neurohack

2012 Archives

Transcendence 1.1

17 December 2012

Transcendence 1.1

I am happy to direct you all to the download button for Transcendence 1.1, the latest stable release of our favorite Nethack-meets-Star-Control-space-RPG.

I've spend the time since 1.0 working on two main things in Transcendence: First, I've made dozens of major improvements to the modding system (more on that later), and second, I've developed and deployed the Multiverse, an online system for players to share game epitaphs and rank themselves by high score.

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Adventures in the Transcendence Universe

27 January 2012

Abbasid Outpost

Constraints set you free. Creating a mod for Transcendence is not easy: there are bugs, quirks, and limitations in the modding system, of course, but probably the biggest difficulty is coming up with ideas to implement. The core engine allows you to create your own universe, with its own characters, sovereign, worlds, and starships. But who has time to invent all that?

In this article I want to talk about adventures that you can create in the canonical Transcendence universe. Most of the ideas here use existing sovereigns and settings, and all are compatible with Domina & Oracus. By using the existing assets of the core universe you are free to spend your creating energy to invent engaging storylines and compelling characters. Constraints set you free.

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The Future of Anacreon

20 January 2012

I admit it. Anacreon hasn't gotten much love from me lately. With most of my free-time devoted to Transcendence, I've let Anacreon stagnate—the last release was almost seven years ago. But now that my full-time job is creating games, I have no excuse for not re-invigorating my oldest game.

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The Future of Transcendence

13 January 2012

Graphics by Aeonic, digdug, dvlenk6, Psycholis, and Xolaris

When I started Transcendence my only goal was to create a fun little single-player game, but as the community grew and more and more mods showed up I realized that we're creating something bigger. Collectively we're creating the Transcendence Multiverse, a family of games and game extensions, all bound by a common engine, built out of components like Legos, and set in an expanding and diverse milieu filled with warring civilizations, mighty starships, and wondrous items.

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Introducing Kronosaur Productions

6 January 2012

Kronosaur ProductionsWhat was the golden age of computer games? Was it the 16-bit 80s of NetHack, Infocom, and Ultima? Was it the 90s decade of Wolfenstein, WarCraft, and SimCity? Or was it the 2000s, dominated by Halo, Grand Theft Auto, Wii and World of Warcraft? I find it hard to choose; every decade seems to bring more astonishing games.

My bet is this decade will end up being the golden age, with MMOs, mobile games, casual games, and reinvigorated indie games all surfing off each other and competing for our attention.

If so, then this is probably the worst time for me to start a game company.

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