Game News Avernum: Escape From the Pit Announced

[Nedrah]

Great news.
I've been wanting to play the Avernum series for ages. The one thing that kept me from doing so was the atrocious UI. Screens are looking great.

 

[tindrli]

He's dumbing down the character system and will make the game easier. Fuck Vogel.

Shit i really hope that this is not true.. maybe for the ifag shit but not for PC..

and i wonder why the hell he didnt consider remake EXILE..that game was great!!

 

[CreamyBlood]

The last Vogel game I played was, I think, Exiles (Blades?). It was on a 486 running W3.1 under OS/2. I had fun with it at the time as I recall.

My guess as to why he's doing it is that he already has the codebase, is experienced with Macs and iPhones and just wants to try tapping into a lucrative market. It would take a bit of work porting but not as much effort as developing a new game and if it works, free money. If not, then he learned a lesson without losing a tonne of time and energy.

If that's his goal then dumbing it down makes sense to me and isn't any different from the rest of the industry these days. Maybe someone else will fill his niche.

 

[Linden]

This is the new shit
Stand up and admit it
Do we need it? NO!
Do we want it? YEAH!

YEAH!!

 

[curry]

Bye, Jeff

who are you to judge. You've never released anything

 

[Marobug]

(...)

Agreed, the screenshot looks hideous. It was about time someone would upgrade the graphics. The game is scheduled for Q4 2011 (Mac) and Q1 2012 (PC and iPad).

CONSOLETARD

 

[ortucis]

I think it's a good idea for developers of ancient games to upgrade the tech every 5-10 years if possible. Keeps the game fresh for the new generation and the fans who want to replay on new operating systems.

Would've been awesome if games like Planescape Torment and Arcanum were updated with higher quality sprites for 1080p resolution by the original developers instead of fan-mods. Fan mods can do only so much. Like Diablo 2, which I just re-installed, was updated with new patch from Blizzard breaking the HD patch and forcing us backt o 1024 res on 1920x1080 res. Blah!

I am of course talking about developers updating tech for better visuals at higher resolutions and added fixes demanded by the community. Changing the gameplay completely will be a douchy move.

 

[thesheeep]

He goes where the money is. Only logical move if you develop indie games for a living.

 

[Severian Silk]

If he's dumbing it down, is there a minimum level of dumbness needed to play it? He should put that in the "system requirements" box.

 

[Johannes]

I think it's a good idea for developers of ancient games to upgrade the tech every 5-10 years if possible. Keeps the game fresh for the new generation and the fans who want to replay on new operating systems.

Would've been awesome if games like Planescape Torment and Arcanum were updated with higher quality sprites for 1080p resolution by the original developers instead of fan-mods. Fan mods can do only so much. Like Diablo 2, which I just re-installed, was updated with new patch from Blizzard breaking the HD patch and forcing us backt o 1024 res on 1920x1080 res. Blah!

I am of course talking about developers updating tech for better visuals at higher resolutions and added fixes demanded by the community. Changing the gameplay completely will be a douchy move.

On something like Arcanum, switching the gameplay up with a patch might be cool too. When you've seen the peoples respponse, and are in a situation where you can tune the balance, why not try to make it better? Remove some of the excessive monsters, make the remaining ones more interesting, change item stats and make character advancement options more balanced with each other... The good parts of the game would remain intact, while the bad parts might be improved.

Same with Avernum really - just remains to be seen if he'll do anything good about the issues (that I have) with the game.