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General discussionComing Soon: Queen's Wish: The Conqueror(50 posts)(50 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted August 20, 2019
Queen's Wish: The Conqueror is coming soon DRM-free.

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror is an epic, indie fantasy role-playing adventure. Wander free through an enormous world, sink into a fascinating story full of surprises and interesting decisions, and use your cunning to outwit a multitude of dungeons and foes. In this open-ended adventure, you can build an Empire or free the oppressed. Serve the Queen or rebel. Fight or use diplomacy. Build fortresses, smith enchanted blades and armor, and deal with nagging relatives!
Posted August 21, 2019
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faroot: ...Jeff Vogel...
...he describes his overall approach from a tiny business perspective to the audience at a Game Developer's Conference, if anyone is curious about either him and his games, or about how a tiny game dev can even survive over the years:

"Failing to Fail: The Spiderweb Software Way"

"In this GDC 2018 talk, Spiderweb Software's Jeff Vogel presents a retrospective on his company's history and how they've managed to stay in the game-making business since 1994. "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stxVBJem3Rs

Related is another GDC video, [...] by Jake Birkett, a similar tiny gamedev with a GDC video on the same topic (while googling I see one of them has left at least one comment on the other's blog, so they seem to know about each other):

"How to Survive in Gamedev for Eleven Years Without a Hit", published by GDC Nov 20 2016.

"In this 2016 GDC Talk, Grey Alien Games' Jake Birkett explains how to survive as an independent game developer without having a single hit game. "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmwbYl6f11c

[...] both interesting, and kind of answered some questions that have been in the back of my mind for years.
Thanks for posting the links to the conferences. Watched Jeff Vogel's and it is really interesting, with some painfully learned lessons that are worth paying attention to, whatever you do in life. He knows his chops. He is a marathonian. More than that. He is the boxer who will keep fighting to the last assault, till the bell rings, again and again.
Post edited August 21, 2019 by Carradice
Posted August 21, 2019
looks like a light rpg mobile game. ive enjoyed those in the past when i couldnt be arsed learning a huge rpg game with all the bells and whistles. will wishlist and await reviews
Posted August 21, 2019
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mintee: looks like a light rpg mobile game. [...]
Anything but.
Posted August 21, 2019
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Wottie: As far as I remember, Jeff wrote somewhere Queen's Wish was going to have a new engine. So wishlisted and definitely looking forward to something new happening in the game!
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Nicole28: Well, except the engine still looks the same. When I first checked out the news page, I guessed that it was a Spiderweb game and I was right. And I shouldn't be right, if it was meant to be a much newer look.

I wonder why Spiderweb can't take the graphics up a notch, similar to something like Balrum perhaps?
First, he has improved the graphics over the years in some aspects, but the more he did, the more flak he got over the graphics. He realized it was not the effort, especially since...

Second, for a long career in the business, he is always considering the return of the investment (ROI), with the resources at his disposal being the time of the two (2) people working full time in Spiderweb Software and the cash spent on additional art, music and coding support. If he doubles the costs, he needs to compensate it with volume or price, and there is a point where the numbers show it is not worth it for them. He has tried a few different things over the years and has settled on steady improvement (versus dramatic improvement) and aiming to a niche instead of making blockbusters. Apparently it works.

Edit: If you have 1 hour, check his talk on the link faroot provided. Really worth it if you care about any of the following: 1. computer games history 2. how to manage a resilient small business 3. life lessons worth hearing (probably not what you expect).

"In this GDC 2018 talk, Spiderweb Software's Jeff Vogel presents a retrospective on his company's history and how they've managed to stay in the game-making business since 1994. "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stxVBJem3Rs
Post edited August 21, 2019 by Carradice
Posted August 21, 2019
Thanks to those who posted the YouTube links. I spent a good bit of time yesterday watching them and I found what Jeff had to say very interesting and worthwhile.

I will definitely consider purchasing Queen's Wish when it is released.
Posted August 21, 2019
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Nicole28: Well, except the engine still looks the same. When I first checked out the news page, I guessed that it was a Spiderweb game and I was right. And I shouldn't be right, if it was meant to be a much newer look.

I wonder why Spiderweb can't take the graphics up a notch, similar to something like Balrum perhaps?
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Carradice: First, he has improved the graphics over the years in some aspects, but the more he did, the more flak he got over the graphics. He realized it was not the effort, especially since...

