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Game News Queen's Wish: The Conqueror Released

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: Jeff Vogel; Queen's Wish: The Conqueror; Spiderweb Software

Jeff Vogel has always liked trolling for attention on his blog, particularly before the release of a new game. This year the game in question is Queen's Wish: The Conqueror, the first entry in a new series which was crowdfunded last year. A new IP will always require more promotion than a sequel or remake, and that's what Jeff delivered last month with the post entitled "Why All Of Our Games Look Like Crap", in which he attempted to explain why his games and Queen's Wish in particular haven't progressed (and indeed may have regressed) in terms of graphical fidelity and art direction. I doubt you'll find it persuasive, which may have been the point. It attracted enough hateclicks that he followed it up with another post called "I Am the Cheapest Bastard In Indie Games" five days later. We've already discussed these posts thoroughly on our forums, but now that the game is released, I'll post an excerpt here:

First, Let's Just Get One Thing Clear ...

I think my games look good, and they contain a lot of really good art.

All of the art in Queen's Wish was made by extremely talented freelancers doing really solid work to my specifications. I feel very lucky to be working with them. If you think my games look bad, any blame for that rests with me entirely.

Second, again, I think Queen’s Wish looks really nice and comfy. Maybe it's a generational thing. People who grew up with Nintendo and Sega really like pixel art. I grew up with Atari and Intellivision, and I am very used to having art that leaves a lot to the imagination.

My art is the sort of game art I grew up with, just with more modern color and detail, designed to give the feel of a tabletop Dungeons & Dragons game. That is my goal.

So when I say my games look like crap, I am maybe being a little clickbaity. Video games are art, art is hugely subjective, and there are lots of people who genuinely like how my games look. I certainly do.

What Is Wrong With Our Art?

If you think my art is fine and don't understand what the problem is, bless you. I'll tell you what some think is wrong, as best I understand it.

1. Queen's Wish has a very retro square-tile top-down view, reminiscent of old Ultima games, old Pokemon games, Spiderweb's first games, tabletop D&D, that sort of thing. For some, that old style is really unfamiliar and/or alienating.

2. Queen's Wish uses art made by a lot of different artists. That means that the style is not quite consistent. We've done our best to make it blend well, but it's a little off.

3. All the characters only look in diagonal directions. I made this choice because I once thought all the art would be hand-drawn, and I desperately needed to reduce the number of icons I needed. This was a mistake, and I'll probably try to fix it in Queen's Wish 2.

4. It's not in 3-D. Some people will only ever be happy with 3-D.

I'm sure there are lots of other problems. These are just the most common complaints. All these problems can be fixed. All they need is money. Lots of money.

You Gotta' Follow Your Muse

Game makers are artists. Artists are dependent on their inspirations. Sometimes your brain just wants to make a certain thing. If you aren't going to do what you want and believe in, why are you writing indie games?

I've been writing games with that angled isometric look for twenty years. Twenty! I just wanted to write something that looks different. I have to change things sometimes to stay interested and keep from burning out. Period.
So Jeff certainly has our attention, but I'm not sure that will translate to sales. From what I hear, Queen's Wish is a better-designed game than the Avadon trilogy in some respects, but it also features an extremely streamlined character system even by the standards of those games. If you do want to give it a look, the game is available on Steam and GOG now for $20 with a 10% launch discount until next week.
 
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What Is Wrong With Our Art?

If you think my art is fine and don't understand what the problem is, bless you. I'll tell you what some think is wrong, as best I understand it.

1. Queen's Wish has a very retro square-tile top-down view, reminiscent of old Ultima games, old Pokemon games, Spiderweb's first games, tabletop D&D, that sort of thing. For some, that old style is really unfamiliar and/or alienating.

:hmmm:
 
Joined
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Game makers are artists.

Yes, they are, and the pencillers in the Marvel Bullpen (speaking of 1963) were also artists.

It's just that some were Jack Kirby and some were Don Heck.

Guess which one you are, Jeffy !
 

Bohrain

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My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
Vogel has internalized the idea that his playerbase will neither grow or shrink in the future, so he sees no reason to put more than absolute minimum investment in game assets.
The biggest mystery is how come he hasn't switched to text-based games at this point.
 

coldcrow

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Seriously guys. Art direction is not a problem of Vogel's games and never has been. It's his fucking inisitence of sticking to one character dev. system and dumbing it down from one iteration to the next. On top of usually not very good encounter design, because there is no suprise. The skills and effects are mostly the same for everyone ansd just change in magnitude. As far as i know Avernum 6 had the most exciting encounters of all his games I played (didn't play the original 3 exiles).
Now he has a pretty neat engine and actually pleasing to look at gfx (I always treated his games as roguelikes with graphic tilesets), but the character system is the pits. Refunded and will not remove from inventory.
 

Drowed

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Seriously guys. Art direction is not a problem of Vogel's games and never has been. It's his fucking inisitence of sticking to one character dev. system and dumbing it down from one iteration to the next.

