CRT7 News

Hi all, Tom here!

I just wanted to let you know two main things today. First is that CRT7 (and SOLAS 128) will be in the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase this year, happening from May 29th to June 5th! I'm always delighted and honoured to be invited to these events and for games I've worked on to appear alongside other incredible work going on in the puzzle community.

CRT7 will have a demo live and ready to play in the showcase. If you've played it before don't expect anything new this time around, but if you didn't relaunch the demo after completing it, it might be worth returning as there is some post-demo stuff not very many people discovered!

Perhaps even more excitingly (at least for me) is that after a hiatus forced by real life issues, I'm now back on CRT7 development! You might have seen I released a small game recently (*cough* Upfall *cough*) in order to get back into the routine. That's out, being played by people, and has done it's job. I'm excited to be back!

So, what does this mean for CRT7? Well, it means that I've got a plan and I'm going to be getting back to making real progress!


There are three major things for CRT7 I want to work on next:

Number 1: I need to finish up the glowing phosphors paper puzzle sequence, a picture of which is below. There is one puzzle I'm wasn't happy with, that I'll update and make hopefully more interesting soon! This should be relatively quick.



Number 2: I've been thinking more about the first major puzzle in the game where you first meet the pentominos. A picture of a later level of this is below. This puzzle can cause people to get stuck, thinking they have to complete it all to progress. I've got a couple of ideas about how to improve the flow of that section that will fit into the story and themes of the game. So, I'll be updating that to get players through it more smoothly. This might be a little more fiddly as I'll have to add some new functions in without breaking everything, but fingers cross it will go smoothly!



Number 3: It's time to look at the next puzzle(s) in the sequence and get them working. I've been wanting to get back to this section for a while as it's perhaps one of the creepier and most unique sections in the game and it really leans into CRT7's themes of time and isolation. It's time to get working on the Radio Desk (shown below) and update that to work with the rest of the game's puzzles. This one is likely going to take the longest, as I'll potentially need to rerecord audio, add new mechanics, include subtitles for the radio, and generally tweak things all over. Still... I'm excited.



Phew, a long post today as it's been a bit since I've written an update! As always, if you're interested in supporting CRT7, please do give us a wishlist to keep up to date with progress and when the game will launch!

It's good to be back...

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2096780/CRT7/

- Amicable Animal

Hi all, Tom here!

So... You might be wondering what is going on? This doesn't look like an escape room! Yeah, that's fair! Long story short: I was struggling while working on CRT7 and I needed a break. As you might have seen in my posts, last year wasn't great for me and I needed some time to sort myself out. However, after enjoying a local game jam event I decided I wanted to polish up what I'd made and release to maybe help me get my mojo back. Plus, let's be real: the world is pretty awful for a lot of people right now, and I thought it would be nice to give something back for free. No strings attached, no expectation of anything from you if you play it, just something out there for anyone who wants it. Don't worry, CRT7 is still coming, and I'll be back working on it again soon, hopefully with new found vigour!

To that end Upfall will launch on Steam, totally utterly free, in just one week's time. This game has been a bit of a labour of love and an experiment into visuals, sounds and vibes. I worked with my friend eggysworld (who did the awesome sprites) to make something a little different, but distinctly Amicable Animal. Take a look below:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

So... what is Upfall? It's a game designed to be played in those small gaps in your day. On your lunch break, when something else is downloading, when you need a quick distraction. Each run takes between 2 and 10 minutes and the aim is simple: SURVIVE. Bounce off of bubbles, avoid anything that looks glowy and mean, and see if you can make it back to the surface. As you play you'll unlock new palettes for the game, new instruments for it to play, new ways for it to sound, and even new modes and characters. You can wishlist it and soon play it here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3570280/Upfall/

Oh, and if you have a PS4/PS5 controller, I strongly recommend you try to play the game with that. And don't forget to look down, as you might see something fun going on with the controller!

That's it really! In one week you'll get a chance to play the game and discover what it is about for yourself. Oh, and of course I've put in some little secrets to unlock too... I really hope you enjoy it!

- Amicable Animal

Hi all, Tom here!

This is just a quick one today to say that there is no development update this month as it's time for the Amicable Animal Annual Shutdown! Or perhaps more accurately I should say I'm putting myself into sleep mode to hibernate for the rest of December?