Second, for a long career in the business, he is always considering the return of the investment (ROI), with the resources at his disposal being the time of the two (2) people working full time in Spiderweb Software and the cash spent on additional art, music and coding support. If he doubles the costs, he needs to compensate it with volume or price, and there is a point where the numbers show it is not worth it for them. He has tried a few different things over the years and has settled on steady improvement (versus dramatic improvement) and aiming to a niche instead of making blockbusters. Apparently it works.

Edit: If you have 1 hour, check his talk on the link faroot provided. Really worth it if you care about any of the following: 1. computer games history 2. how to manage a resilient small business 3. life lessons worth hearing (probably not what you expect).

"In this GDC 2018 talk, Spiderweb Software's Jeff Vogel presents a retrospective on his company's history and how they've managed to stay in the game-making business since 1994. "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stxVBJem3Rs
I can see an improvement in Graphics over one of the earlier games at least.
Not sure if this has to do with the engine or if its something they have improved themself.
But yea, small improvements and a new idea here and there is usally better.
Theres no gaurantue that your game if you make a big blockbuster costing alot of money to make will be a hit.
At least not in todays game market.

The only danger though is that the buyers migth burn out on the content the studio creates if they are only make one genre or one type of games
but if they can survive the low periods
Then i guess its fine.
Post edited August 21, 2019 by Lodium
Posted August 21, 2019
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gamesfreak64: those simple looking games always use much cpu and ignore the GPU, seems many indy games and lots of casual games let the CPU do all the hard work while the GPU is "sleeping ".
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faroot: Taking that at face value, GPU programming is very complex and difficult for programmers compared with, say, merely learning a new computer language. That's an explanation, not an excuse or a justification.
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gamesfreak64: I will stick to my good old games like jagged alliance fallout and every other classic game ( no remakes or reboots ofcourse)only good old games ( minus the fpp and 3d games m but i never bought them in the past aswell)
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faroot: As you like, but new games *do* come out with low requirements. Here's a few 5 years old or less, for what it's worth:

Sanctuary RPG: Black Edition 2015 BlackShellGames -- 512mb, "Toaster compatible"
This one's a special case, it uses ASCII character graphics, which is
very retro indeed. Also very light on CPU demands.

Kathy Rain 2016 353mb Clifftop Games -- 300mhz 128mb

Technobabylon 2015 1gb Wadjet Eye Games -- 700mhz 64mb

Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy 2017 749mb THQ-Nordic -- 1.5ghz 1gb (needs SSE2 instructions, which came out something like 2010..2012...I forget)

Battlevoid: Harbinger 2016 113mb Bugbyte Ltd -- 1.8ghz 1gb

Shardlight 2016 2gb Wadjet Eye Games -- 700mhz 64mb

Distant Worlds: Universe 2014 1.1gb Slitherine Ltd -- 1.5ghz 1gb

Blackwell Epiphany (#5 in the series) 2014 350mb Wadjet Eye Games -- 700mhz 64mb

FoxTail 2018 100mb Gingertips Game Studio -- 800mhz 128mb
(SVGA graphics)

The 7th Guest: 25th Anniversary Edition 2019 Trilobyte/MojoTouch - 1.8ghz 1gb
Maybe that doesn't count, since it's a re-release

Train Valley 2016 Alexey Davydov et al 185mb -- 1.7ghz 2gb

Edit: thanks to rjbuffchix: Driftmoon 2013 134mb Instant Kingdom -- 1.7ghz 1gb

P.S. Sorry for any typos or changes to store pages since I copy pasted the above. BTW these are just games I own; I'm not pretending to have a database for all gog games.
thanks for the reply , problem is i already own many games like these:

owned
Kathy Rain 2016 353mb Clifftop Games -- 300mhz 128mb

owned
Technobabylon 2015 1gb Wadjet Eye Games -- 700mhz 64mb

all wadjet eye games and similar games

a few of my 300+ games

Mage's Initiation: Reign of the Elements
Ghost 1.0
Kim
Cinders
Flashback™
Unforeseen Incidents
The Lion's Song
Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire
War Wind II: Human Onslaught
SKYHILL
Kathy Rain
Konung: Legend of the North
Cultures 2
Cultures: Northland
Cultures: 8th Wonder of the World

and lots of good old games like jagged alliance ( classics only)
fallout, baldurs gate, commandos, gorky 17

So i do have lots of game still to play , at least 80% :D
recenlty ( 2016-2019) many released games were not why i was or am looking for....

