I don't have any significant news to share this week, and yet I'm trying to blog more frequently than twice a month, so as promised, here's a review!

There were a few requests for "my favorite roguelike" and other similar indie game requests, but I'd really like to review Risk of Rain 2  because it's what I'm playing now and it's great.

The first Risk of Rain was one of my favorite games. I'm not a completion player, but I played that one to 100% several times because you unlock new things as you complete achievements. 

It was a 2D platformer with light roguelike elements, which here means your whole run ended when you died, so you had to start over, and the levels were randomly arranged (though not randomly generated). Basically, you ran through each level killing enemies and collecting items, which were permanent passive buffs to your character. Each character you picked was different, and the items drastically changed how you played, so you ended up with some wildly different builds by the end of the game.

The signature element of the Risk of Rain series is a real-time timer at the top right-hand corner, which steadily ticks up the longer you take. Every second, the game gets harder. So if you spend your time scouring the level for every item, you might get stronger, but your enemies do too. You have to strike a balance between progressing quickly and getting strong enough to handle the next level.

The gameplay sunk its hooks into me pretty much immediately, and I played the crap out of the first game. If my copy were a book, it would be worn and dog-eared, with a broken spine and faded ink.

When they announced a sequel about two years ago, I was delighted! And then they said it would be in 3D, and my heart sank.

There was no way it could be good. Design elements almost never survive the transition from 2D to 3D, and no doubt they knew that, but they wanted to challenge themselves. I could respect that, but I was still disappointed. All I wanted was Risk of Rain 2: More Risk of Rain.

So I paid halfhearted attention to their development over the last couple of years until they surprise released their sequel on Steam about two weeks ago.

Lo and behold, the game is fantastic.

They managed to capture the same feeling as the original, despite having to re-design practically everything to account for a third dimension. The same enemies have new attacks that take advantage of the 3D space, new enemies work with new mechanics, and the shooter gameplay is smooth and well-polished.

It's only in Early Access for now, and I hear they've promised to add an endgame like the last one had. Right now, unless you voluntarily end your run, you just loop levels over and over until the difficulty is so crazy that you have to die.

I can't wait for the ending, which was one of my favorite parts of the old Risk of Rain, but already my friends and I have over 20 hours into it.

Oh, did I mention it's multiplayer up to four players? It is.

Give it a shot.

​-Will

I hope you guys enjoyed my totally real schedule for the next 60 years, but Andrew Rowe really beat me this April Fools' Day.

I've already linked it on my Facebook, but I'm putting another link here. It must be shared.

https://andrewkrowe.wordpress.com/2019/04/01/an-announcement

-Will

[EDIT: April Fools...OR IS IT?]

I've been consulting with THE TEAM, and after months of planning, I'm happy to announce our tentative schedule for the remainder of the year and forward (as far as we know it). 

As always, these dates are subject to change, but this is the plan we'll be working on going forward.

March 1, 2019 - Cradle 6, Underlord (complete)

June 1, 2019 - Elder Empire delayed

August 1, 2019 - Cradle 7, Uncrowned

December 1, 2019 - Elder Empire delayed

March 1, 2020 - Cradle 8, Bloodfallen

June 1, 2020 - Traveler's Blade Trilogy 1, Daughters of the Wind

August 1, 2020 - Elder Empire delayed

September 1, 2020 - Cradle 9, Northstrider

December 1, 2020 - Elder Empire delayed

March 1, 2021 - Cradle 10, Nethergate

June 1, 2021 - New Series: I Reincarnated into an Online Game as a Healer

September 1, 2021 - Elder Empire delayed

December 1, 2021 - Cradle 11, Mazerunner

March 1, 2022 - Cradle 12, Breakingdawn

September 1, 2022 - Traveler's Blade Trilogy 2, All The Travelers Die

December 1, 2022 - Cradle 13, Slipperylip

February 1, 2036 - Earth invaded by slug-people.

September 1, 2079 - Elder Empire completed

It's a rough plan, but this is the goal we've set ourselves. Personally, I'm optimistic we can make it.

​-Will

The last post has way too many comments, so we need a new blog, but I've been so busy that I don't have a whole lot to say.

That sounds contradictory, but it's true.

I was going to do a quick review of Us, but that's not really a whole blog post so much as two lines: "All the acting, directing, and dialogue are excellent, but the rules of the world are vague, confusing, and contradictory. B+/A- depending on the degree to which world-class acting and writing can make you forget that what's happening doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

So in that case, I turn to you! What movie (or game) would you like me to review next time I don't have any news for the blog?

I'll review basically anything except books. I don't want to use this space to pick on other authors, so the only time I'll review a book is if I think it's fantastic. But I don't mind tearing apart movies or games...or praising them if they're awesome.

Anyway, tell me in the comments which filler content you'd like to see! Go!

And, of course, real news will be the priority if there is any to share.

​-Will

As most of you know, I took last week off for a post-book vacation. It was awesome, very refreshing, and I only had to wrestle 3-4 manticores. Usually I have to take care of at least five a week, so that was a nice break.

