Avadon 3: The Warborn Blog Update

It’s been pretty quiet over on the Spiderweb Software blog in recent months, but fearless leader Jeff Vogel has once again written up a new entry that expands on their recent announcement for Avadon 3 and talks about the past, present, and future of the indie studio. An excerpt that suggests we’ll be getting a relatively large overhaul for an upcoming reboot of Avernum 3:

When I was designing Avadon, I was very ambitious. Lynaeus, the continent on which the series takes place, has 5 friendly nations and six hostile nations, each of which has its own politics, history, and so on. I wanted to make a whole world.

In the end, however, I was just one designer.

There are so many factions, wings of government, conflicts, controversies … Too much for me to keep track of, too much to fully develop. I wrote so much lore I could never find a place to fit into the game. There were so many locations I just wasn’t able to give enough time to.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach on this one.

Also, i didn’t put as much polish in these games as I should. Avadon 3 will have a lot of careful rebalancing and useful interface improvements. However, these changes should have been in Avadon 2. Honestly, a lot of these things should have been in Avadon 1 so I didn’t have to fix them in the first place.

I have a good excuse for some of this. I’m only one person, and I’m getting older and slower. Still, a problem is a problem, and, if I’m asking people for money, I’m still responsible for flaws.

Finally, I’ve stuck with this particular engine, graphics style, and world style for too long. After I remaster Avernum 3 (our most popular game over the years), I’m going to do something way different. It’s well past time.