A Beacon is now available on macOS. That is all, continue on your merry way. Haveth a splendid weekend.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5308630/A_Beacon/

Our hero wanders through the town of Stoc and decides to explore the apothecary. And maybe attempt to buy some wares.

So once our hero has fled from the cat shit flinging puzzle, he finds himself in the depths of the Cat Cave at the cat disco rave! Don’t worry, more puzzles will be added at this level, not to mention a pretty good explanation as to why there is a cat rave in a cave. OK, maybe not, but how else could I end this quest?

Come on! Surely there must be another game out there with a cat that throws shit at you if you don’t run away from it?! Well, if there’s not, then this will be a first. I proudly present to you a compilation of the possible outcomes of the cat-shit-flinging puzzle.

Where are you going with this? Well, you might well ask. One of the many things ‘A Beacon’ will include is quite a lot of folklore, some of it borrowed from outside Staffordshire and relating to my Irish heritage. One such tale is the Cave of the Cats in Connaught, Ireland. It’s a site with mysterious earthworks and underground passages that has only recently been surveyed with electronic scanning. Some say these caves lead to other realms.

And just like that ‘A Beacon’ demo is now live: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5308630/A_Beacon/

Enjoy, let me know what you think below!

‘A Beacon’ has a steam page! Demo coming soon. Wishlist A Beacon — a dark medieval comedy point and click adventure where chaos is ready to meet you at every corner. Steam → https://store.steampowered.com/app/5308630/A_Beacon/

As well as random lighting effects and dust particles, I’ve been adding and composing some music.

So I’m quite picky (I always knew this). I decided to redraw some scenes, mainly the church, as it was just huge and dull. I give you the new church:

Where to start… Ok so I gave up on S&Box because the licensing is a nightmare. I then spent an age creating a small engine with pygame-ce. And here’s the mad scientist part: an editor!

So there’s that and so many crazy details I don’t know where to start. I’ve managed to iron out a lot of problems I’ve had with positioning and a sorts of things I thought S&Box did an ok job of but not really. I now have full control.

Above is a montage of some new scenes I’ve been working on. Not In-Game Footage — unlike GTA 6, this will be very close to the actual artwork (not a realistic or valid comparison, I know).

FYI I use Adobe Fresco , and I highly recommend it. It’s totally free and very easy to use. Randomly, I started this project with the graveyard scene. I was in Wales visiting family and started doodling in Fresco. I then realised I’d spent hours on it finger‑painting. So I bought an iPad Pro and a Pencil and started adding to it and creating more pieces.