep working/polishing and bug fixing, but yeah, feels good : D Please let me know what you think if you play it ... and if you like the game and have a way to mention it somewhere, please do. I have a sense that this may be one of the quietest game launches of all time! Isn't it supposed to appear somewhere on Steam now that it's launched? Hmm, 20 other games released today are appearing, but not Grim Earth. Will wait an hour or two, and then full on panic! All the best everyone :D George
- Release Date : 44th September! - 29 September 2021
EDIT : Sorry, but the game's delayed one more day. Now releasing on Friday Oct 15th! I'm really sorry ... but I'll have to delay the release of Grim Earth by two weeks (Oct 14) : ( I'm working on things that could possibly wait for an update, but with so many games coming out I feel it's important for the game to make the best first-impression it can. The Steam launch might be the game's only shot, which is kind of terrifying! It's all play testing and level polishing from now till launch, adding lots of hidden stuff : D Thank you! George
- 0.96.0 Update Notes - 19 September 2021
A quick pre-release update that tweaks the gameplay speed (just a fraction), has improved sound/music and introduces radios ... some of which you can carry : D
- 30th September 2021 - 31 August 2021
To everyone who bought the Early Access, thank you for your patience and for your feedback! This game took me way longer than I thought it would ... in fact, it's just gone over the five year mark! I've updated all the assets on Steam (well, for my game at least) and even the trailer says September so it must be true : ) The game is in a releasable state right now, although I'll be revisiting the audio and I'm frantically trying to reach out to anyone who might review the game. Even made a press kit : https://Grim.Earth/Press.htm All the best! George
- 0,95,2 : Quick bug fix - 21 August 2021
Fixes a crash on load due to old keyboard config data.
- Updated build with 'Spoilers'!? - 19 August 2021
Hello : ) I've just uploaded a new Early Access build, which features the latest gameplay/graphics. Although there are fewer levels in this build, I've included a Spoilers option which lets you try out later levels, set in locations which have not been seen before. The game is 100% feature complete. I've just added a close-up of the watch (the one Hub appears in), mainly so I can have a scanner which lets you know what things are/do, rather than have Hub explain everything ... he'd gotten a little explainy : ) I know I say this a lot, but the game really is near completion ... almost to the point where I could just release it and be happy. Going to give myself a month to try generate some interest though! Thanks again for your patience : ) George
- Update & Release Date/Price - 12 June 2021
Hello : D The game's going well, still developing it full time! I've been working on levels for the last few weeks, continually playing the game and fixing/polishing things as I find them. There's been zero mods/refactors made to the engine, so I think it's finally stable enough to make games ; ) I've decided to add a few things that I was going to leave as updates. There are three new locations (ice, meat, worm), hidden levels, challenge/timed sections, arenas, shops, hidden items/collectables and I've added mist/fog/backgrounds to most levels ... there are 135 of them. So, it really is almost time to release Grim Earth. With this in mind I'll be setting the final price next Monday, which will give me a month before I'll be able to release the game. I'm going to use this as a deadline, so I guess mid July is the date! Anyway, with the price going up x3, now's a great time to grab Grim…
- Grim Earth == Beta : D - 22 February 2021
Hey, as you may have just read ... Grim Earth has reached its Beta : D I've finished the last section of the game (!) and played through the whole thing, title screen to title screen (!!) ... there's no placeholder art and everything worked (!!!) It really feels like a different game all of a sudden, I can now see it as a whole, a complete entity. It's suddenly obvious what needs to been improved, added, subtracted, and what just needs leaving alone. This means I can now develop the game as a series of polishing passes. Start with the obvious stuff, and use finer and finer grains until it's done. For example, I just updated the clouds on all levels (based on a new technique I used for the end levels) and everything suddenly looks 14.3% better. It's going to be a few weeks yet, but from past experience I know the game will just say to me one day ... 'I'm done!' ... although I have a bunc…
- Grim Earth : Getting there ... - 11 December 2020
Hello : ) First, I hope all who read this have had the best 2020 possible, it's been a strange year for sure. I'm sorry for the complete lack of updates. I have been working on Grim Earth full time, the whole year, it's just that I'm maybe too focused on the development side of things and don't take enough time to talk about the game. Four Years ... ... is a long time. I've written 15 games as an indie, several of which took a year. Grim Earth is now four years old (what!?), it wasn't supposed to take this long! I guess the problem is I'm thinking of Grim Earth as a series of games. This means the game engine has to be spot on. I can't be working on the third game and need to change something that breaks multiple games. So, a lot of this year has been spent on the engine and its multiple editors. For example, I've used the same particle effects code for fifteen years. A month ago, I dec…
- It's derelict spaceship time ... in space! - 19 October 2019
It's finally here, the second section of Grim Earth! It was great to get such nice feedback when Grim Earth first launched ... I really hope you like this follow-up section. It's quite different, mainly because for most of it you're floating around, a bit odd for a platformer. The next section has been designed, but as I mentioned in my last post, I wont get sucked into creating a bunch of temporary levels this time. So, in a month's time, someone please tell me to release what's currently available and I should be able to! (Disclaimer ... unless I'm not able to). Finally ... I have no idea of how to find an audience for this game. So if you like it, please consider mentioning it to a friend, or leaving a quick review. Thank you : ) George
