Heyo everyone! Yesterday we launched the narrative adventure dungeon crawler where you use your words, [Cryptmaster](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1885110/Cryptmaster/)! The developers Paul and Lee of *Cryptmaster* have joined us for an hour in answering questions asked by you guys!
*Cryptmaster* is a narrative adventure where your words are your power. Say anything to control the world around you but be careful as bodies you control might not hold together as well as when you were alive. The freakish and proud builder of the crypts known as the *Cryptmaster* leads your journey in the underground catacombs to aid in your usage of your words to fight toadmen, heal your frail bodies, and find letters to remember your abilities.
It gave a very positive bump in wishlists and was also hugely useful just for watching streamers and seeing where they stumbled, what they enjoyed etc.
Right now we are happily watching people playing Cryptmaster and taking notes on how they are playing.
Our first focus is bugs and making sure the game plays well.
Wow, basically no questions. I have a bunch.
I understand you’re not using LLM under the hood, so you had to prepare interactions for each word. How did you approach this? Watching Twitch there is so many unique answers and combinations and they all seem prerecorded.
Did you voice every word or is there a trained TTS?
Congrats on the release. Love the art-style
and idea. I hope it won’t suffer from low sales (low replayability), but hey, Inscription did well anyway :)
Found your response here: https://youtu.be/NqPmFBmyayI?si=q5R3SVLXBjqmA3qL
That is so fucking impressive. Hats off to the writer for coming up with all of these. Even if they used some LLMs to create a list, the combinations and responses all have a great personality behind them.
Would you mind sharing what was the overall cost for this?
Thanks! The cost would have been pretty high if we'd hired a voice actor (especially with all the call backs to adjust lines that would have been needed) but thankfully our writer and Cryptmaster voice actor are the same person and one of the two main devs!
Oh wow, I did not expect that, but, does that mean that they also recorded every single possibility for heros' names? For instance, I added I to NIX and Cryptmaster actually said NIXI (only once tho, and that's okay) - same for other heroes. Haven't unlocked the 2nd letter for any of them, so I don't know if the same trend continues.
Bought the game yesterday and - whoops - ended up playing it until 3:30 am (which I NEVER do.) Game is fantastic, and it works great on Steam Deck too!
I have one feature question: for controller users, will you be adding key repeat when a direction is held? This is needed desperately, both in the in-game keyboard AND in the options menu. Having to push the d-pad button once for every single letter change gets very tiresome very quickly. It makes controller play far worse than it needs to be.
Again, amazing job on the game! As a fellow game developer, I've never played anything quite like it. Very well done.
As soon as it is translated into French, I will buy it! (I understand English, but it's still more comfortable to play a game written in your native language, I think. I really liked the demo !
Why do you think making an "AMA for an hour" is a fitting idea for some people nobody knows? Short time AMAs like that barely work out well for insanely popular people. Just showcase your game instead of pretending like reddit is all eager to ask you questions.
boooooo. bad take. This is an indie dev subreddit. Here’s a game made by an indie dev that has garnered attention. I imagine other indie devs would love to ask questions and learn from their experience. If you’re not into it, fine, keep scrolling, move on. “But I’m commenting on them saying they have an hour to do this”. Keep moving dude.
I'm another indie dev, since I don't know them or their work (which just came out) I have no particular questions for them. I find it a bit pretentious to say "You can ask us anything for the next *hour*" when you are a nobody. This is a bad way to say "we just released a game, check it out".
I am giving feedback about their marketing strategy here. It is also in the form of a question, ergo I am satisfying their request.
As you can see, indie devs aren't rushing to ask questions here so your imagination is incorrect. Why would they, when the precious hour to do so is already over...
We're just happy to answer questions if anyone does have any. It's also a useful way of getting feedback for any indie devs who are interested in that. When you know what questions people have, you also get a good insight into what they enjoyed about the game and what might have confused them.
We did say an hour because we wanted people to know they would get an instant answer at that time. However, I'm quite happy to keep answering any questions that are posted, I just may take longer to reply!
Heyo everyone! Yesterday we launched the narrative adventure dungeon crawler where you use your words, [Cryptmaster](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1885110/Cryptmaster/)! The developers Paul and Lee of *Cryptmaster* have joined us for an hour in answering questions asked by you guys! *Cryptmaster* is a narrative adventure where your words are your power. Say anything to control the world around you but be careful as bodies you control might not hold together as well as when you were alive. The freakish and proud builder of the crypts known as the *Cryptmaster* leads your journey in the underground catacombs to aid in your usage of your words to fight toadmen, heal your frail bodies, and find letters to remember your abilities.
