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

[ERYFKRAD]

Fun fact: the indie dev community generally looks down on people who "teach others how to indie dev."

A common insult is "why don't you go start a youtube channel?"

Wait you have a youtube channel.

 

[mediocrepoet]

How bout get it right the first time so you can focus on either making new content or a new game, how bout that instead?

Inb4 no games are released ever again.

 

[Tweed]

How bout get it right the first time so you can focus on either making new content or a new game, how bout that instead?

Inb4 no games are released ever again.

Good.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

The 1 million USD is so optimistic that honestly I feel the guy fell for a scam or someshit

This game only have a very limited niche following with no real hype or splash. EA launch ended up a wet fart even for people waiting for the game

To even break even the cost of 1 million would require sales that this game will not have, unless they are simply taking the engine/baseline and use it to build another game as part of that 1 million USD

 

[Tyranicon]

The 1 million USD is so optimistic that honestly I feel the guy fell for a scam or someshit

This game only have a very limited niche following with no real hype or splash. EA launch ended up a wet fart even for people waiting for the game

To even break even the cost of 1 million would require sales that this game will not have, unless they are simply taking the engine/baseline and use it to build another game as part of that 1 million USD

Seems like a passion project through and through. People do strange things when it's something they love.

There was a lot of charm when I played the game a few months back, but the game was a skeleton. What it requires, unfortunately, is years and years of content.

With the studio being acquired and 1.0 being set to next year, I'm skeptical.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.archmagerises.com/news/2024/4/22/player-experience-driven-development-for-archmage-rises

Recipe for Success​

The last several weeks have been planning and transition. We’re bringing on four new team members in just over a week, so getting everyone aligned and on the same page as far as game vision has been pivotal.
Mark Webster is a 15+ year veteran game designer (GoW:Ragnarök, God of War 2018, Guitar Hero, Skylanders) and Lead Designer on Archmage Rises since last fall. Last week he laid out for the team how and why we are tackling development in a Play Experience way.
I recorded this meeting for the new employees starting in May. But afterwards, I felt it was so good and explanatory that I am taking a chance: I’m sharing this internal meeting with you, our faithful fellow adventurer.

This is the first slide, which I forgot to record.

Notes:

• What we’re working on is Update #3 Exploration, but it is so comprehensive of an update that it is most of the game. It is going to take us a while, many months.
• We will continue to make patches every other week as long as we need to, while we are doing the above.
• Mark mentions something about ‘Adventure Books’ and ‘Seasons of Life’. These are concepts around structuring the overall ‘life’ of a player character still very much still in design discussion. I’ll have more to say when we figure out what it means!

Rivals​

• All five mage types are working: Fire, Ice, Arcane, Earth, Storm
• Phil and I are doing one last round of experience testing before we release to the beta branch. Think it is this week.

 

[Jarmaro]

I'm a tiny bit exhausted with the devs talking so much about developing a game. I get making a game is a complicated and hard process, but making a diary of making it instead of providing the news is getting silly. At this point those news read like a motivational blog where the author tries to improve their life and hook the readers into it as well. It's weird.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

At this point those news read like a motivational blog

It probably is for the the dev.

 

[Jarmaro]

Weekly Dev Priorities: Apr 29, 2024

We are winding down on the final touches to the Rivals combat update, and ramping up on what is shaping up to be our biggest update ever!

Here’s what folks are working on this coming week (and beyond):

RIVALS WRAP-UP:

We are so very close to putting a lid on the Rivals combat update, at least as far as being able to push the update to the Beta branch. Last week after testing, Thomas and Phil were both pleased with how it all plays in general, with just a few more important bug fixes to squash.

Once we finish those, we’ll release it to the Beta branch for another round of testing where players can try it out, we can find any other bugs that may have slipped through the cracks, and do some more final tune-ups (if needed) before finally releasing it to the main public branch.

Phil will be heading the charge on this with the assistance of D2. Alex will also join the fray later this week (more on that later).

EXPLORATION:
Mark and the rest of the team are full steam ahead on what is currently known as the “Exploration” update, which essentially (as of now anyway) will be our biggest update/release between now and our 1.0 launch!

