‘Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land’ Celebrates with R’lyeh Big iOS Sale

‘Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land‘ is on sale for a limited time only. This madness is a celebration that the most recent version of the sanity-breaking title is now also in German, Spanish, French and Italian. Linguistic research revealed that “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn” remains unchanged however it is chanted. (For those who’s Cthulic language skills are in need of a polish, the phrase is from the dread Necronomicon and means; “In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”) From midnight tonight the sale kicks in at around 50% off its normal price (territory dependent). The developers remarked, “We’re keen to spread the insanity so this bargain price for a bit of Mythos action in many languages will remain only for a short period.” The game was also recently ported on to PC and has attracted a cult(ist) following on both PC and iOS platforms.

Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land is an indie turn-based strategy RPG inspired by the classic horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, who died 75 years ago. The game was developed in co-operation with Chaosium, the publishers of much loved paper role playing game, Call of Cthulhu. The game features nine 3D levels set in the trenches of World War One. In ‘The Wasted Land’ the player uses their team of investigators to uncover a deadly conspiracy underlying the Great War. Barbed wire, mustard gas and machines guns will prove to be the least deadly encounter that the investigators will meet as they venture out onto the battlefield to try and solve the mystery of the Wasted Land. As the game progresses, the player can build up the skills, weapons and equipment of their team. Key to the game is Sanity; the investigators must guard their minds against the myriad horrors that threaten to send them into the mouth of madness.

RPC Germany Event Links and Photos

As you may (or may not) know Red Wasp Design was at RPC in Germany recently.  We were there showing off the game thanks to the help of the kind people at Intel’s AppUp team.  So we thought we’d share a few photos of the event and some related links….

Here is our stall at the event – we had 4 Ultrabooks running the game so people could have a play and a huge mural that allow you to zombify yourself by putting your head though the hole…

The Wasted Land/AppUp stall at RPC

Tomas also did a couple of talks on the stage about the game…

Me speaking at the RPC event about the game.

The event had loads of amazing costumes on display – here’s one that caught our eye:

Run, it’s a goblin and he don’t look happy!

There are more photos from the event at Tomas’s blog and on our Facebook page. Other links that might be of interest to you include:

• Write-up about the event at zeit.de.
• Intel’s blog article about the game.
• Article about the making of the game and how we came to work with Intel.
• A review on the lovecraftzine.

Fhtagn for now… Android is next…

Wot RPS Thinks of Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land

There is a great article about the game over on Rock Paper Shotgun:

Despite containing the horror of gas attacks, trench warfare, zombies and shoggoths, the story is more camp than creepy, with echoes of Wolfenstein and Hellboy. It’s serviceable enough, if on the short side. I don’t like to mention price but given that there are only nine missions, it’s useful to know that at $4.99 there’s a few hours of entertainment here. … No gasts will be flabbered by The Wasted Land but it’s a stern challenge with a strong set of numbers and rules governing its combat. As is often the case with this sort of turn-based skirmishing, there’s sometimes a puzzle-like precision needed to achieve victory, but in The Wasted Land there’s usually enough leeway for triumph to feel personal and well-earned, which made every minute I spent testing my mettle satisfying at the very least.

There was also a re-appraisal of the game over at Pocket Tactics, where now it is described as “completely dope.” We approve!

PC Help: Skipping and Re-starting Levels

One of the advantages about the PC version is that you can easily get to the save game files.  So with that in mind we’ve started to create some game files for different stages in the game that you can use if you get stuck, have a bug or for any other reason wish to start a new game, but come in at a later level.  One of the issues with a campaign game is you can’t just unlock all of the other levels as you build characters as you go along.  So these files are just that – developed characters from a play-through by the game’s designer, so you’ll be stuck with our choices of upgrades and weapons, but it will allow you to pick-up from a later level.

Here is how to use the files to go to an earlier level:

1. Locate your save game folder.  Typically this will be in your Documents folder, so if your users name was EmmaGold, it would be:
   C:\Users\EmmaGold\Documents\Red Wasp Design Ltd
2. In this you will find a number of files.  These are the files for the settings on the game and the saves.  Before you do anything else, please make a copy of them, just in case.  We suggest you create a new folder in Red Wasp Design Ltd and place them in there.
3. Next, from the list below download the zip file for the level & position you wish to be in and then unzip the files from the zip file into your Red Wasp Design Ltd folder.  This will create a new folder with the files in.
4. Making sure you have a back-up of your save game files, delete all the files in the Red Wasp Design Ltd folder except the app.data file.
5. Then copy the save files from the unzipped folder into your Red Wasp Design Ltd folder.  These will be a levelStart.data file but may also have a lastTurn.data and lastObjective.data file.
6. Chant “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn” three times then run the game and select ‘Resume‘.

If anything goes wrong, then simply delete the new files and drop in the backed-up original saved files.  Do make sure you delete all the save files in your Red Wasp Design Ltd folder before you copy over new ones.  If for example you copied over a new a levelStart.data file but had not removed the lastTurn.data file, then when you resume the game it would pick the last turn to resume with and not the start of the level.

