Thanks for keeping an eye on this project and your constant support, with likes and comments. You are both fine, fine orcs and it has been a pleasure to share the battles with you!
5 Likes
Just waiting to support you with cold hard cash
6 Likes
Shiny shiny loot! 
I shall bury it in a nice hole in the garden!
EDIT:
I have a quick question for anyone who is a veteran of this here CoG games!
One of the things I need to do for publishing is to list a few other titles people like which may lead them to like this game (similar type games).
Any ideas?
7 Likes
You could definitely draw comparisons to any of the Mike Walter projects. I would say Life of a Wizard is the closest comparison I could make with a somewhat similar fantasy/medieval style setting and life sim style, though I donât think it has quite as epic a story as the Green Emperor path.
There are some similarities to Stronghold: A Heroâs Fate in the developing of a town parts in the Holy City route, though I feel they are much more in depth in your game.
2 Likes
You developed a masterpiece, and once the game gets released and is in high demand. You might be able to expand it with DLCs. Really looking forward to this, praise you and Krog for this masterpiece
3 Likes
Hi Lance,
Those will be good to add to the âsimilarâ titles sections I need to prepare, particularly Life of a Wizard. Any âlife-simulatorâ fantasy fare sounds appropriate though it would also be good to add a âsimilar gameâ example which hints at the epic arc too.
Hi Patrick,
Thanks, Patrick, this means a lot coming from someone who has been here since the early days. I will certainly look to releasing DLC (as opposed to normal âtinkeringâ updates) if the demand is there.
QUICK UPDATE- New checkpoint system, (Not on DashingDon)
-I have added a checkpoint system, which cannot be used on DashingDon but will be in the finished game.
I tried to add a player-named save system but it didnât work out. However, I think the new checkpoint system is even better.
At certain points in the game, a checkpoint will be made automatically. Once the checkpoint is activated, youâll be able to reload to it at any point when you die- or at the various hubs in the game.
More than this, the hub sections of the game will allow the player to make an ongoing progress save.
This means that, for example, if you grow to be a young orc and then spend several in-game years making a strong warrior, saving along the way, you can always reload to when you first became a young orc if you decide to, instead, make a shaman or Big Belly. Your ongoing save here can be overwritten but youâll always have the checkpoint to revert to at the beginning of your young orc run.
You will have these save/reload options in the hub areas in the tribal camp (young, mature and old orcs), at the Royal Adventurers Guild, Shuflaâs fighting pits, various points in the war chief path and the city hub for shamans.
On top of this, checkpoint saves will be made throughout, which can reloaded. For example, the Dark Path does not contain a hub but has a few points where a checkpoint save is automatically saved. You will be able to reload to any of these if you die.
In all, there are (at least) 24 checkpoints, several of the hub saves can be used as ongoing save slots.
6 Likes
Morning, was going through the guild and orc king paths and the picture of silent grimm and the art the artist does doesnt show up
2 Likes
Hi Q,
I have reloaded those pictures. The code here hasnât changed. I have noticed that, sometimes, DashingDon doesnât display images, which should be there, until I reload them.
I have noticed this happens when I load updates which sometimes donât pick up on an old image. Over the past month, I have reuploaded files many, many times.
This happened often with the green blob map- although this was partly due to missing images, which should have been resolved since the proofreading update. Perhaps this is an issue with this game using lots of images (mostly for the green blob map).
Please let me know if this happens again and I will reupload the images, just in case it hits upon a larger issue.
Good hunting!
1 Like
Looks like its all good now, thanks for the speedy udate, all-mighty ork
1 Like
Hi orcs,
Part of preparing my game, to send to Hosted Games, is to write an âelevator pitchâ style description, used in tweets and promos. It must be a maximum of 45 characters (including spaces). Best practise is to write a load of these for Hosted Games to pick the best. I do find it hard!
Here are some things I have cooked up but want to try and get about 20.
Crush. Kill. Maim. Eat. Do what orcs do best!
Feast and pick your tusks. Or become a god!
20% Grub. 30% Glory. 50% Slaughter. 100% Orc.
Can you unite the orcs and crush the world?
Lead your clan in world-conquering slaughter.
Be happy to hear any orcsome ideas from those who have played and enjoyed the game.
EDIT: I like the one with the percentages but am not savvy at promo stuff.
16 Likes
Hi all!
As you know, I have been working on knocking together the text to be used as descriptions and promos for my game. I cobbled together this for the complete, full, game description, in the style of Hosted Games and Choice of Games releases.
Thoughts and feedback are very welcome!
Full Description
Called stupid brutes, orcs are hated and looked down upon by all the GITS! If only an orc could unify the clans and turn the hordes against their enemies. Harness your might, and the power of gods and demons, to remake the world in the visage of an orc!
âAn Unexpectedly Green Journeyâ An Orc Life Simulatorâ is an interactive novel by James Isaac. Itâs entirely text-basedâ1.5 million words, without graphics or sound effectsâand fuelled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
Born in the baked, dusty plains, you emerge into a world of stagnation and decline. Orcs simmer in this backwater, a hopeless people dismissed as culturally stunted, irrelevant barbarians. Once, an age ago, orcs had the briefest glint of a place in the sun, only to fall before the united forces of the world. What hope have you to ever make something of your life beyond scrabbling for meagre survival?
