[h3]Dear reader,[/h3] Welcome to the August edition of the Undermere Herald - [b]the most trustworthy news source for Undermere and its surroundings. [/b] As we’re nearing the end of the dog days of summer, it’s time to accustom ourselves to the coming of muckier weather. In today’s edition of the Herald, we’ll familiarise ourselves with one of Undermere’s [b]most famous felines, while peeking behind the curtain of the shop he resides in — Strange Antiquities![/b] [u][b]Jupiter[/b][/u] Jupiter is the Thaumaturge's cat. Or, [i]perhaps more accurately[/i], Eli is Jupiter's Thaumaturge. Jupiter found Strange Antiquities, perhaps drawn by the curiosities within, and made it his home. Eli was more than happy to accommodate him, but he learned early on that [b]Jupiter was his own master[/b]. His business is his own, but it largely consists of regular naps, terrorising rodents, and midnight explorations of Undermere and beyond. What he does on his excursions is a mystery, but he seems to be [b]well-known among the residents of Undermere[/b]. We named Jupiter after a lengthy brainstorming discussion where we explored the game’s themes to find something appropriate. We liked Jupiter because, as well as being associated with both astrology and alchemy, it is also the name of the cat in [b]Robin Jarvis'[/b] excellent Deptford Mice series of books which we enjoyed as kids. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45031160/afbff8cd536441e2c5be2654f13024f14bc12c20.png[/img] [i]Image 1: Jupiter – king of naps and death of rats[/i] [u][b]A Short Discussion on Puzzles[/b][/u] Those of you who have played Strange Horticulture [b]will find the gameplay of Strange Antiquities familiar[/b]. The core of the game involves serving customers by using your detective skills to identify an item on your shelves. If you’re thinking, [i]‘but plants all have similar visual properties whereas items all look quite different so surely they’ll be easy to tell apart,’[/i] you’d be [b]absolutely right![/b] This has been one of the main challenges we’ve faced while developing the game, but we find that these sorts of constraints can push us to be more creative and we’ve been able to take that central gameplay concept a lot further than we did in Strange Horticulture. That means as a player you might expect to [b]need to do a little more detective work this time around[/b], perhaps flicking through your well-worn copy of Hermetic Symbology to track down a relevant symbol, or [b]cross-referencing[/b] with a book on gemstones to learn which Thaumic discipline Bloodstone belongs to. We’ve still got some tweaking to do to make sure the difficulty is where we want it to be, but we’re excited for you to get your hands on it and find out what you make of it! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45031160/6dc0e212ddf0cb3cee01a82f4c2a935e05589599.png[/img] [i]Image 2. An excerpt from 'Gemstones and their Thaumic Properties'[/i] [u][b]Strange Words[/b][/u] What better way to celebrate the investigative work of the Thaumaturge, than with a [b]little brain teaser[/b]? See if you can find all the words in the very first Undermere Herald crossword puzzle! [i](Feel free to print it out or just solve it by clicking on the image!)[/i] [url=https://crosswordlabs.com/view/strange-words-6] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45031160/3a120efcb0129fe150b858ed3e7d57fc70adb51f.png[/img][/url] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [url=https://discord.gg/iceberginteractive][img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45031160/c6dbbd4ba4b331f9f8b45b4bdf9f13a9db0da249.png[/img][/url] [b]Bad Viking[/b] [list] [*][url=https://twitter.com/BadVikingGames]Twitter[/url] [*][url=https://www.facebook.com/BadVikingGames]Facebook[/url] [/list] [b]Iceberg Interactive[/b] [list] [*] [url=http://www.twitter.com/iceberg_int]Twitter[/url] [*] [url=https://www.tiktok.com/@iceberg_int]TikTok[/url] [*] [url=https://www.facebook.com/iceberginteractive]Facebook[/url] [*] [url=https://www.youtube.com/iceberginteractive]YouTube[/url] [*] [url=https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/iceberg]Steam Publisher Page[/url] [/list]