iGame Radio

Everyone’s favorite traditional 2D RPG game developer, Spiderweb Software, has announced the sequel in the Avadon Trilogy. What, you didn’t know it was a trilogy? Well, now you do. Avadon 2: The Corruption will be coming out for multiple platforms this fall, 2013. You are a Hand of Avadon, the Black Fortress. You protect your homeland from the limitless threats that surround it. Titans and monsters, pirates and barbarians. But then a sneak raid shattered Avadon, and, with it unable to keep order, madness resulted.

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Spiderweb Software, one of the most well-known Indie Mac game developers, has announced a permanent price drop to all of its games. Starting today, all games will be marked down by 20% or more.

Founded in 1994, Spiderweb has published such games as the Avernum and Geneforge series, and their recently published new title Avadon: The Black Fortress. Their titles lack DRM and include large demos, so this price cut is a big bonus on top of that.

In addition, for the month of October, games will feature an additional 10% off on top of the new permanent price cut. For example, you can now get Avernum 6 or Avadon: The Black Fortress for a mere $18.

• Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Peter Cohen of The Loop talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. First up, is Freemium really the way to go? Omaha and Peter talk about two studies this week that seem to say just that.
• Diablo 3…more WoW than Diablo 2? Omaha and Peter talk about the newest revelations this week about Blizzard’s latest.
• Apple has more cash than the US treasury! Omaha and Peter chuckle through analyst suggestions of who Apple should purchase.
• Some couple in China didn’t understand why they shouldn’t be allowed to sell their offspring for Internet Cafe game cash. Omaha and Peter have a hard time understanding them…
• The Humble Indie Bundle is here again! Number 3 has arrived, and bundled with more than ever.
• Spiderweb Software is rebooting the first Avernum game. Peter talks about why that is ultra cool.
• Omaha and Peter talk about games that they’ve played in the past week.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Tomas Dvorak for featuring music from Machinarium.
• Rich Carlson for featuring music from Dr. Blob.

• A review of Avadon: The Black Fortress, by Spiderweb Software. Easily the best old-school RPG on the market today. Necessary tweaks in gameplay balance aside, the new skill tree, story, and world to explore means years of RPG enjoyment for all.
  
• Also, a review of Hector: Badge of Carnage, published by Telltale Games. Not for the faint of heart. A down and dirty point-and-click adventure game, you’ll get more out of the game from the variety of characters you meet and exploring how disgusting the game can get than anything else.
  

South Korean games publisher Playbean has released the iOS game Second World War. An arcade style strategy game, you play a top-down campaign against the axis powers on each screen, tapping your soldiers and bombs onto their tanks and bases. There are three difficulty modes that you must unlock in succession. Capturing all of their bases will win each campaign. The game is available for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad for $1.99. The YouTube video below shows detailed gameplay action.

Avadon: The Black Fortress has also been released for iPad. Spiderweb Software’s first foray into the iOS platform with it’s new old-school RPG was released last Friday. We will be very interested in finding out how this game translates into the all-touch screen of the iPad. Travel into the lands of Lyneaus as you seek to maintain the unstable Pact while discovering why warriors of Avadon, the Black Fortress, are being killed. The game is available for $9.99 from the App Store.

Finally, Breitling has announced the availability of a free flight-oriented game for the iPad and iPhone called Breitling Reno Air Races. Based on the National Championship Air Races in Reno, the game let’s you take the helm of an airplane of your choice, flying with gyroscopic controls and tactical elements. There are three modes including multiplayer, customization, and planes from the WWII era up to modern T6 class. Though the game promises various courses, there seems to be only one oval course at the moment, but the biggest praise so far is for the 3D graphics.

• Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Corey Tamas talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. First up, Corey talks about mysterious Diablo box art, and the fun game of launch date delays for games with no launch date.
• Research2Guidance toots about the Android Marketplace having more apps (and presumably games) than the Apple iTunes Store by August. But does that matter?
• Spiderweb Software released a new game, Avadon, to the public. But some of the core fanbase weren’t too happy. What the impact was, and how developers can deal with an alienated fanbase.
• Apple decides to drop iAds for children’s apps. Cool idea. Maybe they should’a told the developers a bit before they did it?
• What can the iTunes and Mac App Stores learn from the PSN/SOE debacle?
• Corey pulls a few surprise bits out of his grab bag to chat about…but you have to listen to find out what they are!
• Omaha and Corey talk about games that they’ve played in the past week.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Zach Young for featuring music from The Great Tree.
• Tomas Dvorak for featuring music from Machinarium.

Spiderweb Software master Jeff Vogel posted another developer diary about his upcoming game Avadon, this time about the character classes within the game. Because Avadon is using a new type of character class, a class-based system, Vogel has been putting a great deal of thought into what makes a character class.

