Wadjet Eye Old Skies - time travel adventure game from Wadjet Eye - coming Q2 2025

[Boleskine]

Last post was over 7 months ago.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Seems someone disagreed with the criticism of Unavowed

 

[Alpan]

That's just silly -- the multi-page threads are there because someone cared enough for Gilbert and his games to discuss them in anticipation. I'm sure he appreciated the threads then -- why complain when things go south for your game design?

Also:

 

[Darth Roxor]

If you don't like Unavowed, you're a troll and ill-wisher

 

[Don Peste]

Maybe this post was what actually bothered him? https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...urban-fantasy-game.99401/page-23#post-6092975

 

[Boleskine]

If you don't like Unavowed, you're a troll and ill-wisher

It seems Dave is a little drunk on all the praise he's received. I'm happy for him and he deserves the success, but he shouldn't isolate himself from criticism. I don't recall the Unavowed thread being "toxic" - many people simply offered their thoughts on why they didn't enjoy it. I haven't played the game but I could understand where the detractors were coming from in their reactions.

Labeling people who bought his game on day 1 to support him as toxic ill-wishing trolls seems like a poor choice, even if the adventure game crowd here is a negligible part of Dave's overall player base.

 

[MRY]

People made a lot of fun of his friend Hepler, which put him in the impossible position of standing by and doing nothing, or standing up for his friend and getting sucked into drama. It was untenable, so he walked away. (I assume that’s why?)

Also, ultimately, there are some things he has to engage with (Steam reviews) and some he doesn’t. If you’re interested in your game’s public reception, what’s said here doesn’t matter much, so a troll post is not relevant in the way a negative review is. A teasing Codex LP can’t change 100% positive reviews for the past month on Steam.

The only thing I don’t get is the “last seen” date if he’d blocked the Codex months ago, but it’s probably just a glitch of some kind.

 

[fantadomat]

Didn't know that there was a game forum called "Dr. Holly Marten". Oh well,i learn something new every day.

 

[Boleskine]

Yes I suspected that the complaints about and teasing of the Bioware co-writer probably didn't sit well with Dave.

He obviously isn't obligated to read or respond to every comment and review. I've posted multiple times in the past that his decision to move away from traditional point-and-click puzzles is a sensible decision, and the "hardcore adventure gamer" crowd isn't his target fanbase anymore. Still, while nothing people here say will deter Dave from his path for future games, and the criticisms here amount to very little compared to near universal praise elsewhere, that doesn't change that there was honest and sincere feedback from people who bought and completed the game. It wasn't all trolls, toxicity, and ill-wishers.

Also,

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...l-with-3d-graphics.126288/page-2#post-5959995

Just want to come outta lurk mode

He stopped posting last year but was still reading the forums every now and then, until logging out for good about 3 months ago.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[MRY]

Even Caesar had someone whispering “memento mori” in his ear. And they were right! That’s why I find even the hard criticism here helpful. But riding through a whole parade where everyone is an auriga and they’re shouting “Remember you’re shit” is probably less appealing when you’re trying to work up the energy for your next campaign into Gaul.

 

[fantadomat]

“Remember you’re shit”

And where was this??? Most people liked his last game,few didn't and some like me didn't played it because of the "tolerance" in it. Nobody was raving how everything wadjet eye did is shit and how he is a garbage developer.He just got butthurt mate.

 

[Infinitron]

People made a lot of fun of his friend Hepler, which put him in the impossible position of standing by and doing nothing, or standing up for his friend and getting sucked into drama. It was untenable, so he walked away. (I assume that’s why?)

That stuff happened a long time ago. I think people actually pretty much forgot about it by the time the game came out. Sorry MRY, I don't think the man is lying. He "blocked" the Codex because of criticisms of him. This Darth Roxor post was probably decisive: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...urban-fantasy-game.99401/page-20#post-5868774

 

[rusty_shackleford]

or standing up for his friend and getting sucked into drama. It was untenable, so he walked away.

what a shit ""friend""

 

[Boleskine]

 

[MRY]

He "blocked" the Codex because of criticisms of him. This Darth Roxor post was probably decisive: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...urban-fantasy-game.99401/page-20#post-5868774

It's hard for me to believe that someone with as heroic a career as his hasn't faced a lot of criticism along the way, and I don't think he was referring to criticism of his games, so much as personal attacks. As I said before, given Dave's support of his staff, I don't know that he would be comfortable sticking around someplace where people mocked the appearance, intelligence, and character of a lifelong female friend of his in an apparently serious manner, so I've always assumed that was the point he de facto walked away. I don't think he really means "blocked from my browser" because he last logged in yesterday; I think he means "checked out," and if you look at his posting history, he was an active poster here until around that time, I think.