This is what we’re focusing on this week:

• Michal, James, Nolan, Mark
  - Exploration Events/Encounters.
• Tyler
  - Revised Skill/Stat System
• Zach
  - Dynamic Quests
• Jonathan, Jessi, Phil
  - Continuing on UI/UX Overhaul

We’re all very excited with how exploration will be improved in this coming update, which will (at least in Phil’s perspective) make the game feel a lot more like a TTRPG-like experience. BTW, an easy way to get Phil’s stamp of approval internally is to compare how the feature/idea we are working on is like D&D and he’s pretty much on board .
For those of you who might be worried about the game losing that feel, you can rest easy knowing that you’ve got several torch bearer’s within the team carrying that torch for you!

OTHER NEWS:
We’ve got 3 new team members joining us this week! Starting on Wednesday, joining us on our quest are:

• Emily:
  project management and helping us all stay on task and hitting our goals
• Alex:
  QA testing and running our regular patch updates
• Andrey:
  For the summer he’ll be joining us as a developer before returning to his teaching work

Next week our new artist Lucas will be joining us as well. Would love for you to give them a warm welcome!

 

[mondblut]

Maybe, just maybe, instead of writing his long blog post, he could try working on the game and adding content.

What?

Oh, this "acquisition" has Spire of Sorcery written all over it. Wait till That Which Rises becomes an idle clicker card autobattler MOBA for mobiles or whatever.

 

[Tyranicon]

Maybe, just maybe, instead of writing his long blog post, he could try working on the game and adding content.

What?

Oh, this "acquisition" has Spire of Sorcery written all over it. Wait till That Which Rises becomes an idle clicker card autobattler MOBA for mobiles or whatever.

That Which Rises is my game.

 

[mondblut]

That Which Rises is my game.

You gotta rename it if you have any plans to ever get it done.

Also, you owe me royalties.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Also, you owe me royalties.

No he doesn't, this is a democracy

 

[OttoQuitmarck]

This game should be re-labeled as vapourware

 

[Jarmaro]

Rivals Combat (Build 0.2.200) is now live on the Beta channel

It's been a while coming, but now you can finally fight your rivals! Prepare for a brand new challenge, as your rivals not only bring magical attacks your way, but they also bring some interesting defensive challenges for you to face.

NEW:

• New enemy types to fight: Fire Mage, Ice Mage, Earth Mage, Storm Mage. Each mage type has it's own unique challenges to face
• New option to attack your rival when you meet them
• Rivals are now more difficult to locate. NPCs will not easily divulge their locations.
• Bribe or schmooze Conclave Chapterheads to discover the location of your rivals
• New NPC greetings - now NPCs comment on you based on a variety of factors (your appearance, their relationship with you, how long ago they last saw you, etc)
• Gain additional legacy bonuses for eliminating a rival
• You can now hunt down and kill your primary rival in the Mabren's Tower quest after you've completed the quest
• New combat arena - Town Street
• Added new magic XP book reward to Innkeeper starter town quest
• New death animation over rival portrait after killing that rival

IMPROVED:

• Prompt to abandon a quest when talking to a quest giver now shows the name of the quest
• Added AP cost to button tooltip on weapons
• Additional "do not know" NPC responses

FIXED:

• Fixed VFX glitch when casting Fireball
• Fixed a bug with enemy difficult scaling
• Fixed some gender-related text generation bugs
• Fixed some minor combat background formatting issues
• Fixed a bug where abandoning the tower quest wouldn't remove the prompt to abandon the tower quest

There are likely more fixes and additions not listed here that I may be missing

Also, there are a few bugs remaining that we need to fix, but we have already made you wait long enough, so we decided to release this beta build with these issues outstanding so we don't keep you waiting any longer. These aren't game breaking bugs and we'll get these fixed up asap.

KNOWN ISSUES:

• While NPCs will not reveal the location of your primary rival in the Mabren's Tower quest prematurely, it's still possible to potentially encounter this rival by chance and kill them prior to completing the Tower quest. This should end the quest, but currently does not. We'll fix this soon.
• If you kill a rival and then find them on the Relationship screen, it currently does not indicate that they were killed. This will be fixed soon as well.
• When visiting a Shipwright, there is a text bug related to displaying his current activity when greeting you.

Thanks for testing out this beta and we hope you enjoy it! As always, we'd love to hear about any bugs you come across that we may have missed and would love to get your feedback on the new rival combat. Enjoy!

 

[Jarmaro]

Weekly Dev Update: June 3, 2024

Hey everyone!

Phil here. Just wanted to provide a quick update on what we've been working on since our last weekly update. We've been really heads down on development of our next update, so I'll keep this brief (for now) but I (or Thomas) will be back soon with a more in-depth update with a lot more details on what's happening.