Anyway, its no that bad cause i also have 400+ games on steam and GG(gamersgate)
add 450 casual games ( on CD/DVD) , :D lots of games i might even not be able to play them all
Post edited August 21, 2019 by gamesfreak64
Posted August 21, 2019
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faroot: As you like, but new games *do* come out with low requirements.
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eric5h5: Such as all of the Spiderweb games, despite the frankly bizarre claim in the post you're responding to. Here's Avadon 3 from 2016 (see attachment), which generally makes my 4GHz i7 run at 1GHz or so. In no way does it "eat" a quad-core CPU, seeing as how it's using about 5% of mine, which is barely above idling. The requirements are a 800MHz CPU and 512MB RAM, which is being conservative, and are just the OS requirements anyway. There would be no benefit to spending any dev time offloading anything to the GPU, not that there's much that could realistically be offloaded in this case.
Problems started on win7 64 bits, i had far less problems under Win XP 32 bits
(minus the usuall 'offenders' who always 'abuse' the CPU because of poorly written code.)

Anyway, win 10 will do even worse on this old dinosaur PC so i need a new PC... which will cost an arm and a leg .
Posted August 21, 2019
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eric5h5: Such as all of the Spiderweb games, despite the frankly bizarre claim in the post you're responding to. Here's Avadon 3 from 2016 (see attachment), which generally makes my 4GHz i7 run at 1GHz or so. In no way does it "eat" a quad-core CPU, seeing as how it's using about 5% of mine, which is barely above idling. The requirements are a 800MHz CPU and 512MB RAM, which is being conservative, and are just the OS requirements anyway. There would be no benefit to spending any dev time offloading anything to the GPU, not that there's much that could realistically be offloaded in this case.
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gamesfreak64: Problems started on win7 64 bits, i had far less problems under Win XP 32 bits
(minus the usuall 'offenders' who always 'abuse' the CPU because of poorly written code.)

Anyway, win 10 will do even worse on this old dinosaur PC so i need a new PC... which will cost an arm and a leg .
Your posts always make it sound like it would be a serious upgrade to get a $35 1.4ghz Raspberry Pi 4 (especially with a $30 upgrade to 4gb of RAM). What kind of system are you running, anyway? Not a 32-bit cpu with Win XP, surely?

(Just kidding -- mostly -- about the Raspberry Pi, which is not only Linux-only, but also not x86, and so won't run common games, at least not without a certain binary-translator app.)
Post edited August 21, 2019 by faroot
Posted August 21, 2019
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gamesfreak64: Problems started on win7 64 bits, i had far less problems under Win XP 32 bits
(minus the usuall 'offenders' who always 'abuse' the CPU because of poorly written code.)

Anyway, win 10 will do even worse on this old dinosaur PC so i need a new PC... which will cost an arm and a leg .
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faroot: Your posts always make it sound like it would be a serious upgrade to get a $35 1.4ghz Raspberry Pi 4 (especially with a $30 upgrade to 4gb of RAM). What kind of system are you running, anyway? Not a 32-bit cpu with Win XP, surely?

(Just kidding -- mostly -- about the Raspberry Pi, which is not only Linux-only, but also not x86, and so won't run common games, at least not without a certain binary-translator app.)
i5-750 Quadcore 2.66 ghz (10 years old next month) ( yes i forgot a cpu upgrade during that period , i am aware of that, but its too late now) ( but i wont forget in again )

win7 64 bits Homepremium 8 GB ( 16 not possible cause the ram was out of stock)
GTX 750 ti 2 GB


planning to get: i9700K 3.6 ghz ( not for overclockcing i never overclock)
GTX 1650 Windforce OC 4G ( 4 GB ram) for now, later to be replaced by a 6GB ram GPU)

first i planned to get : GeForce GTX 1060 G1 Gaming 3GB but they said it had coil whine and i dont need any extra nasty sounds.

i am aware they recommend a better GPU ( 300 - 400 euro = just too much)
i also know Intel Core i5-8600K @ 3.60GHz ( 100%) will bottleneck GeForce GTX 1060 (Clock speed at 100%) only 5% or so.

