Avernum 6 Development Update

Spiderweb Software’s Jeff Vogel dropped by the company’s forums to give us another development update on Avernum 6. And, yeah, the game is still scheduled for a November release for those of you browsing on a Macintosh:

I just wanted to check in and let Avernum fans how things are shaping up for the final game in the series.

Things are still looking on track for a late November release for Macintosh. It’s a huge world, but I’m almost done with it. I’m getting pretty exhausted, but I’m still kicking out a lot of cool, elaborate dungeons.

(For example, I just spent 2 days on an encounter where you escort a band of soldiers through caves infested with gremlins. Rest assured you will face a wide variety of peculiar and lethal practical jokes.)

The structure of the game is an overarching storyline, alternating with going out and putting out fires in most of the major locations in the series. Each of these semi-optional quests (you only have to do so many) is very elaborate, with lots of cool scripting, characters, and enemies.

Of course, there are also multitudes of optional dungeons, quests, and so on. The tradition of big Avernum games continues. And the demo is unusually large too. Probably not good for business, but it just works out that way sometimes. 🙂

A beta tester decided that his day wouldn’t be complete without going out and unnecessarily panicking everybody, so he wrote that there is a harsh requirement to have food in the game. This is not true. I actually was in the process of strongly dropping the food requirement. You need food every once in a while to remind you what is happening in the world, but this will not be something people will find a hassle.

Finding food is tough for most Avernites, but it won’t be hard for you. Unsurprisingly, the brigands and bad guys you are hunting tend to be the ones who are hoarding the food.

And the ending for Avernum itself is now written. It’s, well, it’s a very “me” sort of ending, bittersweet, neither triumphant nor utterly disastrous. (Assuming, of course, you don’t try to wreak havoc.) I’m really happy with it.

So that’s it for now. Game still being written. Out soon. Lots of cool stuff.