Based on his musings, Avadon’s character classes will all be able to both deal damage and protect themselves, but each needed to have some unique features to discern themselves from the others. One of my favorites is the Shadowwalker, which includes the ability to teleport. Vogel said it introduced some tricky programming issues, but it was worth the trouble.

An excerpt:

So Those Are the Classes

Your party will usually have three characters: Your main character, and two others selected from the four helpers available to you, one from each class. (And each with his or her own personality, opinions, and goals.) I’ve tried to make a good mix of familiar and unusual, combat and melee, with a bit of blatant (but fun) fan service thrown in. I still have months of balance work ahead of me to make sure each class is distinct, useful, and fun, but so far, in practice, the system seems to be working very well in practice.

Because Jeff Vogel says it better than I:

It was fifteen years ago that fledgling Indie game developer Spiderweb Software released its first game out into the wild. This was, by game industry standards, a long time ago. Back then, small developers sold something called “shareware.” The World Wide Web barely existed. People took photographs on “film.” Cell phones were the size of loaves of bread. Also, dinosaurs ruled the Earth.

Yes, the past millennium was a dark and confusing time. And yet, we prevailed, making many fine Retro fantasy role-playing games for Windows and Macintosh. And now we invite you to celebrate our continued survival by offering hefty discounts on the fruits of our labors. For the whole month of October, all collections of our games are 25% off, and everything else we sell is 10% off. CDs containing three or five deep, full-length RPGs, already sold at a discount, are now even cheaper!

So, whether you need a big pile of distractions from the recession and the cold, dark of winter, or you need a nice CD to give as a gift to a gamer friend, or you just like collecting shiny discs, we are eager to help.

Not convinced? Try out one of our huge, free demos.

And here’s hoping for another fifteen years. With any luck, our 30th birthday e-mail will be sent out from inside our Pleasure Pod and will celebrate flying cars and the Cure For Death.

Happy Birthday, Spiderweb. May that web keep catching for you!

Spiderweb Software’s Jeff Vogel has jotted down another developer diary in his ongoing development of Avadon: The Black Fortress, his next and new game for the development studio. Avadon will have some significant differences from previous game series Geneforge and Avernum.

For example, previous games have used a skill-based system, which means that all classes can use all skills available. But Avadon will “throw all that out the window.” There will be four unique classes with their own set of skills that don’t cross-over: Blademaster, Shadowwalker, Shaman, and Sorceress. Also, because your party will consist of three members (you and two NPCs) and all party members will be a different class, there will always be one class missing.

Healing and combat will be handled differently as well. Vogel says he is being inspired by Dungeons & Dragons and Dragon Age on this one. The goal will be to effect as much damage as possible to your opponent and obtain healing mostly from spells through your shaman and potions. So combat tactics become more key.

There are many other interesting changes that I think will make the game different and fresh, and I’m looking forward to trying it out. Check out the entire article for the details.

Corey and I have waxed poetic numerous times on the used games industry, but recently Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software also had some words to chime in with. Regarding the quote of THQ’s Cory Ledesma (which Corey had some opinion on last week himself), Vogel found himself coming on the wrong side of the debate with the Penny Arcade folks who I saw, surprisingly, condemning the sale of used games.

Vogel makes a good argument that I’ve been thinking myself as well, regarding the application of the argument against used games to other used markets, such as the book market. Basically, the idea is that books, like games, are a vehicle for transmitting ideas and art. They are objects that you are allowed by law to sell or give away as you see fit. Being able to circulate these ideas freely, such as with used markets or libraries, is a good idea.

The argument regarding the used games industry really comes down to this, in my opinion. There are members of the game industry that feel that every single person who wants to play a game must buy a legitimate copy of that game from the original publisher/developer because not doing so is “taking money” from that publisher/developer. Which, by extension, means that everyone who enjoys playing a copy of the game that they did not buy is taking money out of the pocket of the publisher/developer…no matter what form they are enjoying it.

This includes coming over to a person’s house to play their game with them. This includes playing a game with your kids. This includes having multiple copies of the game on multiple computers in your house so that you aren’t having to purchase a copy for every single child. This includes LAN parties.

How can anyone engaging in these activities justify it if they hold that philosophy I mentioned above? By some definition, PAX itself is a Used Game-Playing Convention.

This type of thinking feels more to me like overwrought greed rather than justified alarm. No other industry seems to have such hand-wringing when it comes to used items. I mean, I don’t see the book publishing industry making libraries or the used book industry illegal. I don’t see the clothing industry making second-hand stores or hand-me-downs illegal.

Perhaps the Game Industry needs to rethink their fears.