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The problem with this project is it was really unfocussed.
The dynamic economy was decent enough idea but they didn't push it as a working trading game like Patrician. Especially if you added magic and crafting into the equation.
If they focused one resource gathering, crafting and trading similar to how Thea The Awakening worked they would have already had something.
Dynamic NPCs are also a nice idea but again they didn't do anything with them, you would need proper trading or combat system to actually be useful.
The dynamic encounters are again a nice idea but with a lackluster combat its pointless. If they had something substantial like Battle Brothers combat again they would have something to show.
Don't even mention dungeons.
The fundamental problem is gameplay does not grow on trees, it does not magically appears out of the simulation. You still need to actually do stuff thus you need a game first.
Make it quick and dirty and an actual game first and after that you can slowly add more simulation and more depth as needed.
If they are still working on this they need to answer some questions.
Is it a management game based around the tower? Then focus on that. Make it a shopkeeper style game and crafting like Recettear. You can even use the dynamic NPCs to advertise and take request growing your reputation and popularity.
Is it a game about trading? Then make it like Partician. Have interesting trade routes and use the dynamic events and rumors for information to get the best deals or use your relationships with the NPCs to negotiate a better deal.
To understand Patrician you only have to look at its map with resources.
Is it about adventuring and questing? Forget it! You do not have good enough combat to make it work and you do not know how to make good quests with the dynamic NPCs. You have no chance for this path of gameplay for now. You are not Battle Brothers and you are not Skyrim.
Dungeons are one of the most beloved aspects of RPGs, yet one of the lowest rated aspects of Archmage Rises. With the start of the New year, I decided to dig in and renovate the dungeon system. This has been on my mind for 2 years, so I have a lot of accrued ideas collected for the big day. Top of the list is increasing theme and variety of the dungeons.
I started to explore what could be done with the current system, and even while making significant enhancements, I came up empty with reaching the goal. I contacted Rogier the artist to talk through some ideas when he dropped a bomb:
”What if we rendered the dungeons in 3D?” *
This video is our exploration of that concept.
Doing 3D dungeons will probably take longer to architect and implement (8 weeks?) than the time I had planned to enhance the current system (4 weeks), but I think the quality of the visuals will be significantly improved. But it isn’t without risk, this is definitely new ground for Rogier and I.
What do you think, should we pursue the 3D dungeon rendering?
I want to be real clear about one thing: this is not real-time 3d movement through the dungeon like Skyrim or Eye of the Beholder. It’s the same “narrative” approach of showing a location and allowing the player to make a choice of where to go next and then seeing the next location.
We need to have an intervention with this guy, sit him down in a chair, and tell him that we love him but he needs to not expand the scope of his game ever again. I could come up with a list of reasons why his addiction to expanding the game and not just finishing it has harmed my life.
This week Timo joins us to take a look at the 3D dungeon initiative. A majority of the effort has been on seeing what can be done to procedurally generate intractable rooms and corridors than on making it pretty. This video shows how walls, doors, and props can be generated. Then we show some of the water and camera effects that we can use to add unique tone and feel to dungeons.
As always your feedback is welcome, what do you think of the 3D dungeon direction?
Procedural generation is a trap for developers that doesn't just add a fixed amount of developer time, it adds endless possibilities of extra developer time.
Procedural generation is a trap for developers that doesn't just add a fixed amount of developer time, it adds endless possibilities of extra developer time.
You really have to know what you want to achieve when you implement proper procedural content creation of any kind.
Due to its nature, the possibilities really are endless - in stark contrast to manual content creation.
As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about algorithms for procedural generation, I can understand the allure.
But at the same time, if you develop a game, you should be working according to a plan and not just sink into feature creep in the middle of development. Especially not if you are way over budget already, ffs!
This really reminds me of years ago, when a few friends and I decided to work on a project. We had a certain timeline and plan - but then, along the way, ideas came up. "Hey, this would also be cool!" "I think we can do this much better here with just a little bit of effort" "This would be a new feature, but it'll totally be worth it!" ....
Most important lesson for any project: Make a plan, then STICK TO IT. The second part turns out to be pretty hard.
First, I show progress on the 3d dungeon generation. Then I talk about my motivation.
There is a dark side to creating. A toll. A price to be paid. It’s dark because creatives do not let it see the light of day. It remains hidden.
About 2 years ago I discovered The War of Art and writer Steven Pressfield. He put a spotlight directly on the difficulty of creating, the war inside. It was insightful and of great value to me. Steven Pressfield is now an accomplished author, but he struggled for decades to become one. The War of Art is his hindsight conversation with a younger self about the war ahead.
All creatives experience Resistance. This is my time. I’ve gone as far as I can on the gas in the tank. I’m running on fumes. I need a fill up.
Something I risk here is people freaking out. “He’s abandoned the project!”, “It’s never going to get finished!"
I had a serious choice to make. I could deny what is happening and pretend things are just going slowly. But that isn’t true, I am uncomfortable with its dishonesty. I’d rather just “tell it as it is”. I’m more comfortable with fallout than hiding. It is what it is.