For now, here's the high level view:

• Created a basic working version of the Dynamic Quest system
• Progress made on an internal design tool we are using for the Event system and designing events
• Began work on implementing a new UI (the new primary HUD is now working in the game and in combat, we're now working on adding in the ability to cast spells in combat)
• Continued to refactor the stat system
• More conversation event examples written for testing
• Added 2 new members to the team (Lucas, our new artist, and Sammi, a new additional game designer)
• Honed in on our implementation of Scrum in order to iterate on our processes and improve rapidly
• A new stained glass shader working in game for... UI reasons...
• Started work on a new dice rolling interface

As someone leading the new UI development, I must say that the new HUD gives so much more breathing room for the art to shine, and while it's still a while yet until it is released, I'm really excited for it!

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

So whatever happened to this game? They released a billion GIANT SYSTEM REWORK PATCH GAIDEN!!!s and disappeared?

 

[mondblut]

So whatever happened to this game? They released a billion GIANT SYSTEM REWORK PATCH GAIDEN!!!s and disappeared?

The mastermind got laid and creating an encompassing ultimate world simulation RPG on the scale no man has ever seen before suddenly stopped being a priority?

 

[ArchAngel]

So whatever happened to this game? They released a billion GIANT SYSTEM REWORK PATCH GAIDEN!!!s and disappeared?

The mastermind got laid and creating an encompassing ultimate world simulation RPG on the scale no man has ever seen before suddenly stopped being a priority?

He already has a wife and kids. Maybe they ran out of money?

 

[Jarmaro]

An Update on What’s Going On
Company Update
We’ve been quiet for several months and it’s because there is some stuff going on transitioning to the new publisher. I don’t have anything definitive to say. Not because of anything nefarious or NDA, but because each week I think this is the week when the issues are resolved, and it just hasn’t happened yet.

Case in point was last week. Last week Friday Jul 26 was supposed to be the big day when everything came together and we move forward. Fans have been asking what is going on and I said “I’ll give an update next week” because, finally, I’d have resolution. But it didn’t happen. Then I had reason to expect clarity on Wednesday, then Thursday. But, again, I held off saying anything because I don’t want to say something that isn’t true. Now it is Friday and I still don’t have resolution, so I’m saying what I can.

Sorry if it’s an unsatisfactory one.

It's the internet. Anything I say could be misconstrued, read into, and picked apart. You could try to guess what the issues are, but it isn’t what you think and likely unguessable. It’s not the common things like ‘creative differences’ or a ‘power struggle’, or anything legal.

We’ve just been delayed in moving forward into the new arrangement. I thought it would take the month of April to do so, but here it is Aug 2 and still incomplete.

While we wait, I told people to take some time off and enjoy the summer. Get some rest. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Some have continued to work, others are enjoying the time off.

No one* has left, everyone is still here. We’ve added a designer, an illustrator, and a project manager since May, bringing our total to 14.

We’re just waiting to really get going. I will post an update as soon the issues are resolved.

The game is not dead. I still own the game, IP, and all rights. My wife and I are fully committed to it. Even if it means I have to go back to working on it alone again.

(* Josh officially left first week of April, but that had already started in Jan and is unrelated to the new publisher.)

Personal Update
(A few people might care about this, I don't pretend everyone does)
I've been pretty verbose and transparent in the past with regular updates. I dropped off late April. The reason is I went to Europe to celebrate my 25th wedding anniversary for several weeks. My wife LOVES to travel and she put this trip together a year ago. In total we were gone 5 weeks.

It was during this time that publisher transition issues really started dragging on (nothing to do with me being away), so when I got back in June I didn't really ramp back up into full work mode. Instead, I just stayed at home with the kiddies (now 11, 9, 8), because what does another week matter if we're just waiting? At the same time, my wife started a new job and was working a lot of hours. Having me home and taking care of the kids was a real blessing to all of us. It is the most time I've spent with the kids... well, ever.

Something I noticed as an outcome is the kids listen to me more when I tell them to do stuff. What used to take 3-5 times to get them to do a chore, or go to bed, has now become an immediate "Yes daddy." This tells me the issue wasn't stubbornness nor lack of clarity or follow up on my part, but one of relationship. We've spent more time together recently and they simply trust me more.

I'll add one more thing which may be of interest:
I started to play D&D with my kids about a year ago. They liked it for the first two sessions, but after the third claimed it was "boring" and never wanted to play again. This broke my heart!
I ruined D&D for my kids!
Perhaps for life!!!
What have I done?!?

