Escape Industries

Author: Lane Davis

  • The Great Genre Debate

    The Great Genre Debate

    Any time designers sit down to make a genre mash-up like Fingeance, they enter exciting new territory. There’s an inherent delight to mixing new things together and watching what emerges. Two of our genres – character brawler and roguelike (random levels, random loot) – have given us a lot to think about. Hundreds of times,…

  • Beating Extreme Difficulty

    Beating Extreme Difficulty

    Want a challenge? Grab our Demo, turn the difficulty to Extreme, and try to make it to the end of level 3. Here are some things you can expect: Enemies shoot faster Some attacks are still dodgeable, but you’ll need to fit into a just-barely-submarine-sized hole to do it. Other (previously dodgeable) attacks become solid…

  • Fingeance Alpha v3 Launch

    Fingeance Alpha v3 Launch

    Play the alpha here! Right now, you can go try out the first major update to the Fingeance Alpha. It loads up fast, and a playthrough takes 10 minutes. We highly advise that you give it a try. If you didn’t play our game when it first came out, let me catch you up. Fingeance…

  • What I Thought a “Finished Game” Looked Like, Two Months Ago.

    What I Thought a “Finished Game” Looked Like, Two Months Ago.

    I was wrong. I was so wrong. On May 13th, I posted an article about how Stephen, Charles, and I were wrapping up work on the “Big Systems” of Fingeance. I claimed that the game had reached such maturity that we were done “making tools” and 2042 hacks. I even penned the hilariously overconfident “It’s time…

  • Into the Unknown – First Adventures with the New Shop

    Into the Unknown – First Adventures with the New Shop

    “I actually have to think about my decisions now, and it’s great.” – Stephen McGregor, Sunday, July 26th. “You missed scrap!! … That’s really important to me all of a sudden.” – Charles McGregor, Sunday, July 26th. “It looks like a normal shooting game, but it’s way more addictive.” – Unnamed 3rd Grade Student, Wednesday,…

  • Defining Buffs, Equipment, and Roles

    Defining Buffs, Equipment, and Roles

    What a week! When I first got into gaming, nobody told me that inventory/equipment/stats/bonuses/buffs was this herculean rite-of-passage that stymies so many beginning RPG devs. Player equipment – and passive benefits thereof – were literally the first thing we ever talked about when we started making Fingeance. Several months later, we’re finally able to implement…

  • Death Mechanics in Fingeance

    Death Mechanics in Fingeance

    Greetings Friends! Today’s article is about something we all spend a lot of time doing: dying in video games. Adding death to a game is a lot like cooking with spice: some people don’t like it, many do like it, and to some, the dish is meaningless without it. This article will look at why death is so…

  • Changelog – June 11th Demo Update

    Changelog – June 11th Demo Update

    Hey all! To all of you who tried out our Alpha, we give our sincere thanks. You gave us an incalculable gift: your time and feedback. To honor your contributions, the least we can do is to keep you updated on our progress. To that end, we just released a sizable Demo Update, and we…

  • Shock Shield Tuneup Time

    Shock Shield Tuneup Time

    The Shock Shield. This thrumming bulwark of porpoise-punishing power might be the marquee item for Fingeance, and we’ve all but ignored it on this site. Stephen wrote a primer on it here, but it deserves a second look. You see, the Shock Shield isn’t the only defensive item in Fingeance. Once done, the game will…

  • Demo Announcement – Fingeance Alpha

    Demo Announcement – Fingeance Alpha

    Make waves: The very first Fingeance Alpha Demo launches in two weeks. You can play it live, right here at EscapeIndustries.net on Monday, June 1st. We at Escape Industries humbly consider ourselves to be leading experts on matters of undersea revenge. To best enjoy the Fingeance Alpha demo, we suggest the following: Controllers – Keyboard…