Here is the file list (So far! More to come…).  To save a file, right click on the link and select to save the zip file:

• Mission 1 The Battle of Pudding Lane (End)
• Mission 2 The Raid (Start)
• Mission 2 The Raid (End)
• Mission 3 The Many Voices (Start)
• Mission 4 The Many Voices (End, in Character Management)
• Mission 4 Burying the Dead (Start)
• Mission 4 Burying the Dead (End)
• Mission 5 Death By Gas (Start)
• Mission 5 Death By Gas (End)

Hope this helps!  There is more info on help and support here.

Call of Cthulhu on PC and #AppUp Update

Big thanks to all the gamers at RPC for making us feel really welcome as we showed the PC game there.  I have some pictures from there that we’ll post on the site soon.  We had a really great review from Koku Gamer, giving us 9/10:

The mix of RPG and strategy is very well done. The grid is reminiscent of Fire Emblem or FF Tactics, while the RPG aspect is closer to the paper version of Call of Cthulhu….The most unique aspect of The Wasted Land is the way your characters develop. They do not gain levels. They gain skill upgrades. As a character uses handguns more their handgun skill increases. This allows them to deal more damage and be more accurate. However, this does not change their ability to take punishment. I guess the idea is to show that these people are humans fighting against the undead.

There is also an interview with us up on Intel’s own blog and a write-up about the game on the excellent Lovecraft eZine.  Here’s a bit from the Intel interview:

Bob: The title is more than telling, and appears to be from an H.P. Lovecraft classic, “Call of Cthulhu”. What inspired you to take on this material?

Tomas: I’ve been a fan of Lovecraft’s fiction for a long, long time. I love the Call of Cthulhu RPG, and I’ve been wanting to make a turn-based game for a while too. Happily all 3 came together in this project!

Bob: I’ve only made it past the first level, is there a Cthulhu in the story?

Tomas: That would be telling. Cthulhu him(it?)self is a HUGE entity that on the scale of the game would dwarf the screen if we tried to depict him. However there are related entities that are key in the Call of Cthulhu RPG that you will meet and who will try to kill you. However we don’t want to spoil the ending for players.

Bob: Why set this in the “Great War” ?

Tomas: We wanted a setting that has not been overused in games (WW2 has for example) and yet had plenty of historical resonance and recognition – not to mention cool weapons we could use. World War 1 achieved all that as a setting. Also there is a personal connection, we’re approaching the 100th Anniversary of the start of the war (2014) and my great grandfather, Sid Brown, who I knew well, fought in that war, so I wanted to remember him in a form I work with, games.(read blog)

The full info on the PC version is here.

‘Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land’ Now Out on #AppUp Center, Insanity to follow

The madness is in the mountains. Cthulhu has been called. The Lurker is in the threshold. The critically acclaimed ‘Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land’ is now out on PC via the Intel AppUp℠ program at a price point of $4.99/€4.09/£3.50. The Intel AppUp^SM center is a service that aggregates, curates and distributes validated digital content delivering a fuller, richer experience on the PC.

The game has launched today on the AppUp center globally in time for RPC Germany international RPG event on the 5th and 6th May. The games developers are at the event taking new gamers through their first steps to insanity. The Intel AppUp^SM center is free to install and the PC version of the game runs in widescreen and has been optimised to run on laptops, Ultrabooks and desktops including support for Windows 7 touchscreen powered PCs.

In the vault of an ancient church, the battle for humanity’s souls plays out…

The PC version has been supported by the Intel AppUp^SM developer program which means the release today has been translated into German, French, Italian and Spanish. Sanatoriums and asylums worldwide have been put on notice to expect an increased demand.

Mustard Gas and Mythos – twin terrors found in the Wasted Land

If you are new to this cult title, it is an indie turn-based strategy RPG inspired by the works of pulp horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. The game was developed in co-operation with Chaosium, the publishers of the cult horror role playing game, Call of Cthulhu. The game features nine 3D levels set in the trenches of World War One. In ‘The Wasted Land‘ the player uses their team of investigators to uncover a deadly inhuman conspiracy underlying the Great War. Barbed wire, mustard gas and machines guns will prove to be the least dangerous thing that the investigators will encounter as they venture out into No-man’s Land to solve the mystery of the Wasted Land. As the game progresses, the player can build up the skills, weapons and equipment of their team. Key to the game is Sanity; the investigators must guard their minds against the myriad horrors that threaten to send them into the mouth of madness. To stay in touch with the developers and get updates on the game, help and strategy guides and more, connect to Red Wasp Design on Facebook, Twitter (@redwaspdesign) and here on our site.

The blast of weapons fire echoes around The Wasted Land

iOS Savvy Sale – Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land

Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land is on sale on iOS. We’ve helping to celebrate the 5th anniversary of indie games site SavvyGamer – and as part of the party, lots of indie developer are offering games for sale for a limited time.  We want to support indie games sites, as they support indie developers like us.  It’s not just us – there are other games on sale too!

The Stars Are on Sale!