Excel Barrett

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

I've been featured on https://t.co/MmbRE8bYq9 — my first author interview, about my first book, Rose Petal:
https://t.co/NBOvBxzhd7

Rose Petal on Amazon:
https://t.co/WFwaqZd6Ol

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

Testing smoke in my game. Every kill leaves a puff of smoke, so a big kill streak fogs up the field and forces you to move. Light, medium or heavy? We think we're going with heavy, but what do you guys think?

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

Testing something new in my game. Every so often a giant wave of bad guys rushes in, and one of your weapons works way better against it. So you have to keep switching. Still working on it. Would you play this?

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

My squirrel was shooting out of his head. Not his gun. His head. So we marked the real spot on every picture of him. Way better, right?

Free to play: https://t.co/a8vLjUZ3WP

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

Real question. Is this fun? Would you actually play it? Should I keep making it bigger?

It's free, try it and tell me straight: https://t.co/a8vLjUZBMn

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

Before anyone played Acorn Rain, a test robot played it from New Game to the ending. Twice, no cheats. It finished both times, and it told us the game was too short and too easy. So we went back and made the weapons and fights matter more.

https://t.co/a8vLjUZ3WP

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

"Systems have always been easier for me to trust than people."
— E.H. Barrett, Rose Petal
https://t.co/WFwaqZd6Ol

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

Sector 5: the acorn horde swarming past an old building, coming for you.

The demo is free in your browser.
https://t.co/a8vLjUZBMn

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

Here's how far into Acorn Rain we are now.

Sector 4: stand in the capture ring until it's yours, and it turns into a turret that fights for you.

The swarm builds the longer you fight. A few acorns at the start, a crowd of them (and the big horned ones) a few hundred kills in.

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

Run the same sales through your books twice, and they should still only count once. That's the test my small studio holds its own bookkeeping to. We ran it on a sample file: 6 sales posted the first time, 0 the second.

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

This week we gave Acorn Rain voices: 429 lines across the game. The quiet parts of the game feel a lot less quiet now.

The demo is still free to play in your browser.
https://t.co/a8vLjUZ3WP

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

Here's what we've been building in Acorn Rain. Swarms, bosses, weapons, and a town between the fights.

The demo is free in your browser.
https://t.co/a8vLjUZ3WP

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

Acorn Rain started as one idea: for nine nights a strange rain fell, and every acorn it touched woke up. By the end of the first day there was a sector you could actually play. The characters are built in 3D first, then turned into pixel art.

https://t.co/a8vLjUZBMn

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

"He could be in the room and still leave me alone in it."
— E.H. Barrett, Rose Petal
https://t.co/WFwaqZdEDT

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

"Sometimes it wears charm. Sometimes it wears hope. Sometimes it wears a smile that asks you not to look too closely."
— E.H. Barrett, Rose Petal
https://t.co/WFwaqZdEDT

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

There's a board game hidden in my game. Between runs in Acorn Rain you go back to the village, and the village has its own little board game. I liked the idea of the quiet part of the game being something you actually play too.

It's in the free demo.
https://t.co/a8vLjUZ3WP

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

This week a small studio I run took a game from an idea to a playable demo in about two days. Then it gave the full game 429 voice lines. I'll show how it works, one piece at a time.

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

"Distance, when maintained carefully, is not loneliness."
— E.H. Barrett, Rose Petal
https://t.co/WFwaqZdEDT

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

Rose Petal got its first magazine interview. BookReaderMagazine sat down with me to talk about the book.

https://t.co/AIIier6g2F

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

The art in Acorn Rain isn't drawn pixel by pixel. Every character starts as a real 3D model, then gets turned into pixel art. That's how the squirrel can move smoothly and still look like an old-school game.

See it in the free demo:
https://t.co/a8vLjUZBMn

[Excel Barrett @ExcelBarrett]

Every acorn it touched woke up. One squirrel still fights for the living.

Acorn Rain, free demo, plays in your browser:
https://t.co/a8vLjUZ3WP