Archmage Rises News

[p]I’m trapped in my hotel room in Las Vegas right now. My wife and kids are here for a dance conference. This laptop and hotel desk isn’t well suited to heavy game dev, so this week I switched tasks from programming the Resource spells to what I can do well from a hotel: Work on the core game loops of the game.[/p][hr][/hr][p]Eric Barone spent about 4 years making Stardew Valley. Most of us will agree: he did a good job.[/p][p]One of the challenges he faced was becoming a better pixel artist by the end of year four than he was day one. That meant having to go back and re-art things he had already finished.[/p][p]Over the years I have been working on Archmage Rises, I’d like to think I have grown as a developer and designer. I’ve been able to work on several titles, each very different from this one. I’ve worked with full time AAA designers, trained new designers, and put together a university course on game design. But most importantly, I’ve been able to converse with you the fans about deep design issues. Some of them have been monster long posts, but I appreciate and grow from the detailed feedback.[/p][p]Taking all I’ve done and learned I’m going to finally codify the core game loop of Archmage Rises. What is it about? What makes it fun? Why am I playing it?[/p][p]Many who worked with me on this will say, “It’s about time!”[/p][p]While it looks and plays like an RPG, it’s actually a strategy management game under the hood.[/p][p]It was a breakthrough to think of it as managing a series of Resources in “interesting ways”. You can think of any game this way, including the original Doom. It helped clarify some things I have struggled with for years, drop some things I shouldn’t have done, and simplify some things I over complicated.[/p][p]I’ve spent 3 days straight going through every aspect to pull it into a (hopefully) cohesive whole. It’s going to take me 4 articles to explain it all: this week the overview, then one week on each core section. I’m excited to share it with you![/p]

[p]“What am I managing?[/p]

[p]Archmage Rises is about living the full life of a mage, understood through a Triad of Triads.[/p][h2]Self[/h2][p]Being a Human.[/p]

1. [p]Health[/p]
2. [p]Fatigue[/p]
3. [p]Wellbeing[/p]

[h2]Craft[/h2][p]Being a Mage. (Craft as in excellence in a profession, not as in crafting an iron pot)[/p]

1. [p]Spells[/p]
2. [p]Experience Points (XP)[/p]
3. [p]Tower[/p]

[h2]Realm[/h2][p]Being part of a Fantasy World[/p]

1. [p]Relationships[/p]
2. [p]Possessions[/p]
3. [p]Legacy[/p]

[p]Two Special Resources[/p][p]Two critical resources sit outside of the triads: Time and Gold. Time is the fundamental resource of every game action. Gold is an exchange mechanism; for instance, you turn time into gold, then gold into a Tower room.[/p][p]With this framework, I can now look at every action (Verb) in the game through the lens of “What Resources does it cost? What Resources does it provide?” And even more in depth, “What is scarce? What is a competing choice?” Because this is where the fun really lies: I want to do A and B, but I can only do one (for now), so I have to pick. Without competing priorities, no “Interesting Choices”.[/p][p]It started to reveal there were a number of design dead ends:[/p]

• [p]Resources that rarely went up - not useful[/p]
• [p]Resources that only went up (no sinks)[/p]
• [p]Resources that couldn’t really be spent[/p]
• [p]Resources that only did one thing, or nothing at all![/p]

[p]This then allowed me to do something I came across years ago from a designer friend: Create Chen Diagrams (Jeff Chen of Activision, not Chen ER diagrams). I can map the inputs and outputs of an action and see what is over used, under used. What is OK and what needs attention.[/p][p]Here is a terrible looking Work in Progress that shouldn’t be shown publicly, so just keep it to yourself m’kay?[/p][p][/p][p]I’m still working through all the verbs. There are a lot of them![/p][p][/p][p]This suffices for an overview. Next time I’ll go deeper into the design on Self.[/p][p]If you are a history buff like me, Audible has two of Ian Mortimer’s “Time Traveller’s Guide to…” books for free until Oct 21! I enjoyed Elizabethan England and am now listening to Regency England. Enjoy![/p]