With all the time together this summer I managed to convince them into playing again, especially my 8 year old son. He loves it! Now the kids are asking D&D questions in the car, at the dinner table, and while we swim. It's the most important thing in their young lives. My non-gamer wife is amused by it all. We've even got into mini painting together. Nothing brings me more joy than to paint up some bad guys to challenge them on the battlefield.

In summary I've had to relearn how to GM this summer. I'm taking the love, passion, and learnings for D&D into my work on the game.

So while the delays at work are unexpected, unfortunate, and frustrating, there is some good coming out of it.

 

[ArchAngel]

An Update on What’s Going On
Company Update
We’ve been quiet for several months and it’s because there is some stuff going on transitioning to the new publisher. I don’t have anything definitive to say. Not because of anything nefarious or NDA, but because each week I think this is the week when the issues are resolved, and it just hasn’t happened yet.

Case in point was last week. Last week Friday Jul 26 was supposed to be the big day when everything came together and we move forward. Fans have been asking what is going on and I said “I’ll give an update next week” because, finally, I’d have resolution. But it didn’t happen. Then I had reason to expect clarity on Wednesday, then Thursday. But, again, I held off saying anything because I don’t want to say something that isn’t true. Now it is Friday and I still don’t have resolution, so I’m saying what I can.

Sorry if it’s an unsatisfactory one.

It's the internet. Anything I say could be misconstrued, read into, and picked apart. You could try to guess what the issues are, but it isn’t what you think and likely unguessable. It’s not the common things like ‘creative differences’ or a ‘power struggle’, or anything legal.

We’ve just been delayed in moving forward into the new arrangement. I thought it would take the month of April to do so, but here it is Aug 2 and still incomplete.

While we wait, I told people to take some time off and enjoy the summer. Get some rest. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Some have continued to work, others are enjoying the time off.

No one* has left, everyone is still here. We’ve added a designer, an illustrator, and a project manager since May, bringing our total to 14.

We’re just waiting to really get going. I will post an update as soon the issues are resolved.

The game is not dead. I still own the game, IP, and all rights. My wife and I are fully committed to it. Even if it means I have to go back to working on it alone again.

(* Josh officially left first week of April, but that had already started in Jan and is unrelated to the new publisher.)

Personal Update
(A few people might care about this, I don't pretend everyone does)
I've been pretty verbose and transparent in the past with regular updates. I dropped off late April. The reason is I went to Europe to celebrate my 25th wedding anniversary for several weeks. My wife LOVES to travel and she put this trip together a year ago. In total we were gone 5 weeks.

It was during this time that publisher transition issues really started dragging on (nothing to do with me being away), so when I got back in June I didn't really ramp back up into full work mode. Instead, I just stayed at home with the kiddies (now 11, 9, 8), because what does another week matter if we're just waiting? At the same time, my wife started a new job and was working a lot of hours. Having me home and taking care of the kids was a real blessing to all of us. It is the most time I've spent with the kids... well, ever.

Something I noticed as an outcome is the kids listen to me more when I tell them to do stuff. What used to take 3-5 times to get them to do a chore, or go to bed, has now become an immediate "Yes daddy." This tells me the issue wasn't stubbornness nor lack of clarity or follow up on my part, but one of relationship. We've spent more time together recently and they simply trust me more.

I'll add one more thing which may be of interest:
I started to play D&D with my kids about a year ago. They liked it for the first two sessions, but after the third claimed it was "boring" and never wanted to play again. This broke my heart!
I ruined D&D for my kids!
Perhaps for life!!!
What have I done?!?

With all the time together this summer I managed to convince them into playing again, especially my 8 year old son. He loves it! Now the kids are asking D&D questions in the car, at the dinner table, and while we swim. It's the most important thing in their young lives. My non-gamer wife is amused by it all. We've even got into mini painting together. Nothing brings me more joy than to paint up some bad guys to challenge them on the battlefield.

In summary I've had to relearn how to GM this summer. I'm taking the love, passion, and learnings for D&D into my work on the game.

So while the delays at work are unexpected, unfortunate, and frustrating, there is some good coming out of it.

Lol this guy is a true nerd. I wish him best of luck!

 

[Infinitron]

Oh god he is so screwed: https://www.archmagerises.com/news/2024/11/19/development-continues-what-happened-this-year

Development of Archmage Rises continues Jan 10 2025.

