Category Archives: News

Parting Ways

Hi gang, we have some bittersweet news for you:

After more than 10 years of running Hypnotic Owl together, Jan a.k.a. Dr. Hackenstein and I are parting ways. We’re looking back over a fairly sizeable catalogue of releases, jam games, prototypes, podcasts, streams, and even a few awards. Despite us never quite achieving that financial breakthrough we were hoping for, I think it’s safe to say we’ve still managed to build a bit of a legacy. But as all things, they eventually must come to an end, and so Jan will move on to his new venture Spell Loop while I’ll continue running Hypnotic Owl on my own.

What does this mean for you? Functionally, not a lot. Jan will still work on Kevin’s Path to Wizdom and continue to make the strategic, turn-based, thinky games you’ve come to love. You’ll now just find it on his new website and the Discord too will be renamed accordingly in the next few days, no action required on your part.

On this end, Hypnotic Owl will continue to put out the same weird, silly and occasionally uncomfortable things it always has – maybe more so now that I don’t have anyone to reign me in when I go overboard.

Thanks for joining us on this ride and here’s to an exciting new chapter!

<3 Crabman

Hypnotic Discord Milestone Reached!

Hey, guess what! We made our first wishlist goal! Which means: Hypnotic Discord Server! Hooray!

It’ll be a space for you to hang out and chat with us, get some exclusive insights into development, get stream alerts, vote on new topics, and just all around have a great time! We’re also planning some other fun shenanigans in the future, but mostly we look forward to building a nice and inclusive community with you all!

So come join the Hypnotic Family at https://discord.gg/qfyND9D!

It even looks like, in the time it took us to get everything set up, we made it almost halfway to our next goal, the regular dev streams which will offer a look behind the scenes and give you the opportunity to give feedback and take part in The Wizard’s development!

So wishlist away and tell your friends, neighbors, grandma, and everyone else you know to do the same!

<3 Your Hypnotic Owl Team

Announcing The Wizard: WizHarder Edition

Well guess what!

After 6 years of trying to get this project off the ground, we’re happy to announce that The Wizard: WizHarder Edition is finally coming to Steam!

This new and improved version will include:

  • New levels, spells and enemies
  • New Roguelike Mode with daily challenges
  • A Mario Maker-style level editor to create and share levels
  • Complete graphical and mechanical overhaul (including checkpoints!)
  • A remastered and expanded version of its magical soundtrack

Check out the new Teaser Trailer!

And to make the wait until November a little more fun, we conceived a bunch of reward unlocks for our wishlist milestones, which you can find on the Steam page.

So wishlist now and tell your friends to do the same!

You play as Kevin, the handsomest wizard in school — until your face gets stolen! Learn gesture-based spellcasting as you beat challenging enemies through mind boggling mazes in this turn-based tactics game. Can you catch the thief and save face?

<3 Your Hypnotic Owl Team

New Releases, Free Games and More

Dear friends,

Those are some strange times we find ourselves in, huh? We certainly feel the effects of it as well, being on lockdown at home, bored and not knowing what to do with ourselves.

But luckily, people are crafty and coming up with new ways to come together even as we are separated physically: brunch via video call, Netflix Party for that good ol’ movie night, and many services being made available for free to provide us all with some much-needed entertainment and distraction during these worrying and financially difficult times.

Here at the Owl, we too have been thinking about ways we can contribute, and so we have a bunch of news we’d like to share with you today:

The Pepper Prince Episode 1 Goes Free

We have decided to make The Pepper Prince: Episode 1 available for free on Steam. In the game, you step into the role of Hansel or Gretel as they venture out to bake the most bestest wedding cake for the titular Pepper Prince! We hope its cheerful silliness can brighten up your day a bit!

A rhyming fairy tale adventure about love, grief, and the power of friendship. Solve puzzles, meet quirky fairy-tale-inspired characters, and help your friend regain confidence and self-love after heartbreak!

Everything Is Awful

If you remember, last summer we did a Hypnotic Game Jam, and we have just released one of the games that came out of it: everything is awful but at least we have each other.

We had originally considered it for commercial release, since it turned out a lot cooler than expected and we had long been interested in exploring dating sims as another potential avenue for us, and we still might! Definitely let us know how you liked it and if you’d be interested in seeing more odd little games like this in the future!

