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Still Alive6th July 2016
I know it's been a long time since I last updated the news section. The forum remains closed to keep the spam bots out and this site looks like a relic from a past age. But it's still running and so am I!

Recent events of interest:

- I've put up a direct download link to TSE-2 hosted on another personal server, as most of the mirrors had died. My thanks to Adrew at Crpyt.cx for being the only one to carry the game for this long.

- Last year, the excellent Ben Warren of My Boxed Universe got in touch to arrange an interview about the Spirit Engine series. You can read it here.

It's great to hear that people are still enjoying the games. Just this week, Will got in touch to share his speed run of TSE-1 (1:29:19) which you can see on Youtube here. He's also submitted the game to http://www.speedrun.com/.

Thoughts of The Spirit Engine 3 are still on my mind. I would like to do it, the difficulty is always finding time as it would be another a multi-year project.

My thanks again to everyone who has supported me and the games over the years. I hope you're all well, and I will try not to leave it another five years before making the next update!


The Sound of Music1st November 2011
Josh has been busy, and he has a number of soundtrack releases due out before Christmas, the most recent of which is the score for Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion, an upcoming RTS/RPG for the iPhone and iPad.
Go check it out if you enjoyed the soundtrack for The Spirit Engine 2 ( which incidentally is available again in full from Josh's website. )

On a personal note, I've not been entirely idle either, and have a non-game related project which I hope to start publishing online early next year.


Out of the game5th December 2010

You may have noticed that it has been getting progressively quiter around here. The tumbleweeds are breeding, and I think the forums might be haunted.

The truth is that I haven't been working on any games for the last few months. I've finally admitted to myself that I can't find the time or the energy to make the kind of games that I want to make, to the standards that I want to see. So it's time to take a break from this hobby for a while.

I hope and expect that I'll be back in the not-to-distant future. If not with a new game then some other creative project. Anybody who played my games in the previous century (!) might remember that I quit making games ten years ago. It didn't last. ( and now I really feel old :( )

I'd like to thank everyone who has shown their support, verbal or financial, for my creative output in these last few years. I'd like to apologise again to anyone whose correspondance I have been slow in responding to (it's not you, it's me! I suck). And I'm thrilled that so many people have enjoyed these games enough to make their feelings felt.

Best wishes to you all. I'll be back!

~ Mark


Reliably late!24th September 2010

My sincere thanks to everyone who has sent a donation since TSE-2 went freeware. All of my share has gone towards paying the site hosting for the next year. Your support has been heart-warming. Thank-you!

- Alessandro Barbazza has completed the first translation of TSE-2. The full Italian translation download is now available here. I'm grateful to Alessandro for his patience and perseverence. The final 1.07 patch, to fix the last few translation-specific bugs, should be finished soon.

- Alpha 1.04 of Brass and Steel is now available here.

~ Mark


Behind the times9th May 2010

I'm still here! I'm on my first proper holiday in the past year. I've not been entirely idle in the months since Christmas:

- The big news is that TSE-2 went freeware back in February. My thanks to those who have donated since then, your support is much appreciated.

- I've not been keeping up to date with my mail inbox. I'm sorry to everyone I've failed to reply to in the last few weeks. Please mail me again if you have any unresolved issues.

- Alpha 1.02 of Brass and Steel is now available here. I've been putting a lot of tweaks and minor new features in since the original release, and I intend to continue working on it for the rest of this year. As always, all feedback is welcome in the forums.

Best wishes to you all!

~ Mark


8 months later...28th November 2009

It's been a while since the last update. I've been busy with my new job, and only recently got a few days of proper holiday.

- TSE-2 is now down to $10 in price. I'm very grateful to everybody who has bought a copy in the last year. It's good to hear that people are still enjoying it! You've all been great, and I couldn't have wished for nicer customers. Thank-you.

- I don't intend to work on any commercial projects in the future. I'm going back to small, personal stuff, most of which won't be game related. I wish I had time to do more, but that's life. :) I hate selling stuff anyway.
I have a little tactics game which I was working on earlier in the year. I won't be able do anything substantial with it now, but I'm fixing it up for a freeware release with a limited skirmish mode for Christmas.

