Queen's Wish - October Update

Queen's Wish October 2018 Update!

This is a pretty exciting update. The Queen’s Wish: The Conqueror engine is pretty much done. The base interface is in. The system is done. All the stuff in the game is scripted.

Of course, it’s not completely done. The final interface needs to be drawn, put in, and made pretty. There are a lot of minor things (like weather) that I tend to do late in the process. There are a million bugs. However, we have a full, playable game, and we’ve made several towns, dungeons, and outdoors sections. To take a break from interface stuff, I’ve also written over 40000 words of dialogue for the spine of the storyline.

Over the next few days, we’re going to do our first intense playing. Now that the base engine is done, we’re going to play it, find what is broken and imbalanced, fix it, and make sure the game is fun. Then we will go on to primary world design, the longest phase in the project.

In the Next Month

We’ll finish a couple more dungeons and then do some really intense testing. We’re trying to get everything solid enough that we can make dungeons and outdoors sections on a schedule. This is when everything we’ve been putting off and everything that didn’t work become visible and have to be dealt with. It’s a long, grueling process, but it does end eventually.

Reward Update

We’ve gotten a ton of ideas from people who bought the ability to put things into the game, if you heard back from us, assume your input has been placed. If you haven’t written us yet or you never got feedback, this is really the time to get that done. The more of the world we write, the fewer the options for good places to put your characters, items, etc.

As for the Scrolls of Absolution, the design of the scroll is done and we’ll start making and sending them out soon. If you haven’t responded to the survey yet, please do so.

Things are going well. The prospect of playing the game for real, after years of thought and preparation, is both scary and exciting. Before we go, I put a couple of screen clips below. We have a game!

- Jeff Vogel

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mercy said:

Jesus, this looks ugly! Way to go on the Road to Beautification! They'll need to buy a "Make it Look Cool" button for their Master Keyboard.

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Couchpotato said:

Well I to would like to see better graphics myself but Jeff's games are mostly known for the branching stories, and choices & consequences than high end graphics.

So I agree with SpoonFULL.

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Copper Coin said:

He went to kickstarter specifically asking for money to improve the graphics, so to produce something this bland and uninspired is an insult to his fans.

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Darkheart said:

Yeah, looks really bad. But who plays Vogel games for the graphics?

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Copper Coin said:

The people that backed the game, considering that was the reason he went to kickstarter in the first place.

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Kordanor said:

Not sure whether it was covered in the news, but at least I didn't see it.

His GDC talk from march was released on youtube. Quite informative and entertaining to watch:

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"People make fun of me for it all the time, but I am also still in business," Vogel said.

"I was getting really sick of everyone telling me, 'Your graphics suck. Your graphics suck. Your graphics suck,'" Vogel said. "So I spent some actual money. I hired actual artists and get graphics that are somewhere on the same continent as the standard graphics of the time. The result of course, was that every day people told me, 'Your graphics suck. Your graphics suck. Your graphics suck.' That was the last time I ever made the mistake of making an effort."

"Often the people who are angriest at you are not going to be completely anonymous," Vogel said. "They're going to be the people who five years ago were your most devout fans. And then you changed the thing, and it was their favorite thing, and now they don't like you anymore. Remember there is always a very thin line between love and hate."

"Don't be afraid to fire a customer," Vogel said. "They say that the customer is always right. That's not true. Customers are wrong all the time. The difference is that nobody ever won an argument with a customer. There are times where you're going to have to say to someone, 'Look, my thing isn't for you. I can't add that feature. I can't write that expansion. I just can't do the thing you want.' Offer them a refund and send them on their way.

"If someone is on the forums and you can see that they're just there to cause trouble, ban them! If people are making noise, 'That person isn't screwing up your business, you shouldn't have banned them,' then ban them too! The beatings will continue until morale improves! …People who are nice and support you will understand."

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Kordanor said:

Not sure whether it was covered in the news, but at least I didn't see it.

His GDC talk from march was released on youtube. Quite informative and entertaining to watch:

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BoboTheMighty said:

Oh dear, get the feeling they had to force him of the stage. Once Vogel gets going…

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