- Primordia no longer autosaves during the intro part [to avoid players accidentally overwritting their saves] - Few italian translation fixes. - OSX now has an arm 64/intel executable [thus no longer requiring the installation of Rosetta 2] - Added a failsafe to avoid crispin sounds from happening when crispin is not moving.

[ 2024-10-20 06:11:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

-Fixed an issue with the gospel music getting stuck. This is an infamous bug, I've seen it happen only twice in the span of 11 years or so, and finally found it and squashed it.

[ 2024-08-20 00:24:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Finally after long testing we've managed to fix a bug that while random has happened to a few people over the years. -Fixed a crash bug with wiring UI. [if you know, you know, otherwise spoiler free] -Fixed a repetition of a quip in the same UI to avoid annoying players.

[ 2024-08-13 22:09:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Tiny patch: -Ed a wonderful user on the WEG discord, reported a bug in regards to a music track not playing in a specific point in the game, on specific circumstances, cannot explain further cause that'd be a spoiler.

[ 2024-07-25 16:30:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Early today, Marauder Film exercised its option to purchase the rights to make a cinematic adaptation of Primordia! Its another major step forward, even if the final destination is still a good ways off. This journey started five years ago with an email from Bastiaan Koch (head of Marauder Film) to Mark Yohalem (Primordias writer/designer) asking about the possibility of adapting Primordia. Bastiaan is a movie-industry veteran with decades of experience on films like Pacific Rim, Rango, and Ready Player One. Given the overwhelming enthusiasm from co-creators James Spanos (Primordias coder) and Victor Pflug (Primordias artist)and after meeting with Bastiaan in person and seeing how enthusiastic he wasMark got over his uncertainties, and we all signed an option with Marauder Film. It seemed like an impossible dream, but bit by bit, Bastiaan worked to turn that dream into reality. He enlisted Walker McKnight, Winner of the Academys Nicholl Fellowship screenwriting award, to write a treatment and then a screenplay, and brought in his team of artists to develop the projects look. Over the years of that development process, Bastiaan spent hours talking with each of us about what Primordia meant to us. When he shared Walkers draft script in January 2023, we each responded in our own style. Mark told Bastiaan about his Aunt Virginia, whose poem The Inheritors was so inspirational for Primordia, explaining that in another poem, she imagined undergoing a sea-change that would bring new joy to others: Shape me and shine me into a sea prize / Found by a boys / Quick eyes in glad surprise. / Sea, sky and sand, / Let me one day / A small childs happy summer memory. Vic invoked the film franchise that inspired his artwork on Primordia: This is just fantastic in every way. It feels a bit like the sequel to Aliens to mepunchier and more action oriented than the original, but told in the same universe and the same world, with the same vision at its core. James was simple and direct: Exciting!
As you can see from the poster, and as weve talked about before, this is a Marauder Film project, not a Wormwood Studios one. Our game is a jumping-off point, but Marauder is not simply making a non-interactive version of Marks story with an HD version of Vics graphics. Cinema has its own imperatives and strengths, and Bastiaans team members have their own distinctive talents as storytellers and artists, even if they dont have a coder like James! We hope Marauder Film brings new players to the game we made so many years ago, and its fascinating to watch another team explore and build upon our creation. Well keep you posted as we learn more.

[ 2024-02-26 22:00:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy birthday to Primordia! Today marks 11 years since its release!! And we have worked on a big patch. A list of specific follows below, but I'd like to prefacing it by saying, that we love your support and your encouraging words over the years. Myself and Mark have constantly put work into Primordia primarily to reward the players for their faith in us and in the game, inherently. I hope everyone has a wonderful time playing the game during the holiday season, that's almost upon us. Thank you so much, I can't stress that enough!! We love you! Primordia Patch Notes: ---------------------- 1) Ctrl-G now switches between MOUSE/KEYBOARD to skip speech and MOUSE/SPACE. Essentially this means when the only keyboard key that will work is space and any mouse click will also skip the dialog/speech lines 2) Re-arranged options/settings in the OPTIONS/SETTINGS UI, so that they make more sense. 3) Added OPTIONS/SETTINGS on the Main Menu Screen [bottom right, there's a cog/gear] 4) Added an extra option that defines whether mouse/keyboard/time is how dialog/speech progresses or mouse/keyboard meaning it will remain till the player clicks or hits a key. 5) Added an extra option for text, which is Voice Only. Any voiced lines that are difficult to read or like boops or bleeps, will still appear on screen, but this essentially allows players to play the game, without text visually appearing on the screen. 6) The game has been upgraded to 3.6.0.50 version of the engine, saves will not break to our testing, but in case they do end up breaking, you can revert to the previous version of the engine. The reason why we change to this version, is because it fixes a lot of visual issues and compatibility issues with input devices [mice and keyboard]. It also allows the game to run at more likely a desired and proper resolution for the player. 7) Fixed the infamous issue with the "Three Musketeers" and "We're all in this together" achievements. 8) Fixed an issue with Crispin disappearing. 9) Now settings persist through saves [meaning your settings will now be the same for all your saves] - If you want to revert to the older Primordia, opt into beta channel "351primordia"/"Primordia AGS 3.5.1", password is "olderprimordia". Here's a small guide. 1) Right click on Primordia, go to PROPERTIES. 2) Properties 3) Betas 4) typing in that text input box "olderprimordia" WITHOUT QUOTES, hitting check code 5) Hitting the blue button that will appear 6) The game will begin downloading files and once that's done, your saves will still be there and ready to be loaded.

