News for 11/25/7:

Today's release: "Muffin!"
  • Updated website link
  • Swept the cobwebs off some minor things

    News for 8/18/4:

    Today's release: "Penultimate Fantasy"
  • Fixed level 10 minigame
  • Fixed Raise spell, Siphon spell
  • Fixed some NPC text formatting
  • Re-tested the whole game, fixing bugs (especially with Summoners)
    News for 7/25/4:
    Today's release: "???"
  • Re-synched all songs. Timing is dead on...at least on my machine :)
  • Fixed bugs with the level 4 quest (key not being given)
  • Fixed solitaire (stupid .gif files!)
    News for 6/26/4:
    Today's release: "All Together Now"
  • Re-synched all songs. Timing is dead on...at least on my machine :)
  • Fixed bugs with the level 4 quest (key not being given)
  • Fixed solitaire (stupid .gif files!)
    News for 5/22/4:
    Today's release: "We <3 Old School"
  • Background graphics
  • Fixed timing on many songs
  • Bug fixes aplenty
  • New minigame: Blinkenlights
    News for 4/24/4:
    Today's release: "Beta Beatdown"
  • Added missing images to release (the level 8 maze is playable now)
  • Speed: Tendrils now uses the Psyco library to speed up various bottleneck functions. Hopefully this doesn't break anything...
  • Tendrils now consumes much less CPU when paused
  • If someone has multiple afflictions (poison plus paralysis, for instance), they are all shown in a cycle.
  • Dual-color font: Damage numbers have a grey edge, to make them show up a bit better against light backgrounds
  • Ninja has death animation. And, dead characters show up as dead in inn, inventory screens.
  • Added background art on some screens. (Computer-generated Celtic knots, yay!)
    News for 4/10/4:
    Today's release: "Oh no, Beta!"
  • Final boss battle
  • Peg-jump mini-game
  • Fixes and tweaks too numerous to mention.
  • Tendrils is now complete!
    News for 3/28/4:
    Today's release: "Alla-peanut-butter-sandwiches"
  • Graphics and sound added for many cleric and mage spells
  • New maze trap: Mana drain
  • More songs and critters
  • Level 9 boss added
  • Bug fix: Door on level 1 stays unlocked. (If you have an old save file, stay at the inn, and that should fix it)
  • Various other bugfixes: Duplicate savefile names no longer crash the game, fixed another item duping bug, joypad START now pauses in battle.
    News for 3/13/4:
    Today's release: "Frying Over A Jungle"
  • New chest minigame: Mastermind
  • New minigame: Joust-Pong (idea stolen from Kirk Israel)
  • Level 10 excavated
  • Item set is now complete
  • More songs and critters
  • Bug fixes: PgUp/PgDn now scroll most listboxes. Key-repeat works on text entry. Song volumes are more uniform. Face lift for the save/load screen. Intro screen smoother. Instructions and training updated.
    News for 3/6/4:
    Today's release: "Trust everyone, but cut the deck"
  • Solitaire minigame
  • Dance pad support
  • Level 8 ready
  • Level 9 excavated
  • Fire/cold/lightning damage types
  • Bug fixes: Corrected timing in .dwi files containing spaces. Escapipe no longer warps to dead-ends. Blezmon no longer in all-sixes mode.
    News for 2/29/4:
    Today's release: "Middle Management"
  • Bosses added to levels 3 and 4.
  • True graphics for Blizzard spell and pushable rocks
  • Key-item dialog is now scrollable
  • Level 8 creeping toward completion
  • Assorted bug fixes: Level 3 dead-end, blezmon crash, dalek miscounting, free MP from equipment screen, still more image case-sensitivity issues
  • ...still no dance pad support (freaking Pygame...)
    Update: I've got my dance pad working with Tendrils! Version 1.2.4 of SDL doesn't recognize my dance pad, but the latest version (1.2.7) does. So, dance pad support will be in the next Tendrils release.
    News for 2/2/4:
    Today's release: "THE GOGGLES! THEY DO NOTHING!"

    The background on maze images was not quite transparent, leading to HIDEOUS CONSEQUENCES. (I failed to notice, because my machine was set to 16-bit color, where it worked fine). So, here's a quick release to fix the maze appearance for levels 2 and below. (Thanks, rone!)
    Oh, and Dumapic now reports coordinates in the right order. (Thanks, Eb!)
    News for 2/1/4:
    This week's release: "Giant Robots' Room"
  • New mini-game based on the good ol' 128K Macintosh game "Daleks"
  • Different wall graphics for each level!
  • Level 6 is ready
  • Level 7 is 50% done
  • Various bug fixes (missing-image crashes on level5, "%s is dead!" message at pits, item-duping from equip screen)
    News for 1/23/4:
    This week's release: "Tell Me I'm Pretty"
  • New building: Bard's Guild, offering a combat tutorial
  • Friendlier game start (can name characters and pick classes)
  • Outlines at correct sword positions
  • Hotkeys available for many buttons
  • Highlighted dialog / trivia now flashes
  • Many minor UI fixes
    News for 1/18/4:
    This week's release makes some minor (but important) fixes:
  • Dead parties can no longer continue to wander the maze.
  • Some fixes to the encounter tables.
  • Bards now have the power to slow down (or speed up) combat songs
  • Debug output is now output to a log (instead of to a console window), so tracking down problems should be easier in the future.
    News for 1/11/4:
    Many thanks to everyone who has written with feedback - keep it coming!

