The Wayward Realms - Teaser Trailer

The open world RPG The Wayward Realms got a Steam page and a trailer:

The Wayward Realms Teaser Trailer

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Under the direction of Ted Peterson and Julian LeFay, lead developers of the team behind the original Elder Scrolls, Arena and Daggerfall, OnceLost Games is creating a new open-world fantasy RPG where choice and consequence are experienced on a scale never attempted before.

More information.

Yes, please!

Everyone says they want choice and consequence till they get consequences and then don't want them. They want the choices without the consequences.

Much like real life.

Not all of us, Wisdom. I say give me all the choices and consequences, and keep them coming!!~

It seems to offer a lot of things on the steam page and wonder if they can keep that promise. Going to keep an eye on it for sure.

I was initially really excited about this until I learned that it's using procedural generation for the world. I'll still check it out, but my expectations aren't real high.

So another cheap CGI trailer with no info or game-play. Yeah sure I'm excited.

Getting procedural generation to really work right seems a bit like the holy grail of game design.

For me, choices and consequences usually do not go hand in hand with a procedural game. I guess we'll see.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I was initially really excited about this until I learned that it's using procedural generation for the world. I'll still check it out, but my expectations aren't real high.

If I remember correctly, Elder Scrolls: Arena used procedural generation, and I enjoyed it at the time. I hope that almost 30 years later, they can deliver something that will interest me like Arena interested me. Granted, I was new to that kind of crpg at that time, and am more jaded now. The only criticism I have so far, is they seem to be very opposed to putting any kind of romantic content in this game, which is disappointing to me. I am a big fan of the Dragon Age games due to the interesting romantic content. So, as far as I am concerned, they are starting right out of the gate with one strike against them.

Originally Posted by The Hulk
If I remember correctly, Elder Scrolls: Arena used procedural generation, and I enjoyed it at the time. I hope that almost 30 years later, they can deliver something that will interest me like Arena interested me. Granted, I was new to that kind of crpg at that time, and am more jaded now. The only criticism I have so far, is they seem to be very opposed to putting any kind of romantic content in this game, which is disappointing to me. I am a big fan of the Dragon Age games due to the interesting romantic content. So, as far as I am concerned, they are starting right out of the gate with one strike against them.

I'm ambivalent about romance in games. I don't hate it, but I don't really care about it either.

As far as the procedural generation, Arena and Daggerfall both used it to a large extent. I'm not a fan of it myself as I value quality over quantity, and I don't believe any kind of procedural generation can match a hand-crafted world. That said, I expect at least the main quest and areas associated with it will be unique.

Proc gen can be just fine. It's got to be coded well, which is harder than just placing things by hand. Civ and other 4X games have been making random maps for eons, for instance.

This project has been hanging around in limbo for about two years now. Based on this it sounds like the people involved don't really know how to run a company, nor do they have actual funding to back up their ambitions. This Steam page sounds like an attempt to spin up the hype machine so they can go back to publishers and try to shake lose some money.

I want to know who the CEO of OnceLost Games is, and his or her credentials and background. And I want to know who the game's producer is, and his or her credentials and background. Because unless something has changed since the post-mortem I linked above this trailer looks like nothing more than smoke and mirrors in pursuit of funding to me.

I remember Lefay being part of Bethsoft back in the day. IIRC he's been whining endlessly about their move away from procedural worlds with huge (hollow) scopes for a long time.

Daggerfall was interesting until you learned that it was essentially a bunch of assets randomly put together for 99% of the content.

Of course, some people enjoy that - and that's cool. I mean, as for Civ having random maps - I think that works better for a strategy game - where the map exploration isn't really the essential gameplay horizon. Even so, I think if Civ had 1000 lovingly hand-crafted maps - where every lake, mountain and strategic resource had some kind of history and purpose to it - that would be about a 1000 times more interesting than 1000 maps randomly generated.

But that's me

Not sure what this is going to be - but it sorta smells like a modern Daggerfall.

I must say the smell isn't that great - and I'm sceptical this will even be released as what's advertised.

Originally Posted by khaight
I want to know who the CEO of OnceLost Games is, and his or her credentials and background. And I want to know who the game's producer is, and his or her credentials and background. .

Most likely, your question will remain in limbo as well, seeing as OnceLost Games Ltd. was dissolved in October 2020.

https://find-and-update.company-info…mpany/12007896

For what it's worth, you can find the names of the directors there.

So, the issue is not only that they may not be proficient at running a company - but that there may not even be a company any more.

Of course, they might have reformed somewhere else under a different name. But I doubt it.

As long ad they give me back the SPELLMAKER, I'll play it.

Originally Posted by khaight
This project has been hanging around in limbo for about two years now. Based on this it sounds like the people involved don't really know how to run a company, nor do they have actual funding to back up their ambitions. This Steam page sounds like an attempt to spin up the hype machine so they can go back to publishers and try to shake lose some money.

I'd really like to know if most fresh gaming start-ups go through these chaotic difficulties but we just never learn about it, or if OnceLost Games was/is outstandingly disorganized.

Originally Posted by Atrachasis
Most likely, your question will remain in limbo as well, seeing as OnceLost Games Ltd. was dissolved in October 2020.

https://find-and-update.company-info…mpany/12007896

For what it's worth, you can find the names of the directors there.

So, the issue is not only that they may not be proficient at running a company - but that there may not even be a company any more.

Of course, they might have reformed somewhere else under a different name. But I doubt it.

So then who's developing the game? I don't see how the company could have been dissolved last October. I don't think the Steam page has even been up that long.

Originally Posted by khaight
This project has been hanging around in limbo for about two years now. Based on this it sounds like the people involved don't really know how to run a company, nor do they have actual funding to back up their ambitions. This Steam page sounds like an attempt to spin up the hype machine so they can go back to publishers and try to shake lose some money.

I want to know who the CEO of OnceLost Games is, and his or her credentials and background. And I want to know who the game's producer is, and his or her credentials and background. Because unless something has changed since the post-mortem I linked above this trailer looks like nothing more than smoke and mirrors in pursuit of funding to me.

Yes, there's been a potent whiff of bullshit emanating from this project.

Originally Posted by JDR13
So then who's developing the game? I don't see how the company could have been dissolved last October. I don't think the Steam page has even been up that long.

I guess the answer is: A bunch of home-office based guys with nostalgic memories and big dreams (good for them!), but no formal structure or financing. About as formalized as any random gaggle of nerds united by a pipe-dream of creating a blockbuster video game in their basements.

That's fine, it's possible to run an unregistered business (which they do the moment they engage in business-like activities, such as marketing) as a sole proprietor, and maybe they'd re-formalize their activities if external funding miraculously materialized, but for now, it doesn't *look* like there's much formal committment nor structure to the project.