For now, you can play it for free on itch.io:

More Free Stuff to Come

Another thing we’ve long considered and are now finally going ahead with, is the release of all our smaller projects, our internal prototypes, experiments, and game jam titles, on itch.io. We’ve already assembled a couple of games over there and will continue to add more over the next few weeks. Be sure to check our Facebook and Twitter, or subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date.

And of course there’s the games and experimental projects on our homepage, so hopefully you’ll find something fun to pass the time (my personal recommendation, brainfucked. I’ve replayed it myself recently, figuring out all those tricky operations again, it’s good fun if you like puzzley stuff!)

So enjoy, stay safe, and let’s all get through this together!

Your Hypnotic Owl Team

Game Jam Roundup 07/17

July has been a busy month for me, lots of big and small game jams leading to a couple of neat little projects that I’d like to share with you today. So let’s have a look!

And here’s the links to the games:

Have fun!

Crabman out.

Hypnotic Announcement: Merch & Prime Division

If you follow our new podcast Inside Hypnotic Owl, you already know that we’re having on a couple of exciting things in the works, including a brand-new shop for all your merchandise needs.

Well, rejoice, it’s finally here!

And yes, we’re also excited to announce that the full, ad-free edition of Prime Division is now only 99¢! Head on over to the Prime page and get it for your Android and iOS devices!

Happy dividing, everyone!

Crabman out.

Announcing New Podcast ‘Inside Hypnotic Owl’

As promised in a certain birthday retrospective, we’re planning on sharing our development processes and such with you on a more regular basis. For that purpose, our new social media management intern Tami has convinced us to let her record our Hypnotic Board Meetings for your listening pleasure!

Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, YouTube, or our RSS feed and gain an exclusive insight into the inner workings of Hypnotic Owl!

You also listen to the first episode right here, right now!

Have fun!

Crabman out.

Prime Division Out Now!

Gee, it’s been quiet around here, hasn’t it? Well, the wait is finally over! Here comes Prime Division, our fun little mobile game about prime factorization!

Did you ever marvel at the fact that every whole number can be represented as a product of a set of prime numbers? Of course you have. And so did we, that’s why we made a game about dividing numbers with primes. We call it Prime Division!

Prime Division is all about dividing increasingly high numbers down to 1. Challenge yourself with six exciting modes and become the greatest division magician in the world!

Now out on the Google Play Store. Get it now!

Get it on Google Play!

If you want to keep up to date with new releases, you can sign up for our newsletter. We won’t bother you too much, promise!

Hackenstein

The Wizard is released!

Out now: The Wizard!

The time has finally come! Today we release our turn-based dungeon-puzzler The Wizard! For free!

Now, you might think to yourself, “Really? For free? But why?” Well, it’s not the first time that question has come up, so we had ample time to prepare a detailed and all-encompassing explanation:

…why not?

We look at The Wizard as an opportunity to share our lighter side with you and to experiment with various ideas and approaches to developing and releasing a game, and we just don’t wanna charge you for that right now. If you happen to like what we do and would like to support us, that’s awesome! You can donate whatever amount you see fit over on The Wizard’s page. It’s basically Pay What You Want, you can play for free or help us out, whatever you feel like. Rest assured, you’ll have our undying gratitude either way.

ostbonusOh, but that’s not all! As a special thanks to those particularly generous, donations of $6 or more will get a digital copy of the magical The Wizard soundtrack!

But enough of that, it’s time for you to go and play The Wizard now! Hope you have fun!

Hackenstein

ps. For those in the business of hosting high-quality, mobile-ready HTML5 games, we’ve got good news for you, too! From today on, non-exclusive licenses for The Wizard will be available in the FGL Game Shop. You don’t even have to use FGL if you don’t want to. Just send me a mail!

Where There’s an Award, There’s a Speech

Remember when we got that award for The Day the Laughter Stopped? Well, I finally got around to editing, uploading, and whining about everything I hated about my speech, so you can now admire us in person!

(English captions available.)

Lookin’ good, eh? Me with my Henry Rollins neck and Hackenstein holding the award like the boss he is, we sure broke some hearts that night.

Of course, if you missed any of this, you can read up on our DCP experience here, and if you’re dying to hear me go on and on about everything I thought was wrong with my speech, you may find sweet relief over at my personal blog.

Crabman out.