Eschalon: Book II - v1.05 and The Secret of Fathamurk Released
 

Basilisk Games has released the v1.05 patch for Eschalon II. With this patch you also get the add-on adventure The Secret of Fathamurk for free.
This add-on is for high-level characters of level 15 or more. You can go to this area at any time regardless of your level. More info on The Secret of Fathamurk can be found here.
You can view all of the changes for the patch here. If you bought the game through Steam, Impulse, Gamersgate or any of the others then you probably won't get the patch and add-on until at least Monday.

More information.

this is a GREAT example of how a good game developer shows love for its fans . Not only do they release a patch for issues in the game But they throw in 5-10 hour mini add-on FOR FREE !!! Bioware = not release patches to fix the game and charging you 3 dollars for 15 seconds of content . Bioware will crumble. Thank you Basilisk games.

I thought this was pretty classy as well. Vic Davis did something similar and released a bunch of mini-add-ons to his game Armageddon Empires just like Basilisk added this. It means a lot when a developer will go out of their way to enhance their games experience for free.

Keep up the good work Basilisk.

Indeed. I think it's unfair to mention BioWare though as they have a massive overhead compared to Basilisk.

I think this is a great move, though. Kudos to them, even if I absolutely suck at Eschalon.

I thought the whole "Bioware will crumble" thing was over the top as well, but you have to take into consideration that indies normally are just a one man team. Doing things like this takes up the one resource they never have enough of……time.

Bioware may have overhead, but they are not in a constant struggle for survival all of the time.

Of course not, but one could also see this update as PR and trying to get more sales. New content for free = More content for your money, it gets the game into the news on various sites, people'll check it out and (hopefully) buy it.

It works various ways :) That said, Eschalon is not cheap for an Indie title.

That's true, but it still is a gamble. It's taking time away from patching up the game further or starting a whole new game. Although, I'll grant you that it is a good PR bit and will hopefully drive sales up again. I've read enough on indie businesses to know that they can not have the same business plan as the AAA publishers. I know that's common sense. An indie can not rely on having a huge money maker in the first few weeks of release. They make their money slowly over time. There was a great interview with Vic Davis that had a whole new business model for indies, but I can't find it anymore. I'll have to go searching through these forums one day to find it again. I've posted it in multiple threads.

Now about 25 dollars being "not cheap". That is not true at all. It falls between the normal price range for quality indies. I made a list a long time ago on the prices of indies. I'm not doing that again. It took me quite a while to hunt them all down, but suffice it to say that 20 - 30 dollars for a quality indie is about norm.

When I say quality I mean games that are not the throw away junk indie games that you can make very easily. Pretty much anything on bigfish. Those are a dime a dozen. The quality indies are Eschalon, Din's curse, Knights of the Chalice, Armageddon Empires etc….

Ok then, I lied, I'll give you a very short list of some great indies off the top of my head no more than this though. It's a pain to track them all down :):

Eschalon II - $24.95
Depth's of Peril - $19.99
Din's Curse - $19.99
Geneforge 4, 5 - $28.00
Avernum 4, 5 - $28.00
Armageddon Empires - $29.95
Solium Infernum - $29.99
Knights of the Chalice - 14.95 pounds or $23.85

I normally disagree with anything that Jeff Vogel has to say about games, but when it comes to his business there is no better source to go to than him. He's been doing this thing and staying alive longer than most independent developers.

Here are a few links on what he has to say on the pricing of independent games. The first two are from last year. The third is the latest one.

Indie Games Should Cost More, part 1
Indie Games Should Cost More, part 2
Indie Games Should Be Too Cheap or Too Expensive

Now I'm not knocking you for thinking they are not cheap. I just find it interesting that a lot of people do say that when in fact the $20 - $30 range is about the norm. Any cheaper and we would get throw away junk food like games.

Edit: I just noticed I'm over the 3,000 mark for posts. WooHoo :D Silly, I know, but I have to say something every time I make another 1,000 posts ;)

I see your point, and I'm not going to argue that it's hardly "expensive" either, just that it's more expensive than a lot of indie titles I've seen. Deathspank is £10, Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is £4, Uh… Well, we could be here all day debating it ;)

I won't deny Eschalon is of good quality, either. Just wish I hadn't got it on Impulse (Well, I got it roughly half-price on Impulse) as I really like the music, and I want the soundtrack :p Plus they're terrible when it comes to Eschalon's updates. 1.04 went up a couple of weeks ago :(

As for having massive overhead on triple A titles… Those big dog companies have no problem shrinking down overhead when its necesary . When i mentioned Bioware it was not to see people loose jobs , But… they no longer care for the fans or making great RPG's

You mean like this: EA Seasonal Layoffs

I don't quite have the hate for Bioware that you seem to do, but it's a free internet….sorta…..so rant away my friend :D

@Dwagginz I should have clarified. I meant RPGs and even some of the more complex strategy games. Some being the keyword there ;)

*shiver* Deathspank *shiver* No comment on that one.

