Avernum 3: Ruined World

[Infinitron]

"We are starting a whole new series. New world, new game engine, new system, maybe even a Kickstarter." http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2018/02/we-released-avernum-3-ruined-world.html

We Released Avernum 3: Ruined World.


Seasons come and go. Pages fall from the calendar. And Spiderweb Software releases another game.

In 1997, I wrote a hit game.

It was called Exile 3: Ruined World. It and its remasters are the most popular games I've ever written.

Bear in mind this game was a hit by 1997 shareware standards, not 2018 indie standards. It made enough to buy a modest 1997-priced house. It didn't make enough to buy a mega-mansion. But I'm certainly not complaining.

In 2002, I remastered the game into Avernum 3. It sold a lot of copies. Then, this week, twenty years after its first release, we shipped Avernum 3: Ruined World, the second remaster of this title. If my email is to be believed, a lot of people want it.

This is a brief story of writing a game that did really well and figuring out how to deal with it.


Exile 3: Ruined World. 1997 shareware at its semi-finest.

The Science of Careful Theft

When I started Exile 3, I'd already put out Exile and Exile 2, and they'd sold well enough for me to go full-time. It was a modest living, but entirely adequate for a 26 year old in Seattle. (You didn't have to be an Amazon employee with a mega-salary to live in Seattle then.)

At that point, I'd been writing shareware for two years, was starting to feel a tiny bit confident and comfortable. I decided that I was really going to stretch my wings. I wanted my third game to be GOOD.

So I did what I usually do when I want to design something good.

I played every game that was popular at the time, stole the very best idea from each, and synthesized them all into one coherent title.

Here's the thing about stealing ideas: Everyone does it. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. It's knowing which tools to not steal, which ones to steal, and how to assemble them together to makes a real craftsman.


Computer Gaming World called Exile 3 the best shareware game of the year. They even gave me a prize. The logo is 2 chubby guys with bad posture sensually hugging a floppy disk.

The Game Was Big

From the Elder Scrolls games, I was inspired to write a huge game with tons and tons of towns. This resulted in Exile 3 being the biggest game we've ever written, by far.

I've written it three times now, and each time I have despaired that I would ever finish it. It's sickeningly huge.

Since I had so much space to fill and I was still young and crazy enough to feel free to do things that were genuinely dumb, this game has a lot of weird, silly stuff in it. Towns named after old sitcom characters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AcBqfMH4fU A giant dungeon themed after old karate movies. A whole chapter where the enemies are giant cockroaches. (Actually, I still think this idea is terrific.)

There's a reasonable amount of it that I'm sure I wouldn't do if I wrote it now. I was a lot looser and sillier when I was young. However, when I do a remaster, I need to trust my younger self. I left almost everything alone.


Avernum 3. A big upgrade from Exile 3, but it doesn't work so good on 2018 computers.

Then Again, Maybe I Had Original Ideas

I suppose when I say that all of my ideas are stolen I'm partly joking. There is a lot of cool stuff in Avernum 3 that was quite innovative when it came out, and I can't remember any games doing those things back then.

You can be a merchant or buy a house. There was already games that had this.

The world crumbles as time goes on. If you don't fight the bad guys, towns will fall apart and characters will die. If you're slow enough, a gigantic disaster happens and you have to deal with it or the world ends. NOTE: No matter how slow you are, you can always win the game, but not without consequences.

I wanted to make sure you felt that the world was bigger than your perception and that there were things going on you would never know about.

This is really cool, and I don't remember any other games doing this.


Avernum 3: Ruined World in all its low-budget glory. It was made cheaply, but it's fun.

Working As a Curator

When you do a remaster, you are the curator of your own work. You have a responsibility to your fans to keep everything they love most about the title intact. If you don't, they will punish you lavishly.

People hate change. If you change one thing, even if it's an entirely reasonable or even unquestionable change, even the most supposedly adoring fan can run off to Steam reviews to try to cut you off at the knees.

This makes remasters really grinding, painstaking work. I tried to put in lots of new ideas and designs and stuff. I improved the interface greatly. However, as much as possible, I left the feel of the game alone.

(There is one change I regret: The artist who made the character art doesn't work for us anymore, so I couldn't get horse art that would match the old style. Sorry about no horses.)

Back To Creativity

After 16 months on Avernum 3, I'm really itching to do something new again. I hope I never have to remaster it again. Check in with me in 2033.