My thanks again to everyone who has supported me and 'The Spirit Engine 2' since its release.


Donations, Translations, Suggestions24th March 2009

- Last year Josh ran a charity drive for the American Cancer Society by giving away copies of the TSE-2 soundtrack. This year he has brought friends to help!
Donating here will not only support a good cause but also net you an album filled with music from a host of talented indie game composers.

- Alessandro's Italian translation pack for TSE-2 is now available here, and currently covers the first two chapters of the game.

- I am also collecting suggestions for a possible TSE-3 here. All thoughts are welcome!


Patch 1.057th March 2009

Patch 1.05 is now available here.
This one has taken a while, much longer than I had hoped. I am most grateful to Alessandro Barbazza for his help in outlining and testing the new translation functionality. The game should now fully support translation into languages using the latin character set. I will be working to make Alessandro's Italian translation of the demo available next.
There has also been a price drop down to $15, which should remain for some time.

My thanks again to everyone who has bought a copy of the game. Your support is important and very much appreciated

-Mark


Change List for TSE-2 version 1.05
---------------------------------------------------

- Improved support for translations.
- Added diagrams to the tutorial.
- Minor visual tweaks.


Thank-you10th November 2008

It's been just over 3 months since the release and I wanted to thank everyone who has bought a copy of the The Spirit Engine 2 so far. Every sales report cheers me up, and the amount raised has been enough to cover my rent while I continue looking for a new job.

We've been keeping track of press coverage in this forum thread.
Most coverage so far has been on blogs, tracked down by Josh's Googling, and has been quite positive.
It has been good to see reviews in non-English languages too. Whilst I would love to see multiple translations of the game available, I do not have the resources available to provide them myself. However, the text editor tools are available to anyone who is interested. See this forum thread for more information.
The largest review so far has been by the good folks at Gametunnel, where the panel rated it highly and gave it 'Game of the Month' for September.
I'm not much of a salesman myself, so any coverage of the game is extremely helpful.


Patch 1.0410th October 2008

Patch 1.04 is out and available here.
It's rather large at 48 MB, because as well as changing the save/load code to work on Vista without Admin access, I tweaked the edges on quite a few graphics.
I will be updating the main download and demo shortly.

-Mark


Change List for TSE-2 version 1.04
---------------------------------------------------

Bug Fixes:
----------------
- Fixed an issue that could cause elements of a few battles to behave incorrectly if the user quit to the menu whilst they were in progress, then returned to them.
- Fixed an issue that could allow the user to trigger 2 pieces of music at the start of a level.
- Fixed an issue introduced in 103 that caused Sludge Barriers to be unaffected by Thunderstrike and Lucky Shot.
- Miscellaneous other minor fixes and tweaks.

Changes:
--------------
- Made the data directory variable. Previous versions that have been upgraded will continue to use the subdirectory of the install.
A user may change their data folder by opening /Data/Current/game.ini and changing or adding the following line:

Data Directory= ( Use the installation folder )
Data Directory=APPDATA ( Use the user's AppData folder )
Data Directory=MYDOCS ( Use the user's My Documents folder )
Data Directory=C:\Directoryname ( Use the specified folder 'C:\Directoryname' )

- Optimized save and load code.
- Some small tweaks to skills and monsters.


Patch 1.0319th September 2008

Patch 1.03 is out and available here.
I'm happy to say that the changelog is rather short and uninteresting. :) Here it is anyway:

-Mark


Change List for TSE-2 version 1.03
---------------------------------------------------

Bug Fixes:
----------------
- Fixed an issue that prevented the death of a boss in Chapter 6 from registering as a victory.
- Fixed an issue with Smokescreen placement in a battle at the end of Chapter 4.
- Fixed Darak's movement stutter.
- Fixed a timer-related issue that could occur if the game was left minimized.
- Fixed some other miscellaneous minor issues and typos.

Changes:
--------------
- Explosive Shell and Staggering Blow have received a small damage boost.
- Flashbang stun length is increased by 17%

Additions:
---------------
- Added a save point to a level in Chapter 5