Archmage Rises - the play-how-you-want mage simulator - now available on Early Access

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2020/2/6/update-108-3d-dungeon-performance-test-build

We’re happy to announce tangible progress on the dungeons those who have pre-ordered can actually see!

It doesn’t look this good yet, but it will!

In preparation to doing the real gameplay release of the 3D dungeons, which is still a few weeks off, we want to see how the tech performs on your computer. Just Win 10/7 users for now.

What This Is
Just a test of the dungeon tech on your computer. To see what the framerate is (green, top left). We have a lot of questions on number of polygons and lights we can get away with in a room. Actually it’s Emily that really wants to know. Load times between rooms should be fast, but if it lags for you, we need to know now.

What It Isn’t
Any fun at all!

Or very impressive!

We’re not finished the gameplay side of this, so there are no game related features to test. This is just a tech test so people can poke around and see the 3d dungeons at work. You can wander around in a dungeon, that’s it.

Instructions
If you want to try this build out, simply enable the Build 12 testing branch in Steam with the password “password1234”. I know, real secure eh?

GAMEPLAY INSTRUCTIONS
Launch the game. You start in a town. This build has Developer keys turned on, so just press ‘d’ to spawn a dungeon level and be teleported into it.

Press “L” to give yourself light.

Once inside a dungeon, you can navigate around left clicking the doors, or use the keyboard arrow keys.

There is a surprise new feature: Hold down the left mouse button and drag around.

Release Note:
Room features, other than doors, are not clickable.
Stairs aren’t working, so just press ‘d’ to generate another dungeon level to walk around in

POST YOUR FEEDBACK HERE ON THE STEAM FORUM:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/506480/discussions/0/1742266586326755980/

Don’t have Access to the Pre-Alpha?
If you want to join in on the development process and conversation, simply place a pre-order and you will get a Steam Key to the pre-alpha.

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2020/2/22/update-109-3d-dungeons-gameplay-build-in-march

We are happy to report that we are done with the 3D dungeon tech and are now working on the gameplay experience. What’s that mean?

• Having meaningful things to do in the dungeons.
• Having meaningful reasons to go to the dungeons.

To do this we are changing how the world is generated. Upon player start the world will be full of dangerous monster lairs. Travel will be risky as monsters patrol their territory. Citizens cower in fear behind their walls. Beating back the darkness is one of the first things the players can do.

It’s been a long time coming, the team is pumped, and we think we have 3 weeks of work ahead of us. So that means a playable build sometime mid to late march. We want to give ourselves enough time for testing and iterating on the experience so you get something worthy of your time to play!

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2...ally-decorate-a-dungeon-room-with-unity-amp-c

This week we really dive behind the scenes and show how we use Unity and C# to procedurally turn an empty 3D box into a decorated thematic dungeon room, with items, wall hangings, and stacking items.

This update goes out to Nic Biondi, because these are the kinds of updates he always wanted to do. :-p

 

[Tom Baker's Arse]

... am sick of reading topics about half made games that have no release date (and maybe never will).

<sigh>

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2020/3/21/update-111-testing-dungeon-build-begins

We start gameplay testing of the dungeons on Monday Mar 23 2020.

Today I share features of the upcoming Build 12 and then demo some of the dungeon experience. These dungeons are shaping up into looking like a real game!

After our week of testing, we will release a build to the Small Council, some key fans that have been following the game for a long time for initial feedback. Then, based on their recommendations, we’ll release the build to everyone.

We’re close to the end of these dungeons, folks!

 

[ntonystinson]

Most uplifting update in a while

 

[adrix89]

To be fair the Dungeons are pretty nice...

So was No Man's Sky.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

wait wasn't this game 2d
wtf happened

 

[ntonystinson]

wait wasn't this game 2d
wtf happened

2d world but 3d dungeons apparently. This may or may not be accurate

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2020/4/4/update-112-simulator-generated-dungeon-quests

Well, the build isn’t ready yet. Sorry! But we’re working on the last part before playtesting: dynamically generated quests for the dungeons.

In this update I talk through the following flowchart on how the game generates quests using existing people and monsters going about their business in the world into an escalating quest chain. I then show behind the scenes how we generate the quest description for the NPC to speak to the player.

This quest stuff is almost all working correctly. We hope to begin playtesting in a few more days!

 

[Viata]

Not gonna lie, but I don't even remember what I liked about this game.

 

[fantadomat]

I don't get it why people waste so much time trying to do a procedurally generated sub routine instead of just writing some nice side quests and making a solid dungeon. There is no good procedurally generated shit!

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Not gonna lie, but I don't even remember what I liked about this game.

The only thing I remember was people here was incredibly excited because the dev said that the player can become necromancer and basically rule the world as undead or something.

 

[ntonystinson]

Not gonna lie, but I don't even remember what I liked about this game.

The only thing I remember was people here was incredibly excited because the dev said that the player can become necromancer and basically rule the world as undead or something.

Their gameplay video of 2014 is actually more exciting

 

[Harthwain]

I don't get it why people wast so much time trying to do a procedurally generated sub routine instead of just writing some nice side quests and making a solid dungeon. There is no good procedurally generated shit!

In games without procedural generation the number of new/different things you can experience/encounter is much more limited/linear due to the very nature of the game. Procedural generation promises that every playthrough will be different. There are games where this can work: NEO Scavenger, The Consuming Shadow, Battle Brothers, Dungeon of the Endless, Binding of Isaac.