We are starting a whole new series. New world, new game engine, new system, maybe even a Kickstarter.

I hope you like Avernum 3. If you aren't sure about it, we have a demo. If you loved it as a kid, I hope that I kept the things you love alive.

On to the next.

 

[Hobo Elf]

He might be too late on the Kickstarter train. On the other hand he has an established player base to help him get a kickstarter through.

Anyhoo, I fired up Avernum 3, and to my displeasure the beast races are still crap. Sad.

 

[LESS T_T]

We are starting a whole new series. New world, new game engine, new system, maybe even a Kickstarter.

"Early Avernum 3 sales are promising, though. We should be able to fund our next game in an all-new world. "



Also:

 

[V_K]

Taking a page from Cleve's book, I see.

 

[V_K]

Btw, can anyone comment on whether this is true:

The game limits where you can go based on your level; portals and towns lock you out, and thus a seemingly open-world game is split into hard-leveled content. A3 2002 did not do this. I would almost accept this, but it is immersion breaking to consider that you will be turned away from, say, Lorelei for having no reputation, and yet ordinary NPCs can (theoretically) access all cities just fine. Why bother searching you for drugs in Lorelei Pass if you won't even be allowed to enter? The portal in Krizsan also locks you out from higher level areas.

Would be a huge if it was.

 

[Infinitron]

Hmmm, his reaction on Steam is nicer:

Avernum 3: Ruined World is a remaster of an old game. A lot of things have changed. I think a lot of things are better. You might think some are worse. Either way, it's a really solid game. Ssschah has made a good faith effort to make a fair review, and I ask people to not jump on him on my behalf.

If you love big, gritty RPGs, I encourage people to try Avernum 3. We have a big demo on our web site. If you buy it here and don't like it, we strongly encourage you to get a Steam refund.

We've been doing this since 1994, and our base attitude has never changed: We don't want to rip anyone off. If you don't like our game, I promise we don't want your money.

Twitter, bringing out the best in people since 2006.

 

[LESS T_T]

Well, the review is on the top of review section, the most helpful review considered by Steam's new algorithm. Interestingly if you disable the "new Helpfulness score" beta, it disappears from the main page.

 

[Terra]

Maybe background music will be a stretch goal for Vogel's kickstarter.

 

[Fowyr]

Now imagine that I felt when saw Avernums for the first time, I thought then that they are utter oversimplification of my beloved Exiles. Now look at this! Vogel cuts even more features that made Exile 1-3 so great games!
Vogel is going full retard. Disgusting.

This is a poor review. 1. It says nothing about how an RPG fan who never played an Avernum game (ie MOST RPG fans) would like it.

 

[Doktor Best]

Btw, can anyone comment on whether this is true:

The game limits where you can go based on your level; portals and towns lock you out, and thus a seemingly open-world game is split into hard-leveled content. A3 2002 did not do this. I would almost accept this, but it is immersion breaking to consider that you will be turned away from, say, Lorelei for having no reputation, and yet ordinary NPCs can (theoretically) access all cities just fine. Why bother searching you for drugs in Lorelei Pass if you won't even be allowed to enter? The portal in Krizsan also locks you out from higher level areas.

Would be a huge if it was.

Yeah this would interest me too.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I still need to finish the first one.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

I must have spent around 100 hours playing Vogel games and I haven't finished a single one

 

[fantadomat]

I must have spent around 100 hours playing Vogel games and I haven't finished a single one

I have finished all his games,some even few times.

Btw, can anyone comment on whether this is true:

The game limits where you can go based on your level; portals and towns lock you out, and thus a seemingly open-world game is split into hard-leveled content. A3 2002 did not do this. I would almost accept this, but it is immersion breaking to consider that you will be turned away from, say, Lorelei for having no reputation, and yet ordinary NPCs can (theoretically) access all cities just fine. Why bother searching you for drugs in Lorelei Pass if you won't even be allowed to enter? The portal in Krizsan also locks you out from higher level areas.

Would be a huge if it was.

Yeah this would interest me too.

I never seen such a thing but it is possible. I managed to end two plagues and have no problem entering cities. Never felt gated in the game......except the magical barrier in the starting fort,i fucking want that level 3 mountain removal. As a whole i do like the game,even the timed mechanic is not bad once you manage to kill the slime generator.