[p]\[Warning: This post will probably read grumpy. I spent 6hrs today just trying to get a tooltip (an already built system) to display for a new spell (also a seemingly already built system). ][/p][p]This week I worked on adding the resource/event detection spells as previously discussed. Specifically, the heat detection spell.[/p][p]It is hard.[/p][p]Why so hard?[/p][p]First, I had 4 programmers working on the codebase, so it’s been years since I had to touch these parts of the game myself.[/p][p]Second, the last major feature we did was an overhaul of combat. That ended up overhauling how spells are defined: instead of being code centric, they are now data driven by JSON to the Nth degree. Two programmers over engineered the solution by miles to allow game designers to do really complex things without “needing programmers”. But the system is so complicated, even at the time we were making it, no one really wanted to touch it. It was hard to tell if this was just being unfamiliar with a new system, or if it just needed a GUI tool to allow creating data in a human friendly way.[/p][p]Example: These 600 lines of JSON spread across 2 files in a specially named folder define the Fire Light spell, allowing the caster to add the Light buff to themselves. It used to be 3 lines of code in C#. I wish I was kidding.[/p][p][/p][p]Further to this, the new system was totally focused on Combat casting. So, besides the ability to cast a Light buff in the dungeon, it didn’t consider anything to do with world casting.[/p][p]Well now I’m the only one working on it. I have an overengineered system I can’t make heads or tails of and no GUI tool.[/p][p]This sounds like I’m blaming the previous crew on the codebase, but I’m not. As the leader, I am in charge, it’s my responsibility. The signs were there and I ignored it, because I was busy with other matters.[/p][p]Leadership is a constant battle of deciding what to focus on and what to ignore. There is not unlimited time. I should have reigned people in and didn’t. This is not unique to me or this project, I’m sure you can think of a work situation where a leader should have stepped in and sorted things out, but didn’t.[/p][p]To be super clear before you keep reading: I miss my team. They were great. I hope to work with them again.[/p][p]But there are some advantages of being a solo dev. Call it trying to find the silver lining, or the opportunity, in the situation:[/p][p]1. No meetings. Ever.[/p][p]I admit, today, it would have been nice to bounce some ideas off someone. But with no team, 100% of my time is focused on the game instead of meetings clarifying or arguing over things.[/p][p]2. Singular Vision[/p][p]I previously wrote about competing voices in our heads, but there are also competing voices on a team.[/p][p]I try to listen to everyone, evaluate what they are saying more than who is saying it, and make good and informed decisions from there. But as well intentioned and helpful as people are trying to be, they have not played what I’ve played (none of them played Ultima 6, Darklands, ADOM, or goldbox rpgs) or read what I’ve read that inspired this from the first place (D&D and Pathfinder core rule books, Dragonlance, and Ptolus).[/p][p]I can build what I want and what you the fans want.[/p][p]I don’t miss the arguments Archmage Rises isn’t fun because it doesn’t play like Hades.
It shouldn’t play like Hades.[/p][p]3. Confidence[/p][p]When they were redoing combat, I told them at most there will be 30 combat spells. What’d they do? Create a system for months that easily scales to 1,000+ JSON spells. It’s like turning an aircraft carrier to try and maneuver here.[/p][p]Did they not believe me? “Oh he says 30, but he’ll change his mind, I’ll make sure it’s super flexible.”[/p][p]Did they just get caught up in the task and succumb to internal design creep, “Ooh! If I do X, Y, Z, it’ll be even cooler and more extensible. I’ll do that!”[/p][p]Fear? “If I don’t do this really elaborate and super modular people will think less of me, or we’ll be forced to do it again.”[/p][p]They could have coded up the spells we needed in half the time, and we’d have a simple system to extend from. That’s what they started from, and now I’m forced to making a simple spells system for world spells completely separate from this combat system.[/p][p]As the creator I know what is important and what isn’t. I find confidence is what makes me effective as a senior developer – I don’t waste cycles second guessing things. I build just what is needed, no more. Until more is required. Thank you Kent Beck of Extreme Programming for opening my eyes to YAGNI “You Aren’t Gonna Need It!” early in my career.[/p][p] [/p][p]Final Thoughts[/p][p]Just because I’m identifying advantages of being a solo dev doesn’t mean I don’t want to expand back to a team. I do. But for now, I’m trying to enjoy the journey for what it is: heads down, building what I want. That’s what got me into game dev in the first place and where this project came from.[/p][p][/p][p]\[Fun geek fact: If you open the image in a new tab, you can read the JSON if you are so inclined][/p]

