Aberration Analyst News

I had put this game on hold for two reasons. First, I was inspired to make my Middle Eastern themed Dungeon Crawler "Islands of the Caliph" which was released in September of last year. Second, because I could not think of any interesting ways to finish this game.

Well after finishing Islands, I started thinking about Aberration Analyst a bit. It occurred to me that most of what I wanted the game to do was already there and working. It just needed to be rounded out with some additional features, and polished up a bit.

So I made a list of things to add or improve upon and I am making good progress on it.

[h3]Tabloids:[/h3]
So far I have made some major changes to how the tabloids operate. They still fulfill the same basic purpose. However, instead of getting a list of headlines on one page, I have a different "newspaper" for each headline that the player will have to sort through. They will still be able to mark the headline on their map for reference.

Additionally, when you click on a city in the map view, the appropriate headline for that city will show up in the notes at the bottom of the screen, so you will not have to go back and forth between the tabloid view to remember which headline was about which city.

The headlines themselves have changed too. They no longer all follow the same sentence structure. I now have two basic sentence structures, but plan to add more before I am done. It is really an aesthetic change, but I think that aesthetics are an important part of the atmosphere of this game, so it was crucial to include this.

Other aesthetic improvements include different formats and titles for the various tabloid magazines. It's no longer just "The Brobdingnagian Gazette" but there are over twenty different periodicals to look through.

Here's an example:


[h3]Other Stuff:[/h3]
I have other plans for how the game functions. The rolodex will provide a list of hunters that you can call on, instead of just selecting "aberration specialist" when sending a team. The general team will also not be capturing or destroying aberrations, but collecting physical evidence and interviewing witnesses.

Successful captures/destruction of aberrations will also give you lore, which will appear in the books. This will be a kind of meta progression, and allow you to benefit on your next play-through.

I have added the game's demo to the store page. Somehow I thought that would happen automatically, but apparently not.

The game is still on hold for now. But please feel free to share any thoughts or feedback based on the demo.

The demo actually represents the whole game idea. I took it as far as I could, but don't believe it really feels like a complete game at this time. I may come back to it some day, but I am having trouble seeing how to build on what's here...

Unfortunately, not a lot has been happening with Aberration Analyst recently. The game essentially does what I had set out for it to do, but it did not evoke the kind of response I had hoped, and has not really found much of an audience. As a solo developer this is the first time I have allowed a game of mine to linger for so long. I've heard about this happening, but I am surprised it has happened here. I have been pretty good in the past about finishing my projects. But without any good ideas on how to improve it, and very little time to work on it currently, I have to face the reality that it will not be finished any time soon. I have thought of a few possible options for what to do with it.

1. Release it as-is for free. This would be the easiest option for me. I do not think of it as a finished game though, and I would hate to just allow it to remain in an incomplete state.

2. Remove it from Steam and pretend it never existed.

3. Wait until I find the time and motivation to give it some more love. I do revisit old/incomplete games once in a while. It's entirely possible that I may get inspired to have another go at this in the future. Right now I am just really uncertain of what to do with it.

Anyway, I do apologize for being so fickle about this game. If you have any great ideas as to it's possible direction, I am always available to discuss further.

After getting some great feedback on the demo, I have updated it to include a brief, but extremely important tutorial. The game will start with the tutorial visible, just press the TAB key to toggle.



This describes the basic method a player can use to track down monsters, and should get you familiar with the game's concept and main mechanics.

Aberration Analyst is coming to Steam Next Fest! On the surface, the position of Aberration Analyst looks like any ordinary desk job, but the odd hours, and strange sources of data definitely veer away from the norm. Find out how to identify and track down werewolves, ghosts, vampires and other dangerous creatures while managing a team within strict budget requirements.

Make the hard choices, when deciding which kind of team to send, and whether you can afford to spare the extra cash to keep everyone safe ... or not. Learn about the habits and clues of different monsters, and slowly figure out where they are coming from, and how to stop their means of accessing our world.