[ 2023-12-05 18:20:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

As I've mentioned before, a couple years ago we were approached by Bastiaan Koch of Marauder Film about adapting Primordia into TV or film. Bastiaan is an acclaimed VFX artist able to push the visuals to the next level, and he has had a longstanding interest in post-apocalyptic settings and robots, making him a great match to our game. (Just to hit a few of the highlights: Bastiaan is a VFX Supervisor at FuseFX and a veteran of LucasFilm, and he's been a part of three Oscar-winning and five Oscar-nominated VFX teams.) As anyone who has worked in the industry knows, it's a lot easier to express interest in adapting a game than to actually adapt one, particularly when the game wasn't trying to be "cinematic" at the outset (the way modern AAA action games are, for instance). But Bastiaan has stuck with the project doggedly -- through a pandemic, no less -- and, along with others (including Walker McKnight), has put together an initial screenplay and outline for a Primordia movie. Walker is himself the winner of the Academy's prestigious Nicholl Fellowship for screenwriting. What they've crafted is not "Primordia the game in a screenplay format." Instead, Bastiaan and Walker found the elements of the game that resonated with them most, and as well as the elements that go best in the cinematic medium, and then they added a great deal of themselves and their own vision into the project. That's how it has to be. The thought of folks creating something out of Primordia without putting their own souls into it would be terrible! A theme of Primordia is humanity's inheritors taking responsibility for building a new world rather than mechanistically sticking to their programming in a context where it no longer made sense! So too with this: if Marauder manages to pull this off (and so far, Bastiaan has proven indefatigable), they will bring forth a new world of Primordia, rooted in the old one to be sure, but suited to new creators in a new context. As a jumping off point, here are some thoughts from Bastiaan:
And if you're curious, here's a look at one of Bastiaan's original projects, which has been picked up by Netflix: [previewyoutube=Bmq6MIeEQ-0;full][/previewyoutube] All of that is to say: exciting times! I'm hopeful that we'll be able to share more concrete elements with you as the project goes on, but either way, we're proud that our little game has inspired such an undertaking. Mark, Vic, James

[ 2023-01-31 04:12:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Over the next few days, we will be sharing our reminiscencesabout developing Primordia. But first, a few numbers.

• 10 years since release
• 3 friends who set out on the adventure of making this game
• 306,105 copies sold
• 17th place, its highest ranking on Steam (September 21, 2015)
• 2582 days in the top 250 on Steam
• 2911 player ratings (as of today)
• 7 completed fan translations (French, German, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Turkish, and Russian)
• 1 and only Crispin
• infinite gratitude for you, our fans, who defied the critics, loved our game, and supported us over this decade

Mark, James, and Vic

[ 2022-12-05 16:00:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

We are very very thankful, to not only release one translation, but two of them at the same time! The translation teams have worked endlessly and tirelessly to get this done, and we are extremely proud to share their work with the public! ENGLISH I'm extremely proud that *Primordia*, which has a special place in my heart and reminds me of the good old days and the beautiful people of the past, is the first localization project i have ever attempted. I wanted to experience this feeling and experience in a very special and sincere production and thanks to the indiewords team, especially *Gkhan Kocaman*, i achieved this dream. I would like to extend my endless thanks to the entire development team and indiewords team, especially *Mark Yohalem and Jim Spanos *, who approached us very sincerely to experience the game in *Turkish*. I hope you experienced this work with the same pleasure, which i did by escaping from the chaos of daily life, especially in the peaceful silence of the night with a cup of coffee. With respect and homage to my grandmother *Cevahir Aslan*, who will always live in my heart. Semih Gkbayrak TURKISH Bende ayr bir yeri olan, gemi gzel gnleri ve gzel insanlar hatrlatan Primordia'nn hayatmda giritiim ilk yerelletirme almas olmasndan son derece gururluyum. Bu duyguyu ve tecrbeyi olduka zel ve samimi bir yapm zerinde tatmak istemitim ve bu hayalime bata Gkhan KOCAMAN olmak zere indiewords ekibi sayesinde kavutum. Oyunu Trke olarak deneyimleme konusunda bize olduka iten yaklaan bata Mark Yohalem ve Jim Spanos olmak zere Primordia'da emei geen tm gelitirici ekibe ve indiewords takmna sonsuz teekkrlerimi sunuyorum. Gndelik hayatn karmaasndan kap, zellikle gecenin o huzur veren sessizliinde bir kupa kahve eliinde son derece keyif alarak yaptm bu almay umarm sizler de ayn keyfi alarak deneyimlemisinizdir. Her zaman kalbimde yaayacak olan anneannem Cevahir Aslan'a sayg ve hrmetlerimle. Semih Gkbayrak Instructions: 1) Right click on Primordia in your Games Library 2) Properties 3) Languages 4) Select either Turkish or Hungarian 5) The game will begin downloading files and once that's done, you can enjoy the game! (Note: If you have a savegame already, unfortunately you cannot continue your progress in Hungarian or Turkish, you have to stay in that version of the game, or switch to Hungarian/Turkish version of the game, and start over)

[ 2022-10-27 08:22:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

-Fixed a typo on a kiosk entry. -Fixed an issue with Crispin scaling in the Underworks.

[ 2022-09-07 18:03:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, everyone! In our attempts to keep Primordia always updated and playable, we've passed the verification process of Valve, and Primordia has now moved from playable to verified! To enable our players to move their saves from and to the Steamdeck, we've decided to upgrade the Windows version from 3.4 and 3.5.0.26 That means that issues like that red border and other glitches with the OPEN GL renderer, are now fixed. We want to ensure that you are able to continue your progress prior to the update, so if you have savegames before this update, you can revert to the previous version of Primordia, and resume your progress. We're also providing savegames in key-parts of the game, to help you move to the new version, if your heart so desires. - If you want to revert to the older Primordia, opt into beta channel "oldprimordia", password is "oldprimordia". Here's a small guide. 1) Right click on Primordia, go to PROPERTIES. 2) Properties 3) Betas 4) typing in that text input box "oldprimordia" WITHOUT QUOTES, hitting check code 5) Hitting the blue button that will appear 6) The game will begin downloading files and once that's done, your saves will still be there and ready to be loaded. BELOW ARE SAVES FOR THE NEW VERSION: - Here are saves in case someone needs em! http://primordia-game.com/Files0/Primordiasaves.zip If you want, u can extract them into your saves and load the relevant names. Your saves are located at: 1) Windows: %USERPROFILE%/Saved Games/Primordia 2) LINUX: ~/.local/share/ags/Primordia 3) OSX/MAC ~/Library/Application Support/Primordia

