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

[rusty_shackleford]

Is he wearing that fedora ironically?

Judging by his Youtube channel I'd say he is one of the unironically enlightened. Also, what the fuck is a Multimedia Story coach?

this is actually kind of sad

 

[Werdnicus]

I found you some friends, Josh.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2021/5/1/update-135-combat-gauntlet-hotfix-2

UPDATE #135: COMBAT GAUNTLET HOTFIX 2

Third time’s the charm, right?
We just pushed up the latest round of improvements to combat. All major issues are resolved. This represents as balanced as it is going to be at this stage of development.

The build is still on the Testing branch, password is CombatCombat

CHARACTER INITIATIVE

Major change to this version is using character initiative to break up the combat rounds. The game is designed to be “you vs the world”. It is not a party game of “us vs the world”. That means, most of the time it will be just you in combat against a bunch of baddies. In testing we found anything more than 3 bad guys starts to become too much: It just isn’t fun to be beat on, especially if the monsters get 2+ attacks.

So the new initiative system allows the player to go every 2-3 monsters. By being thoughtful and specific, you can eliminate monsters which haven’t gone yet, giving you two turns in a row, something which is always enjoyable!

We hope you like it. There are some minor bugs with it which will be resolved next week, but overall its working good.

Until we get UI/Art for the system, we just show the round order in text at the top left.

Next Steps
With the combat working well in isolation, our next step is to integrate combat into the main game. We’ve already started on this and think it’ll be ready next week.

Art and visual effects will continue to trickle in, so you’ll see those improvements along the way in the main game.

Once the integration is complete, we’ll call Build 13 complete, and then turn our attention to Build 14 - Simulator & Goals.

Faster?
I was out for a walk last night and reflecting on Build 13. We’ve started in earnest Jan 4 2021, meaning it has taken 4 full months of development. We put in all kinds of new systems, companion fighting and targeting, 20+ status effects, 8 weapon types, combat objects like Thunderstone and Smokesticks, 55 spells, and all the ridiculous complexity that makes Archmage Rises so great.

If you take our 3-4 people working on it, that’s about 16 months of person effort. Meaning, it took just as about as long as Build 12 Dungeons (17 months).

But only took about 4 months chronologically.

We’re getting faster! Having a team is really helping. Maybe we’ll finish this thing!

Spoiler

13.2 Release Notes

• Press TAB to repeat last spell, press TAB again to cast it
  
  
• Added in turn initiative order
  
  
• Added fire burning effect to tiles from fire spells
  
  
• Changed how damage is calculated. ARMOR reduces first, then resistances. It was really bad the other way.
  
  
• Damage is calculated and displayed now on impact of the spell, not timed from point of cast.
  
  
• Vastly improved weapons. The attack icon now shows the equipped weapon, equipping weapons is better, the damage and AP are better.
  • We decided there will not be dual wielding. It causes too many problems, and this is a mage simulator. Yes you can be a battle mage, but no dual wielding.
    
    
  • At player creation a primary hand is selected, the other is the offhand and can equip a shield if desired.
    
    
  • 2 handed weapons like bows and crossbows work correctly now
    
    
  • Tooltips are more verbose
• Fixed a targeting bug where spells/weapons which can only hit the back rows could still hit the front row due to line of sight. Now it won’t let you use it.
  
  
• Added monster Line of Sight, so an archer in the back row can be blocked by fog, so he has to move to see and hit you.
  
  
• Added some new icons.
  
  
• Cast box now remembers the spellpower you last cast at per spell. So if you cast Magic Missile at 4 stamina, and shield at 10, flipping back to MM will set it to 4, flipping to shield will set it to 10. This makes testing and playing faster.
  
  
• Fixed monster layering issues
  
  
• Frozen enemies now have their animation.. uh… freeze!
  
  
• Fixed prone and standing up camera issues
  
  
• When monster hits the player, the floaty text appears from there, not the middle of the screen
  
  
• Fixed charmed enemies from attacking corpses (though it was entertaining!)
  
