Tag: steam

Soulcaster: Part I & II Are On Steam!

Six years after their original release on Xbox Live, my first two titles have finally arrived on the Steam marketplace. Though available for PC for years, I only recently made time to Steamify them by adding trading cards, achievements, cloud saving, and full controller support. And with the help of Ethan Lee, we have a cross-platform launch of Windows, OSX, and Linux.

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The first Soulcaster was strictly a hobby project. I was still full time on video game soundtracks at the time, and I just decided to learn XNA by putting in a few hours a day at the coffee shop, and build a game from scratch. It had a very lightweight design document (just a page of plain text) and evolved as I made it.

The original concept was “what if you could play Gauntlet, but as all four characters at once?” I tried a few variations on this, and the one that stuck was the concept of summoning stationary heroes to do battle for you, while enemies used pathfinding to solve mazes and reach you.

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When I launched it, I told everyone I was going to ignore the star rating on Xbox Live, not pay much attention to reviews, and just be proud of having completed a game on my own (a lifelong goal of mine). Of course, I couldn’t help but watch sales, and it exceeded my wildest expectations–not that it made enough for me to retire on, but the revenue was great for a a 5-month project. And it spend several months in the top 10 rated games on XBLIG.

Not only did this game launch my career as an indie developer, it introduced me to friends I have to this day. The positive feedback I got from people whose opinions I truly respected was so encouraging that I set out to make a sequel, and eventually move full time from game soundtracks to game production.

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The first two games are bundled together at the $4.99 price point. I was urged to raise the price of these games by several friends, but I decided to stick with this, as it has been the price of the bundle on PC since it was originally launched. I also wanted to sell both games together, so there wouldn’t be any question about whether to play the first or second one first (something I heard a lot with the Escape Goat series).

And you know, after running through the games a few more times in the last month to test Steam features, I have to say, these games hold up very well. I hope you enjoy them!

Escape Goat Owners: How to Claim Your Steam Key

Escape Goat is in beta on Steam right now, and I’ve been distributing keys to the various marketplaces and bundles that have sold Escape Goat over the past year and a half. (Crazy that it’s been that long, and it’s just now coming to Steam–it’s like a launch all over again in some ways.)

If you haven’t claimed your Steam key yet, here’s the status based on where you bought the game:

  • Humble Store (bought on this website) – You should have received a link via email
  • IGN Game of the month (also distributed with Humble Store keys) – Contact me
  • Desura – Keys available if you log in (see instructions below)
  • Indie Gala – Use the Desura key you got with the bundle
  • IndieGameStand – Log in to IGS and claim your key
  • Indie Royale – See Desura instructions below
  • Indie Gala – See Desura instructions below
  • Green Light Bundle – Keys will be available in about 2 weeks
  • Others – Contact me

How to claim your Steam key from Desura

  1. Open the Desura client
  2. Click on the blue button at the top left
  3. Click on History>Gifts History
  4. Click on the “your collection” link in blue
  5. Click on “Keys” next to Escape Goat

(Thanks to fluffnugget on the Steam forums for this)

Achievements and Beta Progress:

If you want to go for the achievements in the game, here’s a list of them.  They won’t appear in the client until the game is on the marketplace.

The game should launch within a week or so if all goes according to plan. Let me know if you have any questions or if you have trouble claiming your keys.