Thanks for bringing to my attention The Misadventures of P.B. I love the art style on that…puzzle/2d scroller??? Not sure what kind of game it is, but it definitely looks good. Sucks that it's only on the XBOX 360.

It's on Steam ;)

It's a platformer. I never got far on it, though.

Hmmm I can't stop playing New Vegas but I will have to find the time to continue Eschalon II… if I can find the time to not be busy all weekend….

Man, does it drive me nuts when fans of indie games complain about the price. I don't even want to debate it. Just an observation.

I wasn't complaining, it was just an "observation".

Fellow gamer, thank you for respecting my comments . I do resent bioware for treating us the customers like children , but i guess that is who they make there games for . I guess i need to understand the direction that gaming is going , I used to love Bioware and have a high expectation for there games ,Who knows maybe i will be wrong and DA2 will be a deep meaningfull, inspiring RPG with character developing choices. sorry for being of topic.thanks for reading guys. Happy Gaming.

Yea, I don't have much hope for DA2 either. There is a little there, but not much. It's still too early to tell, but I certainly do not feel as excited about this game as I did DA:O. I'm not hearing anything about returning to their roots like they kept talking about last time. As a matter of fact they seem to be going in the opposite direction and proud of it. Oh well, I still have indies that will fill in the gap that Bioware might just leave us with.

However with that said, Obsidian stepped up to the plate this time around and hit a homerun on an engine that I didn't think it was possible to make such a good rpg. If Bioware falls then Obsidian and indies will take their place. There still is a market for our type of games and if there is a market then someone will provide them.

I have an odd feeling that Bethesda will be the new Interplay - Just look at their line up. Themselves, inXile w/ Hunted (Brian Fargo's company) and Obsidian w/ New Vegas (Remnants of Black Isle, IIRC). If they can keep inXile and Obsidian working for them, along with keeping Interplay in line, I don't see why they can't help bring back the RPG market.

To be honest, BioWare have no major competitors. Bethesda do more open-world RPGs, inXile do action RPGs (Bard's Tale & Hunted), and Obsidian do a bit of everything. I don't think Obsidian could be the ring leader, but I think they'd make a damn fine studio under Bethesda's wing (I'm not saying Bethesda should buy them, but keep them close by).

Brian Fargo's doing Hunted??? Hmm interesting. I know about that game in passing, but since it was Beth I didn't take a good look at it.

Before F:NV I would have said you're nuts if you think they could become the new Interplay. After NV, you just might be right. They've shown that they can let someone else play with their toys and make something amazing.

I'm going to have to check out Brian's game now. I heard a rumor a long time ago that Inxile bought the rights to wasteland or they were in the process of buying the rights. Not sure whatever came of that, but with beth backing them it might be interesting to see if they can do something with that.

Yeah, AFAIK inXile have the rights to Wasteland again. I don't know if Brian is involved with Hunted, but he did found inXile after leaving Interplay. Best term to sum Hunted up is "Gears of Warcraft", to be honest, but it looks different enough to be good. Certainly very polished in all the videos and screenies I've seen so far.

Deathspank is an indie? Interesting idea.

Fargo owns Wasteland but he'll never do anything with it. Don't waste your time talking about it.

What makes you say that? He did sorta try to resurrect The Bards Tale. It was poorly done though. The humor was on the mark, imo, but the game itself was not what I expected.

Resurrect The Bard's Tale? He made a bad hack'n'slash and used an old name to drum up some promotion.

As for Wasteland, obviously this is just my cynical opinion but so far their games are…

The Bard's Tale (but lets be serious - there was nothing even vaguely related to the original)
Linerider
Linerider 2
Fantastic Contraption
Shape Shape
Super Stacker
Hunted (looks OK for the MP crowd, I guess)

I see no sign of taking on a serious, large scale, hardcore RPG after eight years in business.

To me its natural. The only "big" thing in it is its publisher.

Meanwhile Devil Whiskey became forgotten too soon.

Didn't even know he made those others. Truthfully, I have forgotten all about Inixile since The Bard's Tale.