[p]Last week I identified what I think went wrong with the new resource system and how that resulted in diminished Agency. I purposed two ideas: A to have a search action to reveal points of interest, and B that resources should be permanently placed in the world and extracted through tools/spells/effort. I asked for feedback and feedback I got![/p][p]The majority of feedback was positive, basically saying “Yes to A and B”. Now we have a design direction that seems good to a variety of tastes.[/p][p]This is the best part of Early Access.[/p][p]Right now, I’m working a side gig on a RPG match 3 game. The designer is revising features and adding new ones. A few days ago, he requested we copy a feature from a similar match 3 game and put it into ours.[/p][p]I pushed back and told him it isn’t going to work. The reason is that while that feature might be great in that game. It won’t be good in ours. But why not? Isn’t that the very essence of design or creativity, to take what works well in other places, and bring it together into a new whole?[/p][p]No, not really.[/p][p]The thing about copying features is they have tendrils. They don’t live in isolation, they have roots and tendrils under the surface connecting them to a greater context. When we try to carve it out and transplant it in isolation, the connective tissue is lost. It doesn’t take root like it did in the source. We are left wondering what went wrong.[/p][p]This is the mistake I made with Resources. Something that worked well for exploring in other games doesn’t work here. It didn’t connect well.[/p][p]Oops.[/p]

[p]“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal — T.S. Eliot[/p]

[p][/p][p]This is what T.S. Eliot (or Picasso if you prefer “Great artists steal”) was talking about. We need to take inspiration and internalize it so deeply it changes possession. It belongs to us now.[/p][p]This is easy to say and hard to do. The designer I’m working with is a smart guy and simply didn’t realize he was copying instead of stealing.[/p][p]How’d he miss it? Because there are a lot of voices in our heads, a lot of motivations all pulling at us, and it’s hard to find signal from the noise.[/p][p]Ever wonder why it is easier to see exactly what your friend, spouse, relative should change in their life, versus being able to see it clearly in our own?[/p][p]Why is that?[/p][p]I’m fascinated by the ability for outsiders to see ‘clearly’ into other people’s circumstances. It is what drives a variety of professions: consulting, psychotherapy, editors, and coaches.[/p][p]While it is true the external party “doesn’t fully understand”, that is precisely the point: Because they don’t have all the voices and motivations in their head, they are more objective and able to see what is. Without being somewhat disconnected, the editor can’t clarify what the author intended to say.[/p][p]I have a lot of voices and motivations in my head about Archmage Rises. That closeness sometimes is a detriment. This is why I value your feedback as editors, helping me deliver more the fantasy more clearly! Thank you![/p][p]Now, onto what we’re actually going to do![/p][h2]1. Resources come from Permanent Sources[/h2][p]A source can be a plant, in which case it gets depleted and must grow back.[/p][p]Mineral resources like iron or jade has layers. You can get easy surface level stuff without too much trouble. But each layer deeper requires significantly more investment/magic power.[/p][h2]2. Detection of Resources[/h2][p]You have a small chance of detecting resources walking next to them. But casting is the most efficient way to search an area. I’m thinking these four spells:[/p][p]Detect Heat – Fire, detects living body warmth.[/p][p]Earthsense – Earth, detects metals, stone, minerals.[/p][p]Harmonic Burst – Arcane, detects gems, jade.[/p][p]Scent of Bloom – Storm, detects plants, trees, organics.[/p][p]I’m thinking you can pay someone to be a guide to a resource. Kind of like buying a treasure map in Sid’s Pirates![/p][h2]3. Collection of Resources[/h2][p]Some resources you can just collect, like Roses and Dye. I think I still like requiring a tool to get some kinds of resources – axe for wood, pickaxe for metal. Especially if these can be enchanted for greater yields.[/p][p]But magic needs to be a part of the equation from the beginning.[/p][p]Magehand increases yield. Haste makes berries grow back faster. Earth grasp lets you rip resources from the ground without a tool.[/p][h2]4. Long Term[/h2][p]The goal is to go from a poor novice finding a few easy scraps, to an investment with constant production where you can pickup resources, to a fully automated stream of resources back to your Tower. I like the empire building aspect of it.[/p][p]I like how producers become more important than Resources.[/p][p]But it also goes further. I like how people pointed out how it could connect in with the rest of the game:[/p]