Spoiler

Yep, it's always struck me as a good metaphor (not the least of which because the Master Stone of the palantiri was kept at Avallónë!). It is possible to be told strictly true things about your work's flaws -- truths that can be very valuable -- yet told them in such a way and so often as to cause you to lose faith overall. (I recall someone used to have a signature here about if you spend long enough looking only for flaws, the result is that you flaw your own eyes in the process.) It's no joke to mess around with a Seeing Stones!

I would add to this that there is another kind of enervating palantir, though, which only shows you positive things and leads you to believe that a crumbling edifice is flawless until the moment of its collapse. There are dangers in both directions.

For me, I am a sufficiently lousy designer that without being able to leverage the cruel wisdom of this den of scoundrels, I'd be doomed. Plus, scoundrels or not, Codexers have been very supportive of Primordia and Wormwood Studios more generally, notwithstanding my being a bleeding heart and a heretic, and I think what Dave calls the "toxic" elements are something of a fringe.

 

[bertram_tung]

damn now i gotta boot up primordia again

 

[fantadomat]

He "blocked" the Codex because of criticisms of him. This Darth Roxor post was probably decisive: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...urban-fantasy-game.99401/page-20#post-5868774

It's hard for me to believe that someone with as heroic a career as his hasn't faced a lot of criticism along the way, and I don't think he was referring to criticism of his games, so much as personal attacks. As I said before, given Dave's support of his staff, I don't know that he would be comfortable sticking around someplace where people mocked the appearance, intelligence, and character of a lifelong female friend of his in an apparently serious manner, so I've always assumed that was the point he de facto walked away. I don't think he really means "blocked from my browser" because he last logged in yesterday; I think he means "checked out," and if you look at his posting history, he was an active poster here until around that time, I think.

Spoiler

Yep, it's always struck me as a good metaphor (not the least of which because the Master Stone of the palantiri was kept at Avallónë!). It is possible to be told strictly true things about your work's flaws -- truths that can be very valuable -- yet told them in such a way and so often as to cause you to lose faith overall. (I recall someone used to have a signature here about if you spend long enough looking only for flaws, the result is that you flaw your own eyes in the process.) It's no joke to mess around with a Seeing Stones!

I would add to this that there is another kind of enervating palantir, though, which only shows you positive things and leads you to believe that a crumbling edifice is flawless until the moment of its collapse. There are dangers in both directions.

For me, I am a sufficiently lousy designer that without being able to leverage the cruel wisdom of this den of scoundrels, I'd be doomed. Plus, scoundrels or not, Codexers have been very supportive of Primordia and Wormwood Studios more generally, notwithstanding my being a bleeding heart and a heretic, and I think what Dave calls the "toxic" elements are something of a fringe.

I am yet to see somebody here mock people based on their look,maybe outside of the fat pride retards. She was mocked for her political views and her career/writing skillz. If he was such a chad,he would have defended her on the forum not turn tale and fucked off.

Also the codex is pretty supportive of wedjet eye and its games,most of them if not even all of them are received mainly postpositively.

 

[MRY]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My recollection of that thread was a lot of folks calling her “Hamburger Hepler” and so on. If someone said that about my friend, I’d certainly take it as an insult. Anyway, Dave doesn’t need me to defend him; he just points up and says “scoreboard” and moves on. Also, he says he’s blocked the Codex, so he wouldn’t even see my defense if he cared. I feel like I’ve discharged what I owe for everything he did with Primordia, so I’ll yield the floor.

 

[Blackthorne]

It's hard to strike a balance between what is sustainable financially and what you want to do creatively.