As for the development - I think put too much work into fancy graphics for the dungeons, which ate a lot of their development time and them being overly ambitious (and not knowing where to put the axe) doesn't help the overall project.

 

[fantadomat]

I don't get it why people wast so much time trying to do a procedurally generated sub routine instead of just writing some nice side quests and making a solid dungeon. There is no good procedurally generated shit!

In games without procedural generation the number of new/different things you can experience/encounter is much more limited/linear due to the very nature of the game. Procedural generation promises that every playthrough will be different. There are games where this can work: NEO Scavenger, The Consuming Shadow, Battle Brothers, Dungeon of the Endless, Binding of Isaac.

As for the development - I think put too much work into fancy graphics for the dungeons, which ate a lot of their development time and them being overly ambitious (and not knowing where to put the axe) doesn't help the overall project.

All of those games get old after an hour of playing. BB is popular here because of the combat and the gearing up,not because have well designed battles. That like saying that having 100 piles of shit with cherry is better than having a single cake. Hand made shit is always superior to anything a machine could come up with.

 

[Harthwain]

All of those games get old after an hour of playing.

There are two options:

A) You are not serious.
B) You are seriously retarded.

You could say that gameplay loop can get old after playing it long enough (and, again, this could be said about literally any game), but that's vastly different than the pure bullshit you just said.

BB is popular here because of the combat and the gearing up,not because have well designed battles.

Who said anything about "well designed battles"? Literally everything about the game is procedurally generated. But it does what it was supposed to do: generates potentially endless content, which isn't possible with the hand-crafted scenarios. Considering how hard it is to keep procedurally generated content cohesive, the game is a really good example of procedural generation done well.

That like saying that having 100 piles of shit with cherry is better than having a single cake. Hand made shit is always superior to anything a machine could come up with.

All I see is a blanket statement that doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.archmagerises.com/news/2020/4/18/update-113-20-outstanding-critical-tasks

We finally accomplished Playtesting this week. This generated 68 issues/tasks of which 20 are critical to resolve before we can have anyone play it. Maybe it’s just me, but being able to find a quest item in a dungeon seems pretty important to the whole experience.

We were debating if we could get something out on Tue or Wed but I don’t see a big difference between Wed and Fri, so we’ll just plan on getting a build out to the small council on Fri. This lets us resolve the A level tasks and as many of the B and C’s as we can before Friday.

If you are a member of the small council: expect an email on Fri with build instructions. Actually, let me know if your email address has changed in the last 2 years.. :-p

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2020/4/25/update-114-build-12-3d-dungeons-sent-to-small-council

It was a hectic week of several 12-hour days, but we finally got Build 12 playable enough for the Small Council to test.

WHAT’S A SMALL COUNCIL?
Back in 2018 when I thought I was going to die, I selected a few fans who demonstrated a deep interest in, and really grokked the vision, of this game. I made them into a steering committee that could help ensure the game would be finished and finished well without me.

Well, and perhaps unfortunately, I’m still here and the Small Council doesn’t have much to do. But the idea is still sound: to have a small external body of super fans to test the game and give direct feedback on it.

IS IT GOOD ENOUGH?
We are utilizing the Small Council to do a first pass on Build 12 and tell us what they think. The core question is “Is it good enough?” Is it worth putting it out to everyone, or does it still need some more time to bake. Michel, Daniel, and I are too close to it to be able to make this judgement call. We see everything we’ve done and everything we haven’t done. But what will a fan notice? We don’t know.

NEXT STEPS?
It all depends on what the Small Council says on Monday. If, in general, they like it, then we probably have a week or so of bug fixes and polish to do before releasing it to everyone who has pre-ordered. Or maybe they say “Wow, can’t believe it took so long to make this pile of dog crap.” In which case we have more and deeper work to do. Hopefully they can articulate what parts are the most in need of work.

For now, the team and I are proud of what we’ve been able to make, look forward to making it better, and hope to get it into your hands as soon as we can.

Thanks!

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2020/5/2/update-115-council-approves-build-12-coming-soon

Last weekend we put out a build to the Small Council for feedback. You can read the discussion on the Steam Forums if you would like.

They said it was good enough (done enough) to release to everyone, as long as we fix some major bugs.

So this week we have been fixing bugs. It was close on if we would have enough of them done to get a build out on Friday, but there are a few more we want to resolve first.

On top of that, we welcome another programmer to the team, bringing the total to 4 programmers. Daniel Vijayakumar (now known as daniel2 or just D2) joins us remotely from the Toronto area. His first responsibility is to continue adding more room types to the dungeons and improve the decoration algorithm. What I like about this is we continue fleshing out and improving the dungeons, while D1, Michel, and I fix the rest of the game and prep for Build 13 Combat. I love the smell of parallelization in the morning!

So things are looking positive for a release to everyone next week!

 

[rusty_shackleford]

so what do you actually do in this game

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

Is it shit?

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

I don't get it why people waste so much time trying to do a procedurally generated sub routine instead of just writing some nice side quests and making a solid dungeon. There is no good procedurally generated shit!

Because they have been bullshitted into believing it brings "replayability".

 

[Darth Canoli]

Is it shit?

We'll have to play wait for someone to play it to find out ...

 

[mondblut]

I don't get it why people waste so much time trying to do a procedurally generated sub routine instead of just writing some nice side quests and making a solid dungeon. There is no good procedurally generated shit!

There is a plenty of other people who do exactly that.

As strange as it might sound, they also end up with shit.

 

[mondblut]

so what do you actually do in this game

Same as its prequel, That Which Sleeps.