Whichever it is, the holiday season is upon me here, and after it has been such a long and difficult year, I'm turning off the CRT monitor for a little bit and taking some time away. I'm in a seasonal mood, however, so I wanted to share with you a cute little secret hidden within the mysterious monitor. Developers are human and get bored and distracted too, and so must have the main character of CRT7 when they made this:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

I hope you all have a great break if you're having one, and I'll see you again in 2025! (Wild!) Hopefully CRT7 will reboot refreshed and ready to explore more of the dark. Until then, take care of yourselves and have a good one 🧡

-Amicable Animal

Hi all, Tom here!

Sorry for being so quiet around here the last few months. As some of you know I (like many solo indie devs) have a day job in order to support making games like CRT7. Unfortunately, said day job has been rather hectic the last few months which has taken most of my development time. I'm hoping that in the new year I'll have significantly more time to work on pushing forwards into the depths of the dark and these posts will speed up again.

The good news is, however, that it hasn't taken away all the time and there has been some progress!


The paper puzzle section I mentioned previously is now (mostly) finished for now! It's even been tested by some lovely paper puzzle experts and it is seemingly fun and interesting. There is just one puzzle left that needs redesigning to finish this stage up. Alongside that, there have been large changes to the visuals and some extra quality of life things added. First off, it is now a fun hybrid of retro phosphors and art deco to match the rest of the game better:



Also, players can now mark spaces where lines can't be, which is a classic thing you might do in a puzzle like Slitherlink, or Picross – two inspirations for this puzzle – so it just feels right for them to be in here. In fact, internally I call this new puzzle design Slithercross!

Other bits of the game have gotten some glow ups too. Slight tweaks to a book here, to some visuals there, with my favourite subtle improvements done to the packing puzzle you might have seen in the trailers:





The next steps are pretty clear: get back to working on the rest of the strange devices in the main room! There are some coding tweaks which need to be done to unlock the next phases, and then I have some plans for changing the radio device puzzle that is in some of the screenshots... but I'm keeping those changes secret for now.

As always, if you want keep up to date with development and help out a (mostly) solo dev, you know what to do:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2096780/CRT7/

-Amicable Animal

Hi all, Tom here!

As they say: no good deed goes unpunished – and shortly after my previous development update I sadly ended up getting a couple of pretty nasty respiratory infections that knocked me out. Long story short, I was isolating most of July and early August, so work on CRT7 had to stop for a little while for me to rest up. The good news is I'm mostly better now, and starting to get my strength back... so you know what that means, I'm back to making puzzles!


One small advantage of the pause was that it gave me a some time to think about puzzle design, in particular the puzzle I had to stop midway through making: the viridian glowing monitor that appears in one of the side rooms. I was struggling a little with the design because, while I loved the paper puzzle style inspiration, I wasn't quite sure how to make it link into the rest of the game in an interesting way. Well, as I always like overcomplicating things, I came up with a linkage I think you'll find pretty fun! I'm not going to reveal exactly what it is – that's for you to discover – but the programming work on making the puzzle is really getting there and with a little more complication to the ruleset and some more puzzles we'll have another interesting sequence to solve!

I've also made interacting with the puzzle and drawing lines way more intuitive and, as you can see below, I've linked them up into something you can navigate around. I should say, the video below is still a work in progress. Expect puzzle and audio design to change, but there still might be minor spoilers!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


As the days are growing shorter and we slink back towards Autumn, I have a pretty clear goal for this coming month: get this puzzle sequence done and dusted. As hinted at above, there is a little more to be added to the ruleset and I'd like to give a little more visual and aural interest to it. Plus, once that's done it needs a bunch of puzzles designed for it. The nice thing about it being paper puzzle inspired, however, is that I can design them pretty much where ever I am. After that, it's back into the basement, and unlocking one of my favourite elements from the trailer. Are you ready to search for voices in the static?

As always, if you want keep up to date with development, help out a (mostly) solo dev, or just be told when the game released please add CRT7 to your wishlist. It is a massive help and really keeps makers and creators going through the long dark winter of development!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2096780/CRT7

Stay well and see you all soon!

-Amicable Animal