Overview[]
Alex "Cryptic Sea" Austin, occasionally appearing as Cryptic Sea, is an American game developer based in Santa Cruz, CA. Known for his unique infatuation with physics-based game design, Austin has developed numerous indie titles as displayed by his official website.
Apart from being one of the sole forces behind Sub Rosa's development, his other titles developed their own communities and cult followings, such as Hockey?, during their respective heydays.
Game Development[]
Bridge Builder series[]
At some point prior to August 2008, Austin created Bridge Builder. Then, on August 19, 2008, Austin released the trailer for Bridge Builder 2. The game followed the same concept as the first game but, unlike the first in the series, it took place in a 3D environment.
A New Zero: 2008-2010[]
**On December 13, 2008, Austin released a video teasing the tech of his newest game: A New Zero. Inspired by "Red Baron, Tie Fighter, Mechwarrior 2, Joust, and some other stuff," A New Zero was a success but was not finished. It would see continued development in later years.**
A New Zero: 2011-2012[]
A New Zero began to see new content and features as time went forward, including first-person movement/combat, tanks, new physics, etc.
A New Zero: Physics-based FPS[]
On October 6, 2012, "A New Zero: Physics-based FPS" was uploaded to Cryptic Sea's channel. The trailer showcased his pride and joy: physics-based movement. The game was the first of its kind upon its release in 2012, lacking animations completely in favor of total physics-based movement. The progress made with A New Zero would later be revisited and further refined in Sub Rosa.
Somnia[]
Roughly 6 months after the release of A New Zero, Austin released the trailer for Somnia. Going in a completely different direction from his previous works, Somnia appeared to be a puzzle game. Unfortunately, like many of Austin's works, the game was never finished. A demo for the title can be found on his website.
Hockey?[]
Hockey? is a physics-based game of hockey first introduced by Austin on June 28, 2011 on his official YouTube channel. Considered a cult classic by many, Hockey? was received greatly by the community.
As of 2020, the game has a strong cult-following and continues to host seasonal match-ups.
Sub Rosa: 7DGJ to BlendoGames involvement[]
Sub Rosa: 7DGJ[]
Created for the 7 Day FPS Game Jam 2012, Sub Rosa is a multiplayer FPS that revolves around transactions and shady business. Sub Rosa was heavily influenced by A New Zero, as seen by its mechanics and overall gameplay. The game would see major improvements from its 7DGJ version to 0.06.
Sub Rosa: 2012[]
Sub Rosa would later receive traffic controlled by NPCs and proper all-physics gameplay, inherited from A New Zero. In Cryptic Sea's showcase of version 0.08, he displayed an example of how co-op gameplay would work. He teamed up with Brendon Chung, a fellow indie developer who would later become co-develop Sub Rosa.
Sub Rosa: 2014-2016[]
Sub Rosa would see a brand new, refined style during this time through Alphas 21-25. As development continued, the game received much attention from numerous mainstream YouTubers, building a surprisingly strong following. The game's NPC traffic system would be improved drastically and would be made as realistic as possible.
After the traffic update of May 10, 2016, development ceased for a time, leading a majority of the community to abandon the game entirely. Many dedicated fans and latecomers, however, stuck around during this "update drought," keeping at least one server full during peak hours.
Sub Rosa: Physics-based FPS and Brendon Chung[]
Austin teased the newest progress on Sub Rosa on June 10, 2017. Showcasing advanced and more realistic-looking player models, new weapon models, and new physics, it gave the community something to look forward to.
On August 29, 2017, Brendon Chung made an announcement on his official Twitter account saying that he was now helping Alex build Sub Rosa.[1]
Sub Rosa: 2018-2020[]
Sub Rosa in this time period would see immense changes to the physics; controls; and balance of the game, beginning with version 30 to version 34, the game constantly saw improvements and changes to the map, graphics, and shooting. The game saw popularity spikes due to the steady flow of streamers trying (and often failing) the game and having fun with the different mechanics, drawing in players.
Steam Delist
Around this time, the game was delisted from steam for allegedly being "Too popular" in Alex Austin's own words, while the game was perfectly playable and the elements we see now were almost fully to partially implemented (Although, it's not known if Alex was planning for way bigger features and simply thought the game was too primitive at this point). Commonly this decision is sighted for being part of the eventual decline of the mechanical complexity and the "casualization" of certain game mechanics that would be seen later in preparation for the launch.
Alpha 35 (2019)[]
On June 7th, 2019, Alpha 35 was launched after being the most hyped update for Sub Rosa (next to 38), after months of a constant, actual stream of development, balance, and general change news updates from the Steam page. After the launch, community members were extremely split on the contents of the updating, including an entirely redone control; aiming; driving; throwing; and to an extent, movement systems to fit a different, more easy approach for the game. A large majority of the criticism from veterans was directed towards the control overhaul, which in hindsight and expectation, should've alleviated the daunting process of controlling the player hands with reloading and inventory management, that instead greatly changed the way the player managed their inventory, replacing it with a simplified version of Alpha 25's control set,(with default Alpha 25's being available under "Advanced Controls" in the options menu)and removing grabbing completely. Other criticisms included the simplification of aiming, causing guns to be almost (and quite literally) laser accurate, the changed driving mechanics, and the car meta nerf. (see, World Mode)
Alpha 36: World Mode (2019)[]
Shortly after Alpha 35, Alex Austin began working on World Mode, which is (currently) the main and most popular gamemode for Sub Rosa. And released in October of 2019. World Mode was immediately met by praise and a sudden revival of the game, being almost exactly how it was in 25, excluding some features like stocks and clothing stores. The map was extremely basic. (being literally made of blocks), however, and money was rare, almost forcing players to join a corp or suffer. Criticism usually derived about missing things and the as mentioned above, basic map.
