Yesterday’s blog post was just a fun April Fool’s joke. Sorry everyone! I played BitLife a few weeks ago and I thought it would be a fun poke at the genre.
If you love BitLife (or similar games in the genre) don’t be mad at me! It was all in good fun.
We just teased this at PAX East over the weekend, but now it’s time to make a formal announcement: the Where Shadows Slumber team has been hard at work on an exciting new mobile game, and it’s available as a free download today! Read on for details…
Life Simulators Are All The Rage
Jack and I can be stubborn in our own ways, but everyone has to adapt eventually. We can see the writing on the wall – puzzle games are out, life simulators are in. Why solve cerebral brain puzzles when you could live vicariously through a digital avatar? Why go on a daring adventure when you could play as a character that eats, sleeps, showers, goes to work, and dies of old age?
That’s why our next game is SlumberLife™ – a life simulator based on the deep, specific lore that lies at the heart of Where Shadows Slumber. Starting today, you can embark on your own journey through the eternal nightlands seen in Where Shadows Slumber.
It all begins by customizing your very own character. Choose your biological sex, age, ethnicity, and vague religious affiliation. We hope that choices like the one between “Old” and “Geezer” are compelling decisions for the player!
Since the game is still in development, some options are limited. Check back later for more exciting paths!
Live The Life Of Your Dreams
In SlumberLife™, you can live the life you’ve imagined. But nothing in life is free, so nothing in life simulators should be free either. Whereas most life simulators use money or “gold”, we have Lantern Fuel. Use your hard-earned fuel to pimp out your ponchos, lanterns, and hats!
You collect fuel by working at various jobs. Then, if you work hard enough, you might get an exciting promotion!
Prison Guard (promotes into Prison Warden)
Thief (promotes into Kidnapper)
Ferryman (promotes into Murdered)
Knight (promotes into Corpse)
Walker (promotes into Torch Walker)
Rebel (promotes into King)
Lumberjack (promotes into Tombstone)
…and “many” more!
Everyone needs a place to live. But your character begins as a homeless wanderer, lost in the woods or whatever. Spend that fuel to give him an awesome new home to live in while he wastes away!
Choices include squalor, a swamp cage, a desert hovel, an “abandoned” mountain cottage, a desert palace, a winter fortress, a floating Bermuda house, and more!
Some of the better dwellings cost lots of fuel. Get ready to grind! This isn’t a premium game – it’s going to cost a lot of your time if you want to really get the most of it.
It’s not a life simulator if you can’t make difficult choices as you navigate your strange old person through a shadowy, unforgiving world. Our thrilling menu-based gameplay lets you choose between living a stable life, or doing something funny.
From the menu, select Crimes to make your character do something unhinged. If you weren’t worried about the mental state of the game developers before, you certainly will be once you choose one of these options!
After you play long enough, your character eventually dies!
Our Development Partners
Everyone is thrilled to be working on this game! Just listen to these real testimonials from the crew:
“When Frank told me about this game, I said ‘what?'”
-Jack Kelly
Jack is the lead developer and designer of the original Where Shadows Slumber.
Me too, Jack. Me too!
“This is a real game we’re working on, and this is a real quote.”
-Noah Kellman
Noah is one half of PHÖZ, along with Alba S. Torremocha. They created the beautiful audio of the original Where Shadows Slumber.
Classic Noah right there.
We’re also bringing SlumberLife to the newly announced Apple Arcade! Here’s a confirmation email I can share with you, straight from the source:
But we haven’t even told you the best part yet…
Releasing… Today!
There’s no need to wait before jumping into your new life as a strange old man. You can download the open beta for SlumberLife™right now! (You’ll need to be approved for the TestFlight build if you’re on iOS) Links below:
If you never played the original game that inspired SlumberLife™, Where Shadows Slumber is always available for purchase on the App Store, Google Play, and the Amazon App Store!
It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for – PAX East 2019 has arrived! I’m heading up to Boston tomorrow to get ready for the PAX PREGAMER party Wednesday night, and set up for the big 4-day main event. Before I go, I wanted to give a shout out to the other games in the Playcrafting booth with us.
Congratulations to everyone else who will be at the booth with us, whether it’s for all 4 days or just a couple! I wanted to give every game a quick shout-out and a run-down of the mechanics, but there’s no time – I need to pack for Boston and get out there tomorrow by early afternoon for setup. That will have to wait until my triumphant return from the frozen north!
Thanks again to Dan Butchko for this wonderful opportunity. This is our third PAX East in a row, and we hope to keep our streak going!
See you in Boston…
…Also….
Prepare Yourselves
Look out for a real announcement next week that will be life-changing for all of us over on the Where Shadows Slumber team. Don’t sleep on this one. You won’t believe it when you read it… stay tuned to this blog for the big reveal on Monday!!
An informal survey suggests the most common questions were “how did you do this?”, “what did YOU do specifically?,” “how much money did you make”, and “what degree would I need to do this.” Fortunately, all of those questions and more are answered on this blog! Just go back to some of our old posts. Also we might not have actually covered the college angle here…
This blog post is mainly to let said students know how they can follow Game Revenant for more news about Where Shadows Slumber, as well as testing information for future games. Due to school rules, no one was allowed to take down the students’ info for use in an email list or anything. So I told them to follow us and look out for this blog…
I enjoyed talking to you all about Where Shadows Slumber, my indie experience, and how to become a game developer. Please feel free to ask me anything, anytime – I’m honest to a fault and I’d love to take your questions. (That goes for anyone else who’s reading this) Leave a comment below or reach out using the platforms above! It never hurts to ask [^_^ ]
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