- Amulet of Amunrun - Out Now! - 27 April 2022
After being sealed up for many years…the tombs of the Amulet of Amunrun are finally ready to explore! It has been a long journey to get to this point, with over x years in development, and I am so grateful for every explorer that joined me along the way! From x to y, you’ve heard it all, and now you get to experience this puzzling and mysterious world for yourself. The highlights for me, in the game’s development have been the following: ENIGMAS. Here is a classic example of an enigma you may find. While the goal is apparent to most gamers, the way to achieve it is not. Their main purpose was to create challenges in areas where the game may seem easier than others, as well as to heighten the game’s puzzle element further. GAME PHYSICS. I have to say that the wonderful and free open source software Blender, came in very handy! Thanks to its physics engine in particular, I could register…
- Final Journal Entry - 22 April 2022
Greetings, Explorers! I am relieved you're here. If you have made it this far into the journal, congratulations! You're now about to start your own journey inside our pyramid. Now, let's get into the final journal entry. There is a rule in software engineering called the ninety-ninety rule, which goes something like this: “After finishing 90% of the game, there’s only 90% left”. The Final Boss That’s what finishing a video game feels like! Once you move from a prototype, to turning the features of the game into a completely playable version, there is the final boss: the polishing phase. It is, in my opinion, a strange phase: the game is done, it can be played and enjoyed from start to end, but you still have to continue working on it; battling with the devil hidden in every little detail, in order to provide the most enjoyable player experience. These details are sometimes so small, how…
- The Amulet of Amunrun Releases on April 27, 2022! - 11 April 2022
Welcome Explorers! It has been a long journey up to this point, but we have finally seen the light inside the depths of the pyramid! The Amulet of AmunRun is releasing on the 27th of April! We are thrilled to finally see this come together, and we're excited to take you on this journey with us! The fun doesn't stop with just the release though, make sure to come on over to the official Amulet of Amunrun Discord server, take part in events, and meet other explorers who want to share their experiences with you. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1393580/The_Amulet_of_AmunRun/ Make sure to stop by our Steam Store and click the wishlist button to make sure you don't miss out on the fun! Check out our posts on Twitter, and our Steam Forums for even more Amulet Of Amunrun, and we shall see you in the pyramids on April 27th! Until then we hope to see you on release day in our Discord server! C…
- Journal Entry #3 - Rules Of The Journey - 1 March 2022
Hello Explorers, Anatomy Of A Risky Journey So I’d like to tackle an interesting (I think) discussion about what a video game actually is. To keep it simple, I would say it is a virtual world subjected to specific rules in which a player has to accomplish a goal. It is a very open ended definition, and some might argue that not all games follow this definition (what is the goal in The Sims? it has no specific end etc, but we all know it really ends with the pool haha), still though, generally I think it holds up pretty well. For the sake of this Journal Entry, I want to focus on 3 key words: rules, accomplishment, and goal. A Book, A Movie, And A Comic Enters A Bar Accomplishment is, for me, the defining word that separates games from any other art piece/object/work in which you do not partake in the creation. You read a book but never write a word, you watch a movie but never act in it…
- Dev Log #2 - Nothing But Dust - 31 January 2022
Gather round explorers, as I release my first Dev Log of 2022! These will continue to be released on a monthly basis until the launch of the game, so be sure to check in now and then to see what’s up. Now, without further ado, let’s excavate the hidden ruins of The Amulet of AmunRun! Stone Is But Compacted Dust In pop culture and movies, a common element that always struck my mind with many archeological adventures is the “delicacy and extreme attention used to handle millennial artifacts,” but then the complete, utter chaos that always ensues after handling the item. Most times after our “Hero” is done doing whatever it is that they do. Buildings, temples, and even caverns, surprisingly always seem to self-destruct. I mean, it’s pretty obvious that the heavily armed, gun-slinging chick might not be the best fit to handle fragile pots (looking at you, Miss Croft). I still find it pretty…
- Dev Log #1 - A Fresh Start - 23 December 2021
Hey there everyone and welcome to my first Dev Log for the upcoming development cycle! I am getting close to the end of the development (crazy I know), so it’s time to bring back these updates on a regular cadence. Today, I want to take a look at a room that I designed for the game and teased in our last update, that includes a few interesting mechanics, and how I went about creating it. The Portal Room: The Inspiration: Unlike most game developers, I am a scientist at heart. This means that geometries, especially those of a non-euclidean nature, have always been particularly satisfying to imagine and create. If you grew up in the nineties, or even watched cartoons, you would’ve seen these geometries. One that will never go out of style and that struck me a lot as a kid, was the Scooby Doo corridor chase! Who remembers this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcWxQUMLsLA I always thought t…
- Mid-Summer Update ! - 20 July 2021
Hello everyone ! Introduction Time has come for a new update on the state of The Amulet of AmunRuuUUUN. I will split this post in 2 parts: The first one will be general and without spoilers and the second part will dive a bit further in the details of the first part, but with spoilers this time. I am doing so to offer the possibility to whoever would like to, to keep track of the development of the game without discovering parts of the game and maintain as much mystery as possible. Stone after stone towards the light at the end of the tunnel The pyramid has grown quite well in the last months. We are now having 20 different enigmas & challenges spread in around 10 different rooms and corridors. 4 iconic moments have been implemented (think the boulder run of the demo that is, for people born in the previous century like me, extremely iconic of the action adventure genre) and (at least)…
- A late but deserved update. - 1 March 2021
Hi everyone, Here is a late but deserved update on the state of the game. Life is not always easy and sometimes you meet obstacles on your path that you cannot simply climb over, obstacles that suddenly require you to put all of your energy on finding another path around. Unfortunately for me, I have been met with one such life event at the end of last year that forced me to care for other things and redirect my energy towards different priorities. I would like to keep this matter private by decency but I sincerely appreciate your sympathy, understanding and patience for a humble human being fighting the hardness and unpredictability of fate. Now the bad and the good news: The bad news is that I must confess that the game has not changed much in the last three months, and while I was very happy in end-November to have reached 50% of the game development, it has been stuck at the midline…
- The Pyramid's Demo Opens Its Doors ! - 18 November 2020
Hi everyone ! After a few months of work, a demo for The Amulet Of AmunRuuUUUN is available ! About the demo: It features the 3 first enigmas of the final game. It features the essence of the game (solving enigmas and tackling trials) without going too deep into the adventure itself. I think it is a good representation of what the final game will be. It can be played in solo or in duo (however the final game will be duo only). I would still strongly encourage you to find a mate and play it together. Why ? because I feel like solving enigmas is about rummaging through ideas and testing hypothesis, which is totally doable alone but the interaction with a friend and the possibility to tease them for their ignorance naiveness or congratulate them for their genius adds a really appreciable dimension to the game. Also the enigmas have been designed and tested with 2 brains in mind, thus enigm…
- Building a Pyramid: State - 25 September 2020
Hello everyone, Here we are for a long deserved update about The Amulet of AmunRuuUUUN. The game is an adventure game through which you'll be met with many challenges A Game About Running & Thinking The game is gonna be a mix of two different kinds of challenges: mainly a mix between enigmas and trials. Enigmas are mainly intellectual challenges that ask you to observe, think and reason on what the enigma is and then find a solution to it. Trials, on the other side, require dexterity, speed and accuracy to be overcome and are closer to what can be found in some platformers. At the moment, the adventure is comprised of around 20 different challenges that alternate between thinking and running. (For those of you who know To Be Headed Or Not To Be, this game is going to be more active and platformer-like on some aspect, for those who don't I encourage you to check it out). Building a Pyram…