  
• Fixed dead enemies can no longer speak from the grave… awww.
  
  
• About 30 other fixes and improvements I don’t want to type out and you don’t want to read.

 

[Sykar]

Release date in 2031?

 

[Bester]

Is it possible to ask not to use Skyrim fonts? Pretty please?

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2021/5/7/update-136-build-13-combat-released

We Did It!
In only 4 months we completely rewrote combat. We chocked it full of all kinds of goodies:

• New terrain systems
  
  
• Continual effects like ground or creatures burning
  
  
• 50+ new spells, from magical weapons to blizzards to stink clouds.
  
  
• Companions and hireable mercenaries
  
  
• 20+ status effects like poison, burn, freeze, and blindness
  
  
• 8 weapon types: swords, axes, crossbows, and more
  
  
• Combat objects like acid flasks and thunderstones
  

All with the ridiculous depth that makes Archmage Rises so unique.

13.3 Release Notes

• Plugged the new combat engine into the main game.
  
  
• Added new fireball vfx
  
  
• Added terrain specific combat backgrounds
  
  
• Added day/night specific combat backgrounds and camera effects
  

Helpful keys

• Spacebar - Pass turn, save AP to next turn
  
  
• Tab - Cast spell again
  
  
• Tab - Cast current spell
  
  
• ESC - Cancel current cast
  
  
• 1-6 - Skill Quickbar
  

Up Next
Next week we begin on Build 14. Right now the world is very empty without a lot to do. That is about to change - big time.

Build 14 all about a Living Breathing World - being able to do interesting things, meaningful choices, ways to win, and believable NPCs. All to allow you to truly roleplay in a computer game!

 

[anvi]

All with the ridiculous depth that makes Archmage Rises so unique.

orly

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2021/7/3/update-137-ramp-up

It’s been 2 months since the last video update, and that is because we’ve been so darn busy!

In this video I hit the highlights from the last few months as we work on Build 14 and finishing off this game.

 

[anvi]

There needs to be an international fund set up to help video game developers.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2021/8/7/update-138-becoming-a-studio

Apr 2017: Thomas, Nic
Apr 2019: Thomas
Sep 2020: Thomas, Daniel, Michel, Daniel2
Now: Thomas, Daniel, Michel, Josh, Rubi, Tyler, Ben, James

This journey has been crazy, with plenty of bizarre detours, but we’re heading towards a strong finish. In this update I cover the growth of the team, the increased responsibilities in running an indie studio, more contract work, and some of the latest progress on Archmage. Two shield spell VFX and the New Map tech!

 

[Delterius]

good luck to thomas, daniel, michel, josh, rubi, tyler, ben, and james

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2021/8/21/update-139-enchanting

Hey, I’m Josh, one of the programmers on Archmage Rises. Thomas is going out of town for the week and asked me to pick up the latest video update. I debated what to show you, but I decided on Enchantment since I programmed the system and can speak to it really well.

To enchant a piece of equipment with a spell, you need an Imbued Gem in addition to the spell.

You can find Imbued Gems, but you can also infuse a gem yourself at a Conclave Chapter or at your mage tower. You can enchant in both places as well.

Metal equipment has 1 enchantment slot, leather equipment has 2 enchantment slots, and cloth equipment has 3 enchantment slots. You can’t use the same spell for more than one slot, and each slot requires a separate Imbued Gem.

The power of the enchantment is calculated with the following formula:

Skill Level in the School of the Enchanting Spell X (Enchantment Skill / 100)

So 100 in Enchantment means you can enchant with the full power of your spell school skill, but lower means you can just enchant with a percentage of your skill level.

The Imbued Gem that you use sets the max power you can enchant a piece of equipment with. So even if you have a Spell School skill of 50 and an Enchantment Skill of 50 to max out at 25, your gem might limit your enchantment’s power below that.

