Avernum 2: Crystal Souls - Dev Update & Sales

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Couchpotato

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Jeff Vogel posted a new blog post with his thoughts on Avernum 2: Crystal Souls.
We have just released our newest game. It's Avernum 2: Crystal Souls. It is a huge indie RPG for Windows and Mac (iPad coming soon), on Steam, GoG.com, Humble Store, and our own website. You know.

It came out yesterday and early sales are very strong. Thank you, kind customers!
Avernum 2: Crystal Souls is, like half of what we do, a rewrite. This particular story is arguably the one loved most by our fans. (Avernum 3 is the other contender) The previous incarnation, Avernum 2, came out way, WAY back in 2000, so I am utterly unapologetic about releasing a rewrite.

My main goals when doing these rewrites is to respect and maintain what made people love them in the first place. This is made so much more important by the fact that I can't write new games like this anymore.
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He also shared information his game has sold 2,000 copies this week.
Less than 24 hours in our new RPG already sold over 2000 copies. A big deal for a tiny company like ours. THANK YOU!
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More information.
 
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I've bought it already, not sure when I'll get to play it but it will happen sometime. I played the older version about 5 years ago and loved it, so I'm sure this one will feel familiar yet good, all at the same time.

BTW.....it is 2000 sales and not 200k, right? If it is the latter, well, really good job Jeff.
 
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I tried to play Avadon and didnt like it. Played escape from the pit and loved it. Started playing crystal souls yesterday and am loving it. Not sure why I couldnt get into the avadon series, but would recommend the avernum remakes, theres just something about them that pulls me in.
 
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Great to see strong initial sales! The game rocks and I totally love it. I got hooked with Avernum 4 when it came out, and only summarily went back and played a bit of the first 3 .... So I am totally loving these modern rewrites. My review will be coming soon :)
 
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Avernum is clearly better than their Avadon attempt.

Less than 24 hours in our new RPG already sold over 2000 copies. A big deal for a tiny company like ours. THANK YOU!
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Well deserved! They have thought out the GUI and menu functions well, everything fits really good. Only after playing their recent Escape from the Pit have I realized, how good their GUI is with the realtime updated automap - where you see your party indicator walking IIRC and this "geo-location" function is important - , the expert placement of buttons, well designed menus. They have done a good job with maximizing their possibilities with that indie engine.
 
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Donkerman said:
I tried to play Avadon and didnt like it. ... Not sure why I couldnt get into the avadon series
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Same with me. Avadon feels like a poor man's Dragon Age: Origins to me. Which is okay, as Jeff likes DA:O very much - while I... well, not quite.

Avernum had an interesting setting and its funny/bleak ambience is quite original.

Mmmm, thinking of it... how about a Nethergate remake? This was an underdog ever since, but this is the dearest game to me among the Spiderweb games (the runner up is Geneforge 1, 3rd place goes for Avernum 3)
 
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Loving the game!
Was initially a little put off by the bad balancing between the races, but once I started playing it, these thoughts were left behind.
The game is great and it dragged me in immediately. Started yesterday and played for 6h straight.

I do not share the praise about the interface though. This was already bad in Avadon which used the "improved engine" the first time, and did not improve at all.

You still cannot open and close the inventory with the same button. You only have 4 shortcuts to spells for each character, meaning you have to open your spell menu for almost every single cast. There is absolutely no feedback about "planning" in combat (like where the AI sends your character when you click at a spot), no range indication and so on.
However you can get used to it.

@you from what I know Jeff always adds in some new stuff, and changes some old. Most of the game is probably very identical though. (didn't play the previous 2 incarnations).
 
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I like Spiderweb games since 90´s, but I agree with Kordanor. The author doesn´t seem very receptive with gamers opinions: interface and playability must be polished.
And about the art… I think that graphics are… dull, washed out, boring… I don´t mean tecnologicallly advanced, but only beautiful graphics. For example, Depths of Tolagal is a very lightweight indie game with very basic graphics, but they are colourful and somewhat attractive.
A totally new tileset is one of the things that makes the difference between a new game and a mere DLC. And pickaxes looks exactly the same in the first and the last Spiderweb game, twenty years later. When you have good sales, perhaps you should invest a little in hiring a good graphic artist.
 
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you said:
Is this just the original game with updated graphics or are there more significant changes ?
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The most obvious difference? Probably the walking animation. ;)

Skill trees have been reworked, obviously. At first glance things seem much better balanced - skills are available from the start, and you don't have to experiment/ check a walkthrough to discover and plan your character's gymnastics or riposte skills. You also can't save up on skill points or dump a huge amount into a skill later on - you need to spend your points and you can only raise them by a certain amount per level. Feats seem to be well balanced too (especially considering the human feat rate vs. Nephil/ Slith bonuses) and reward specialization.

You may or may not enjoy quest markers on your world map - I don't mind them, though I certainly don't need them in an oldschool game.

I think dual wielding wasn't even possible in the last incarnation.
 
Kordanor, what do you mean it's only on the world map? Do the markers point you exactly where you have to go next?
 
Imagine Baldurs Gate or Dragon Age.
While Avernum has a world where you can travel freely, it has these "zones" of dungeons and cities just like these games.
So on the world map you see like "find arrow shipment" on top of the zone, where the NPC said it might be at.

Edit: Or just look at: http://www.directupload.net/file/d/3869/havmvpay_jpg.htm
 
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Yuck. I'm very disappointed with this design decision. Then again, I'll have to play the game to see for sure.
 
Don't understand how this can bother you.
That aside: Wasn't it exactly the same in Escape from the Pit?
 
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Don't know, Kordanor, I didn't play that game enough yet.

I just don't like quest markers. I prefer an NPC to tell you where to go, and then it's recorded in a journal or something and there are no markers. When you have to follow markers it starts to feel like a robotic experience rather than a natural one. In my opinion, of course.
 
Regarding the interface:
There is no explicit quuest marker, the game just shows points of interest markers on the zone map and your party's location on the world map.

My biggest gripe with the interface is the truly godawful journal system: you have to explicitly record text PAGES into the journal and the number of pages in the journal are limited. Problem is, you don't know whether the info is relevant or just atmospheric writing, so you'll just start recording interesting entries... and your journal will be full in about 5 minutes...
So, there is no quest log, just this absolutely unusable journal.
Better grab your trusty pencil and notepad....
 
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