Why not both? Art direction is a problem for sure, that shit is ugly. The dumbing down is even worse, that's true.
 

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
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Didn't he release Nethergate to GOG also as this was released? I just noticed and do no recall it being available from GoG before.

His sales pitch.... yeeeeeesssshhhhhh.
 

MurkyShadow

Glittering gem of hatred
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Codex 2012 Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong BattleTech Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. I helped put crap in Monomyth
I'd rather buy Underrail and Age of Decadence a second time and gift it to someone,
than touching another lacklustre Spiderweb game again. I'm not sure if Avernum 2
was the last one I tried. At some point I thought, why am I doing this to me?
I wouldn't want to play it again if you'd offer me money for it.
It's just plain and boring, mediocre writing, character and
encounter design. It's neither good nor bad, just mind-numbing.

But Vogel seems to have an audience that enables him
to do the same thing over and over and keep him afloat.
Good for him.
 

Elwro

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Divinity: Original Sin Wasteland 2
I'm hooked. Vogel has done it again and I don't know how.

I hate the fact that new dialogue lines do not appear instantly and that you're supposed to suffer through long death 'animations' per each foe.
 

Kruno

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Village Idiot Zionist Agent Shitposter
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Vogel has internalized the idea that his playerbase will neither grow or shrink in the future, so he sees no reason to put more than absolute minimum investment in game assets.
The biggest mystery is how come he hasn't switched to text-based games at this point.

That would actually be preferable!
 

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
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Messages
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I need to compare the paperdolls. Does the new one look like its simplified compared to AV3 reboot?

Edit... yep
Blades of Exile
blades-of-exile_32.png


Exile 1
exile-escape-from-the-pit_10.png


Exile 2
exile-ii-crystal-souls_38.png


Exile 3
exile-iii-ruined-world_20.png


Avernum 1
drath.JPG


Avernum 2
GiantAssault.JPG


Avernum 3
alienslime.jpg



Geneforge 1
pentilleader.jpg


Geneforge 2
icyambush.jpg


Geneforge 3
GF3inventory.jpg


Geneforge 4
GF4inventory.jpg


Geneforge 5
GF5Inventory.jpg


Blades of Avernum
ogrefight.jpg


Nethergate
1Nt0ABZ.png


Nethergate: Resurrection (GOG)
NGateWickerMan.jpg


Avernum 4
maxresdefault.jpg


Avernum 5
1409943335_avernum5-2.jpg


Avernum 6
avernum-6-6675.jpg


AVERNUM 1 REBOOT
AvernumInventory.jpg


AVERNUM 2 REBOOT
Av2Inven1920x1080.jpg

AVERNUM 3 reboot
inventory1900x1280.jpg


Avadon 1
AvInventory.jpg


Avadon 2
4.-Inventory.jpg


Avadon 3
Av3Inven1920x1080.jpg


Queen's Wish
Inventory1920x1080.jpg
I'm sure I might be off a bit on the few exile pic but you get the gist.

edit -- added Nethergate (thanks for the heads up), relabeled GOG nethergate.
 
Last edited:

Elwro

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Divinity: Original Sin Wasteland 2
I have a 20% off tradeable coupon for QW for Steam. Anyone who contacts me and tells me how trading works can get it.
 

Procco

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Apr 3, 2019
Messages
3
Took advantage of the release sale and coupon, and just not into it so far. It's like whole game of the parts of PF:KM I didn't enjoy. Also, the new engine somehow looks worse than the one he was using for the Avernum remakes. I'll keep at it for a while, since I've barely started, but I'm not very optimistic.
 
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Oct 26, 2016
Messages
1,898
There is a long demo available from the spiderweb website, so you don't have to try it on Steam at all.

Its shit though. Its dumbed down to the point that its almost an auto-play or "idle" rpg, that is, click the mouse every few seconds and the game progresses along its predetermined path.
There are 4 slots for loot, and pickups are neatly presented as chests - one chest per boss defeated. The dialogue is inane.

If theres one thing Jeff deserves praise for with this game, its his forward thinking with the graphics, this is must be where his dumped all his time into - yes, he really outdid himself this time and you can really appreciate that he has created every single asset from scratch, and the shader programming is that good -it might be made in UE4.
 

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Messages
12,874
There is a long demo available from the spiderweb website, so you don't have to try it on Steam at all.

Its shit though. Its dumbed down to the point that its almost an auto-play or "idle" rpg, that is, click the mouse every few seconds and the game progresses along its predetermined path.
There are 4 slots for loot, and pickups are neatly presented as chests - one chest per boss defeated. The dialogue is inane.

If theres one thing Jeff deserves praise for with this game, its his forward thinking with the graphics, this is must be where his dumped all his time into - yes, he really outdid himself this time and you can really appreciate that he has created every single asset from scratch, and the shader programming is that good -it might be made in UE4.

Just from that description I vomit at even thinking of trying it. Pretty Douche-SHIT-bag move Vogel.
 

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
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Messages
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You know you want an ultima netflix cartoon based on these.
 

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