ReAction: Colossal Cave 3D Celebrates One Year! 🥳
Greetings everyone!
Today is the one-year anniversary of our Colossal Cave game release.
That said, it was not a relaxing year. Gamers are not shy about expressing their opinions as to what they liked and didn’t like about the game. It is critical to Roberta and I that Colossal Cave exceed player’s expectations. Rather than disband the team, we studied reviews, forums, social media, etc. for any way we could make the game better.
ReAction: 🕹️ Out Now on PlayStation 4 & VR2 + Colossal Updates! 🤩🕹️
From the Desk of Roberta Williams …
I am very proud to announce our updated Colossal Cave 2.0, our new ‘enchanted cave’ version! I have always admired this historic text adventure, referring to it as deeply engaging and captivating — arguably the spark that ignited the onset of computer gaming – and have desired for many years to bring it to life with beautiful graphics, atmospheric sounds, and characters of charm…or roguery. This has always been an enchanted cave which – beware!
ReAction: 🔦 Now on iPads and iPhones 📲 Plus 2.0 Update!
Greetings everyone!
OUR 2.0 UPGRADE
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Roberta and I are STILL working every day on Colossal Cave. We will soon be starting to think about what we’ll do next, but before moving on we want to make Colossal Cave as good as it possibly can be.
We have been working on version 2.0 of the game, and there have been a lot of updates.
ReAction: 🕹️ Xbox Releases! 🕹️ New Website! Enchanted Version!
Greetings, Everyone! Roberta and I are on our boat now, cruising in Canada. We are enjoying our time on the boat, but we’re also still hard at work on our Colossal Cave game. Roberta is a perfectionist. I remember thinking last summer that we were almost finished with the game, but Roberta has continued pushing us. If someone on the team, or some reviewer, or some game player, sees something in the game that could be improved, Roberta insists that we “fix it.” She wants the game to be perfect before we move on to whatever comes next.
ReAction: Colossal Cave – ✨ Out & About ✨ & 20% off Sale on Steam Two Days Left!
Greetings all! I’ve spent the last week researching marketing for games. The sales curve for most books, movies and games reminds me of a fancy dinner at home. You spend all day in the kitchen, slicing, dicing, prepping, cooking, plating, etc. And then, the food hits the table and it’s all over in …
ReAction: Why Roberta ❤s Colossal Cave Part II
Our focus with the game has shifted, from building the game, to promoting it. That said, there is still A LOT of work going on in development, particularly with respect to virtual reality (VR). We released the game on the Quest 2with two different means of moving around in the …
ReAction: Why Roberta ❤’s Colossal Cave, Live Event & New Video!
From Ken’s Desk ~ “For the first time in our newsletter we actually have an article by Roberta. She talks about the game and why we decided to come back from retirement and make a game after all these years. I hope you will enjoy this issue of the newsletter!” …
The Making of Colossal Cave – Part 1
Yesterday my wife, Roberta Williams, said to me, “I know what your next project should be!” I cautiously asked, “What?”, assuming she had some new idea for a game. Instead, she said, “This isn’t the right time, but perhaps starting next summer you could write a book about, “The Making …
ReAction: Ken’s Thoughts, New Price & “The Modern Boomer” Podcast
In this edition… Greetings all! As you may have heard we released our new game! That said, we’ve been busy since the initial release enhancing the game and starting our marketing effort. We’ve also been busy putting it on more devices. This edition of ReAction has a lot of good information, including: Updated …
Colossal Cave is now available. People are loving it! 🔥
In this edition… Colossal Cave has launched! Colossal Cave launched on January 19th on Steam and Epic Games Store. It also released on Meta Quest 2, Nintendo Switch (North America) & Playstation 5 What’s ahead for Colossal Cave? Read ahead and see! Ken’s Thoughts on ChatGPT “A Peek Inside The …
Fun with an intelligent creature
ChatGPT – First Look Many are predicting that the next big evolution of technology is Artificial Intelligence (AI). For instance, Bill Gates said this on Reddit recently: “AI is the big one,” said Bill Gates […] “I don’t think [the web] was that big or that metaverse stuff alone was …
Colossal Cave is released!