- It's been a long time ... - 2 October 2019
Hello, I'm happy to report the second section of Grim Earth is done : D It's definitely taken me longer than I'd hoped and I am sorry for this. I've learned a few important lessons along the way which should lead to more frequent updates going forward. The main lesson I learned is ... don't block out the levels! I'd blocked out all the levels early on, to get an idea of the second section's flow. The idea was to make multiple passes on these levels until they were done. But really, this hindered the game's development big time. I had given myself a whole load of boring looking, unfinished levels to get through before I could release an update : ( Going forward, I'm going to design/create/finish 2-3 levels at a time. This way the game will always be in a releasable state, so updates will be far more frequent and motivation should be easier to maintain. Here are a couple of screens and th…
- Space ... the second frontier! - 11 May 2019
Hello, here's a quick update on the second chunk of Grim Earth : ) https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33330935%2Fec61abb89b3d9f5a9ed565702038baa24c9ba5b9.jpg I've mainly been working on the graphics. Spaceships are tricky, there's a lot of straight edges so it's easy to make them look boring! I've got the first pass of the creatures working too. Decided to go with robots ... it is a sci-fi game after all, I just couldn't resist. All their weapons & effects are done and I'm really happy with the code which wraps caterpillar tracks around wheels, it's all self-animating too. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33330935%2Fb78d1642b315d7aae5e3aa843d9e6f600c23087e.jpg The engine is still behaving itself, just minor fixes. I did spend a couple of days adding 'defines' to the scripting language though. Now I don't have to remember what…
- 20% + 20% = 40% - 28 April 2019
First, thanks to everyone who purchased Grim Earth on its first week of Early Access, I really appreciate it ... Thank You! The launch took around three weeks in all, so this has been my first solid week of game dev in a while. I'm pleased (and a little relieved) to say it's gone great : ) I blocked in 23 brand new levels and have just played through the second section of the game. It took me 30 minutes, which isn't bad considering there are no bad guys or hidden areas yet ... and I know how the puzzles work! The engine is holding up, with no major changes or additions required. A large part of the last two years has been spent continually developing/upgrading the engine/editors ... so it's nice to finally be able to just use them to create. Next week is all about creatures and location art, so I'll have something new to show then. In the meantime, I've brightened up space (it was a lit…
- Action Update ... Yeah! - 19 April 2019
Got to say, I *really* like how easy it is to make updates on Steam : ) This must be my fifth update in the last week, but I thought I'd post about this one as it improves a few 'action' rated items : Firing while crouching is now more reliable : The spaceman doesn't like firing into walls, but the detection was slightly out and so crouch'n'fire was limited depending on the ground angle. Boss #3 : He's had several 'play fair' improvements and there's now a safe area to the right during his second stage. Again, this was intermittent, the area wasn't safe if he'd rotated in a certain way on the first stage ... it's the little things! Aiming accuracy : Most of the game has been re-written at least once since I started it. Today, it was the turn of aiming ... new and improved angle sums : D Accidental Stop'n'Fire : It takes more of an angle to stop and aim your weapon, so you're less likely…
- What's in the Early Access build? - 16 April 2019
Hey, as there's no Grim Earth demo I wanted to give an idea of what to expect from the Early Access build. There's a bunch of great playthrough videos on YouTube, but of course I'd recommend that it's best to play it ; ) The initial Early Access build includes the first location in its entirety. This represents roughly 20% of what is planned, and takes on average an hour to play through. I'm pricing the Early Access at $5 to reflect the current content/length and because I'd really like to you to play it : D I plan to release each location as it's completed, with the whole game receiving tweaks, updates & balancing as it nears completion. So yeah, there's a lot more story, creatures and locations to come! Thank you, George
- Grim Earth's first update! - 9 April 2019
Hey, I've just released the first Grim Earth update. The main difference is the CRT effects (scan lines and noise) now default to off. This makes the footage when streaming/recording a lot clearer. I've also made it so your health doesn't regenerate by itself as seen in some early gameplay footage. This makes collecting health packs *far* more enjoyable. The trailer and screens have also been updated using the Early Access levels/graphics, hope you like them! It's just a week till release ːsteamhappyː George
- Early Access is Done :D - 1 April 2019
Okay, so the game's taken a lot longer than I'd hoped, but the first section is done and it'll be available on Steam any day now ... some six months after the release date! Most of the delay has been down to me improving the engine, making it easier for me to produce new content/levels going forwards. Each time I'd settle down to finish the game, I'd find a bunch of better ways of doing things, which would lead to a ton of coding. For the last month however, it's been just little changes to the code base, with all the effort going into the game itself ... so I'm pretty confident that it's time to release the Early Access build ːsteamhappyː Some new screens ... I couldn't resist adding some old-time CRT effects! George https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33330935%2Fb04f9ebc8856affc020550745594787c1a68fa78.jpg https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/pub…