Wait, what?! You aren’t making it now?​

I had to pause development of the game for an unknown amount of time because I simply didn’t know what was happening.
I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know what was happening.
Now I break the silence.
People Make Games not automatons in factories. There is a person sitting here typing this right now. The team and I have had to live what you are about to read. I don’t pretend I’ve done everything right. I’ll write as accurate a summary as I can. I write for those who care about the game and the team.

Fall 2023​

It costs about $40k a month to run the team. Sales were sometimes $20k/month. The shortfall has to come from somewhere.
Have you ever played Monopoly and get into a situation where you have hotels on some property, but mortgage everything else (even the utilities!) to do it? If someone lands on your hotel, you’re flush and things are great. If they don’t, yer bankrupt.

That is a good analogy of how I was doing it. My wife and I slowly mortgaged everything we had to fund the game.
There was a moment in the fall of 2023 where a mortgage got bizarrely delayed for 4 weeks. This created a huge cash shortfall and I couldn’t make payroll. Miraculously, two people believed in what we were doing enough that they gave me $20k each, meeting my next two payrolls. It wasn’t a loan, I didn’t sell a stake in the company, they just helped out of the goodness of their hearts. I can’t express how grateful I am to them, because without that bridge we wouldn’t have made it through Sep.
All things being equal, if sales didn’t exceed expenses the money ran out Mar 31 2024.
I’m a planner. I’m always thinking about the future and “what if?” scenarios. Just today, in frustration, my wife said, “You think too much about things that won’t happen!” My response is, “What do you think planning is but preparing for what may or may not happen?!” (You don’t need to weigh in on this marital spat (but if you agree with me drop a comment! )))
Summer of 2023 I was looking for investors/publishers to help get this thing to completion.
One was very promising and we dialogued frequently and set reasonable sounding dates for an infusion.
One was a longshot that said we’ll talk closer to end of the year. I will refer to this party as ‘Longshot’
Skipping over many details Promising didn’t work out.
Longshot contacted me either end of 2023 or Jan 2024 and came to the forefront.
(In the rest of this summary I’ll be mentioning dates based on my memory. I could be off by a bit here or there, but it doesn’t matter right now)

Jan-Feb 2024​

Over the course of Jan + Feb I worked with Longshot to put together an acquisition. I announced this on the blog and steam Apr 2.
Mar 31 was the last day I would be responsible for payroll, April onwards the new studio would be funding development. I couldn’t be more excited. The dream was coming true, the financial pressure coming off, and I could focus on making the game. (It’s hard to describe how much effort is wasted finding money when you don’t have money).
The additional funds allowed us to expand the team to get a few more specialists (QA, Illustration, Design, Production). I figured we should give the new company transition a month to settle so I set their start dates for May 1.
We had a meet & greet meeting between Longshot and the team, putting faces to names.

Mar 2024​

As we led up to Mar 31 Longshot asked if they were to cover the Mar 31 payroll or me. I said it was my responsibility, but hey! If they want to do it, I’d be super grateful. It was a real stretch to make Mar 31 payroll and I didn’t know if I would do it.
Funds were supposed to drop Mar 25/26 giving just enough time to make that Mar 31 payroll.
Invoices were created and sent, bank transfer information, employee details for the new medical plan. Everything was set to go.
But the week before, I was informed there was a delay and they won’t come until April 4.
Ever worse, because I thought I was off the hook for Mar 31 payroll I paid off a government loan from 2020. There was no way to get the money back!

April 2024​

My new partner and I discussed what do we do? Proceed as planned or hold off?
Longshot assured us the money was coming, just delayed and would be the 4th or for sure by end of next week.
I’ve run my own companies for 20 years at this point, I know things happen.
We decided this was a blip and we would proceed as planned.
We made the public announcement Apr 4. And we kept working.
April 12th came and went and still no money.
I pressed Longshot and he explained the money was coming from a deal that was supposed to have closed already, but it hasn’t. Soon as it closes, we’re a go!
For sure we’ll get the funds by May 1.
I informed the team, and more importantly, I informed those who were leaving work to join us May 1 that the money still hasn’t arrived. If they want to join May 1 knowing this, we’ll welcome them. If they want to wait until the money comes, no problem! Their job is still here for them either way.
Two decided to stick with the original May 1 date. They felt confident and were excited to join the project and the team. Two we worked out a better start date, which says nothing about them, I felt it was better for them to wait.
Everyone kept working.
Let’s pause here for a moment: What would you do? Jump on social media, Steam, blog and start posting about how your investor hasn’t paid you yet? It’s a few weeks out. It sucks, but not that big of a deal.