In this edition… COLOSSAL CAVE IS AVAILABLE NOW!! Thank you for reading. For more insight, visit my blog – Ken’s Corner Colossal Cave OUT NOW!! Colossal Cave Brings Magic, Wonder to PlayStation VR 2 in 2023 Fantasy Adventure Launches on PC, Meta Quest 2, Consoles Today Xbox Version Makes a Short …
Happy New Year 2023 & Upcoming Release on Jan 19th
In this edition… Happy New Year 2023!! Wishing you all a happy & prosperous New Year in 2023 Colossal Cave finally releases! Launching for PC & Consoles Jan 19th Coming to Meta Quest 2 VR soon! WISHLIST NOW ON STEAM! We were in the LA Times; read the article here …
Newsletter #4 – The Game AwardsReAction
In this edition… The Game Awards Ken & Roberta to appear on The Game Awards. Watch it live on Thursday, December 8th, 2022 Links for livestreams included below. Thank you for reading. For more insight, visit my blog – Ken’s Corner Ken & Roberta at THE GAME AWARDS Ken & …
The End is Near
Table of Contents GREETINGS ALL! As I am typing this, Roberta and I are completing a long journey. A few years ago, we brought our boat, Sans Souci, back to its marina in Seattle after taking it around the world. There were a lot of emotions: The satisfaction of having …
ReAction Newsletter #3 – Colossal Cave on Steam
In this edition… Colossal Cave comes to Steam! Colossal Cave is now on Steam – coming soon! Wishlist now! Watch the trailer below! Thank you for reading. For more insight, visit my blog – Ken’s Corner Come Visit Us At COLOSSAL CAVE ON STEAM Colossal Cave is now available to wishlist …
ReAction Newsletter #2 – Halloween 2022
In this edition… Halloween 2022 Update Edition! Colossal Cave to be featured in “Day of the Devs”, hosted by Double Fine and IAm8bit Spotlight on indie games features our hard work on Colossal Cave & Ken & Roberta’s return to game creation. Some of the spooky history behind the real …
ReAction Newsletter #1 – PAX West 2022
In this edition… PAX West 2022 update An amazing panel of your favorite game designers – AL Lowe, Ron Gilbert, Jane Jensen and more! Want to meet Ken and Roberta? This is your chance! Want to see the VR version of our new game? The Switch version? We were in …
Where’s Pixie?
Table of Contents Greetings world! I’ve been struggling with what to do about blogging. For the last couple of decades, I have had a boating blog. In each blog entry I agonize over how I’ll get the boat repaired, where Roberta and I will take the boat next, or even, …
Game Development Through The Ages
Marcus, one of our team members, pasted this into our Microsoft Teams chat yesterday. I’m not sure where he got it, or why he posted it to me, but it did start me thinking. When Marcus first posted that question, my immediate response was “Software development is tougher now than …
May 18 Quick Update
Apologies for not posting anything in a while. That said, I have a really good excuse. We’ve been VERY busy. Roberta and I bit off more in doing this game than we thought we were getting into. I’ve been asked a few times, “If you had it all to do …
Game Developers Conference (Wrapup)
Last month we did our big announcement of the game at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. In the months prior to the announcement Roberta, I, and the whole team, were working long hours and weekends trying to get ready for the show. As in most things, first …
And So It Begins
This weekend we had our first-ever interview about the new game. The gentleman in the center of the picture above used to work at Roberta’s and my company Sierra On-Line. Since that time, he has gone on to great success creating “Meta Jesus Rocks,” his own highly successful YouTube channel: …
Showtime!
March 6, 2022 Our team continues to expand. We now have 15 people working on the game! There’s a side of me that really didn’t want that. The original vision for the game was that I’d do 100% of everything myself. I wanted it to be a nice, small, simple …
A Peek Behind The Scenes
We are now almost a year into development on the game. Each week I meet with the team to discuss where we are at and to strategize the week ahead. At this last week’s meeting I sent out some thoughts on beta testing. Below is an excerpt from last week’s …
Big Fish Getting Bigger
I’ve received a LOT of email, social media contacts, texts, and more over the last two days asking about the just-announced Microsoft acquisition of Activision. For those who may not be aware, Sierra (Roberta’s and my company) was acquired by a company named CUC, that was acquired by a company …
Zooming Up A New Engineer
Today was a rough day on the project. My problems started a few days ago when a newly hired engineer left the project. He had spun up to speed quickly and I had great plans for how to use him. But, a replacement would need to be found. WORKING HARD …
Hall of Fame!
Roberta wins a Hall of Fame award! The Consumer Technology Association had an awards event in New York last night and gave Roberta a Hall of Fame award. Congratulations to Roberta! A quick update on the game I started the project with the idea that it would be something fun …
Engineer Wanted
I am looking for a junior level Unity software engineer. First the bad news: It’s a contract position with poor hourly pay, and no benefits. I haven’t raised any money for the project and don’t plan to. I have no budget for the project and am trying to avoid writing checks. …
No game yet, but we have a T-Shirt
Marcus, who is working with me on the game, is attending a Vintage Computer fair on the east coast this weekend. He quickly had some T-Shirts printed to show off our new logo and to use as hand-outs at the show. I like them! Meanwhile .. we hit a big …
A visit to Oakhurst, where it all started
Once upon a time, in a land far far away (Oakhurst, Ca), there lived a young couple who made a computer game called Mystery House. The game sold SO WELL that the phone started ringing off the hook with calls from all over the world. That was the good news. …
Roberta experimenting with VR
Roberta Williams, trying the VR version of the game I am doing the coding on the desktop version of the game. Meanwhile, Cidney Hamilton, a software engineer who worked with some other Sierra alumni, Lori and Corey Cole, has been working on adapting the code to run on the Oculus …
Retro Tea Break Interview with Ken and Marcus
I always hate watching myself in interviews. The interviewer was good though and managed to make it interesting… I hope everyone will enjoy it.
Oculus Version Now In Development
Ken Williams trying out the VR version We are now planning VR support! We added one new member to the team (Cidney Hamilton) who is solely focused on supporting Oculus Quest II and Rift. Development is going slower than I hoped, but faster than I thought was realistically possible. I …
