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

[Sykar]

This game had a cool idea 5 years ago. Now its deep in the wtf land...

And it is still on my Steam wishlist.
Well hope dies last as the saying goes!

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2...ing-up-and-managing-an-indie-game-dev-project

This article and the video are meant to complement each other. They share a topic but attack it from a different perspective.

Since We Last Spoke
Last summer we took on a game dev contract to help finance the game. Plan was it would be half on Archmage and half on client work. This quickly expanded to everyone on contract. Then we had to hire more people. There are big risks to companies, most fail, because they grew too fast. I think we’ve done it well but only time will tell.

UNFORTUNATELY…
We delivered what was asked of us on their extremely aggressive deadline. The client team we worked with was happy with what we did and how we did it. Unfortunately executive politics got involved: the goal posts kept changing, it got to the point where priorities changed weekly. We were unsure what we were doing or why we were even doing it. While nice to have a breather while the client figured out what they actually wanted, it was also demoralizing to our team: It was impossible to know if the work we did this week would be thrown out next week. Leads and execs were quitting on their side.

Keep the Main Thing The Main Thing
Why do we exist as a studio? To make new kinds of game experiences with systems driven procedurally generated worlds. Client work assists in achieving this, but in early Feb it was clear it was taking from it. So I fired the client: told them our last day was Mar 31 2022. We need to get back to Archmage.
They countered and we agreed to Feb 28.

Spoiler

Back in the Saddle
May 2021 we were 4.

May 2022, coming out of this client experience, the Defiance team is now 10.

It is a good well functioning team, we make amazing things together. I want to keep it together and going in the right direction. I’ll talk another time about the financial side of all this, today I’m focused on just organizing the work.

• Programming - Michel, Josh, Tyler, Zach, Sean
  
  
• Art - Rogier (contract), Rubi, Adam, Jessi
  
  
• Audio - James
  
  
• Game Director - Thomas
  

Tools
Bigger team brings bigger challenges and emphasis on effective tools.

Last year we were using codecks.io

If you don’t know where to start with Game Dev Project Management, start with codecks.io .

Codecks free plan only lets you have 3 users. Suddenly having 10 and needing to pay caused a decision point: Is this really the right tool long term?

Jira provides better high level team/objective management (including a customizable workflow manager with custom rules enforcement). It is free for teams up to 10 (phew!). Plus, we just spent 8 months using it with the client. Pretty easy decision.

THE CLINCHER
The biggest part of the decision was the integration with the wiki-based documentation system Confluence.

I’ve been writing use cases/user stories/features/game designs in Word for 25 years. Two big issues with this:

1. The linear structure of the document makes people’s eyes glaze over as they navigate hundreds of pages and long tables of contents. Word doesn’t allow encapsulation of information.
   
   
2. How disconnected the write up of a feature is from the PM tool.
   
   1. Yes I know you can write up and document a feature in the PM tool, but it isn’t as clean, easy, or fully featured (mockups, tables, fonts) as Word.
      

Being wiki based, Confluence allows us to have a page “Monsters” and then a separate page for each monster like Goblins, Wolves, Gargoyles. Complete with stat and ability tables.

But what is even better is tasks can be embedded right into a monster page: creating the concept, painting, rigging, animating, coding AI, audio.

Whenever we read feature documentation, we know the feature state in game. I don’t have to parse long tables of tasks just to check on things; just read the documentation!

This creates the single point of truth which every PM/Producer is striving towards.



“Why are there gargoyles in Archmage Rises? Because I really enjoyed Ultima 6. Sometimes, that’s how design decisions are made.
— Thomas
When Is Alpha (Feature Complete)?
Alpha is an industry term meaning “Feature Complete”. We have been pre-alpha for almost 8 years. That needs to end. See the video for more details.

We are targeting Alpha in Oct. We’ll see what the team’s actual feature velocity is as we go. I’ll post the burn down values as we go, so you will know as we know.

I find “Feature Complete” a very misleading term.

I fully expect the game to suck when we are feature complete. Many of the ideas we are implementing because we think they will be cool, but they probably won’t.

This is why I coined the term “Feature Terrible”. Ya, the features are in there, but they suck. Some need to be cut outright. Some need to be improved with balance and polish. If you are looking to make a serious impact to the quality of Archmage Rises, helping us get from Feature Terrible to Beta is the time.

When Is the Next Playable Build (Build 14)?
Since Mar 1 we’ve really broken the game doing some low level rewrites. How the map is stored and displayed, how world details are generated, how the game saves and loads. All of this puts the game in an extremely unstable state. We’re near the end of this work now. In a couple of weeks I’ll pick a date for the next public build. We’re probably a month away from it.