Anyway, thats why i will go for the i7-9700K ( there is a follow up on the i7-9700k and by the time i finally be able to afford current system there might be 2 or 3 follow up but i cant go on delaying and waiting, a new stup is needed.
Posted August 22, 2019
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gamesfreak64: i5-750 Quadcore 2.66 ghz (10 years old next month) [...]
win7 64 bits Homepremium 8 GB ( 16 not possible cause the ram was out of stock)
GTX 750 ti 2 GB
Not so bad for a 10 year old system, but yeah, PCs certainly don't last forever.

I would ask you why it is not possible to upgrade your cpu and RAM, since it *is* possible to buy old CPUs and old RAM in the rest of the world, but I suppose it would be some impenetrable reason concerning your location.
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gamesfreak64: planning to get: i9700K 3.6 ghz ( not for overclockcing i never overclock)
GTX 1650 Windforce OC 4G ( 4 GB ram) for now, later to be replaced by a 6GB ram GPU)

[...] but i cant go on delaying and waiting, a new stup is needed.
Right. Well, I'm sure it will be great to get that new system.
Posted August 22, 2019
quote tag problem again :D

okay i'll try again....

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gamesfreak64: i5-750 Quadcore 2.66 ghz (10 years old next month) [...]
win7 64 bits Homepremium 8 GB ( 16 not possible cause the ram was out of stock)
GTX 750 ti 2 GB
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faroot: Not so bad for a 10 year old system, but yeah, PCs certainly don't last forever.

I would ask you why it is not possible to upgrade your cpu and RAM, since it *is* possible to buy old CPUs and old RAM in the rest of the world, but I suppose it would be some impenetrable reason concerning your location.
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gamesfreak64: planning to get: i9700K 3.6 ghz ( not for overclockcing i never overclock)
GTX 1650 Windforce OC 4G ( 4 GB ram) for now, later to be replaced by a 6GB ram GPU)

[...] but i cant go on delaying and waiting, a new stup is needed.
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faroot: Right. Well, I'm sure it will be great to get that new system.
It is possible to buy 2nd hand or refurbished or whatever they call it, but i prefer to buy new hardware, it's safer, has guarantee, and sofar none of my hardware were 'dead on arrival', never had a problem with any part.

Almost forgot, i have all current Spiderweb games , except the latest expensive one at 19.99
: Avernum 3: Ruined World.
Post edited August 22, 2019 by gamesfreak64
Posted August 22, 2019
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faroot: I would ask you why it is not possible to upgrade your cpu and RAM, since it *is* possible to buy old CPUs and old RAM in the rest of the world, but I suppose it would be some impenetrable reason concerning your location.
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gamesfreak64: It is possible to buy 2nd hand or refurbished or whatever they call it, but i prefer to buy new hardware, it's safer, has guarantee, and sofar none of my hardware were 'dead on arrival', never had a problem with any part.
Ah; that's certainly very reasonable. I often feel the same way.

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gamesfreak64: Almost forgot, i have all current Spiderweb games , except the latest expensive one at 19.99
Me too! :)
Posted August 22, 2019
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gamesfreak64: It is possible to buy 2nd hand or refurbished or whatever they call it, but i prefer to buy new hardware, it's safer, has guarantee, and sofar none of my hardware were 'dead on arrival', never had a problem with any part.
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faroot: Ah; that's certainly very reasonable. I often feel the same way.

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gamesfreak64: Almost forgot, i have all current Spiderweb games , except the latest expensive one at 19.99
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faroot: Me too! :)
yup, i don't want to be fried by because of some cheap parts, i love fries, with mayo and curry/ketchup sauce, but i don't want to become a frie ( lol if you ad a t you have the Dutch word for fries; friet)(some dutch prefer to call it patat but i prefer to call it friet)

You own all the Spiderweb games? , i might buy the 19.99 game later, much later, i need a new PC first.
Post edited August 22, 2019 by gamesfreak64
Posted August 22, 2019
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Lodium: I can see an improvement in Graphics over one of the earlier games at least.
Not sure if this has to do with the engine or if its something they have improved themself.
He writes his own engines. He has found that is what works for him, for two reasons:

1. He has found that owning the source code has allowed him to do whatever he needed. From improving the engines himselfe, to hiring someone to help him doing so, to completely remaking games in new engines to liberating a game and game editor as free source code for a still active community (Blades of Exile, with a famously easy to use editor for making your own computer RPG adventures).

2. He likes coding, actually.
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General discussionComing Soon: Queen's Wish: The Conqueror(50 posts)(50 posts)
(50 posts)