01/01/10:
As you can no doubt tell, I’ve redone this website. Yes, that means that
Stonewall Penitentiary isn’t dead (told you so!). No, that doesn’t mean I’m actively
working on it. Once The Filmmaker has been released, I will be posing several options
regarding this game’s future to the gaming community. From there, I will decide
with all of you how to proceed with this game.
04/10/09:
I have just released a press statement announcing the new game I announced
here a month ago: The Filmmaker. You can visit the official site here. Once The Filmmaker
is released, I hope to resume work on Stonewall Penitentiary. In the meantime, thank
you again for your patience, and I look forward to seeing your reactions to this
new game!
03/08/09:
Some bad news, I'm afraid. I have been forced to put Stonewall Penitentiary
on-hold for the time being, as a reflection of current financial times in the United
States. The sad fact is, I can no longer justify or afford funding this project
due to lack of personal income. I want to emphasize that this game is NOT cancelled.
It is too far into development for that. I simply have to delay it's completion.
I hate doing this, seeing as how this game has already taken three years of development
time, but I do not have any other options. Until I find an additional source of
personal income, this project will remain on-hold. In the meantime, instead of simply
doing nothing, I have begun work on another adventure game, titled The Filmmaker.
This is a game that will not require any funding and will greatly resemble my previous
works, Lifestream and Shady Brook. The game is puzzle-based and of a much smaller
scale, and - as a result - I estimate that it will be done by the summer. A website
is forthcoming. Once The Filmmaker is complete, I hope to have found a way to fund
Stonewall Penitentiary and continue its development. Thank you in advance to everyone
for your understanding and patience!
09/17/08:
The first demo of Stonewall Penitentiary has been released! Check the Downloads
page for details. Enjoy!!!
07/10/08:
Hi everyone. I just wanted to let you all know how well development is
going at the moment. Programming for the game is almost 100% done (bug-fixing aside),
which leaves only one thing still in production: the video sequences. I know how
much everyone loves the video sequences and story of my games, and so I'm not skimping
this time around. These video sequences are a lot more complex than anything I've
done in the past, and so they are taking a lot longer. To give you an idea of where
I am in terms of finishing the video sequences: I am currently rendering scenes
from page 22 of the 89 page script. Once the video sequences are done, the game
will be ready for beta testing! It's still a number of months away, but I'm getting
there!
04/17/08:
Just a quick update today. The project is still coming along...and quite
well, I might add! I've hired a new lead programmer - Christian Behrenberg - who
has done an outstanding job thus far. Thank you all for your continued support of
this project!
12/22/07:
I just wanted to take the time to wish everyone a happy holiday season and
new year. Development continues on Stonewall Penitentiary. Unfortunately, my lead
programmer had to quit, due to personal reasons. So, I am currently shopping around
to find a replacement. Until that happens, development is at a stand-still. The
good news is that the game is now well over half done. Once I do find another programmer,
I estimate that development should take another six months or so, and then I will
be ready to begin beta testing! Happy Holidays, everyone!
08/20/07:
Wow, it feels like I haven't updated this in a long time. Wait...it HAS
been a long time! The good news is that I've finally found the free time to update
the screenshots section. It now contains the new and improved, grittier look of
the prison that I spoke of in the last update. As you can see, the prison has changed
quite a bit! In some screenshots, I've included before-and-after pics for you to
see the difference. Still, the screenshots themselves do not do the game justice;
there's nothing like exploring an abandoned prison, with all the visual queues, sounds,
and dramatic tones...and so I CANNOT wait for you all to get a chance to try the
demo, when it becomes available. Sadly, that is still some time away. Right now,
I am in the process of mapping out all of the rest of the game's scenes. I'm just
under the 50% mark so far, but now that the graphical renovation is complete, that
percentage should increase fairly quickly. So, to sum of, development continues,
however slowly. The good news is, now that I have a core game engine that is stable,
future games won't take nearly this long to make. So bear with me now, and I promise
that I'll be able to start popping out games every year or so again quite soon. Until
then, enjoy the new screenshots!
04/18/07:
This is the standard "development is still in progress" update. I've hired
a few additional team members to work on programming and graphics. Right now, my
focus is on improving the look of the prison by dirtying it up. Once this is complete,
I'll post new screenshots, so that you can see the comparison. In the meantime,
the programmers are busy coding the custom save game/load game system. I'll continue
to update you (however sparsely ;-) ) as development continues!
01/25/07:
Happy belated new year, everyone! I am pleased to report that the core
game engine for Stonewall Penitentiary is in place and stable. Just a few odds and
ends (mostly graphical enhancements) remain. The focus right now is on mapping the
scenes of the game and programming the puzzles. Once that is complete, the next
step will be creating the video animation sequences. All in all, development is
going well, if slowly. I have finally updated the screenshots section to include
pictures from the game engine. All previous screenshots have been removed, so all
of them are current. Enjoy!
11/29/06:
Just a quick update for everyone that development continues and is going
quite well. Because of the delays related to the move to real-time 3D, I am afraid
that I don't have any updated screenshots yet. I hope to post some within the next
few months, however. Until then, I'd just like to give everyone a friendly reminder
that all the screenshots currently on the site are outdated, as the graphics are
continually being improved. Thank you all for your continued support of Stonewall
Penitentiary!
08/21/06:
I apologize for the delay in updating this, but I've been quite busy. So,
the big news: Stonewall Penitentiary is making the move from 2D pre-rendered graphics
to real-time 3D!
07/09/06:
Some big news regarding Stonewall Penitentiary is coming soon, so stay tuned!
05/16/06:
Six new screenshots added to the Screenshots section!
03/31/06:
Added a mailing list sign-up for those who wish to be informed about Stonewall
Penitentiary's release date. To sign up, enter your e-mail address in the form on
the Home page.
03/06/06:
Project name officially changed to Stonewall Penitentiary.
02/04/06:
Five new screenshots added to the Screenshots section!
12/07/05:
Talented composer Stephen Veach has been hired to compose portions of the
soundtrack to Awaken. Welcome, Steve!
11/15/05:
The official Awaken website goes live! Check out the game's first public
screenshots.
10/11/05:
Pre-production is completed! Production begins on Awaken with a tentative
release date of Quarter 3, 2006.
07/02/05:
Pre-production begins on Awaken.
News