Let’s Chat about Archmage Rises
The latest info on the game is always on the Archmage Rises Steam Forums. We’re back to checking it daily now, so come on by and tell us what you are thinking!

 

[Sykar]

Release imminent in 2123 I see.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Release imminent in 2123 I see.

Maybe the real archmage is the dev extending his lifespan.

 

[Haba]

This is like watching a trainwreck... only to realize that you are actually sitting inside of the train and the doors are locked.

 

[Cryomancer]

How many decades till the game launch?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

How many decades till the game launch?

See if he had made a game about barbarians he'd be done by now.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Fascinating. Much cringe, but fascinating...

 

[Viata]

This is like watching a trainwreck... only to realize that you are actually sitting inside of the train and the doors are locked.

And in slow motion, too.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

So when does this game come out?

 

[Mortmal]

At least they stole none of our money via kickstarter.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2...ghlight-of-the-new-features-from-last-90-days

Archmage Rises is a role playing game with unprecedented breadth. We have more player actions (verbs) than any other. I’m very excited to show you what the team has been working on the last 3 months. Keeping everyone focused and working on what is most important is a challenge (see previous update). Here are the results of being heads down, cranking on work.

The 25 Categories of New Features

• World Simulator and Data Rewrite (JIT)
  
  • To allows world populations of millions, instead of hundreds, we have moved to a Just-In-Time world simulation. Before we were simulating everything always and it was killing performance. This fundamentally changes everything in the game. While it may look the same, under the hood it is completely different.
    
• Facts 2.0
  
  • We now only generate and store data you know about an NPC. If you don’t ask about an NPCs family, the game doesn’t know if they are married and have kids. We’re inspired by Schroeder's Cat, where you don’t know the state of the world until it is observed. Surprisingly helpful!
    

Schroeder's Cat

Spoiler

• Town Safety Area
  
  • The world is filled with monsters and lairs. But civilization has carved out some safe zones to live and raise a family.
    
    
  • Towns patrol their safe area with guards.
    
    
  • We struggled to convey when a player was in the safe zone or not and discovered audio of the town music does the trick.
    
    
  • That meant writing and adding town music.
    
• 6 New Monster Races
  
  • Each of these require line art and design, painting, rigging, animating, sound, and AI programming
    
• Town Destruction
  
  • Attack towns from afar with magic
    
    
  • Model damage and destruction
    
    
  • Search and loot the ruins
    
• Build New Towns
  
  • Build new towns anywhere you want, if you have the supplies and gold
    
    
  • Name them
    
    
  • Assign them to a King for big favor boosts
    
• New Travel Perception System
  
  • Perception is used to determine things in the distance. If you fail to know what it is, it just appears as a generic icon. Could be good or bad.
    
    
  • Perception skill will tell you how large a patrol of monsters is, so you know whether to avoid or not
    
• New Map Tech
  
  • Ability to change terrain types -> Turn oceans into deserts, or deserts into swamps.
    
    
  • Show animating icons
    
    
  • Show animated hex features
    
    
  • Increased terrain and feature combinations by thousands
    
    
  • Added new hex art
    
• New World Audio
  
  • Footsteps based on terrain type
    
    
  • Time of day transitions and states: a forest at night sounds different from one in day
    
• New Buildings
  
  • Town Well
    
    
  • Artist Workshop
    
    
  • Glass Maker
    
• New Save System
  
  • Smaller faster files
    
    
  • Fixes the problems with the 13.8 save system
    
• New Research & Learning XP Tech Tree System
  
  • Earn XP in skill groups, then spend it on valuable upgrades.
    
    
  • Allows greater character customization and role play
    
    
  • This is how the player gets new spells, it’s no longer about finding the one vendor selling the spell you want.
    
    
  • Some spells can only be discovered through knowledge.
    
• New Study Techniques
  
  • Passive study of book(s)
    
    
  • Active study of books
    
    
  • Create experiments and see what you discover. Some spells can only be discovered through experimentation.
    
• New Notification System
  
  • Allows multiple systems to notify the player at the same time, and the player can review them one by one (like strategy games)
    
• New Monster Lair & Patrol systems
  
  • Monster Lairs no longer replicate. We did this because it feels futile to take out a goblin lair, and then have it pop back into existence after X years.
    
    
  • This requires populating the world with many more lairs, and having them overlap. Only around towns is it safe to wander.
    
• Make Camp
  
  • Sleep, write letters, craft, cook, eat, write a song from anywhere in the game.
    
    
  • Make sure you have safe surroundings or get ambushed!
    
• Temperature
  
  • Every hex has a temperature. If it is too hot or cold, player takes damage.
    
    
  • Possible to die from exposure (too hot or cold for too long)
    
    
  • Utilize clothing to keep warm/cool,
    
    
  • Travel at night when it is more cool becomes an option
    
• Seasons
  
  • World progresses through 4 annual seasons.
    