May 2024​

May 1 came and went. New payment dates were provided.
QA and Production started and got right to work with everyone else.
We finished May with everyone or mostly everyone working. By the end of the month the existing team hadn’t been paid in 11 weeks. The new people hadn’t seen a cent from me.

June 2024​

They whole time we were still having weekly meetings with Longshot. They always showed up, gave us an update on the funding and we would talk about other matters.
Funding was coming “any day now”. New dates were provided a week or two out. They came and went.
Its hard to describe the grueling routine of waking up each morning, checking email expectantly to see if THIS is the day the funding finally comes through, only to be disappointed yet again.
At this point people started dropping off the project to find other work. Totally understandable! I was amazed at their grit and determination to last this long. People gotta eat!
We assured everyone they will be paid for their time to date. We’ll hold a spot for them. So if they got a 6 month contract, and we got our funding next month, we’ll wait the 5 months for them to return instead of filling the position. And if they decide not to come back, that is sad, but the fault is on me not them.

July 2024​

I scheduled a meeting for Fri Jul 12. No one knows this, but internally I was feeling if the money hadn’t arrived by then, this is probably our last meeting together. Defiance is over.
Wed Jul 10 Longshot said he signed off everything with closing the deal we’ve been waiting on. The funds were scheduled to be transferred to them Jul 26, and we would get them 3 days after that.
We were elated. Finally, the good news we’d waited so long for. Longshot came to our team meeting Jul 12 to talk with everyone.
They asked "Will there be any more delays?"
"No. No more delays. This is it."
Everyone was excited. The long wait was difficult, exhausting, but here we go!
It didn't happen.
We had one programmer who was still working on the project, because he wanted to, but this is when he stopped.

Aug 2024​

New dates were provided and past.

Sep 2024​

New dates were provided and past.
At this point I’m getting an earful from my wife about how foolish and terrible this whole situation is. We were already at the end of our money in Mar and while a couple of good things came through for her in her job, we couldn’t last any longer. The bills were dangerously piling up.
So I told the team I was going to look for contract work. And as soon as the money comes in, they will be paid, and we’ll get back to making Archmage!
So why didn’t I post to the fans at that point? It’s no longer a knee-jerk reaction, it’s been 5 months of non-payment!
I know how stupid this next sentence sounds after all the above:
Because the money was coming next week.
Wipe the tears of laughter from your eyes and keep reading.
Because I really want to finish this game, with this team. I kept hoping the next date was the real date and I wouldn’t have to post something terrible. Or even worse, to say there is no money and we’re disbanding, only 4 days later to unwind that. Its hard to write how heavily it weighed on me. Plus, each week I’m meeting with Longshot who is insisting he really is going to pay me.

Oct 2024​

Vague dates were provided and past. It was communicated more like ‘any day now’.
I picked up a 3 month contract as a senior unity dev to help on a mobile game project with over 100 million downloads.
This is how I’ve managed to keep my house and keep the heat on.
Many times I’ve said Archmage Rises is a very hard game to make. Working on this other project has only confirmed that. Archmage is 100x harder.

Nov 2024​

Still ‘any day now’.
I woke up this morning, checked my email. No funds yet.
Last Saturday I skimmed the discord thread asking about ‘dead game’.
This brings us to today Nov 19.
I’m tired of waiting. I want to work on Archmage Rises. Heck, I want to play Archmage Rises; the game I’ve envisioned for so many years.
I will resume work on Archmage Jan 10.
If the funding comes through, I’ll do it with the team. They really are the most wonderful group of people you could ever hope to work with. Despite everything that has happened over the last 7 months they still want to work with me, on this, for you.
If no funding comes in, on Jan 10 I’ll fire up Unity and Visual Studio and start coding it myself. I haven’t spoken to anyone else on the team about this. I have no money to pay them so I suspect I’ll be alone.
My wife and I are committed to finishing this game one way or another.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

It's weird to make this into a studio-based project, when it's clearly a very niche passion project. It never should've had any paid employees. Only freelancers when you've got money to spare.

 

[ArchAngel]

Oh god he is so screwed: https://www.archmagerises.com/news/2024/11/19/development-continues-what-happened-this-year

Development of Archmage Rises continues Jan 10 2025.

Wait, what?! You aren’t making it now?​

I had to pause development of the game for an unknown amount of time because I simply didn’t know what was happening.
I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know what was happening.
Now I break the silence.
People Make Games not automatons in factories. There is a person sitting here typing this right now. The team and I have had to live what you are about to read. I don’t pretend I’ve done everything right. I’ll write as accurate a summary as I can. I write for those who care about the game and the team.

