Sorry, I somehow missed that this thread was updating.
Until I Have You was developed by James Spanos, the brilliant programmer who built Primordia, saved the combat engine in Mage's Initiation, made The Cat Lady's UI's functional, etc., etc. He has as much right to claim the Wormwood Studios mantle as I do, and aside from being a coder, he was a wonderful sounding board throughout Primordia's development. Vic did a bit of art for UIHY, and I did a bit of editing of James's writing, so every WWS core member touched the game, though it is James's baby. It was published by another company.
In my opinion, Resonance is the best WEG title that I am qualified to judge (which is to say, I can't weigh Primordia against them; in my highly biased opinion, Primordia is different and better -- I think Vic's artistry is something different from the skilled technical work in the other games, and I think the story is doing different things than WEG stories normally do): it has some genuinely brilliant design decisions and some great puzzles, its polish is through the roof, the technical aspects of the art are better than in Primordia (things like keyframing of animations, consistently of perspective and scaling, etc.), and the voice acting is solid. I'm not sure how fun it is -- I found the core brilliant design innovation (the short-term memory dialogue inventory) to be a chore, same with the party management. But it's really striking. That said, I don't think I've ever beaten a WEG title other than the freeware Shivah and Primordia, maybe the freeware Blackwell (can't remember).
I think you can put Gemini Rue, Resonance, Primordia, and Technobabylon in a category distinct from the other WEG titles -- those four games are basically the expression of a whole lifetime of adventure game imagination. Primordia is actually different from the other three in that it was a three-man show -- a real partnership. The others had multiple developers but one core developer each. They are basically the one game each of those developers made, and each was a years-long endeavor. The other WEG titles are more commodities made by professional developers: Dave, Francisco, and Ben all make these games for a living now. So insane things that lone creators do with passion projects just aren't there in their games; they're made to be made quickly and to sell well enough to fund the next game. (For instance, I can't imagine Dave ever doing something as wild as naming a hero team Azriel Odin and Cain -- Gemini Rue has the overflowing adolescent exuberance of a trapper-keeper doodle, which makes perfect sense because it was a solo project that had its germ in a Josh's high school or middle school imagination.) The four other games I mention each reflect something like four to six man years of work, rather than the one to two years that the other WEG games reflect. There's a reason why the Blackwell games lack some of the awkwardness you see in the four "hobby" titles -- they're much slicker, a perfected style. But maybe a little less eccentricity. The exception to this is The Shivah, which Dave made before it was his "job," and that's why I like The Shivah so much -- it has that same personal eccentricity. Rabbi fisticuffs!
Why didn't Wormwood go for a Primordia sequel instead? It got rave reviews and sales.
It did not get rave critical reviews. Its amazing fan support took a while to fully demonstrate itself. Nor did its market success immediately show itself. When it launched, the comparison points were Gemini Rue and Resonance. Primordia and Resonance were neck-and-neck for about six months, then Primordia kept selling and never stopped, while Resonance tapered off. This week's sale saw almost as many people playing Primordia as played Technobabylon and Shardlight
at launch. Primordia's tail is crazy. (Technobabylon's looks really great too; Shardlight's was very short.)
Anyway, the reasons for no sequel are many and complicated. Here are a few:
- I categorically did not, and do not, want to make a direct sequel to Primordia. The game stands alone well, any sequel jeopardizes its legacy.
- Vic went into a fairly depressed state near the end of the project.
- By the time Vic was refreshed, James had been drafted to serve in the Greek military.
- While James was gone, Vic and I tried to make Cloudscape with another coder, who proved a flake.
- Cloudscape ended with Vic getting depressed again and disappearing for half a year.
- By the time Vic and James were back, my plate was full of TTON and Fallen Gods.
- James thus went ahead and made UIHY so that he could make
something without me or Vic.
The fact is that creative people are cyclically moody and getting me and Vic synched up is tricky. Right now he's helping on FG, and he's working on some other stuff too. Maybe Cloudscape will happen some day, but it's tough. I don't have the time or energy I had in Primordia days, and by the time FG is finished, I'll have less time and less energy -- that's how life works, alas.
Anyway, the whole thing is a marvel of joy to me: Wadjet Eye games is a miracle, each of their titles is a miracle, Primordia is a miracle that is personal to me. None of this should have happened, I never hoped it actually would, so the idea that thousands of people have played and enjoyed and paid for Primordia makes me smile any time I'm depressed.