    
  • They start and end almost regularly, but it is possible for them to come late or early
    
    
  • Greatly affects travel and trade
    
• Weather
  
  • Cloud systems
    
    
  • Storms
    
    
  • Hot and cold fronts
    
• Knowledge System
  
  • Whenever the player has a significant experience: a combat, finding a beautiful waterfall, a first kiss, this creates a piece of Knowledge
    
    
  • Knowledge can be used for creating works of art, correspondence, NPC discussion
    
• Letter System
  
  • Cheebos are a new magical race of creatures that love to deliver the mail! (Owls in Harry Potter or Ravens in GoT)
    
    
  • Players and NPCs can keep up relationships through correspondence. A close NPC friend cares if you forgot their birthday, so at least you can send a letter with a gift!
    
    
  • Helps make the world feel more real
    
• New Resources
  
  • Marble
    
    
  • Jade
    
    
  • Dye
    
    
  • Copper
    
    
  • Silver
    
    
  • Black Sand
    
    
  • Gems
    
    
  • Glass
    
    
  • Stained Glass
    
    
  • Floatstone
    
• Revised Inventory System
  
  • We had a weight based system like Skyrim. We decided to simplify and make it a slot based one like Minecraft
    
    
  • Items stack to certain limits, based on the carrier. The player can hold stacks of small items, but only 1 for medium to large items.
    
    
  • Beasts of burden can hold stacks for medium and large items, while also providing more inventory slots.
    
    
  • Much easier to see what is on the ground and move it into inventory
    
    
  • Inventory is no longer on the right, that is now only spells. Clicking the inventory will pop the bags/creatures open and show what you have. Like WoW and Ultima 6.
    
• Buildings can be Anywhere
  
  • Previously buildings could only exist in a town. Now it is possible to have a cabin in the woods, or a tower at the top of a mountain.
    
• In Game Help System (Archeopedia)
  
  • Inspired by Civilization we added an in game help system which can show text, images, and videos to help convey game concepts.
    
• In Game Bug Reporting
  
  • As we gear up for release, we need to make it easy to capture and address all of the bugs people will unfortunately find.
    
    
  • This automatically creates the task in our JIRA system with the data we need, so a) We don’t lose it and b) Jump on it quickly
    
    
  • Automatic video recorder runs in the background, allowing us to see the last X seconds of gameplay before the bug occurred
    

Sounds Great, When Do I Get Build 14.0?
Don’t know yet. Currently the game is a mess and barely functions: towns and portraits don’t display anymore. We’re working towards cleaning it up in the next 3-4 weeks. We’ll see.

 

[Cryomancer]

8:10 - Seems interesting the way to do experiments.

Honestly, this game is taking so much time that if don't come with amazing magery and spell experimentation/creation...

12:10 - Amazing. First game where you can use magic to transform the world in that way, creating artificial magical rains...

He managed to cast rain + winter wrath in a town and ... People in the town got pissed. HE also used a powerful gem + fireball to incinerate an entire town. That is amazing. My unique critique is that was too fast. Would be cool if casting a city destroying spell required multiple days and more expensive reagents and while casting, the city attacks the magic caster with a full army.

We need more types of games like this.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

He managed to cast rain + winter wrath in a town and ... People in the town got pissed. HE also used a powerful gem + fireball to incinerate an entire town. That is amazing. My unique critique is that was too fast. Would be cool if casting a city dest

I gots to ask if you ever played Fallen Enchantress.

 

[Viata]

Schroeder's Cat

Who?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Schroeder's Cat

Who?

Schrödinger but Austrian, I think.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.archmagerises.com/news/...-your-wealth-financial-house-and-pack-animals

Let’s start off with some big news: we’re moving to weekly Archmage Rises updates! You can expect a weekly drip of new features and Archmage information every Saturday from now on.

Additionally, we’ll have bonus posts on this website sharing about studio news and more of the nitty-gritty of running a studio.

This week, let’s talk about wealth management.

Building wealth faster; building wealth longer​

2 common problems in games:

1. Whenever you’re ready to buy something, you have to grind to purchase it. In most games, this is merely a nuisance- that item will still be there after a few hours of grinding. That’s not great, but in Archmage Rises the problem can be even worse- that item might get sold, that merchant might travel to who-knows-where, or that town might get destroyed. Spending time grinding might mean you completely miss out on that dream item staring you in the face.
2. When you reach a high level of wealth, there’s nothing to do. Great- you’ve got more gold to add to your coffers. But you have no use for it, and nothing else to do. What if instead of letting that gold rot in your inventory, you were able to re-invest it and move towards a win condition?

