We just added a major feature to the game!

[Ken Williams]

Colossal Cave is a game that is not easy. Even with lots of clues, making it to the end is a challenge. My suspicion is that some, perhaps many, buyers who purchased the game have never explored the full cave.

To counter this we just released a new version of the game that has "Casual Mode". It is an option when you start a new game, and if selected, you still have full access to the cavern, but the pesky dwarves are gone, the thieving pirate is gone, and you start the game with a full set of maps.

You won't be able to attain the full 350 points, and most of the puzzles are still there, but you'll find it a much more relaxing experience.

It's like a training mission before you take on the full challenge, or just a way to explore the wonder of the cave if you are just out for a little spelunking.

It's a free upgrade, just like the dozens of other upgrades we've done over the last year.

Casual mode has already been released in the normal Windows version of the game, but is not yet in the SteamVR , Mac or Steamdeck versions of the game, We're paddling as fast as we can and will get it there "soon".

Enjoy!

-Ken W

[Colonel Arfa Biscuit]

Hey Ken! This is awesome! I only purchased the other day so haven't had a great deal of time to put into it, but I absolutely love the atmosphere and feel that you have absolutely nailed the spelunking. Time is tight these days, so a casual mode is the answer to my prayers. Wishing you and Roberta much peace and continued success!

PS: Have you ever pondered a straight spelunking survival sim?

[Duke of Zork]

Originally posted by Ken Williams:

My suspicion is that some, perhaps many, buyers who purchased the game have never explored the full cave.

Call that suspicion confirmed. If you look at the list of achievements, it says that only 4.4% of players have explored the full cave.

But, you can win the game without seeing the whole cave. Some of the other achievements are surprising, though.

9.0% of players have never entered the Wellhouse (!).
15.6% of players have never entered the cave (!).
70.1% of players have never discovered 5 treasures.
90.8% of players have never won the game.

This is kind of surprising, since this game has been around so long, and walkthroughs are so plentiful, that even puzzles that you could never guess on your own, like how to get The Last Lousy Point should be easy to learn the answer to. There are also video walkthroughs for this version on YouTube.

Does that mean the game is too difficult? Maybe, but this was the first adventure game I ever played, and I solved it. Not easily, but I did. It can't be impossible.

But there's another possibility. Up through 2015, HER Interactive released two Nancy Drew games a year. They've only released two games in the last 9 years, and those were outsourced to another company. When the most recent one was released last month, I noticed a very odd thing. A half dozen or so YouTubers were livestreaming the game on the day it was released, and HUNDREDS of people were watching each one. Why would you be watching a livestream of a game you intended to later play and solve on your own? You wouldn't, it would spoil the game for you.

The thought occurred that with the 9 year layoff, maybe a lot of people like the idea of a new game in that series being released, but don't really care about actually playing it any more. Watching someone else play is just as good. Maybe something similar is happening here. Maybe the reputation of Colossal Cave is such that some people want the prestige of having it, but don't want to actually play it.

I don't think I'm completely correct about this, I do think the difficulty of the game is a contributing factor. But at the same time, how else can we explain almost a tenth of all players never getting inside the Wellhouse, other than that they never tried?

[DJ Williams]

I can honestly say that I don't know! I definitely suspect some portion of it is related to it just being added to peoples' collections. It is also a challenging game. Finally, and on a personal note, I do enjoy watching people play and seeing the reactions, especially when the personalities involved are entertaining!

[Duke of Zork]

It is the kind of game that has a certain prestige value just from being in your collection, whether you play it or not.

But here's a possibility. When the achievements say that 91% of players have entered the Wellhouse, is that counting everyone who bought the game? Or only people who have booted it up?

Maybe some people bought the game when it came out (or during a sale) intending to play it later, but haven't gotten around to it yet. But they're still counted as players who have failed to gain any of the achievements. Is that possible?

[DJ Williams]

Oh! Actually, I'm wondering if the demo has an impact. I don't precisely know how these different versions connect on the backend. I'm wondering if some only get as far as the demo. Even some of those may play the demo, then get distracted by a loose kid or something on TikTok, and never enter the wellhouse. Not sure!

[scragg]

I'm excited to hear about this update! The original was a bit before my time, but I was a huge fan of later Sierra adventure games so I look forward to checking this out. It's been a good week for adventure gamers!

Regarding the achievements, I believe the stats are computed based on all owners of a game, whether they've launched it or not. You can see this on some games that have a "You launched the game" achievement. Often people will buy a game on sale and never get around to playing it, and that skews these numbers a bit.

[Frodo]

But apparently you CAN die in Casual Mode (I just did), and it sends you all the way back to the beginning. No auto saves, just tedious starting over. Not very casual!

[jas500]

You can save your progress at any time using one of the 21 save slots and reload it if you die. That way, you don't have to start over.

[Volonas]

Originally posted by Duke of Zork:

9.0% of players have never entered the Wellhouse (!).

That actually sounds normal to me. I'm a bit of a completionist so I go through the achievement lists of every game I play on Steam (probably a few hundred) and one thing I've noticed is that for every game with a "gimme" achievement - one that basically equates to booting the game up and playing for 5 minutes - about 10% of players won't have it. So for any given game on Steam, about 10% of people who buy it apparently never play it.

Originally posted by Duke of Zork:

90.8% of players have never won the game.

Completion rates vary a lot more between games but they are almost always surprisingly low. I'd say the range is anywhere from 5% to 50%, with an average probably around 20-25%. 9.2% isn't actually super low, but it is definitely on the low end.

[InternalHigh]

It was a financial flop