Scruffy Dog Games (Palace of a Thousand Curses)

While you're waiting for PoaTC to come out, here's another 2.5D action-platformer where you can swing on ropes to tide you over in the meantime...

YouTube video by Scruffy Dog Games Palace of a Thousand Curses - Storyteller Trailer 🧾⚔️

After all the progress we've made lately, it was time for a new trailer.

youtu.be/qzeI5qJzeCA

#trailer #indiegame #gaming #metroidvania #gamedev

From the gaming community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the gaming community

Doing an AMA over on Reddit for anyone interested in the Spec Ops days...
www.reddit.com/r/gaming/com...

#specopstheline #gamewriting #narrativedesign

When building a magical cursed palace, it's important to hide a few secrets here and there.

#screenshotsaturday #indiegame #metroidvania #steam #gamedev

Palace of a Thousand Curses is definitely not a game ABOUT physics, but sometimes they do add some fun visual moments. :)

#screenshotsaturday #indiegame #steam #gamedev #metroidvania

I kind of love our new melodramatic death animation. 😅

#screenshotsaturday #indiegame #indiedev #gamedev

Hey streamers - anyone interested in getting a sneak peek at the Palace of a Thousand Curses demo before it goes public? (And before you get buried in Next Fest content.) Let me know and I'll send you a key!

#indiegame #gamedev #twitch #stream

Palace of a Thousand Curses is more about swordfighting than platforming, but you can't have swashbuckling without at least a BIT of swinging around on ropes. ;)

#screenshotsaturday #indiegame #platformer #metroidvania

3/3
3. Walt (2K), the final lead writer, who did the final main script pass.
4. Me, who did the other stuff - barks, scripted combat dialog, loading screen tips, etc.

(Of course, lots of other people had a big influence on the story, but that's enough detail for now...)

2/3
1. Original guy who came up with core concept of Heart of Darkness influence + Dubai covered in sand (left fairly early in project)
2. A main Yager writer who came up with the plot we ended up using in the game and wrote the original script.

1/3
So... there were a bunch of writers involved at various times, but only two of us ended up getting text in the game. Not sure if they want names publicized, but roughly I remember it as:

Little known fact: My title on SpecOps: The Line was Senior Game Designer, but I also was one of the two main writers!

So here are screenshots of... some text. SO EXCITING!!

(More detail / context on the writing team in replies below...)

#indiegame #specopstheline #gamewriting #narrativedesign

A whole, unedited fight. For those who want to see how the game ACTUALLY plays and not just fancy trailer cuts. :)

youtu.be/TujYnl3MqSw

#indiegame #wishlistwednesday #gamedev

The Mouse King thinks his tricks are clever, but personally I find them a bit cheesy.

#indiegames #indiegamedev #gamedev

Sometimes we put little details in the background that most people don't notice. I think when you've got a lot of these, it adds a lot of neat texture and fun details for people who are paying attention.

#screenshotsaturday #indiegame #indiegamedev #unity3d

Hey! 👋

We're releasing #TheStoneOfmadness in just a few days, but you can already play a 2 hours long prologue (Which is basically the first campaign of the game) ENTIRELY FOR FREE!

Just hit the DEMO button on Steam:
store.steampowered.com/app/1309710/...

And if you like it, WISHLIST! 💗

In honor of the #tiktokban, here's a vertical video.

store.steampowered.com/app/3330540/...

#indiegame #indiegamedev #gamedev #gaming

Both photos taken by the same photographer (and pulled off wikipedia because attribution is easy to find):

By Turol Jones, un artista de cojones from Villanueva del Cascajal, República Independiente de Mi Casa

When we make environments (and most of the outfits / weapons), we're careful to base them off of real world references. Sometimes there are small changes to make them more fantastical, but I think the touch of authenticity adds a lot.

#screenshotsaturday #indiegames #indiegamedev #gaming

Did a little polish on the rope resizer today. That's kind of our version of the thing in Dark Souls where you kick a ladder down so you can open up a shortcut.

#followfriday #indiegames #indiegamedev

By law every indie dev is required to make a "how it started / how it's going" post. This one is ours!

#indiegames #indiegamedev #gamedev #gaming

The Palace of a Thousand... Deaths? Hm.

#indiegames #indiegamedev #metroidvania

YouTube video by Scruffy Dog Games Palace of a Thousand Curses - The Style System (and how it tries to improve on DMC/Bayonetta)

Here's a video explaining our Style system (and a tiny glimpse of the Style Challenge mode, where you play for Style high scores).

youtu.be/GOkbS4WSNhk

#indiegame #indiegames #indiedev

At the companies I've worked at, they tried a lot of different structures and org setups to improve various problems. No one was ever happy with any of them. I wonder if part of the reason for no standardization is just that no one's found anything that works well enough to be worth standardizing.

The character art is placeholder, but I still love our first boss, the Mouse King. As you play through the level, mice keep luring you into traps and generally being a nuisance, so that by the time you get here you're properly ready to fight. :)

#indiegames #screenshotsaturday #indiedev

In Palace of a Thousand Curses, the protagonist in the real world enters into a magical storybook. To reflect these two different worlds, we have completely different art styles and rendering setups. Even the subtitles look different!

#followfriday #indiegame #neverendingstory

Oh, and since he's not on Bluesky, you can find him here: voiceoverbuddy.com

And no, that is not our final Waq-Waq tree.

But at least it does have some proper heads on it. Yeah, I'm calling you out #princeofpersia The Lost Crown!! ;) (Which ok, fine, was a fantastic game. Just a shame about that sanitized "Wakwak"...)

We were very lucky to find Muneer Adhami to do the voice of the Narrator in our game. He's both a fantastic voice actor and a native Arabic speaker, both of which were important to us.

And because he's the one telling the story, he does the NPC voices as well... ;)

#indiegames #game #voiceacting

Psh. Obviously the true year of the historical fiction game will be... uh, whenever Palace of a Thousand Curses comes out. 😉

(But seriously, I think this is a cool trend. I think grounding games in history can really help give the worldbuilding some proper texture.)