Saturday, August 23, 2014

About the current ADOM development progress...

As many people have asked over the previous weeks I'd like to give a short summary regarding the progress of the promises given in the crowd funding campaign and what we actually are working on right now:

Currently we exclusively focus on getting ADOM to Steam. This task for us has highest priority for several reasons:
  1. We have been greenlit and as long as the green lighting process still exists it is a very useful barrier against a threatening myriad of mediocre games. Or in other words: If we get ADOM to Steam before this barrier falls exposure will be much more effective and we have a much better chance to be noticed by tons of potential new players. 
  2. Being very successful on Steam might mean immortality for ADOM as the possible funding gained might help us to continue developing ADOM for a very long time (far beyond what was achieved in the crowd funding campaign).
  3. Tuning ADOM for Steam makes it a much more modern and accessible game and this is good to entice a much larger community. Which in turn is good for ADOM.
Thus all our current work focusses on the milestones laid out for the Steam release.

Specifically
  • I am currently working on the new game options settings and next will be tacking lots of internal additions in order to allow for a graphical inventory (and much more - what we call 'the tome of knowledge').
  • Jochen is transforming our save file structures. In the future we will be able to have compatible save files, even if this will slow development somewhat. But very important for Steam.
  • Zeno and Krys are refining the interface and adding tons of graphical bells and whistles.
  • Lucas is churning out scores of sound effects to enriched the game experience tremendously.
Many of the things we right now are doing are far beyond the scope of what was promised in the crowd funding campaign. And this comes at a temporary price: The other important activities (like finally finishing the RPG) currently rest. Not indefinitely but they rest. I have to ask and hope for your continuing patience. You all will receive the physical rewards and I want to have them out before Christmas but as long as we are not yet on Steam we'll focus all energy on that endeavor. Even at the price of delaying other promises more.

As explained above we do this in the hope of being able to work on ADOM far beyond the budget of the crowd funding campaign which should be beneficial and fun for all of us.

Comments welcome, but that's how it is right now.

(BTW, if you are one of the donors receiving physical goods - fear not. I will ask for a confirmation of your current shipping address well in advance of beginning the shipping process, so you are safe, even if you have moved in the meantime).

Below you find a quick teaser to the new ASCII game options menu for ADOM Deluxe to your enjoyment (hopefully ;-) ):


14 comments:

  1. It's not like you're known for fulfilling promises, even if they take... oh, let's say a decade. :)

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    1. Well... This would explain the silence that has been going on for months...
      I was hyped when i fund this game in steam GL...
      Seems like it's not coming... :(

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  2. Just as a heads-up... the "Greenlight barrier" you speak of has already fallen for like a year or so :)

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    1. True, much lower than it used to be. But it's still there, so hey! it's an achievement. Even if not quite as big as it would have been a year ago.

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  3. Can't wait :D I keep refreshing the Steam path page every day or so counting the issues. After ~20 years of ADOM maybe without Food or Corruption I can win this game once?

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    1. Well you're gonna win if you want to. Judging by the Save & Restore setting you can switch permadeath off.

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  4. Oooh I can turn corruption off. I like it. I can finally do a relaxed runs and take time on my character.

    I'm also waiting for steam release, any info how much deluxe version will cost when released? Going to buy it asap when it hits steam.

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    1. Best guess right now is $14.99. But it's not yet confirmed or assured.

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    2. Seems reasonable to me as a 15 year veteran but it might be on the high side for someone making an impulse buy. Regardless of what the 'real' price is you should consider having a launch sale of $9.99 or less.

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  5. You made the right decision. Get funding from Steam sales and hire additional talented staff to complete awesome features for ADOM.

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  6. Will the current challenge level be preserved as 'normal' monster difficulty and treasure rate?

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  7. Yay, noobie friendly options for me! lol

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