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Tags: Jeff Vogel; Queen's Wish 2: The Tormentor; Spiderweb Software
Queen's Wish 2: The Tormentor, the sequel to the rather unloved Queen's Wish: The Conqueror from Jeff Vogel's Spiderweb Software, was released today. Understandably, there hasn't been a lot of excitement surrounding the game on our forum, but at a distance it does appear to be somewhat more interesting than its predecessor. In the blog post announcing the release, Jeff describes some of the improvements he's made in response to criticisms of the first game and reflects on the game's themes. Plus the usual grumbling about how tough the indie market is and how old he's getting. Here's an excerpt:
Jeff reiterates that Queen's Wish will probably be his last original RPG series, after which it'll be all remasters all the time. There's one more game left before that happens, though. For now, Queen's Wish 2: The Tormentor is available on Steam and GOG for $25 with a 15% launch discount until next week. Coming up next, the Geneforge 2 remaster.
Queen's Wish 2: The Tormentor, the sequel to the rather unloved Queen's Wish: The Conqueror from Jeff Vogel's Spiderweb Software, was released today. Understandably, there hasn't been a lot of excitement surrounding the game on our forum, but at a distance it does appear to be somewhat more interesting than its predecessor. In the blog post announcing the release, Jeff describes some of the improvements he's made in response to criticisms of the first game and reflects on the game's themes. Plus the usual grumbling about how tough the indie market is and how old he's getting. Here's an excerpt:
Tough Choices
This trilogy is heavily into politics and tough choices. You enter a rebellious land, and you have to whip it into shape. You have many options. Not many of them are good.
I recently got an email from someone who got stuck playing Queen's Wish. They reached a point where they didn't like any of the choices they had, so they quit.
That's their right. It's their leisure time, after all. However, I am standing by this decision. I want this series to engage with politics and power and empire in an honest way. This is a necessary part of it.
Suppose you're some major official in Ancient Rome, and one of your provincial governors dies. You have to pick a replacement.
But here's the thing. You have to choose among the people who are available. You can't open a vat and pull out the perfect leader. You have to choose among existing humans, all of whom, being human, are high flawed.
Yet, you still have to make a choice. Generally, the most important thing is to not make the right choice but to make sure some choice gets made.
That's how life works, and I want the Queen's Wish trilogy to have little reflections of life in it. I hope the realness (to the extent that it is real) makes up for the frustration.
Video games are a big industry. There's room for all sorts of games.
Improvements Over Queen's Wish
Queen's Wish: The Conqueror is a very innovative game. It tries a lot of new things, and it mixes them together in unusual ways. Some people liked it. Some people didn't.
However, I made mistakes. I made a lot of changes in Queen's Wish 2 that I really think improve the game.
There are far more abilities. You get experience more often, providing a more even flow of dopamine hits. You have more customization options for building your empire, some of which affect the story.
Yet, it's still basically the same engine. Of course. The weird new parts of the game engine are all still in there. So if you were mad at me, before, you still be. Whenever you change anything in your games, you inevitably lose people. Your job is then to add new customers to replace them.
The only alternative is writing the same game again and again. If you try to do this for 18 games, you will go mad.
It's Also About Empire
I've always been fascinated with history and politics, and my games reflect that. Perhaps to a fault. I wanted this trilogy to focus on that dominant force in the history of humanity: The building of Empire.
I was a little worried about this, because the Internet is a very politically touchy place, and empire is a bad word. Yet, how can I engage in politics in any real way and avoid this most powerful of political and military techniques.
I live in an Empire, which projects its power in a huge variety of ways. Not just military, but financial, philosophical, cultural. My Empire competes with other Empires.
Empire is not just a white person game. The biggest Empire-building project in the world right now is China in Africa, and white people aren't even involved.
Honestly, when the series is done, I'll probably wish I'd been more bloody-minded and less cowardly about how I touched the topic. Then again, I still have one game to go, and politics in the world of Haven is getting ugly.
This trilogy is heavily into politics and tough choices. You enter a rebellious land, and you have to whip it into shape. You have many options. Not many of them are good.
I recently got an email from someone who got stuck playing Queen's Wish. They reached a point where they didn't like any of the choices they had, so they quit.
That's their right. It's their leisure time, after all. However, I am standing by this decision. I want this series to engage with politics and power and empire in an honest way. This is a necessary part of it.
Suppose you're some major official in Ancient Rome, and one of your provincial governors dies. You have to pick a replacement.
But here's the thing. You have to choose among the people who are available. You can't open a vat and pull out the perfect leader. You have to choose among existing humans, all of whom, being human, are high flawed.
Yet, you still have to make a choice. Generally, the most important thing is to not make the right choice but to make sure some choice gets made.
That's how life works, and I want the Queen's Wish trilogy to have little reflections of life in it. I hope the realness (to the extent that it is real) makes up for the frustration.
Video games are a big industry. There's room for all sorts of games.
Improvements Over Queen's Wish
Queen's Wish: The Conqueror is a very innovative game. It tries a lot of new things, and it mixes them together in unusual ways. Some people liked it. Some people didn't.
However, I made mistakes. I made a lot of changes in Queen's Wish 2 that I really think improve the game.
There are far more abilities. You get experience more often, providing a more even flow of dopamine hits. You have more customization options for building your empire, some of which affect the story.
Yet, it's still basically the same engine. Of course. The weird new parts of the game engine are all still in there. So if you were mad at me, before, you still be. Whenever you change anything in your games, you inevitably lose people. Your job is then to add new customers to replace them.
The only alternative is writing the same game again and again. If you try to do this for 18 games, you will go mad.
It's Also About Empire
I've always been fascinated with history and politics, and my games reflect that. Perhaps to a fault. I wanted this trilogy to focus on that dominant force in the history of humanity: The building of Empire.
I was a little worried about this, because the Internet is a very politically touchy place, and empire is a bad word. Yet, how can I engage in politics in any real way and avoid this most powerful of political and military techniques.
I live in an Empire, which projects its power in a huge variety of ways. Not just military, but financial, philosophical, cultural. My Empire competes with other Empires.
Empire is not just a white person game. The biggest Empire-building project in the world right now is China in Africa, and white people aren't even involved.
Honestly, when the series is done, I'll probably wish I'd been more bloody-minded and less cowardly about how I touched the topic. Then again, I still have one game to go, and politics in the world of Haven is getting ugly.
Jeff reiterates that Queen's Wish will probably be his last original RPG series, after which it'll be all remasters all the time. There's one more game left before that happens, though. For now, Queen's Wish 2: The Tormentor is available on Steam and GOG for $25 with a 15% launch discount until next week. Coming up next, the Geneforge 2 remaster.
