Hello! Got a bit of news today about 'Crank It!', a shovel, a website update, and future plans.

C R A N K _ I T !

Let's start off with the release of 'Crank It!'. This is a fun little game developed by myself and Jamesy, where you gotta crank it until you drop. It also has voice acting by wriks, who actually made the website as well. I quite like making both "serious" toned games and ones where nothing really makes any sense. After 's.p.l.i.t' it was nice to make something that doesn't leave the player questioning their existence, and instead possibly getting a few laughs out of them. With that being said I hope you like cranking it!

S H O V E L

I gotta address the elephant in the room, which is Shovel. I haven't been involved in the creation of Shovel much aside from having 'Crank It!' in the showcase, but it's pretty much a fun way to end a game jam revolving around shovelware horror. I think that some of the game showcases (as well as award shows) these days are absolutely bonkers. People pay upwards of 200,000$ to get their games in showcases, and viewers have to sit through a dozen of advertisements to watch (in many cases) a trailer of a game that lasts 10 minutes and isn't intriguing from the get-go. Dry comedy from the hosts, and sponsor segments that drag on for way too long, make them feel like presets straight out of the Tartarus Engine. Some of them are good though!

I really liked Alpha Beta Gamer's "Games To Get Excited About Fest 2025", where trailers were max 30 seconds long, no sponsor segments, and no needless fluff to make the showrunners more money. "Shovel Direct 2025" follows a similar format. It's a great deal of fun and (to me) a nice parody of what game showcases have become. I highly recommend checking out all the other games that were featured in the showcase, they're really cool and made by a bunch of great developers.

W E B S I T E _ U P D A T E

I've put a new FEATURED sticker on the front page's CRT! The featured game is set by myself and is a nice way of showing off games that are otherwise not the first ones in the list.

F U T U R E _ P L A N S

At this point I've about finished with post-launch support for 's.p.l.i.t', I think if there's one thing that the game might be getting in the future, it's probably localization, but that's also up in the air. Thanks for all the kind words about the game, it makes me very happy that people seem to connect with the narrative and gameplay. I was a tad sceptical going into 's.p.l.i.t' with it being a more niche command line interface loop and featuring a heavier narrative compared to Buckshot, so I'm super grateful for all the support!

Now that 'Crank It!' is out, it's time for me to move on to the next bigger project. I have a couple designs in mind, one of which I'll be prototyping with a great friend of mine throughout September. In any case, aside from potential 's.p.l.i.t' localization, there probably won't be that much news until later this year. Regardless of these new designs though, stay tuned for another Steam release coming out this year. If you liked 'Fused 240' then let me tell you, you're gonna love this one.

With all that being said, thanks a lot for the continued support, and have fun! :)

- Mike