Cubicle Quest - my newest game (now on Steam!)

[uc pseudonym]

EDIT: The game is on Steam:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/349500/

A fair number of members here played my previous two games, so I thought I'd let you know about my most recent effort. Hopefully I'll be forgiven for doing this one via Kickstarter, since I didn't make this one solely with free resources:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/10 ... icle-quest


(yes, that is art from Mav)

The Debt Alliance swept over the kingdom without warning. Suddenly Free Time Mountain and Hobby Oasis were lost, and the debt monsters were attacking the walls of Castle Sanity itself.

Cubicle Quest is a game about how life can suck. Dead end jobs, repetitive obligations, irritating coworkers... Cubicle Quest takes all of those things and turns them into enemies you can fight in an old-school RPG.

This isn't a bunch of financial advice repackaged as a game, and it's not going to hit you over the head with lectures. The enemy in the video is about as blunt as it gets: kill "Unpaid Bill" enemies fast, or they turn into nastier "Late Fee" enemies.Your skills and elements boil down to a few intuitive categories, so I think it makes for a fun RPG experience even if you don't care about the financial foundation.

But at least part of the fun is the ability to take a character from deeply in debt to a more fulfilling life. In real life, even if you have things under control, your finances can move pretty slowly paycheck to paycheck and it can take years to attain some goals. Cubicle Quest packages the feelings of moving up in life into a fun gaming experience.

I waited to post until after we'd made our goal. If anyone is interested, great, but if not, that's fine. If you were a beta tester on my previous games and want this one without contributing to the Kickstarter, send me a PM and I'd be happy to send you the game.

[Xeno]

Deffo gonna get in on this.

[GeneD]

Congratulation on getting funded. I'm curious, apart from places like Steam or Desura and of course the Kickstarter backers, what do you have planned in terms of distribution?

[uc pseudonym]

Deffo gonna get in on this.

Thanks!

Congratulation on getting funded. I'm curious, apart from places like Steam or Desura and of course the Kickstarter backers, what do you have planned in terms of distribution?

A few other small channels and GOG.com if I can manage it. What specifically are you interested in?

[goldenspines]

Mav's art and a new game project from UC? I must be dreaming. \(*u*)/

It also makes me happy that you are well on your way to your first stretch goal. I hope to contribute soon if I can.

Also, this is making me not regret finally downloading Steam. I look forward to seeing how the project progressed and eagerly await the release date.

[uc pseudonym]

Mav's art and a new game project from UC? I must be dreaming. \(*u*)/

It also makes me happy that you are well on your way to your first stretch goal. I hope to contribute soon if I can.

Also, this is making me not regret finally downloading Steam. I look forward to seeing how the project progressed and eagerly await the release date.

I hope I didn't give the impression the game is going to be mostly Mav's art - we'd love to collaborate on a serious project, but her work is consuming way too much of her time for that.

Anyway, glad you're interested. The game won't require Steam in any way (in fact, getting it on Steam at all might not be possible).

[GeneD]

A few other small channels and GOG.com if I can manage it. What specifically are you interested in?

Mmm not specifically interested per se, I really was just curious what encompasses indie game distribution between something like Steam and "I'm part of a forum where I'll post a media fire link".

[uc pseudonym]

Mmm not specifically interested per se, I really was just curious what encompasses indie game distribution between something like Steam and "I'm part of a forum where I'll post a media fire link".

It's something I need to do more research on, truthfully, but I think the basic options are more or less set.

Big Channels: Steam, GOG.com
Medium-sized Channels: Desura and others*
Specialized Channels: Kickstarter, Amaranth Games
Direct Sales: Selling your game directly is a complication but it's been done by plenty of people from their personal websites.

*There are quite a few, but I've read that it can become more trouble than it's worth to maintain a game across a bunch of different channels.

[Peanut]

Finally a game that allows me to forget about how mundane my life is by letting me live out someone else's mundane life! Definitely backing this.

[uc pseudonym]

Looks like I'm going to pass more milestones fairly soon, in part thanks to those of you who pledged. Glad to find people interested in this project and looking forward to releasing it.

Finally a game that allows me to forget about how mundane my life is by letting me live out someone else's mundane life! Definitely backing this.

Thanks!

[uc pseudonym]

I may have gotten everyone I wanted to contact here, but in case I've missed anyone: the campaign has entered its final four days. I've opened up alternate payment options if anyone doesn't like Kickstarter or Amazon. All pledge levels are available via alternate methods as well.

I have enough to at least break even on a hobby I enjoy. We'll see whether or not it goes any higher at the end, but I'm satisfied.

[uc pseudonym]

As backers know, we far exceeded our goal. Now comes the last promise I made during the Kickstarter campaign: attempting a Steam Greenlight campaign. This will be far more difficult, but here it is:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =303370285

[Sheenar]

I'm sorry I missed this somehow. This looks like fun! Voted for it on Steam.

[uc pseudonym]

Thanks. We've passed 1000 yes votes, so unless the rate drops off massively, things don't look as impossible as I thought at first.

[Peanut]

Just want to say I've been thoroughly enjoying this game as well as solving my debt problems through sandwiches.

[Sheenar]

Loved playing the demo! Plan to get the full version soon.

