Avernum 4: Greed and Glory Demo Out, Plus An Interview
I worked on it for 2 years. At last people can play it. Plus, I ramble.
It’s Substack self-promotion time, and we have news! The demo of Avernum 4: Greed and Glory is out! For Steam Next Fest, you can play the start of the next chapter of our cult classic indie rpg epic for free. The full game is out on October 22nd.
If you’d like to see me play our new game and answer all your questions, I will be streaming twice for Steam Next Fest. (Currently 2901 demos. Yikes.) Once on Wednesday, October 15 and once on Sunday, October 19. 4 PM PST for both streams. Go to the game’s Steam page to watch. Hope someone can come by!
A Recent Interview
IT.mk is a Macedonian news outlet that likes to interview indie developers, and they asked me a few questions. It always feels good to give something back to our Macedonian supporters. I thought some of the answers turned out to be interesting, so here is the interview, in English.
I wrote this a few weeks ago, and I have added a few parenthetical comments to try to add some interest to all this basicness.
1. The Avernum saga started back in 1994. What was the original inspiration for creating this subterranean world, and how has that initial vision evolved over the last three decades?
Avernum came out of our very first game, Exile: Escape From the Pit, which we made in 1994. Avernum is the remaster name for Exile. Originally, it was a very simple game in a lot of ways. All of the storytelling basics we have expanded on in 31 years following are firmly in place.
Avernum is an underground nation. The whole game takes place in a subterranean fairyland of tunnels, caverns, and fungal forests. In the first game, it was a prison. The harsh Empire on the surface sent malcontents and petty criminals there. You played prisoners of Avernum, fighting for survival.
There were lots of little inspirations for this setting. Old D&D modules. A short story by Robert Silverberg. The books of Julian May. But mostly I wanted to recreate the joy I felt playing the oldest of old school RPGs in the 1980s.
(Saying I was mainly inspired by books makes me feel very old. Julian May is largely forgotten. I think some people still remember Silverberg, one of the unquestioned greats of science fiction. My games had too much reading 20 years ago. Now? Sigh.)
2. What were the biggest technical challenges in modernizing a game originally released in 2005? Did you have to rebuild it from the ground up, or were you able to use parts of the original engine?
Our games almost always use evolved versions of the same engine we have been using for decades. Each iteration is smoother, has better performance, better interface, better visuals. We only rarely totally remake the engine, and it’s always an enormous trial when we do.
The original game in 2005 was a real technical challenge for us. An enormous, multi-layered seamless world. A full scripting engine. Some pretty fancy stuff at the time. However, once we did it once, it was very easy to do it again.
(It was not, in retrospect, very easy. I am getting old, and writing video games mostly by oneself requires a monumental amount of concentration and is very draining. I am so glad Avernum 4 is almost out. I am gassed.)
3. Were there any original features, quests, or characters from the 2005 version that you decided to cut or significantly alter for this remaster? If so, what was the reasoning behind those changes?
We didn’t cut anything. We added A LOT.
The main problem with Avernum 4 from 2005 was that writing the engine was such a technical slog that I wasn’t left enough time for story. The dialogue and quests were underdeveloped. So the main change now is that I put in a ton of time adding quests and cities and factions and branching storylines. I really wanted to flesh out the world and make it feel more detailed and real.
(I am really pleased with the new quests in this game. They are very cool. Some of the credit goes to the Kickstarter backers, who gave some really weird and wild ideas to play with.)
4. Could you talk a bit about the creative process behind developing its unique lore, history, and inhabitants? Also, how do you balance grim, serious questlines with dark humour? Is it challenging to get that tonal balance right?
I have a lifelong fascination with civics, politics, and military history. When I write a story, a lot of it is thinking, “What do the people here want? What are they doing to get it? How will the player be involved? Will it work?” The game then falls out of the answers to these questions.
The tone of any area comes from these questions and their answers. Sometimes the answers are surreal. Sometimes funny. Sometimes tragic. The story will tell me what its tone should be.
(This answer is, basically, “Be a good writer.” Art is tricky. Even if I could fully explain my process, it would do you no good. If you want to write, the only way is finding your own path.)
5. Looking back at the entire development process for this remaster, what is one decision you made that you are particularly proud of?
When we started doing Kickstarters 5 games ago, we let high-end backers create characters, magic items, and quest outlines for us. This has continued to be an enormously successful experiment.
The limitations of having to use frameworks given to me do a ton to juice my creativity. Some of the funnest, most intriguing parts of the new game come from my getting these unique stories from backers, and then molding and shaping them into something that fits into my peculiar world.
(Again, the backers ideas experiment is one of the best ideas I ever had.)
6. Conversely, what was the most unexpected challenge or setback you encountered, and what did you learn from it?
The biggest problem was simple exhaustion. I’m an old guy. Life only gets more tiring. Writing the original Avernum 4 was intensely draining. All of the work we did on this remaster made this one draining too.
Almost all of the work in this game was done by just me. I’m a lone wolf developer, which has its advantages and disadvantages. I do the best I can with the limited time and energy I have.
(I hate being a whiner. Boo hoo! I sit at a desk, make toys, and make pretty solid money. I have no right to complain. And yet, my brain is a physical part of my body. Like my muscles, I can only ask so much of it before it stops working correctly.)
7. For aspiring indie developers who want to create their own epic RPGs, what is the single most important piece of advice you would give them?
Consume media. Play every RPG you can get your hands on and carefully analyze what works and what doesn’t. But then READ. Read fiction. Read non-fiction. Read stories. Learn what makes a good, clear, satisfying story. Learn what peculiar, marvelous creatures humans are and how best to describe them.
There are many media in which to tell great stories, but the preparation for doing so doesn’t change.
(This is as good an idea as I can give. If you want to make art, experience art outside your comfort zone. Watch classic movies. Read Moby Dick. Read Dostoyevsky.)
8. After decades of working on this series, what continues to motivate and excite you about developing games in the world of Avernum?
As I always say when asked this question, fear of losing one’s house does wonders to focus the mind.
I’m an old campaigner, a professional, a hardened mercenary. I’m trying to earn money to support my family and retire.
And yet, I’m still a games obsessive. I’ve been fascinated by games and puzzles since I was in Kindergarten, drawing mazes alone in my room when I got home from school. Doing this is a compulsion. Compulsions aren’t fun, but they can be satisfying. I was kind of made to do this work.
(I have the next 9 years until retirement all planned out. I have a list of what I need to do to be content with my career. I suspect I will be churning out remasters long past when anyone has ceased to care.)
Anyhoo, Avernum 4: Greed and Glory is FINALLY playable. I am genuinely proud of it. I hope you like it. Full game out soon.
Spiderweb Software creates turn-based, indie, old-school fantasy role-playing games. They are low-budget, but they’re full of good story and fun. Our next game, Avernum 4: Greed and Glory, comes October 22nd! Wishlists are greatly appreciated.
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I'll continue to care no matter how long you continue to churn out remasters. Even you do something unexpected like re-remake nethergate.
Congrats on getting the Avernum 4 remaster done.
I feel old, because I remember ordering the Exile series on CDs with the paper hint books in the 1990s. It has come a long way. :)