We talked quite a bit about how we wanted to set up these systems, but are settling on this for now; we may rebalance or tweak things in the future. We’re open to any thoughts on this.

We haven’t built out the enchantments for many spells yet, mainly just the system, so if you have any requests or ideas (for example, what should Fireball do if you put it on armor? What about Lightning Storm?), let us know.

One of the parts of this system that I got most excited to work on was how the actual enchantments work.

Originally, we had an entirely different setup behind the scenes for Buffs and Enchantments. I saw that and was like “…but I want that buff on my weapons!” I thought we could make some really cool weapons and really improve the Enchantments by making them a part of the Buffs system. I thought it would make sense to be able to add Poison to a sword, or type resistances to armor. So I talked with Thomas about it and moved forward combining the systems.

Then I saw some more opportunities. We had a lot of character info scattered in different sections of the code, but if we combined them it would be really easy to add Buffs/Enchantments for almost anything we wanted. Skill Levels, Resistances, Dodge Chance, Drunkenness, Fertility… I loved the idea of a helmet that increased my Strength but made me stone-drunk, a breastplate that increased my skill in Fire spells but made me more vulnerable to Fire too, shoes that made me great at Persuasion but also Poisoned me. It’s possible we’ll disallow certain combinations, but the idea of finding really cool and really funny combinations of enchantments on an piece of equipment in a dungeon got me really excited.

This is my first time posting an update here, so maybe I missed an obvious question or phrased something particularly poorly. Please let me know in the comments, and I’ll do my best to reply by the end of Monday at the latest and I’ll look at updating info in this post as needbe too!

Take care,

Josh

 

[Nutria]

Then I saw some more opportunities.

They needed to stop finding "opportunities" to increase the scope years ago.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2021/9/18/update-140-new-team-member-tyler

We’re happy to introduce our newest programmer, Tyler! In this short interview we cover his favorite games and what he hopes to bring to the Archmage Rises experience.

 

[Bester]

we cover his favorite games and what he hopes to bring to the Archmage Rises experience.

Worst idea for cutting a promo. Nobody cares.

 

[Viata]

This nigga will hit #1000 updates and wonder why he forgot what game he was supposed to do.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2021/11/6/update-141-studio-update-for-nov-2021

The ups and downs of running an indie game studio, and the challenge of Work for Hire vs working on your own IP project. We’re all desperate to finish Archmage Rises!

Team
Where once it was just Thomas, now the Defiance team is:

• Thomas - Lead Design, Tech Lead - Full Time
  
• Michel - Engineer - Full Time
  
• Josh - Engineer - Full Time
  
• Tyler - Engineer - Full Time
  
• Rogier - Art Lead (Contract)
  
• Rubi - Concept/Production/Tech Artist - Full Time
  
• James - Audio Director - Full Time
  
• Raul - Concept Art, Engineering Support - Full Time
  
• Chera - Chief Encouragement Officer (Volunteer)

This is How You Do It
Recently at lunch we watched the NoClip documentary about another Canadian studio trying to juggle the same things: work for hire and internal IP. The result was Warframe which revolutionized PC gaming.

Their big take away? It’s the community that matters. Service the community well.

We will!

I wonder how much he's paying all these full-time developers.

 

[Sunri]

Chera - Chief Encouragement Officer what is that?

 

[Harthwain]

Chera - Chief Encouragement Officer what is that?

Considering the volunteer status it sounds like a social/community manager or something like that.

 

[kyosuke]

Chera - Chief Encouragement Officer what is that?

Considering the volunteer status it sounds like a social/community manager or something like that.

Or it could be a pet of some sort. My guess will be a cat.

 

[Space Satan]

I feel like this scam is being taken on a very different level

 

[Viata]

I feel like 141 updates is too much for the game they intended to make.

 

[Luka-boy]

Chera - Chief Encouragement Officer what is that?

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

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

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Chera - Chief Encouragement Officer what is that?

Or maybe

Spoiler