I never just wanted to tell stories with my games - if I just wanted to tell stories, I'd write novels. I wanted to make something that I thought would be fun to explore - half the reason I loved Sierra games when I was a kid was the feeling of exploring places. Sure, the story was fun in some - I enjoyed Roger Wilco's exploits in Space Quest and I like the through-story in QFG, but I loved exploring and finding places. Characters. The exploration of adventure games is the lure for me. Not everyone is into that. In fact, I'm sure a lot of people love to treat adventure games these days as almost like a novel with moving pictures. "Walking Simulators" are basically this. At the risk of offering a controversial personal opinion, I feel like a lot of modern adventure games are for lazy gamers who don't really want to play a game - they just want some kind of story and the emotional response from it. I wish the kinds of games I made sold better, but they don't. I'm still making games, but man, I don't think I ever will get to make a game again on the scale of Quest For Infamy. Which is kind of a bummer, because QFI isn't a perfect game and I'd love to make a follow up to try and improve on it's flaws, but c'est la vie.

 

[fantadomat]

“Hamburger Hepler”

Search the thread about this and it came up empty. Don't know what you are on about. Also is she fat? I don't remember how she looks,but i do remember her glorious work.

 

[lightbane]

If you don't like Unavowed, you're a troll and ill-wisher

I suppose your LP which exposed most of the game's flaws painfully for everyone to see was too much for him.

 

[Durq]

I never just wanted to tell stories with my games - if I just wanted to tell stories, I'd write novels. I wanted to make something that I thought would be fun to explore - half the reason I loved Sierra games when I was a kid was the feeling of exploring places. Sure, the story was fun in some - I enjoyed Roger Wilco's exploits in Space Quest and I like the through-story in QFG, but I loved exploring and finding places. Characters. The exploration of adventure games is the lure for me. Not everyone is into that. In fact, I'm sure a lot of people love to treat adventure games these days as almost like a novel with moving pictures. "Walking Simulators" are basically this. At the risk of offering a controversial personal opinion, I feel like a lot of modern adventure games are for lazy gamers who don't really want to play a game - they just want some kind of story and the emotional response from it. I wish the kinds of games I made sold better, but they don't. I'm still making games, but man, I don't think I ever will get to make a game again on the scale of Quest For Infamy. Which is kind of a bummer, because QFI isn't a perfect game and I'd love to make a follow up to try and improve on it's flaws, but c'est la vie.

Exploration is also one of my favorite aspects of adventure games, and I really appreciated it in Quest for Infamy. When I played it back in 2017, I remember thinking "There's so much to do!"

What games are you making now?

 

[Blackthorne]

I'm working on finishing Quest for Infamy:Roehm to Ruin, a prequel. It's a smaller game than QFI, but I think it's fun - it has eploration, multiple paths, optional quests in a game that's much smaller than QFI. Only problem finishing it right now is time and budget - I'm short on both. We need to record voice actors and then final bug test, but truth is right now I don't have the money to pay the voice actors. It's not going to be expensive when we do it, and I'm socking away a little bit every month, so I hope to record, finish, polish and release this fall-winter. We'll see.

I'm also trying to finish up Order of the Thorne: Fortress of Fire. The game continues where The King's Challenge leaves off and the game takes an interesting turn from there. I hope it works and people like it... cause I'm a LITTTLE bit inebriated from some of the meds I've taken this weekend, I'm going to say that I wish I could have just made Order of the Thorne as one whole game instead of two and I'm temped as fuck to release Fortress of Fire that way - playable as either one whole game or you start "in the middle" for people who already played "The King's Challenge". I dunno how I'd make that work. Oh well. Again, slow moving cause it's just fucking me now. I've got a bunch of graphical assets for it, I'll need more, but those will come. Hahah. Right now I need two things: a new fucking kidney and a windfall, cause I'm dumb enough to sink more money into a dying genre I love hahahah. I should go to bed.

 

[Curratum]

The tragedy of Wadjet Eye is that the only good games that showed up with the Wadjet name on them were games they published, not developed.

 

[MRY]

Hard to call that a tragedy for us as one of the beneficiaries of their publishing!

I think The Shivah is quite good and very creative, and I enjoyed the freeware Blackwell I played years ago. Later ones dropped a mechanic I liked (combining clues into new dialogue topics) and I sort of lost interest. My favorite WEG title (excluding WWWS's own Primordia) is definitely resonance, and generally the market seemed to favor the published titles by an enormous margin (something like 5:1 sales, I think), but Unavowed has flipped all of that.