Disturbance of the Peace and Quiet
(7 October 2008)Lots is going on on the development front. Some systems that experienced players take for granted by now are going to be receiving a hefty upgrade. Work is being done on a lot of things; the last of the Secrets are being wrapped up, even more new quests are in the works, a new cutscene system is being hatched, as well as brand new ways of progressing in the game, new areas in the level and new unlockables. In general, there is going to be a lot to do in Karrot Shire once we are finished with this. Sure, it will take 'a while' to complete all this, but once again, it will be worth the wait.
Userpanel is being updated
(18 September 2008)You will notice that an extra page has been added to the Userpanel: Secret Hints. On this page, as a reward for finding secret areas, you will be able to get clues for other secrets you haven't found yet. The trick is to fill in the password you get when you visit a secret area in the game. For now though, all you can do is randomly guess passwords, at least until you get a chance to play the game again. Keep watching the site, more is on the horizon.
No need for an obituary
(14 September 2008)Boy, have we had a lot on our minds lately. It may seem like a long, long time
to wait for those who remain interested in playing this game, but the fact is: Karrot Shire needs
a BIG update and will get it in the end. We are not, on the whole, sitting around and doing
nothing at all; we only do that móst of the time. The good news is that we have picked up
work on the project again (you may know this if you have read the JCF thread),
even though we don't progress as fast as we would have liked.
Now what to expect from us?
When Karrot Shire comes back online, it will be more or less a finished game. This means that
you will be able to finish the storyline missions and do a bunch of other quests as well. There
will be an array of new features in Karrot Shire 1.0. Some of these can be found in the JCF
thread right now, but we are not going to say any more for now. I think it is safe to say that
we are going to need at least another couple of months to wrap this game up. Hang in there
and watch this blog, because we will possibly try to post more often.
New feature: Secrets!
(18 March 2008)Easter is coming; therefore, we must go looking for easter eggs! There are now over 25 secret areas in Karrot Shire (a lot have been added since the last update) and there will eventually be 50. Look forward to being able to keep track of how many secrets you have found, thanks to a new Secrets tab in the Utility. Finding secrets will be required for a new quest we are developing. On top of that, we plan to give players a reward for locating all of the secrets. However, I think that the real pleasure of discovering a secret will be the secret itself: access to a previously unreachable place, a nice new shortcut, a cool new area etc.
Storyline update
(18 March 2008)No, we do not have the outcome of the story planned in detail! :P Therefore, we face decisions on how best to twist the plot. The mobile phone that one got after the Military Training will play a role, because you will eventually be called on it to start some quests for the Military Base (this will save you from having to travel to the Island and back many times!). The storyline is at the mid-point right now, I would say, or perhaps a little before it. The quests themselves are getting more complicated to make. Needless to say, it will take another couple of months at the least before the entire story is done.
News flash
(18 March 2008)Whew, the project has evolved enormously since the December news post. Check the JCF thread for a rough idea of what has been going on. We have not been able to update the website very regularly, which will probably not change for the better very soon, but there is now a Progress Report page where you can see what we're up to in terms of development. The full changelog since the first betatest in December can be viewed in the Utility (Help > About).
We have tried 24/7 hosting, and have come to the conclusion that it doesn't work out very well. This is mainly due to the general instability of Jazz Jackrabbit 2 - it crashes too regularly! For now, we will host, as before, every once in a while when a new update is ready. We do need lots of time to get updates ready, 'cause after all, we have lives.
The site is up!
(1 Dec 2007)Welcome to the Karrot Shire website! You'll find that bits of it aren't finished or polished yet, but it'll do for now.
To learn more about Karrot Shire, go to the About section of this website. We've put up some screenshots and a trailer on the Media page, which should give you some idea what this is all going to look like in the end.
Currently, a public beta test is planned for Sunday 16 December. We've still got to improve a number of things for the beta test, but we're pretty darn far. We (Falcury and Carrotpie) started the Karrot Shire project back in February. Now, in December, this new MORPG is shaping up nicely and we think you're going to love it.
We're posting a thread in the JCF to explain more, stay tuned!