    A torrent is now available - please leave it open after downloading to help spread the wuv. This release solves The Case of the Missing Shortcut, and adds a few more songs and critters. Estimated completion percentage: 39.93% (Hmm...call it 40%).
    News for 1/10/4:
    As some of you have already noticed...the 1/9 Tendrils installer doesn't put a shortcut to Tendrils in the start menu. D'oh! For now, just navigate to c:\program files\tendrils (or wherever you installed it), and double-click on Tendrils.exe.

    Keep the bug reports coming. The current plan is to release once a week until the whole thing is done.
    News for 1/9/4:
    Alpha release!
    The first alpha release of Tendrils is ready! Click here to download it.

    This release includes the source code. It doesn't require that you have Python (or Pygame) installed on your computer - just run the installer and play. This is still an alpha, so keep your eyes open for things that are unbalanced, awkward, or just plain broken.

    Friends of Tendrils
  • If you run a Bittorrent tracker and want to host a Tendrils torrent, send email.
  • If you want to pitch in on the Linux port, send an email.
  • If you want to add "dance" arrows to some classic game tunes, send email.
  • And if you have webspace and feel like hosting a Tendrils forum, send email.
    News for 12/31/3:
    It's been a while since the last update. But have the Friends of Tendrils been idle? Not on your life! There are now five trap mini-games, five fully-operational dungeon levels complete, and thirteen battle-songs. Sean has fixed up the maze graphics, which now look nice and eerie, what with ceiling and the floor and the light fading with distance. There are now closing credits; there is a sniper rifle (every game should have a sniper rifle), and there's a keen "Big Brother" utility for tracking what's hard and what's easy during testing. And speaking of testing: The first alpha version is coming up soon, just as soon as there are a few more monster species ready to fill the dungeons. The grand Excel Spreadsheet o' Doom says things are now 34.27% complete.
    News for 12/8/3:
    A big update this time. The Adventurer's Inn is now open for business - this is where you roll up new characters, and rest to restore HP/Mana. The maze display now uses textures, and looks pretty keen. There is now a dialog system, for talking to NPCs. A big behind-the-scenes update to the Tendrils Sound System to make it handle tempo changes (yes, some battle songs speed up or slow down!), and to plug a memory leak caused by bad reference-counting. There are currently 21 monsters; 6 spells are implemented.
    News for 12/4/3:
    Added chests, with trap-disarming minigames. Added new, much spiffier dialog boxes. Combat animations are much improved. Lots of hidden rule-y stuff is working better now (Armor Class now has an effect, for instance).
    News for 11/30/3:
    The title screen is in. You can now save the game, and load old games. Signs (and other description text) are implemented for maze room. Dungeon levels 1 and 2 are excavated but not fully stocked.
    News for 11/29/3:
    For devteam consumption: How to add music and How to add critters
    News for 11/28/3:
    The equipment and shop screens are in. The Fire and Cure spells are in. Also added the first Summoner class spell, Zerg Rush. When you cast a Summoner spell, you follow the motion of the monster around the screen with the mouse pointer - the more closely you follow, the more damage you do.

    News for 2/21/4:
    Today's release: "Three Months Old"

    Tendrils turns three months old today. It has come quite a long way. In this week's release:
  • A working (probably) Linux version! (Thanks to Jonathan Matthew for many fixes)
  • Freestyle minigame - all dancing, no story.
  • Support for (most) .sm simfiles
  • Populated the town on level 4
  • Added bard's quest on level 6
  • Many new items, including Escapipe and Toxic Shells
  • Fix: New games start on level 1, not the most recently visited level
  • Fix: Music choices with bards in the party
    News for 2/14/4:
    Today's release: "Queen of Hearts"

  • Support for freeze arrows (steps that are held, and not just tapped).
  • Support for diagonal arrows in songs ("Solo" mode)
  • Combo-count is now shown. "Miss!" or "Bad!" breaks the streak. (What is YOUR best score?)
  • Mini-game unlocking system. Lots of sliding block puzzles.
  • Level 8 designed and excavated
  • New mini-game: Blezmon!
    News for 2/7/4:
    Today's release: "Landfall"

    Big news, ladies and gentlemen! Tendrils NO LONGER uses a C .dll for handling steps ("arrows") in songs. Also, Tendrils now supports .dwi simfiles (other than freeze and diagonal arrows). Here's what those last two sentences mean for YOU:
  • Tendrils now supports .mp3 and .ogg music files, as well as tracked music.
  • If you have simfiles, you can add new battle-songs. Want to play Tendrils with random J-pop, or death metal? Go for it!
  • You can use stepfile editors, like StepMania, to add and edit songs. At some point, there may be some sort of submission process, and an election thingy for which tracks go into the finished version of Tendrils...
  • Porting to Mac and Linux will now be trivial (or at any rate, much easier!)
  • ...oh, and level 7 is 90% done.