After the recording Nic told me what I said was brave. Perhaps. I committed to honest updates for those interested in this project. I see it only as keeping a commitment.
In my own psyche I’m acknowledging what "is" instead of what I wish it was. I think this is a good sign. This puts me on the path to healing. I’m putting down my tools so as to pick them up again, stronger.
Thank you for your interest and patience. I appreciate it.
On Mar 16 I stopped working on Archmage Rises. My wife was mad. Like really mad. The kind of mad where she doesn’t say anything, but it screams from every pore of her face.
I had to do something. It was at the point where every time I opened the project, I hated it. I hated how much of my life it consumed, I hated the pressure to finish, I hated all the problems with it, and I hated how unfinished it was.
At first, I thought the symptoms would go away. Like how we men don’t go to the doctor. Yet several days later, nothing had changed. This is when I knew I had a deeper issue, less head cold more organ failure. I needed to act.
I want to thank the people that posted their struggles and what they did to overcome them. Slayemin, in particular, shared some poignant thoughts.
Some people suggested if a certain part of the game was defeating me, to switch to working on another part or aspect until I had the strength to return to it. This is good advice. It was my reason for choosing to do the 3D dungeons this year instead of continuing to fix the simulator.
Unfortunately, I was in such a state that I didn’t feel like doing anything on Archmage Rises. The best illustration I can give is on a long road trip, after maybe 4, 6, or 8 hours, you just get sick and tired of driving. You want to just be a passenger and have someone else drive.
It’s not that I wanted to drive down different roads, I didn’t want to drive at all! The vigilance and responsibility of it all was too exhausting.
A Purpose Driven Break
In the book Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus Gray identifies a relationship phenomenon of men called “rubberbanding”. In any relationship, men withdraw for a while, creating distance, only to reach an apex and then spring back, arms open. I’ll talk more about this in a minute.
In the time spent away from the game, I actively focused on recovery. This is much different than what I first did which can most easily be described as running away from the problem. I’ll share a few of the things I did in case it will spark an idea should you be facing the same.
MOTIVATIONAL READING
I get a lot out of Steven Pressfield’s War of Art. I have listened to the audio book 6 or more times in the last couple of years. In short, it’s a real ass-kicking to be a pro, sit down, and do your work. Steven spent 20+ years battling resistance and self-sabotaging as he attempted to write his first novel. I like his honest no-nonsense approach to the creative process and discovered he wrote additional books about it after War of Art. I read No one wants to read your Sh*t, Turning Pro, Artist’s Journey. I then remembered and reread Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Listening to authors overcome their struggle was motivating.
I WORKED FOR SOMEONE ELSE
As previously mentioned, Jonathan Blow left in the middle of working on the Witness to work on something else for 6 months. A core problem was I was sick of leading. Starting another game, or a board game, or something of my own design was simply driving down different roads. I remembered something weird that Jesus said, “It’s better to give than to receive.” I say it sounds weird, because if I have two cookies and you have no cookies, and I give you one, I’m down a whole cookie! How is that better for me?!
I know people who have gone on a mission trip to some third-world country, worked day and night in terrible conditions, only to return totally reenergized. More so than if they sat on a beach for the same time. That doesn’t make any logical sense to me.
While thinking through all this, I had a dream on a Saturday night where I was working as a developer on a friend’s game. I woke up and felt like that was the answer. I’ll admit, this doesn’t make any logical sense to me either, but hey, I was in a weird, vulnerable, squishy place.
I contacted the friend and asked if they needed some programming help for a week, maybe two, while I get my head straight. They were shocked but decided to give it a go. I joined their team for 2 weeks and worked on a point & click adventure game for kids 5-8 in Unity.
This was incredibly energizing. Somehow, I worked really hard for two weeks and received more in return: joy. Maybe this Jesus guy is onto something! And I’m glad I could stay in my first-world country!
I SPENT 12 DAYS TRAVELLING WITH THE WIFE AND KIDS
My wife is an extrovert who loves to travel, while I am an introvert who loves to stay home. How we ever got hitched is a mystery for another time. My wife is constantly booking trips and making me go on them. She usually books them 6-8 months out. It just so happened this trip she booked to England, Belgium, and Holland was occurring now. So we packed up the family and off we went.
James, our youngest, is three. I don’t know if you have ever traveled with a small child going through toilet training, but it is sort of like travelling with a bomb. One with the timer set to “random”. Thrilling, for sure, but a seemingly unnecessary risk.
This is should be the part where I say how wonderful the trip was, and being with the family brought so much joy, I found my motivation, and we all lived happily ever after.
Nope.
The word “hell” is probably too strong a word, but it’s within the ballpark.
Travelling with small kids, especially on a 6hr time difference, is less vacation and more Iron Man test of endurance; can I actually make it through this?!!!
Like a prisoner in a cell, I started to think about life on the outside. Sitting at my desk working on Archmage Rises is sooooo much better than this! I’d give anything just to be home, in the quiet, at my computer!