1. [p]Hire NPCs from town to work your mine. Make a friend, convince him to work your mines for a pittance![/p]
2. [p]Level up your producers by bringing them enchanted tools – tools you enchant, ties into the enchanting system.[/p]
3. [p]I like the little story opportunities that could come up to support the roleplay – events like a cave in or uncovering something deep and untouched. If only we had an event system… oh wait, we do![/p]
4. [p]I like needing to protect your mine. Do nothing, and maybe it is attacked and wrecked by goblins. Put an alarm spell or wards on it to alert you when there is a problem, maybe you can teleport back and save it. I like how it could interface with the simulator and it creates more spots in the world the player cares about.[/p]
5. [p]Fulfill a quest or convert a noble to a friend by turning over ownership of a mine or lumber camp. That’s a big deal compared to just turning in some resources. I like the “interesting choice” that creates. It better be worth it![/p]

[p] [/p][h2]Moving Forward[/h2][p]Maybe my mess up is a good thing - I think we're getting to a better place.[/p][p]It’s taken me most of the day to read the feedback and formulate it into something I think everyone can be happy with. [/p][p]It’s easy to write bullet points, now to making it.[/p][p]The first goal is to fix it enough that I can get the Hex branch released to the main branch. Some kind of Minimum Viable Product (MVP).[/p][p]I’ll get started next week![/p]

[p]First - I just pushed out a build to the Beta Branch that fixes some bugs, especially Wolf battles always being just 1 wolf pup.[/p][p]As relayed last week, the Events feature update is stuck in beta because some of the changes aren’t well received.[/p][p][/p][p]I want to understand what’s wrong, so I collected feedback from a variety of sources. This Steam Thread is a good focal point: https://steamcommunity.com/app/506480/discussions/0/591775773438818323/[/p][p][/p][p]To participate you’ll want to check out the Beta branch of the game.[/p][h2]The Problem[/h2][p]Players are reporting a loss of agency in the new way tracks and resource searching is done. Two quotes will summarize what I’ve collected:[/p][p]“entering a tile and finding if it has resources and rolling for tracks was one of my favourite parts of this game”[/p][p]“not being able to explore the tiles and just grind resource hunting/harvesting is a deal breaker.“[/p][p]Sorry, the Hex view isn't coming back. This needed to go away to allow for new features that are coming. The Hex view was actually getting in the way. I have a lot of reasons I can’t type out just now because I have to hurry off to a wedding![/p][p]There will be a menu pop-up for taking actions at a hex. A scalable menu popup is part of the new UI.[/p][p]If loss of agency in collecting resources and following tracks is the problem, how to solve it?[/p][h3]A. What if you did an Action or cast a spell to Search Area within X hexes, sort of like a sonar ping?[/h3]

1. [p]- You will see Points of Interest (POI)[/p]
2. [p]- Based on factors (dice roll, skill, buffs) you can tell details on none, some, or all of them.[/p]
3. [p]- They stay on screen until you get a certain distance from them (vs timing out)[/p]
4. [p]- You move, say, 8 hexes, then do it again and it reveals POI within X hexes again[/p]

