New Game: The Salt Keep

Playing Project Announcements
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Hey everybody! After years of writing and development, I finally released the full version of this game a bit over a week ago. You can try an extended demo in the browser, or get the full version:

THE GAME

The Salt Keep is a novel-length text adventure and RPG (think interactive fiction with mechanics reminiscent of CYOA games or classic gamebooks) set in a high fantasy world where the traditional medieval aesthetics of swords and castles are set against the industrial creep of decaying feudalism. Follow traveling salesman Doyle as he stumbles into the brutal mystery of what happened to the village of Cardwyke, struggles to escape the seemingly unstoppable forces pursuing him, and hopes to find anybody who can free him of his debt. You can:

  • Guide Doyle through the village of Cardwyke and the keep that looms above it.
  • Collect items and equip gear to improve Doyle’s ability scores.
  • Succeed or fail at percentage-based challenges.
  • Earn experience and level up based on those challenges.
  • Talk to and work with NPCs to make progress.
  • Uncover secrets and missable areas.
  • Risk grievous bodily harm.

Despite the prevalence of choices and risks, there is no chance of death or dead-ends. The story always moves forward. In turn, you’ll change the outcome of Doyle’s story (as well as those of the NPCs he meets) not just through the things you choose to do, but through the things you fail to do, as well as the things you choose to ignore.

THE DEMO

A demo version is playable in the browser on itch.io if you want to see if the story interests you first. It covers the prologue and first chapter of the game (roughly two hours of play time), so it should give you a good taste of both where the narrative is taking you and how the game plays.

If you finish or decide at some point you want to continue into the full version, any progress you made can be transferred regardless of platform by following these instructions.

No technical knowledge needed!

THANK YOU!

I hope everybody enjoys this, and I’d love to hear your thoughts, even if only on the demo. If you pick up the full version and you’re into it, be sure to leave a rating and/or review on whichever platform you choose. I’m a solo indie dev and this is, as you probably know, kind of a niche genre, so every bit of word of mouth makes a massive difference.

Have fun, and good luck, everybody! Doyle needs it!

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Hey, this looks interesting, but the text keeps fading in and out. I find this really annoying. Like the way Windows gives you something, then takes it away again. Like the way your icons move about just to annoy you. And like the way my mobile is so slow at doing something, that the screen fades away while I’m still waiting for the thing to do something. Just to annoy me.

Is there an option?

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Do you mean the fade that happens during scene transitions? There is an option in the settings (the cog icon) for faster transitions.

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Thanks, I found the option to speed up transitions, but it’s still annoying.

I think the problem is the way the eye follows text. If you draw some text, then make it disappear, then have some text appear. Is it the same text or new text?

To find out, you have to start scanning the text. This is annoying because the reader would like a visual cue to find new text vs old text. It’s like constantly losing your place on a page in a book, then having to find it again.

Perhaps it’s just me. what do other people think?

Game looks good tho’

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I have to admit, the fade-in-fade-out transition for every single page is a bit much to take. I, too, immediately sought out the “faster transitions” option. I would prefer a “no transitions” option to make it both faster and easier to read.

I dig the setting and look of the game a lot so far, though. I’m going to continue through the demo and see if I can get used to the transitions.

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I’ll take a look at adding a “no transitions” option. Have to play with it a bit and make sure it doesn’t have any unintended consequences, but I think it shouldn’t be an issue.

Just to make 100% sure I’m understanding correctly: you mean the fade from one “page” to the next, right? As in, it’d be preferable if it kind of hard cut from one to the next with no fade in/out?

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for me, yes. no text transition would be a nice option.

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Sorry for the late response, the last week has been a mess! It’ll be a few days still before it’s launched (testing, app aproval, and so on), but I’m adding a setting to remove transitions in the next update. Once it’s live I’ll update the demo, too. Thanks for the suggestion (@Carrington also)!

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Hi all - v1.0.9 of The Salt Keep is available on all platforms and in the demo! This one adds a “no transitions” setting as suggested by @jkj_yuio and @Carrington, as well as some small bug fixes and better general button and settings labeling for screen readers. Enjoy!

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