Alpha 37: Computers update (late-2020)
On July 2nd, 2020, Alpha 37 would release after a long wait, introducing the brand new Computers system that Alex had been working on over the past months, along with an entirely new mission system designed to use them. Criticism almost immediately began with the introduced tedium that the new system had, originally, companies would get new deals and be able to do them after completing a mission, the new system added almost 7 new layers to the whole process of simply getting the disk (which is, requesting intel, going to the base, killing all the bots, finding the file in one of the 4 computers on every floor, copying that file, going home, decrypting that file, then going to whatever is next.) which many argued was completely unneeded, distracted from the social and quick thinking of the game, and added extended fluff to what could be a simple process.
Sub Rosa: BlendoGames departure to Present[]
Brendon Chung's Departure[]
After directly contributing to the game for years, Brendon Chung announced his departure from Sub Rosa's development to devote more time to his own personal projects; Skin Deep, most specifically. The artistic vision Round Mode saw through the artistic vision of Chung would be lacking and missed greatly following the re-release of World Mode. It would be a position he and other ephemeral freelancers would fill until Hell freezes over.
Future Games Show[]
On March 25, 2021, Sub Rosa participated in the Future Games Show's Spring Showcasing. Unbeknownst to the community, Sub Rosa planned on being launched out of its hidden, "Earliest Access" state and into public view after its trailer was played in the livestream. A commentator repeated a review of the game, stating, "One Steam review describes our next game as 'Reservoir Dogs with more falling over.'" The comment echoes unoriginality, as prominent content creators who had already played the game made similar comments, with significant backlash.
The image that the Future Games Show staff used for Sub Rosa's banner was also not from the latest release. The screenshot, taken by user Ivory Soap, was taken in Alpha 29 in 2018.
"NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF GAMEPLAY" on display during Sub Rosa's timeslot on the stream (later dubbed the "Cinematic Trailer").
Sub Rosa - Cinematic Early Access Trailer[]
The trailer was animated by renown community animator AgentSmith as a commission for Cryptic Sea and Devolver Digital, following the success of his previous animation, "Why No Reply?," which was a conceptualization of Sub Rosa.
The premiered trailer was another animated conceptualization of Sub Rosa's theme with no elements of raw gameplay display. The staff assured that it would not be mistaken as gameplay with a plain disclaimer touting "NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF GAMEPLAY" at the bottom of the stream. Community members praised the trailer's animation, and others lampooned the Sub Rosa Staff for the obviousness of the disclaimer, but everything paled in comparison to the storm that would be caused by what, as of March 2022, is believed to be Sub Rosa's most disastrous update, which awaited the trailer's end until release.
Launch Disaster[]
Sub Rosa's participation in the Future Games Show was the title's biggest publicity event in its history, and it was followed by the buggiest and most broken update in the game's history. Severe game-breaking issues and graphical issues rendered the game unplayable for a day. The Official Sub Rosa Twitter account tweeted on March 26 the bugs that were patched within a day of release: voice chat being unintelligible/not functional; car and train audio not functioning; holes being present in World Mode's map; falling through the landscape; spectator camera not functioning. Among the issues listed, a majority of users reported substantially greater latency and lower framerates compared to previous versions, and some issues still being present to this day. More criticism included the lackluster content of the update compared to what Alex Austin's twitter had shown in the last five months leading up to the update.
The sales gained from the rudimentary "launch" of the game is unknown. Estimates based on player count seem to be about five to ten thousand, though the game completely failed to capture any sort of new audience from the rudimentary, cheap, almost non-existent marketing, leaving the game to still remain in it's pseudo-streamer powered limbo and not even break the publishing advance, leading Alex Austin and Devolver Digital to slowly stop supporting the game. (See the future below.)
The Future
Sub Rosa's future is currently uncertain, as the game hasn't had a singular piece of news in almost a year and a half and is assumed to be on an indefinite 'hiatus', it is assumed that (as of January 2023) the new walking man prototype is currently for Sub Rosa, which has been in development for almost 2 years.
In December 2021, Devolver Digital pulled the Sub Rosa support team from the Twitter account, Discord, and Game itself, it's (almost) completely unknown why this has happened, currently. As of 2023 Alex Austin has completely locked down any points of potential contact we could give him, even for feedback and bug reports, claiming that "Users should go play another game" and "User feedback is completely useless" in a respond to a tweet about when the game would be updating. (A stark contrast from almost just a few months prior.)
As of 2023, after quite literally years of radio silence, Alex Austin has now hinted at an update for Sub Rosa if stunt derby is successful, take this with a grain of salt and as you will. (See Stunt Derby below.)
Stunt Derby
As of May of 2022, Alex Austin has been working on a new game titled Stunt Derby in collaboration with Noclip. Elements from Stunt Derby seem to have been taken from a scrapped Sub Rosa vehicle update that was in development between February 2021 and June 2021. On February 13 2023, when asked about the next Sub Rosa update, Alex Austin stated that if Stunt Derby is successful, he will definitely do a Sub Rosa update, since a lot of the mechanics in the game can be directly ported over. Stunt Derby has no official release date, although you can join the closed beta if you join Noclip's Patreon.
Other Works[]
The rest of Cryptic Sea's works can be found on his official website and on his YouTube channel. These include but are not limited to:
- Golf? for Workgroups
- Gish
- Cryptic Sea EP (Skate or Don't and Volta)
- Skate or Don't