[ 2022-06-10 07:53:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Next week, as part of our decade-long support of Primordia, we will be updating the game's Windows build. This build will improve the game in significant ways, including: ensuring save-game cross-compatibility with Steam Deck, Linux, and MacOS; integrating the Italian translation; and resolving issues with both OpenGL and Direct3D. Unfortunately, the updated build will not work with saved games from older builds. If you want to continue saved games from older builds, you will be able to revert back to the current version using three simple steps that will be described in the news post associated with the update. We are sorry for this inconvenience, a persistent problem with the AGS engine, and we appreciate your understanding. If you want to lock current version of Primordia (and not get the update) you can do the following: Here's a small guide. 1) Right click on Primordia in your library, go to PROPERTIES. 2) Properties 3) Betas 4) Type in that text input box "oldprimordia" WITHOUT QUOTES, hitting check code 5) Hitting the blue button that will appear

[ 2022-05-26 01:45:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're quite late with this, but finally, almost a decade later, we listened! So, for the first time ever [besides GOG where it has always been available], the Official Soundtrack that accompanies the game, composed by Nathaniel Chambers, is available! Hope you enjoy <3

[ 2022-04-05 18:24:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

2021 was a momentous year for Wormwood Studios, with major achievements on Primordia, Strangeland, and Fallen Gods.

Primordia: Optioned, Translated, and Ported

Rather unexpectedly, a film adaptation of Primordia that once seemed a pipedream appears to be progressing (with sufficient reality that we were paid a non-trivial option-extension fee). We cant share much publicly about it, and its always safest to assume that these things wont pan out, but its a serious team working on the film project. It just speaks to the strength of the community that you alll have built around Primordia that our little old game continues to attract such attention. Next year will mark a decade since our game was released, and we celebrated our 300,000th copy sold this year. More down to earth, Primordia received an Italian translation this year, courtesy of volunteer translator Marco de Vivoadding to the existing official French, Spanish, and German translations and unofficial Russian one. We have had some false starts into other languages this year (and in years past), but we plan to keep trying to bring Primordia to new languages and new audiences as the years go by. Recently, Russian and Turkish translators approached us, so well see where that goes. We also achieved our long-running goal of releasing native Linux and MacOS ports of Primordia. We made a more significant port this year, too, which we should be able to announce early next year. Needless to say, were very excited about it.

Strangeland: Released, Translated, and Ported

In May, we released Strangeland, our long-awaited adventure game follow-up to Primordia. We are grateful for the response so far. Strangeland is an intensely personal game. Using the psychological horror genre, we poured the tragedy, despair, hope, and redemption that weve experienced in our own lives into the vessel of a classic point-and-click adventure game. Originally conceived as part of a three-week jam, Strangeland consumed over four years of our lives into a full-length game, which many thousands of people have now played and enjoyed (and a few people have played and disliked!). The connection between players and the game is the most important thing about this work for us, so the reaction weve seen has been wonderful. For the past year, we have been working very closely with a group of volunteer translators to make Strangeland available to non-English speakers. It is an exceedingly tricky game to translate, given the rich allusions, complicated wordplay and puns, and occasional language-based puzzles. Thanks to the hard work of Endre Linea, we were delighted to release the first translation, into Hungarian, just before the end of the year. We expect to release a German translation next, with Spanish and French close behind. Unfortunately, the Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Polish translations are stalledbut perhaps we will be able to get them started again too in 2022! These kinds of false starts are not uncommon with fan translations. Finally, we ported Strangeland to MacOS and Linux... and laid the foundation for some even more significant porting next year, similar to what we have been able to do with Primordia. Weve always wanted to offer native Mac and Linux builds, and were glad to be doing so now!

Fallen Gods: Significant Further Development

Fallen Gods is now many, many years into development. Its progress is slow, but steady, and has been significant on a number of fronts this yearsignificant enough that we finally published the games Steam page (and were grateful for the thousands of wishlist additions that have followed). Art-wise, we added dozens of new illustrations to the game (every event in the game is accompanied by an illustration), new combat sprites and animations, new character portraits with varying moods, updated mountain and marsh tilesets, and various small visual enhancements across the board. Audio-wise, we added dozens of new voiceovers for events (the first text node in each event is narrated), dozens of new musical sketches, and numerous sound effects. The most significant advances have been design-wise. Fallen Gods is an open-world, procedurally generated, non-linear, narrative, rogue-lite RPG. While other games (including its forebear, the board game Barbarian Prince) have had many of these features, this is the first game Ive developed that did not have a predefined structure. One of the greatest challenges has been ensuring that the game still has clear direction, strong pacing, and satisfying progression, along with a high level of challenge. As more of the game came together, weve revised a number of systems, including how dungeons are traversed, how information is doled out to the player, and how the economy works. We also introduced some additional victory conditions. Im relatively confident that the design is now in the refinement rather than reworking stage, which should help us fill out the rest of the content. Were hoping to release Fallen Gods in 2022. The major challenge is simply that the older I get, the less time and energy I seem to have, which has slowed the design/writing down. My hope is that in the next month or so, we will finally be able to share a lengthy gameplay video showing a run through the game. There is still quite a bit of placeholder content, but it will at least be satisfactory proof of life!

Conclusion

As always, we want to end by thanking all of you, who have made our dreams of game development possible. Youre awesome, and we are grateful for your support. We hope that in 2022 we are able to continue sharing our best work with you, continue enhancing our existing games, and continue participating this wonderful community that youve helped create. Happy New Year!

