Spiderweb Games - The Joy of Re-Releasing Old Games

I'll let Jeff introduce his new blog entry in his own words and then jump on to a later quote:

Warning: This blog entry contains unpopular views, a mercenary attitude, and an unattractive display of pure, raw greed. Those who prefer a purer, more principled breed of Indie developer should look elsewhere.
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I once wrote a game called Nethergate, which developed quite a cult following. Then, as time passed, it became very shaky and outdated. So, two years ago, I released Nethergate: Resurrection. It took two months to do it. I really liked this game, and putting out a newer, nicer version was very rewarding, both emotionally and financially.

A lot of people have complained to me over the years about doing this. I don't understand it.

More information.

nothing wrong with that.
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Hot box vape

This isn't the first time I've read about how he really liked doing Nethergate, but it wasn't recieved well. Personally I feel Nethergate is the best out of all of them. I loved the folklore and real life history mixed in with his tale. Not to mention that you could play either the Celts or the Romans, so in a way it was like two games in one. I wish he did more like this and re-releasing this old gem with brand new graphics/AI and a few extra bits was nice.

Hehe, he seems to have the best of all world. Making games of his own choice, a blog to rant on AND making a living on it.

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
This isn't the first time I've read about how he really liked doing Nethergate, but it wasn't recieved well. Personally I feel Nethergate is the best out of all of them. I loved the folklore and real life history mixed in with his tale.

Amen to that.
It's my favourite Spiderweb game as well.

Admittedly, my only other experience (in terms of either finishing or playing a substantial amount) are some of the Avernums, but after playing the demo area of Nethergate: Resurrection I was instantly hooked and rate it as one of the better CRPGs I've played in recent years.

For some reason the Geneforge demos didn't hook me in the same way, though I still intend to get stuck into them eventually.

(this isn't a comment about the whole remake thing, just supporting the idea that Nethergate is unfairly underappreciated in Vogel's oeuvre)

Originally Posted by Shagnak
Amen to that.
It's my favourite Spiderweb game as well.

It's good to hear that I wasn't the only one After I read that bit (don't remember where I read it) about how it was a joy to make, but wasn't liked as much as the others, I was a little shocked. It was great, I loved the fay. Trying to figure them out was the best part because thy weren't your usual good guy/bad guy creatures. They were just "fay", lol. You gotta love the other stuff too like a burning man ceremony (you know huge straw man with live people in it, not the rave that it is today )

Add me, too.

It isn't as sophisticated as Geneforge but I simply loved the world exploration. Tripping over some little encounter that later on tied into something else was awesome. Felt a bit like an Ultima.

What's tragic here is that these niche titles get upgraded and re-released for the tiny (and blessed) audience who love them, whereas legendary classics rot away instead of getting the same (and certainly well-deserved) treatment. OK, JV gives Nethergate a do-over, but there's no remake of JA2, of MoM, of Fallout 1+2, of Wizardry VIII, of System Shock. Instead there are "spiritual successors", or just nothing at all. All the savings JV talks about should apply pretty well to higher-budget titles, and the audiences are presumably wider to scale up the returns to match. I mean, right?

But no, what takes JV 2 months to do with one of his old games is apparently beyond the collective power of whomever owns the classic IPs.

I wouldn't exactly say that it would take 2 months to rerease some of those classic games you've mentioned, but there's hope in that direction, given the recent updated re-release of Monkey Island.

For Jagged Alliance 2 exists a major upgrade:

Jagged Alliance 1.13

the modding community is very active for this game, too.

Originally Posted by Yeesh
What's tragic here is that these niche titles get upgraded and re-released for the tiny (and blessed) audience who love them, whereas legendary classics rot away instead of getting the same (and certainly well-deserved) treatment. OK, JV gives Nethergate a do-over, but there's no remake of JA2, of MoM, of Fallout 1+2, of Wizardry VIII, of System Shock. Instead there are "spiritual successors", or just nothing at all. All the savings JV talks about should apply pretty well to higher-budget titles, and the audiences are presumably wider to scale up the returns to match. I mean, right?

But no, what takes JV 2 months to do with one of his old games is apparently beyond the collective power of whomever owns the classic IPs.

That's because small indie developers often care about their community, even if small, and make this games for fun and to please people.
While bigger developers don't care much about community nor they make games for fun. They care about money and if rereleasing game won't get them much more money than selling the old title as it is then it's not worth doing it.

It's not completely unheard of. The original Tomb Raider was re-worked as "Tomb Raider Anniversary", for example. I'm sure there are others.

But I do agree - a modern remake of PS:T with a few intelligent tweaks would be awesome.

methinks those games that are being remade are substantially different from those that have been said above to rot in their pristine discontinued state.
more simplicistic, less story-driven (except raider that's not a rpg anyway, just an adventure), more strategy-exploring oriented.
well, at least those that come to my mind for some kind of instant comparison.
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EROTIKA

Originally Posted by Dhruin
But I do agree - a modern remake of PS:T with a few intelligent tweaks would be awesome.

4th edition rules and ebberon campaign setting perhaps?

There are some efforts - GoodOldGames does a good job bringing them to modern systems, and the DS has seen some classic releases tweaked up as well (like Jagged Alliance recently). But agree - it would be nice to see more games get the 'Monkey Island' treatment (referring to the release last week of the original Secrets of … game by LucasArts completely retooled)