Fall 2023​

It costs about $40k a month to run the team. Sales were sometimes $20k/month. The shortfall has to come from somewhere.
Have you ever played Monopoly and get into a situation where you have hotels on some property, but mortgage everything else (even the utilities!) to do it? If someone lands on your hotel, you’re flush and things are great. If they don’t, yer bankrupt.

That is a good analogy of how I was doing it. My wife and I slowly mortgaged everything we had to fund the game.
There was a moment in the fall of 2023 where a mortgage got bizarrely delayed for 4 weeks. This created a huge cash shortfall and I couldn’t make payroll. Miraculously, two people believed in what we were doing enough that they gave me $20k each, meeting my next two payrolls. It wasn’t a loan, I didn’t sell a stake in the company, they just helped out of the goodness of their hearts. I can’t express how grateful I am to them, because without that bridge we wouldn’t have made it through Sep.
All things being equal, if sales didn’t exceed expenses the money ran out Mar 31 2024.
I’m a planner. I’m always thinking about the future and “what if?” scenarios. Just today, in frustration, my wife said, “You think too much about things that won’t happen!” My response is, “What do you think planning is but preparing for what may or may not happen?!” (You don’t need to weigh in on this marital spat (but if you agree with me drop a comment! )))
Summer of 2023 I was looking for investors/publishers to help get this thing to completion.
One was very promising and we dialogued frequently and set reasonable sounding dates for an infusion.
One was a longshot that said we’ll talk closer to end of the year. I will refer to this party as ‘Longshot’
Skipping over many details Promising didn’t work out.
Longshot contacted me either end of 2023 or Jan 2024 and came to the forefront.
(In the rest of this summary I’ll be mentioning dates based on my memory. I could be off by a bit here or there, but it doesn’t matter right now)

Jan-Feb 2024​

Over the course of Jan + Feb I worked with Longshot to put together an acquisition. I announced this on the blog and steam Apr 2.
Mar 31 was the last day I would be responsible for payroll, April onwards the new studio would be funding development. I couldn’t be more excited. The dream was coming true, the financial pressure coming off, and I could focus on making the game. (It’s hard to describe how much effort is wasted finding money when you don’t have money).
The additional funds allowed us to expand the team to get a few more specialists (QA, Illustration, Design, Production). I figured we should give the new company transition a month to settle so I set their start dates for May 1.
We had a meet & greet meeting between Longshot and the team, putting faces to names.

Mar 2024​

As we led up to Mar 31 Longshot asked if they were to cover the Mar 31 payroll or me. I said it was my responsibility, but hey! If they want to do it, I’d be super grateful. It was a real stretch to make Mar 31 payroll and I didn’t know if I would do it.
Funds were supposed to drop Mar 25/26 giving just enough time to make that Mar 31 payroll.
Invoices were created and sent, bank transfer information, employee details for the new medical plan. Everything was set to go.
But the week before, I was informed there was a delay and they won’t come until April 4.
Ever worse, because I thought I was off the hook for Mar 31 payroll I paid off a government loan from 2020. There was no way to get the money back!

April 2024​

My new partner and I discussed what do we do? Proceed as planned or hold off?
Longshot assured us the money was coming, just delayed and would be the 4th or for sure by end of next week.
I’ve run my own companies for 20 years at this point, I know things happen.
We decided this was a blip and we would proceed as planned.
We made the public announcement Apr 4. And we kept working.
April 12th came and went and still no money.
I pressed Longshot and he explained the money was coming from a deal that was supposed to have closed already, but it hasn’t. Soon as it closes, we’re a go!
For sure we’ll get the funds by May 1.
I informed the team, and more importantly, I informed those who were leaving work to join us May 1 that the money still hasn’t arrived. If they want to join May 1 knowing this, we’ll welcome them. If they want to wait until the money comes, no problem! Their job is still here for them either way.
Two decided to stick with the original May 1 date. They felt confident and were excited to join the project and the team. Two we worked out a better start date, which says nothing about them, I felt it was better for them to wait.
Everyone kept working.
Let’s pause here for a moment: What would you do? Jump on social media, Steam, blog and start posting about how your investor hasn’t paid you yet? It’s a few weeks out. It sucks, but not that big of a deal.

