Archmage Rises - the play-how-you-want mage simulator - now available on Early Access

[Haba]

The more important thing to notice:

"The ideal situation would be for you to continue on your current contract or... to find some other games you could work on while you are waiting for me"

 

[mondblut]

How to completely derail a game: the thread.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2018/3/24/update-65-making-games-is-hard

This week I continue to struggle with the economy of the simulator. But I also share a recent personal struggle.

Making games is hard.

I've done some hard things in my lifetime: risen through the ranks of the corporate ladder. I've led teams large and small. I've helped build some sophisticated systems that run some of the largest logistics companies in the world. On an awkwardness scale, I once had to fire a developer for burping and farting too much. I've started several companies and grew them to employ dozens of employees. I once had to convince a client to wait 1 year before we could even start their mission critical business project. And they agreed. I've also had companies fail, going through the process of taking down the shelves and selling off the last scraps of inventory. I've had rough spots in my marriage, especially the first 5 years. I've spoken to audiences of hundreds at various events, like one time at Microsoft's head office in Canada. I've also brought 3 kids into this world, 2 through IVF. I've ridden the emotional rollercoaster involved with both miscarriages and adoption proceedings.

When I say making this game is the hardest thing I've ever done, it is in respect of all the above.
Yet the challenge is worth it.
There is nothing else I'd rather be doing.

Working on the economy has been a tough slog. Just when I think it is working, 5 things pop up to say it is not. On the build 11 outstanding tasks list there are 3 really big hard issues to tackle. I've already done one of them, this is the second, and that leaves one remaining. I'm guessing and hoping this is the hardest.

This week's progress:

1. Converted all NPC jobs to be task based.
   1. Before they would do their job and produce some grain, or a weapon, or resource every single day. It just didn't make sense a weaponsmith produced as many items as a berry picker. Now everyone has tasks that require a certain amount of progress to complete and upon completion they produce their output. An artist can take 30 days to make a painting, a weaponsmith a week, a farmer a day.
2. Merchants now spread demand throughout the road network placing orders at other towns. This creates trade routes and the goods eventually make their way back to the requesting town. Just got this working before we shot the video.
3. Traders are much smarter now and work for the merchant. When he sees something he needs at another town, he dispatches the trader to go fetch it.
   1. Before they used to just randomly travel around
4. Trade is now done in batches of at least 5. No longer will a trader travel all the way to and from a town just for a quantity of 1.

 

[Lhynn]

How to completely derail a game: the thread.

Its quite something. Watching a guy be sodomized by his own code and ask for more.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2018/3/31/update-66-archmage-rises-shall-continue

This week Thomas raises the question about a real or unreal supply/demand economy, provides a health update, and talks about the plan if he becomes unable to finish the game.

If you would like to participate in the economy discussion, here is the Real vs Unreal Economy link.

Thank you for all the well wishes and prayers over the last week, it has been helped me climb out of the dark place I was in. Work will continue Mon/Tue, just after my needle to the eye.

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2018/4/7/update-67-economy-ver-2

This week we are joined by a different bearded glasses wearing friend of mine on the West coast, Michael Herrera, where I give a small health update (I can see again!), announce who is on the Small Council, and then dive into the new design of the economy.

The Small Council is (drumroll)...

• dhuran as Littlefinger
• dRow_28 as The Spider
• Gameboon Treehugger as Maester

With backups, who are now plotting assassinations, WillSama and Caleb Hawkins.

I didn't expect everyone I asked to say yes, all are worthy of the post, so I had to make the final decision the best way one can: Secret GM rolls with a d20.

This week, I spent all my time sorting through the economy needs and comments and coming up with a design that will (hopefully) meet everyone's desires:

• easy to implement
• easy to understand
• fun to play
• lots of player agency

Technically this is probably version 4 of the economy because I threw out 2 in between versions based on what people were saying on the forums. See, commenting does change the game!

This all came about because in Build 11 you couldn't profitably trade, nor was there much to trade, and the economy didn't work as a whole. I spent a lot of time designing and redesigning this week and came up with something I think will work, which I posted on the steam forums here as Economy Part II.

If you don't like to read, then this update video goes into the particulars of the new economy design and some of the thinking behind it.

If you don't like to watch long videos, you can just read the steam post which has no pretty pictures.

This week brought up an important question: between the doctors visits and calls, all I did was whiteboard and type in Word. Hardly anything sexy to show for a weekly update. Then I wondered if weekly updates are really that necessary. Sure, I like the consistency, but it is a bunch of work each week and I readily admit while some are great, some are duds. This week was about to be a real dud but I decided to put in the effort to make a full presentation of the economy so at least it had a chance of not being a dud. But I'll leave it to you to judge if it is a dud or not.