[ 2022-01-01 00:53:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Exactly nine years after Primordia's release, we are honored to be able to share an Italian translation, courtesy of the hard work of Marco de Vivo, one of the tireless volunteer translators who have helped make Primordia available to players around the world. This Italian translation is particularly important to me because the humanistic themes of the game owe so much to Italian writers such as Calvino, Levi, Buzzati, and Ecco, whose works I have only been able to enjoy thanks to translations into English. To give one specific example, this sentence from Invisible Cities rolled around in my head while creating Metropol and the struggle between Clarity and Metromind: "In the seed of the city of the just, a malignant seed is hidden, in its turn: the certainty and pride of being in the rightand of being more just than many others who call themselves more just than the just." It is a great satisfaction, and a humbling moment, to be able to share Primordia back to a culture from which I have received so much. In order to avoid breaking save games, we are not integrating the patch into the main build, so you will need to follow the steps below to install it. As we always have done, we will provide prompt and continuous support to make sure that any bugs and snags with the translation are taken care of quickly. We hope you enjoy the game, and that it finds another nine years of kind reception from our players. INSTRUCTIONS: 1) Click on settings [gear] and then select [Properties]
2) Make sure the Updates settings are set to automatic.
3) Select "Italiano" as your language. This will begin updating the game.
If you wish to revert back to your saves and continue your progress without being able to play the game in Italian, change the language to English.

[ 2021-12-05 10:29:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

We are humbled by, and grateful for, the support that you have all given Primordia over the past nine years -- from driving Primordia through Greenlight faster than any other game ever, to giving it reviews that for years kept us in the top 20 games on Steam, to creating fan translations, fan art, cosplay costumes and more. We have tried to repay that generosity by supporting the game ourselves, patching it constantly to keep up with evolving hardware, implementing translations and quality of life adjustments, providing technical support and hints, and responding to every review, post, and piece of fan work. With this nine-year history shared among us, we'd ask that you consider nominating Primordia in the Labor of Love for the Steam Awards -- a recognition that would belong as much to you as players as it would to us as developers. The likelihood of our little engine-that-could winning a Steam award is very slight, but we might as well give it a shot!
[quote]"Come on, boss, you don't really think this is going to work, do you?" "No, Crispin, but as Michael Scottbuilt once wrote, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take."[/quote]

[ 2021-11-24 22:54:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

-Fixed an issue with speech set from lucas arts to sierra style in Metropol

[ 2021-09-05 13:12:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

After many years, we are very pleased to finally release a native MacOS and Linux versions of Primordia. The Windows version has had nine years for us to squash bugs, while the Mac and Linux releases are fresh out of the oven, so if you hit any snags, please let us know as a comment to this post or on the message board, and we will work quickly to address them. In the meanwhile, we hope new players will enjoy playing the game natively!

[ 2021-08-28 16:42:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Every Steam sale we have the pleasure of having new players discover and explore Primordia. Happily, most of those players come away very satisfied, but some of them are disappointed. In hopes of minimizing the latter category, I wanted to share a few notes about the game for new players: (1) There are no dead-ends and you cannot die. Some of your choices may change the course of the game a bit, but nothing closes off "good" (or "bad") endings altogether. So playing should be a low-stress experience. (2) If you are unfamiliar with old school (1990s) adventure games, a few tips. You can interact with (left click) and examine (right click) many points of interest in a room. You can pick up, use, and combine many items. Horatio is scavenger and a mechanic, so a considerable aspect of the game is salvaging, building, and repairing machines. (3) If you ever get stuck, you can ask Crispin for help by left clicking on him. If the hint doesn't help, wait a couple seconds and click on him again for another hint. These are designed to get "stronger" (i.e., more direct) if you continue to pester him while stuck at the same spot. If Crispin isn't sufficient help, you can always consult an FAQ or a walkthrough, though I recommend using that as a last resort and Crispin as a first resort. (4) Many players think that you are required to take handwritten notes. You are not. The game automatically records all necessary information (and some unnecessary information) in the datapouch, accessible by the toolbar or by pressing D. (5) Many puzzles in the game have multiple solutions or are optional. One puzzle in particular (involving an information kiosk) often stumps players. It is an optional puzzle (6) If you want to try a demo, you can find one on the Wadjet Eye Games website, though it's from an older build: http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/games/primordia/ If you want a taste of the setting, you can check out our story "Fallen" for free: http://primordia-game.com/fallen.html I hope you play and enjoy the game! But if you encounter any technical snags and need assistance, come away unsatisfied, or just want to drop a line, feel free to email me at mark at wormwoodstudios dot com, message me on Steam, or leave a post in the forum. The game's coder and I check these things pretty frequently and will try to make sure that you're taken care of! Finally, if you enjoy Primordia, check out our recent release Strangeland. It's also an adventure game, but with very different themes (and higher resolution graphics).

[ 2021-06-24 20:55:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=CBqDgGlGLlw;full][/previewyoutube] Eight and a half years after we released Primordia, we at long last are ready to share our second adventure game, Strangeland. We are grateful beyond words for the support and encouragement we've received over the years for Primordia, and we are hopeful that Strangeland will be a welcome addition. If you're interested, please consider wishlisting: it helps raise the game's profile in Steam's sorting algorithm, and the success of a game on launch makes a big difference for whether it ever gets its legs. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1369520/Strangeland/

[ 2021-05-10 04:10:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1369520/Strangeland/ Wormwood Studios is delighted to announce that the Steam page for our second adventure game, Strangeland, has now gone live!
You awake in a nightmarish carnival and watch a golden-haired woman hurl herself down a bottomless well for your sake. You seek clues and help from jeering ravens, an eyeless scribe, a living furnace, a mismade mermaid, and many more who dwell within the park. All the while, a shadow shrieks from atop a towering roller-coaster, and you know that until you destroy this Dark Thing, the woman will keep jumping, falling, and dying, over and over again....