This is when the rubberband reached its apex, I turned around, arms open, and started moving towards Archmage.
10 Realizations
The above summarizes what I did but more important is what I learned. Granted, these are quite personal, but I write them for your benefit if even one is helpful. I also write them for myself, so at some later date, should I ever find myself in the same dark place, I have a checklist to refer back to.
1. I’m a leader, not a worker. I’m more interested in running and leading the project, fulfilling the vision, than actually doing the work. This is different from being lazy. A work-oriented person finds the organizing, leading, meetings, and vision casting tiresome and interruptive. So, in short, I’d rather lead a team than code a game.
There is nothing I can do right now but persevere. But for Archmage Rises 2, and the secret project between Archmage 1 and 2, I will not make the mistake of relying on myself to build it. I will (somehow) put together a team and work according to my strengths.
2. While working on someone else’s project, I force myself to work. I want to get the tasks done, to get on to the next task. My tenacity kicks in. I put in extra hours on a Saturday just to have something ready for Monday. When working for myself, I am too easy on myself.
3. When working for someone else, they give immediate feedback. They are happy, or sad, with what happens in each workday. It’s a form of accountability. Like anyone, I’m eager to please, so I like the satisfaction of a job well done.
So why doesn’t the fanbase fulfill this for me? The update videos are supposed to be this exact thing. It does to an extent, but something about it isn’t the same. Perhaps it is how immediate or personal the feedback is when you are working directly with someone.
4. Working on someone else’s game isn’t as much fun as working on my own. At the end of the day I want to make what I want to make, not what someone else is making.
First, this is the “grass is greener” principle. Working on someone else’s game sounds great, until you actually do it, then working on my own seems better.
Second, and Pressfield talks about this in Artist’s Journey, I get to the point where I’m miserable not working on my thing. It’s inside of me and needs to come out. I work on it because I can’t do anything else.
5. Working on someone else’s game is carefree and easy. I don’t care if it succeeds, I don’t even care if the thing I’m working on makes sense. Someone says it needs to be done, I do it. I was able to work hard and knock out tasks because I wasn’t consumed (wasting cycles) with the bigger picture.
6. Keep tasks small and easy. The tasks on the other game were small and easy. Each task is a few hours to a few days.
When a goal is close it is very motivating. After all, the finish line is just around the next bend. When there are miles and miles to go, giving up is easier.
The tasks I assign to others are concrete, time boxed, and achievable. The tasks I assign to myself are nebulous and too large, some tasks taking up to a week or more.
I don’t have the feeling of progress, or success, because I’ve cheated myself from it by having tasks that are too large. Starting Monday, I will begin make small 2-4hr tasks so I can feel accomplishment and momentum.
7. Keep a professional schedule. On the other project, I got up early each day and went to bed earlier each night because I wanted to be ready for work. I was professionally minded. I got a ton done each day before noon (that’s a metric ton not a puny imperial one). 3hr burst, lunch, and then 3hr burst gets things done. And I did it because that is what it took.
But I’m very lax about my own project. I’ve known for a long time that I need to get up earlier when the kids wake up. They are so noisy after 8am, anyway, it’s not like I’m getting a lot of sleep.
Being jetlagged from the travel to Europe as helped already. I’m getting up each day at 7-8am and going to bed before midnight. I’ve never had this schedule before.
8. Purge defeat from the workspace. I could work in Portland, but not at home. Every time I sat down at my Microsoft natural keyboard, my SC2 mousepad, my LG screen, feelings of failure would rise up.
Yet for working on the other game, I was able to sit down in the exact same spot with the exact same keyboard and bang stuff out work successfully. I was kickin it for 2 weeks straight and it felt great! This
9. Protect working time. While working on the other game, I was more apt to deflect interruptions with “No, I’m working”. I protected my work space and time because I needed to get things done. Usually I let my 3-year-old play just outside my office door, but while working on the other game he wasn’t allowed to be downstairs at all. The basement was protected and quiet.
I practiced good work hygiene. I need to make this a permanent practice.
10. I is all in my head. It’s not environmental, like kids, office location, tools. It’s me. Like my favorite quote from Henry Ford:
“If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.
— Henry Ford
This is a relief, because changing my environment is extremely hard. It’s not about finding another workspace, it’s about protecting and utilizing the one I have.
Conclusion
I return to work on Archmage Rises on Monday, Apr 15. Thanks for the advice and patience along this detour of the Artist’s Journey. I didn’t know what precisely was wrong with me nor what to do about it. After a month I have much greater perspective.
I think on some level he's afraid to release it. When you get caught up in a labor of love like this, sometimes you get so used to working on it that a part of your mind is terrified at the thought of it coming to an end. So instead of finishing it, you keep increasing the scope so that you don't have to deal with the stress of releasing it and figuring out what you'll do with your life afterward.
Also, if measured by # of copies sold (and $$$ of profit) they game will never realistically recoup the investment he has made (in both money and time). That can be a hard pill to swallow.
this game gets me in this mood every fucking time.
http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2019/4/13/update-92-10-realizations-from-a-purpose-driven-break
