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Dr Mark R Johnson

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Game Design

Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #66: Tutorial Quest Refinement

August 30, 2026Game Design, Ultima Ratio Regum, Updates
Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #66: Tutorial Quest Refinement

Hello everyone, welcome back! More huge progress this fortnight – really working at a cracking pace at the moment. I’ve been doing so much refining and polishing the tutorial quest and integrating the tutorial quest within the game’s formal tutorial prompts, and with all of this done, I genuinely think this introductory section is as … Read More

Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #65: Playable Tutorial Quest!!

August 18, 2026Game Design, Ultima Ratio Regum, Updates
Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #65: Playable Tutorial Quest!!

Housekeeping Notice: I’ve just finally found a way to stop WordPress resizing my images! But, this might break something without me anticipating it, so please let me know if anything looks odd on this entry. Hello everyone! Great news this week – I have now implemented, and played, the entire tutorial quest from start to … Read More

Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #64: Total Speech and Conversation Rework 1/2

August 4, 2026Game Design, Ultima Ratio Regum, Updates
Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #64: Total Speech and Conversation Rework 1/2

Friends, welcome back! Today I begin something very exciting. Only a very small portion of this is going to appear in the 0.11 release, but as we find ourselves only weeks away from playtesting and I need to actually design the beginning of the game, i.e. where the curator of the museum you begin the … Read More

Interlude: Thoughts On Some Cryptic Riddle Quests

July 19, 2026Commentary, Game Design
Interlude: Thoughts On Some Cryptic Riddle Quests

Hello everyone! I’m taking a short mid-year break right now to recharge, not do much work / game dev, and focus on leisure and relaxation for a little while, as well as catching up some larger but less “urgent” life admin / life jobs that need doing but can be hard to find the time … Read More

Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #63: Picture Clues Generation 1 and Soundtrack News

July 5, 2026Game Design, Ultima Ratio Regum, Updates
Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #63: Picture Clues Generation 1 and Soundtrack News

Hello friends, welcome back! Over the past couple of months we’ve been looking at the creation and implementation of the local map clue types, i.e. clues that show you something on the human scale (doors, furniture, trees, etc) – rather than the world scale (towns, cities, mountains, etc) – which the player might want to investigate. … Read More

Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #62: University Tutorial Riddles

June 21, 2026Game Design, Ultima Ratio Regum, Updates
Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #62: University Tutorial Riddles

Hello everyone! Welcome back. After a month or two of incredibly rapid progress on the 0.11 release in a range of rather exciting ways, I’m pleased to announce that we have… another fortnight of huge progress. I realised a while ago that I wanted to add in a riddle generator specifically for the university you start … Read More

Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #61: Local Map Clues Implementation Part 3

June 8, 2026Game Design, Ultima Ratio Regum, Updates
Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #61: Local Map Clues Implementation Part 3

Friends, hello! More huge progress this fortnight. This is already a gigantic energy, so rather than spend time on the intro, let’s get into it: Building out the dictionary To begin with, in this fortnight I decided I had the objective of – by the end of the fortnight – being “done” for 0.11 with shifting … Read More

Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #60: Local Map Clues Implementation Part 2

May 25, 2026Game Design, Ultima Ratio Regum, Updates
Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #60: Local Map Clues Implementation Part 2

Hello everyone, welcome back! Loads more excellent progress to report on this week about the local map clue generation, I’m pleased to say. I’ve incorporated a ton more generators into the overall dictionary which now houses all the generative materials – now into the many hundreds, actually – and continued to refine the system by … Read More

Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #59: Local Map Clues Implementation Part 1

May 11, 2026Game Design, Ultima Ratio Regum, Updates
Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #59: Local Map Clues Implementation Part 1

Hello friends! Welcome back. An exciting entry this week. To begin with: you know how just a few entries ago I said that the 0.11 release was going to have just one clue type, i.e. the rhyming riddle clues? And I’d done about 95% of the required work on these, and they were looking really … Read More

Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #58: Riddle Rhyme Integration Finished!

April 27, 2026Game Design, Ultima Ratio Regum, Updates
Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #58: Riddle Rhyme Integration Finished!

Housekeeping Notice: I’ve just upgraded my spam filter. Until now actual comments normally went straight through, but sometimes would be caught until I “okay” them, though I’m not sure how this new one will work (it should be much better). If anything is different or doesn’t work, please email me / DM me on Twitter and … Read More

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Recent Posts

  • Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #66: Tutorial Quest Refinement
  • Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #65: Playable Tutorial Quest!!
  • Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #64: Total Speech and Conversation Rework 1/2
  • Interlude: Thoughts On Some Cryptic Riddle Quests
  • Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #63: Picture Clues Generation 1 and Soundtrack News

Recent Comments

  • Mark R Johnson on Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #66: Tutorial Quest Refinement
  • crowbar on Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #66: Tutorial Quest Refinement
  • Mark R Johnson on Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #66: Tutorial Quest Refinement
  • Mark R Johnson on Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #65: Playable Tutorial Quest!!
  • Mark R Johnson on Ultima Ratio Regum 0.11 Update #65: Playable Tutorial Quest!!

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