[p]This is an idea we had but ultimately didn't follow up on.[/p][p]Does this introduce Agency back in?[/p][p][/p][h3]B. It seems you want resource producers not pickups?[/h3][p]Another question I'm wrestling with the resources.[/p][p]I remember a discussion a while back where it was said they'd rather pick a spot, build a mine/quarry/lumber camp, and Invest in it through magic and money (and workers, etc.)[/p][p]So you aren't getting wood or stone or roses all over the place, but from specific places over and over.[/p][p]The old system was permanent producers.[/p][p]If you found a strawberry field, you could pick it. Then wait until the next growth season and it would be back again.[/p][p]This created a balance between returning to old spots and need to find new ones when those were exhausted.[/p][p]So if a quest wants blacksand - finding a spot rich in it is really hard. But once you find it, you can keep going back to it. Blacksand doesn't renew like vegetables, but maybe it is like gold in 1840’s california - it was just lying on the surface. But once that easy stuff is gone, you needed to go to the 'next level' and dig a shaft, and you got more gold again. But that middle tier stuff would run out, and now you need to go even deeper/wider to get the next batch.[/p][p]I previously mentioned a player saying “I want to be a mage not a lumberjack!” but another player responded “What makes this game great is I can be a lumberjack if I want to!”[/p][p]The new UI menu pop-up could allow you to build a mine, grab resources from a mine, or expand production further.[/p][h2]Does this address the resource issue?[/h2][p]Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or the original thread .[/p][p]I will be checking both frequently as I try to solve this problem and get Events out to the main branch![/p][p]Thanks for your help and participation.[/p]

[p]It’s been 2 months since my last update, when we pushed some hotfixes to the beta branch. A lot has happened, let me catch you up to speed. This update will be more personal and corporate update than specifically about Archmage game features.[/p][p]People are asking if I’m OK. Which I appreciate![/p][p]Yes I’m OK![/p][p]We were humming along on the Events update, reached our feature and content goals, and were days away from releasing.[/p][p]In order to stay ahead of the dev cycle, I had already moved on to planning out Regions and Core Game Loop revisions. I was half way through the new project’s goals and features when everything came to a screetching halt:[/p][p]The update on the Beta branch got a lot of negative responses. It changed the game in ways they didn’t like.[/p][p]I thought it was pretty good and achieved what I set out to achieve – streamline things I didn’t like and adding more gameplay and interesting choices to the map.[/p][p]I think the problem is how the changes integrate in with the rest of the game – which didn’t change. So the problem isn’t just a few bugs, it is a question of expanding scope to change the overlapping areas or rolling back some of the changes.[/p][p]This is hard stuff that requires some deep digging, nothing insurmountable, and as a game developer I don’t expect I’ll always ‘get it right’ first time. That’s why we have early access and beta branches. It’s fine, just I need some dedicated focused time to the hard thinking work to fix it. It matters it isn’t easy/normal work because of the next thing…[/p][p]July was a busy month: It started with a trip to San Franciso with my friend and game designer Mark. It was the first time the families met and fortunately everyone got along great. The kids played well together and let the adults talk! The best part of the trip (besides the fellowship) was taking a Waymo to the new Nintendo store. I read a book on the history of autonomous driving so it was a thrill to see the tech come to life. And to put my life on the line with it![/p][p]After that I went to an annual game conference, which was amazing. There were some 30+ friends there I haven’t seen in person in years, it was so great and encouraging! And I needed it because…[/p][p]I’ve been working a programming contract, less than full time, to pay the bills, keep the lights on. As I was driving to the conference I got a call from my client suddenly terminating the contract. There is a very long complicated story packed into that moment I won’t go into here, but should I ever write a book, it will be quite the dramatic chapter. On one hand it was a total surprise, and on the other I knew there we problems with the project above me.[/p][p]When I started driving to the conference life was good: new update on Archmage about to go out, bills covered, regular work/life routine.[/p][p]By the time I arrived: I was unemployed and whatever was in my account was all I had for the foreseeable future.[/p][p]Michel was at the conference too, so I had to share with him the bad news and that I couldn’t afford to keep him working on Archmage until I get back on my feet.[/p][p]My goal, my dream, is for Archmage to support at least me and my family, but right now it doesn’t. Fortunately, while at the conference I got three project leads.[/p][p]I met a company looking to revive a DOS game in the 90’s to todays market. So when contrasting “figure out what is wrong with Archmage Events Update” vs “Pitch a game dev contract for me and the team” the latter took precedence. We had multiple meetings, presentations, and a 20+ page written proposal which was a significant time investment. Direct porting a game design from 30 years ago won’t work, so how do you change it enough modern audiences will enjoy it, but not too much that they reject it. In a way, it is the same design challenge as Events! This took up a lot of my August. They liked the design (they said it exceeded their expectations), they want to work with us, but the cost is too high. I agree, the cost is mid six digits, but games are NOT cheap to make when you bring in illustrators, animators, writers, and VFX. We’re still on friendly terms as they figure out what they want to do next.[/p][p]Someone at the conference gave a presentation on his game dev history and lessons learned making a match-3 RPG similar to Puzzle & Dragon or Empires and Puzzle. I enjoyed his talk, I thought he had some real wisdom he shared well. And that, I thought, was that.[/p][p]5 days later ,he contacted me about needing programming on the game and if I was available. I am! But the challenge is his game is made in C++ Cocos2Dx. I have a love/hate relationship with Unity, but I really love C#. Many years ago, I used to be a professional C++ programmer. The first two games I released (mobile) were built in a game engine I wrote in C++. I even built an editor for my game engine, including a 2D WYSIWYG layered layout, and a real-time Particle System editor. I intended to use that game engine for more titles going forward… but when I looked hard at Unity and saw everything they had, AND the asset store of ready-built components, AND I could program in my favorite language C#, I saw I couldn’t compete and so joined the Unity bandwagon.[/p][p]I’m rusty, but technically able to do the work.[/p][p]I took the job.[/p][p]Three days in, still ramping up on the codebase, I went to him and laid out what I saw: I could do what he asked, but it is going to take 4x longer than it should. Long term he’s going to have serious issues:[/p]