There is no way he could have made another game like the old Bard's Tale. No one would buy it now except for a few of us old timers. They would take on look at that combat style and say "ITZ NOT TEH NEXT GEN!" However, he sure as hell could of made it more like an rpg.

I'm not sure what he would do with Wasteland, but he's an idiot for just sitting on that IP when Fallout has reinvigorated the apocalyptic setting. Wasteland was one goofy game. If he redid that one instead of The Bard's Tale then people might not have come down on him so hard. Wasteland was silly to begin with.


The thing with Devil Whiskey is the devs screwed up big time. They went to all this trouble to make the game and got it into the brick & mortar stores for what? It probably cost them more to put it in the stores than to leave it online. That was their first screw up.

The second one was when they started charging yearly rates to be able to download the game. This was beyond contempt for the people who bought the game and I still have no idea what they were thinking when they came up with that idea. The thing was still buggy, too. Yet, the patches were slow in coming.

The third and last screw up is that they ditched the game. Just *poof* gone. Not sure what happened there, but now it's owned by decklin who WON'T charge you a yearly rate to just download the game.

If they had left it just on the internet then things might have turned out differently, but I suppose they lost a ton of money making all those boxed versions of the game and then just getting them into the stores. Indies are not AAA publishers. They can't expect to act like them.

There was a loophole where he could use The Bard's Tale name, but he couldn't make it related to the original.

Blame EA, if you want, they're the ones who own it.

Woo thanks for the links, I haven't yet read them not even your post or the thread, but I'll read those articles, then your post and the thread and will come back for commentating my relatively recent huge gaming change because of the iPad. No I don't have any solution nor certitudes.

Question on the comment about indi's being made by 'just one person.' Is that correct? IIRC, Vogel said he has 2 or 3 other people that work with him, and I can't image that Eschalon is made by just one person.

One person + subcontractors……

Art is normally handled elsewhere. From what I've read from various indie developers art is extremely expensive for them. For most of the indies I've been talking about the majority of the game is made by just one person, with a few subcontractors thrown in for good measure, just like GG said.

It sorta has to be this way. Indies can't hire on additional people in the beginning. Jeff Vogel being the exception to the rule rather the rule itself because he's been doing this for so long and has established a name for himself that he can afford a few other workers.

Armageddon Empires by Vic Davis was mostly made by himself. The art was handled elsewhere, can't remember who did the art at the moment.

Frayed Knights is being made just by Jay(I believe). I don't know if he is getting the art done elsewhere. I don't believe he is.

Think about all those mod projects that had a bunch of people helping out and yet died because of too many problems with too many people. Plus, I believe it would be very difficult for any indie to survive if there were additional people being paid by the revenue generated by the sales of the game.

You're welcome. There was an excellent interview done by N'Gai Croal over at Newsweek on Armageddon Empires. In the interview Vic Davis explained his approach to selling/making his game. N'Gai made a business model on the independent game business based upon Vic's interview and frankness with the sales generated for the game. Unfortunately, after N'Gai left Newsweek they took down his blog and I can't find an archive of it anywhere. It's not even on "The Wayback Machine" :)

The only reference about it I could find was my posts about it here.

I knew I should have saved that page. It was the best report on the indie business I've ever read. It really sucks that N'Gai left gaming journalism.

He has artists he pays with beer……

Argghhh you had to post that before I could fix it ;)

Oh and lot and lots of beer make for happy artists :)

If there are larger teams it seems to usually be part-time people or students trying to get a foot into the industry, e.g. Iron Tower or the guys making the Broken Hourglass. Read: enthusiasts not getting proper salaries. Broken Hourglass… hmm, that reminds me, haven't heard from them in ages.

I forgot about Iron Tower. I think the sheer willpower from Vince is what kept them going. :) I have no idea since I haven't followed them as closely as some of the others.

Broken Hourglass, now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. They're still going strong as far as I can tell. The updates are recent. That's always a good sign.

Which is why I'd prefer doing text-adventures for myself.
I'm a little bit good at writing, but I just can't do anything in terms of drawing.
I have to draw a map for my newest story - but I just don't know how. I have never done it, and I just don't know what I could do and where to begin.
Plus, my fear to be laughed at (in this) is a great hindrance, too.
Which is the reason why I just stopped doing things I had the feeling I wasn't good with.

Or use an engine where you don't need to do the art. Example would be Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures. They have a ton of art for it now. Neverwinter Nights is also good, but it's not as easy to make adventures for that one as it is with FRUA.

This is, of course, if you didn't mean to sell it and was just making the game for fun.

My first steps would of course be for fun. ;)