[GeneD]

I haven't gotten around to playing yet, but have enjoyed watching some of the Peanut's vods, which will probably help me tons when I eventually start playing. Is that cheating?

[uc pseudonym]

We're making slow progress on Greenlight. Unless I get a spike of traffic from somewhere, it will be a race between the trickle of votes and whenever Valve closes down the whole Greenlight process.

@Peanut: Thanks - the Sandwich strategy is getting nerfed whenever the next update percolates, though. I messed up the selling prices, so it ended up being way more effective than anticipated.

@Sheenar: Glad to hear, thanks!

@GeneD: No more cheating than for any other game, I'd think. Hope you enjoy it.

[Peanut]

Curses. I was hoping to use my sandwhich empire to put my kids through college.

It definitely needs a nerf since as it stands you can fix all your debt in a little over an hour after you get to societyville however I think the more broken part of it is the fact that you can make unlimited things during a single month of game time. Its also just a bit silly. I'm not sure if you could implement this without any other problems (or if you would have the time), but a cap to restrict how many items you can make in a month. It doesn't have to be too complicated either, you can just have time advance a month after you hit the cap. This way the player can still feel like he's an entrepreneur establishing his own virtual Jimmy Johns while dealing with the reality that there is a limit to how much you can produce at any time. I'm saying this also because I'm assuming there are other items that can be produced later in the game that make you more of a profit if you mass produce them so if that's not the case then ignore my idea.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Voting cause I'm all about meta-games and stuff.

[uc pseudonym]

Curses. I was hoping to use my sandwhich empire to put my kids through college.

It definitely needs a nerf since as it stands you can fix all your debt in a little over an hour after you get to societyville however I think the more broken part of it is the fact that you can make unlimited things during a single month of game time. Its also just a bit silly. I'm not sure if you could implement this without any other problems (or if you would have the time), but a cap to restrict how many items you can make in a month. It doesn't have to be too complicated either, you can just have time advance a month after you hit the cap. This way the player can still feel like he's an entrepreneur establishing his own virtual Jimmy Johns while dealing with the reality that there is a limit to how much you can produce at any time. I'm saying this also because I'm assuming there are other items that can be produced later in the game that make you more of a profit if you mass produce them so if that's not the case then ignore my idea.

There are more profitable items, but none are as easy to mass-produce as sandwiches. Still debating which of several fixes to include in the final update.

Voting cause I'm all about meta-games and stuff.

Meta is one thing this game definitely is.

[Peanut]

Relevant fanart (credit to AnteBellum I believe).

[Sammy Boy]

Fantastic effort uc!

[Peanut]

So I ran into a rather frustrating, game ending glitch that I figured I'd report here. Basically, I went to buy a house, succeeded and then the game froze. I couldn't move I couldn't access the menu or anything. The game literally locked up. I tried to buy a different house and got the same result. Here is the vod from the end of my stream that shows the problem. The only thing I can think of is that I fought one of those bosses on the top floor of this area (the one that lets you move to a cheaper area) and maybe its causing some sort of weird conflict or something. Really not sure though.

[uc pseudonym]

Okay, sorry I've been away for a while. Greenlight situation is the same as it was two posts back.

Thanks to AnteBellum and Sammy Boy!

So I ran into a rather frustrating, game ending glitch that I figured I'd report here. Basically, I went to buy a house, succeeded and then the game froze. I couldn't move I couldn't access the menu or anything. The game literally locked up. I tried to buy a different house and got the same result. Here is the vod from the end of my stream that shows the problem. The only thing I can think of is that I fought one of those bosses on the top floor of this area (the one that lets you move to a cheaper area) and maybe its causing some sort of weird conflict or something. Really not sure though.

Which version of the game are you playing? I know what this bug is (it's actually a weird and involved issue with different relationship conditions), but I'm pretty sure I fixed it multiple versions ago. Desura should have the newest version, but it doesn't update your copy automatically. You can also dodge the bug by not buying a house at all (second top floor boss).

[Peanut]

Which version of the game are you playing? I know what this bug is (it's actually a weird and involved issue with different relationship conditions), but I'm pretty sure I fixed it multiple versions ago. Desura should have the newest version, but it doesn't update your copy automatically. You can also dodge the bug by not buying a house at all (second top floor boss).

I haven't updated from release so probably 1.0. I'll download the update from Desura sometime soon.

[uc pseudonym]

It took a long time, but eventually we worked our way into the top ten games on Steam Greenlight, at which point it was accepted by Valve, and now the game is released on Steam:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/349500/

If you enjoyed the game and have a Steam account, I'd much appreciate if you left a review of your thoughts on the game. It doesn't have to be long or in-depth, just honest.

[IPv4]

It took a long time, but eventually we worked our way into the top ten games on Steam Greenlight, at which point it was accepted by Valve, and now the game is released on Steam:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/349500/

If you enjoyed the game and have a Steam account, I'd much appreciate if you left a review of your thoughts on the game. It doesn't have to be long or in-depth, just honest.

If someone buys your game, how much of the money goes to steam and how much goes to you?

[uc pseudonym]

I'm not allowed to disclose the exact information, but Steam takes a sizable minority of the profits.

[ClaecElric4God]

Oooooh. I must try this.