But the fates have conspired and presented you with an opportunity. The elves are in perpetual retreat to match their ever-diminishing forests. The time of dwarven glory has long passed. The great human empire totters on the edge of decadence and the unravelling of the traditions of their ancestors. Demons tempt those of wayward faith. Worse, there are whispers and sightings of something far more sinister stirring in the Ashland to the westâŚ
The world slumbers fitfully before the tantalizing tendrils of an encroaching nightmare. Someone needs to kick this world awake, wring its neck, roar in its face and hack at it with an axe before eating it! IT IS TIME FOR THE ORCS TO RISE AGAIN!
From the moment you first open your eyes to the instance of your last croaking breath, you will take the role of a mighty orc. Become anything from a bone idle glutton fit only to be forgotten, to the ruler of the greatest empire the world has ever seen. Wield your influence and connections to build mighty armies or a holy city. Usher in an age of peace or demonic devastation. Make a mess and eat a load of halfling offal!
- Explore an open world full of danger, opportunity and adventure.
- Grow your orc through every stage of their life, from the moment of birth, through childhood to adolescence, youth to maturity and, finally, into old age.
- Raid rival warbands riding atop your ferocious boar.
- Master the arts of a shaman. Wield the will and magic of the orc god to build and manage a Holy City and breach the realm of divinity.
- Succumb to temptation and devote your soul to the Powers Beyond and Below. Weave demonic taint across the world and burn it to a cinder as you become the Dark Lord itself.
- Devote your life to gluttony and join the fabled Big Bellies in epic feats of gut-busting consumption.
- Fight in arenas across the land to earn wealth and glory. Perhaps, one day, you will rise as a grand champion.
- Join an adventuring guild and go questing with a party of brave heroes across the land.
- Rise to become the chief of your tribe, the king of all orcs or the emperor of an entire continent. Then face off against a final threat which challenges even the power of an emperor.
- Command vast armies, with a diversity of units, and crush other orcs. But, more importantly, crush dwarves, elves, humans and halflings too!
- Or live a life of simple mediocrity and leave all the fighting to the stupid gits who want to die young.
20% Grub. 30% Glory. 50% Slaughter. 100% Orc.
18 Likes
With how big it is, the stats screen really should be broken up into multiple pages, one covering your main stats, one covering your relationships with other races, so on and so forth. Right now, itâs all on one massive screen, and itâs kind of overwhelming
1 Like
Hi Sujan,
The stats screen does grow as you get further into the game. It also breaks up on some paths and gives you an extra screen to view.
The orc stats and relationship stats are common to all paths, so I would like them to stay on the main stat screen- along with the map.
Iâll have a look at putting the battle record on another screen as that can add up and take up a lot of space- perhaps also the arena record.
I always enjoyed reviewing a characterâs activities in various games I played and put quite a bit of detail into showing this in some of the stats. Breaking it up a bit seems like a good idea- Iâll see if I can do it simply, without messing around with the game too much.
5 Likes
A written description of the map would be nice, for screen reader users who canât view it
1 Like
Hi Sujan,
I already describe the continent in the political map section, available from the stats screen.
EDIT:
I like the idea of moving the arena fights and battles to another screen. Have done this- although it will not be on DashinDon as the new checkpoint system is incompatible with it.
EDITEDIT:
Due to the size of the game I have converted almost all the images into jpgs. This had resulted in a loss of quality BUT this in facts adds (IMO) to the ;old schoolâ Fighting Fantasy style of much of the inspiration. A bit 16bit rpgish.
The original emperor picture.
The reduced quality jpg one,
Now, I know no one will be interested in this story for my art, it is merely a flavouring to the whole meal, but I thought I would give a heads-up.
Last year the game ballooned to 700MB. I reduced all the images and got it down to 375MB.
Now, the game is 200MB.
12 Likes
great game i got my orc to godhood without being a total chaos god
1 Like
Thanks for playing. Glad you enjoyed your rise to green divinity! There are also other paths to explore, when you get time.
UPDATE:
After much fiddling, the full game is now down to a more manageable size.
The game is now 81MB, so a massive reduction in disk space and data for phone users.
10 Likes
Is this reflected on the dashingdon demo? If you want, I can play thorugh the game and see how those pictures look on my iphone, if you want a fresh pair of eyes. (Iâm kinda burned out on writing, so I need a break anyway).
3 Likes
Thatâs some massive optimisation. Well done.
2 Likes
Thanks for the offer. They are not on DashingDon. I can no longer use DashingDon as the new checkpoint system is not supported there.
DashingDon still has the whole game, with crisper images, but lacking the new checkpoint system, various typo fixes, a few bug fixes and a slight reconfiguration of the stats screen.
The images are of a noticeably reduced quality but are still serviceable. I have zoomed right into them on my pc and think they are okay.
I wonder if it is possible to have 2 download links at some point, for the finished game- one with crisper images but a larger data footprint and the smaller version?
I mean, the images are not necessary to play the game but I made them and think they add a little enjoyment and wouldnât want to remove them.
When I posted the size of the game I was met with shock. It is a lesson learned. I have never been a phone gamer and didnât pay enough regard to the expectations of that market.
I am not sure of the size of the average finished product on phones. Choice of the Deathless and the first two Infinity-verse games are over 200MB on Steam, but then putting a game on Steam, where size is not a problem, is different than on phones.
Feel a bit shocked by it all but it is a good learning experience for if I write a future game in CS.
Once I get an answer to a query sent to HG Iâll be ready to submit the game now.
7 Likes