When We Remaster, We Really Remaster

We spend 18 months on each remaster, and we redo everything. Every location, encounter, and line of dialogue gets revised and polished. This takes a while.

There is also a ton of new material. Several new zones. Lots of new characters and quest lines. We added a whole new ability tree, Weapon Shaping abilities that augment your blade and missile attacks, that is entirely new to the series. Thus, if you were a Geneforge 2 fan, there's a whole new way to play through it.

We put in a lot of new content based on the feedback of Kickstarter backers. You will find that a lot of the emptier cracks in the game have been filled with lore and tangential stuff to do. This makes the world seem a lot more fleshed out. A lot more real. Again, I’m really happy with the result.

We put a ton of work into this game, atoning for the flaws of 20 years ago.

The Old Economics Of Our Business

We've been in business for 30 years now. We predated the indie game boom by a long time. Heck, we even predate the consumer internet and world wide web.

In the old days, to make the economics of the business work, we had to write games fast. Each all-new, full-length title got 18 months. This meant that sometimes corners were cut. Geneforge 2 was a beloved game, but it was full of threadbare dialogue and cut corners. The structure is there, but the bones were too bare.

(Other games suffered more. Before long, we will remaster Avernum 4, and that one will need and get a LOT of work.)

We have now spent 3 years total on Geneforge 2. We've come to find that this is about the right amount of time for us to put in one of our RPGs to get them about as good as we can get them (tiny company that we are).

This is the final Geneforge 2. I won’t live long enough to get around to remastering it again. And, as always, I have regrets. As I went to sleep last night, I thought about things I could have done. Motivations and dialogue I could have refined. This or that little tweak. But there comes a point where you have to say, “Enough.” I must force myself to be content.

Looking To the Future

I am probably about 12 years from looking at retirement. In that time, we have six old games that are really cool but need a full remaster treatment to bring them into the present. We also have several other games that need a quick polish treatment (like art and rebalancing) to send them into posterity.

And we have ambitions to make new stuff too.

That said, I’m sort of transitioning into the Billy Joel phase of the career. My best, most creative period is behind me, but there is still a lot that should be done. I've written 18 all-new games. Eighteen! This has already been a hugely prolific career. Now I need to wrap everything up, tie up the loose ends, and take a bow with as many people satisfied as possible.

In a few months, I'll let our fans know what the next two years of Spiderweb will look like. We have some exciting plans!
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