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What is Jeff working on now?


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Right now probably a vacation and dealing with sales of Avadon 2. The next project has yet to be announced. If he continues with his current pattern, he'll remake Avernum 2. Then again, he may surprise and make Avadon 3, or something completely different, or even decide to retire. No point in speculating really.

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Last I heard the Geneforges were still in sometime in the future territory. I would anticipate Avernum 2, then Avadon 3, then Avernum 3. Then maybe Geneforges, but maybe not. And Avadon may not end at 3.

 

—Alorael, who sees the wait stretching out a long way if Jeff keeps up his newly slowed release schedule.

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Well, Jeff has remarked on numerous occasions how lucrative remakes are for him. Minimal writing, mostly just needs engine design and programming. He said in a recent blog post that A:EftP was so successful that he just didn't think it was worth waiting for the rest of the series.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Remaking the Geneforge series is baffling. What would he do to it? The graphics are not very different from those he uses today. The skill and spell system stayed more or less the same throughout, and Geneforge 5 came out just a few years ago, so it's not as though he has some radically different preferred way of doing things now. As far as I know, there are no compatibility problems. So why remake the games?

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The graphics are not very different from those he uses today.

 

True, the sprites aren't all that different, but in G1 and G2 the graphics have a very retro/80s games feel to them, complete with less realistic colors and limited shading. Also, neither of those games had a junk bag for the PC to store useless items in. (None of which are drawbacks that would be worth an overhaul from my perspective, but I can see where Jeff might feel the need to do so.)

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Just a few years ago Jeff updated the older Geneforges (1 / 2 / 3) to be "universal" (which I presume means letting them run on more modern systems). I would find it bizarre and shocking if Jeff updates the Geneforge series at any point BEFORE a time when they no longer run on present-day operating systems. (I mean, that's the reason he's updating the first Avernum trilogy.)

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email to me mentioned it was on the list. I'm going to be beta testing until I die or they lock me up as insane, whichever comes first. :)

 

Why would being locked up because you are insane interfere with your usefulness as a beta tester? I would think that everything around here would start making sense once you got to the point of being locked up.

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Why would being locked up because you are insane interfere with your usefulness as a beta tester? I would think that everything around here would start making sense once you got to the point of being locked up.

 

Ha! You've only been here for five minutes, Edgwyn, but you seem to have sussed us all out pretty well. :p

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It's worth stressing that the Geneforge remakes are very much on the horizon things, not anything actively being worked on. There are more Avernum remakes and more Avadon sequels to go, and possibly at a slower release rate. Then Jeff will look at the state of compatibility and his current graphics and game design principles and think about remakes.

 

—Alorael, who definitely thinks G1 shows its age even now. But it's still playable and it's still fun. Will it need a remake? One day, but not today and not tomorrow either.

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Oh, G1 is definitely still playable and still fun :)

 

-springacres, who spent part of her weekend playing through the demo instead of working on her English paper :whistle:

 

:) Ha! There I knew I wasn't the only one!

 

It's worth stressing that the Geneforge remakes are very much on the horizon things, not anything actively being worked on. There are more Avernum remakes and more Avadon sequels to go, and possibly at a slower release rate. Then Jeff will look at the state of compatibility and his current graphics and game design principles and think about remakes.

 

—Alorael, who definitely thinks G1 shows its age even now. But it's still playable and it's still fun. Will it need a remake? One day, but not today and not tomorrow either.

 

I don't know really, the first reviews of geneforge talked about "bad graphics". I actually don't care that much. I'm more concerned about the epic plot and story-line. I feel there's just so much more you can do in a game like this one.

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  • 1 month later...

Sales have been fine and Jeff has given no indication that he'll retire anytime soon. College tuition to fund and all that. He still has a third Avadon and a couple more Avernum remakes to go before he had to reevaluate his life choices.

 

—Alorael, who also doubts that Jeff thinks he has enough money to retire on even if he did want to be done. Even with great sales now his games really have somewhat limited shelf lives as technology marches on (hence the remakes) and he's young enough that he'd need some very hefty savings. Plus those kids.

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Universal meant that they could run on Intel Macs.

 

I wouldn't be surprised that Geneforge 1,2, and 3 start having trouble with Windows systems since Microsoft is reducing backwards compatibility.

 

I wish it was compatible with my windows 8 OS. Is anyone else having problems running any Geneforge versions on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. No matter what I do, it doesn't play :(

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tried compability modes? also you need DirectX9.0c installed.

Aww, you beat me to it. :(

 

Right click the game shortcut>Go to properties>Go to the compatibility tab>Tick the run this compatibility mode box thing>Choose what suits the game best (recommended Windows 7 or Windows XP SP3)

-----

-Nightwatcher

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh, G1 is definitely still playable and still fun :)

 

-springacres, who spent part of her weekend playing through the demo instead of working on her English paper :whistle:

 

True, the reason why is that Geneforge 1 has a few things that I wish were in every game. The leveling system is perfect in G1 in my opinion. The classes are all powerful and makes me want to try each out. The game isnt really that long which makes replayability more likely. And finally the most important-the end boss fight continues to prove to be unpredictable, challenging and fun for characters I make. Geneforge 2 is runner up in my opinion. I think that is all a matter of opinion G1 and G2. I like them both. Oops, I am raving again.

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I'm sure he would do that. Not the rights to Avernum, but the film rights. Because money is good, it's not like film offers are knocking down Jeff's doors, and JJ Abrams is at least a competent film-maker. You don't have to love his films, but at least he's done better than a string of critically and popularly panned flops.

 

—Alorael, who doubts anyone wants to buy Spiderweb IP, either. Unless Jeff's kids want to go into the indie game business and they want to work on dad's games instead of striking out on their own and he also wants to share his work with the kids instead of keeping it as his and indie game development is still a viable model at that point, the company seems more likely to fold with Jeff's retirement from it.

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