Introducing: the Financial House.

You can get a lot of money immediately…​

When you go to a Financial House as a patron, you can take out loans. The amount you can take out is dependent on your overall wealth (not just your current gold, but the net value of all your belongings), and the interest rate is based on your relationship with the lender.

Each Financial House will let you take out one loan between 5,000g and 200,000g. Within a year, you must pay it off- if you don’t, you’ll get a bounty put on your head.

Why grind now so you can buy that book later? Instead, take out a loan, buy that book, and use that newfound spell to pay off that loan even faster. Why wait to get a great mage tower? Let’s take out a few loans and make ourselves a great home right now. Why let your hometown stay at risk from invaders until you can raise more funding? Take out a good loan or two and make sure your hometown stays secure while you travel the world.

If you don’t like the interest rate, try casting Charm on that moneylender so they’ll give you a better one. Or if you know you won’t be able to pay off the loan, use the money to power yourself up to handle the bounty hunters who will surely be after you. Or if you simply don’t want to pay off the loan, you could wipe out the town to wipe out your debt.

Alternatively, if you’re interested in the long game…

…you can get less money slowly and steadily.​

Rather than letting your gold sit unused in your inventory, why not build your own Financial House?

(That’s right- you can also build buildings in towns. We’ll discuss that more in a future post.)

Now you’re not the one taking out loans- your Financial House is giving them out, and making interest. You get a piece of that interest every month, increasing your overall wealth without having to go out and grind for it. So you can reduce the grind long-term, and increase your wealth exponentially over time by building even more Financial Houses.

We also have a win condition based on wealth- if you manage to get 3 royals indebted to you for over 500,000g, you win Archmage Rises (note that hitting a win condition doesn’t stop you from playing- it just means that you’ve hit a goal, and can end on that satisfaction if you’d like).

I still need to build up my wealth to pay off loans or build Financial Houses; any help there?​

Absolutely; Animal Traders will be very helpful for you.

You’ve got a limited inventory- you can only take so many items from a dungeon to a town to sell them and increase your wealth. But if you take a pack animal with you, you can increase your inventory space and make fewer trips. Just make sure your pack animal doesn’t meet an unfortunate fate.

Time is your most valuable asset in Archmage Rises, so save yourself a few trips and build up your wealth more quickly. Or, if needbe, use the quicker income to pay off that loan you took out to purchase your trusty pack animal in the first place.

Next week, we’ll be talking about seafaring- ships, captains, and making your way between islands.

Let us know if you have any questions in the meantime, and we’ll either answer them in the comments or in next week’s post.

See you then.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

The Star Citizen of indie game

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

Star Citizen is the Star Citizen of indie games.

 

[Mortmal]

The Star Citizen of indie game

Wrong, they stole no one's money, no kickstarter , no early access shit.. so far.

 

[Harthwain]

Wrong, they stole no one's money, no kickstarter , no early access shit.. so far.

I think he means the perpetual development more than anything else.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Yeah I meant that, a cool game with nice idea that's not coming out with seemingly active development

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.archmagerises.com/news/2022/7/29/update-145

Set sail and travel the world of Vaelun! We're finally adding ships and sailing to Archmage Rises.

Next week we’ll share how you can build up towns and destroy them with spellcasting.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2022/8/6/update-146-city-building-and-spellcasting-on-cities

Build up a bustling city where your hometown once stood. Then protect it with powerful spells while bombarding opposing cities.

Learn more in the latest update video above.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2022/8/13/update-147-the-release-plan-and-dates

Today we reveal our release plans. Archmage has been 8 years in the making and it will be out in the wild in two significant dates:

Alpha: Mid to Late October​

Release to Early Access: Mid March 2023​

Our full-time team of nine Defianceers is working hard to make these dates. We have to hit em, no more delays.

About Alpha in October​

Build 14 is the last major build before we release to early access. The last two major components to complete for build 14 to be playable are:

1. Quest Systems
2. NPCs feeling alive and interactive

We are working on these and expect about 6 weeks to have something for you to play. It’s so exciting, feels like Christmas!

About Early Access in March 2023​

Choosing when and how to release a game is a black-magic science art. I’ve remember hearing…

I also held in the back of my mind that you only get one chance at release: either Early Access or Full Release. I would much rather have that first impression be a fully featured tested game than some broken shabby husk of what the game will be.

Fortunately, this strategy has enabled us to participate in the next Next Fest in early 2023! Yippee!

With most of the game complete, this will allow us to enter Early Access with a bang and focus on the most important issues each week/month.

I hope and expect the early access period is about 3 months of No new features!, just balancing and responding to fan feedback.

There it is. This is the long awaited plan for Archmage. It’s scary yet comforting to see the end in sight!