May 2024​

May 1 came and went. New payment dates were provided.
QA and Production started and got right to work with everyone else.
We finished May with everyone or mostly everyone working. By the end of the month the existing team hadn’t been paid in 11 weeks. The new people hadn’t seen a cent from me.

June 2024​

They whole time we were still having weekly meetings with Longshot. They always showed up, gave us an update on the funding and we would talk about other matters.
Funding was coming “any day now”. New dates were provided a week or two out. They came and went.
Its hard to describe the grueling routine of waking up each morning, checking email expectantly to see if THIS is the day the funding finally comes through, only to be disappointed yet again.
At this point people started dropping off the project to find other work. Totally understandable! I was amazed at their grit and determination to last this long. People gotta eat!
We assured everyone they will be paid for their time to date. We’ll hold a spot for them. So if they got a 6 month contract, and we got our funding next month, we’ll wait the 5 months for them to return instead of filling the position. And if they decide not to come back, that is sad, but the fault is on me not them.

July 2024​

I scheduled a meeting for Fri Jul 12. No one knows this, but internally I was feeling if the money hadn’t arrived by then, this is probably our last meeting together. Defiance is over.
Wed Jul 10 Longshot said he signed off everything with closing the deal we’ve been waiting on. The funds were scheduled to be transferred to them Jul 26, and we would get them 3 days after that.
We were elated. Finally, the good news we’d waited so long for. Longshot came to our team meeting Jul 12 to talk with everyone.
They asked "Will there be any more delays?"
"No. No more delays. This is it."
Everyone was excited. The long wait was difficult, exhausting, but here we go!
It didn't happen.
We had one programmer who was still working on the project, because he wanted to, but this is when he stopped.

Aug 2024​

New dates were provided and past.

Sep 2024​

New dates were provided and past.
At this point I’m getting an earful from my wife about how foolish and terrible this whole situation is. We were already at the end of our money in Mar and while a couple of good things came through for her in her job, we couldn’t last any longer. The bills were dangerously piling up.
So I told the team I was going to look for contract work. And as soon as the money comes in, they will be paid, and we’ll get back to making Archmage!
So why didn’t I post to the fans at that point? It’s no longer a knee-jerk reaction, it’s been 5 months of non-payment!
I know how stupid this next sentence sounds after all the above:
Because the money was coming next week.
Wipe the tears of laughter from your eyes and keep reading.
Because I really want to finish this game, with this team. I kept hoping the next date was the real date and I wouldn’t have to post something terrible. Or even worse, to say there is no money and we’re disbanding, only 4 days later to unwind that. Its hard to write how heavily it weighed on me. Plus, each week I’m meeting with Longshot who is insisting he really is going to pay me.

Oct 2024​

Vague dates were provided and past. It was communicated more like ‘any day now’.
I picked up a 3 month contract as a senior unity dev to help on a mobile game project with over 100 million downloads.
This is how I’ve managed to keep my house and keep the heat on.
Many times I’ve said Archmage Rises is a very hard game to make. Working on this other project has only confirmed that. Archmage is 100x harder.

Nov 2024​

Still ‘any day now’.
I woke up this morning, checked my email. No funds yet.
Last Saturday I skimmed the discord thread asking about ‘dead game’.
This brings us to today Nov 19.
I’m tired of waiting. I want to work on Archmage Rises. Heck, I want to play Archmage Rises; the game I’ve envisioned for so many years.
I will resume work on Archmage Jan 10.
If the funding comes through, I’ll do it with the team. They really are the most wonderful group of people you could ever hope to work with. Despite everything that has happened over the last 7 months they still want to work with me, on this, for you.
If no funding comes in, on Jan 10 I’ll fire up Unity and Visual Studio and start coding it myself. I haven’t spoken to anyone else on the team about this. I have no money to pay them so I suspect I’ll be alone.
My wife and I are committed to finishing this game one way or another.

This guy.. I still feel bad for him.

 

[HoboForEternity]

So there was a point in time where the game cost more than his other businesses were earning? And he continued trough that? You're managing business(es) for 20 years only to get rolled over by such naiveté? I thought pragmatism would come with such experience, but damn.

Like it's obvious when the idea wasn't working and time to pull the plug or at least find a cheaper alternatives. Yeah i feel bad for him, but i have seen this coming since like 2019 or so. Sure you have dwarf fortress and kenshi and other long term projects, but iirc before they fully became commercial project they were made in sparetime by team who had full time jobs and such (correct me if i am wrong though) whereas he treated this endeavor like a business from the start, e.g paying people and invest some money into it.