My thought is to go with updates every other week, until such time as there is enough changing in the game to go weekly. What do you think?

 

[mondblut]

So remind me, did That Which Rises have a kickstarter, or it's "just" vaporware?

 

[Tom Baker's Arse]

Ah yes, the Road Goes Ever On and On ...

 

[tsiforb]

So remind me, did That Which Rises have a kickstarter, or it's "just" vaporware?

Just vaporware, they are self funding.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2018/4/7/update-67-economy-ver-2

This week we are joined by a different bearded glasses wearing friend of mine on the West coast, Michael Herrera, where I give a small health update (I can see again!), announce who is on the Small Council, and then dive into the new design of the economy.

The Small Council is (drumroll)...

• dhuran as Littlefinger
• dRow_28 as The Spider
• Gameboon Treehugger as Maester

With backups, who are now plotting assassinations, WillSama and Caleb Hawkins.

I didn't expect everyone I asked to say yes, all are worthy of the post, so I had to make the final decision the best way one can: Secret GM rolls with a d20.

This week, I spent all my time sorting through the economy needs and comments and coming up with a design that will (hopefully) meet everyone's desires:

• easy to implement
• easy to understand
• fun to play
• lots of player agency

Technically this is probably version 4 of the economy because I threw out 2 in between versions based on what people were saying on the forums. See, commenting does change the game!

This all came about because in Build 11 you couldn't profitably trade, nor was there much to trade, and the economy didn't work as a whole. I spent a lot of time designing and redesigning this week and came up with something I think will work, which I posted on the steam forums here as Economy Part II.

If you don't like to read, then this update video goes into the particulars of the new economy design and some of the thinking behind it.

If you don't like to watch long videos, you can just read the steam post which has no pretty pictures.

This week brought up an important question: between the doctors visits and calls, all I did was whiteboard and type in Word. Hardly anything sexy to show for a weekly update. Then I wondered if weekly updates are really that necessary. Sure, I like the consistency, but it is a bunch of work each week and I readily admit while some are great, some are duds. This week was about to be a real dud but I decided to put in the effort to make a full presentation of the economy so at least it had a chance of not being a dud. But I'll leave it to you to judge if it is a dud or not.

My thought is to go with updates every other week, until such time as there is enough changing in the game to go weekly. What do you think?

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2018/5/5/update-69-small-improvements

In this update we welcome the return of the original glasses-wearing-bearded-sidekick Nic!

After a short-ish health update, I then show two small improvements to the game inspired by Port Royale 2.

My health issues made the AI Task rewrite too difficult to tackle for now, so I switched gears to some smaller tasks to build up momentum. So 1 whole task was crossed off on the outstanding Build 11 issues.

 

[Infinitron]

Campaign setting lore:



http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2018/5/19/update-70-the-conclave

(I apologize for how long this update video is, there was a biggish health update followed by a biggish campaign setting update).

Over the last two weeks the team and I have been working on the game's campaign setting in the world of Vaelun. Some questions have been raised on the forums:

1. I would like to know more about the Conclave and its purpose in the world and in the life of the archmage. Should the player fear them or strive to join them?
2. Source of magic. Is there divine magic at all? Does arcane magic come from books or from within?
3. How do people look at magic users? distrust? friendliness? a case-by-case basis?
4. The organization (if there is one) that trains mages, what kind of hierarchy does it have? what is its philosophy?

All of these are answered and much much more!

Archmage Rises is a Role-playing game. At the core it is all about the choices of the role you will play in the world. You can't do it all, and you can really wreck the world if you want to. So what isthat world? To answer this we're making our first campaign setting PDF available right now for your enjoyment.

This background answers a number of gameplay related questions. It was written for those who enjoy tabletop role playing books, or the manuals to RPGs from back in the 80's and 90's.

We hope you enjoy it!

Get the Free PDF

Download Now!

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2018/6/2/update-71-kicking-ass-with-ai

Rewriting the core way NPC's make decisions and go about their day is the 2nd of 3 large changes necessary to getting out build 11. It has everything to do with making the game and world feel right. Feel alive.

