Thursday, February 25, 2010
Interview: Jeff Vogel's New Thing
Jeff Vogel is probably the most graybearded of the indie RPG creators. He's been making indie RPGs since before anybody even called them indie. He's created the Exile series, the Avernum series, the Geneforge series, and the one-off RPG Nethergate. The fact that he's been doing it for a decade and a half - and is still payin' the bills - says a lot. For years, indie RPGs were almost synonymous with Jeff's company, Spiderweb Software.
(By way of a totally unfair comparison of apples and oranges, the legendary RPG maker Origin Systems Inc., founded by Richard Garriott, was only an independent entity for nine years before getting sold off to EA - and was gradually dismantled before being scrapped entirely a decade later.)
Anyway - with Nethergate concluded and Avernum nearly so (just finishing up the PC port), Vogel talks about his Next Big Thing in this interview at The Gamer Studio. Rest assured, it sounds like it's not going to be straying far from what the fans are used to enjoying.
The Gamer Studio: Interview with Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software
Besides talking about the untitled new game, Vogel notes that he's planning on doing a ground-up remake of Avernum, using the latest graphics from Avernum 6.
An excerpt on the extent of the graphical upgrade:
"Spiderweb Software is a small company. We make low-budget rpgs. There are some people who require graphics quality of the level of, say, Dragon Age or Fallout 3. I will never sell a game to those people, and I wish them well. But our recent games have still had big improvements in the visuals. Avernum 6, in particular, looks better than any game we've ever done, and our new game will be better. Not 30 million dollar budget better, but, yes, the pool of people who find the graphics reach the minimum standard should increase.Check out the whole interview!
Hat tip to RPGWatch for the link!
Labels: Interviews
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:27 AM (Permalink)
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sounds exactly like all the other vogel rpgs, and not all that inspiring to play either but will wait till more is revealed...
I don't think much of the interviewer there.
But as to Spiderweb Software, I loved the Exile games, Blades of Exile, the Avernum series,... but it got to feeling like I was playing the same game over and over again.
I couldn't care less about the graphics, and as far as I'm concerned, he could keep the same underground world as in the Avernum series. And I love the turn-based, party-based format.
But I need to feel like I'm playing a new game. I need new skills and different skills. I need to figure out an effective combat strategy again. I think I figured out the best way to fight in the early Exile games and it never changed through the whole Avernum series (well, as far as I got, anyway). Where's the fun in that?
Personally, I wish he'd switch to science fiction - hard science fiction - and just skip the fantasy next time. I'm afraid that any new fantasy game from him will be too much like all the others.
This isn't anything against Jeff Vogel, certainly not. I really admire him. And for any other established developer, too, a completely different setting would help by permitting completely different skills, completely different weapons, completely different tactics. IMHO, a new story is not going to be enough. I need something fresh, a game I haven't already played over and over again.
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But as to Spiderweb Software, I loved the Exile games, Blades of Exile, the Avernum series,... but it got to feeling like I was playing the same game over and over again.
I couldn't care less about the graphics, and as far as I'm concerned, he could keep the same underground world as in the Avernum series. And I love the turn-based, party-based format.
But I need to feel like I'm playing a new game. I need new skills and different skills. I need to figure out an effective combat strategy again. I think I figured out the best way to fight in the early Exile games and it never changed through the whole Avernum series (well, as far as I got, anyway). Where's the fun in that?
Personally, I wish he'd switch to science fiction - hard science fiction - and just skip the fantasy next time. I'm afraid that any new fantasy game from him will be too much like all the others.
This isn't anything against Jeff Vogel, certainly not. I really admire him. And for any other established developer, too, a completely different setting would help by permitting completely different skills, completely different weapons, completely different tactics. IMHO, a new story is not going to be enough. I need something fresh, a game I haven't already played over and over again.
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