Company News Spiderweb Software Humble Bundle

[Severian Silk]

Too bad all the games start feeling the same after a while.

 

[tindrli]

are the steam keys only option???

 

[nomask7]

are the steam keys only option???

They're an extra. You get direct non-DRM downloads, and you can also access the steam keys if you care.

 

[tindrli]

good..i will donate

 

[Luzur]

Finally Nethergate and Geneforge for cheap enough to bother buying.

you could just find them on the net somewhere even cheaper (as in free)?

 

[Hugstari]

Which game is most likely to get its hooks into me and make me play more? Avernum 1?

 

[deuxhero]

The two "beat the average" games any good? I liked the demo for geneforge 1, but never got around to buying it.

 

[nomask7]

The two "beat the average" games any good? I liked the demo for geneforge 1, but never got around to buying it.

Vogel would like to make a wide variety of wildly different games in terms of setting and story, but Nethergate sold so poorly he had to keep making Avernums and Geneforges. So while I haven't played it, I'd say it's probably a game that he tried to make as good as he could and feels some fondness for. He's certainly tried to make people buy copies of it, for a long time offering it for a special price if you bought one of his other games.

 

[Jasede]

Meh, eventually all games will be Steam games. I am with CB; I change desktops and computers at such a rate that storing my shit online on some web storate service would be a pain. Having it all linked to an account is hugely practical for me. Plus I don't give a rat's ass about DRM so I couldn't care less.

Weirdly enough I am still too much of a luddite to have a smart phone. Or a mobile phone. I generally prefer things the old-fashioned way. So it really needs to be a huge improvement for me to give something modern a chance and Steam was such an improvement, to me: if I can have all my games in one place I save SO much time and effort moving tons of boxes and CD cases and so on. I never went back. I only have boxes for collection purposes now; everything I buy I buy online when it comes to PC games.

 

[skuphundaku]

Meh, eventually all games will be Steam games. I am with CB; I change desktops and computers at such a rate that storing my shit online would be a pain. Having it all linked to an account is hugely practical for me. Plus I don't give a rat's ass about DRM so I couldn't care less.

But, bro, the fact that you don't care about DRM doesn't mean that everybody else doesn't care about DRM as well. I know that you German folk have a strong innate tendency to obey authority, but stop projecting for a second.

 

[Jasede]

No, that's fine. If you care about DRM you should avoid this. Personally I don't see the big deal but if I did I'd not use it either. Thing is, what would I use? So many store-bought games have DRM too. And pirating games is ass- if they don't get sales they'll not make more games I want so that's no solution either.

 

[subotaiy]

Too bad all the games start feeling the same after a while.

This is true, if you played 2-3 of his games, the rest feel almost the same. Never got to finish Geneforge 5, it just starts to feel like a chore sooner or later and the hp bloat fights don't help either.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Went to the the moment I can cross/help all the factions and stopped too. His only game I ever completed was Nethergate Roman campaign. But in general I have trouble to complete any game lately... which means I had to finish to play Div2 DKS before the DC will be released; By Gents and Trannies.

 

[nomask7]

But in general I have trouble to complete any game lately...

Same here. What I'd add is that if I can get good enjoyment out of a game for 20 hours, it's certainly *good*. It's like watching ten enjoyable films. Why belittle something like that by implying that, well, it was ultimately something I tired of so it's not really anything you should bother with and isn't really a good game after all?

 

[Niektory]

The more games I have, the handier I find it to have them all in one place and easily accessibly from any computer, since I own quite a few of them and synchronizing everything can be a pain.

I hope there comes a day when Steam, or an equivalent, lets me upload any non-Steam games to my personal digital library too -- that'd be heaven.

Wouldn't a generic cloud storage service be sufficient for this purpose?

Maybe -- for non-Steam games. I would however like my Steam and non-Steam (in a perfect world including emulated) games to be stored in one library where I can run any of them from; I don't think a cloud storage service would support that for Steam games, but I haven't really looked into those for stuff like that so maybe I'm wrong.

Local storage is more practical for me because of slow connection speeds around here. So I haven't looked into it myself, just throwing the idea out there. But it might be a good way to consolidate all your DRM-free stuff, as face it, having everything on Steam is not gonna happen. I know some of these services provide tools to synchronize data automatically.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Did you also notice the absence of your sense of humor?

Nah. Can't say i ever suffered the problem.

 

[Mortmal]

Which game is most likely to get its hooks into me and make me play more? Avernum 1?

Avernum 1 is a remake of exile wich is viewed by many as superior but still a great game . If you can stomach the graphics, think early 90's , they are all good to excellent games. The flaws are too many filler combats after a while between very tactical hand crafted main encounters. I dont think anyone design encounters better than jeff.
Its true after a few games they all feel to be the same, wich they are, as there was heavy recylcing of assests. Except avadon wich is different , its a low budget dragon age with much less freedom in character development, no one likes it here but its his best seller.

 

[Petrell]

May I remind everyone that there are extensive demos available for every Spiderweb game at their home page. Should you have any concern about graphics or gameplay for any of the games, give the demo a try. I would also like to remind people that each game will usually take 100+ hours to complete depending how exploreoholic and completionist you are. Avadon in probably the shortest with 40-60 hours gametime on average. So if you plan to play each and every Spiderweb game, forget your free time for next year or two.

Also for those who want to see where it all started, the original Exile series including Blades of Exile (which was already perviously open sourced) are now available for free. Be advised that these games are from late 90's and are 16-bit so if you're running 64-bit OS, you're out of luck (this is for windows, I don't know Mac requirements).

Also Avadon 2: The Corruption and Avernum 2: The Crystal Souls (remake of Avernum 2 that was remake of Exile 2: The Crystal Souls) should both be coming out later this year (with 3rd game of both series expected sometimes around 2015-2016).

 

[hakuroshi]

Meh, eventually all games will be Steam games.

'One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them"
Sorry, could not resist

As for the sale, Exile, Nethergate and Geneforge are worth looking. Everything else... not so much.

 

[Petrell]

Meh, eventually all games will be Steam games.

Meh, eventually all games will be on GOG.com and all DRM meansures will be globally declared illegal under penalty of death. We can all dream, can't we?

Seriously speaking, I'd rather see 4+ digital distributors (some totally DRM free obviously) having all the games so there's competions. Having only one, even if it would be GOG.com would be bad in the long run for users and devs alike.

 

[J1M]

Can someone please explain what the point of him remaking his remakes is?

 

[TripJack]

Can someone please explain what the point of him remaking his remakes is?

 

[J1M]

Let me rephrase, how do the products differ?

 

[Micmu]

They are more and more gutted and dumbed down to be on par with current console games (in terms of complexity) so he can sell them to broad iGag audience.

 

[Modron]

Can someone please explain what the point of him remaking his remakes is?

It's kind of like that whole VGA remake craze of the early to mid 90's, updating game for the sake of graphics; inevitably, some streamlining, ie derp, takes place too. I always felt that the update from Exile to Avernum was a decline with the exception of the quest journal he started implementing after the 2nd remake.

Ninja: Also have spare steam keys for Avadon and Avernum 4-6 pack (claimed) in case you want to experience the decline first hand.​