A downloadable game

Hold is a first person retro dungeon crawler with a deep plot and old-school RPG mechanics.

  • grid-based map (but not grid based movement)
  • 3d objects and characters
  • unique skills, with progression based on usage
  • magic
  • adventure game style conversations

I'll be updating the development log once a week or so. Hopefully there will be something of interest.

I marked it as AI generated graphics and sounds because I'll be using some placeholder AI assets, then replacing them as I go.

Development log

Comments

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Looking forward to this!

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Looks interesting. I’ll keep an eye on it. :)

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Wow -- and just when I thought you aren't doing amazing enough stuff on the C64, you're single handedly making a game like Ultima Underworld, which is like, my childhood game ... I'll really have to check this out when I have free time. I already love the visuals.... well, they just scream UW at the top of their lungs. Beautiful. I still wished back when Paul kickstarted Underworld Ascendant, they would have made something more like ... this. <3

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I would highly recommend you remove the AI placeholders before creating a Steam page, as it can seriously damage the public's perception. Otherwise great work! And thanks for the Ultima port!

Yep, thanks for the advice! Will do

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https://www.reddit.com/r/IndieDev/comments/1uhibv3/comment/ou8u4rw/

So no, it's not "AI placeholders [or disclosure] damaging the public's perception", it's AI slop not selling. If your game is good, people will buy and play regardless of generative AI use. 15 years ago just by telling "this game is made in Unity" you'd get a bunch of negative reviews telling you to use a real game engine.

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>as it can seriously damage the public's perception.
nope. It will cause butthurt in people who are 0.1% of possible sales, though, and will cause a lot of misguided people to start talking about stuff they don't fully understand.

Instead of spreading FUD, read the market studies - plural. Not just the one study from Game Oracle reposted over and over again. People don't care for AI use as long as it's not slop. If they did, 90% AAA+ games wouldn't sell nowadays. There is literally one market study that could prove otherwise, if not for the fact it doesn't. It says that games that disclosed AI usage had 53% less reviews, but it doesn't establish an AI usage in a good game->lost sales implication in any way, if anything it says that big studios are more likely to receive AI backlash for their games if the quality is lacking (and it usually is, most AAA+ is pure crap nowadays, and has been that way for years, even before gen AI came to the scene).

Think about it. It just says that AI slop doesn't get much reviews, and potentially less sales, that's it. It doesn't say that games using AI gens/LLMs sell less. Correlation doesn't imply causation.

Also, the difference in median score is negligible (~4% rating score), meaning there is no general strong negative attitude that could be measured.

Also, even the study's authors say, quote: "TLDR: AI Is Neutral For Beginners" (i.e. not big publishers) and "So what is our conclusion? AI is a tool, it should not be avoided. Would you avoid using a hammer to build a shed? No, of course not." - straight from the horse's mouth.

Also, the study itself is from about a year ago. That's ages in current era. The landscape changes quite quickly, it's just a couple of years since gen AI was made publicly available, same with legal landscape.

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Great Game Idea and Approach! :) Could become definitely an epic one :) do you need assistance with music / sound fx or coding? By the way : see AI as tool! :)

Thanks! And thanks for the offer - I'll get back to you in a few months if that's ok, when I'm a little further along with things.

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Take your time! Autumn and winter are the best seasons for me to work on sound and coding :) 

Will you release an early version? We love to help testing!

Awesome! Testing appreciated! I'll put you on the list.

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I'm also keen to test for you!

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Will definitely be keeping an eye on this one! Good luck and have fun!

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Looking forward to following along!  :D