[ 2020-08-13 04:11:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

On May 25, 2020, Arnold Hendrick, the creator of the revolutionary board game Barbarian Prince and the revolutionary computer game Darklands, was taken by cancer, just shy of the three-score-and-ten years the Psalmist allots us. It is too soon cut off, and we fly away. I never met him; I know next to nothing of his life story. But all the same, Mr. Hendrick had a direct and significant impact upon me. Our upcoming game Fallen Gods is inspired by both Barbarian Prince and Darklands. Both games are marvelously inventive and brilliantly realized. Sometimes works of fantasy are called escapism. To escape literally means to shed ones cloak. (One can ponder the age of brigandage when slipping a robbers clutches in that manner was frequent enough to coin this expression and put it in common currency.) Mr. Hendricks games were the oppositethe player does not shed his cloak so much as garb himself in anothers clothes. Contrary to the genres name, most RPGs do not achieve this effect. The players role is not that of a hero, but that of a hedge fund analyst, crunching numbers, maximizing upside and minimizing downside. But in Barbarian Prince and Darklands, the player is immersed in the characters and the setting. For a while, he sees a different world through different eyes. A person is greatly enriched by such an experience, while merely shedding a cloakin contrastleaves one a little poorer, even if we sometimes need to escape to survive. When I began designing and developing Fallen Gods years ago, I tracked down Mr. Hendricks email address. When our game was ready, I wanted to show it to him as tangible evidence of the impact and inspiration of his work. But I kept delaying the email because I wanted to make sure Fallen Gods was worth his time. Now there is no time left. So I must end where I started: I never met Arnold Hendrick; I know him only through his published games and articles about game design. To me, all of them bespoke an abiding curiosity, a creative vision, and an overflowing generosity toward his players. The man put 136 saints in Darklands. May they speed him to his Maker.

[ 2020-05-30 16:10:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Every Steam sale we have the pleasure of having new players discover and explore Primordia. Happily, most of those players come away very satisfied, but some of them are disappointed. In hopes of minimizing the latter category, I wanted to share a few notes about the game for new players: (1) There are no dead-ends and you cannot die. Some of your choices may change the course of the game a bit, but nothing closes off "good" (or "bad") endings altogether. So playing should be a low-stress experience. (2) If you are unfamiliar with old school (1990s) adventure games, a few tips. You can interact with (left click) and examine (right click) many points of interest in a room. You can pick up, use, and combine many items. Horatio is scavenger and a mechanic, so a considerable aspect of the game is salvaging, building, and repairing machines. (3) If you ever get stuck, you can ask Crispin for help by left clicking on him. If the hint doesn't help, wait a couple seconds and click on him again for another hint. These are designed to get "stronger" (i.e., more direct) if you continue to pester him while stuck at the same spot. If Crispin isn't sufficient help, you can always consult an FAQ or a walkthrough, though I recommend using that as a last resort and Crispin as a first resort. (4) Many players think that you are required to take handwritten notes. You are not. The game automatically records all necessary information (and some unnecessary information) in the datapouch, accessible by the toolbar or by pressing D. (5) Many puzzles in the game have multiple solutions or are optional. One puzzle in particular (involving an information kiosk) often stumps players. It is an optional puzzle (6) If you want to try a demo, you can find one on the Wadjet Eye Games website, though it's from an older build: http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/games/primordia/ If you want a taste of the setting, you can check out our story "Fallen" for free: http://primordia-game.com/fallen.html I hope you play and enjoy the game! But if you encounter any technical snags and need assistance, come away unsatisfied, or just want to drop a line, feel free to email me at mark at wormwoodstudios dot com, message me on Steam, or leave a post in the forum. The game's coder and I check these things pretty frequently and will try to make sure that you're taken care of!

[ 2019-06-26 04:52:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

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[ 2019-05-16 17:40:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Primordia Patch

We are delighted to release what we hope will be our last substantive update to Primordia (we may release future hotfixes if bugs are found). This patch was made possible only through the tireless efforts of French, German, and Spanish translators, a dedicate group of testers, and the labors of our coder, James Spanos, who shares the spirit of no game left behind! But the motivating force behind it was the ongoing love and support our players have shown for this game over the years -- your loyalty to Primordia compels a return of that loyalty on our part. Among the changes:

• The underlying game engine is updated to a recent version that is much more compatible with today's hardware (such as widescreen monitors and Logitech mice) and operating systems (such as Windows 10).
• The French, German, and Spanish translations are now fully integrated into the game, and do not require separate downloads. Those translations have also been updated and improved in various ways.
• Certain modest quality-of-life improvements, such as the ability to change between windowed and full-screen mode by using alt-enter.
• An additional music track, which had been mistakenly deactivated, has been reactivated in an important scene.
• A persistent crash relating to how the underlying game engine handled dynamic sprites has been fixed.
• Various small fixes have been implemented to issues like sprites occasionally being misaligned by a pixel, or the years-long labeling oddity that could arise if players combined the sensor parts in an unusual order.

Unfortunately, old saved games will no longer work due to the significant engine-level changes and added content. Hopefully we have not introduced any new bugs in fixing the old ones, but if you spot any, let us know. If you have any concerns or questions, feel free to email me at mark at wormwoodstudios dot com.

[ 2019-03-12 01:26:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Primordia Patch Incoming

After a long development and testing process, we are gearing up to release what we hope will be our last substantive update to Primordia (we may release future hotfixes if bugs are found). Among the changes:

• The underlying game engine is updated to a recent version that is much more compatible with today's hardware (such as widescreen monitors and Logitech mice) and operating systems (such as Windows 10).
• The French, German, and Spanish translations are now fully integrated into the game, and do not require separate downloads. Those translations have also been updated and improved in various ways.
• An additional music track, which had been mistakenly deactivated, has been reactivated in an important scene.
• A persistent crash relating to how the underlying game engine handled dynamic sprites has been fixed.
• Various small fixes have been implemented to issues like sprites occasionally being misaligned by a pixel, or the years-long labeling oddity that could arise if players combined the sensor parts in an unusual order.