This week I got the basics of the new AI Task system working and I show how it works in two small ways:

1. Players can now see what a weaponsmiths (actually all craftsman, so that includes armorers, artists, etc.) is currently working on, and the NPC knows what they previously made (and when they made it, and how good it is) and will actively promote it. This is the tip of the iceberg of what is possible.
2. Innkeepers set their menu's based on what they can source locally. If you sell him some fish, you'll see fish dishes show up. If his source of lynx meat or grain dries up (you bought it all, building burned down, trade routes are blocked) they will drop off. If you make your own wine and sell it to the merchant, you will see it show up on menus throughout the world. The NPC also knows what he wants and is unable to source (through the new AI Brain memory system) and that could lead to economic quests.

All this is leading towards a role playing experience unlike any other game, a place where every player choice really impacts the world.

 

[Kaldurenik]

Anyone that know of a ETA?

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Anyone that know of a ETA?

from the looks of it, when their AI achieves sentience.

 

[tsiforb]

Weren't they trying to finish the build they're currently working on sometime late last year?

 

[Azazel]

Might as well ask Starsector when it will be done

At least Starsector has been playable and in our hands for the better part of a decade.

 

[Balor]

Anyone that know of a ETA?

Shortly after Dwarf Fortress 1.0.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2018/6/16/update-72-economy-simulation-multilingual-support

Joining the update this week is fan hall of famer Timo Meijer from the Netherlands.

A while back I made a decision Archmage Rises would support multiple languages, but given the dynamic way text is constructed at runtime I'm not even sure it is possible. I don't know another language to even be able to test theories. Timo is a super fan, programmer, and speaks two languages so I asked him to investigate what might be able to be done. He gives an update on what he thinks is possible. So let us know how important multilingual support is to you!

Next I show progress on the economy simulator, the second of three major tasks to be done for build 11. The concepts from Update #67: Economy Ver 2 and Update #68: Task Based AI are almost complete and they are working exactly as described.

I can see, morale is good, momentum is strong, so in a momentary lapse of judgement I estimate when Build 11 will be ready!

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2018/6/30/update-73-trade-world-simulation

This video shows lots of improvements to the internals of the game allow the revised merchant trading interface to work. This is the culmination of a lot of previous work: item categories, pricing by stockpile, AI Tasks, inventory by category, weight and capacity, smart town placement, and the revised Menu system.

On another front we added something we've been working towards for months: NPC desire fulfillment. When an NPC has nothing to do they will decide for themselves what to do. Right now it is limited to visiting the Inn for entertainment, but the system is in place now for anything like shopping, hikes in the wilderness, and makin' babies.

About 8 months ago Nic and I decided to move simulator turns from days/weeks to hours. This was to enable NPC's to move around and do things and for the player to be able to see it happen as time passes. We had it working for the jobs in hexes around the town, but now it is working within the town!

There is one subtask left to do before I can say the economy simulation is done and that is updating the mayor AI to select and build buildings correctly. Then it is on to the third and final big task for build 11: quest generation and fulfillment.

Specific list of changes:

1. Desirability algorithm now scores hexes and selects the best place for a town finally guaranteeing a town won't be on water
2. Missing person threshold custom to each person based on who they are
3. Trading working: buy, sell
4. Put in inventory auto going to available space/draft animals
5. Inventory now cares about capacity
6. Animals have a req handling skill level
7. Can sell back draft animals
8. Can't buy more than the merchant has in stock, this prevents the player from "manufacturing" goods in the tight economy
9. Revised pricing algorithms
10. Put common weapons/armor in marketplace
11. Split town turns into two parts: hourly and weekly, improved performance
12. Building menus now refresh with passage of time - ruined all performance gains
13. NPC's don't go to buildings that are closed and wait for them to open, prior to this they were breaking & entering to fulfill their desires like a crack head
14. Witnessed Emergent behavior: mayor woke up, feeling bummed, went for a drink before work. Drank for two hours and was late to work
15. Work provides a touch of entertainment, therefore people without jobs will eat & drink more than those employed because they are bored
16. AI Tasks now add as a single group so they stick together in the proper sequence

Celebrating 19 crazy years! One of the rare moments you'll catch me in a suit.

 

[LESS T_T]

http://www.cgdc.org/speakers-sessions/

CHRISTIAN GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE

Thursday July 19th, 2018 - Saturday July 21st, 2018 | Multnomah University | Portland, Oregon

Thomas Henshell / Defiance Game Studio
"Building and Maintaining a Fanbase: Best Practices and Lessons Learned" [Business]

They say its never too early to start marketing your game. But how do you build a fanbase? Once you have them, what do you do with them? What if, heaven forbid, development takes longer than expected? In this talk we investigate several paths to fan acquisition, feeding and maintaining the fanbase, and how to grow a vibrant community around your game. Lessons come from experience with Archmage Rises, Redwall, and analysis of AAA studios.