 

[Agesilaus]

I never seen such a thing but it is possible. I managed to end two plagues and have no problem entering cities. Never felt gated in the game......except the magical barrier in the starting fort,i fucking want that level 3 mountain removal. As a whole i do like the game,even the timed mechanic is not bad once you manage to kill the slime generator.

Agreed, I guess it's possible that there's a city somewhere with a bunch of high level barriers or stone blocking the entrance, or maybe there's a boat or portal somewhere later in the game that can't be taken by low level characters, but I have not see that at all. Every city I've approached has let me inside. I have encountered situations where my characters are not strong enough to win (or at least I can't pull it off), but I've never had the opportunity to visit a city and attempt a high-level quest denied.

Also, stones and barriers might block low level characters from going down a certain corridor, but technically you can go buy a shatter or dispel item, or go and do other quests and learn how to get rid of them. It's not like you have to be X level to defeat a stone block.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

The Avernums have always had no end of road blocks. I have no idea what the guy's talking about.

 

[Tacgnol]

Btw, can anyone comment on whether this is true:

The game limits where you can go based on your level; portals and towns lock you out, and thus a seemingly open-world game is split into hard-leveled content. A3 2002 did not do this. I would almost accept this, but it is immersion breaking to consider that you will be turned away from, say, Lorelei for having no reputation, and yet ordinary NPCs can (theoretically) access all cities just fine. Why bother searching you for drugs in Lorelei Pass if you won't even be allowed to enter? The portal in Krizsan also locks you out from higher level areas.

Would be a huge if it was.

I tested last night. I tried to enter the portal to Gale after completing the roach plague.

Game said to get more experience and come back later.

Edit: the exact message

 

[Morkar Left]

Hey, always count on Vogel to popamole his games further.

 

[Cael]

Exile 3 always had blocks to get into certain towns. You need to solve a plague or two first or do something for the mayor of a city before your fame grows enough to let you into the town. This was actually mentioned in game in the FedEx section of the game, where the post office guy tells you to make sure you can get into a town first before accepting a task because he is going to be pissed if you don't make it on time or something like that and not give you any more tasks for a few months.

 

[Morkar Left]

Exile 3 always had blocks to get into certain towns. You need to solve a plague or two first or do something for the mayor of a city before your fame grows enough to let you into the town. This was actually mentioned in game in the FedEx section of the game, where the post office guy tells you to make sure you can get into a town first before accepting a task because he is going to be pissed if you don't make it on time or something like that and not give you any more tasks for a few months.

That sounds more like a game mechanism that's based on the world logic/lore.

 

[Cael]

Exile 3 always had blocks to get into certain towns. You need to solve a plague or two first or do something for the mayor of a city before your fame grows enough to let you into the town. This was actually mentioned in game in the FedEx section of the game, where the post office guy tells you to make sure you can get into a town first before accepting a task because he is going to be pissed if you don't make it on time or something like that and not give you any more tasks for a few months.

That sounds more like a game mechanism that's based on the world logic/lore.

It sort of makes sense. After all, you are Exiles and the Empire isn't exactly your ally.

 

[Tacgnol]

Exile 3 always had blocks to get into certain towns. You need to solve a plague or two first or do something for the mayor of a city before your fame grows enough to let you into the town. This was actually mentioned in game in the FedEx section of the game, where the post office guy tells you to make sure you can get into a town first before accepting a task because he is going to be pissed if you don't make it on time or something like that and not give you any more tasks for a few months.

That sounds more like a game mechanism that's based on the world logic/lore.

Yeah, it's really blatant and dumb in this remake.

Other than a few towns, you could go pretty much anywhere you wanted in Exile 3 and A3 original. You had to complete a couple of plagues to get the orb/flying, but other than that.

 

[fantadomat]

You still can go the city even without the teleport. In the other games you can't teleport until you have visited the pylon,so i don't see the problem.

 

[Fowyr]

All this talk made me to install Win 3.10 and play Exile. Already cleaned out Nepharim Fort, bandit tower and dipped my toes into several dungeons. Remote Temple was especially brutal due to unlucky respawn.

 

[fantadomat]

The hidden dungeons are trash,how the fuck can you hide giant tower in a desert terrain that need you to find some retarded wizard that travel between cities....fuck that shit?! Does anyone know how is the name of the wizard and in what town can be found? He is supposed to be in Krizsan province somewhere. Fuck that shit with horse strapon!!!

 

[Stavrophore]

Is the combat good in this game, like fallout 2/underrail tier?