But since I got back, things in my personal life have been hectic. Nothing dramatic. It's just a mix of prior commitments, catching up on what I missed while I was gone, and some random crap hitting my family all coming this week.

Bottom line: this week was a lot harder than I expected. However, catching up on work has meant also catching up on the fan response to Underlord.

You all are amazing.

I came back to an endless stream of encouragement. A truly crazy number of positive reviews,  messages expressing excitement, and so much discussion of the story that I couldn't read it all.

I'm just very grateful for you guys right now. You've been more supportive of me than I deserve, and I thank you.

​-Will

Gratitude.

This will probably not surprise you, but to my great excitement, Underlord was the biggest and most successful launch we've ever had.

It's been vastly out-selling what Ghostwater had sold at this point, and worked its way up the Amazon rankings to the #5 best-selling book overall. Out of all books on Kindle.

More amazing than that, though (to me), was how long it stayed up in the rankings. As of this time, Underlord is still in the Top 100 on Amazon. It has been there all week. That is many times longer than any other of my books have stayed on that list.

Even on top of that, you all have been incredible with the reviews. It has surpassed Soulsmith and Skysworn in number of reviews already, and is on its way for Blackflame.

425 reviews in a week is just not right. It's too fast. You've broken some kind of natural law. And for it to still be at a 5.0 review average after 425 reviews makes me wonder if somehow a wizard got involved.

So from the bottom of my heart: thank you! I've interacted with many of you over the past week, and the response to this book has really blown me away (not literally, don't worry). I'm honored by you reading my stories at all, and the fact that you enjoy them is what makes this fun for me.

As a small celebration, we're giving away the Traveler's Gate Trilogy Collection ebook over this weekend (March 9th and 10th). So for the next two days, my whole first trilogy will be available for free. Just take it.

I'm not sure what else to do or say. This has been awesome!

-Will

P.S. I'm going on vacation for a week starting tomorrow, so I'll be out of touch. I'm therefore scheduling my review of Captain Marvel, which several of you requested, to go up while I'm gone. That doesn't mean I'm around! It just means I scheduled a post.

Underlord is now available in most (maybe all?) regions! If you pre-ordered, you should have it already, and if you haven't...you can get it now!

https://www.amazon.com/Underlord-Cradle-Book-Will-Wight-ebook/dp/B07NJ3B6HN/

Now I'm going to sleep! Talk to you tomorrow!

-Will

When a new ebook is released, before it has a paperback edition, Amazon estimates how long it will be in pages. Usually they guess low, so the "page count" is often inaccurate.

Once there's a paperback edition of that book, Amazon updates to using the paperback page count, which is correct. But because each printing and edition of any book can have wildly different page counts, writers and editors tend to use word count to describe the length of a book rather than pages.

With that in mind, I'd like to give you the length of all six books in Cradle thus far (according to my original Word files):

Book 1, Unsouled: 89,097
Book 2, Soulsmith: 86,534
Book 3, Blackflame: 111,484
Book 4, Skysworn: 86,760
Book 5, Ghostwater: 90,870
Book 6, Underlord: 103,130
TOTAL: 567,875 words

Hey, we've crossed half a million words!

-Will

With only a week to go before the release of Underlord, I was trying to decide what preview I should share with you.

Then I had an epiphany! I epiphanated all over the couch. It was messy.

Travis Baldree, the awesome narrator of the Cradle audiobooks, has been sending me some last-minute typos and corrections as he recorded the Underlord audio. So I thought I'd share with you the lines that got changed out of context and you can milk them for spoilers!

Also, on the night of February 28th, I'll be reading the first Lindon chapter aloud on the Discord of Dubious Intent at about 10 PM EST! And then I'll probably be chilling on voice chat for the next five hours until the book comes out at 3 AM my time.

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/6AyYFER (I don't know how Discord works, so if this isn't right, just...figure it out.)

[EDIT: The Discord link keeps breaking, and I don't know if that's because it's inherently temporary or if too many people have used it. I've changed it one last time, because Little Blue has put effort into getting a new one, but I don't have time to keep replacing the link. When this breaks, it will be 'figure it out' time.]

[OBLIGATORY SPOILER WARNING EVEN THOUGH THE SPOILERS ARE MILD]

Page 40: "...if it drew on itself for power, it would only last for a few days before needing replaced." >>> "...before needing to be replaced."

Page 64: "Cycling aura here will be much faster here than back home..." >>> "...here will be much faster than back home..."

Page 68: "The second step of the [SPOILER MAN]'s instruction was set of soulfire control techniques..." >>> "...was a set of...

Page 108: "Her father was a significant figure in the Naru clan, and had taken to direct their defenses." >>> "...taken to directing their defenses..."

Page 146: "They didn't believe her, though she wasn't taking the situation seriously." >>> "...thought she wasn't taking..."

Page 147: "...languish the second prince with praise..." >>> Curse you, autocorrect. "Lavish."

Page 148: "Charity says" >>> "Charity said"

Page 178: "[SHE] abandons her advancement seeks a hearing with her own mother." >>> "advancement, seeks"

[END SPOILERS]

-Will