Unfortunately, old saved games will be incompatible with the update due to our upgrading the underlying game engine. We apologize for the inconvenience or annoyance that will cause -- if you are midway through playing and do not want to restart, we recommend finishing the game soon. Our view was that the update merited the disruption to saved games because it will allow Primordia to continue to be enjoyed on newer systems. If you have any concerns or questions, feel free to email me at mark at wormwoodstudios dot com.

[ 2019-03-07 23:08:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

While we've posted a lot on our social media and website about our upcoming games, we've neglected to put an update here. Time to correct that!
A man awakes in an otherworldly carnival and watches a golden-haired woman hurl herself down a bottomless well for his sake. He seeks empty answers from mocking ravens, an eyeless scribe, a living furnace, a mismade mermaid, and many more who dwell within the park. All the while, something wicked screeches from the top of a towering roller-coaster, and he knows that until he destroys this Dark Thing, the woman will keep jumping, falling, and dying, over and over again .... Strangeland is a point-and-click adventure, smaller than Primordia (it began life as a competition entry) but similarly inspired by the classics. Anyone who enjoyed Primordia's beautiful art, philosophical musings, or melancholy tone will find them here as well. We are hoping to release it by the end of this year, but realistically it may not come out till early 2019. You can watch a teaser trail here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOWpyVHeKRE&lc=z23vzxngrpq1urewa04t1aokgyro01xznpxyy05is4x5rk0h00410 And you can read more about it here: http://www.wormwoodstudios.com/2018/03/announcing-strangeland.html
Once, the world was better, the gods greater, the wars over, the end farther. You were born in the Cloudlands during those days, one of the Ormfolk, forever young and strong, worshiped by those below for your forefathers deeds. But all is not well. Now, wolves and worse haunt the night, the law holds no sway, and mens hearts grow hard toward your kind. Fearful of their dwindling shares of souls, your brothers turned against each other ... and against you. And so you were cast down from the clouds, a fallen god broken upon the bitter earth. You rise, still free from death, with only the slightest hope of winning your way back to the heavens that are your rightful home. Fallen Gods is a narrative, exploratory RPG designed for repeated replaying. At the core of Fallen Gods are choose-your-own-adventure vignettes in the spirit of classic gamebooks. Each of these events, accompanied by a hand-painted illustration, consists of a series of decisions that depend upon the skills the god knows, the items he bears, and the followers he leads. Inside and outside of these events, the player will be able to explore the word, lore, and mechanics of Fallen Gods, and the more he comes to understand them, the better his odds of success. We've been working on Fallen Gods for about five years now, and given its complexity, depth, and personal importance to me, there is no rush to finish it. Hopefully it will be released sometime in 2019, but if not, it will be done in the fullness of time. You can watch a teaser story trailer here: https://youtu.be/DBodb6NSIL0 We've posted extensively about its development, so there is lots to read if you are interested: http://www.wormwoodstudios.com/2018/02/update-1-introducing-fallen-gods.html http://www.wormwoodstudios.com/2018/02/fallen-gods-update-2-days-of-yore.html http://www.wormwoodstudios.com/2018/03/fallen-gods-update-3-winning-was-easy.html http://www.wormwoodstudios.com/2018/04/fallen-gods-update-4-fallen-god.html http://www.wormwoodstudios.com/2018/05/fallen-gods-update-5-witches-and-dwergs.html http://www.wormwoodstudios.com/2018/07/fallen-gods-update-6-mappa-mundi.html http://www.wormwoodstudios.com/2018/08/fallen-gods-update-7-followers.html http://www.wormwoodstudios.com/2018/09/fallen-gods-update-8-violence.html

[ 2018-08-18 23:55:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

[ 2018-06-21 20:05:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

[ 2018-06-21 20:03:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

[ 2018-06-21 20:02:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

For new customers considering purchasing Primordia during the Summer Sale, we wanted to provide a few links. (1) A demo to the game is available here: http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/demos/PrimordiaDemo_Setup.exe (2) Semi-official fan translations into German, French, and Spanish -- which were made in careful consultation with Wormwood Studios -- can be downloaded from www.Primordia-Game.com: http://primordia-game.com/german.html http://primordia-game.com/french.html http://primordia-game.com/spanish.html There is an unofficial Russian translation that is not hosted on our site. Since we can't vouch for its reliability (either in terms of the files being "clean" or the translation being accurate), you will have to find it for yourself if you are interested. (3) There is a variety of additional material to be found on Primordia-Game.com, the most significant being a spin-off illustrated story / animated audiobook called "Fallen": http://primordia-game.com/fallen.html It contains no spoilers, so if you are interested in the game but not sure about it, you can give the story a read to see if you like the setting. (4) We are committed to providing extensive troubleshooting and technical support on the Steam forums to anyone having trouble with the game. As the temporal gap between the engine (AGS) and Windows grows bigger, more systems require little tweaks to get everything right. But almost always we're able to get it working. Hope you give it a shot!

[ 2018-06-21 19:59:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone. We are proud to make two announcements. First: trading cards are now available! Second: we have created a massive update for Primordia, bringing it up to version 2.0. We have tested it carefully and the update does not break savegames. The list of changes are as follows:

• Proceeded to fix the issues concerning the following achievements: The Three Musketeers, We're All In It Together and the Kiosk related one (the one where you have to find all the entries)
• Added warning message when the game starts with the downgrade 32 bit to 16 bit option, letting players know that the graphics will appear distorted.
• Fixed an issue with the behavior of the Elevator keypad UI inside Goliath whereas you were allowed to type letters.
• Added ESC as a key to trigger the OPTIONS UI.
• Added 3 extra options to the OPTIONS UI.
• Now if after a certain amount of time (15 minutes) you still haven't right clicked, the game displays a warning message, letting you know.
• Fixed an issue with Metromind-Crispin scene, whereas a sound of a screen breaking was entirely missing.
• Added sound effects in the Scraper Vs Clarity shooting scene.
• Enlarged certain hotspots to facilitate player's experience
• Smoothed out scrolling in rooms: Engineering and Underworks Main, to ensure that the player realizes the rooms are scrolling/able.
• Fixed an issue whereas after a cutscene the smooth scrolling would be turned off.
• Fixed a primer dialog related issue with the code breaking
• Re-designed the way the primer dialog works with the walking into position necessity. Now if close enough the party members will walk, otherwise if any of the members is off the screen, it will fade in and out. Also if all the party members are in place, no moving or fade-in outs will occur.
• Fixed an issue with F1 being able to be triggered in the main menu.
• Fixed an issue whereas you could ask Primer to crack the code when the council tower door was already open.
• Fixed an issue with the diagnostic module being used on primer even after the council tower door was open.
• Fixed an issue with hint 281 about oubliette never being active.
• Adjusted the hint system by:
• Reducing the timer between brush offs from 60 seconds to 15.
• Now, clicking on Crispin, after a brush off a hint will be given instead of another brush off.
• Now, only putting the proper code once is required and will bring up the ui unless the right code has been placed, to summon Factotum.
• Fixed an issue concerning the Peeping Tom achievement, that had to have all the conditions be true and could only be triggered if you visited room 5 (Telescope deck).
• Fixed a WIRING ISSUE crash.
• Fixed a Clarity clipping issue with the crane.
• Fixed Clarity baseline issue on ending with Gimbal.
• Fixed an issue with iconbar and data UI.
• Fixed an issue whereas the telescope button sounds would trigger for letters.
• Fixed a wild array of issues regarding insufferable amounts of lag/delay when the music slider was zero.
• Fixed an issue with the "defaults" button not restoring the music.
• Fixed an issue with Scraper moving around when entering Courthouse Ext Zoomed in.
• Fixed exiting path of horatio in courthouse interior (zoomed out) during the Scraper entry scene.
• Fixed an issue with a flipped sprite on Scraper's shooting lazer view.
• Fixed an issue with the quit/restart UI.
• Added Alt + F4 as a quit hotkey, updated the how to play element.
• Now the transmitter digits are doing an animation, whenever you enter a succesful code.
• Added description for the transmitter controls for consistency with the other UIs.
• Fixed an issue where exiting the Transmitter UI via Esc, if the cursor was changed from the default one, it would appear incorrect till you clicked somewhere.
• Adjusted the welding of the fingertip in Goliath. Now it looks more fancy.
• Fixed an issue with Alpha or Beta whoever it is now, playing the diagnostic lines twice.
• Horatio now actually does a weld animation, when welding the monitors in Gamma Section.
• Fixed the introductory scene of the metropol subway, now horatio and crispin walk off the train like badasses
• Added hotkeys for Transmitter UI. (Arrow Keys)
• Fixed the hash for the sliders not being properly centered.
• Fixed some Crispin facing properly instances.
• Now also left-clicking on the burned sensor will do the trick.
• Added a new entry for Dunes (it doesn't affect the achievement in any way)
• Printout changes to Laws when you've examined it.
• Crispin now faces properly when he hints
• Adjusted and fixed some issues with Horatio's appearance concerning the Gimbal dialogue.
• Clarity now animates when giving the keycard to Horatio.
• Added Clarity shadow as she drops to the ground during the Shells sequence.
• Crispin is now so Casanova!
• Adjusted some interactions concerning the transmitter in the courthouse interior rooms.
• Fixed horatio stuttering when talking to Gimbal.
• Added condition for option "judge Oswald and Cornelius's case" to appear if you've also asked her "you said you were a law clerk".
• Fixed a rare occasion with the Z axis of Scraper messing up graphical placement.
• Added sound effect for when you connect two wire nodes succesfully.
• Added hotkey functionality to Save Game and Restore Game
• Fixed exit to endings to a more cinematic and less jarred version.
• Adjusted Scraper facing Horatio.
• Added ping elevator sound effect when the door opens inside the elevator car.

CONCERNING THE SCRAPER BLOWUP SCENE, the following were fixed.

• Fixed an issue where scraper would appear in front of horatio as him and crispin run away whilst Scraper was focusing the transmitter
• Fixed an issue with the bomblet graphic positioning poorly, now it positions exactly on Scraper
• Fixed an issue where Scraper would appear in front of the explosion
• Also readjusted positions of 187, Scraper and the Explosion
• Fixed an issue regarding the Charity-Clarity flashback as music would not queue in.
• Adjusted music regarding the entire blowup scene (both ways)
• Added sound effects for Scraper shooting 187th and 187th shooting Scraper
• Now on the Courthouse Exterior zoomed out room, bots either of the three roaming bots of metropol are turned invisible and visible when the cutscene ends (both ways)
• Horatio on the courthouse exterior zoomed in room, always faces up-left after each interaction, if Scraper is in the room.

Any issues, comments or concerns, please let us know! Wadjet Eye & Wormwood

[ 2014-11-26 13:39:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone. We are proud to make two announcements. First: trading cards are now available! Second: we have created a massive update for Primordia, bringing it up to version 2.0. We have tested it carefully and the update does not break savegames. The list of changes are as follows:

• Proceeded to fix the issues concerning the following achievements: The Three Musketeers, We're All In It Together and the Kiosk related one (the one where you have to find all the entries)
• Added warning message when the game starts with the downgrade 32 bit to 16 bit option, letting players know that the graphics will appear distorted.
• Fixed an issue with the behavior of the Elevator keypad UI inside Goliath whereas you were allowed to type letters.
• Added ESC as a key to trigger the OPTIONS UI.
• Added 3 extra options to the OPTIONS UI.
• Now if after a certain amount of time (15 minutes) you still haven't right clicked, the game displays a warning message, letting you know.
• Fixed an issue with Metromind-Crispin scene, whereas a sound of a screen breaking was entirely missing.
• Added sound effects in the Scraper Vs Clarity shooting scene.
• Enlarged certain hotspots to facilitate player's experience
• Smoothed out scrolling in rooms: Engineering and Underworks Main, to ensure that the player realizes the rooms are scrolling/able.
• Fixed an issue whereas after a cutscene the smooth scrolling would be turned off.
• Fixed a primer dialog related issue with the code breaking
• Re-designed the way the primer dialog works with the walking into position necessity. Now if close enough the party members will walk, otherwise if any of the members is off the screen, it will fade in and out. Also if all the party members are in place, no moving or fade-in outs will occur.
• Fixed an issue with F1 being able to be triggered in the main menu.
• Fixed an issue whereas you could ask Primer to crack the code when the council tower door was already open.
• Fixed an issue with the diagnostic module being used on primer even after the council tower door was open.
• Fixed an issue with hint 281 about oubliette never being active.
• Adjusted the hint system by:
• Reducing the timer between brush offs from 60 seconds to 15.
• Now, clicking on Crispin, after a brush off a hint will be given instead of another brush off.
• Now, only putting the proper code once is required and will bring up the ui unless the right code has been placed, to summon Factotum.
• Fixed an issue concerning the Peeping Tom achievement, that had to have all the conditions be true and could only be triggered if you visited room 5 (Telescope deck).
• Fixed a WIRING ISSUE crash.
• Fixed a Clarity clipping issue with the crane.
• Fixed Clarity baseline issue on ending with Gimbal.
• Fixed an issue with iconbar and data UI.
• Fixed an issue whereas the telescope button sounds would trigger for letters.
• Fixed a wild array of issues regarding insufferable amounts of lag/delay when the music slider was zero.
• Fixed an issue with the "defaults" button not restoring the music.
• Fixed an issue with Scraper moving around when entering Courthouse Ext Zoomed in.
• Fixed exiting path of horatio in courthouse interior (zoomed out) during the Scraper entry scene.
• Fixed an issue with a flipped sprite on Scraper's shooting lazer view.
• Fixed an issue with the quit/restart UI.
• Added Alt + F4 as a quit hotkey, updated the how to play element.
• Now the transmitter digits are doing an animation, whenever you enter a succesful code.
• Added description for the transmitter controls for consistency with the other UIs.
• Fixed an issue where exiting the Transmitter UI via Esc, if the cursor was changed from the default one, it would appear incorrect till you clicked somewhere.
• Adjusted the welding of the fingertip in Goliath. Now it looks more fancy.
• Fixed an issue with Alpha or Beta whoever it is now, playing the diagnostic lines twice.
• Horatio now actually does a weld animation, when welding the monitors in Gamma Section.
• Fixed the introductory scene of the metropol subway, now horatio and crispin walk off the train like badasses
• Added hotkeys for Transmitter UI. (Arrow Keys)
• Fixed the hash for the sliders not being properly centered.
• Fixed some Crispin facing properly instances.
• Now also left-clicking on the burned sensor will do the trick.
• Added a new entry for Dunes (it doesn't affect the achievement in any way)
• Printout changes to Laws when you've examined it.
• Crispin now faces properly when he hints
• Adjusted and fixed some issues with Horatio's appearance concerning the Gimbal dialogue.
• Clarity now animates when giving the keycard to Horatio.
• Added Clarity shadow as she drops to the ground during the Shells sequence.
• Crispin is now so Casanova!
• Adjusted some interactions concerning the transmitter in the courthouse interior rooms.
• Fixed horatio stuttering when talking to Gimbal.
• Added condition for option "judge Oswald and Cornelius's case" to appear if you've also asked her "you said you were a law clerk".
• Fixed a rare occasion with the Z axis of Scraper messing up graphical placement.
• Added sound effect for when you connect two wire nodes succesfully.
• Added hotkey functionality to Save Game and Restore Game
• Fixed exit to endings to a more cinematic and less jarred version.
• Adjusted Scraper facing Horatio.
• Added ping elevator sound effect when the door opens inside the elevator car.

CONCERNING THE SCRAPER BLOWUP SCENE, the following were fixed.

• Fixed an issue where scraper would appear in front of horatio as him and crispin run away whilst Scraper was focusing the transmitter
• Fixed an issue with the bomblet graphic positioning poorly, now it positions exactly on Scraper
• Fixed an issue where Scraper would appear in front of the explosion
• Also readjusted positions of 187, Scraper and the Explosion
• Fixed an issue regarding the Charity-Clarity flashback as music would not queue in.
• Adjusted music regarding the entire blowup scene (both ways)
• Added sound effects for Scraper shooting 187th and 187th shooting Scraper
• Now on the Courthouse Exterior zoomed out room, bots either of the three roaming bots of metropol are turned invisible and visible when the cutscene ends (both ways)
• Horatio on the courthouse exterior zoomed in room, always faces up-left after each interaction, if Scraper is in the room.

Any issues, comments or concerns, please let us know! Wadjet Eye & Wormwood

[ 2014-11-26 13:39:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Primordia has been updated to version 1.2!

The update includes the following fixes:

-Game no longer autosaves during the ending credits and ending cutscenes
-Fixed several kiosk glitches
-Implemented a "how to play" button on Options menu
-Fixed "We're All In This Together" & "The Three Musketeers" achievements being unachieveable.
-New dialog options with Metromind implemented
-Energy Sensor in junkpile now behaves correctly
-Fixed crashes relating to lamp character hints
-Implemented the place item fix, regarding the virus, transmitter, scraper arm, and generally items on the iconbar being selected without actually being owned by the player.
-Fixed the kiosk achievement being unachievable
-Now inventory ui closes when you click on, or using hotkey for savegame and/or restoregame uis.
-Fixed Restart UI, restore UI and save UI closing the "close" label properly, as all other uis.

If you have any questions, please contact us at admin@wadjeteyegames.com

[ 2013-02-12 04:49:00 CET ] [ Original post ]