Archmage Rises
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Update #146: 2023 Roadmap
As I write this we are finishing our last day of 2022. It’s been a full year with a much work going into the game. The team is up to 9 full time people now. The game is showing the benefit of everyone working.
Before we end for the year I wanted to let you know what is happening in 2023 with the release of the game, and for those brave enough, to have a little taste of the new build.
Read more here: http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2022/12/23/update-145-2023-roadmap
It's been 18 months since our last combat build... we need to stop doing that. :-p
I didn't want to end the year without doing *something*, so I put up a very buggy preview of the new build on the Beta Branch (follow the link for instructions). We were working past midnight getting it to work. Thanks team for sticking with it!
Thanks for believing in us. The game is showing glimpses of what it can be. I hope it meets your expectations by the time we are done!
Update #156: Save and Design Data Systems
Learn more on our website here: https://www.archmagerises.com/news/2022/10/15/update-156-save-and-design-data-systems
Oct Studio & Dates Update
It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to…
It’s been a few months since my last studio update, and many things have happened!
http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2022/10/8/update-155-studio-amp-dates-update
Update #154: Quest Designer (Early Look)
Learn more on the website: https://www.archmagerises.com/news/2022/10/1/update-154-quest-designer
Update #144: Increasing your wealth (also- weekly updates)
First, some big news: we're going to start posting weekly. Every Saturday from here on you'll be able to learn more about Archmage Rises and see new features in action.
In this update, we discuss our solution to 2 common problems in games: having to grind before buying that item that you really need now, and having more money than you know what to do with after you've hit your stride.
Get the latest news here
Update #143: Highlight of the New Features From Last 90 Days
Archmage Rises is a role playing game with unprecedented breadth. We have more player actions (verbs) than any other. I’m very excited to show you what the team has been working on the last 3 months. We've added 25 categories of new features.
http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2022/6/11/update-143-highlight-of-the-new-features-from-last-90-days
Update #142: Ramping Up and Managing an Indie Game Dev Project
We have 10 creators and a mountain of feature work. How do you create an achievable plan? We share our experience with Codecks, Jira, Confluence, Word, Excel, and Google Docs all in an effort to: do what’s important, get everyone on the same page, keep everyone productive, and figure out a reasonable feature complete date.
Read the article and watch the video here:
http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2022/5/23/update-142-ramping-up-and-managing-an-indie-game-dev-project
Archmage Rises Development Continues in 2022
2021 was an eventful year for our studio. We started the year with 3 full time people: Daniel, Michel, Thomas.
In just 12 months we have grown from 3 to 9:
6 programmers, 1 artist, 1 artist/programmer, 1 audio/composer.
I took a contract project to financially support and grow the studio, which turned into 2 projects, and the need to really ramp up. This took up all my time and mental capacity from mid June to Dec.
We know how to work just on Archmage.
We know how to work just on contract work.
We now need to learn how to be both a contract studio and internal IP studio.
This is much easier said than done.
People working on contract work pay the bills, but don't achieve the long term strategic goal of releasing our own games (IP).
People working on Archmage (internal IP) don't pay the bills, they just suck cash, but achieve the strategic goal.
Many studios struggle with this, like:
Bioware in the early years
Psyonix makers of Rocket League (see the NoClip documentary)
Digital Extremes makers of Warframe (see the NoClip documentary)
Now it is our challenge to overcome.
If I ever get to make a strategy sim game about game development, and I want to, it will be about this balancing act. It is completely missed in Game Dev Tycoon and Mad Games Tycoon.
My goal is to run two teams, one doing contract work and one making Archmage Rises. Clients actually like this, because we can bring tech/solutions from our internal game into their projects, and if they suddenly need more resources, we can pull them temporarily from the internal game to the contract project, and then send them back once we're over the hump.
As some may know, I'm an associate prof teaching game dev at a college. It helped support the game dev team and wasn't too hard. But recently I've just become too busy and need to focus on Archmage. So I quit. Which is sad, because of the union rules I had 7 courses I could teach for the rest of my life... but the difficulty in life is not choosing the good from the bad but the best from the good. Not teaching and prioritizing Archmage is what is best.
We have a lot to setup 2022 in Jan, but after this I expect to resume some progress on Archmage.
Hey, thanks for being here and caring about Archmage. I think about it every single day!
Update #141: Studio Update for Nov 2021
The ups and downs of running an indie game studio, and the challenge of Work for Hire vs working on your own IP project. We’re all desperate to finish Archmage Rises!
http://www.archmagerises.com/news/2021/11/6/update-141-studio-update-for-nov-2021