Avernum: Escape From the Pit - Retrospective Review @ RPG Crawler

The RPG Crawler looks back at Avernum: Escape from the Pit:

Indie Game Friday - Avernum: Escape from the Pit

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More information.

A damn fine game. Although I love Jeff and his games, it's about time he gets on with the times and change game engines. I don't mind the current visuals but he'll reach a bigger audience with a better engine that at least look like it belongs in the 21st century. Sometimes, I feel that other than the excellent writing, his latest works are just low effort products.

yemeth said:

A damn fine game. Although I love Jeff and his games, it's about time he gets on with the times and change game engines. I don't mind the current visuals but he'll reach a bigger audience with a better engine that at least look like it belongs in the 21st century. Sometimes, I feel that other than the excellent writing, his latest works are just low effort products.

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Not gonna happen and he explains in detail why on his blog.

Gwendo said:

Not gonna happen and he explains in detail why on his blog.

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Yeah I know. Some of the reasons he listed are pretty hard to grasp. There are other indie games out there that look good despite being made on teeny-tiny budgets. I think as long as he can make money doing minimal effort, he's happy.

yemeth said:

Yeah I know. Some of the reasons he listed are pretty hard to grasp. There are other indie games out there that look good despite being made on teeny-tiny budgets. I think as long as he can make money doing minimal effort, he's happy.

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I can't think of other games of similar scope, size and depth made by essentially a single person with visuals that are so much better that they would be generationally ahead. I am obviously willing to be corrected, but I am also fine with Jeff doing Jeff

I tend to find a few things to be true: (1) adding people greatly increases cost, risk, complexity and dilutes vision, (2) project management is always a triangle of trade-offs, where you cannot simultaneously maximize all things while maintaining cost and timelines. (3) there is really not another game company that was around in 1994 that exists in the same way as Spiderweb.

txa1265 said:

I can't think of other games of similar scope, size and depth made by essentially a single person with visuals that are so much better that they would be generationally ahead. I am obviously willing to be corrected, but I am also fine with Jeff doing Jeff

I tend to find a few things to be true: (1) adding people greatly increases cost, risk, complexity and dilutes vision, (2) project management is always a triangle of trade-offs, where you cannot simultaneously maximize all things while maintaining cost and timelines. (3) there is really not another game company that was around in 1994 that exists in the same way as Spiderweb.

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Don't get me wrong. I love Spiderweb. But their last few games left a sour taste in my mouth, especially Queen's Wish. As someone said in one of my Reddit posts regarding this sale;
"His newer original games were low effort, lacking things like importing save states from one avadon to another because it would be too much trouble for him to account for player choice, leading to ever decreasing sales from 1 to 2 to 3 because players didn't feel like they were actually playing a series, until he was forced to resort to Kickstarter to release his next game, which was even more insulting to players for how bad it was.

So he now resorts to what he always did, small remasters of his old and more successful games, like he's doing with geneforge."
While this guy definitely comes off a bit aggressive, I kind of understand what he's saying.

Aye, truly a great game but I think the current offerings from this company are headed in a different direction. I really enjoy these much better myself, the newer games are ok but just lack the depth and toughness of these earlier products.

I loved the look of the old Avernum games and the fact that you could easily operate them via keyboard.