(Beginner) Friday 9:15a to 10:30a, Library L101

 

[thesheeep]

There are Christian Game Dev conferences?
I always thought that sector was mostly safe from those fairytale fellowships.

Oh, well... don't really care too much as long as the game doesn't try to baptize me

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2018/7/13/update-74-accelerating-progress

This week I finally finished Big Task #2 of 3 in Build 11. I worked on it for 2 months so it's a little disappointing to only cross one thing off the list of outstanding tasks, but awell. It's done.

To get the economy working correctly (well, close to correctly) a lot of things had to be done. For those who are interested they are below.

So when will Build 11 be done? I am working on a few of the smaller items on the Outstanding Tasks list before tackling #3 which is the emergent quests, lairs, and completing quests for people. Based on what I know right now it is not a 2 month task, it is much smaller, but we'll see.

Progress since the last update:

1. Every town now has an automatic towncenter (mayor works here), inn (necessary for player and NPCs), and marketplace (keeps the stockpile and allows trading)
2. Mayor now builds all buildings in a town beyond those.
   1. He also builds the Homes people live in, so they are paying rent to the Township not to him personally. When an NPC makes enough money, or if a player feels nice, they can purchase the home from the township and no no more rent. Yes, eventually the player can own houses and rent them to NPCs.
3. Mayor now builds buildings based on available resources (around the town, and globally) and with global uniqueness in mind "I need to build something, and no one has a tailor, so I'll build a tailor workshop"
4. Got mayor not to build duplicates of unique buildings (There is no value to two outfitters, or inns, in the same town)
5. Fixed traders repeatedly going to the same town. Revising the scoring algorithm with stock levels made them go to the best choice. One town may have metal which is really needed, but another town has grain, livestock, and ale which is less needed but overall more beneficial to meet 3 needs instead of 1
6. Fixed traders never buying a second time. Whoops!
7. Started moving processing around between hourly turns, daily turns, weekly turns, monthly turns. It was naive and difficult to follow when things were happening when it was all jammed into one Turn()
8. People who haven't been paid at their job quit after N days
9. Added paying rent to owner or town (depending on who owns building), and if can't, get kicked out of home.
   1. This is quite complicated because I have to figure out if the person in question is the "head of the household", and if they can't pay the rent, then the whole family gets kicked out and lives on the streets. And if their luck turns around they all move back into a house too.
10. Fixed issues with family money pooling in Streets
    1. By default family members pool their money and items into one inventory, the one in their home. But living on the street is like one BIG home that houses multiple families, and it was pooling everyone's stuff together. So if they live in a house, everything pools in the house, if they live on the street, everything pools with head of the household
11. Look for a house before building a new one.
    1. This was important, otherwise the mayor would kick someone out of their home, and then when they got money and wanted a house, he'd build them one. Infinite empty houses in a town!
12. Death & passing on to heirs
    1. As explained in the video it was important to figure out who the direct heir is of someone who dies and pass ownership of home and business to them. If a son inherits his dad's inn, he also needs to become an innkeeper and leave his original job... unless it was a good one. Pretty thorny stuff. The idea here is to be medieval and keep jobs within the family.
13. Fixed a bug where the population of a town never changed
14. Added NPC remembering what he ate and when he ate it. This was necessary to figure out "I haven't eaten in N days and I have no job, this place sucks, i'm outta here!" and they move to a new town and try their luck there.
15. Added criminality to NPC brain. Continued suffering increases thier likelihood to "break bad"
16. Added NPC becoming a bandit (sorta)
17. Added begging for beggar job. They currently beg other NPCs, i still need to add in begging the player.
18. Fixed market problems and some UI issues
19. Added logging of town storehouses every month so i can monitor the economy. I need some better tools to be able to balance the economy better
20. Supply/demand trading economy now works!
21. Made NPC sleep cycle self healing, if someone goes to bed super late they are sleep deprived and make it up getting them back to a normal cycle
22. Fixed double greeting problem on marketplace
23. Fixed a menu performance issue
24. Fixed gambling encounter, it broke when i put in the new menu system
25. Gambling now passes time, so you can waste away your life gambling if you desire
26. Fixed bug where encounter dialog stayed open after being kicked out of a building

 

[ArchAngel]

Fantasy life simulator progresses.. I guess these devs found their Moby-Dick

 

[V_K]

UnReal World has been in development since 1991 and still has features added to it. So I guess we are looking at 2045 release date at the earliest.

 

[mondblut]

UnReal World has been in development since 1991 and still has features added to it.

It also has been available to play since mid-90s.