1. [p]Recruiting: the world simply moved on from Cocos2dx. No one works in it anymore.[/p]
2. [p]His game needs juice (visual effects to enhance the game feel) and a lot of it! This is tedious and difficult to do in Cocos2dx which has no visual editor of any kind. Heck, you have to go to a website to do particle editing, save it as a plist, to then load it in the game at runtime. It’s just so so so hard![/p]

[p]I took the issue to Mark, just to check if I was being a whiney baby about working in C++ again. But he confirmed it was at least my professional responsibility to offer what I think the best strategy is.[/p][p]So I met with the client and laid it out: Instead of investing more in this codebase, invest that money in remaking it into Unity and gaining all the advantages.[/p][p]Remaking a game isn’t easy – that contract I had up until mid July? It was a port of a Cocos2dx project to Unity C#! I knew firsthand the challenges, but I really felt this is the best path for him.[/p][p]He immediately said, “Let’s do it.”[/p][p]I respect his openness and, frankly, his balls, in making such a serious decision so quickly. It actually made me a little concerned he was making it so quickly. Turns out, he always regretted choosing Cocos over Unity and I guess he just needed someone experienced enough in both to clearly lay out the pros and cons.[/p][p]So now I’m making a Match-3 RPG style game similar to Empires and Puzzles in Unity, and it’s great work, highly enjoyable. In 7 workdays I’ve recreated the core combat functionality, so feeling good about how this goes.[/p][p]Again, it’s super complicated, but the project I got terminated from has a new project they would like done and are interested in what I can do for them. So I’ve been busy putting together a pitch for them which is going out today.[/p][p]While all this has been going on, there are two other game projects my team has been working on in the background. One is a point & click adventure that that teaches music theory, and another is a digital card game like Magic/Hearthstone. I’m involved in these projects at a high level, we have wonderful people managing and building them, but it involves me at certain development gates and making sure we are hitting our marks.[/p][p]The music game shipped. The client is adding more content to it, which is great, because we tried to make it easy for them to do that.[/p][p]The card game is a digital demo of a new physical TCG, coming to kickstarter in October. If the kickstarter is successful, Defiance will build out the full game as our first multiplayer title. Good experience to have long term.[/p][p]While I was unemployed, I jumped onto the card game to help get it done.[/p][p]The last 2 months have been so busy! Time has flown by.[/p][p]Things are settling down now: I’m gainfully employed again, all the pitching is done, the card game demo is a week away from being done, and the kids are back in school.[/p][p]Unless something catastrophic flares up, I’ll be back on Archmage and tackling what I got wrong with Events next Friday.[/p]