itch.io

BARK! Hugely entertaining and clever, thank you!

Thank you for the encouragement! Yeah, I'm aware that the games I make tend to be pretty weird. Those who get them really like them, but once outside that niche my artistic decisions can come off as baffling.

Steam has a more mainstream audience than itch, so it makes sense that there's going to be more baffled people. I don't really care though, those people aren't who I make games for. They're for you.

The publisher (a small indie company) thought it was a good enough game that people who don't use itch or who like storing their games in their steam library would be willing to pay a few dollars for it. I for one appreciate the effort they put into the port and implementing controller support, as people had been asking me for those.

You don't need to get the Steam port if it's not valuable to you, that's perfectly fine. The thought of me giving my work out for free being called scummy by someone who benefited from it and then publicly badmouthed me is pretty funny though.

Thanks for playing. <3

I'm not sure if I'd call it abhorrent--most people charge for their work, after all--but admittedly changing the pay what you want system wasn't what I'd have preferred, either. For accessibility reasons, mainly; the idea of people getting emotionally attached to my stuff being free was more of a surprise.

Money isn't a big decider for me, really. What I got excited by was people in the industry thinking my work was good enough to be advertised as a proper game and sold on Steam. Working with a publisher is a big step for my dream of working as a solo game dev.

I'm not proud of relenting to the publisher's request to increase the itch price for at least the Steam launch to help them succeed. I did end up doing so though, and you can certainly call me spineless for that.

Honestly, I agree. When the publisher initially suggested adding a price, I was vehemently against it, mainly for reasons of accessibility and not invalidating the many people who have recommended it as a free game.

Right before the Steam release I was asked to reconsider changing it temporarily at least. I appreciate the trust and effort Monster Theatre has put into the Steam release of Mortholme, so I decided I should trust them in turn and help the launch. Evidently it hasn't been taken well, which I figured might be the case.

It'd be nice if I could've had better business plans from the start, but I just make games. No studio, no clue if people value what I make. Got to play it by the ear; this one was certainly a dissonant note.

64-bit, it should say so in the download instructions but I don't think itch displays those well. I feel your pain; some of my old 32-bit games have become unplayable on newer machines

It is not mine. I don't know who put it up.

You might be fine tbh; it's much less of a proper platformer than a narrative experience

It does not, sadly. I never thought to code controller support, it was added in by the publisher.

That's great to hear that you've been getting up to such wonderful things! All the best to your future!

Yeah, The Dark Queen of Mortholme took off a bit, didn't it :D It's nice when you keep making things you care about and it turns out other people care too.

Not in my current plans, no. I love each and every unexplored scenario players have come up with! But I'm happy enough to leave them as a space for your imagination to fill in, and continue working on my next game.

The mac version is for old 32-bit OS only, sadly. The files are gone so I can't update it, but I figured I'd leave this up just in case someone still can run it

Unity & .pngs. Yeah, it's not exactly a well-optimised game, early work

Yes! It has now been announced!

True, it's sad. But at least we've been there together.

Hearing that, I'm very glad to have made these games.

Time travel forward, my friend. One terrible day at a time towards a better future.

Godot

I have heard from others that they've experienced no issues with the Linux version. Low framerate has been a rare reported issue with all builds, though. I'm not sure what's causing it. Did it seem to get worse the longer the game was running?

Yes, only the areas that you've visited are drawn in the credit sequence.

Thoughtful meta, thank you!

I think the motivation behind writing little confirmation of whether the Queen will be able to resurrect or not after the game ends is because all the dialogue happens within the reign of the Dark Queen. Before it's over, before the status quo ceases to be, it's still bound to treat her capacity to change as an unknown.

You're absolutely right that the Queen's fate is left to the player; to their understanding of who or what she is and how metaphorical death is in this world, to their beliefs about change. It's a fair point that this uncertainty has potential to come off as a tad grim, perhaps moreso than I expected it would. Still, that freedom has resulted in a wide variety of interpretations, which has been fascinating for me and hopefully valuable for the players.

I feel you there. It's a story about change through the eyes of someone who cannot change; a story about hope from the point of someone who doesn't understand it. Importance highlighted through lack, if you will.

If it helps... I myself consider there to be meaning in the game ending the moment of the Queen's death. The game tells the story of the Dark Queen of Mortholme, but beyond its end the title is no more. I like to think that the person bound to that role is released from it.

Incredible. Look at her go

Yes. The capacity for change studied through the eyes of someone utterly incapable of it.

Thanks for the bug report, it's appreeciated! I'll look into the sticky hurt boxes. Do you mean that it's only the "stuck" hurt box that causes weird things to happen with the Hero health display, or does the latter happen in other situations too?

It's a linear game. There's one main ending, anything else is discouraged by the narrative.

I think I know what's happening there--the shift to second phase shift and the pacifist dialogue mess each other up. I'll fix that for the next patch, cheers!

One "canon" ending (with four different last words to end on), plus two alterate endings to cover for players who do unexpected things.

Super weird bug, I'll have to see if I can fix it. So this happened after killing the Hero during the dialogue that ends in "one more time"?

Oh and great writeup by the way! I enjoyed reading it

It's possible, yes. I wrote that alternate ending scenario to cover for the likelihood that someone will figure out a cheese strat, so that player ingenuity could be accounted for in a way that still supports the main story. It ended up being found almost immediately after launch--I've watched enough speedrunners to see that one coming.

Yes! It's a good one

It has been fixed now, so thank you again!

indeed

Thank you for the very thoughtful comment!

The way I headcanon it myself is that what the Queen and the Hero did get to have was a fully realised relationship, weird as it was and not meant to last. They saw each other for who they truly were and were irrevocably changed by their time together--for the better, one could argue (when death is viewed metaphorically). Not exactly a classical happy ending, or even one that shouldn't be mourned, but not entirely unkind either.

Oh no unfortunately you've encountered one of the currently known bugs I haven't been able to reproduce and fix myself. The Hero sometimes goes invulnerable after being hit once in phase 2, when they really should be killed. Thank you for making this video--now that I can see how it happens, it will help me fix it for the next update!

It is indeed a frustrating and rigged experience! Poor video game bosses.

Funnily enough the hit boxes do stay the exact same (unless you experienced a rare phase two invincible hero bug, which I've yet to figure out how to fix). The way it works is that the Hero is coded to dodge all attacks perfectly, but those dodge fuctions only have a random chance to run based on how many times the Hero has seen the attack and how far along the game is.

Ohh thanks good catch, I'll get that fixed!

Thank you for the kind words!

It is meant to work a linear story. That said, technically there are two additional "endings" written to account for player behaviour that breaks the linear path, either by refusing to fight the Hero or by figuring out some exploit to keep beating them forever.