Saw your game at GDC, looks really awesome!
Thank you!
omg this has been in my wishlist for a while! Definitely gonna get one after work! Congrats 🎉
Thank you! Hope you enjoy!
How did having a demo during Steam’s Next Fest affect the devs (wishlists, sales, media attention)?
It gave a very positive bump in wishlists and was also hugely useful just for watching streamers and seeing where they stumbled, what they enjoyed etc.
[удалено]
Right now we are happily watching people playing Cryptmaster and taking notes on how they are playing. Our first focus is bugs and making sure the game plays well.
Congrats on the release, the art is fantastic.
Thank you!
I would be glad if you could make a postmortem and how you making/marketing game before release. Good job! Game looks awesome)
Hopefully we'll get some time for that soon. :)
Wow, basically no questions. I have a bunch. I understand you’re not using LLM under the hood, so you had to prepare interactions for each word. How did you approach this? Watching Twitch there is so many unique answers and combinations and they all seem prerecorded. Did you voice every word or is there a trained TTS? Congrats on the release. Love the art-style and idea. I hope it won’t suffer from low sales (low replayability), but hey, Inscription did well anyway :)
Found your response here: https://youtu.be/NqPmFBmyayI?si=q5R3SVLXBjqmA3qL That is so fucking impressive. Hats off to the writer for coming up with all of these. Even if they used some LLMs to create a list, the combinations and responses all have a great personality behind them. Would you mind sharing what was the overall cost for this?
Thanks! The cost would have been pretty high if we'd hired a voice actor (especially with all the call backs to adjust lines that would have been needed) but thankfully our writer and Cryptmaster voice actor are the same person and one of the two main devs!
Oh wow, I did not expect that, but, does that mean that they also recorded every single possibility for heros' names? For instance, I added I to NIX and Cryptmaster actually said NIXI (only once tho, and that's okay) - same for other heroes. Haven't unlocked the 2nd letter for any of them, so I don't know if the same trend continues.
Congrats on the successful launch!
Thank you!
Bought the game yesterday and - whoops - ended up playing it until 3:30 am (which I NEVER do.) Game is fantastic, and it works great on Steam Deck too! I have one feature question: for controller users, will you be adding key repeat when a direction is held? This is needed desperately, both in the in-game keyboard AND in the options menu. Having to push the d-pad button once for every single letter change gets very tiresome very quickly. It makes controller play far worse than it needs to be. Again, amazing job on the game! As a fellow game developer, I've never played anything quite like it. Very well done.
Not sure if you are still answering questions but what is your favorite response to a word in the game? What did you have the most fun writing?
Any plans for a console release?
I use a 65% keyboard and there is no option to swaps the up down left right keys, as it would mess with the game, I am lost at how I am meant to play
As soon as it is translated into French, I will buy it! (I understand English, but it's still more comfortable to play a game written in your native language, I think. I really liked the demo !
Why do you think making an "AMA for an hour" is a fitting idea for some people nobody knows? Short time AMAs like that barely work out well for insanely popular people. Just showcase your game instead of pretending like reddit is all eager to ask you questions.
boooooo. bad take. This is an indie dev subreddit. Here’s a game made by an indie dev that has garnered attention. I imagine other indie devs would love to ask questions and learn from their experience. If you’re not into it, fine, keep scrolling, move on. “But I’m commenting on them saying they have an hour to do this”. Keep moving dude.
I'm another indie dev, since I don't know them or their work (which just came out) I have no particular questions for them. I find it a bit pretentious to say "You can ask us anything for the next *hour*" when you are a nobody. This is a bad way to say "we just released a game, check it out". I am giving feedback about their marketing strategy here. It is also in the form of a question, ergo I am satisfying their request. As you can see, indie devs aren't rushing to ask questions here so your imagination is incorrect. Why would they, when the precious hour to do so is already over...
We're just happy to answer questions if anyone does have any. It's also a useful way of getting feedback for any indie devs who are interested in that. When you know what questions people have, you also get a good insight into what they enjoyed about the game and what might have confused them. We did say an hour because we wanted people to know they would get an instant answer at that time. However, I'm quite happy to keep answering any questions that are posted, I just may take longer to reply!